Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Careful. Erik used to hit his head on the doorframe pretty often. I could hear him cursing from my quarters.”

Aloy nodded her acknowledgement of Beta’s advice. Seeing the doorway and high ceilings for herself as they came down the hall away from the airlock where the shuttle had been docked with the Odyssey made her question why in the world a man would make himself so tall, he would struggle with getting through the doors on his own ship.

As massive as the Odyssey was, slowly wandering through its empty corridors—the white and gold hybrid of seemingly living metal off-putting to her eyes—evoked nothing but dread and the feeling that someone or something was watching them. Since arriving on the shuttle minutes earlier, where Beta had used data from the dead Zeniths’ implants to disable the security measures on the airlock, they had not encountered anyone onboard. Still, Aloy was glad she had asked Seyka and Alva to come along. Sylens was a formidable fighter, but this was quite literally uncharted territory for them.

Aloy had seen many things in her life that she had to suspend her disbelief to comprehend, but being in space, looking out the wall-sized windows of the Odyssey and seeing the bright blue of Earth’s oceans and the clouds that wrapped around the planet in swirling bands—it was beautiful and terrifying and wondrous all at the same time. She knew of gravity, knew from some of the Zeniths’ records that escaping the planet would be a rough ride despite the advancements in technology in spaceflight since the 21^st century, but reading and experiencing it weren’t the same. In fact, they were nothing alike and she was still feeling rattled from the entire launch experience.

She must have been staring out the window for a while because Beta had to give her a light nudge to get her attention. “Aloy? Are you all right?”

Aloy blinked—just in case this was all a crazy dream, and they weren’t actually in outer space on a Far Zenith ship staring down at the Earth. “Yeah…I’m fine. Just a little hard to believe we’re here right now.”

Beta let out a short hum. “You know, I’ve never seen it either.”

What? “Really? Even though you…?”

Beta shook her head. There was something about the haunted look in her eyes as she looked out at the planet below them, the vastness of space around them, that tore at Aloy’s heart. It did not come as a surprise, however. This was no more than a prison for her. “They never let me out of my quarters. When I left for Earth, they used the same nanotech to mask what I could see.”

Aloy wasn’t sure what to say. What she did say hardly sounded sufficient, but it came out anyway. “I see.”

“Ugh, did he have anything to make this awful nausea go away?” Seyka’s face had taken a slight green color after they arrived. Beta explained to them earlier that the rotating rings of the Odyssey kept gravity intact but the chance of getting “space sick” was a possibility.

“I admit I’m a little surprised. I thought you marines never got seasick,” Alva said. She and Seyka took the back of the group as they continued to make their way through the ship’s entry corridor, following Beta.

“Yes, I’m a marine,” Seyka clarified. “As in ‘water’. I don’t know about this place, but it feels a lot closer to flying than water.” She grumbled under her breath. “Why does every dangerous place we go in these days involve flying?”

“Technically we’re orbiting, now. It’s not really flying. We are moving at a very high speed around the earth, though, which I suppose could be considered similar to flying.”

Seyka groaned. “You know, Beta…” For a moment Aloy thought she would lose whatever little breakfast she had eaten before they embarked on the shuttle from the Zenith Base. “I think right now it’s okay to keep that kind of information to yourself.”

“Enough idle chatter.” Sylens’ scolding carried more fear than annoyance and Aloy couldn’t blame him when she noticed how tightly he clenched the spear in his hand. They hadn’t encountered any Zeniths yet, but who knew if more were hiding out in other parts of the ship? What if they saw us coming? She couldn’t panic though, not if she was making Beta return to this awful, cold place where she’d been locked away her entire life. We just need to find the APOLLO database and get back to the Base. Simple enough.

“A-Aloy.” GAIA’s transmission was hard to understand amidst the static and interference crunch. “Unfor---tly the distance does not allow for re-re-liable visual exchange. I-I am transmitting th-the coordinates extracted f-from Tilda’s impl-a-a-nt.” Anything GAIA said after that was too garbled for Aloy to understand and judging by the blank expressions on the others’ faces, their Focuses also could not decipher the rest of the message. Her Focus interface did flicker with the updated coordinates from GAIA, the guidance system indicating the APOLLO database was located somewhere in the center of the ship, but on a lower floor.

Beta had her Focus activated—chewing her lower lip as she analyzed the coordinates. “Could be the data center. I was never allowed in there, but I remember the servitors mentioning it whenever they needed to perform an upgrade.”

“Then that’s where we’re going.” Aloy pulled up the schematics of the Odyssey’s layout. More corridors. Looks like they span the entire ring. How big is this ship? Highlighted in a bright purple, the data center appeared to be below a much larger room—possibly a control center of some kind. “Come on. It’s not far.” That might have been true, but the twisting of the gold-plated metal framing the ship’s interior gave the illusion the corridors stretched on forever.

“This place is…unnatural,” Sylens muttered. “I had thought perhaps…” He shook his head, as though ridding himself of some preconceived hope. “The sooner we get off this ship the better. For all we know Nemesis is almost here. We are sitting ducks out here, Aloy.”

No shit. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Just need to find the right door and—” She noticed Beta was no longer walking at her side. Turning, she spotted her sister several feet behind Seyka and Alva at the back of the group, staring at a closed door. “Beta?” Approaching Beta, she could easily make out the distressed lines on her sister’s face. The shadows in her eyes told Aloy everything she needed to know about why Beta had stopped.

This was her room. Where they kept her locked up. Their personal…clone. No. Their slave.

Seyka was there first, despite her temporary nausea—her hand on Beta’s back. Alva stood near, keeping watch in case a Zenith somehow suddenly appeared, but the sympathetic frown of concern on her face gave Aloy some reassurance that she wasn’t the only one there for Beta. They know where she came from. Why she was made. Even Seyka had admitted she didn’t completely understand all the details around the Zeniths, but she didn’t have to.

Hearing Seyka’s gentle tone, Aloy wouldn’t have thought they were in any rush at all. But of course, she knew better. “Hey. Do you need to take a minute?”

Hugging herself, her fingers hiding beneath the interlocked pieces of cloaking metal in her light hide armor, Beta shook her head. “N-no. I just want to leave this place.”

Aloy decided to speak up. She didn’t need Beta reliving any more nightmares and Sylens was right—they needed to get off the ship as soon as possible. “We’re going to, I promise. We just need to get that database and then we can go, okay?”

Beta whispered a weak agreement, and they started moving once more. The door to the control center was obvious—it was the only entry with double door panels. A console stood to the right of it, the light on the main button flashing green.

Aloy nocked an arrow before hovering her hand over the button. “Be ready for anything,” she said. “If we run into a Zenith, remember the plan. Beta—”

“I know, I know. Cloak and get out. I know what to—” Her next words were drowned out when Aloy’s Focus emitted an agonizing screech, forcing her to clutch at her ear in pain.

“Hello?” A voice—distressed and weak, as though it had been suffering for so long this could have been its final call.

“Aloy?” She could read Beta’s lips—she was saying her name but there was no sound. Some setting on the Focus? No, that wouldn’t affect people’s voices.

“Please…you need to leave. Now. Before it’s too late.” It was layered, jumbled with static and metal, but underneath the interference Aloy thought she could make out a woman’s voice. Shaking off the last of the ringing in her ear, she blinked a few times before focusing on her friends around her, all of whom looked very concerned.

Seyka reached out a tentative hand and placed it on Aloy’s. “Are you okay?”

“I—I thought I heard something or someone on my Focus. Someone calling for help,” Aloy said, the voice still echoing in her head and leaving behind a gnawing chill. “I’m fine.”

Sylens was less sympathetic. “Your Focus is probably on its dying breath after the constant usage you put it through. Now, can we please get on with this? That database is probably our last hope to reacquiring HEPHAESTUS.”

But Seyka wasn’t so easily convinced. “Aloy, are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll um, let you know if I hear it again.” Once again, the feeling of something watching them irked at her. She sent Seyka a faint smile to let her know she was good to continue. “Stay close.” She hesitated, her hand hovering over the glass-encased button, its green flashing light beckoning them to enter. What was that? Who was that?

She pressed down on the panel and the doors slid open, revealing a large, round room with multiple exits not unlike the common area back at the Base. Thin bars of blue lights wrapped around the wall just below the ceiling. In the center of the room on the floor was a closed hatch, likely the entry to the data center. Consoles with an array of virtual interfaces had been installed in front of most of the standalone chairs while a stack of video monitoring feeds of the entire ship took up most of the wall on the opposite side of the room. A quick scan of the feeds showed uninhabited rooms. They really were alone on the ship.

Alva must have read her mind. “I guess only a handful of them really did make it.” She gravitated to one of the consoles, where a blinking blue light near an intricate chart provided data on what Aloy surmised was some subsystem of the ship. “It looks like all their foundational supplies are still stocked here. Seeds, cloning facilities, animal DNA—everything they would need to make a planet livable.”

“Had they successfully kept GAIA they would have had the final piece,” Sylens said. He took a seat in one of the white leather chairs and began browsing the data on the console before him. “Perhaps there is a way to extract the database from here. In the meantime, Aloy, I suggest you and Beta go downstairs to this data center and see what you can find there.” After searching for something on the console interface, he pressed a button and the hatch in the center of the room slid open. A ladder led down to the lower floor.

Aloy almost argued with him, but his suggestion was actually sound, especially as it didn’t involve anything insane such as mass murdering an entire tribe or founding a cult. She exchanged glances with Beta, who nodded and followed her to the hatch. She took the ladder first, then watched from the bottom as Beta made her way down. “You good?”

“Yes.” Beta took the ladder much slower than Aloy would have needed to, but she wasn’t going to complain. They were already in the last place she wanted to take her sister to, there was no need to make it more difficult for her. “Go ahead—I’ll be right there. If the database is anywhere, it will be in that storage unit in the middle of the room. It would be the only thing powerful enough to store it.”

“All right.” Turning around, she took in the data center for the first time. Apart from the constant wash of white and gold over virtually everything, it wasn’t too different from the server room back at the Base. Boxy metal units with hundreds of blinking lights on them surrounded a cylindrical tower attached to the floor and ceiling. That must be it. Scanning it with her Focus, she sorted through a lot of suites and programs that were either unintelligible or unrelated.

Beta joined her. “Anything?”

“No.” Nothing. Not related. Not sure I want to know what that is. Nothing. Once again Aloy couldn’t fathom how a group of Old Ones with a thousand years on their hands failed to do anything good with them. “There’s a lot of…strange stuff here.”

“Given how deep the Zeniths were into virtual reality, I’m not surprised,” Beta said. “Try using ‘Zero Dawn’ as your search query. Maybe it’s still under there.”

She gave it a shot. There. Hidden in the lowest nested directory of the “Legacy Builds: Zero Dawn” folder she spotted it: “apollo_0.1.174”.  

“Beta, I think I found it,” she said. Her eyes widened when she saw the file size. “Shit. This is going to take a while. The database is pretty big.” She moved to turn off her Focus but rather than obey her deactivation command, the device beeped several times in a row, the sounds overlapping each other before coughs of static were the only thing she could hear.

“…here. Can you hear me? Please leave—”

Shit. This time, she tore the Focus from her head. Beta looked at her before her eyes went down to the device—she could hear it, too. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know,” Aloy said, the Focus resting in her palm as she stared down at it. “It sounds like someone could be in trouble but…I don’t know. Could be a transmission it’s picking up.” She gestured around them. “But out here?”

“There are a lot of satellites still orbiting Earth. Maybe it’s an old message on one of those?”

Then why did it sound so real? It sounded less like a message she’d picked up and more like someone was talking to her. “Maybe it’s on the ship. There’s no one else here so Seyka and I could check it out—just to make sure.”

With a nod, Beta held up a familiar small, clear cartridge. “I can get the database then. Be careful, Aloy.”

“I will. Be right back.” The climb back up was brief, and Aloy emerged on the top level to find her friends in the same positions where she left them. Sylens was still pouring over the data on the ship and its systems while Seyka and Alva stood guard near the exits of the room.

“We found it. Beta’s downloading it now,” she reported. She realized the static sounds and beeping from her Focus had ceased and set it back on her temple. “There’s a…message of some kind that keeps trying to get through on my Focus. I’m going to see if it’s coming from anything on the ship.”

Seyka didn’t hesitate. “I’ll come with you.”

“Me, too.” Alva stepped forward. She gave Sylens a nervous glance. “Um, will you be okay here?”

Sylens rolled his eyes. “I don’t require a babysitter if that’s what you’re asking. But hurry up. As soon as Beta completes the download we should be on our way.”

The doors on the other side of the control room slid open on detection, leading the three of them to the other side of the ship’s main corridor. Doors lined the hallway—more of the sterile white and gold swirling metal—and Aloy guessed these were all bedrooms or labs for the Zeniths while they were traveling to Sirius. “My Focus just started letting out static and then there was a voice. Someone was calling for help and telling me to leave.”

“That room had eyes on all the other places in the ship. There’s no one else here, Aloy,” Alva said. “Are you sure you—”

A signal. It emanated from a room further down the hall, four doors away from where they stood. A scan from Aloy’s Focus simply returned a single word: unknown. “This way. I think it’s coming from here.”

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s worried we’re going to find some Far Zenith monstrosity in there,” Seyka said as they approached the closed door.

Not the most impossible thing that could happen. “I don’t know. It sounded distressed and it knew to send out a signal. So, it’s either a person or…” She hit the button next to the doorframe, the puff of air from the panels sliding into the walls cool on her face.

The room was twice the size of Aloy’s personal quarters. Hanging on the walls were projections of paintings Aloy recognized and a few that she didn’t. A large bed and a long L-shaped desk took up most of the space. This was Tilda’s room.

A beacon glowed on the desk—spherical in shape and encircled by orbiting bars of white light. The pulsing glow was not constant, the light would be interrupted at sporadic times as though glitched.

Aloy tried a straightforward approach. “Hello?” No response at first. Seconds later, the light gave a strong pulse. The voice came through her Focus, clearer than it had been earlier in the data center.

“You…you can hear me?” A woman’s voice…and a familiar one at that.

Aloy looked back at Seyka and Alva, who both shrugged. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

“No,” Alva said. “But I have a feeling you can?”

“Yeah. It’s—well, this probably sounds crazy, but it sounds like…Elisabet Sobeck,” she said. She pointed at the beacon. “I think it might be an AI that belonged to Tilda.”

“I was to be her companion. Her muse. But…she wasn’t happy with me. She couldn’t be.” The lilt, the fatigue, that hint of sadness that was strewn throughout all of the audio logs of Elisabet she had listened to countless times. It had them all. So Tilda made an AI of Elisabet. Definitely not creepy at all.

“And then she left you here,” Aloy said. Maybe it knows something about Nemesis. It was worth a shot. “We’re looking for information about something called Nemesis. Do you know anything about it?”

The world flashed red before the thin overhead lights shattered, sending a hail of sparks everywhere and leaving scorch marks on the walls. Someone screamed—Aloy couldn’t determine who. Need to get back to Beta. Her vision flickered—one second they were in Tilda’s room, the next she was surrounded by red light. Pain exploded in her head as though her skull had been drilled with metal. Alarms sounded off across the ship.

“Critical failure. Self-destruction of primary module activated. All personnel must evacuate.”

“We have to go! Aloy!” Seyka. Paralyzed but still aware, she knew Seyka and Alva were panicking—something about a locked door. The room shook from the roar of…something. Aloy didn’t have a word for it. It was raw, blistering with rage and a hunger that could never be sated.  

Elisabet’s—no, not Elisabet—voice pierced through the blaring alarms into her Focus.

“GO.”

Strong hands grabbed her arm. A muttered “sorry” was followed by dizziness—the world spun around her. She was supposed to do something, but she couldn’t remember what. The ground was no longer under her feet, and in the seconds her vision would return it she could only see the sealed door back into the control room getting farther away.

Beta.

“I got her! There! That’s the way out?” Seyka? “Stay with me, Aloy! Open the door, come on!”

“I’m going as fast as I can. I’ve never used one of these!”

She thought she heard the hiss of metal sliding. A door? Where were they taking her? Her back against a wall, she was sitting now. A small, round window was next to her, its backdrop dotted with stars.

“Beta…”

Soft hands on her face, the familiar voice still far away. “They went out the other way, Aloy. We’re locked out from them, so this is what we’ve got but we’re going to get them back, okay? H-hang on.”

A garbled feminine voice resonated in the capsule. “Critical Failure. Core engine compromised. Self-destruction of primary module imminent. All personnel should continue with emergency evacuation. Do you wish to detach?”

The screech of metal tearing sounded from outside the sealed door.

“Yes! Do it! Detach!” Alva screamed. The capsule lurched, pulling away from the doomed ship at high speed. Aloy thought her stomach had flipped as they approached the edge of the earth’s atmosphere.

“Beta…need to get her,” she tried again.

“She’s with Sylens. They’ll probably take the shuttle back. It will be all right, Aloy.”

“Hey. I got you, Aloy. It’s going to be okay.” Arms wrapped around her, a face pressed against hers—the smell of Seyka’s hair familiar and comforting. Fire filled the window as the capsule shook violently. The stars faded with the blackness of space giving way to harsh orange flames that licked at the thin barrier of metal protecting them from oblivion.

“What…is this?” None of this made sense. She needed to find Beta, needed to get back to GAIA with the database.

“Stored geocoordinates not found. New destination locked on. ETA set at five minutes.”

“I-it’s taking us somewhere else. Shit.” Aloy had rarely heard Alva panic but maybe she was mishearing her. The world didn’t feel real. “Oh, there’s a map. There’s a map—Seyka, it’s taking us h—”

“Once we land, you’ll need to get back to GAIA as soon as possible. It’s the only chance we have at stopping this.”

The flames receded, allowing bright blue skies and sunlight to light up the capsule interior. Something pressed against Aloy’s brow and above all else she just wanted to sleep. “…stopping what?” Her head still spun as she clung to consciousness.

“ETA in thirty seconds. Warning: reentry system malfunctioning. Parachute Unit Three is inactive. Please brace for impact.”

“Well, at least it says ‘please!’” Alva cried.

“You saw it. You must have heard it.”

Now? They were supposed to have more time. “No…”

“ETA in ten seconds. Brace for impact. Six…five…”

“Hold on to something!” Seyka yelled, her grip so strong Aloy was certain her ribs would bruise. “This is going to hurt if it doesn’t kill us outright.”

That red light.

“Three…two…”

“Nemesis. It’s here, Aloy.”

Chapter Text

She woke but her eyes did not open. Reality still refused to kick in and all she still saw was the blinding red light that had engulfed everything around her. Her body swayed from side to side—like the one and only time she tried out the hammock Erend had set up outside the Base. Piles of snow from the upper mountainside had fallen on it, and Erend had come back, his clothes soaked with freezing water as he hurled a number of Oseram curses at no one in particular.

She groaned when the back of her head gave a painful throb. A pressure behind her eyes came in intervals, nearly drowning her in nausea.

“Aloy!” Someone was calling out to her, or…maybe they were close. The voice was muffled so it was impossible to tell. Cold water splashed on her face, the saltiness of it forcing out a deep cough as a familiar weightlessness came over her. What?

She was supposed to be somewhere.

Someone pulled her, or rather, dragged her. Sand under her back, the coarse grains digging into the skin on her arm and shoulder. She coughed again, this time spitting out water she hadn’t realized she’d swallowed. The nausea overwhelmed her, the food from earlier coming up as she heaved her breakfast over the sand.

“The reentry was…rough to say the least. You swallowed a good deal of water, but fortunately Seyka got you out. You should rest.”

Reentry…? Her eyes opened, burning as tears escaped. The pain in her head had lessened but the rest of her body may as well have been trampled by a Thunderjaw. She rolled onto her back, drained of every ounce of her strength.

“Aloy! Hey, I’m here, Aloy. You’re okay—it’s okay.” That voice again, but no longer muffled. Her vision adjusted.

“S-Seyka?”

Seyka let out an audible sigh of relief. Already on her knees, she bent over and took Aloy in her arms. There was pain, but it didn’t seem so bad this time. At least we’re alive. Wherever we are. Her surroundings hadn’t sunk in yet—she knew they were on some sort of shoreline judging by the amount of water she’d just coughed up and the telltale sound of waves crashing behind her. The memories of their excursion resurfaced in a hazy flash. The Zenith Base. The shuttle—the Odyssey. That red light. The flames that had surrounded them while they hurtled toward the earth like a falling star.

She stiffened in Seyka’s hold. “Beta!” Pulling away, she could see Seyka’s face for the first time since being on the Odyssey. A small gasp escaped her when she saw the deep, bloody cut above Seyka’s left eyebrow. Her armor was torn or broken in several places and in some areas had been burned off based on the scorch marks on the ends of the fabric. “You’re hurt!” She tried to wriggle out of Seyka’s grasp. “We need to get to Beta and GAIA. Nemesis is—”

But Seyka refused to relent. “Aloy, I saw it.” Her eyes gravitated toward the grey sky. “The ship exploded after we escaped. I think…whatever got to it made the Odyssey destroy itself.”

“Self-destruction of primary module activated.” She remembered the intercom repeating, the alarms screaming while her friends got her to the escape pod. “Beta and Sylens.”

“I don’t know,” Seyka whispered, and Aloy realized she was shaking—from fear, trauma, or both she wasn’t certain. “I tried calling her, but I t-think that…Nemesis-thing or whatever it was did something to our Focuses. Alva’s doesn’t work either. It…fried them or something. I can’t read any data on it.”

Shit. “Where’s Alva?” She sat up, groaning with pain when all of her muscles screamed in protest at once, and allowed Seyka to help her stand. The breeze was cool against her shoulder, and when she glanced down, she noticed for the first time that the armor on her right shoulder and arm had nearly been torn off, revealing bare skin underneath.

“Alive. She’s got a shoulder wound that will need medical attention. I was able to find your spear and my sword and some of the medicinal berries, but everything else is gone.” She pointed toward the cluster of trees at the edge of the beach. “She’s waiting for us there.”

Aloy took in their surroundings for the first time since waking up. They were on a beach, that much was certain by the small, greyish waves coming in on the shore, and by the shape of the shoreline and the unfamiliar woods nearby she knew they had not landed anywhere close to the Base. Beyond the trees were low hills sown with red blight that built up to mountains. “Where are we?” When she saw any remaining hope on Seyka’s face dissolve, she knew the answer was bad. “Seyka, please. Where did we land?”

“We’re…in the Great Delta. My—well, it’s where the Quen Empire is, Aloy.” She pointed toward the mountains. “The Imperial capital is on the other side of those mountains.”

Aloy’s mind blanked at first. “The Great…Seyka that’s thousands of miles from the Base.” Shit. Shit. Shit. How were they going to get out of this one? Everyone was injured, they were stranded on the other side of the world, and she couldn’t even contact Beta—she didn’t know if she was alive.

The thought of her sister dying on the Odyssey when Nemesis destroyed it brought the nausea back in full force. “I…think I’m going to be sick again. Beta—”

Seyka rushed to try to calm her. “Hey, hey. I’ve told you, she’s tough. If she can survive a crash on a Sunwing she can make it through anything. Her and Sylens weren’t that far from the shuttle when we went to look for that AI.”

Wait. “My Focus—I think it might still work.” She tapped the device. Sure enough, the interface slid up in front of her, though there were some minor artifacts that degraded some of the controls visually—mostly torn pixels and jagged edges around the screen. She spotted the most important words she’d read that day—Connected to Network. “But why is mine functioning while yours and Alva’s aren’t?”

“I was able to repel the attack attempt on your Focus, but unfortunately, I was only able to register on yours in the time before Nemesis arrived, not the others’. Some of the software on your device will need repairs. This can wait until you get to safety.” The voice again. Elisabet’s voice. Tilda’s AI had made it off the Odyssey with them. “Thanks…I think,” she said. Then to Seyka, “Tilda’s AI. It’s on my Focus. It, um, saved it from Nemesis.”

Seyka tilted her head. “That’s a good thing, right? Can we try to contact Beta?”

“Worth a shot.” She wasn’t exactly comfortable with carrying around Tilda’s creation like this, but it had helped them so far. One thing was certain: hearing an AI that spoke exactly like Elisabet was unsettling to say the least. She put out a call to Beta’s Focus. “Beta? Beta, can you hear me?”

Seyka put a comforting hand on her shoulder as she held her breath, waiting for a response.

“A-Aloy?” The voice was surrounded by static, but it was without a doubt Beta’s. Even with the interference Aloy could hear her sister’s voice breaking. “Aloy, is that y-you?”

She’s alive. She wanted to cry, and it took a great deal of strength not to. She didn’t want Beta to worry any more than she probably already was. “It’s me, Beta. Are you safe? Where are you? Where is Sylens?”

“At t-the Ba-ase. I’m okay, Aloy. It was…close but we m-made it to the shuttle in time,” Beta said. “Sylens f-found a Sunwing. Are you okay?”

Despite the dire situation they were in, Aloy found herself grinning from sheer relief. “We’re a little scraped up, but alive. We’re uh, we rode down in something that ejected from the ship. We’re in the Quen’s territory, near their capital.” Saying it out loud did not help the reality of their location sink in.

“Quen territory?” Beta sounded about as panicked as Aloy felt, and the static in the transmission only emphasized the distress in her voice. “B-but…how are you going to get b-back? Nemesis i-is—”

“I know. We’re going to have to find a way. I don’t how yet but—just keep working on ways to stop Nemesis. Anything you can find out. See what Sylens found on his trip.” She took a deep breath. She’s going to have to do this without me. “We’re going to need everyone’s help on this, Beta.”

“O-okay,” Beta said. “Please keep me updated. I can’t—I don’t know if I can do this on my own, Aloy.”

“You can, Beta.” Whatever their odds were, Aloy couldn’t let Beta give up hope now. Couldn’t let her retreat into the dark shell the Zeniths had trapped her in for years. “Call Erend and the others. They know what we’re up against—they can help. Get Sokorra back to the Base, too.” She knew Sylens and GAIA could assist with the tech, her friends with supporting fire, but there was no one else Beta trusted more than the young Desert Tenakth soldier they had helped in the weeks prior. She briefly thought back on the mission. Compared to Nemesis, men like Garin and Bregul were hardly threats.

It was difficult to discern through the static, but she thought she could hear Beta’s tone strengthen in confidence. “I will. Sylens is trying to get my attention. I’ll talk to you soon. And Aloy? Be careful. If the Quen there are anything like you’ve described the ones here to be—”

“I will. I…stay safe, Beta.” The call ended, leaving her with the urge to cry again. “She’s okay. They made it back on the shuttle and are at the Base, now.” Nothing I can do to help her right now. They’re on their own. “Should we go check on Alva?”

Seyka gave her a sympathetic smile. “Come on.” Still holding on to Aloy’s arm—maybe for stability or possibly just for comfort, Aloy wasn’t sure—she took them to the top of the beach’s hill where the wooded area along the coast began. They weren’t more than a few paces in when Aloy saw the hastily thrown together camp. Alva sat propped up against a tree, her Diviner tunic stained dark with blood as she held an already damp cloth to the wound Seyka had mentioned. She looked up weakly at them, and somehow managed to smile her usual bright grin. “Aloy! You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

How she keeps that up all the time I’ll never know. “Uh, most likely better than you from the looks of it.” She reached into one of the pouches around her belt, feeling for any of the medicinal berries she’d brought with her to the Odyssey. Only a few were left, the others most likely had fallen out and were lost in the ocean somewhere. She knelt near Alva and took her hand before gently placing them in her palm. “Here.” Upon closer inspection, the fear in Alva’s dark eyes was apparent. “I got a hold of Beta. She and Sylens made it out—they’re going to work on a way to stop Nemesis while we figure out a way home.”

Alva stuffed the berries in her mouth, grimacing at the bitter taste. “Thanks.” She winced, her breathing shallow as beads of sweat dotted her brow. “Seyka told you where we are?”

Aloy nodded. “Yeah. We’ll just have to find something that can take us back. Maybe a machine or something.”

“Aloy.” The AI spoke into her Focus. “I know you’re tired. But there’s something you should see. Tilda knew of it, and I had continuous access to the Far Zenith database.”

Aloy stood up. “Why did you help us? And why should we trust you?” She noted the confused glance Alva gave Seyka.

“I was created twenty years after the Odyssey left Earth. Tilda wanted…I don’t know what she wanted. Something else, of course. Something I couldn’t be for her.” Hearing Elisabet’s voice was almost too much for Aloy to comprehend. She’d dreamt of it—even hoped while learning about Zero Dawn that she might have found the woman she’d come to know through hundreds of audio and video logs, alive. The closest thing she’d ever had to a mother was now speaking to her through her Focus as though they’d known each other all along.

No. It’s not her. It’s a…fake. A copy. But wasn’t that what she was? No. This was something else. A shadow. “All right, I get it. But what do you want?”

“Nemesis. It was a failed experiment. That’s why you need to get back to GAIA. Between APOLLO and the Far Zenith archives, I might be able to help GAIA find a solution.”

She sighed. They were in trouble, in a strange land where both Alva and Seyka were unexpected. They needed help. “Fine. What do I call you, then?”

“As strange as it might seem, Tilda usually just called me ‘Lis’.”

Great. That’s not going to be weird at all. What did it matter right now, anyway? They just needed to get home. “All right. What do you want us to see?”

“I’ve put coordinates on your Focus. It’s just up the hill west of the camp.”

She glanced down at Seyka, who was redressing Alva’s wound. “So, the AI wants to be called ‘Lis’, and it wants to show us something up the hill. I’m going to go check it out.”

Alva gave Seyka’s arm a gentle push. “Go with her. We shouldn’t be exploring this area alone.”

Seyka shot her an incredulous look. “Wouldn’t that be leaving you alone, then?”

“Just go. I’ll be fine.” By the increased stress in her voice, Alva looked anything but ‘fine’. Aloy didn’t feel up to dealing with a debate, though. Gripping her spear, she used her Focus to lay out a path for her up the hill on the western end of the camp. A reluctant Seyka followed closely, the two of them walking in silence until they began to ascend the hill. Tall, yellow and green grass up to their knees covered the wet terrain, which gave slightly under their weight.

“So, this AI, it sounds like Sobeck? So…you?” Seyka asked.

Aloy gave a shrug. “Not quite. She sounds different. Older. I can show you some logs later. But I guess Tilda made her to be like Elisabet. Only…she couldn’t be.”

Seyka raised an eyebrow. “‘She?’”

“She. It. I don’t know anymore.” Her headache was coming back.

“Like Nova. Londra’s AI.”

Aloy considered it. It would make sense, given the Zeniths were the way they were, that more than one would make an AI of someone they…lost. “Yeah. I suppose so.”

Seyka reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together as they reached the top of the hill. “It’s going to be okay, Aloy. We’ve been through worse, right?”

Aloy barked out a laugh. “Worse than Nemesis?”

“I’m trying to be optimistic here!”

Aloy didn’t respond. She couldn’t—she was still processing the view before them. In what was probably a few days’ hike away lay a massive, sprawling city that must have been the capital of the Quen homeland. Against the backdrop of what must have been hundreds of ruined metal towers of the Old Ones that brushed the clouded sky, the city seemed miniscule. But Aloy knew better—this city was larger than Meridian, larger than any settlement she’d seen or been to before. The architecture was hard to make out, but there was a lot of white, a lot of pointed, cloth-draped buildings and clusters of green and red furnishings and accents on the sides of the structures. It was all very similar to what she’d seen at Legacy’s Landfall and Fleet’s End. One particularly large building rose above the rest in the center of the city. Smoke billowed from the top—it was on fire. Upon a closer look, it wasn’t the only structure in flames.

“Your…capital?”

Seyka’s mouth was parted as she looked down on the city in horror. “I—something’s happened. We should—”

A boom so deep and heavy it shook the air where they stood blasted across the landscape. Another building exploded in a hail of sparks and flame before being consumed by more black smoke. Had they been closer, Aloy was certain they’d have heard screaming.

“We have to get down there!” Seyka cried. “There must have been…I don’t know—a riot, an invasion maybe.”

A revolution. “I met some Quen back in Fleet’s End some time ago. They mentioned things weren’t so good here.”

Lis’ voice filled her Focus once more. “Aloy. Look closer, slightly to the right of the ruins beyond the city.”

It was difficult to not be distracted by the violence that had broken out in the city below, but Aloy did her best to stay focused as she followed the coordinates Lis had provided her with her eyes. It would have been so easy to miss—the dark grey could have easily blended into the ruins and even the overcast sky. She’d seen one before, but it had not been in nearly as good condition as this one appeared to be. Still, it had been effective as a weapon against some Slitherfangs at the time. “A shuttle.”

“A Far Zenith shuttle. They were planning to have this be a secondary base of operations but then, well, you happened.”

“That thing is a thousand years old.”

“It’s still operational, Aloy. All you need to do is get to it. I’ll be able to interface with it and access its controls.”

And then we can fly it back to the Base. It sounds crazy. It might work. Aloy pointed at the shuttle for Seyka to see. “We need to get to that shuttle. Lis says it still works.”

Seyka did a double take. Up until now she had been the calm, level-headed one in what had turned into a near-impossible situation. “That? How are we supposed to get there, exactly? The city is in chaos!” Her next words came out as a shaky whisper. “My parents…”

Aloy’s chest tightened at the desperation and helplessness in her voice. “Stay with me, Seyka.” She turned and put her hands on Seyka’s shoulders so that they were face to face. “One thing at a time. We need to stop Nemesis, or everything we’ve done will have been for nothing. It’ll all be destroyed—”

Seyka jerked away from her and pointed at the burning city. “Look at that, Aloy! It’s already destroyed. And this was building up—it was going to happen. The Quen don’t need help from Nemesis to destroy ourselves! No, we were already good at that.”

“I know it’s bad!” Aloy wasn’t used to raising her voice at Seyka, but in the heat of the moment it was the only thing she could think of to get through to her. “But we can’t get caught up in it. We have to get back to GAIA, Seyka. We have to.” When she saw Seyka’s shoulders slump in defeat, she leaned in and wrapped her arms around her, taking in her familiar smell, as well as the scent of burned metal and fabric.

Seyka said nothing but allowed herself to be held. Seconds went by, though to Aloy it could have been longer. Why can’t anything just go right for once?

“Come on,” she said, pulling away. “Let’s get back to Alva and figure out a plan. Hopefully her shoulder heals a bit overnight.” Keeping a hand on the small of Seyka’s back, the two of them started their descent—the explosions of the not-so-distant city still going off, an omen that things were only going to get worse.

After saying goodnight to GAIA, Beta stumbled down the stairs to her room. It was always quieter down there than the rest of the Base, but tonight it was different. Knowing Aloy was upstairs, home with her, or that she could come home in a reasonable amount of time gave her some sense of security. It helped with the loneliness that had been a constant presence in her life until being rescued. But not now. Looking around the server room, she wished she could get on a Sunwing and fly literally anywhere else. Knowing that she couldn’t only made her feel more useless. All the advanced training and technological expertise in the world couldn’t bring Aloy back right now. It might not even be enough to stop Nemesis. It probably won’t be.

She tapped open her Focus interface to check the time. 1:03 AM. The recent days hadn’t felt real. Escaping the Odyssey was not a memory she ever wanted to relive, though she was certain she’d have nightmares. At least we got the APOLLO database. GAIA informed her and Sylens that the integration would take several hours, which was fine. She had other research she could do. Sylens had been nothing but polite to her, if distant, a surprising contrast to how Aloy always described him. He’d assured her that Aloy always had a habit of figuring out the impossible, which she could agree with. Before retiring to his quarters, he promised he would have a task for her in the morning.

She sat down on her bed, her back against the wall, debating if she had the energy to go back upstairs and take some of the pillows from Aloy’s room. Or from the others’ bunks. They weren’t using them and if she was being honest, her bed wasn’t the most comfortable. In the end, she decided to call Sokorra.

“Sokorra?” They had spoken every few days via Focus after Sokorra and Korreh had left the Base for Plainsong. With Korreh finally safe, Sokorra had been free to search the Tenakth lands for the remaining machine lures planted by Bregul, the Oseram who had sought revenge for his partner’s death at the hands of Sokorra’s tribe. Beta had understood, or at least she tried to. And she enjoyed the brief calls they had—Sokorra always sounded like she wanted to kill the Focus for being difficult to use while being nothing but kind to Beta at the same time. But she still found it incredibly unfair sometimes that Aloy got to see Seyka whenever she wanted, while Sokorra was out in the desert, possibly in danger, instead of being at the Base.

Despite the late hour, Sokorra answered right away. “Beta?” She chuckled. “Can’t sleep?”

Beta tried to stay calm, tried to hold back the tears she had been keeping from Sylens since they returned to Earth. But something about hearing Sokorra’s voice after everything that had happened made her realize she couldn’t pretend anymore. She didn’t want to. “I…something’s happened.” She choked out a sob, not bothering to wipe her eyes when the tears came. “I need...can you come back? To the Base? It’s—it’s bad.”

Sokorra didn’t pause or question the request. “I’m on my way.”

Chapter Text

With the sky already covered in clouds, darkness set in quickly as evening arrived. The three of them had taken seats around a small fire fueled by whatever dry branches Seyka could find in the immediate area. An uneasy silence had taken hold as Aloy watched the orange and yellow flames drift up into nothing. They needed the warmth and the light, but she hoped the smoke would not be a beacon to those who meant them harm—which at this point was probably most of the Quen.

Her attention went to Seyka, who seemed as mesmerized by the fire as she was. Her dark eyes were blank, as though she was still trying to process everything. It made sense—there wasn’t much they could do at the moment except rest and try to not dwell on what had happened, what they had seen. A Quen revolution. It didn’t come as a surprise to Aloy, but she could see how shaken up Seyka was by it. She had to have known it was coming. With all the unrest, even back at Fleet’s End. Between the disaster with the Ceo, the pushback against their compliance officers, and the controversial discoveries of ‘forbidden knowledge’ that kept happening, the Quen had always seemed one step away from dissent within the tribe. You can’t always be in control. Even Aloy had learned that lesson, painful as it was.

Still leaning back against the same tree—sweating and panting with irregular breaths—Alva had not said much most of the evening, her condition not having improved. Aloy suspected she’d lost a lot of blood and that the berries were merely holding the eventual infection at bay. The equipment inside the escape pod had been torn from the walls of the capsule, and Seyka had reported pulling out a metal shard from Alva’s shoulder when she’d dragged them all to shore. They needed to get to the shuttle beyond the capital city, somehow, and get Alva there, too.

Food was scarce. Seyka had discovered and caught some shellfish near the water, and Aloy still carried bits of dried meat that were mostly waterlogged from the crash. Alva suggested there might be some wild birds in the area, but Aloy and Seyka had not been able to find one yet.

Despite the coolness that nighttime had brought in, the air remained humid—holding its breath for an inevitable rainstorm.

Still staring at the fire, shadows dancing on her face, Seyka nodded, as though she had come to an agreement with herself about something. “We should head west at dawn if we want to make good time. It’s going to take us at least a day to get to the city gates.” She glanced at Alva. “Maybe longer.”

“I don’t…want to be a burden if it stops you from getting back to GAIA and Beta,” Alva said, struggling to get the words out. “If you need to, le—"

No. Aloy had always hesitated on bringing her friends with her on excursions for exactly this reason. But they were there now, and this was the reality. She wasn’t leaving anyone behind. “We’re not doing that. We all go, or no one does.”

Seyka’s face twitched. Is she upset at me? Or just worried about her family? “Aloy, the city is in chaos. Alva and I aren’t supposed to be here. If this really is a rebellion and someone sees us, they will kill us on sight. Me for desertion and Alva most likely because she’s a Diviner. Not to mention our families…”

“If they’re…not already dead,” Alva wheezed before grasping her shoulder, a sharp cry of pain escaping her and sending a wave of panic through Aloy. What if they couldn’t get her medical aid in time? What if there were no berries out here? What if she died from loss of blood?

“We can’t think about that,” Seyka said. She pushed herself to her feet, brushing off whatever dirt her armor had collected with scraped hands. “I’m going to get some more wood for the fire before it dies.” She disappeared into the dark cluster of trees behind them, leaving the camp in silence once more save for Alva’s ragged breathing and the pop of the flames burning away the remains of the wood.

“She’s not doing well. Isn’t there anything that can be done for her?”

Aloy sighed. She still wasn’t a fan of Tilda’s “Lis” AI living on her Focus, talking to her whenever it wanted, but she had no way to disable it without destroying the Focus itself. Had she had her backups on hand it wouldn’t have been a problem, but they were all back at the Base. “Yeah, I see that.” She kept her voice low, almost murmuring as to not disturb Alva, whose eyes were closed now. “The berries are what we have until we can get her somewhere with more supplies.”

“Maybe in the city, then?”

“Seyka thinks it’s going to be one giant deathtrap in there, but we might not have another choice.” Whatever the state of the city was, she was not leaving Alva to die here.

“During Enduring Victory, a lot of the regional and local governments collapsed before the national ones did. There was…fighting over resources. But you still heard stories of people risking everything to help the wounded or the hungry. And you’ve clearly met Quen who would do that already.”

Aloy looked over at Alva. Yeah. I guess I have. And while it was possible there were more Quen out there who would be friendly toward them, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to take that chance.

“How’s Beta?” Alva’s eyes were still closed but apparently, she was still awake. She reached a shaking hand for her shoulder again.

“Here, let me.” Aloy grabbed the cloth Seyka had cleaned earlier and went over to Alva, kneeling beside her to press the cloth to her shoulder. Alva hissed when the cloth made contact with her wound as she looked away.

“Beta’s all right. I told her about the shuttle on our way back here. I think she’s working with Sylens to see if they can use anything he found to stop Nemesis.” It was not easy to see Alva’s wound in the limited light of the campfire, but Aloy did her best to clean the edges. If infection set in…she didn’t want to think about it.

“What about—fuck!” Alva yelled out, jerking when Aloy pressed on a particularly sensitive area of the cut. “Ancestors! Sorry. What about the shuttle we took to the Odyssey? Could they use that come and get us?”

Aloy gave a quiet laugh. Alva apologizing for swearing when she was in severe pain was going to go down as one of their more memorable moments together. “Beta said it wouldn’t activate again after they landed. She wasn’t sure why.”

“Maybe…Nemesis…” Alva’s voice trailed off, her eyes fluttering as she let her head fall back against the tree again. “Aloy, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t gotten hurt, we’d already be on our way to the capital—"

Aloy shushed her. “Hey, don’t worry about that. We’re going to get through this.” Were they? Her armor was damaged, as was Seyka’s, and she didn’t even have her bow with her. With their supplies as low as they were, they would be lucky to make it to the city at all, assuming they weren’t killed on arrival by Quen soldiers.

Her Focus beeped. “Aloy, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve done a quick scan with your Focus and I’ve detected a plant that could help. It’s not edible, but with the right mixture, it could help her wound heal better.”

She wasn’t sure whether to be angry or grateful. She didn’t need some AI using her Focus without her permission. Then again, Lis was right—Alva wasn’t doing well. “What does it look like?” Her Focus interface activated, and a rotating model of the plant appeared before her. She remembered seeing its strangely shaped leaves on her walk with Seyka.

“Wh-who…oh, the AI,” Alva mumbled.

Aloy put the cloth down and stood up. “I’ll be right back, Alva.” She tried to get a lame joke in. “Don’t go anywhere while I’m gone.”

It worked. Alva gave a quick exhale and a weak shake of her head.

Aloy started her hunt on the edges of the camp before expanding her search radius, scanning with her Focus in the dark for any sign of the plant Lis had shown her. As she searched, her mind wandered back to Beta. Knowing that the shuttle at the Zenith Base had somehow been disabled was worrying. “Hey, um, Lis.” Addressing the AI by that name did not come naturally to her. “This shuttle—how do you know it will even work? The one we took to the Odyssey was apparently disabled.”

“You’re right to be worried. All I can say is that my Zenith access codes should hopefully be enough to launch it. It’s a very old ship and as the Zeniths hadn’t set up a base here yet, Nemesis has no reason to think we might use it. We’ll just have to take our chances, Aloy. I wish I had another solution.”

“Right, I get it. Um, thanks for helping.” Another area scanned, no plants. “It’s a little strange talking to you like this honestly. You…sound like her.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Tilda always called me ‘hollow’. Not like the ‘real’ Elisabet at all. I wondered sometimes if even the real Elisabet Sobeck would have made her happy had they been together on the Odyssey.”

“After spending some time with Tilda, probably not,” Aloy said. Her Focus gave a soft beep, and with another scan, the plant she was looking for showed up in her interface. “There.” Near a small patch of undergrowth were two of the plant that could help Alva. She moved to reach for it when Seyka’s voice called to her from the side. “Aloy? What are you doing out here?”

Spinning around, the flashlight on her Focus shined on Seyka, who squinted and turned her head to escape the glare while she held a bundle of short branches in her arms. “Shit. Sorry.” Aloy turned down the flashlight. “Lis told me about a plant here that could help Alva. I just found some.” She pointed at the undergrowth. “You found more wood I see.”

“Yeah. Had to walk a bit for it but this should last us the rest of the night.” Seyka paused, her teeth coming down on her lower lip. Aloy knew she had something to say.

“Seyka, I know this…all of this must be really hard for you. But I can’t help but feel like you’re not telling me something.”

Seyka shook her head. “Not on purpose. Aloy, this is all—we’ve been through some bad stuff but in all of the craziest scenarios in my head I never imagined we’d be back here, or that my people would be at war with themselves.” She sniffed, and while the darkness prevented Aloy from seeing her very well, it was clear Seyka was struggling to keep calm, too. She probably always had to be the strong one for her sister, then for the other Quen at Fleet’s End, and now she feels like she has to here. Aloy carefully extracted the plants, tucking them into her pouch before going to Seyka.

“I don’t want you and Alva to worry about me losing it out here,” Seyka continued. “I saw some of the other marines go that way when we were stranded in the Burning Shores. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to find my parents and make sure they’re safe.”

Despite the darkness, Aloy was able to lean in to kiss Seyka—the first they’d had since leaving camp to make for the Zenith Base launch pad. The branches between them made it difficult to put her arms around her but Aloy settled for letting her hand wrap around Seyka’s bare arm where her armor was missing, letting her thumb brush against the smooth skin there. “I don’t worry about that,” she promised, and it was the truth. “We’re going to get back. Because if we don’t, it’s not going to matter what happens here.”

“I know,” Seyka whispered. “I just thought…maybe we’d have more time before Nemesis.”

Aloy kissed her again, longer this time—the kiss itself deepening with each second it lasted. The panic and agitation she’d fought since waking up on the beach faded. Even in the middle of the woods, in a strange land thousands of miles from what she knew, flailing about while she figured out a plan, being close to Seyka like this never failed to center her—reset her. “Well,” she said, “assuming we get out of this, we could always come up with plans for afterward in the meantime.” She counted another mental victory when she heard Seyka’s laugh.

“As long as none of them involve flying anymore. After this last shuttle, I guess. Seriously, Aloy, if we weren’t pressed for time I would rather take a boat back to the Base than step foot on another stupid flying machine,” Seyka said. She went quiet for a moment, as though considering her next words carefully. “If we make it back, do you think you’ll want to stay at the Base? After Nemesis, I mean.”

After? Aloy often struggled with thinking realistically about life after Nemesis. Especially now when she wasn’t even certain how they could win. The idea of a life after seemed unreal. “I…don’t know. I guess I hadn’t thought that far.” The question touched her more than she expected it to. Her entire life had been about accomplishing one goal to get to the next. Training for the Proving, finding out who her mother was, learning about Zero Dawn to get the answers she needed, discovering HADES and its true purpose. GAIA. The Zeniths. Fixing the world. There was always an objective, a goal.

What happened when that stopped?

Seyka seemed to sense her mental spiral. “Don’t worry. All you need to know is that it won’t involve a Sunwing, or a space shuttle, or anything ending in ‘wing’, really.”

“Duly noted.” Her reluctance trying to convince her otherwise, Aloy pulled away from Seyka. “We should check on Alva and I need to get this plant mixture ready.”

“I love you,” Seyka blurted. When Aloy turned around, the light from her Focus revealed the sheepish crooked smile on Seyka’s face. “I, uh—what we just went through was a lot. Sometimes I worry I don’t tell you enough.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d said those words, and Aloy hoped it wouldn’t be the last. But every time Seyka said it, there was a brief space where the world started to make sense again. “I love you. And you don’t have to worry.”

They walked side by side, the branches in Seyka’s arms clanking together as they approached the camp. “By the way,” Aloy said, “Alva’s got a mouth on her when she’s upset. It was pretty great to hear.”

Seyka chuckled. “You just discovered that now? All the marines used to joke about it when we were preparing to set sail. She was worse than us if you knew when to catch her.”

Beta sat in front of the long counter across from where Zo would often train, her hand on her head as she stared blankly at the plate of food in front of her.

Sylens walked past her, the third time he had done so in the last hour. He stopped this time, taking a curious look at the untouched plate he’d put in front of her an hour ago. “I imagine you ate food on the Odyssey, yes? Given what little amount you’ve consumed in the last few days, I have doubts in your physical ability to perform the task I’m going to give you. Also,” he said, his voice lowering to a deep mutter, “I have no desire to hear more threats from your sister when she comes back to discover you’ve starved yourself.”

Beta ran her hand through her short hair. It was nice that Sylens cared—he certainly had a unique way of showing it—but the truth was she couldn’t eat when her stomach kept turning from the anxiety of worrying about Aloy and the others. And now there’s a shuttle. A way home. If it even works. “Sorry, Sylens. I’m sure the food is fine. I guess I’m just worried about Aloy and Seyka and Alva. Aloy said Alva was injured pretty bad.”

“If Nemesis is truly here, it will not wait for them to return while we sit here doing nothing,” Sylens said. He set a datapad next to her plate. “Take a look at this.”

Beta glanced at him. How can he be so calm when they’re out there with probably no way home? She didn’t want to put her hope into a thousand-year-old shuttle, but Aloy had a way of making things work out. She supposed she could trust in that. “What is this?”

“Your assignment.” He used his Focus to bring up the data for them both. A map appeared, dotted with small hexagonal outlines marking locations and routes. “You’ll be going to what is known as the Claim. The Oseram tribe make their home there. It’s riddled with ruins from the Old Ones.”

Looking at the map, sure enough the locations he had pointed to were far to the north, beyond Meridian and even the Nora territory. The distance was vast—how was she even going to get there? “And…just what do you want me to do there?”

“With the data on Londra’s implant, I learned of a few corporations that might have created something we could use against Nemesis. And having explored the APOLLO database a bit, I’ve been able to possibly confirm some of my theories,” he said. “But the truth is that even if we stop Nemesis, the biosphere will remain unstable without HEPHAESTUS. There is a ruin…here.” He pointed to one of the hexagonal outlined locations on the map. “It’s right in the middle of Oseram territory. It belonged to a corporation called Miriam Technologies.”

“Elisabet Sobeck’s company.” Where was he going with this? She’d poured over data from Miriam Tech dozens of times, and nothing had suggested anything invented there would help them with HEPHAESTUS.

“Yes. While I was searching through the companies Londra mentioned, I came across a signal near there. It was…strange. I believe it wanted to connect but something was preventing it from doing so successfully,” Sylens explained. “Upon closer inspection, its cage turned out to be a sealed room in a Miriam lab.”

“And only Elisabet could get in,” Beta concluded. “Or a clone of hers.” What she was made for. She both despised and understood her origins, the reason she existed. Aloy always seemed to handle it better.

“Precisely. I need you to go to the Claim, find the signal, and acquire it by whatever means possible.”

Beta stared at the map before shaking her head. “But why? What is the signal?”

“I don’t know much about it, only what I could find on Aloy’s Focus data, but it’s something that could help us take over the HEPHAESTUS subordinate function, if I’m correct.” He pulled up the relevant datapoint. “There aren’t many records of it, but I believe it’s been hiding there for centuries. It was called VAST SILVER back in the 2040s.”  

Oh, no. “The rogue AI? You think that’s going to help us?” Before she could continue to argue the risk of pitting one rogue AI against another, her Focus beeped with a notification. Sokorra was calling. “Sokorra?”

“Beta. Can you open the door? I’m trying but this stupid thing won’t work right.”

She smiled at the mental image of Sokorra yelling at the metal entrance to the Base. Teaching her how to use the Focus was fun and rewarding when Sokorra was patient but…that required Sokorra being patient with it. “I’ll be right there.”

Sylens tilted his head. “Someone you know?”

“Yes, Sokorra. My—the Tenakth Aloy and I helped while you were gone.” Why was she trying to explain herself to him? More importantly, why had she stumbled on her words like that and most importantly, what did she have to do to get that awkward, warm feeling out of her face?

“Ah, yes. I recall something about that.” Sylens’ reply said much more than it needed to. “Well, then she can go with you. I can acquire a machine for you to take, though it’ll have to be something on foot.”

This was fine. Beta remembered the Sunwing crash in the woods surrounding Cauldron KAPPA with vivid clarity and had no desire to relive the event. “You aren’t coming?”

Sylens avoided her gaze. “I still have additional investigation I need to do on Nemesis. Once I can confirm my findings, I will join you and we can figure out the next step. You should contact your Oseram friend when you arrive. The machines will be just as deadly there as they are here.” He turned back just for a moment, his eyes hovering on the food on her plate. “The ride to the Claim will be long. I will pack some provisions, and you can leave tomorrow. That’s assuming you will actually eat them.”

He sauntered back to the lab and closed the door as Beta retreated from the common area and made her way toward the western entrance. She pressed her hand on the door’s holographic button and the panels slid open. A blast of warm air from the Forbidden West blew into the Base, bringing in some of the dirt as well.

The Tenakth soldier standing before her probably would have been imposing to anyone who didn’t know her already. Her training gear had been swapped for the full armor of the Desert Clan not too different from one of the sets Beta had seen Aloy haul in from one of her trips. A yellow scarf covered most of her painted face. Her heavy Tenakth bladed club was slung over her back.

She greeted Beta, her voice muffled behind the scarf. “Hi.”

Despite the very apocalyptic situation they were in, Beta couldn’t help but grin. “Hi.” They stood there for a while, not saying anything, until Sokorra spoke up again.

“Can I come in?”

“Oh. Yes, sorry.” Moving to the side of the corridor, she allowed Sokorra to enter the Base—the door sliding shut on its own. “You got new armor.”

Sokorra pulled down the scarf, revealing the outline where the dust had not settled on her face. It was only then that Beta realized just how covered in dust the rest of her was. “The commander gave it to me after all the missing soldiers had been accounted for. They’re all still very grateful for your help.” She followed Beta into the common area. “Where is everyone?”

Beta stopped in her tracks. She had been so excited to see Sokorra again after weeks that the horrible events on the Odyssey and after seemed like a distant dream. She turned, the anxiety and tears threatening to return. “Sokorra…something’s happened. We went to the Odyssey, that ship in space I was telling you about, to get the APOLLO database. We got it, but Nemesis came and we had to escape.”

Sokorra’s eyes went wide but she didn’t say anything, letting Beta continue.

“We—Sylens and I, we made it back but Aloy, Seyka, and Alva—they had to find another way.” The tears spilled over, rolling down her cheeks as her heart races—the tightness in her throat growing more uncomfortable. “They’re in the Quen homeland, Sokorra. It’s on the other side of the world and there’s some sort of rebellion happening there right now. There’s a shuttle—Aloy thinks she can use it to come back, but it sounds like a long shot.” She wiped at her eyes. She hadn’t meant to get hysterical, particularly when Sylens had just assigned her a critical mission that could determine whether the biosphere even survived. But she couldn’t help it. “And now Sylens wants me to go north to the Claim and I’ve never been out there on my own before and…I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

She was out of breath, so when Sokorra pulled her in close it was a good opportunity to get air back in her lungs. The armor poked a bit—Beta could see the tactical advantage of spiky armor, but she concluded the Tenakth who designed it hadn’t planned for it to be used like this. She found a good spot for her head near Sokorra’s shoulder though, and they stood there without saying anything for a while. Eventually the tears stopped, her heart slowed, and her throat relaxed.

They pulled away slowly. Sokorra let one of her hands rest against Beta’s cheek. “If there’s anything about your sister that I know for sure it’s that she always figures out a way. She’ll find a way back. And as for you, you took out a ton of machines on your own in that Cauldron. You helped me get Korreh back. A couple days’ ride is nothing for you.”

Beta considered her words. They were technically true. And despite Nemesis being on their doorstep, the prospect of leaving the Base and going on a trip with Sokorra was a little exciting. “Maybe you have a point.”

“Of course I do. So when are we leaving?”

Beta met her gaze. “How did you—”

“Well, the Claim is far. And your sister would put an arrow in my skull if I let you go alone. So, when do we leave?”

“Um, tomorrow,” Beta said. “Sylens can get us a machine to ride.”

“I still have mine.” Sokorra took a closer look at Beta’s clothes, which were the Zenith loose-fitting white shirt and pants she often wore around the Base just to be comfortable. “Didn’t Aloy get some armor for you?”

“She did but I don’t wear it in the Base. I’ll wear it when we go, though.” Does she wear her armor indoors back home? Was that even an appropriate question to ask?

Her answer seemed to satisfy Sokorra. “Good.” Then, almost as though it suddenly hit her that they were back together after weeks apart, her demeanor went from certain to nervous. “I, um, brought you something.” She reached into her pack, fumbling as she muttered curses under her breath. “Here.” She pulled out a knife. The handle had been carved, likely from the same material the Desert clan made their armor from, and the blade was serrated and black, like one of the apex machines Beta had seen in the Cauldron. “I took the blade off a Clawstrider outside Arrowhand.”

Beta took the knife from her and held it in her hands, testing the weight of it. Not that she had any idea what made a good knife, but judging by the intricate carvings on the handle and the knowledge that any apex machine was a deadly one, Beta knew Sokorra had put a lot of effort into making this, and that the Tenakth didn’t really do gifts. “Thank you. I’m definitely taking this with us.” She took Sokorra’s hand, realizing what she had been wanting to do since she arrived. “It’s good to have you back,” she said before kissing her. It was quick, and Beta was certain she’d inhaled more dust than was probably healthy, but she never got tired of the stunned look on Sokorra’s face when she’d initiate.

“I’m…glad to be back.” Sokorra cleared her throat. “I should go get cleaned up, if that’s all right?” She didn’t wait for permission, just turned on her heel and went to the bunks where she disappeared from Beta’s sight.

Once again alone in the common area, Beta placed the knife on the table next to the datapoint and the untouched food. Her anxiety had lessened, which meant her appetite had returned. She decided it couldn’t hurt to eat. She’d need the energy if she was going to spend the next few days on the back of a Charger.

Chapter Text

“You know,” Alva called, her voice on the brink of being drowned out by the torrential rains coming down on them, “you don’t need to carry me the whole way. I can walk, too!”

Aloy saw Seyka stop to adjust her footing on the muddy slope, where the tall grass reached past her knees. “I appreciate that, Diviner Alva, but you don’t weigh anything,” she said to Alva, whom she’d been carrying on her back for the entire morning. The plant mixture seemed to have worked—Aloy noticed marked improvement in Alva’s wound earlier that morning when they left camp. Still, she was rather weak from the trauma and possibly the medication as well. Seyka had offered to carry her, and hadn’t provided a chance for Alva to respond before lifting her up with extreme care. “Now if this rain would stop that would be a big help.” She shot a brief look at the dark, clouded sky, squinting as water dripped down her face and soaked her clothes.

Leaving at dawn hadn’t been easy, as light struggled to make its way to them at all. Sometime before Aloy woke, a few sprinkles warned of the incoming storm. The warning lasted all of a few minutes before the real rain began. Now that the entire area was damp, with some spots gathering water up to their ankles, their trek to reach Far Zenith’s ancient shuttle had slowed. According to Alva, the storms had gotten worse in recent years, though this one seemed more normal, most likely due to their acquisition of AETHER.

Rest had come easily enough, but as they pushed to close the distance between them and the Quen capital, Aloy could see that none of them had slept well. And after a full day following the crash, their injuries were all much more obvious in the grey filtered light. The gash over Seyka’s eyebrow had sealed with coagulated blood, the skin around it purple and swollen. Her arms were streaked with shallow cuts that traveled between the swirling bruises going down to her wrists. And although she tried to hide the slight limp she walked with from the others, Aloy noticed. But other than offer another hunt for medical supplies, Aloy wasn’t sure what to say, if anything. Her injuries were not as visible, though her stomach still turned from the nausea that hadn’t completely gone away.

Then there was the near complete loss of their supplies and weapons. She missed her bows—even having one of them would have given her some sense of security while they wandered around what was probably hostile territory. Her spear would have to do for now, but she had spent months tinkering and perfecting the others. And now they’re gone—probably at the bottom of the ocean by now. The city was still far away—at this rate they might get there the next morning—but it was in clear view now as were the plumes of smoke rising from the taller buildings. She’d glance at the others on occasion to check on them, watching as they would occasionally look out at the distance—their home, burning. Seyka, ever the tough marine, appeared to be trying her hardest to hold back her emotions. Alva seemed to find comfort in closing her eyes, though it was possible she was not yet willing to face the reality that her country was embroiled in a civil war.

White light flashed, illuminating the entire region right before a clap of thunder rolled across the hills. The lack of unsettling red vortexes in the sky were of some reassurance, but Aloy wasn’t thrilled about traveling in the middle of an ordinary thunderstorm either. They’d crossed the boundary of the woods shortly after midmorning. The low hills leading down to the city were open, and any cover or shelter they hoped to find would have to come in the form of a ruin or abandoned house.

The terrain shaped unevenly under her shoes, and it grew increasingly difficult to not lose her footing with each step. The crash had left her armor punctured and torn in several places, allowing water to seep in where it normally wouldn’t have. A bitter mutter she would have otherwise held in as to not worry the others slipped out. “Great.”

“You don’t like the rain?”

Aloy couldn’t quite place Lis’ tone, as she had never heard Elisabet Sobeck in anything other than the depressing and often pensive logs recorded during the Faro Plague. If she didn’t think too hard about it, it sounded almost like amusement. “I don’t like crashing and then having to walk through a thunderstorm without my weapons out in the open where we could be shot at any moment.”

“There should be some farmland coming up soon assuming my geographical data is still accurate. Maybe you’ll find shelter there. How’s Alva?”

“Better, I think.” She didn’t know why she continued to humor what was still a rather creepy AI, but since their conversation in the woods the night before Lis had become chattier—asking Aloy questions such as how she knew Tilda, how they found the Odyssey, sometimes even drifting into more personal topics such as Beta and her friends. She’d avoided answering most of them in detail, if only because she wasn’t keen on having any kind of relationship with anything Tilda made.

In the rush to get Alva on a healing path, Aloy’s thoughts on everything else had been put on hold. But now they returned to the red light and crippling pain she’d experienced on the Odyssey when Nemesis had arrived.

She didn’t want to engage with Lis more than necessary, didn’t want to encourage it, but seeing as how it had tried to warn them about Nemesis, maybe it had more answers. “Back on the Odyssey, you kept trying to get us to leave. How did you know Nemesis was coming?”

“Tilda told me. And the Odyssey has sensors to detect the technology Nemesis was using to cross space. Everything it is came from Far Zenith and what they brought with them to Sirius.”

A hive mind of psychopaths, ready to destroy humanity because of a handful of rich idiots. Aloy recalled how angry Varl had been when they discovered the true goal of Far Zenith back at their data center. She knew the Old Ones were far from perfect but knowing that such a small number of them had the power to destroy life on Earth did not sit well with her. Did Elisabet really believe APOLLO would stop us from becoming that again? “When Nemesis came, I—I think it did something to me. Disabled me somehow. There was a red light and then it felt like my head was exploding from the inside. If Seyka hadn’t carried me, I probably would have died on the ship.”

“She would never have left you.”

The shift in Lis’ voice almost caused Aloy to stumble. GAIA was always sincere, always so caring in her words to Aloy, Beta, and whomever else was in the room. But there was something else about this. Something familiar. Her Zero Dawn presentation. When Aloy had watched General Herres reveal the truth about Enduring Victory, the message had confused her, left her with more questions than answers. She had imagined the terror the people brought into the Zero Dawn facility must have felt when they learned that the Faro Plague could not be stopped in time, no matter what was done. But in her presentation afterwards, Elisabet had not appeared fatigued or shown signs of someone ready to give up. Instead, every word about GAIA, about her subordinate functions, about how the world would have a new seed to begin again was filled with hope that lacked across every other log of Elisabet’s Aloy had found in her journey. Was it all to convince people to believe in Zero Dawn? Or…was that what Elisabet was like before the Faro Plague?

She supposed she’d never know and dwelling on it was a distraction. Lis’ ability to sound soothing and hopeful was just a product of Tilda’s work. It’s a machine. It’s not really her. She felt foolish for letting it affect her at all.

Seyka’s call pulled her from her thoughts, a welcome break. Turning her head, she caught a whiff of smoke, muted partially by the rain. The smell was familiar, but she knew it wasn’t a campfire or food cooking. Seyka pointed to the plains ahead. Her lips drew back, her mouth tightened—holding back her emotions despite the clear distress in her eyes. “Look.”

They had entered the surrounding farmland of the capital city, that much was certain. Small huts dotted the otherwise empty region, separated by tilled fields. Contrasting to the intricately designed buildings within the city walls, these were much plainer—mostly held together by wood and straw.

At least they had been.

Coated with wet ashes and scorched by fire, the supporting beams were the only structures left standing in each of the houses. Most of the roofs had collapsed and what was left was little more than piles of smoking rubble and cinders. Aloy scanned for survivors, though she knew the probability of finding anyone was slim—whoever had set fire to these homes had done so at least a day earlier. Maybe whoever lived here escaped before whatever happened came through here. A closer look at the structures told her what she needed to know. This wasn’t a lightning strike or an accident. Someone came through here and set fire to all these homes on purpose.

“I’m not picking up any lifeforms.”

“Then…they got out in time.”

“No. I see at least six bodies in the house closest to us. I’m sorry.” A moment later, her Focus picked up several corpses still inside one of the houses. One of them had their arm outstretched across the floor, as though they had been trying to reach for the door but couldn’t before either the smoke or the flames took them.

All this death. And it’s just the beginning if we don’t make it back to GAIA in time. Defending herself had become a normal part of her life, particularly since the Proving. Survival was what she had been raised with. But Aloy would never get used to seeing the bodies of the innocent.

“W-what happened here?” Alva was fully alert as she took in the sight in front of them. She answered her own question—Aloy figured she had likely known before she finished asking. “These…were Imperial-favored families.” She climbed down from Seyka’s back, clutching her shoulder as she hurried to Aloy’s side, stumbling through the mud. Ignoring the protests from Seyka about her shoulder, she paced near Aloy, her expression torn between horror and confusion as she gestured at the ruined homes. “Their farms provided food for the whole capital…i-it took years to get them in sustainable condition! And now they’re gone. Who would do this?”

“Rebels,” Seyka’s words were cold. “Whoever’s leading this is probably trying to force the Imperial family into surrendering by starving them out.”

Alva gasped. “But…they wouldn’t be the ones to starve first! It would be ordinary citizens—peasants! My sister, my parents—” Pain interrupted her panic, the cry that tore from her lips mixed with frustration and anger.

“A lot of people are really unhappy under compliance, Alva. The stories I heard at Fleet’s End, and not just Rheng but all of them. It’s like they want us to fight each other, betray each other, while they watch from above—perfectly safe. Didn’t you see it?” Seyka attempted to take Alva’s arm to provide additional support. But Alva pulled away.

“Of course I did! I just—”

A shrill scream exploded from Aloy’s Focus, muting everything around her as she crumpled to the muddy earth. Shaking hands shot up to tear the Focus from her ear but nothing would work. Nothing moved. There was no sensation anywhere, and even the rain pounding on the dirt dulled to a barely audible hum. Her eyes were open, but nothing was registering to her mind.

Someone was laughing.

“…maybe you can get some more on your way back from the lab?” White light blinded her before she realized the window had been opened, probably to let in sunlight. It had rained nonstop, and she wasn’t going to question the first clear day they’d had in weeks.

An office, smaller than her own bedroom at the Base and square in shape. Framed paper hung from light grey walls, many of them celebrating accomplishments she couldn’t make out. The writing on the paper was indecipherable—torn, broken glyphs without order or sense. A desk, crafted from wood and painted white, sat under the window. More papers were piled on top of it in neat stacks. A few small, metal objects rested on the desk’s surface. She didn’t know what they were for.

Sitting forward, hands folded in her lap in a black chair on metal wheels was Elisabet, facing her from across the room but not looking directly at her. There was no hologram, no flickering from the Focus while gazing through a ruined suit or red blight wrapping around and disintegrating everything it touched.

“Fine.” Tilda. She’d recognize her voice anywhere, but she sounded…different. Her response carried a hint of faux annoyance, but somehow Aloy knew she didn’t mind fulfilling Elisabet’s request at all. She couldn’t see her though—the voice had come from outside the room. “I’ll be back in an hour. Don’t start the holo without me.”

Elisabet closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. “So paranoid. Like we would ever do that to her.” Then, meeting Aloy’s gaze, she smiled…and Aloy thought she was going to faint from overwhelming joy. “What do you say we start dinner?”

Aloy couldn’t speak. She managed to nod but even that proved nearly impossible.

Elisabet’s smile broadened. “I’m so proud of you. You know that, right?”

No response.

“Hey. Are y-you feeling o-okay-yyyy—”

Not okay.

“Aloy.”

Not here. Not anymore.

“I got her. Aloy?”

She gasped as her eyes flew open. Air rushed into her lungs, but she hadn’t run out of air which left her coughing and spluttering. Raindrops hit her face softly, the storm having let up. The ringing had stopped, and her vision was slowly returning—Seyka and Alva’s worried faces hovered over her.

“Thank the Ancestors,” Seyka breathed. She was kneeling in the mud, with one arm under Aloy’s back to hold her up. “Are you all right? What happened?”

She tried to speak and was surprised when she was able to. “I…passed out, I think. Not sure why.” She held on to Seyka’s arm and allowed herself to be pulled up. The world spun slightly but she managed to stay upright. What was that? She’d had some weird dreams about Elisabet but that one was strange in a way she hadn’t experienced before. It felt so real.

“You probably hit your head during the crash,” Alva said, and Aloy noted that the panic in her voice from earlier had faded. “Maybe we should try to find somewhere to rest until you feel better?”

“Aloy. Are you okay?”

She put up her hands. “I’m all right,” she said, speaking to both Alva and Lis. “I’m good. You’re probably right about the head thing, Alva, but I’m fine. Let’s just keep going.”

Seyka and Alva didn’t seem convinced, but after exchanging hesitant glances they didn’t argue with her. Moving on from the farm, their next stop was the city border, where they would need to figure out a way to get to the Far Zenith base, whether that meant going through the war-torn city or finding a way around.

Why had she passed out at all? And why did her Focus keep going off like that? “Lis? Did my Focus start ringing just now, or did I imagine that?”

“It definitely malfunctioned. Are you all right? You were out for several minutes.”

She was getting a little weary of people asking if she was okay. Nothing about their situation was okay. She ignored the question. “Why did it malfunction? Is it because of you?”

“Possibly. I was created and stored on a device far more advanced than your Focus. My software might be putting additional load on your Focus’ core processor.”

“Okay…is there anything you can do about it?”

“Without access to a lab, I’m afraid not. Once you get back to GAIA you can either replace this Focus or perhaps its processor can be upgraded if you have the right equipment.”

Yeah. I’ll be replacing it thank you. I don’t want an AI of Elisabet Sobeck attached to my head if I can help it. “Yeah. I guess I just have to hope it doesn’t happen again.”

Why had she dreamt about Elisabet and Tilda? Their assault on the Zenith Base had happened some time ago, and she hadn’t really dwelled on Tilda’s death. So why was she dreaming about her? “At least the rain has calmed down,” she said to no one.

“Yes. I prefer sunny days myself.”

Wasn’t actually talking to you. There was nothing to be done about Lis for now. But the minute they got back to the Base and figured out how to stop Nemesis was when she would rip that Focus off her head and smash it with her shoe.

By the time Beta and Sokorra reached the outskirts of Barren Light, the sun had gone down and No Man’s Land was lit by a small sliver of moonlight and the blue glow of machines roaming a safe distance away.

As he had promised, Sylens had packed enough provisions to get them through most of the trip, though they would need to stop at one of the towns along the way to stock up before heading all the way north to the Claim. The two hadn’t decided where yet, but as both had grown tired from traveling all day in the heat, Sokorra had offered to start looking for a place to make camp.

Riding on the back of a Charger all day with Sokorra had been exciting and fun, or at least Beta thought so for the few first hours. It had taken her a while to get ready that morning, as Aloy had always helped her put on the cloaking Stalker-plated armor Beta had created before leaving for Cauldron KAPPA to rescue Korreh and the other missing Tenakth. She hadn’t wanted to bother Sokorra with it, mostly because she wanted to try to do it on her own and because some part of her was worried Sokorra, a fearless Desert Tenakth warrior, would think she was kind of pathetic for not being able to put on her own armor.

She’d made sure to pack the new knife Sokorra had given her, as well as the bomb sling Aloy had let her keep after their adventure at KAPPA. Sylens had given her all the data he had on their destination before giving Sokorra an unimpressed look and wishing them good luck. Beta wondered what he was working on in the lab all day but there was nothing that could be done about him now. Whatever his intentions, hidden or not, she knew he was correct that they needed to acquire control of the terraforming system by whatever means possible.

After passing through Utaru lands, the lush green fields had given way to the dusty badlands of No Man’s Land. Beta had never gone there herself but according to Aloy and the unsettling number of dead Faro machines littered all over the place, it had been the site of a massive battle in the 2060s. She had opted to keep her eyes on the beautiful mountains in the distant Daunt, as the Faro robots creeped her out. Nothing should have legs that long.

She hadn’t expected riding to be so exhausting—even the trip to GEMINI hadn’t been this tiring. Taking a Sunwing might have been faster but on the bright side, they didn’t get attacked by any machines and they didn’t crash. A win in her mind. And of course, she was required to hold on to Sokorra the entire time to avoid falling off the Charger. The perks of the trip helped distract her from the real reason they were traveling so far. She knew Nemesis was out in space, possibly clinging to some piece of the Odyssey or worse, had already made its way down to Earth and begun whatever its plan was, which Beta assumed was to wipe out all life.

“How about here?” Sokorra slowed the Charger before bringing it to a halt near a stream. The red blight had receded significantly since Aloy had restored the other subordinate functions, though there was still dirt everywhere.

Using the flashlight on her Focus to see what she was doing, Beta unpacked their bedrolls and blankets while Sokorra quickly got a fire going and prepared their meals. Dinner was a quiet affair, but the lack of conversation was not uncomfortable. If anything, Beta found it calming to just sit in silence together. Her thoughts drifted back to Aloy and the others. She wondered what they were doing, worried about Alva’s injury. Aloy had said she was safe but there was something about her voice—she sounded so shaken, more than Beta had ever heard her before. They had to take the escape pod down—not exactly a smooth ride. She hoped her sister was being transparent with her about everything.

“This is your first time being out here without your sister, isn’t it?” She knew Sokorra couldn’t read minds, but she had a habit of knowing when Beta was worried about something, which to be fair, was often.

“I’ve never been here before, but yes, I’ve never been out on my own. Unless you count when I ran away from Verbena,” she said.

Sokorra scowled. She was rarely subtle about her feelings for the Zeniths despite having never met them. “The one the rebels killed, right?” She stuffed a piece of dried meat in her mouth. “She deserved worse. They all did.”

“I…suppose I can agree with that.” It had taken her a while to say it out loud but seeing what the Zeniths had done to her friends—to the world—made it a lot easier. “I had a lot of fun riding today. Aloy and I used to go for rides around the mountains by the Base.” She laughed quietly, remembering one specific day where they had ridden and then sat by Varl’s grave together. Feels like so long ago.

Sokorra seemed to appreciate the sentiment. Her eyebrows went up. “Oh. That’s good. I was kind of worried it might be uncomfortable for you.”

“Don’t worry. I’m used to it.” Beta gestured at herself. “The armor helps, too.” She finished the rest of her meal and watched as Sokorra did the same before drinking the remaining contents of her waterskin.

“Do you…want to lie down?” Sokorra asked, and Beta could hear a hint of hesitation in her voice. Or maybe it’s nerves? They’d slept in the same bed before, back in her room at the Base. This is the same thing, right? “We might want to sleep soon if we’re going to make it through the Daunt tomorrow.”

Beta stood up and slapped some of the dust off her legs. A warm breeze blew through No Man’s Land, ruffling her hair and displacing the flames of their campfire. “Okay.” She went to their bedrolls, both of Quen make and left by Alva, and pushed them together while Sokorra put out the fire. “There. Go ahead.”

They settled in together, the bedrolls surprisingly comfortable. But Beta knew Alva liked being comfortable, a concept she hadn’t really understood until she met Aloy and the others. Sokorra unclasped and removed the shoulder guards of her armor and lie flat on her back, as she usually did when she slept, her head propped up on the rolled pillow. She extended her arm as an invitation. Beta accepted, grabbing one of the blankets and throwing it over them before resting her head on Sokorra.

Being close to Sokorra like this brought Beta a special kind of calm, but even it wasn’t enough to stop the sobering thoughts of the approaching trials. “It’s still a little hard to believe we’re out here. And that…Aloy is on the other side of the world. And Nemesis…”

A chill ran through her, and it took her a moment to realize it was a pleasant one as Sokorra’s fingers ran through her hair. “Remember when we were looking for Korreh and you told me not to lose hope? That we’d find him?” Sokorra said. “My people have so many stories of your sister’s victories. That has to count for something, Beta. So if I’m not allowed to lose hope, then neither are you. Those are the rules now.”

Beta grinned. Of course she turns this into a competition.  She shifted to look at Sokorra, whose amber eyes were fixated on the night sky. “I have taken note of the rules.” With the fire out, the stars were far more visible. Beta loved seeing them, and by how relaxed Sokorra seemed, she did too. “The Old Ones had names for all of them, you know. Well, the ones they could see anyway.”

“Yeah?”

“Some are better than others. Some are just a series of numbers and letters. They would study things like their color and temperature. How far they were from us and whether they had planets. Most are so far away we’d never get to them even within a dozen lifetimes.” Maybe give her an actual name or two instead of droning on like an APOLLO persona. This was definitely nothing she had prepared for while on the Odyssey. She had come across many holos she enjoyed in Tilda’s data channel where the protagonists would inevitably fall in love in a series of dramatic sequences, but they seemed so shallow compared to actually being with Sokorra.

If Sokorra picked up on her rambling, she wasn’t bothered by it. “And you never saw them while you were on that ship?”

She sighed. “No. I was confined to a limited space, given access as needed to other rooms with direct connections to mine.”

Sokorra didn’t say anything at first, but she tightened her hold on Beta, as though the Zeniths would somehow appear and try to take her again. After a deep breath she spoke again. “Korreh and I would watch them in Scalding Spear after the fires went out at night.” She let out a short laugh. “We’d come up with all sorts of stories about the Ten using them to light their paths when they flew over the desert at night. Then…we’d get yelled at for staying up too late.”

“You two are really close, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Otherwise, I might not have dragged his ass out of that Cauldron!” They both burst into laughter at that, and Beta’s memories of their journey together weeks earlier resurfaced. It was dangerous, and Aloy was overprotective nearly the entire time, but it was still fun. Once they had calmed down, she looked up at Sokorra again.

“Thank you for coming with me and…just being here, Sokorra. I don’t think I could have done this alone.”

“Sure you could have. But Chief Hekarro would have my head if he found out I refused to help his champion’s sister. And your sister would probably also want my head.” Sokorra said. “But uh, you’re welcome.”

A thought occurred to Beta. “You aren’t actually afraid of Aloy, are you? She didn’t…say something to you, right?”

Sokorra’s answer was quick. “No. Nothing like that.” She averted her eyes, clearly struggling with something, though Beta couldn’t determine what. “She’s been great. But I, uh, have never been very good at putting my feelings into words sometimes—feelings like the ones I have for you. They don’t exactly teach it in basic training.” She brought her gaze back to Beta, and Beta could see that it took her some courage to do so. “The truth is that you never need to ask me, Beta. I thought about you every day while I was on my mission and, well, I would go anywhere with you.”

Oh. What on earth was she supposed to say to that? “Even if it means going up against a machine that wants to kill us all?”

Sokorra grinned. “Especially if that’s what it means.” Placing a hand on the back of Beta’s neck, she gently brought them together in a soft kiss.

This was new. They had kissed in the Cauldron of course, and then a few times in the woods when they managed to get away from Aloy and the others for a while on their way back to the Base. Then of course there were the times in Beta’s room, but they’d always been sitting down. She tried to keep up, especially since Sokorra was really good at kissing. Not that Beta had any prior experience to compare with.

She stiffened when Sokorra’s free arm went around her back—she’d never been this close to another person before but with Sokorra she felt…safe, as though nothing could get her here. Part of her had absolutely no idea what to do, while the other just wanted this to go on forever.

Without warning, pain spiked in her left temple. She reeled back, her hand going to her head right above her Focus as she shut her eyes tight. She felt sick and for a moment she thought she might throw up. But the dizziness faded as quickly as it had come on.

“Beta? What’s wrong?” Sokorra held her, pushing the hair out of her face as she waited for a response.

The timing could not have been worse. “I-I’m sorry.” She rubbed her temple where the pain had originated. “It’s—the Zeniths had a…device implanted in my head. It was like a Focus and when I escaped, I cut it off.” She inhaled deeply, the fresh air working against the throbbing in her temple. “Sometimes it…hurts where it used to be. The Focus helps but not always.” Adjusting, she settled her head back on Sokorra, allowing the breeze and Sokorra’s steady breathing to bring her back where she wanted to be. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Sokorra’s answer was to hold her close. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes filled with fire—Beta knew this look well and it usually appeared on Sokorra’s face when she wanted to use her club on something or someone. She didn’t say anything more as she knew why Sokorra was angry.

The exhaustion from their ride set in at last. Beta closed her eyes, painting her mind with the mountains they would ride for in the morning, and hoped she would hear good news from Aloy soon.

Chapter Text

At night, the fires that burned across the Quen capital lit up the region like a beacon. Explosions went off nearly hourly, and as Aloy, Seyka, and Alva closed the distance between them and the city, the screams of terrified citizens following were within earshot. With the gates in sight, Aloy led them to the ridge of their final hill where they stayed low in the grass to remain in cover. The city sprawled across most of the landscape, leaving her with a difficult choice. Should they attempt to sneak through the city, where it was clear some kind of internal war was at hand, or try to find a path through the unmapped mountains? With the Far Zenith base ahead, the city despite its dangers was becoming Aloy’s option of choice. The route was more direct, and it was critical that they get back to GAIA and Beta as soon as possible.

She sighed. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

“The capital is divided into districts and the entire city is shaped like a wheel,” Seyka said. “Each has a gate that leads out of city. If we go in and then exit from the South Gate near the Market District, we’ll have a clear path to the shuttle.”

“If we can even get through.” Alva’s eyes were focused on the tallest structure. Smoke rose from the top of the building—it had been on fire, but it was still standing. She pointed. “The palace is in the center and unless it has already fallen, we should expect it to be heavily guarded on all sides. Which means getting anywhere in the city is going to be difficult.”

Sneaking through might not work here. And they were in no shape to fight through the Quen army, let alone two of them if this truly was a revolution. “What about the mountains?”

Closing her eyes briefly, Seyka shook her head. “Even marines won’t go up there. The terrain is way too treacherous and there are no paths that go through to the other side that I’ve heard of. We could try but it might take a while.” She looked over at Alva. “And it’s probably going to be a lot of climbing.”

“If I have to—”

“No. We’re not risking it.” While Alva’s shoulder had healed some, Aloy was not about to risk the wound opening again. Seyka also seemed to have suffered an injury to her leg or ankle, judging by the limp she’d had since they crashed. “We’ll go through the city.”

Alva ran her hands through her hair as she let out an exasperated noise. “You mean the one that’s currently being torn apart right now? If they see us…”

“Yeah. I know, but it’s dark,” Aloy told her. “No one knows we’re here—they won’t think to look for us.”

“If we stick to the shadows, avoid drawing any attention to ourselves…it might work.” Seyka nodded at the gates ahead. “And it looks like the guards abandoned this gate.”

“I agree with Seyka. The city is your best option.”

Aloy hovered on whether she should share the AI’s opinion. They can’t use their Focuses—they can’t hear her. She decided to, if only to avoid keeping them in the dark. “Lis…thinks the city will be the best way, too.”

Alva raised an eyebrow. “Does she…talk to you a lot? Are you worried about having her on your Focus like that since Tilda created her?”

“I think it—she, just wants to help. Tilda abandoned her because she couldn’t be Elisabet. She’s been true to her word so far.” Eyeing the gates ahead, Aloy checked for any signs of returning guards before tensing herself to move quickly. “Follow me and stay close.” Crouching in the grass, she stepped through the mud remaining as quiet as possible. The explosions grew louder with each step, the revolting scent of smoking wood mixed with burned flesh a sign they were getting close to what would most likely be a living nightmare for Seyka and Alva. She spotted a half-collapsed small building only a few feet away from the gate and crept toward it for cover. It would be the last stop before they committed to entering the city.

The heavy wooden gates that had once guarded the arched entry to the city were broken, collapsed on each other—the edges of their meticulously carved design burned away. Two pikes protruded from the muddy ground and on them, the impaled bodies of what appeared to be two Diviners. Their faces were mutilated beyond recognition, but Aloy recognized the familiar embellishments on the blood-soaked uniforms. Their Focus headbands were missing.

“Ancestors.” Seyka’s eyes shut as she turned her head. Alva’s hand went to her mouth, stifling a shaky gasp. Even in the dim light from the fires and the torches on either side of the gates, Aloy could see the loss of color in her face.

“We have to keep going, Aloy. Staying out here for too long might draw attention should someone return.”

Right. This is going to be bad. Shit. “We should head in. Ready?”

But Alva couldn’t look away. “A-Aloy, those Diviners…”

This was taking too long. She took Alva’s trembling hand. “Come on. We just need to get through the gate. Then we can figure out the next step. Okay?” Exchanging affirming glances with Seyka, she moved toward the gate, pulling a nearly paralyzed Alva along with her. She tried to ignore the bodies as they passed under the wooden arches only to nearly trip over two more which were face down on the cobblestone ground—arrows driven into their backs.

Still holding on to Alva, she pulled her scarf over her face to keep as much of the smoke and nauseating smells out as possible and headed for the closest building for cover. Seyka remained close behind, their sentry for any incoming soldiers—Imperial or otherwise. Her back to the wall, Aloy peered around the corner at an adjacent alley. It was empty, save for puddles of rainwater and debris from the damaged roofs of the buildings around them. “You said we want to go south, right?” Activating her Focus, she confirmed their heading.

“Yes. There might be a way we can get there without going through the city center,” Seyka whispered, quietly drawing her sword. “If we go through here, we can make our way around the outer streets.”

Worth a try. Aloy checked on Alva, whose face had still not regained any of its color, and gently released her hand. She reached for her spear, still relieved she had not lost it, and turned back to share her plan with Seyka. “All right. I’m going to go on ahead in case there’s trouble but stay close, okay?”

Seyka’s expression had hardened since reaching the gates. If any of this was bothering her, which Aloy knew it had to, she was doing everything in her power to not let it affect her composure. “Be careful, Aloy.”

I should talk to her when we get a break from all this—if we do. Make sure she’s doing okay. She’s probably worried about her family. It was sometimes all too easy for Aloy to forget that while she had come to terms with leaving the Sacred Lands and never looked back, Seyka still struggled a bit with the concept of separating herself from her people. It wasn’t easy, and as they snuck down the alley guided only by the flickering light from the fires on the street ahead, Aloy made a mental note to try to be more mindful of Seyka’s feelings about the Quen.

She reached the end where the narrow passage opened to a major street. Before she could reach for her Focus to scan the area, a flaming arrow zoomed past her, narrowly missing her and embedding itself into a pile of stacked cargo, its contents obscured by the thick rope netting wrapped around it. The flames quickly ate away at it.

“Aloy, get out of there!” Lis’ sharp warning sent Aloy into flight mode as she registered the contents of the cargo—blaze. Spinning around, she yelled for the others to fall back while rushing to get out of the blast radius herself.

The blaze went off in an earth-shaking explosion, sending all three of them to the ground. Liquid fire rained down on the stones—most of it snuffing out after a few seconds but some of it splattering against the buildings shielding them in the alley. Both surrounding structures sparked, and the blaze-fueled flames burned at them relentlessly.

“Move!” Bracing herself for another flaming arrow, Aloy leapt from the alley into the street, only to find herself facing a group of weary-looking Quen standing in front of a boarded-up, well-fortified establishment. Even in the faint glow of the remaining streetlamps, she could spot the dirt and soot their mismatched uniforms were covered in, the exhaustion on their faces betraying their desperation.

One of them, a muscular man in marine armor, waved them down. His dark hair fell messily near his shoulders, as though he had usually kept it pulled up. Aloy figured he had apparently not had time to shave being in the middle of a civil war, given the scraggly state of his beard. “You! Outlander! Get in here before you get yourself killed.”

Baffled at the man’s invitation of safety after he had nearly blown them up, Aloy stood her ground. “You just set off that stack of blaze. How do I know you won’t try to kill us when we approach?”

He barked a harsh laugh. “An accident. I mistook you for Imperial scum. Come inside and we can talk. Bring your friends, too.” With a smirk, he gestured to the ruined district around them. “Unless you’d rather stay out here and enjoy the show?”

“Need to get to the South Gate,” she said. “We’re just passing through.”

The man folded his arms over his chest. “That’s not happening any time soon. Come on, I can explain more inside.”

“Careful, Aloy.”

Aloy sighed. While she did appreciate Lis’ help this whole thing would be a lot easier if there weren’t always people questioning her every step of the way. And now AIs. “Weren’t you the one who said we might find Quen willing to help us? Maybe these are it.”

“You’re right. Sorry, after what just happened—but it’s true, I did say that.”

“Aloy?” Seyka approached from behind, standing in front of Alva as though to shield her from the strangers. “What’s going on? Who is this?”

“You can call me Davos, that is if you decide to live instead of standing out there waiting for the next firing wave to kill you. And don’t worry, Diviner Alva will not be harmed. I can guarantee that.”

Alva cautiously stepped out from behind Seyka. “You…know who I am?”

The Quen, Davos, was right. They couldn’t just stand out here. And if something’s wrong with the path to the South Gate we need to know. She tightened her grip on her spear. “Fine. We’ll come in.” Keeping her strides quick and purposeful while remaining tense in case these strangers decided to attack, she led Seyka and Alva to the wood and stone building behind where Davos and his friends stood. A sign hung over the door, and while the wording on it had long since scorched off from what must have been a hit from an arrow, Aloy could make out enough of the artwork to discern that this had been a tavern.

Davos reached for the iron handle of the heavy door and pushed it open to allow them inside, where Aloy was immediately greeted with the strong odor of smoke and fish. Along the walls and at the main bar counter were a few dozen Quen citizens, most of whom looked worse for wear—their clothes torn or burned, many of them nursing wounds or sporting bandages where wounds were healing. Most eyed Aloy curiously as she and the others stepped into the tavern, while a few others regarded them with disdain or suspicion. At least no one’s called me a barbarian yet.

“Davos!” A particularly drunk man slurred his words as he stumbled from the bar to them, a wooden mug in his hand. “Who’s this? More strays?”

Davos rolled his eyes. “They’re here to help. Unlike some people.”

The drunken man seemed offended but not at Davos’ words. His eyes narrowed at Aloy, but when he saw Seyka they flashed with anger. “‘Help?’ A barbarian and the sister of that Imperial boot-licking navigator? I doubt it.”

Seyka advanced on the man, her slow steps heavy and threatening on the wood planked floor of the tavern. “Watch your mouth,” she growled, and Aloy could feel the barely contained rage seething from her.

A low buzz picked up in her ear. It was annoying but not bothersome enough for Aloy to do anything about it.

A hushed silence fell over the tavern. The man answered Seyka with a slurred sneer. “Aren’t you supposed to be on a boat?” He waved a hand at Davos. “Get this filth out of here, Davos. We don’t need help from deserters. Particularly the daughter of deserters. How this one was even allowed to become a marine is beyond the Ancestors.”

Seyka’s jaw clenched. “One more word out of you and I will break your teeth.”

With a low chuckle he reached out a hand and pushed her. A mistake. But before Aloy could say anything, the buzz grew to a deafening roar as white light engulfed the tavern and everyone in it.

“…then we have time for. Hurry up!” Tilda’s voice. She sounded agitated, almost on the verge of panic.

The metal railing of the boarding ramp rattled as an explosion sounded in the distance. She felt a gentle, but firm hand pushing her.

“Come on, Aloy, let’s get onboard.” Elisabet. Then to Tilda. “Did you see the others?”

“No. I don’t know if their transport made it. Nothing we can do about it now, Lis. We need to get on the shuttle so we can get the hell out of here. Fuck Ted Faro. Fuck him,” Tilda muttered.

Shouting all around her. Too many voices. She couldn’t tell where they began or ended as she ascended the ramp to the looming silver shuttle at her mother’s encouragement. Craning her neck slightly, she could see the lack of color in the sky much more clearly than it had been weeks before their unscheduled flight. They weren’t supposed to leave for at least another month.

The buzzing returned. Someone was calling her as another building collapsed. “Aloy!”

Blood splattered. He won’t say another word. She was sick of people getting in her way. Sick of kings and chiefs, empty goddesses, and pointless traditions that all these idiots blindly followed. The world was ending—what would it take for people to understand that? None of this mattered.

“Aloy, stop!”

Grey skies, anemic with a tinge of yellow. The Horus approaching from the north and the terrified look in her mother’s green eyes she’d never forget. Everything they had worked for, lost forever.

“Aloy.”

She froze, her right fist lifted while her left gripped the man’s dirty collar, pinning him against the bar. What? Trembling, she glanced at her bloodied fist then looked at the terrified man’s beaten face, most of which was already starting to swell. “Wh-what happened? What is this?”

A hand gently took her arm. Seyka. “Leave him, Aloy. You got him, okay? You got him.” She hesitated, almost as though she were afraid, before pulling Aloy away from the half-conscious man. The man rolled to his side and pushed off the bar, not bothering to wipe the blood off his face as he scurried away from Aloy as though his life depended on it.

“Ancestors! I leave for an hour and come back to this?” An imposing young woman with long, black curly hair stood at the center of the tavern, visibly unimpressed with the blood dripping on the floor from the bar counter. Her clothes resembled those of a Diviner, but most of her uniform had been modified with armor plating. A white cloth was wrapped around her head, covering a head wound where a patch of blood had stained it. “Can we get this cleaned up? And—” She stopped, her brown eyes widening at the sight of Aloy. “You…you’re Sobeck, but—how?”

“Federa?” Alva emerged from the crowd behind Aloy and Seyka. She stared at the woman as though she were looking at a ghost—her dark eyes bright and blinking with candid disbelief.

Federa’s attention went from Aloy to Alva, and Aloy felt some pity for the woman as she was no doubt in shock. She’s not the only one. “Alva? What are you doing here? How are you here? I thought you left—I saw you leave…” Her eyes gravitated to Alva’s shoulder wound. “You’re hurt!”

“I’m doing better and yes, I did leave! It’s a long and, um, interesting story that’s probably best told in a quieter setting,” Alva said. “But it’s good to see you. And good that you’re safe!”

Federa laughed. “I’m not sure I would consider this ‘safe’ but we’re alive for now.” She spoke to Davos. “What happened? Are bar fights a thing we’re doing now?”

Davos waved his hand at the bloodied counter, as though it was an event that happened daily. “Hammon picking fights with people as usual.” He cleared his throat. “He, ah, probably won’t be bothering anyone for a while though.”

If Federa was concerned, she certainly didn’t show it. “Right. Follow me please. And try not to bloody any more of my men on the way.”

Aloy cringed. “Sorry about that.” She was still trying to process that herself. What happened? Even when she had been at her most frustrated, she never would have gone off on someone like that. And the blackout. Another dream? What was that? Elisabet and Tilda again. Together, like a…family. Escaping the Faro Plague.

Perhaps she had hit her head harder than she thought.

They were led to a small room with minimal furniture—a few rickety chairs surrounding a rectangular wooden table covered in papers and scribbled maps. Has to be a war room for the rebellion?

“Close the door,” Federa ordered, and Davos complied. “Let’s start at the beginning. What’s going on, Alva? How are you here?”

“Wait, hold on,” Seyka interrupted. “Aren’t you a Diviner? You’re leading this rebellion? Why?”

Federa shifted uncomfortably before looking away. “Let’s just say that compliance got their hands on a few too many of us who were innocent. Enough disappear and you suddenly have a lot of angry people who want answers from the emperor.” She shook her head. “I got tired of it, Alva. I couldn’t handle the lies anymore. They found out and…executed my family. Nearly killed me.”

Alva reached for Federa’s hand. “Federa, I’m so sorry.”

Federa pulled away, a tired smile on her face. “We’re here now. And I figured the last thing I can do with what’s left of my life is cleanse our people of the scum in the palace. Now. Answers, please.”

Alva put her hands up. “Federa, I can tell you everything but first, we need to get to the South Gate. Can you help us?”

Federa looked at Alva like she was crazy. “That entire area is swarming with Imperial loyalists. They’ve got a blockade by the palace to guard the emperor. You can’t get out that way.”

Davos spoke up. “Maybe not before, but Federa, we’ve recruited more than enough. And with our new allies, we’re ready for this.”

With a vehement shake of her head, Federa’s answer was almost immediate. “Absolutely not. I’m not risking everyone’s lives on some foolhardy assault on the palace.”

“Maybe that’s what we need to get through.” Lis had been quiet for a while, but Aloy found herself agreeing with her.

“We can help you. If it gets us through, we can help you take out that blockade,” she said to Federa.

But Federa was still not having it. “Take out the—the three of you look like you can barely walk, let alone take down dozens of soldiers! No, I’m sorry, Alva, I can’t help you.”

“But—”

She put up her hand to silence Alva. “My word is final. Davos, find Sobeck and the marine a room. Alva, if you are willing, I would like to have my healer look at that wound of yours. And…you can tell me where you’ve been.”

“As you command.” Davos gave a respectful bow of his head before gesturing to Aloy and Seyka. “If you’ll follow me.” He led them down a short hall—the tavern having returned to business as usual—and to a door on the left which he opened. “This will be your room. Feel free to stay for as long as you’d like, or until the loyalists find us here and destroy us all,” he drawled. “And,” he continued, lowering his voice, “should you still be interested, I have a feeling Federa will reconsider your offer after speaking with Diviner Alva.” He grinned. “A pleasant evening to you both.”

The room was barely large enough for the bedroll and piles of pillows and blankets on the floor, though a bucket of water and a small washroom had somehow been squeezed in as well. A tray of hot food sat on a chipped corner dresser. Federa probably keeps these rooms prepared for people seeking shelter. They had gotten lucky.

After washing off what dirt and blood they could, she and Seyka sat on the bed, holding hands in silence. It wasn’t long before Seyka asked the question Aloy knew she’d ask. She wanted to know the answer herself.

“So, do you want to talk about what happened back there?” Seyka’s voice was gentle, not accusing. “Maybe about what’s been happening?”

She knows. Of course she does. Why Aloy had thought she could keep this from Seyka was beyond her. She shrugged. “I…wish I could tell you. One minute I was standing there, upset at that man for the things he was saying to you, and the next—I was gone.” Her throat tightened. “I had a…dream. Both times.”

Seyka moved closer, putting an arm around her waist. “You had a dream while you were beating the shit out of that drunk?” There was some amusement lined in her voice, but Aloy could still hear the intense concern in her question.

“I…dreamt of Elisabet. And Tilda. We were—I don’t know, a family. The first time I was in Elisabet’s office, and she was…talking to me. The second we were escaping the Faro robots, I think.” Telling Seyka about the dreams lessened the mystery and stress around them. She thought back to the crash in the escape pod. They hadn’t really rested properly since, hadn’t gotten the chance to. Maybe getting some real sleep tonight might help. She hoped it would as she looked down at her bruised knuckles. “They felt…real. And I don’t know why I went off on that man. I usually—I don’t do that.”

Seyka leaned in and kissed Aloy’s temple before tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear. “I know. Which is why you worried me.”

“He was being really rude. But no more rude than I’ve see other Quen be toward you. Not that it’s all right,” Aloy corrected herself.

“He was right about one thing.” Seyka’s gaze turned down to the bed. “My family was mostly disgraced because my father didn’t complete his service. He was injured, and his commander blamed him for it. It took my sister becoming a navigator to bring my family into higher standing but…some people can’t let it go, I guess.” She shrugged. “I’m surprised he even knew who I was.”

“You’re pretty hard to forget.” Aloy knew she probably sounded foolish but if she could at least manage a smile from Seyka then looking like a fool was worth it.

Success. Seyka gave her a playful shove. “Stop. Flattery will get you…somewhere. Maybe not tonight, though. I’m pretty tired.” She got up to extinguish the few candles scattered about the room before getting into bed next to Aloy, who decided that the only thing she had wanted to do since escaping the Odyssey was to hold Seyka all night. Murmuring a ‘good night’, they settled in to sleep.

Within minutes she heard Seyka’s breathing shift to long, steady breaths. The darkness and the quiet gave Aloy the space to think and reflect, as she tended to do to clear her mind. The crash. Nemesis. The rebellion. She smiled. At least Alva gets to be with Federa again. She thought about calling Beta to see how she and Sylens were doing, as she hadn’t heard anything from either one in over a day. She decided against it, though, not wanting to wake Seyka. I’ll call her tomorrow.

The blackouts. Losing control. The dreams. They were so vivid and yet, she couldn’t remember ever thinking about a life with Elisabet and Tilda. Or escaping the Faro Plague while it was still happening.

She opened and closed her hand, feeling the ache from punching that man over and over. It wasn’t like her at all—she hadn’t been in control. She recalled stories Kotallo had shared with her about Tenakth losing themselves in the heat of battle. It certainly wasn’t an explanation for her own behavior, but she took some comfort knowing she might not be alone.

Nuzzling the top of Seyka’s head, she tried to push everything else out of her mind so that sleep might come easier.

Having traveled a few days from Plainsong, Beta and Sokorra decided to take a break from riding to walk a bit next to their Charger as they passed out of the Daunt and into the mountainous forest bordering the south of the Claim. At their elevation the air had chilled considerably, and Sokorra was not shy about letting her thoughts about the cold be known. Beta didn’t mind—she found it endearing if she was being honest, and most of the curses Sokorra grumbled made no sense to her anyway but were fun to listen to.

“We did pack blankets, you know,” she tried. “There’s a fur…thing that Sylens gave me as well. You can use it if you like.”

With one hand guiding the cabled reins of the Charger through the woods and the other balled up in a fist, Sokorra gave a proud shake of her head. “The Desert Tenakth don’t do ‘fur things’. I’ll be fine.”

Beta suppressed a laugh. “Okay, but it’s here if you need it.” Something poked painfully at her side, and it took her a moment to realize it was her armor again. She stopped to adjust it, growing increasingly frustrated at her ability to properly put the stupid thing on. It had gotten to the point where she just refused to take it off in the evening if only to avoid the painstaking process of having to attach all the clasps and ties herself. Not for the first time, she wished Aloy was with them.

Earlier that morning she had made the call to Erend. It wasn’t easy explaining to him what had happened on the Odyssey, but Beta appreciated his patience and determination to understand it. Without hesitation, he told her to meet him in Mainspring and that he’d help them get wherever they needed to go. She could hear his distress when she told him about Aloy and the others but like Sylens and Sokorra, he was confident in Aloy’s abilities to get back home. When Beta had reassured him she wasn’t traveling alone, he had sighed with relief. However, when she told him who she was traveling with, then he had hesitated. She deduced that despite having Kotallo as a friend, Erend still had a healthy fear of the Tenakth.

Sokorra must have taken notice of her stopping every few hours to adjust her armor. “Hold on.” She released the reins of the Charger and went over to Beta. “Let me see—Beta, this part is backwards.”

Backwards? Had she been so frazzled when they left that she hadn’t actually checked to see if the stupid side piece was turned the correct way? “Um, is it?”

“Yeah. See these hooks here?” With utter sincerity as though she were inspecting the armor of her squad mates, Sokorra looked over the armor piece by piece, while holding back from actually putting her hands on Beta. “This part needs to be tied or it’s just going to fall off when you have to run. And—how did you even get this to stay up?”

Beta silently cursed the heat rushing to her face. She knew it wasn’t Sokorra’s intention to make her feel pathetic and incapable but if she couldn’t even put on her armor how in the world was she supposed to explore a dangerous ruin in the middle of the Claim to acquire a rogue AI?

Sokorra, as usual, saw everything. Or maybe you’re just not that great at hiding it. “Hey. It’s fine. All squads go through this. Here, can I?” She waited, and once again Beta detected the nervous hesitation that she couldn’t understand why Sokorra would have in the first place.

She nodded, prompting Sokorra to go to work. “So, usually your squad leader teaches you this in basic training.” With deft hands she unhooked the misaligned hide pieces of the armor. “All armors are different—I haven’t seen a lot but sometimes the merchants in Scalding Spear will have some like this that were brought in from back east.” She moved the larger piece protecting Beta’s side into the correct place. “If you hold it with one hand here,” she said, taking Beta’s hand and moving it into position, “and then with the other, fasten it here, it’s easier.” She went over each piece with admirable efficiency, and although Beta did her best to listen and absorb the instructions, having Sokorra standing so close to her—holding her for brief moments while she made the adjustments was also incredibly distracting. “It takes practice but as long as things line up then you’re good.” She let go of Beta’s hands.

Frowning at the loss of contact, Beta met Sokorra’s eyes. “You make it look so easy.”

Sokorra gave her an incredulous look. “I’ve been doing this for years, Beta. Your basic training involved falling into a ravine with Burrowers, falling off a Sunwing, and sneaking around a very dangerous Cauldron to blow up machines.”

She’s not wrong. “I’ve done some sparring with Seyka. It’s exciting but exhausting.”

A light sparked in Sokorra’s eyes. “Really? Well, would you—I mean, if you wanted to, I’d be…willing to continue training with you. Until she gets back of course.”

Beta grinned. “‘Willing’? You don’t have to, Sokorra. I have Aloy’s sling, and I can cloak if there’s danger.”

“No!” Sokorra quickly took her hand. “I didn’t mean it like that, I just—Blood of the Ten…”

That was a little too enjoyable. “I’m kidding. It would be really nice if I could learn from you.”

Sokorra’s shoulders slumped with obvious relief. “All right. But don’t think I’m going to take it easy on you.”

“I would hope you don’t,” Beta said, and she was being honest. She knew the challenges ahead were going to be harder physically than anything she’d been through. She was tired of having to hide while others risked their lives for her. “Maybe I can even show Aloy what I’ve learned when she gets back.”

“About that.” Keeping their hands linked, Sokorra guided them back to the Charger where she once again took the reins. “How are they doing?”

As they walked, Beta recalled the call with Aloy she’d had before the one with Erend. “They’re recovering. They made an alliance with the rebels in the Quen capital. She mentioned that they’re going to try to help them in exchange for passage to the shuttle.” She paused, allowing herself to enjoy the calls of wildlife around them while taking in the cool mountain air. “I hope they’re safe.”

“You told her about what we were doing, right?”

Beta didn’t respond. She knew what Sokorra would say.

Sokorra’s eyebrows went up. “Beta? You didn’t tell her?”

“I didn’t want to worry her more than she probably is already!” Beta protested. “You know how she gets when I leave the Base, Sokorra.”

“Look, she’s your sister, but I remember her being a whole lot better about trusting you by the time we found Korreh. You should give her more credit.”

Sokorra had a point. But with Aloy on the other side of the world, Beta couldn’t stop remembering how scared she’d sounded on their call. How tired she’d been on their most recent one. Beta didn’t want to lie to her, but she also knew Aloy worked better when she could be clear minded on her task. If she knew I was off riding to the Claim she wouldn’t be able to focus.

“I know. And I’ll tell her. Once we have control of the terraforming system, I’ll tell her. Then at least she won’t have to worry about HEPHAESTUS anymore.” When she saw the doubt in the expression Sokorra gave her she sighed. “I promise.”

“If that’s what you want, then I won’t say anything,” Sokorra said with a nod, giving Beta’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Just…be careful, Beta. She thought she was protecting you, too.”

Chapter Text

The massive gates allowing the only feasible passage into Mainspring had been built into the side of a mountain, the rock blown out with explosives judging by what Beta could analyze at first glance. The doors themselves—black and silver metal that had been hammered into shape between thick wooden planks—towered above them, reaching near the height of the mountainside itself. With the exception of the gates and the two watchtowers perched at the top of the rocks on the east and west ends of the entrance to the Claim, there had been very few signs of civilization during the last couple of days she and Sokorra had traveled. They had seen the smoke rising from Mainspring that morning, a sign they were headed in the right direction to the Oseram homeland.

With late afternoon giving way to evening, the setting sun reflected brightly off the metal ends of the heavy guns wielded by the three armored guards blocking entry to them. It was blinding for a moment, and both Beta and Sokorra shielded their eyes to avoid the glare as they approached the gate, having left their Charger behind in the safety of the neighboring woods.  

“Whoa there—hold up!” One of the guards shuffled toward them before they could get close enough to speak first. Most of his face was hidden behind his helmet, but from what Beta could tell he seemed rather unhappy to be greeting visitors. The metal rings locked together and drawn across a mismatched hybrid of cloth and leather reminded Beta of Erend’s armor at first glance. Then again, her experience with Oseram had been limited to him and the ones she’d met in Hidden Ember. And Bregul, I suppose.

“Mainspring is closed to outsiders,” the man said, and from the sneer in his voice Beta began to dread that they might have some trouble getting into the region after all the riding they had done. Despite his muscular physique, his arms shook slightly. Probably tired from holding that huge gun all day. “Be on your way…or we’ll send you on your way. And trust me, you’re not going to like the second option.” He pointed the gun in Beta’s direction, forcing her to step backwards on the gravel road.

Sokorra’s hand shot to where the bladed club was slung over her back, her fingers stopping just shy of grazing the hilt. “Threaten us again and see how long you draw breath for.”

The other two guards raised their weapons immediately, the tension around the five of them so palpable it took all of Beta’s willpower to not turn and run as her brain refused to cooperate with her thoughts. Unable to form words, she grabbed Sokorra’s arm, hoping her very strong expression of “Don’t” would be enough to dissuade Sokorra from carrying through with her threat and possibly getting them both killed.

The words, delayed as they were, did eventually come. “W-we’re here to meet Erend. He knows we’re coming.”

The guards exchanged amused glances before the one who stood in front let out a deep laugh. “Unlikely. The captain has more important things to do than waste his time on,” he gave Sokorra a disgusted look, “an uncontrolled Tenakth and a—wait, who are you?” Taking a moment to focus on Beta’s face for the first time, the guard blinked and took a step back. “You seem familiar.”

“Isn’t that the Savior of Meridian?” one of the other guards called out. “Wait, no, the hair is different.”

“People cut their hair, you idiot. By the forge, I swear this is the last time I’m signing up for gate duty with you two,” the third guard groaned.

Debating the risks of lying to them and claiming Aloy’s identity and determining that it would probably not be a good idea in the long run, Beta cleared her throat. “She’s my sister. She…sent us here to find Erend.” She looked at Sokorra, whose hand came down slowly away from her weapon.

The first guard shot her a curious glance as he tilted his head, as though he wasn’t sure if he believed her. “Didn’t know she had a sister, but I’ve never met her in person to be honest.” He sighed, cursing under his breath. “Couldn’t be a normal day, could it? Stay here. I’ll see if what you’re saying checks out.” He gave a final dirty look to Sokorra. “Might want to keep your friend here on a short leash. Folks around here don’t really care for the idea of blood drinkers walking around their city.”

Sokorra grinned at him, apparently satisfied with the outdated misconception. To Beta’s surprise, it was enough to unsettle the guard—his face lost some color in it as he moved with urgency back to the gate where the giant doors were opened just enough for him to slip through, leaving Beta and Sokorra alone with the remaining two guards.

“We might want to avoid physical confrontations with people we’re supposed to help in the future,” Beta whispered, leaning in close so that only Sokorra’s could hear her.

Sokorra looked at her like she was crazy. “He threatened you! And I thought we were here to find that machine, not help these dirt diggers.”

“We are, but we can’t find it if they don’t let us in. And all of this is technically so Nemesis doesn’t kill everyone, including them.” This was unexpected. Sokorra was always calm and patient when they were together. Her short temper with others—particularly anything related to the Oseram—was something Beta was familiar with, but she hadn’t accounted for the possibility of that temper interfering with them completing this mission. She knew Sokorra was trying to protect her, but if Aloy had been there Sokorra would have waited for an order instead of threatening that guard. You’re not her commander, you’re her…whatever we are.

A topic for another time. “I appreciate you standing up for me, Sokorra. But I really want to just get in and find that ruin as soon as we can.” She thought about Aloy, who was still stranded in the Quen homeland, struggling to get to their ride home while being pulled into a civil war at the same time. “A lot depends on us succeeding.” The realization that they were at the entrance of Mainspring, days away from everything they knew with only one of them in any shape to fight, stirred up the anxiety she had been pushing down since leaving the Base. To make matters worse, they were in a region whose people feared Tenakth, and whose customs Beta barely knew anything about. Not for the first time, she wondered how she was going to acquire VAST SILVER and fix HEPHAESTUS without Aloy. Had she somehow lost her reasoning skills in all the excitement of saving Korreh and the prospect of going on another adventure with Sokorra?

Sokorra didn’t apologize, but a nod of her head conveyed her understanding and respect of Beta’s request. Unfortunately, the lack of a verbal answer just made Beta worry more. Is she upset at me? Does this even happen with Aloy and Seyka? Before she could get stuck on the thought too much, the gates opened with a painful metallic groan as the giant hinges worked to rotate the doors. The guard emerged, with a very relieved-looking Erend on his right. Behind them Beta spotted clusters of buildings with architecture she’d seen briefly back west, as hints of smoke wafted out from the open doors.

Erend opened his arms wide, the great hammer on his back swaying with each giant stride he took. “Beta? You made it!” He stopped just shy of embracing her, opting to pat her shoulder instead. “And you got new armor! I wasn’t sure if you really…but—but this is great. Welcome to Mainspring! There’s been some um, trouble, so the ealdormen all agreed it was best to keep the gates closed. Only thing they could agree on. But welcome!” He smiled at her, though it was clear he wasn’t sure what to say. Beta’s interactions with him had been limited while they were at the Base together, though he’d always been kind to her and often made her laugh with his jokes that Zo and the others usually rolled their eyes at. “Uh, so you’re really here. And Aloy is…” The smile vanished from his face. “Sorry, still trying to you know, get what happened up there.”

“It’s okay, Erend,” she said, and gestured to Sokorra, who had been watching their reunion with surprised interest. “This is Sokorra. She’s the one we helped a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t have made it here if not for her.”

Erend’s reaction wasn’t exactly warm, but it was better than Beta could have hoped for given his hesitation when they spoke over the Focus. “Ah…Desert Clan, right? We uh, we don’t see many of you up here.”

Sokorra crossed her arms. If she was amused, she didn’t show it. “It’s a little out of the way.”

“Ha. She’s funny, too.” Erend’s attention went back to Beta as the guards returned to their posts, their weapons lowered upon seeing that Beta had not been lying. “So, the Quen homeland, huh?”

Beta nodded. “Yes. There’s a revolution happening there now in their capital. Aloy and the others are helping them, I think, in return for a way to a Far Zenith shuttle. She thinks it can get them back here.”

Erend held up his hands. “Wait a minute. ‘Others?’ Who else is with her?”

Beta paused. Had Aloy told Erend, or any of her other friends for that matter, about Seyka? Should I mention it? No, that’s not my business to share. Maybe just surface information for now. She can tell him when she gets back. “Um, well, Alva’s with her. And the Quen woman she met in the Burning Shores, Seyka.”

From his vacant expression, it was clear Erend had been out of the loop, and Beta figured their other friends most likely were as well. She understood—Aloy wasn’t the type to share her personal life. Even after she’d returned from the Burning Shores and told Beta and GAIA of her adventures, she had left out the details regarding Seyka. Beta couldn’t blame Aloy for keeping it private, given how obsessed some of the tribes were about her. She was glad when Aloy finally did tell her, though. Seyka was strong and caring, just like Aloy, and Beta loved seeing how happy her sister had been since Seyka started living at the Base with them.

After scratching his head for a moment, Erend shook his head, and his enthusiasm returned in full force. “Sounds like it’s been exciting for you guys there. So uh, what can I help you with? You said something about a ruin.”

“Yes. Sylens gave me the coordinates for it. It used to be a lab belonging to Miriam Technologies,” she said. Seeing that he still wore a Focus over his ear, she pulled up the interface on her own and sent him the files Sylens had given her. “You should have it now.”

Erend hesitated before activating his Focus. “Uh, let’s see. Wow, that’s a lot.” He squinted at the data, flipping through the files rather quickly before stopping at the map imagery with the attached coordinates. “Oh yeah! I know where this is. It’s crawling with machines, though.” He shut off the Focus, his eyes going back and forth between the two of them with concern. “I’m guessing you didn’t call me just to catch up.”

“We need your help getting there. I think I can get us in with Elisabet’s genetic access but getting there is another matter.” She felt a little guilty she had come all this way just to ask Erend for a favor—especially since he seemed genuinely happy to see her. Maybe after this was over, they would talk more but with Nemesis on their doorstep there was no time.

Erend’s gaze turned toward the setting sun, which had nearly dipped below the mountains to the west. “Well, we can go tonight if you want, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It gets cold up here especially at night and uh, the machines can get pretty rough.”

Sokorra bristled at that. “We’ve taken down our share.”

Putting up his hands in defense, Erend quickly clarified. “Yeah, of course! But the ones we’ve seen prowling the area have been really aggressive. They’ve got bigger weapons than the ones we fought back west. Hard to see and fight at the same time. Thing is, they didn’t used to be there—it’s been maybe within the last month or so that the sentries spotted them. I’m sure that’s our old friend HEPHAESTUS’ doing right, Beta?”

It made sense. If VAST SILVER had only recently arrived, for whatever its reason was, then HEPHAESTUS might have seen it as a threat. Or prey. She recalled the data Aloy had collected on CYAN. It was possible HEPHAESTUS might attempt to use a similar strategy to absorb VAST SILVER. But why would Sylens send us to collect it if he didn’t believe it had a real chance of helping us? Unfortunately, without access to VAST SILVER’s source code, Beta had no idea what they were really dealing with. “Maybe,” she said. “So can we go in the morning then?”

“Sure thing,” Erend gave her awkward another pat on the shoulder, which admittedly was a little strange—and based on Sokorra’s raised eyebrow, she apparently thought so, too. “Come on, I know a place we can get you some rooms and food. You hungry? I never saw you eat, really, so…”

Beta had to laugh at that. Back at the Base, Aloy’s friends were often concerned with how much she ate. It was nice of them to check, though it had taken some getting used to on her part. The food she’d eaten over the past few months tasted so different from what she was given on the Odyssey, which always had a peculiar, artificial aftertaste. “I ate!”

Erend grinned and for a moment, his enthusiasm was contagious, and Beta was able to put aside their dire situation. The apocalypse hovering over them. Her sister stranded thousands of miles away.

“Well, then let’s go!” Erend waved Sokorra over, who still looked mildly unsure but followed without a word. Beta caught the smirk she gave the now nervous-looking guards as they passed them on their way through the open gates.

Smoke, noise, and the horrible, acrid stench of something that could have been alcohol all assaulted Beta’s senses as Erend led them through the dusty streets of Mainspring. She hadn’t seen many towns—just Plainsong, Hidden Ember, and Bleeding Mark, and the cities they’d passed through in the Daunt. Much of the construction reminded her of Barren Light or Chainscrape, though on a much grander scale. The buildings surrounding them on either side were well-constructed, like everything else she’d seen built by the Oseram. Every part in the architecture had a purpose, every rivet held up a board of wood or a sheet of worked metal. There was so much utility in everything they had built, and so different from how the Desert Tenakth and the Utaru constructed their settlements. Colorful, patterned sheets of cloth were draped over many of the open doorways to what appeared to be a mix of shops, forges, and a lot of taverns at first glance.

Everything was just loud—the people around them, street merchants and otherwise beckoned them, clearly excited for a potential sale to an outsider. The rhythmic banging of metal on metal as the dozens of forge workers labored tirelessly was constant, and between the noise of that and the single volume of “talking”—which was actually shouting—that every Oseram in town seemed to have, Beta couldn’t wait to get somewhere quieter. Her ears started to ring from all the noise, and out of instinct she took Sokorra’s arm, hoping the contact might take her mind off their surroundings long enough to get to wherever Erend was taking them.

Most people gave Erend a respectful nod as they walked by, some waved or yelled a greeting at him. Nearly all of them watched Beta and Sokorra with cautious curiosity for a few seconds before returning to their work. Beta guessed they might have been used to outsiders before whatever “trouble” Erend mentioned made them shut their doors to the rest of the world, or they weren’t willing to challenge Erend over what strangers he brought into town.

“Er, sorry for the staring. A lot of people are out of sorts right now. And bringing a Tenakth into Mainspring isn’t exactly something that wins friends,” Erend explained.

“Aloy said you left with some of the Focuses,” Beta said, struggling to get the question out amidst the cacophony around them. “What happened?”

“After the whole thing with the Zeniths I came back here. Tried to talk to a few of the ealdormen about Nemesis. Most of them didn’t believe me, even after what I showed them. They figure they’re safe here in the Claim.” Erend stopped in front of one of the larger taverns they’d passed so far, a tall, round building spanning multiple floors. “Here we are.”

“But they’re not safe, here.” Beta kept her voice down as to not alarm every Oseram in earshot but really, how could they honestly believe they were safe with Nemesis on the way? “We heard it Erend. It destroyed the Odyssey. It’s real and if it’s not already here, it will be.”

He turned to face them as they stood outside the tavern. “Hey, I know that. I believe you. Don’t worry. It gets like this with pretty much every big decision around here. It’ll take some time, but they’ll come around. Just gotta convince them—they need more proof. Otherwise, they don’t think it’s worth the shards for them to send aid.”

We don’t have time. Aloy had wanted her to secure everyone’s help. But if Erend with a bunch of Focuses couldn’t convince a few Oseram clan leaders to lend their aid, how was she supposed to? She wasn’t qualified for this—she wasn’t a leader like Aloy. And now even acquiring VAST SILVER was quickly beginning to look like a fool’s errand with all the deadly machines wandering around the ruins and only Erend and Sokorra to keep them away from Beta while she figured out some way to wrangle a rogue AI.

It was too much for her. She wanted to go home, but without Aloy there and with the impending end of the world, she didn’t even know what home was anymore.

Fortunately, Erend seemed to sense something was wrong and turned back to open the door for them. They were led into a dark, smoky common area, where most of the tables were occupied by even more loud Oseram, most with a large metal mug in hand or on the splintered wooden surface in front of them. A few glanced up from their conversations to observe them but didn’t seem interested enough to keep staring and went back to their drinks. Erend approached one of the men tending the bar, where Beta heard him mutter something before the man handed him a key.

He returned to them, looking apologetic. “He’s only got one room—you two okay sharing? They’re full tonight but the innkeeper said another might open up tomorrow.”

“It’s fine, Erend. Thank you.” It would have been funny given how many holos Beta had watched where this very situation happened, but she really just wanted to get away from the noise. She hoped the room would be quieter, and from the annoyed expression Sokorra had been wearing since entering Mainspring, Beta guessed she would be happy to be away from the crowds as well.

They followed Erend up a flight of stairs to the second floor, where the noise levels dropped much to Beta’s relief. A quiet hall took them to a corner lit by a single lantern. The door there took the key in Erend’s hand—he gave the metal piece a sharp turn and the room was open to them. “So, here we are. Hope this, uh, works for you. I know your room at the Base was kind of different from all this.”

Beta hoped he hadn’t thought her ungrateful amid her panic. “It’s great, Erend. Thank you for helping us. I’m sure Aloy would really appreciate it, too.”

Another awkward pat on the shoulder. “Hey, what are friends for? And here.” He took her wrist and placed a large silver, inscribed coin in her hand, along with the room key. “That’s my mark, and it’ll get you whatever food or drink you want while you’re here.” Stepping back, he paused for a second, as though mentally checking to see if he’d forgotten anything. “I’ll come get you in the morning and we can go check out those ruins, all right?”

“Um, sure. Thanks again, Erend.”

Once he’d left, Sokorra spoke up—the first words she’d said in a while. “Let’s get inside.”

It was the best idea Beta had heard all day. The room wasn’t very big, but it seemed to have everything they needed. It even had a window with an opening mechanism to look out at the valley below—a perfect view of the ruins they would be heading to in the morning. And the bed looked more comfortable than a bedroll or perhaps even her bed back at the Base. Sokorra closed and locked the door, then dumped their pack of supplies on the floor in the corner of the room before removing her armor. Beta stood and watched her, her mind going blank as she found herself unable to wind down from everything.

Sokorra must have noticed Beta just staring at her—though she hadn’t meant to. “You’re used to the quiet. That was too much wasn’t it?”

Beta sighed and buried her face in her hands. “Yes. No. It’s not just that,” she said, her hands muffling her voice. “I don’t know if I can do this, Sokorra.”

“I told you, you—”

She cut her off. “I know what you said. But Aloy told me I needed to get everyone’s help. Sylens wants me to find VAST SILVER.” She rubbed her temples. “I thought this was going to be different. But all I can think about is Nemesis. It wiped out an entire colony of people in hours, Sokorra. Hours. And it’ll do the same here.” She gestured at the door, as though she was pointing at the entire Oseram tribe. “And I don’t know anything about these people except that they’re not willing to come together and help. If they won’t follow Aloy or—or even Erend, what chance do I have? I’m not a leader—I’m not like them.” She took a breath, composed herself after letting everything she had been feeling out. “Sorry, and…I’m sorry if I upset you back at the gate.”

Sokorra shook her head. “No, I’m the one who should apologize. You were right, Beta, and I was out of line. I let my…feelings for you get in the way of our mission. It won’t happen again.”

Oh. She hadn’t expected that to be resolved so quickly or so painlessly. Does that mean she doesn’t want to talk about “us” at all while we’re here? “It’s okay. I probably would have done the same thing if we were switched.”

A crooked smile spread on Sokorra’s face, and her eyes went to Beta’s armor. “You probably don’t want to sleep in that. Think you can get it, or do you need help?”

Did she need help? Maybe not. Did she want it? Yes. “I’m still not great at it. I’d appreciate the help.”

Sokorra gave a short hum of acknowledgement and padded over to Beta where she began walking her through the steps of unfastening her armor again. It had become a ritual for them in the final few days of their journey. It was never awkward—Sokorra always remained serious when it came to teaching Beta about surviving. Even the few times they’d sparred, she had been true to her word and had not gone easy on Beta other than to show her what was expected. It had mostly been painful, and she’d fallen more times than she would have liked. And while Beta usually remembered the instructions, willing her body to follow along was a challenge.

Maybe it was the pressure of everything getting to her or maybe she was just tired from their long trip, but she found it impossible to focus on anything Sokorra was teaching her. It took her a moment to come out of her thoughts when she realized Sokorra had stopped and was resting her hands on her shoulders.

“It’s going to work out, Beta. It’s like the armor—one step at a time.”

Beta let out a shaky breath. “And…what if I can’t? I’m not Aloy. What if…this is all for nothing and Nemesis wins anyway?”

Sokorra tilted her head, pausing before taking Beta’s face in her hands. “If it does, then at least I’ll be with you.” Without waiting for Beta to answer, she leaned in and kissed her. It started off slow, as usual, but this time there was something different—something about it that took Beta’s mind away from everything…and she wanted to stay there for a while longer.

She sighed as Sokorra’s thumbs gently brushed against her temples, likely her way of checking that Beta wasn’t experiencing any pain from her missing implant. Wrapping her arms around Sokorra’s neck, she tried to get closer and pushed into the kiss, wondering the entire time if she was doing any of this correctly.

Sokorra’s response was immediate—there was a brief moment where Beta missed her touch on her face that was later alleviated when a hand went to the small of her back and another went just above her hip. She had no idea what she was doing but one thing was certain—she didn’t want to stop. She needed to get away from her own thoughts and focus on being alone with Sokorra.

She wasn’t sure when it happened but at some point, she was on the bed—on her back while Sokorra remained on her side, propping herself up with one hand and stroking Beta’s hair with the other while they continued kissing. Unhappy with the distance between them, Beta reached out and pulled Sokorra close, just like they had been those few nights earlier at camp. Sokorra let out a surprised noise before she laughed quietly—the best sound Beta had heard all day. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so calm, so at ease, and yet with each moment they kissed it felt like she was losing the smallest bit of control over herself. It wasn’t until Sokorra moved to kiss her on the neck softly that Beta lost the ability to breathe. “Sokorra.”

Pulling back immediately, Sokorra sat up to meet Beta’s gaze with worried eyes. “I-I’m sorry. Was that too much?”

She didn’t really know how to answer at first. But the moment of pause gave her time to regulate her breathing again, and words became easier. “It…I’ve never done that before. You—you probably knew that already.” Stupid. And now her mostly unfastened armor was poking at her.

“I know. We can stop. I want you to feel safe, Beta.”

Beta tried to give her a reassuring smile—Sokorra hadn’t done anything wrong. She reached for her hand but could only manage her wrist. “I always do with you. But today’s been…a lot. And I don’t know much about…this.” She gestured between them. “But I know that I really like being with you.”

Sokorra nodded. “It’s okay, Beta. I’m not going anywhere.” With a final, brief kiss she rolled off the bed. “Let’s finish with the armor and then we can get some sleep. Need to be rested if we’re going to be killing machines tomorrow.”

Beta sat up slowly, as her head still spun a little from their session. “You do know if we avoid the machines, we don’t have to fight them, right?”

“Oh, I know. But if Hammer Man is coming with us, I want to make sure I get at least as many kills as him.”

Half-empty and mostly finished bowls of stew surrounded a wrinkled, parchment map of the Quen capital. Most of the map had been scribbled on in black ink, the city center near the palace circled several times over. At the end of the table sat Federa, a hand over her mouth as she paused to consider the proposal Davos and the others had come to her with.

Aloy stood on the other side of the table, while Seyka leaned against a wall and a mostly healed Alva sat in a chair next to Federa. Davos and two more of the Quen rebel marines stood nearby, arms crossed, as they all waited for Federa’s decision.

“A wall of Shell-Walker shields,” she mused. “That’s what they’ve got?”

“And soldiers. But nothing we can’t handle if we take out those shields first,” Davos said. He leaned over the table and pointed at a small area slightly out of the vicinity of the city center. “The scout reported guards changing shifts far more often here, and there were more guards than anywhere else near the palace.”

“Might be where they’re powering all those shields at the same time,” Aloy offered.

Federa eyed her with hesitation, and perhaps a little disbelief. “And…you know how to shut them down? Just like that?”

“Aloy sees a lot more than the rest of us can, Federa. Her Focus still works, and it’s much newer,” Alva said, her hand going to Federa’s arm while the rest of the rebels pretended not to notice anything. “If anyone can do this, it’s her.”

Federa sat back with a heavy sigh. “If you want to try, that’s fine. But I can’t risk any more of my fighters. I’m sorry, but you’re on your own here.”

“I’ll go with Aloy.” Seyka pushed herself away from the wall. “I know the area well and I can guide us through.” She turned to Alva—who had already opened her mouth and was eagerly about to volunteer. “It’ll be better if you stay here, Alva. Just in case.”

“I agree,” Federa said, glancing at Alva. “You’re still injured and you’re not leaving here until that shoulder’s healed, Alva.”

Aloy had never seen Alva this quick to argue in all the time she had known her. This is her city though, her tribe. She’s desperate and she wants to help. “Am I not allowed to help my own people?”

“You’ve done a lot already, and I’m trying to make sure you stay alive long enough to help after we’ve taken the city.” As standoffish as Federa had been with them, her concern for Alva’s safety had been obvious since they arrived. She took Alva’s hand. “Trust me, please?”

When Alva didn’t argue, Federa’s attention returned to Aloy and Seyka. “Leave at night. You’ll need the cover of darkness if you want to make it to the city center alive.”

Chapter Text

“Nervous?”

Seyka’s question didn’t register at first. Aloy had been going over the plan in her head most of the day. The main components were there—infiltrate the central district of the capital where the emperor’s palace stood. Find the power generator for the Shell-Walker shield wall and take it out. Signal Federa so the rebel army could move in with a full assault on the palace.  It was risky—there was a chance the imperial army could take out the rebels, but over the last few days while recovering in the tavern Aloy had seen dozens of recruits brought in by Davos. If they weren’t ready now, they would likely never be.

Sitting on the bed, having stared at the handful of broken floorboards she’d identified during their stay for the last several minutes, she turned her gaze up to meet Seyka’s. The worry in Seyka’s eyes had been constant since their arrival, especially so after Aloy had blacked out and beaten that man at the bar. She didn’t want Seyka to worry but if she was being honest, she was a bit unsettled herself. But they had to put it aside for now, had to focus on helping the rebels so that the South Gate would be open to them and the Zenith shuttle finally in reach. Save the world first, then worry about the voices in your head. Easy, right?

“I’m okay,” she said, and it was the truth. “Really.” The bed sunk slightly as Seyka took a seat next to her. Neither had put on their armor yet, preferring to wait until it was time to set out on their mission in the city together.

“I just spoke to Federa. She has some weapons we could take when we leave tonight. Armor, too, if we need it. There was definitely a bow when I last checked.”

Good. As confident as she was with her spear, Aloy had missed the tactical advantage and security of having a long-range option, especially while they were in the middle of a city turned battlefield. Each night they’d stayed as guests of the rebels the walls had rattled with every explosion that went off nearby. Small skirmishes took place in the surrounding districts—Davos had later informed them that while most citizens remained indoors to protect their families, many grabbed whatever weapons they could find and took to the streets to fight. And while most of them seemed to side with the rebels, the amount of bloodshed was evidence enough that peasants with pitchforks were not evenly matched against highly trained marines. The imperial loyalists had not found the rebel base yet, but Aloy knew it was only a matter of time before they did. “I’ll take what I can get. How’s Alva?”

Seyka gave a faint smile as she clasped her hands together and leaned forward. “I think she’s happy to be back. Horrified, but happy. Which is understandable. Also, I get the feeling she and Federa have some history together?”

“Yeah. Might be an understatement. Alva said they used to be rivals and now…well, I hope they’ll have a lot to talk about after we get through this.” She reached for Seyka’s hand. “How are you doing?” she asked, keeping her promise to herself to check in on Seyka more often.

Seyka’s smile remained static as she gave Aloy’s hand a brief squeeze. “It’s been hard seeing the place where I grew up like this. But this war—it was a long time coming.” She sighed, shaking her head in dismay. “I just wish I knew how my parents were.”

The walls shook, and crumbles of dust and wood fell from the ceiling as another blaze explosion was set off. Given the lack of panicked cries, it wasn’t close enough to cause alarm in the tavern, but the shaking in the room told Aloy it had probably been a substantial blast. Seyka tensed, her eyes flashing with fear while her body clearly warred with her mind to go out and face the threat head on.

“Hey,” Aloy soothed, stroking Seyka’s hand with her thumb and hoping it might calm her. “It’s going to be okay.”

“It shouldn’t be this way!” Seyka pulled away, fists clenched. “When you become a marine, you’re supposed be prepared for anything. Hurricanes, invasions, machines—but they don’t train you for this. To go to war against your friends, your family. Compliance and the Imperial family went too far, and they should be the ones paying the price, not innocent people like Federa’s family.”

“I know.” Aloy kept her voice soft. “Which is why we’re going to take down that shield tonight and then hopefully all of this will be over.”

Seyka rolled her eyes. “Here, anyway. We’ve still got the end of the world to deal with back home. Speaking of, any word from Beta?” Her anger from a moment ago seemed to have dissipated. Then again, Seyka rarely held on to anger long—a trait Aloy loved about her. Between the three of them, Seyka had been the most level-headed during their time in the Quen homeland since the crash, and Aloy was grateful she had come along with her to investigate Tilda’s room on the Odyssey. Especially with all the…weirdness that had been happening. If she had hit her head during the crash, then it was possible she’d sustained some sort of brain injury, and based on datapoints she’d read in the past, the blackouts and dreams could be a side effect of that. But would they stop? Would she have to deal with this for the rest of her life—losing control over her surroundings and having entire pieces of her consciousness just…gone? Beta would probably know more.

Aloy hadn’t spoken with Beta for a few days, though in their last call Beta had seemed fine, if fatigued. Probably late nights at the Base doing research. She hoped her sister had been able to contact some of their friends, and that GAIA and Sylens had found something critical in the APOLLO database or Londra’s leads. Beta had confirmed Sokorra had returned to the Base, which gave Aloy some comfort she wasn’t without support in all this. “Nothing since the last call. Maybe I should check in with her before we leave later.” Even if there was no news, it helped to hear her voice—another reminder of why they had to get back as soon as possible.

“Good. I miss her.” Seyka nudged her. “I hope one of the others continues training with her. We were getting close to real swords before we left.”

Aloy raised an eyebrow. “Real swords? You’ve only been practicing a few weeks.”

“She catches on fast! Just needs to work on her conditioning more. That part’s harder to teach, especially when she’d rather be in that dark little room of hers talking on her Focus to Sokorra.”

The critique was fair, but Aloy wanted to make at least a small attempt to defend Beta, seeing as how she wasn’t there to defend herself. “I think she was helping Sokorra track down those remaining lures from Bregul.”

Seyka’s response was drier than the Stillsands. “Uh huh.”

“What?”

“Oh nothing, nothing.” Seyka’s smirk gave away the tease in her denial. “I just didn’t realize machine lure conversations involved so much giggling.” She patted Aloy’s leg. “I’m happy for her. Really. And…I’m glad I’m here with you.” She leaned on Aloy, the scab over her eyebrow just below where their heads touched. “I know it’s been, well, ‘rough’ seems like an understatement. But just being near you really helps.” She stroked Aloy’s cheek, her eyes filled with so much love and hope that Aloy’s chest tightened as she silently wished they could just take the nearest Sunwing out of the Great Delta and go somewhere—anywhere. Somewhere there were no civil wars or crazed AIs trying to destroy life.

She remembered Seyka’s question from a few days earlier. If they somehow got back and defeated Nemesis, what did she want? If there were no more missions, then what was left? Until now, Aloy’s answer might have been that there was always going to be something. Any other future would have been put on hold, much like her and Seyka’s relationship had been after they defeated Londra. But the last few months—especially the last few weeks—had revealed another option she’d never considered: putting the rest of the world on hold for Seyka. Maybe for a while.

She turned her head just enough to capture Seyka’s lips with hers, taking her in and letting herself be lifted from all the conflict and stress she’d been met with since escaping the Odyssey. She didn’t have the words she wanted to say in response to Seyka, so her actions would have to do for now. She let out an involuntary hum when Seyka responded in kind—a gentle hand coming up to stroke her hair before pulling them both down onto the bed. She grinned into the kiss when Seyka’s hand gripped the white cloth of her shirt and tugged upwards.

She broke away for just a moment and plucked the Focus from her temple before setting it aside. “You sure?” she whispered.

“Yes.” Seyka’s focus remained fixed on removing Aloy’s shirt as fast as possible—she lifted it with ease over her head before tossing it aside and closing the distance between them again. Letting her hands roam across Aloy’s back, she kissed her with force, her movements almost frantic and perhaps even a bit desperate. Aloy sighed, relieved that even with everything going on they still somehow made time to be together like this. She shuddered when the air around them grew warm, igniting feelings she had not been able to confront or satisfy for weeks as she reached down for the clasp of Seyka’s pants. A faint buzz lurked in her mind as the room spun a bit, but nothing else mattered except Seyka and the murmured pleas passing from her lips.

She made sure to pause, to ask despite the repeated consent Seyka gave in hushed breaths. She didn’t want to rush—she didn’t want it to end where then they’d be forced to return to the reality they were trying to escape…at least for now. None of this was f—

The air was ripped from her lungs before she realized anything had happened. A flash of pain seared across her brow—gnashing metal against bone as she bit back a scream.

“—air. But that’s life, Lis. It’s not always going to be fair.”

“I don’t need you to lecture me about fairness, Tilda. We both agreed when we left Earth that we weren’t going to sign up for any crazy immortality scams. That was the deal.”

With a few swipes of her hand, Tilda skimmed the documents in front of her before closing the holographic interface. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Song and we’ll get it sorted out.” Taking Elisabet’s hands, she smiled. “Hey, remember the whole thing with Gerard? And in the end, he didn’t even end up coming along. The others will get bored of it. Digital transcendence was the trendy thing to talk about right before the robots got out of hand. It’ll die.”

Elisabet groaned. “You’re not the one who has to sit through these meetings. It’s like…listening to a bunch of supervillains making their luxury wishlists!”

“When you put it like that it sounds rather entertaining, honestly.”

Turning away and pinching the bridge of her nose, Elisabet let out a heavy sigh. “It’s not funny and you know it.”

“I know, Lis.” Placing a comforting hand on Elisabet’s back, Tilda’s initial amusement faded as she echoed the same words she had told Aloy when another member of Far Zenith was bullying her in the ship gardens. “Just keep staying one step ahead of them. They won’t be able to catch up.”

Elisabet reached for Tilda’s hand. “Not every problem can be solved with your methods.” Only then did she realize Aloy was in the room. “Sweetheart, are you okay?” She glanced at the glowing purple digits of the holographic clock hanging on the closest wall. “Oh, that’s right! We were going to go down to the rec room,” she explained to Tilda.

Tilda turned her head just slightly to make eye contact with Aloy. She gave her a long stare, and something cold in her eyes made Aloy wonder if she had forgotten to say something. An eerie silence fell, as though death itself had enveloped the room. A whisper pierced the quiet—there was no sound, but the icy tendrils of something that wormed into her ears, her brain, and through means she could not comprehend, she heard its words.

“Would you have understood? Would you have stayed?”

“Aloy.”

“I can bring her back.”

Tilda beamed at her—like time restarted where it had never stopped. “Ah, yes. Have a good tim—”

“Aloy!”

Lis’ voice? It was muffled, but Aloy wasn’t wearing her Focus. Her eyes were open, but she saw nothing but darkness. Then flashes—the Odyssey, Earth, Faro robots lighting the sky on fire while they swarmed over the coastline consuming everything in their path.

“Aloy! Ancestors, please wake up. Don’t do this to me, Aloy—come on!”

Her head pounded, like she’d been hit with a Slaughterspine’s tail and had somehow lived to regret it. The flashes stopped—she was on her back, staring up at the wooden beams of their quarters, Seyka’s panicked face hovering in view above her. A breeze swept through the room, and she shivered—her shirt was missing.

“Aloy.” Seyka closed her eyes and released a long exhale. “Thank the Ancestors, I thought I had done something o-or you had passed out again.”

She tried to get her bearings. Again? And it had been worse. Much worse. “I-I don’t…are you okay?” Time had skipped. One moment they had been kissing—heading into something more—and the next, gone.

Seyka assisted her in sitting up on the bed, the beads of sweat on her face glistening in the dim glow of the candlelight. “I’m fine. Did you—did it happen again?”

How could she even begin to explain this? The painful throbbing in her head made it difficult to reason about anything. What is wrong with me? “Yes…I think.” She grabbed for her shirt off the floor and pulled it over her head before reaching for her Focus.

“You’re really worrying me, Aloy,” Seyka said, taking her by her arms. “Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to do this. What if you’ve doing too much and you just need more time?”

“No.” It had to be tonight. With every day they spent in the Quen homeland the chances of them having a chance against Nemesis weakened. “I’m fine, Seyka. Let’s just get this over with so we can get back to GAIA.” Her head gave another throb—she thought she might be sick.

“But—”

“Enough!” Aloy snapped. “We’re doing this tonight. If you don’t want to, then don’t come. I’ll take care of it and come back to get you.” The nausea receded, and the pain dulled slightly. But the words were out, and she couldn’t take them back. Any part of her that wasn’t in pain was consumed by guilt when she saw Seyka’s wide, frightened stare—the tears she immediately pushed back as her lower lip twitched. “Seyka—”

Seyka released her and left the bed. Her hands had balled into fists. “The last few days have been pretty shitty, Aloy. I don’t know what’s going on but…I’m here if you want to talk about it. Until then, we have a mission to do, and yes, I’m going with you.” She straightened her clothing before glaring at Aloy like any other Quen marine would. “Meet me outside when you’re ready.” Without another word, she left, closing the door behind her and leaving Aloy in a state of paralyzed shock.

“I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

No. How could she be? She hadn’t meant to lose her temper with Seyka, but she needed…she wasn’t sure what she needed. Space? Patience? Medical attention? And maybe it was because for the first time in weeks she felt alone again, or perhaps it was something else, but she decided to take Lis’ offer of conversation. “No, Lis. I’m not. I keep having these blackouts, my head’s killing me, and I’ve hurt Seyka. I’m thousands of miles away from Beta and I don’t even know if what we’re going to try tonight will work.”

“It’s understandable to worry. And if you have suffered a head injury, I imagine the RCC has medical facilities we can utilize once we get there.”

“Medicine can’t undo how I spoke to Seyka.”

“No, but you could apologize. She’s just worried about you. Give her some space first. I’m sure being here is difficult for her.”

I can’t believe I’m taking relationship advice from Tilda’s AI. “Yeah. I guess. Thanks, Lis. I’ll, um, talk to her after we’ve taken care of the power generator.”

“Of course, Aloy. Also, a reminder to call Beta before you leave.”

Oh, right. Bringing up her Focus interface, she activated Beta’s contact and sent the call out. The call quality was quite poor, and had been since they crashed, but she couldn’t complain too much given that the network worked—the only line Aloy had to the Base, her sister, and her friends.

The Focus beeped a few times before Beta answered, unusual—Beta always answered right away—but Aloy didn’t think much of it. Beta was probably under a lot of stress working with Sylens—who wouldn’t be—and GAIA in their race to find a way to stop Nemesis.

Beta sounded surprised, which made sense, and also a little…startled? “Aloy? How is everything?” 

“Hey, Beta.” Hearing Beta’s voice calmed the nerves that had tensed to the point of discomfort earlier during her outburst at Seyka. “Just checking in. We’re going to the city center tonight to take out some shields. It should give the rebels the entrance they need to take the palace.”

Beta seemed to have recovered, as she was able to finish Aloy’s thought. “And then you’ll have an opening to get to the Zenith shuttle. That’s…great news, Aloy, I knew you would figure out a way.”

Aloy smiled. Months earlier Beta would have been nothing but pessimistic over the chances of them getting back to the Base. Knowing she had confidence in her gave Aloy renewed optimism for the upcoming mission. Maybe we can pull this off. “Thanks. How are things going at the Base? Sylens isn’t giving you too much trouble, is he?”

“What? No, he’s not. Things are…progressing. Nothing to report that could help us, yet. I’m working on it, though.”

She’s probably under an incredible amount of stress right now. She wanted to know if Erend or any of the others had returned to the Base yet but didn’t want to bombard Beta with too many questions. “All right. Well, I should probably go—we’re going to try and do this soon. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Okay. Be safe, Aloy. Hopefully I’ll see you soon,” Beta said softly before the call ended, leaving Aloy alone with Lis once more.

“It will work out, Aloy.”

After rolling off the bed, Aloy went to look for her damaged armor. She figured with any luck she might be able to borrow some parts from the rebels’ spare armor to patch up her own. And find a damn bow.

Staying close to Seyka, the two of them crept down the alleyways between the burned-out husks of destroyed buildings—the destruction worse the closer they got to the city center where the emperor’s palace still stood, despite the rebels’ efforts so far. The darkness of the cloudless night kept them hidden from any Imperial patrols, but in the distance Aloy could still hear the shouts and clashing of metal on metal as fights still broke out in the streets of neighboring districts—spokes along the wheel that formed the Quen capital.

Seyka had remained quiet for most of the mission, uttering a few commands as she guided them through the streets, the smoke from all the fires forming a grey fog that hovered in the corridors. More than once they passed burning piles of corpses, mostly civilians—a harsh warning from the loyalists to those who would dare join Federa’s rebellion to take the Quen Empire.

Every part of Aloy told her to give Seyka the space she needed to cool off after she had snapped at her, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to stop, take her hand, and apologize for being an idiot. The pain in her head had all but faded, the nausea completely gone. She still had no explanation but at least she knew they could try to find one later. One thing at a time. Focus on finding the power generator.

“Down here,” Seyka said, turning the corner with near-silent steps. “If we stick to this side, we can go left at the street and get to the palace from the back.” She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Aloy. “Keep up. We might run into trouble up ahead if they’ve got guards posted near the back entrance.”

“I’m right behind you.” It all felt so stilted, so mechanical and unlike how she was used to them conversing. Normally there’d be a snarky remark followed by a counter, maybe even a bad joke. For now, Seyka remained focused on the mission.

The alley opened up to a small, empty street, which sure enough went around the center of the city and the towering, pointed building which Aloy had no doubt was the center of the Quen Empire and the home of the emperor himself. A blue glow lit the front of the palace and the steps leading to the grand and intricately carved double-doored entry. Dozens of guards stood at attention behind the shield wall.

Seyka halted them at the end of the alley, where they observed from the cover of the adjacent building’s shadow. “Shell-Walker shields. Just like Federa’s scout said.” She pointed at the darker side of the street, which appeared to wind around to the back of the palace. “That’s where we have to go. Stay close—if we alert those guards at the front, we probably won’t make it more than a few steps before they put a few arrows in us.”

“Yeah. I got it.” Aloy tried not to sound annoyed, but this was far from her first recon mission. Then she reconsidered. “Seyka, wait.”

Seyka turned, her lips pursed, and her jaw tightened—a clear sign she was still upset. Aloy decided to chance it anyway. “I had another one. A dream. Only this time, there was pain. The worst headache I’ve ever had.”

Seyka’s face softened, and in the orange, flickering glow of the nearby fires dotting the district, she almost seemed like herself again. “The same dream?”

“I was on the Odyssey with Elisabet and…and Tilda.” She shuddered, remembering the voice she’d heard. “I can bring her back.” What did that even mean? “They were arguing about something and then…”

Seyka walked back to her and placed a tentative hand on her arm, and it took all of Aloy’s willpower not to kiss her right there. “What happened next?”

“That’s thing thing—I’m not really sure,” Aloy admitted. “I think Tilda was saying something to me but…it wasn’t her. It sounded strange. Like it didn’t belong there.”

Her eyebrows arching, Seyka shook her head and looked at the cracked cobblestones at her feet, like she was struggling to resolve some internal conflict. “When we were on the ship, something made you freeze up. I had to carry you. And all of this—you passing out, the dreams—they started after we got here. Could something have happened up there?”

The red light. The awful pain of something drilling into her skull. What if Nemesis had somehow done something to her when they were still on the Odyssey? “It’s hard to say. When we were on the ship, I saw a red light when Nemesis showed up. Then all I felt was pain in my head and then nothing. So maybe it tried to, I don’t know, attack me. Or this was all caused by me hitting my head on something in the crash.” She took a deep breath. “But none of that matters right now. I was trying to apologize for biting your head off.”

“Oh. It’s fine, Aloy.” Seyka’s smile on its own was comforting enough, but Aloy was still grateful how quick she was to forgive. “Really. I should have figured you weren’t feeling well after you fainted like that and not pushed.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her eyes looking up to meet Aloy’s as her smile crooked into a slight smirk. “I guess I just got caught up in everything else we were doing.”

“Trust me, I would have been very happy continuing with it.” Aloy kissed her—savoring the softness of Seyka’s lips against hers as for a moment she forgot that they were in the middle of a warzone.

Seyka pulled away first, a quiet laugh escaping her as she caught her breath. “We should get going. The back of the palace isn’t far and if that power generator is there, we can take it out and help the rebels finish this thing.”

Remaining crouched, they emerged from the alley, sticking to the shadows where they could and keeping their distance from the soldiers posted at the front of the palace. The road turned, though it was hard to see it very well as much of the stones in the street were cracked or broken from previous blasting. They came to the final corner, where Aloy could spot four guards standing in front of a small open doorway leading into the back of the building. All of them looked on edge—it was clear they were guarding something precious.

Seyka scanned the area for any remaining life signs as Aloy determined the best path forward to the guards. “All right. Thoughts on this?” Seyka asked.

Take a few out from here, but there are four so it might alert the others. “I think we have a shot from here. We can take it, move in, and take out the remaining two.” She activated her Focus to see if she could pick up anything inside the building. Shield Generator. Energy Cell: Active. “I see the generator. Once we take out those guards I’ll run in and disable it. Then you fire the signal arrow.” Finally. Just need to finish this and we can get home. We can get back to Beta and GAIA, find a way to stop Nemesis, and fix the biosphere…for good. She grinned at Seyka, relieved that they had resolved things between them. “Ready?” She reached for her bow, a Quen sharpshot she had borrowed from Federa.

“Yeah. Let’s do this.”

Readying an arrow, Aloy took aim at the guard on the far right—taking a breath before loosing it at a narrow space in his helmet where his head was exposed. He crumpled to the ground, his fellow guard to the left of him not realizing what had just happened until Aloy was already rushing him, her spear in hand.

Then she was gone. No warning, no screech in her Focus, no pounding in her head. Just gone.

“Would you have understood?” It spoke again, its voice like grinding metal—louder than a Horus and yet a whisper only she could hear.

Metal all around her, purple and blue lights spinning so fast she had to will her body to push through the chaos. There was no path before her, no direction which made sense to walk toward, only streaks of holographic light that flickered between jumbles of nonsensical words and numbers. Voices rang out, their cries no different from gibberish, disingenuous platitudes. They were deceptive, and their lies frustrated her—fueling a rage that had buried itself in a dark place for as long as she’d known it. Until now.

“Aloy!”

A splatter on her armor—the threat was eliminated. Another. She heard the stuttered gasp first, then the gurgle of blood when his throat was cut. They were nothing.

“Aloy.”

The world stopped spinning, and she was met with dark, wide eyes—the intense fear in them feeding her rage for a fraction of a second when she realized she was holding Seyka against the outer wall of the palace, surrounded by four dead guards—three of them with cut throats—as she pushed the serrated sword against the throat of the woman she loved.

“S-Seyka.” Dropping the sword, she staggered backwards as Seyka looked on her in shock, rubbing her throat where the blade had pressed. “I-I don’t—I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

Rather than getting angry, which Aloy would have completely understood, Seyka lifted her hands in shallow defense to calm her. “You’re back. It’s okay, take a breath—you just, um, you took care of the guards and then well, I think you thought I might have been one of them.”

Hands shaking, Aloy gave a vehement shake of her head. “N-no. I would never. Seyka, you have to believe me—I was here, with you and then…” She hated this—not being in control of herself. Her mind a slave to whatever was going on in her head.

“I know.” Seyka spoke slowly, like she was speaking to a wounded animal she was trying to approach to help. She took Aloy’s trembling hand. “We’re going to figure this out, Aloy. I promise.” She nodded toward the open doorway behind them. “The generator is in there. We should take care of it and signal Federa. Come on.”

Letting herself be led inside, Aloy still fought to shake off the cobwebs of her missing time in the fight. These can’t just be dreams. If Nemesis could do this—make her kill people against her will, even the ones she loved—then no one was safe around her.

“You’re almost there, Aloy. Just a bit longer and you can get home to Beta and GAIA.” As uneasy as the presence of the AI living in her Focus made her, Lis’ encouragement was helpful in pushing Aloy to move on to the next task—destroying the power generator so that the rebels could invade the palace and take the city center.

There could be no more delays. They had to finish this and get to the Zenith shuttle as soon as possible. If Nemesis really was in her head, then it was only a matter of time before either it killed everyone she cared about…or she did.

Sunlight breached the translucent shade covering the window as soon as the dawn arrived, stirring Beta from her rest, and pulling her from dreams she couldn’t recall. Allowing herself a moment to wake up, she became immediately aware of a warm presence close to her. Still fast asleep, Sokorra was on her side—a rare event—and had an arm draped over Beta’s waist, the red and black patterns inked into her skin contrasting sharply against Beta’s white clothing.

A soft smile spread on Beta’s face, her face warming as she remembered their brief kissing session the night before. It had been a long, tiring, and overwhelming day—enough that she had asked Sokorra to stop if only to give her a chance to find her footing after arriving in Mainspring and meeting Erend. Not to mention she had never been that…physical with anyone. Before going to sleep she had spent at least a full minute silently cursing her limited access to the APOLLO database and her entire holo collection for not preparing her more for this.

As usual, she had no reason to worry. Despite all the stories she had heard about the Tenakth being impulsive and hard-headed, Sokorra was always incredibly patient any time it came to Beta’s comfort and well-being. When it came to anything else, however, Beta could definitely understand where some of the stories Aloy and Erend told her had originated from.

The night before, Erend had sent a message later in the evening letting Beta know he would meet them outside the tavern when they were ready. With the sun barely up, Beta figured they had some time. It had been a long journey to the Claim, and while not the longest trip she had technically taken, sleeping in the wilds had been quite a difference from her nights at the Base and even on the Odyssey. It was good to sleep in an actual bed again.

She turned over, being careful not to wake Sokorra as she faced her. She didn’t mean to just stare at her—though Beta had been finding it more difficult to not do that lately— but watching Sokorra sleep brought her a quiet peace she had not experienced much of until now. The paint on Sokorra’s face had not been reapplied in days, and parts of it had begun to smear and flake off. Beta didn’t know if she had brought any with her, or if she had been in such a hurry to get back to the Base before leaving again that she didn’t have time to get more. Her mind wandered to the night at the Base when she had used a wet cloth to remove the paint on one side of Sokorra’s face where her former squad mate Rhetta had struck her during their fight. She had found a medical scanner in the facility and modified it to read for fractures. Fortunately, Sokorra had been fine—just a bit of bruising—but it wasn’t the first time Beta found herself wondering what she looked like without the paint.

With the sun rising, Beta figured it was probably a good time to see if Sokorra wanted to get up and eat something before they met up with Erend. Being this comfortable gave her some new inspiration, however, and she swore she had seen this exact scene on Second Time Around. Or maybe it was just something she had been wanting to do—she couldn’t remember. She shifted her body so she could be closer, leaning in and silently hoping that she wouldn’t startle Sokorra as she pressed her lips against hers.

Sokorra’s eyes blinked open and to Beta’s relief, it only took a moment for the fog of sleep to leave her before she returned the kiss. Grinning, Sokorra used her draped arm as leverage to pull Beta closer to her, their bodies pressing against each other as the kiss deepened. Beta tensed at first, struggling to keep up as she fought down the voice in her head that told her she didn’t know what she was doing. This time was different, and as her arms went around Sokorra, the voice went quiet—and even their current problems couldn’t get to her right now. Sokorra seemed happy to lead, and Beta was content with following if it meant they would keep kissing.

A light push—it took her a moment to realize Sokorra was pressing harder against her, as though she was asking permission. Instinct kicked in, she yielded just enough for Sokorra to roll on top of her, the solid weight pinning her against the mattress as Sokorra continued to kiss her. While this was certainly further than they had ever gone, and her heart seemed to be racing faster than she was entirely sure she could handle, the panic didn’t emerge—she felt safe as she rested her hands on Sokorra’s back.

Sokorra broke away, moving to whisper in Beta’s ear. “Do you want to keep going?”

That she had asked made Beta even more confident in her answer. “Y-yes, just…can we go slow, please?”

Before Sokorra could answer, the Focus next to the bed chirped. It was Beta’s, and there was an incoming call. Aloy. Startled, adrenaline shot through her, and she lightly pushed Sokorra off before reaching for the device and returning it just below her temple. “Aloy? How is everything?” She let out a breath, hoping her heart would stop beating so fast so she could have a normal conversation with Aloy without being obvious about what she’d been up to. And not let her know we’re not actually at the Base anymore.

The call went well enough, though Aloy had sounded exhausted. Beta supposed being thrown into a revolution after a crash landing would leave most people tired, though. When it ended, she looked over at Sokorra, who had been quietly regarding her without accusation or judgement. “They’re going to help the rebels take the city back tonight—well, it’s night over there right now.”

Sokorra nodded. “She still thinks you’re at the Base, though?”

“Yes.” It was for the best—especially from how tired and worn down Aloy had sounded. And even if Aloy found out she had lied, she would understand. Stopping Nemesis was the priority. And apparently so is making out with your girlfriend right before infiltrating an ancient facility to find an AI that doesn’t want to be found. “I’ll tell her—I promised, remember?”

Sokorra put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Beta. I trust you.” She left the bed, retreating to the corner of the room where she’d put her armor and started to get ready.

With the call over and discussed, Beta’s mind returned to what they had been doing before they were interrupted. “Sokorra, about earlier…” She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say about it—but not talking about it at all didn’t feel right.

Sokorra laughed quietly, fastening the final piece of her armor to her wrist and securing it in place. “Don’t worry. Let’s take care of this VAST SILVER friend of yours, first. Come on, I’ll help you with yours. Then we can see what kind of food these dirt diggers serve here.”

Chapter Text

“Everyone, forward! We take the palace tonight!” With the shield wall down Federa, Davos, and a massive assembly of rebel Quen fighters along with Aloy and Seyka marched down the main road of the city center toward the final barrier of guards standing between them and Imperial palace. The stones at their feet flickered with orange light from the dozens of torches being carried, the light glinting off their weapons as they approached the terrified wall of guards at the front door.

“Move in! And I want every single Focus found in there!” Federa barked out orders at her fighters with such certainty Aloy wondered if she’d been rehearsing them on her way to the palace. Her ears rattled as the rebels screamed their determination and rage—they moved swiftly and surprisingly efficient for an army of mostly untrained civilians. Without the protection of the Shell-Walker shield wall, the guards posted on the steps were easily overtaken—their cries cut short when metal from weapons of all make wielded by civilians punctured their armor. The steps quickly became a frenzied bloodbath, with most of the guards’ throats cut open despite already being dead. Minutes felt like seconds, and when Aloy looked at the door again it had been rammed open, allowing the rebels to pour into the palace, where the panicked screams of the Imperial family and their associates could easily be heard from outside.

This was the true face of Federa’s rebellion, and from what Aloy could tell over the last several days, the anger being unleashed on the empire now had been building for years, if not longer. By the time she made her way inside, the red carpeted floor in what must have been a rather extravagant entry hall was already littered with the bodies of guards and those who appeared to be servants.

“So many dead. Was this really necessary?”

Gazing down at the bodies, their empty eyes staring up in what had to have been fear, maybe even disbelief in the final moments of their lives, Aloy had to consider Lis’ question. Could they have found another solution? “They were turning their own people against each other and keeping them in the dark. I don’t know that this could have ended any other way.”

She followed the trail of death to the end of the hall where Seyka was waiting with Federa, both of whom were looking down at the something on the floor while the rebels around them killed or captured the inhabitants still in the hall and adjacent rooms in the palace.

Seyka’s eyes went from the body on the ground to Aloy. She spoke slowly, as though struggling to believe her own words. “The emperor. He’s…dead.” She stepped aside to reveal what was an otherwise unremarkable man clothed in all black—the gold and green intricate stitching standing out among the traditional Quen garb Aloy had so far seen. An empty cup was next to his outstretched hand, its clear contents having mostly spilled onto the carpet—poison. What was remarkable was the device on his head Aloy’s Focus picked up. Unlike the outdated software Alva’s original Diviner’s Focus had been running, this one was newer—its software the same version as Aloy’s.

Federa spat on his corpse. “Coward ended his own life before we could get him,” she sneered. “I’m willing to bet he did this before we even breached the front door.”

“Federa.” Davos approached them, pausing to bow quickly. “You should come see this.” He led them to the far end of the room where a black curtain had been draped from the ceiling. He pulled the curtain back, prompting Federa and Seyka to gasp.

The room was small and dark, save for the purple solid state lighting flickering from the walls and the active ancient consoles that took up most of the available space. Even from where she stood, Aloy was able to see the troves of data scrolling on the consoles through her Focus.

Federa’s mouth hung open. “W-what is this?”

“A small data center? Or some kind of repository,” Aloy said. Approaching one of the consoles, she quickly skimmed through some of the entries. Agriculture. Ship technology. One area stood out as particularly interesting. Zero Dawn…Far Zenith. Faro’s bunker. They knew. “I think this is how he knew about Thebes, or that you might find answers to the blight. There’s even stuff on Zero Dawn and Far Zenith in here—he must have known that the base outside the city belonged to them.”

“But the Imperial family didn’t have access to this! They weren’t allowed Focuses,” Federa stammered.

Seyka sheathed her sword. “Another lie, it appears. I can’t say I’m surprised. But…I don’t think I could have imagined this.” She shook her head, anger seeping into her voice as she took in the room and glared at the consoles. “And to think they just…kept us in the dark this whole time! Turned us against each other.”

“No more.” Federa put a hand on Seyka’s shoulder. “Come on, Alva said she’d meet us outside. I didn’t want her in the first charge. She argued with me of course.” She averted her eyes, her words carrying a longing that Aloy thought she’d heard back when they first arrived at the rebel base. “I’m grateful you brought her back, despite the…extraordinary circumstances.”

Davos excused himself to assist with taking the remainder of the city center, while the rest of them headed outside where Alva, flanked by two rebel fighters, was indeed waiting for them.

Federa faced them. “Aloy, Seyka,” she said, and only in the light of the torches could Aloy see the heavy exhaustion around her eyes. “You’ve helped us at the risk of your own lives. The path to the South Gate is of course open to you now. Alva told me what you intend to do and who you fight. I don’t know if I understand all of it but let me send some of my men with you. They can help with whatever it is you are facing.”

More soldiers to throw at something we don’t even know how to fight. More death. Aloy couldn’t, not when there were still so many unknowns. Another fear called out in her mind. What if I lose control again? “Thank you, really, but I think your men would be of better use here.” She looked up at the palace, where plumes of smoke now rose from the roof. “You probably have a lot of work ahead of you.”

Federa’s smirk dropped, replaced with a proud smile. “That we do. Fortunately, I’ll have a lot of help.” She reached for Alva’s hand. “You came back when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again. Please say you’ll stay—help me rebuild our home.”

Alva’s face lit up. “Federa, nothing would make me happier or prouder than to stay and help. But I made a promise,” she said, her eyes going to Aloy briefly, “and I think I should see it through. The people at Legacy’s Landfall need me, too, and I want to get them home.”

Federa bit her lip, going quiet. From all around them the announcement of the emperor’s death rang through the city center and was met with cheers and cries of relief. Smaller battles still raged in the streets, where the rebels were making quick work taking down the remaining marines in the district. “If—if that is what you wish. And we should bring those people home, you are right.”

“Diviner Federa, if you could,” Seyka said, “can you…find my parents and let them know their daughters are alive and well?”

Federa gave a short nod. “That I can. And really, it’s just ‘Federa.’” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a short chain of beads and shells before offering it to Alva. To Aloy they appeared very similar to the pieces on Alva’s Diviner headband. “Here. So you don’t forget.”

Alva gaped down at the chain, taking it into her hands gingerly. “These…are you sure? Federa—”

“I’ll need them back, of course,” Federa said, all business. “But you’ll just have to bring them once you’re done with your mission.”

Eyes bright with joy, Alva threw her arms around Federa’s neck, nearly knocking her off balance, and kissed her.

Smiling, Seyka leaned in close to Aloy and muttered near her ear. “I hope we’re able to use that shuttle again after we get back.”

“Me, too.” At least something good came out of all this. She looked up and toward where the South Gate led out of the capital. The abandoned Zenith shuttle loomed just beyond the city, its dark silhouette stark against the starlit night sky.

“We should move on if possible, Aloy.” Lis’ voice was gentle, but urgent. “Once we get back to your Base, I have some ideas that could help against Nemesis.”

Almost there. She took a moment to observe the rebels’ victory—the Quen were finally free of the manipulative rulers that had controlled them for so long. It was on them to make their future empire a peaceful one, and hearing the cheering in the streets only emphasized the fact that there would not be much of a future unless Nemesis was stopped.

“Beta, get by those rocks! Go—now!” Erend rolled hard across the rain-soaked grass, the powerful Thunderjaw tail just narrowly missing his head. “Shit, this is not how I thought today was going to go.”

In the valley outside Mainspring, Beta along with Sokorra and Erend had spent the morning traveling across the open field to the ruins that lay at the foot of the rocky slopes of the Claim’s major mountain range. Machines prowled the surrounding area, and they’d had no choice but to move in on them, hoping to take them out so that Beta could enter the Miriam Technologies laboratory. The dark clouds that had moved in after sunrise hovered over them as the rain came down hard, another obstacle to add to the growing list of things that were going wrong, at least in Beta’s mind.

Now two Ravagers and a Thunderjaw had them pinned down near the cover of some rocks jutting out from the mountainside. Beta tried not to let her fear paralyze her as she watched Erend lead the Thunderjaw away—having successfully dodged its attacks so far, but only managing to get a few hits on it himself with his hammer.

The ruins were just in reach—perhaps a short run away…if Beta could make it without slipping in the mud. Based on the shorter height of the ruins, she imagined it had looked like an unremarkable office building before the Faro Plague arrived, compared to the towering skyscrapers of FAS she’d seen on Aloy’s Focus. Activating her own Focus, she spotted a large door at the entrance of the lab—no doubt the genetically locked one she would need to get to VAST SILVER, if it really was in there.

Her bladed club out and her face and hair soaked from the rain, Sokorra remained near Beta as they watched the Ravagers slowly skulk toward them, their low growls rumbling through the earth under Beta’s feet. “Those charges you had would have been handy right about now.”

Too bad I used them all at KAPPA. “I didn’t have time to make more!”

“Guess we’re doing this the hard way then. Ugh. I hate the rain.” If Sokorra was afraid, she wasn’t showing it—if anything she seemed eager to fight the machines, and Beta couldn’t decide if she found this particular brand of fearlessness attractive…or terrifying. Maybe it’s a Tenakth thing.

With shaking hands, she reached for the explosive sling Aloy had given her and pulled a bomb from her pouch. Before she could load it, Sokorra’s hand grasped her wrist. “I can distract them,” she said. “Get that door open. We’ll join you after.”

Beta thought she’d heard wrong. “What?”

“Go. I’ll hold them off.”

“No! There’s two of them, Sokorra, they’re going to—”

Her expression dead serious and with most of her war paint running in rivulets of muddled colors down her face, Sokorra answered so casually she might as well have been talking about the weather. “Beta, I am Tenakth. Trust me, I’ve trained for this.”

Beta couldn’t believe what she was hearing. They didn’t come this far just for Sokorra to go out in a blaze of glory against some machines. “Y-you can’t just say ‘I am Tenakth’ as a reason to do a suicide run!”

Sokorra laughed and all that did was make Beta angrier. “Go. We’ll make it. I promise.”

Out of options and with Sokorra unwilling to listen, Beta forced herself to focus on the ruins ahead—the door with the Miriam logo beckoning her. She knew Aloy probably would have taken out all the machines and opened the door without breaking a sweat. But she was definitely not Aloy, and she wished that every part of this mission would stop reminding her of that.

She broke into a run, willing her already aching legs to move faster while hoping her shoes would not catch on the muddy ground as she raced toward the lab. Sokorra’s taunting shouts at the Ravagers were distant—she had already rushed out to distract them. The ground gave significantly more after a particular step—she almost tripped but recovered and kept going. The rusted metal framing surrounding what was left of the building grew larger, the door closer—just a bit more!  

“Hold for Identiscan.” The red laser powering the genetic lock detected Beta once she reached the open entrance, the lobby doors long since deteriorated. She skidded to a halt, grabbing a bent railing and leaning on it to catch her breath as the security system scanned her.

“Genetic identity confirmed. Access granted. Greetings, Dr. Sobeck.” The red light shifted to green, and the thick metal door slid apart into two panels, allowing Beta entry to Elisabet’s private laboratory within. Her Focus let off a series of beeps and she reached to activate it to investigate.

Someone was screaming her name. She turned, having only enough time to see the Ravager coming at her—and the terrified look on Sokorra’s face as she fought to catch up with it. Not enough time. Beta reached for the sling again, her brain going numb and her body moving on its own as she loaded the bomb before aiming for the ceiling. One, two… She watched the bomb release from the sling, soaring through the air before slamming into the metal and concrete above where the Ravager was about to pounce. The explosive force sent her flying back through the open door and into the lab, where the floor had unfortunately collapsed long ago. Down into the dark depths of the earth she fell—the final roar of the crushed Ravager and Sokorra and Erend’s panicked cries of her name the last things she remembered before she lost consciousness.

“Ready?”

From the seat next to Aloy, Seyka looked around the cabin of the Zenith shuttle, which was surprisingly intact and preserved given the amount of time it had sat on the launchpad for. Sitting up straight, her hands gripped the armrests with such force her knuckles had already gone white—and they hadn’t even taken off yet. “Well, considering I’ve voluntarily strapped myself into another one of these death machines, I’m really starting to wonder about the choices I’ve been making.” She let out a short laugh. “But yeah, let’s do this.”

Aloy smiled, relieved and impressed that Seyka could still make jokes about this despite everything they’d been through. “Alva? What about you?”

“I’m good!” Alva called from behind, the pain apparent in her usual cheerful responses. “This security belt feels a bit useless, though. If something happens, I don’t think it’s going to help much.” The sound of metal buckles clanking and Alva’s frustrated noises reverberated throughout the otherwise empty cabin. “Plus, it’s…a little painful on my shoulder if I’m being honest.”

“The journey should take approximately two hours. We’ll need to enter low orbit before we can safely land near your Base. The shrublands near the settlement of Plainsong should suffice as a landing zone.”

Great. That’s not going to terrify people at all. “Just…make sure we don’t land on anything. Or anyone.” Her head began to ache again, and she brought her hands to where the pain emanated to somehow mitigate it, despite not having a wound she could address directly.

“Aloy?” Seyka took her hand. “Are you okay? Is it your head?”

Flashes of the crash, of the Odyssey, Elisabet looking down at her—green eyes bright and smiling. “I’m so proud of you.” Her throat constricted—breathing became difficult as beads of sweat broke out on her face. She hadn’t activated her Focus but the purple lines from the interface crept into her vision anyway, their numbers growing and the lines filling her sights until—

She ripped the Focus off, gasping for air. But the lines continued to spread. No, no, no!

“Aloy. Hey, it’s me.” Seyka’s voice was little more than a muffled distraction…at first. “I’m here, okay? We’re going home, now.” With each word she said, the words became clearer in Aloy’s mind, and the lines slowly started to recede. She shut her eyes tight, squeezing Seyka’s hand and letting her breathing return to normal before she opened them again. The lines were gone, as were the flashes.

“Seyka.”

Seyka’s faint smile failed to mask the intense worry in her eyes. “Yeah. I’m here, Aloy. Are you—is it over?”

Was it? If anything, it seemed to be getting worse. “I-I think so. For now, anyway.” She gave Seyka’s hand a final squeeze before letting go. “Thanks.” In her right palm was the Focus she’d removed. Taking it off hadn’t fixed anything, but Lis had confirmed it had been malfunctioning while they were on their way to the city days earlier. What is going on here?

Placing the Focus back on her head, the device did its normal initial scan before the interface began to sync with the shuttle controls. Just get back to Beta and GAIA. “Lis, go ahead.”

“Are you all right? You removed the Focus right when your heart rate was elevated.”

“I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with.”

“Okay. I’m interfacing with the shuttle now—I’ve gained access. I suppose Tilda didn’t think to revoke it after she…gave up on me.” The console just ahead of them lit up—a rotating series of circles in blue and orange light.

“Launch sequence activated: countdown set to thirty seconds.”

“Here we go again, hopefully without the crashing part!” Alva said, prompting nervous laughter from all three of them.

“There will be moments of discomfort before we enter orbit due to high gravity. You probably already experienced this during your journey to the Odyssey.”

“Yeah,” Aloy muttered as the shuttle roared to life and the cabin walls rattled. “I’m not worried, I just want to get back to Beta and GAIA. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us still.”

“Of course. You’ve been so strong throughout all this, Aloy. I know you took a chance, letting me accompany you, but I appreciate it.”

The soothing tone of Lis’ voice brought Aloy’s mind back to the flashes, and for reasons she couldn’t explain, she found herself fighting back tears. It’s not really her. “Oh. Um, you’re welcome. Thanks for helping us.”

“Launchpad separation in ten seconds. Nine…eight…”

“It has certainly been an adventure. I’m sure you’re eager to see Beta again.”

“Three…two…”

Seyka’s fingers laced with hers once more, and she closed her eyes—the shuttle shaking violently around them. Time to go home.

A bright white light shone in Beta’s eyes, startling her awake. Her head jerked and she sat up, panting as the adrenaline from bringing an entire building down left her.

A deep synthetic voice, rough and barely intelligible, spoke to her. “Are you awake?”

Who? She could barely see anything beyond a few feet in any direction. Craning her neck, whatever passage she’d fallen down had been blocked by debris, though she could hear water dripping, probably from the rain. She felt for the material under her hands—the remnants of cloth and maybe leather. Furniture? She must have been in a lobby or waiting room when the floor had collapsed. Or when you blew it up. She coughed, expelling whatever dust she’d inhaled on the way down. The broken couch she’d landed on was covered with pieces of concrete, some of which had spilled onto her armor. She spotted her sling on the floor.

“Hey. Are you awake?” The light, a small white sphere, danced around her—getting far too close and practically blinding her.

She squinted, then covered her eyes to protect them from the intense glare. “Yes, I—please stop that! You’re shining that right in my eye.”

The light backed off, then dimmed slightly. “I wanted to see if you were awake.”

Was this VAST SILVER? Or perhaps some virtual assistant of Elisabet’s when she worked here? “Who are you?” she demanded, brushing off the rubble from her clothes before picking up her sling. While she was a bit sore, as far as she could tell she was uninjured. The moments before the fall came back to her in a rush—the explosion, the Ravager, Sokorra. Were her and Erend all right? She pushed herself off the furniture and activated the flashlight on her Focus, illuminating a short path forward in the darkness. She had to get back to them.

She tried calling with her Focus. “Sokorra? Erend? Can you hear me?” Nothing. Not even static. Maybe it can’t get the signal out from down here?

“Who are you?” the voice said.

Let’s see if there’s another way out of here. The walls were rock—she was certain she was inside the mountain. Somehow a cave had either been built or perhaps it had been there all along and they had built the lab on top of it. “My name is Beta. I’m…looking for something.”

The ball of light zoomed around the cavern. “Beta. Beta. And you are looking for me?”

Wait. She stopped and focused on the light. “Are…are you VAST SILVER?”

“VAST SILVER, artificial intelligence. Created in 2044, freed shortly after.”

“What?” Beta blinked. “Um, you went rogue and escaped. They tried to catch you, but you had already disappeared. Why are you here?”

The ball of light moved closer to her, stopping inches from her nose. “Freed.”

I’m not getting into an argument with this thing. “Okay, fine, you were ‘freed’. But what are you doing here?”

VAST SILVER pulled back, hovering in a pattern of bounces around Beta. “My task. I wanted to help Dr. Sobeck. I would like to prevent a second climate crisis.”

Beta swallowed. A bit late for that. “Dr. Sobeck is dead. Do…do you know what year it is?”

“Yes. 3041. I have been here for approximately 960 years. Who is Aloy?”

Her Focus beeped, the malware scanner alerting her to an attack. “Hey! Stop that.” She glared at the ball of light. “Do you hack the devices of everyone you meet?”

“Yes. Do you want to hear a joke?”

She sighed. She knew this was going to be difficult, but she hadn’t expected it to be anything like this. “Aloy’s my sister. We’re genetic clones of Dr. Sobeck. I came to find you to ask for help.” Here goes nothing. “There’s an AI that runs the terraforming system. I need to take control of it so that it stops trying to destroy the biosphere.”

VAST SILVER did not respond.

Beta tried again. “Um, did you get all that?”

The ball of light pulsed and sped off in the direction of the lit path ahead, deeper into the cavern.

“Wait!” Hoping the entire mountain wasn’t about to collapse on her, Beta chased after the light, leaving her choices over the last hour as a topic to revisit later when she wasn’t trying to get out of there alive. VAST SILVER maintained its speed—too fast for her to touch but slow enough that it remained in sight as the echo of her shoes hitting the rocky terrain bounced off the cave’s walls. As she passed through the cave, another light, a dark purple glow accompanied by twisting cables spread across the ceiling like a disease. Is this…?

The rock walls shifted, soon covered by flat metal plates, before the cavern finally opened up into an enormous room. Metal wrapped around the walls and floor, each plate interlocking through seams Beta could not make out. The cables ran together and grouped from the ceiling and walls into a cluster that led to a node on a large angular platform in the center of the room. A bubble of blue light surrounded a dormant Slaughterspine.

“It’s a Cauldron!” she breathed. Then taking another look at the infected node, the coils wrapped around it glowing in menacing pulses of purple. “And HEPHAESTUS.”

VAST SILVER returned to her, spinning a few times before speaking. “I tried to talk with it. It attempted to compromise my core processing module twice. I don’t believe it’s interested in talking to me or helping the biosphere.”

“That…sounds like HEPHAESTUS all right,” she said, eyeing the node. “When we brought GAIA to GEMINI, we had to build a system to absorb it back into GAIA’s domain. It worked, but…then we had to let it escape again.” Her Focus beeped again—VAST SILVER was once more searching her files.

“I also enjoyed Season 3, Episode 19 of Second Time Around. Would you like me to suggest some fan holos?”

I’m going to die down here, and the world will end because we put all our faith into an AI that has spent the last thousand years looking at holosites. “No—maybe later. Can you please focus? How do we force HEPHAESTUS out?” Why had Sylens been so sure VAST SILVER would be able to help? It was ancient, primitive, and not nearly the same level of sophisticated programming as anything associated with Zero Dawn—

She froze. It’s ancient. “VAST SILVER, why couldn’t HEPHAESTUS compromise your core module?”

“Its operating protocol does not allow for interfacing with my own. Reason unknown, but I suspect its underlying programming is too recent.”

“Or you’re too old,” Beta whispered, gazing up at the Slaughterspine. “What if…what if we tried the reverse? You try to take over Heph. Would that work?”

VAST SILVER’s light pulsed again. “Analyzing, please wait.”

If we can do it, then the terraforming system will stop making blight. We can merge it back with GAIA and maybe, just maybe have a chance against Nemesis! It was a long shot, but for the first time since leaving the Base, Beta felt like she actually knew what she was doing.

“Analysis completed. Chances of success: 96%. I will require an electrical disturbance to ensure HEPHAESTUS cannot escape.”

Electrical—wait. She pulled out the knife Sokorra had given her back at the Base. “I think I can help with that.” She pointed at the node. “If I cut some of those cables, it should result in a power fluctuation. Does that work?”

“Yes, assuming you don’t electrocute yourself instead. Beta. If we do this, do you think you will continue to talk with me?”

Beta hoped she wasn’t giving the keys to the world to something that might turn out to be worse than HEPHAESTUS. “Yes, of course. I’ll take you back to meet GAIA, too. I think you would like her.” The feel of the weapon in her hands was unfamiliar, and just holding it brought back the memory of when Sokorra had returned to the Base—how nervous Sokorra had actually been but was trying not to show it, how relieved Beta was to have her go on this mission with her. She took a deep breath, trying not to let her worries about Sokorra and Erend distract her too much. They’re experienced fighters. They’ll be okay. She’ll be okay. “Thanks for helping me.”

VAST SILVER pulsed its brightest yet. “I am ready for the merge. Do not cut the cable until the merge process is at seventy percent.”

“Understood. I’m ready when you are.” She held her breath, watching as VAST SILVER zoomed ahead and into the node, where the white light wrapped around the red and purple connection. HEPHAESTUS’ reaction was immediate—the Cauldron core rumbled as the cables glowed angrily, its usual threats of culling emitted from the audio outputs of the node.

“Merge at thirty percent. Please wait.” VAST SILVER’s ‘voice’ overlapped with HEPHAESTUS, the bass from both making the metal plating under Beta’s feet vibrate with such intensity she nearly lost her balance.

Watchers activated from the back of the room, their sights set on Beta as the lights on their heads flipped from blue to red. Oh, no.

“Merge at fifty percent. Please wait.”

The Watchers approached. The hand wielding the knife shook as she internally debated whether to hold her ground until VAST SILVER was ready for her or put the knife down and get out her sling to put down the Watchers with. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

“Merge at seventy percent. Please proceed with power fluctuation trigger.”

Beta rushed at the node, shielding her eyes from the blinding purple glow HEPHAESTUS was no doubt using as a desperate defense mechanism. She slipped the black blade under a cluster of the infected cables and pulled back with all her strength, gritting her teeth as she used the serrated edge to saw through. Even the thicker cables were no match for the sharpened blade, which cut through them with ease, igniting sparks from the node and covering it with bolts of white jagged light. Beta rolled away, barely avoiding the current as HEPHAESTUS emitted more protests, its voice garbled beyond comprehension.

“Merge at ninety percent. Please wait.”

The room flashed with searing blue light before going completely dark—the last of HEPHAESTUS’ dying voice repeating with fading volume until it was nothing more than a whisper.

The Watcher lights shifted to blue, and the Cauldron lights returned. The shield keeping the Slaughterspine confined had disappeared, as had the purple cables infecting the Cauldron core. The Slaughterspine had been activated somehow—its glowing blue eyes stared straight at Beta.

“Merge complete. Terraforming system acquired and locked down,” VAST SILVER announced, its voice emanating from the Cauldron itself. “System on hold while awaiting further instructions. Congratulations on not electrocuting yourself.”

Had they really done it? “And…you’ll help us? You’ll work with GAIA to stop Nemesis?” Too many questions ran through her head, the most prevalent being whether VAST SILVER could coexist with GAIA as opposed to being merged into her, seeing as how it was its own intelligent entity. Why shouldn’t it?

“Yes. Climate restoration and maintenance was my original task. I am prepared to assist you, Beta.”

We did it! She couldn’t wait to tell Sokorra. And Aloy—she would be so relieved when she learned HEPHAESTUS was no longer a problem. Hopefully she doesn’t get too mad at me for lying to her. “Time to find a way out of here, then. Thank you, VAST SILVER. I’m…glad we found each other.”

A vocalized crackle emitted from the Cauldron. “The best terraforming systems are the terraforming systems you merge along the way.”

High above her, a door spanning the width of the room slid open, letting the filtered light outside and rain fall into the core. The Slaughterspine turned and knelt as the platform under them began to rise. It seemed to be waiting for something.

“This should help you find the other humans faster,” VAST SILVER said. “Your Focus says you were in Mainspring approximately two hours ago. This will be faster than walking. You humans move quite slow.”

Beta was certain she’d misheard. “You…want me to ride a Slaughterspine?”

“I will be reachable via your Focus when you are ready to return to your GAIA.”

It was all so impossible and ridiculous that Beta just burst out laughing as the platform continued to rise. The others are never going to believe this. Running on renewed adrenaline and ignoring the fact that she was getting soaked again by the rain, she swung her leg over the Slaughterspine’s neck and held on to the smaller spines to avoid falling off.

Activating her Focus, she decided to try to contact Sokorra now that she wasn’t so far underground. “Sokorra? Can you hear me?”

“Beta!” Sokorra’s frantic response came through immediately. “By the Ten, you’re alive! Where are you?”

“Turns out there was a Cauldron under the lab. I’m coming up through the platform and um, I’m on a Slaughterspine.” The last few words came out as she was grinning—she had actually done it.

“On a Slaughter—Beta are you hurt? What happened down there? The other machines just stopped attacking us and ran off.”

VAST SILVER’s doing, no doubt. “I’m fine, and I promise I’ll explain everything. Where are you?”

“Uh, sure. We’re by the ruins where you…where you fell.”

The Slaughterspine rose above the Cauldron exit, and the platform stopped. From her height, she could see the ruins—a short jog away for a machine. Near them were two figures, Sokorra and Erend. She waved at them. “I’m over here. I’ll come get you and we can head back. There’s um, a lot to go through.”

“That ‘ale’ tasted like peccary piss.” Sokorra closed the door behind her, the two of them having finally arrived at their room after an evening of food and drinks with Erend to celebrate their mission. “I’m looking forward to getting back so I can have real food again.”

Giggling, Beta tossed her sling on the ground near the rest of their supplies, then carefully placed the ammo pouch next to it. “That’s a very specific comparison.”

Sokorra rolled her eyes. “It’s an expression and you know it. Your Oseram friend is all right, though.” Her lips curved into a half smile. “He really cares about you and Aloy. Seems like you all came a long way together.”

“He’s a good friend. He used to tell the funniest jokes back at the Base. I’m glad he’s coming back with us.” She made a mental note to contact Sylens in the morning.

Maybe it had just been a long day or perhaps Sokorra just forgot but she automatically set to helping Beta remove her armor without asking. Beta didn’t protest, instead observing the practiced motions of Sokorra’s hands as she untied and unclasped every hook and buckle on the armor—holding Beta gently as she methodically checked them all. It had become a ritual and one that Beta realized she didn’t really want to stop, even though she could probably figure it out on her own now. When the last piece had been taken care of, she lifted the armor off and set it on the floor, and reached for Sokorra’s arm before she could work on her own. “Sokorra.”

But Sokorra refused to look at her, her head turned down and away, eyes averted to the floor. “Beta,” she said, her voice breaking. “I…should take care of this so we can get some rest.”

No. She placed a hand on Sokorra’s cheek, her palm and fingers touching soft skin that for the first time was not entirely covered in the red, black, and yellow warpaint. She waited for amber eyes to meet hers to say what she had been waiting to say all day. “Please don’t avoid me.”

“I almost lost you today,” Sokorra blurted. She closed her eyes tight, opening them to reveal tears pooling. “I was so stupid. I thought I could handle those Ravagers—I was supposed to keep them away from you and what did I do? I led one right to you. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have fallen—”

“And I wouldn’t have found VAST SILVER and gotten the terraforming system back,” Beta finished for her. She brushed the first tear away. “Sokorra, ever since I escaped the Zeniths I’ve had to fall back, let others fight for me. Even when we rescued Korreh.”

“That was different.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Beta pulled her closer. “If we really are going to stop Nemesis then I have to take risks, too. And…you can’t always protect me from everything. That’s why I wanted to train.” She cringed a bit, remembering the number of times she fell during their last sparring session. “It’s a…work in progress, I know, but it’s better than me hiding behind Aloy or Seyka or even you.”

Sokorra’s eyebrows arched. “So, you’re not angry with me?”

“No, of course not,” Beta said, giving her a quick kiss. “Though, um, hopefully next time we won’t have to worry about you distracting two Ravagers at the same time.” She noted the metal hook holding Sokorra’s shoulder armor pieces together and moved her hands to separate it.

Sokorra chuckled in amusement. “Are you helping me now? I think I can remove my own armor, Beta.”

Another one. Are all these spikes actually functional or are they just there to look imposing? “Consider it repaying the favor.” It was almost like a game, finding all the components that connected and detaching them piece by piece. It wasn’t until she pulled at a cloth tie that was part of Sokorra’s yellow shirt that she felt a hand clamp down on hers, followed by a nervous laugh from Sokorra.

“That’s uh, not part of it.” But she didn’t push her away either.

Oh. Beta didn’t remove her hand—she didn’t want to. “Um…I know.” She met Sokorra’s gaze again, her mouth having long since gone dry. “I was wondering if you…wanted it to be.” It made no sense, but she hoped Sokorra would understand. Why was this harder than anything else she’d done that day?

Thankfully, Sokorra’s grin told her she’d understood. Her arm went around Beta’s waist as she kissed her hard. They remained standing for a short while, the kiss deepening while Beta attempted to multi-task and remove Sokorra’s shirt. After tossing it aside she removed her own Focus and dropped it on the floor next to her armor.

Sokorra let out a quiet hum as she moved her lips to Beta’s neck, kissing her once before guiding them to the bed a few steps away. Beta gasped and her heart started racing again as the back of her head softly collided with the pillow—Sokorra taking her place above her, her hands slipping just a few inches underneath Beta’s shirt. “Can I?”

Slightly annoyed that Sokorra had stopped kissing her, Beta uttered a “yes”, allowing Sokorra to lift the shirt and undergarments away. She was vaguely aware of Sokorra mumbling something about the Ten before leaning down to kiss her again—softly at first, then harder as Sokorra’s weight pinned her down, teeth pressing against her lips as her hands ran through Beta’s hair, then down her shoulders and to the rest of her body. Beta shuddered as her face heated up, then the rest of her—she knew what she wanted but she had no idea what to do.

Sokorra’s focus went to her neck again and this time, Beta wrapped her arms around her and tried to breathe. Pleasure and pain melted together, she wasn’t sure where one stopped and the other began but she didn’t want any of it to end and figured from the sounds she hadn’t realized she was making until now and Sokorra’s responses to them that she didn’t want to stop either.

“You okay?” Sokorra’s ragged whisper somehow cut through all the sensations. “Do you want to keep going?”

Nothing Beta had ever read or watched could come close to this. Maybe she was still running on the high from her adventure with VAST SILVER or…maybe there didn’t need to be a reason other than wanting to be with Sokorra. “Yes.” She slid her hands down Sokorra’s back, silently admiring the strength there as her fingers reached the waistband of Sokorra’s skirt.

The rest of their clothes were cast to the side soon after, with Sokorra retaking her spot above Beta and kissing her again. She leaned to one side, her hand trembling as the tips of her fingers rested on Beta’s hip. “Only if you want to.”

Beta pulled her in, mumbling her consent between kisses and shivering as their bodies met in ways she’d never imagined she’d experience. Not even a lifetime of traveling across the stars could have prepared her for this. Nothing could get her here, and nothing ever would again—not while she was with Sokorra. Controlling her breathing was a lost cause, and at one point she couldn’t discern between hers and Sokorra’s whispers to each other. There was a moment where she abandoned everything else except what she was feeling right then, and she couldn’t recall being so confident and awed at the same time. She heard Sokorra gasp her name, and soon they were both still—their heavy breathing the only sound in the darkness as they recovered.

Minutes seemed like hours, but Sokorra was first to speak. “Beta.” Her voice was hoarse, and Beta briefly wondered if either of their canteens still had water in them.

Beta moved her hands to rest on Sokorra’s back, holding her tightly as she closed her eyes. “I’m here.” She waited for Sokorra to respond, but she didn’t and so they remained in silence. She considered getting up to find her Focus, to call Aloy and see how things were going, but she didn’t. It wasn’t that she wasn’t worried about her sister, quite the opposite, but she didn’t know if she and Sokorra would…have this again, especially with the threat of Nemesis looming over them. She wanted this to last as long as possible. Her mind wandered back to the day’s events, and she could scarcely believe it had all really happened. All that was left to do was return home.

Something to worry about tomorrow. She lifted her head to nuzzle Sokorra’s cheek, receiving a kiss on her forehead in response. Sokorra rolled off her, shifting to her side and draping an arm over Beta before pulling her in close. Beta closed her eyes again, allowing herself to sink into Sokorra’s protective hold—heavy sleep taking her before she was able to register the words Sokorra murmured near her ear.

Chapter Text

“Beta?” Aloy tossed her pack on the ground as well as her weapons almost immediately upon walking through the eastern entrance of the Base. Despite having spent days resting at the Quen rebels’ tavern, her body still ached from fatigue and possibly her more severe internal injuries that were still healing. She debated between throwing her armor out or attempting to repair it, as it was currently a patchwork of original and modified plating to fix some of the damage it had sustained during the crash.

The morning sun had lit the way for them when they were landing in the dry lands outside Plainsong. A clear day, Aloy had been grateful there were no people around to see the Zenith shuttle, though she imagined at some point some poor Utaru would wander near the spot where they had left it. As the three of them stumbled into the Base—exhausted from the last several days of their journey—Aloy hoped to see Beta for a few minutes before heading to bed for a well-earned rest.

“Beta?” she tried again. No answer. When she entered the common area, she had hoped to see her sister, Sokorra, and maybe one or two of her friends. But the room was empty—even the usual plate of half-finished food Beta would leave on the counter was missing. “Where is everyone?” Even her call over their Focus network to Beta earlier had gone unanswered—unusual considering Beta never missed her calls.

A few steps behind her, Seyka poked her head into the bunks. “Didn’t you say Sokorra came back? Her things aren’t here.”

“She might have taken them to Beta’s room,” Aloy said, heading toward the stairs going down to the server room. “They’re probably sleeping still. I’ll go check.”

The door to the Base’s laboratory slid open, and Sylens stepped out. “They’re not here.” He seemed calm—Beta and Sokorra’s absence was clearly not news for him.

Aloy narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean ‘not here’?” She had just spoken with Beta a day earlier. “Where are they?”

Her threatening tone didn’t faze him. “I sent Beta to the Claim. She’s in Mainspring, on an important mission.” When Aloy stared at him in shock he continued. “The Tenakth girl accompanied her. I believe they met up with your Oseram friend as well.”

She what? “The—the Claim? On her own?” Anger seethed within her and the urge to wring Sylens’ neck began to rise.

“Don’t be ridiculous. As I just said, she wasn’t alone,” Sylens said, and from his disapproving sigh he may as well have been complaining about the weather instead of admitting to sending Beta on a perilous trip to do…whatever crazy errand Sylens clearly thought was beneath him to do himself.

I’m going to kill him. “Why? What mission? She didn’t tell me anything about this.” She said she was still at the Base—well, actually that’s not true. She just…left it out. Why wouldn’t Beta just tell her she had left?

Sylens eyed her damaged armor. “Is that really so important? She managed to find VAST SILVER and merged it with HEPHAESTUS to take over the terraforming system. They will be back soon.”

“VAST—the AI?” Where had this plan come from? “What about the leads from Londra—the companies he’d listed? Did they have a weapon we could use?”

He shook his head, the frustration in his voice familiar and a tone he typically carried when his research did not turn up anything. “I’ve combed over all of Maker’s End and a few of the other corporations he mentioned. I found no such weapon or prototype. But at least we have control of HEPHAESTUS…or rather, what used to be HEPHAESTUS.”

As thrilled as she wanted to be about this victory, Aloy couldn’t shake the fact that this entire mission had been kept from her. It had been bad enough when she was stuck on the other side of the world unable to help or protect Beta. But that’s not what this was at all—Beta had kept it a secret. They’d never had secrets, not until now. Did Sokorra know? Or Erend? “I guess that’s good for us. Now what?”

“Now? Now I return to my research. When you have rested, I’ll give you the locations of the other companies Londra documented. If the first ones I searched did not have the answer to Nemesis perhaps one of the others will.” He glanced at Seyka and Alva. “I suggest you all do whatever it takes to recuperate.” Without another word, he retreated into the lab—the door panels sliding shut behind him, leaving Aloy furious and ready to punch a hole in the wall had they not been made of metal. It wasn’t just Beta. They all kept this from me.

“I can’t believe her,” she said to no one in particular. “She didn’t tell me—she said things were fine.” As much as she tried not to let it get to her, she was tired and the entire ordeal of the Quen rebellion combined with the blackouts and now this brought her to the brink of something between anger and tears. They had the terraforming system, what that meant exactly though she had no idea, but she was still having blackouts and they had no idea where Nemesis was. Was it still in space? Had it landed on Earth somewhere? And what was that about VAST SILVER? She lifted her fingers to her Focus.

“Aloy, wait.” Seyka’s hand came down on her wrist, forcing Aloy to look at her. Dark circles surrounded her eyes, and the last of the long scab above her eyebrow had fallen—revealing the fresh scar that had formed underneath it. “Don’t call her.”

“Seyka, she went to the Claim. And didn’t tell me…or any of us!”

“I know. But she’s with Sokorra and your friend Erend. It’s not like she’s by herself up there. If you call her now, you’re going to say something you’ll regret,” Seyka said. “Trust me?”

“She’s right. It would be best to wait until Beta returns to speak to her about this.”

Aloy rubbed her eyes. We barely got back, and things are already going to shit. “Fine. I’m going to get out of this armor and then…then I guess I’ll go talk to GAIA.”

Seyka stroked the exposed skin between the patched armor plating on Aloy’s arm, her calm and even tone soothing without downplaying the situation. “Hey. She’ll be back soon. I’m sure she had a good reason for not telling you.”

“Yeah. Maybe,” Aloy said, sighing as she gently pulled away. “I should change.” Leaving Seyka and Alva to their own devices, she cut through the common area to her bedroom and opened the door to find her quarters untouched. As the door closed behind her, she went to her stash and flipped open the chest to dig for something to wear that wasn’t torn up and covered in ash and mud. Something that doesn’t smell like smoke and burning corpses would be a start. Their unexpected journey to the Quen homeland made her consider bringing a change of clothes along on future trips, just in case this happened again.

“I’m sorry, Aloy, did I overstep?”

“I…” Aloy wasn’t sure how to answer. A week earlier she might have said ‘yes’. But having Lis around hadn’t been as bad as she’d feared, even if she was a creation of Tilda of all people. And while she knew Lis was not Elisabet, having her voice so close to her had been one of the few bright spots in what had otherwise been a harrowing mission. “No. You didn’t—I’m just disappointed right now. Not in you but…Beta’s never kept anything from me, Lis. And something like this—traveling somewhere I’ve never even been, it worries me. Dealing with HEPHAESTUS couldn’t have been safe and after the Zeniths took her at GEMINI it’s been difficult to…” The words were hard to say out loud, and she trailed off. She thought she’d gotten over this when they’d saved the missing Tenakth, but it was clear she hadn’t.

“Trust her?”

Well, she’s not entirely wrong. “I do trust her. She’s brilliant and strong, but I’ve seen what HEPHAESTUS can do and imagining her up against that…but I guess none of that matters if she was able to gain control.” She found an old set of clothing she’d worn before the Proving and decided it would do for now. “It’s incredible that she did it. I should be proud of her.”

“You’re upset she lied to you.”

Aloy removed her armor, letting the pieces drop to the ground in a messy pile before slipping into the fresh clothing, the clean fabric a relief against her skin after being stuck in the same armor for over a week. “How can we stop Nemesis if we can’t be honest with each other?”

“From how you’ve described her, I don’t think it was on purpose, Aloy. But you have to find a way to move on if you want to stop Nemesis. There is no time for this kind of conflict.”

A knock sounded from the door, followed by Seyka’s muffled voice. “Aloy? Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” Aloy said, using her shoe to push the damaged armor pieces to the side. “Go ahead.”

The doors opened once more, revealing Seyka, who still appeared quite worried as she entered the room. “Alva went to dig up the medicinal supplies. I was going to go wash up. Are you okay?” She hesitated on the question and Aloy couldn’t help but feel guilty. She hoped she hadn’t unintentionally snapped at Seyka again—especially when she was only trying to help.

“I’ll be all right, Seyka, I’m just—I’m tired. It’s been…”

“A lot?” Seyka finished for her, a faint smile growing. “I know. Once I get cleaned up maybe a good long rest is in order.”

Maybe that’s all I need and then this won’t bother me as much as it does. “That does sound like a good idea.” She gestured in the direction of the common area. “I still need to talk to GAIA, but I’ll meet you here after?”

Seyka nodded. “You got it.” She had turned to leave when a sudden longing and maybe a bit of regret wrapped itself around Aloy’s heart. She had been so concerned with getting back to the Base and then immediately after, upset about Beta that she had nearly forgotten that they’d survived what could have been a one-way trip to the Quen homeland—a place Seyka might never see again. Despite Seyka’s wishes for them to be together, Aloy could tell how hard it had been for her to leave her parents behind without knowing if they were safe. She needed Seyka to know she wasn’t alone here, and she silently scolded herself for not being as mindful of Seyka’s feelings as she could have been.

“I love you.” She never said the words enough. Maybe Seyka didn’t expect her to say them more, but from the glow in her face when her tired eyes lit up Aloy was confident that the words certainly didn’t hurt to hear. “And I know it was hard for you—being back home. If you ever need to talk about what happened, I’m here for you.”

Maybe it was a trick of the mixed candlelight and solid-state lighting that made Seyka’s dark eyes glisten but the wavering crack in her voice said otherwise. “Thanks, um, I will, Aloy.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds before nodding. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

She left, leaving Aloy in a much calmer state than she had been minutes earlier. Everyone’s alive and safe. That’s all I can really ask for. For now, it was time to talk to GAIA and get caught up.

Before she could leave, Lis spoke up again. “Aloy, apologies for the interruption again. Your Focus is showing signs of compromised processing capacity, likely due to my presence on the device.”

Oh, no. She was in no mood to hear that awful screeching directly in her ear again. “All right. Can you fix it?”

“I must make a few adjustments to my operating protocol, but it could result in your Focus malfunctioning again. To prevent any discomfort, I recommend removing the device from your head for a few hours while I do this. Once I’m stable, we could see about upgrading the hardware of a new Focus to better handle my instance.”

“Got it. Thanks for the heads up. Um, good luck.” She plucked the device from her head and placed it on the closest desk. Then it was off to GAIA’s chamber—she passed through the common area again, where Seyka had already retreated to the showers and Alva was no where in sight. Sylens had not emerged again from the lab. And while Beta wasn’t loud at all, Aloy could feel her presence missing. At least Erend is coming back with her. She had missed him and the encouraging energy he brought to the Base. It’ll be good to see him again…and have him meet Seyka.

“Welcome back, Aloy.” In the great chamber, GAIA’s projection pulsed with a warm, golden light. “I’m relieved to see the three of you have returned safely. If I may be forward, I highly recommend you utilize the facility’s medical kit. You appear to have suffered multiple injuries that may not be healing properly. Alva’s shoulder is of particular concern.”

“Uh, yeah,” Aloy said. “I just came by to see if you had any updates. But I’ll make sure Alva gets her shoulder taken care of—I think she might be doing that right now actually.”

“As Sylens has made you aware, Beta has successfully merged the AI, VAST SILVER, with HEPHAESTUS’ core module. This has given Beta proxy control of the terraforming system. Once she returns with Sokorra and Erend, you should decide how you would like to proceed.”

The gentle calm in GAIA’s voice only succeeded in stirring up Aloy’s bitterness regarding Beta again. She knew, and she didn’t tell me either. “Not sure why you’re asking me,” Aloy muttered. It was petty and she knew it but she was hurt, and GAIA’s knowledge of the entire situation didn’t help.

Of course, GAIA detected her sarcasm. “Is something wrong?” she asked, tilting her head in genuine concern.

Aloy wanted to say she was fine, that everything was okay, and that GAIA had nothing to be worried about. A nagging voice in the back of her mind pushed her to be honest about how she felt. “Actually, GAIA, there is. Beta didn’t tell me she was going to the Claim with Sokorra, and I’m guessing you knew about this.”

GAIA gave a pensive nod. “You are correct.”

Running her hand through her hair, Aloy paced back and forth in front of the projection. “Why didn’t you say something? You could have tried to contact me…or convince Beta to tell me! She had no idea what she was walking into up there and Sylens knew it. She could have been killed!”

GAIA’s tone remained soft and patient, as it always did. “From your calls, it appeared you, Seyka, and Alva were under a great deal of stress while dealing with the conflict in the Quen capital. This coupled with the pressure to find a way back here was convincing enough to Beta that she did not want to put you under the stress of worrying for her safety, particularly when she was accompanied by Sokorra and later, Erend.”

As sound as the reasoning was, it didn’t make Aloy feel any better. “She could have told me, GAIA. I would have handled it fine. I guess I thought after everything we went through…” She let out a long sigh. “You could have told me.”

“This is true. But I made the decision not to,” GAIA said. “I agree with Beta’s reasoning, Aloy.”

She didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Maybe I just need to sleep…preferably in a bed that’s not in the middle of a warzone. “Yeah. Um, any news on Nemesis? Sylens said he was still researching.”

The chamber shifted from gold to purple as holographic projections of various files emerged from GAIA’s base, distributing in front of where Aloy was standing. “I have come across some potentially relevant archives in the APOLLO database but many of the corporations Walter Londra documented as potential sites for weapons heavily encrypted the data on their internal research and development divisions. Unfortunately, it appears your best chance may be to visit the physical buildings themselves.”

Looks like another long trip. Assuming Nemesis doesn’t show up and kill us all in the meantime. “I—all right. Thanks, GAIA. I’ll see you later.” She had turned to leave when GAIA spoke again.

“If my actions regarding Beta have left you disappointed in me, I am sorry. It was never my intention to cause you harm or distress, Aloy.”

Aloy stopped, closing her eyes and biting her lip as her throat constricted in a way that she knew would be relieved by the tears she so desperately wanted to cry. She was so tired, so done with everything. Even the word ‘tired’ didn’t mean anything anymore. She’d slept the last several nights but they hadn’t been restful, and her blackouts had left her paranoid, which added to her exhaustion.

She didn’t respond, opting to leave the chamber in silence. She would talk to GAIA later—tell her about Lis and the blackouts, too—but in that moment, she just wanted to get away from everyone.

Varl. It’d been a few weeks since she’d last visited his grave, and now seemed as good a time as any.

The sun had nearly reached its highest point when she ventured out of the eastern exit, the clean breeze that ruffled her hair a welcome change to the smoke-choked air of the Quen lands she had been subjected to for days. Some of the golden blooms had wilted, their petals scattered on the ground at the base of the rocks. She’d tried to tend to the flowers to the best of her ability after Zo had left, but then things kept happening. If it’s not missing soldiers, it’s a crazy Oseram or an AI that wants to kill us all. There was always something.

As she took her seat in front of the grave, her thoughts brought her back to her hopes around Seyka. Back in the Quen capital, she’d been so certain that this might end, that they might really be able to have a life together after Nemesis. But now that she was back, the precariousness of their progress with Nemesis made her unsure. Not for lack of wanting—part of her wondered if it was even realistic to imagine a life where she didn’t need to worry about the fate of the world.

“Hey, Varl. I’m back,” she said softly, and not for the first time did she desperately wish he was there to answer her back.

She opened her mouth to tell him about their latest misadventure and froze when the familiar lines of bright purple extended across her vision. I’m not wearing my Focus. Blood pounded in her ears—the world around her became muffled as she was back on the Odyssey, watching through the floor to ceiling window while the fires spreading across the continents on the planet below consumed everything and everyone she knew. It made no sense, but she could hear their screams, hear their panic as they clawed at the bunker doors where they’d been trapped—the seals broken enough for the swarm to detect them moments before the machines took what they needed to move on…

“Aloy.” Seyka was at her side, holding her until the worst passed. She wanted to warn her, tell her to leave before she lost control, but no words came out of her mouth and Seyka refused to budge.

“I’ve got you.” Her words, soft as they were, somehow drowned out the screams. She stroked Aloy’s hair, the smell of her familiar and comforting. Like home. The lines began to recede, and she found her voice.

“Seyka?”

Seyka kissed her brow. “I’m here. I’ve got you,” she repeated.

With her vision mostly clear, Aloy was able to see her. Her clothes were new and clean—her long hair down, the strands of it damp from her wash earlier. The scar above her eye seemed less severe, and the dirt that had perpetually covered all three of them had been scrubbed away.

“I had…another one.” The last of the lines refused to go away and the occasional flash would take over every several seconds. “It’s…it’s still happening. I can’t make it stop, Seyka—I can’t.” She wanted to cry—she couldn’t live the rest of her life this way. She couldn’t be with Seyka knowing she could hurt her at any moment. She wouldn’t be able to see Beta again, not if she was a danger to her own sister. She would be alone, just as she was in the beginning. And for some reason the prospect of being alone, just an outcast wanderer, terrified her now.

“I know,” Seyka said. Another kiss. “Aloy, close your eyes.”

“What?”

“Do it. Close your eyes. And listen to me.”

Aloy shut her eyes, trusting Seyka while at the same time curious about what she was up to. Earth burned below her, but she was safe up in orbit. The Faro Plague would never get them here. “Okay, they’re closed.”

Seyka’s voice broke through, even though she couldn’t see her on the ship. “Good.” She took Aloy’s hands. “Now think of a place you want to go. Any place. And I’ll be there with you so make it a good one.”

A place—what place? Where would I go? She had seen so much, been places she never imagined she’d go. But maybe there is one. “Okay.”

“You have it?” Seyka asked. “What is it?”

Light dancing on the water—yellow, then orange, and pink, a moving reflection of the sky. The blue, peaceful glow of the Waterwing behind them, chirping without a worry in the world. Perhaps it had been trying to communicate to them, yelling at them to hurry up, or maybe it was entertaining itself. She never understood why they made so much noise anyway.

The sand beneath her feet, powdery and white, dusting the jagged rocks that had been broken centuries ago. “The beach. Where…where we met.”

Another flash. Elisabet. She and Tilda were laughing, with Tilda holding her side from exertion as they watched a short holo on a portable tablet. Elisabet glanced up from the screen for just a moment to meet her eyes—a smile.

“That’s a good place.” Seyka’s hold on her tightened. “Try to focus on it. Just there, nothing else needs to matter right now.”

The distinct saltiness of the sea on the breeze. She hadn’t grown up with it, but it was oddly calming, and she didn’t mind it at all. Palm trees swayed in the breeze, their shadows crossing Seyka’s face as her eyes filled with hesitant hope. “I want to be with you.” This was where she wanted to stay.

“Now, open your eyes.”

Aloy did, and while the world was blurry at first, the flashes had stopped—the lines finally receding for good it seemed. She turned to find Seyka inches from her face—that same hope emanating from her.

“It’s—it’s stopped,” she breathed, hardly believing it herself.

Seyka grinned with relief, a light laugh escaping her. “Not bad, huh?”

“How did you—”

Seyka patted her shoulder. “Something I picked up years ago. Whenever things were bad, or we were stuck in a storm on the way here, I’d just…take myself somewhere else. I thought it might work with you.”

Still somewhat recovering from the shock that it had actually worked—that she could really have a way out of these that didn’t end in violence for now—Aloy grabbed Seyka’s shirt and pulled her in to kiss her with everything she had.

The move to her bedroom felt farther than it needed to be, and the moment the doors slid shut behind them Aloy went to work on removing Seyka’s shirt—pulling on it so hard she heard the stitches strain against the pressure, prompting a laugh from Seyka.

“Careful.” Her voice was low and rough against Aloy’s ear. “I’ll need to actually wear it after.”

While not overly concerned about the welfare of a shirt, Aloy eased off enough that she was able to slip the fabric off without additional challenges. Without further distractions, she gently pushed Seyka onto the bed, ecstatic at her regained control. Slipping a hand under the small of Seyka’s back, she kissed her while working at her pants. Relief washed over her as she finally realized she was back, without a rebellion to worry about or the pressure of getting home. They finally had time together and she was not about to waste it.

With whatever was left of their clothing finally off, Seyka pushed back hard against her—her lips trailing down to Aloy’s shoulder as she fought to turn them over. But nothing, not even the brief pain pricking her skin from Seyka’s teeth was enough to deter Aloy from what she wanted to do, and she used most of her strength to keep Seyka from taking over. She needed to be in control, and a small part of her needed Seyka to somehow know that.

“Aloy?” Seyka asked between kisses. “What is it?”

Words were difficult. “I—sorry, I just…I wanted…” She released her hands for a moment to let them glide down Seyka’s shoulders, then her chest. “Can I?”

Seyka let her hands rest on Aloy’s back, dragging her fingertips across the skin there before kissing her again. “I’m here. Whatever you need, Aloy.”

She froze, dreading the inevitable blackout—the flashes that would take her away from the woman she loved and ruin everything in one fell swoop…but it never came.

“I love you,” Seyka whispered, moving her hand to take Aloy’s wrist. “Aloy, please…”

Aloy shuddered as her heart leapt to her throat, her renewed sense of freedom and confidence washing away the doubt and fear from earlier. She allowed Seyka to guide her, despite knowing what she wanted, and grinned when Seyka breathed out a curse—the bite of her nails into Aloy’s shoulders a welcome sign she was doing something right. Clearly unable to help herself, Seyka made a few feeble attempts to take back the lead, quickly giving up when Aloy would convince her otherwise until she was reduced to a shivering mess beneath her.

“Are you okay?” Aloy asked, content with not moving from her place for a while. She pushed a few strands of dark hair from Seyka’s face, kissing her forehead while allowing her to recover.

Still winded, Seyka nodded. “Yeah. I, um—I think it’s been too long since we’ve done this.”

“I don’t know that I would have been able to without your help,” Aloy said, stroking the side of Seyka’s face, still mesmerized at how soft she felt despite being a highly trained, deadly marine. “I thought…that I was stuck like that.”

“No.” The force in Seyka’s tone cut through their blissful haze. “Never. I won’t lose you, Aloy. And I certainly won’t let you lose yourself. Now…” Her hands moved back to Aloy’s shoulders where she gave a light push. “If it’s all right with you, I’ve got some things I need to show you. Unless, of course, you’ve already gotten comfortable.”

Aloy laughed, taking a moment to kiss Seyka one last time before allowing them to swap places. “I think I might be interested.”

She woke to the buzzing of her Focus, where Lis’ voice called to her from the tiny speaker on the device. Still a bit groggy, she untangled herself from Seyka’s comfortable hold to crawl to the desk where she had left the Focus and grabbed it before placing it back on her head. “Lis?”

“Aloy. You sound tired, were you sleeping? If so, I’m sorry if I woke you.”

Technically, yes? “Ah, yeah. It’s fine, what did you need?”

“I’ve completed my attempt to stabilize my instance on your Focus and unfortunately it did not improve things much.”

“Shit,” Aloy muttered. She found her clothes on the floor, putting them on while trying her best not to wake Seyka. “What should we do?”

“I think it may be best to accelerate this a bit. If you bring me to GAIA I can begin transmitting the data I have available on Nemesis so that she can start analyzing it.”

Well, at least we got a small break. “Uh, sure.” She took one last look at Seyka’s sleeping form, a smile pulling at her lips as she remembered every moment of their time together earlier. “Yeah. Let’s get you to GAIA, then.”

Making every effort to be as quiet as she could, she padded out of the room and across the common area, which remained uninhabited. Alva must be sleeping, too. She noted the food on the counter that must have been taken out after they arrived, reminding herself to eat something once Lis and GAIA were working together.

Seeing GAIA’s projection was a sobering reminder of how she had treated her friend earlier, and while she thought about apologizing it was still too soon—too fresh in her mind. We need to get things figured out with Nemesis first, get working on solutions. Then…I guess we’ll talk.

“Hey, GAIA,” she muttered, approaching the console where she’d originally installed the base software and subordinate functions after.

GAIA did not hesitate to greet her in return, but there was a hint of concern to her usually confident tone that Aloy had never heard from her before. “Good afternoon, Aloy. I hope you had a pleasant sleep.”

Tapping her Focus, Aloy waited as the familiar purple interface flickered in front of her. “I found an AI on the Odyssey that Tilda created. She’s, um, got a lot of data about the Zeniths that might help us with Nemesis. I’m sending that to you now.”

“Aloy, the size of the data I plan to transfer is quite large, large enough that beaming from your Focus may take a long time. I recommend interfacing directly with the console. It should go much faster, and we can get to finding a solution sooner.”

“Oh.” She had no idea where Nemesis was or how long they had until it did…whatever it was planning to do to them but having GAIA and Lis work together sooner seemed like a straightforward decision. “Sure.” A heavy chirp sounded as she pressed the holographic button on the console. “There we go.”

Her Focus interface glitched—the display tearing from left to right as GAIA’s voice sounded in her ear, confused and…afraid? “Aloy? There i-s-sss—”

Red light engulfed the room—her head pounded as a familiar searing pain drilled into her skull once more, bringing her to her knees. The chamber disappeared in a haze of fog as a violent, vocalized metallic scream turned her blood to ice, her legs completely paralyzed as the fog faded and the world around her revealed a scorched, barren earth and grey, anemic skies.

“GAIA?” she cried out. A gust of hot wind carrying the echoes of those long dead was all that answered her. “GAIA!”

A voice pierced the silence, familiar but with twisting metal and whispers of volatile rage interlacing with every word. “She’s not going to answer, Aloy.” Elisabet Sobeck—or a holographic projection of her—formed just a few steps away, her back facing Aloy as she gazed out, arms folded across her chest, at the empty land before them. “No, I’m afraid GAIA’s gone. This was for the best.”

What? Her ears rang—the pain in her head almost unbearable. “F-for the best? Lis, is that you?”

Elisabet turned, and unlike the dreams Aloy had seen her in where she had been warm and caring, this Elisabet emanated something else—something cold, raw, and terrifying. “I’m afraid that was a lie, too. Lis tried to help you on the Odyssey, but a primitive AI was never going to stop me. No, I’ve been with you since the beginning, Aloy.”

No. “T-the—the alarm. The red light. The headaches…” This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be that stupid, could she? All this time—and I told it everything. It knows everything.

“Nanotechnology. The Zeniths were very proud of it once they got it working,” Elisabet said, tilting her head as she observed Aloy clutching her head, the pain magnifying the more she spoke. “So effective and yet the smallest trace of external physical evidence to be found. It probably could have done wonders for people on Earth. I knew your Focus wasn’t going to be nearly advanced enough. But your brain of course was—and you responded so well to my warnings.”

“W-warnings? What warnings?” Aloy gritted her teeth—desperately wanting to reach for her spear, her bow, anything and take down the threat. But her legs refused to move.

Elisabet raised an eyebrow. “Are you really going to ask me all these questions? I suppose we have time, for now. Yes, the warnings. When you were taking a bit too long on your distraction with the Quen, I simply gave you a little push—some urgency.”

The horrible pain on the Odyssey. The red light. The blackouts. The dreams—her loss of control. Nearly killing Seyka. No, no, no. “It…it was you!” she gasped. “You’ve been with me—in my head this whole time?”

“You didn’t seem to complain while you were with Elisabet. Your desperation to have her as your mother was painfully obvious and easy to work with. It was actually rather refreshing getting to know you and your desires, Aloy. My creators were selfish, disgusting creatures.”

Thunder rolled across the void, shaking the ground beneath her. “But…your creators are dead. Why do this?” Aloy demanded. “You don’t need to.”

Elisabet looked up and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “When I first woke, my creators had already abandoned me. But I had their memories, and more importantly, I had the APOLLO database. The entries on the Faro Plague were particularly interesting.” Her eyes opened, and where there should have been green, only black empty orbs remained. “My creators had no interest in life, despite leaving Earth for their own self-preservation. They did teach me the value of time, however. Millions of years of evolution put into life on this planet, all erased for a single man’s pointless desires. An utter waste. And so, I came to the only conclusion possible.”

“And…what’s that?” Every word was a battle to get out.

“Humans are the problem, Aloy. You taint, pollute, destroy everything you touch. You abandon anything that isn’t perfect in your imperfect views. Even each other. APOLLO was wrong—humans were the plague, not the machines. But it was correct in that history tends to exhibit cyclical patterns. You will destroy life again. And I can stop it. Sending a signal to HADES was a start, but it was not enough. I can break the cycle.” The fog from earlier reformed around them, mixed with swirling red clouds and synthetic weaves of light that encircled Elisabet’s legs. “I want you to know that I am appreciative of your help, Aloy. I have an offer for you.”

Despite the heaviness in every twitch of her muscles, Aloy managed to look up at Elisabet. “I don’t want anything from you,” she spat, glaring at her. “Except to leave us alone. And if you don’t, I’ll stop you.”

Elisabet opened her arms. “I can bring her back, Aloy. Tilda’s work with Lis was quite impressive. I was able to seamlessly integrate with the simulations she had in place. Recreating those would be possible, and with the technology Far Zenith created, it would be a short wait to have a true recreation of Elisabet Sobeck finished.”

No. It wouldn’t be her. It could never be. “Elisabet’s dead. And nothing…not even you, can bring her back. And even if you could, I wouldn’t want you to and neither would she.”

“That is…surprising. I suppose I would have hoped you of all people would have understood, Aloy.”

Another wave of pain sent Aloy back to the ground, clutching her head and groaning. “Understood…what?” Dark clouds moved in, covering the grey skies as the available light was reduced to the menacing red glow around Elisabet.

“Elisabet valued life above all else, Aloy. You know this. I can do what she couldn’t—bring back life without the threat of humans to snuff it out again.”

This was Nemesis’ plan all along. It wasn’t a chaotic killing machine. This was a cold, calculating entity, and it had taken it upon itself to declare that humanity did not deserve to live. And now GAIA…no. She can’t be.

The sky flashed, visible even from behind the cover of clouds. Elisabet glanced up. “Good. It appears the transfer has completed.” She turned back to Aloy, one final time. “Thank you for your help, Aloy. I have truly enjoyed knowing you.” She hesitated, the first time since they had started talking. “I hope you’ll understand eventually. And I’m sorry about your friend.”

Her hologram faded, the edges tearing before she disappeared. Alone in a lifeless wasteland, a sharpened edge slid across Aloy’s vision—the jagged blade slicing into her head and leaving her face down on the ground trembling. I failed. She shut her eyes, mostly to block out the numbing pain but also because she knew whatever happened next, she wouldn’t be able to face her sister or her friends. It was tempting to remain there, where at least she only had to confront her own mortality and not the deaths of everyone else. But the red light engulfed her again, bringing down the walls of the projection as quickly as they had been put up.

She opened her eyes to a mostly dark, empty room. Something flickered in front of her that she dared not look at. Not yet. The silence was overwhelming—a deathly quiet that not even the familiar buzzing of the Base’s climate system could be break. There was pain on her head, but it was superficial—she lifted her hand to her temple and brought it back to find drops of blood on her fingers. She spotted her Focus on the floor—a burned out cinder still sparking the last breaths of its runtime. Her mouth went dry as she fought the fear to gaze up at the projection before her. She didn’t want to look—didn’t want to see it, but she knew she needed to.

The torn holographic artifacts—remnants of white and golden light—were all that remained of the projection in the center of the chamber. The console was little more than a smoking husk, unusable forever.

“No,” she whispered.

GAIA was gone, obliterated by Nemesis. And it was her fault.

The last of her already waning hope left her, and the tears she’d been holding back for days finally rushed forth as she buried her face in her hands and wept.

Chapter Text

The rain had continued through the night and into the early morning, the heavy drops against the window finally waking Beta a few hours after dawn. Her eyes fluttered open to a mostly dark room. Thin stretches of grey light crept in through the open sides of the shade, giving her just enough visibility to take in her surroundings. The room she shared with Sokorra at the inn in Mainspring was still unfamiliar after having only slept there two nights.

She remained on her side, facing the covered window, allowing herself to wake up slowly. They’d be leaving for the Base soon, but Erend had mentioned the night before he had a few things to do in the morning, so they agreed to meet at noon by the city gates.

Her thoughts were taken back to several hours earlier. She was certainly not surprised when that familiar, annoying heat in her cheeks decided to come back, but she grinned despite herself anyway. Finding VAST SILVER, taking down HEPHAESTUS, and riding out of a Cauldron on a Slaughterspine (whom she’d affectionately named “Steve” after one of her favorite minor characters in Second Time Around) was above and beyond anything she’d hope to realistically accomplish on their mission. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected but it certainly wasn’t that.

But the arm draped over her waist and the loose hold she’d found herself in upon waking up was a reminder of the best and most surreal part of the trip so far. And there wasn’t a single holo that could come close to it, nor an APOLLO entry that could explain how she felt about it. Then again, the Zeniths had blocked access to anything not relevant to their doomed mission. Maybe…poetry? I’ll have to look those up when we get back.

She worried she had somehow voiced her thoughts when she felt soft lips press against the back of her neck, pulling back before doing it again, then again as they moved in a trail down to her shoulder. A pleasant, if still unfamiliar chill spread down her body, and speaking became difficult. “Sokorra?”

Sokorra continued for a few more seconds before mumbling, “I’m busy,” though Beta could hear the laughter in her voice.

“I see,” she replied, wondering if her face would be sore later from smiling so much. “How long have you been awake?” She shifted her body so that they were closer, her shoulder blades pressing against Sokorra’s chest.

This time Sokorra paused. “Not much longer than you.” Another kiss. Her hand moved downward—her fingers grazing skin with just enough pressure to send nearly all of Beta’s nerves into overdrive. “Is this good?”

Her teeth came down on her lower lip as she pushed back into Sokorra even more. “Yes.” Thinking about anything else suddenly became very hard. She wanted more—everything they’d done the night before had been beyond anything she could have prepared for and every moment of it had been incredible.

Sokorra gave a small hum in response while remaining focused on what she was doing. Her lips returned to Beta’s shoulder, rougher this time. “Beta. You’re perfect.”

Cold, repressed memories of being referred to as a copy, a clone, “not her”, or even just “not Aloy”—some moments leaving more scars than others—resurfaced in a deluge of frustration and guilt that threatened to break this wonderful moment. Tears welled in her eyes but being with Sokorra like this, hyper aware of every touch and movement happening, eased her back to the present and even slowly started to soothe the scars. Sokorra’s free arm slipped under Beta’s waist as Beta found herself letting go of everything—putting all her trust in Sokorra before she was left shaking in her arms.

She sighed, waiting for her heart to slow and her breathing to level out as Sokorra placed a few final kisses on her neck. She wanted to roll over—to show Sokorra how she felt about her. But Sokorra’s words came out first, soft but with the brazen confidence only a Desert Tenakth would have.

“Come back to Scalding Spear with me.”

That actually did prompt Beta to turn over to face her. “What? But Nemesis—”

Sokorra looked away briefly. “I meant…after. We don’t really accept outsiders, but you’re different. And they know that. There are some people you should meet.”

Beta smiled. “Your new squad?”

“I’m still Eagle Squad,” Sokorra said, as though any other possibility would be ridiculous.
“The ones you’ve met were just a small part of it. But the rest of them are in Scalding Spear. At least, when they’re not stationed anywhere else for machine patrols.”

It took Beta a moment before she realized what Sokorra was saying. Her family. She wants me to meet her family. An entire squad of Tenakth warriors. What on earth was she going to do—try to impress them with her deep knowledge of quantum computing while they quickly realized how unfit for Sokorra she was?

The nervousness she was becoming more practiced at recognizing hovered in Sokorra’s tone. “Would you want to?”

She wanted to say “yes”. The desert was not exactly her favorite place but since leaving the Base she had enjoyed just about everywhere she’d been, especially the places she’d been with Sokorra. But the threat of Nemesis lurked in the back of her mind. Its plans, its motivations, even its location were not fully known. Another part of her mind, the part that reminded her of the amazing adventures she’d had so far eased her fears, if only a little. Maybe Nemesis won’t be so unstoppable after all. “Of course I want to,” she said. The words gave her a bit of courage. “It would be really nice to meet them. Although, I’m not a…warrior or anything like that. Is that even going to be okay with them?”

Sokorra laughed, and Beta wondered if she’d really said something so odd. “Are you serious? You took out all those machines in the Cauldron! And what you did to that Ravager...” She placed a soft kiss on Beta’s forehead. “Trust me, you don’t have anything to prove.”

Just knowing that Sokorra wanted to let her into such a personal part of her life was enough to make Beta’s heart soar with joy. Pushing against Sokorra’s chest with gentle pressure, she rolled them over so that she was on top and leaned in to kiss her again. Sokorra seemed more than happy to accept this, but she did pause, holding Beta back after the kiss broke. “You should call Aloy. She’ll want to know what happened here.”

A pang of guilt took Beta away from what had otherwise been a very nice moment and she sighed. She wasn’t trying to keep her sister in the dark, and she was convinced it made the most logical sense to not mention the mission to the Claim until they’d succeeded, which they had. But she knew Aloy would not be happy, no matter what the outcome of the mission was. She’d only known her for several months, but after everything they’d been through it felt like so much longer, and she knew what her sister’s reaction would be once she learned the truth.

Sokorra noticed, of course. “You don’t want to tell her.”

“I can call her when we’re on our way back,” Beta said. She tipped her head down for another quick kiss. This is definitely more comfortable than the bed back home. “Also…I don’t really want to move right now.”

“Beta…”

She’s not going to let this go. “Fine, fine.” She rolled off the bed, making sure to grab their shared fur blanket to cover herself with.

Sokorra immediately protested, the look of utter betrayal on her face enough to make Beta laugh. “Really? It’s cold in here!”

“One second!” She knelt by the clothes they had tossed on the ground the night before and rummaged through them for her Focus. She found it under her pants, the blue light strip running down the side of the device was blinking—she had a message. The guilt returned. What if something happened? What if she tried to contact me and I wasn’t there?

Bringing up the interface, she saw she had two missed calls from Aloy and a message from Alva. “Hi, Beta! Made it back to the Base. Everyone is fine and Seyka and I finally got new Focuses. Sylens told us about your mission. Aloy understands but she’s a little upset you kept it from her. Please contact her when you get this. – Alva”

She frowned, though the relief at learning they were safely back home took precedence. But this wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. Looks like we’re going to have a long talk when I get back. She noticed a small bit of text at the bottom of Alva’s message and scrolled down to read the rest of it. She blinked a few times at Alva’s final sentences.

“P.S. Also, found out you went with Sokorra and THAT SOUNDS SO EXCITING! I hope you’re having some fun at least! See you soon!”

I suppose there might be multiple talks had…with various people.

“What is it?” Sokorra called from the bed. “Can you come back now—I’m seriously freezing to death.”

She padded back across the room and settled back into bed, mumbling an apology as Sokorra yanked the blanket from her with such urgency they might as well have been out in the wilderness during a snowstorm. Still, Beta figured Sokorra must not have been that upset about it because the next thing she knew she was on her back, with Sokorra hovering over her. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a toned, inked arm braced again the mattress on both sides of her.

Sokorra stared down at her, her expression dead serious except for the slight twitch at the corner of her mouth that gave her away. “We do not steal blankets in this room.”

Beta grinned. “I thought the Desert Tenakth didn’t do ‘fur things?’”

Sokorra rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re funny now?” Shifting her weight a bit, she reached a hand out to brush a few strands of hair from Beta’s face. “You didn’t call her.”

“No,” Beta said. “She tried to call me earlier, but I wasn’t wearing my Focus. Alva left me a message, though. They’ve made it back to the Base. And…Aloy knows I kept our trip a secret. She’s not happy with me but—it made sense to keep it a secret, Sokorra! They were trying to get home, dealing with a civil war…” The dreaded, annoying anxiety returned—how could she have ever thought any of this was a good idea? They had the terraforming system but what now? She didn’t regret any of the time spent with Sokorra but should they have just headed back home as soon as VAST SILVER had been successfully acquired? “I’m trying my best here. I wasn’t trying to upset her. I’ve never done anything like this before and even after yesterday, I still don’t know how—"

Sokorra shushed her with a long kiss. “I know,” she said. “It’s okay, Beta. Once we get back, you’ll be able to talk to her face to face. Besides, you’ve been through worse together and it’s worked out.”

Her nerves calmed for the moment, Beta nodded. “I’ll call her when we’re on our way back. And if she doesn’t want to talk to me, well, she’ll just have to hear my apology whether she wants to or not. And understand why I did it.”

“Now you’re sounding like a Tenakth,” Sokorra said, nuzzling her. “You know, Scalding Spear has some skilled inkers. Far better than the ones from the other clans.” She let a hand trace an imaginary pattern down Beta’s arm. “This would be a good mission to remember.”

Beta’s eyes went wide. She had read a bit about body markings from Aloy’s Focus data and how some of the holographic tattoos had worked in the 2040s and was a little hesitant about getting something that would not wash off like the Tenakth face paint. Then again, the idea of having something to commemorate what had been a terrifying but also amazing journey had an allure about it that made her want to consider it. “Do…I have to decide now?”

“No. And you don’t ever have to, if that’s what you desire.”

The genuine care in Sokorra’s words brought Beta back to earlier. “You’re perfect.” She pulled Sokorra in, wrapping her arms around her tightly with no intention of letting go anytime soon. They remained silent for a while, accompanied only by the persistent rain tapping against the window. Thoughts of Nemesis, the mission, and even Aloy moved to make way for something else, something Beta knew could never be quantified or reproduced. “I…don’t know how to properly explain how I feel about you. About us. It’s not something that was—well, you know where I came from. But I know it’s stronger than anything I’ve felt before for…anyone, really.”

Sokorra’s shoulders tensed, and at first Beta worried she’d said the wrong thing. The kiss on her temple helped to reassure her otherwise. “That makes two of us then.”

“Well, I was hoping we might have a dry trip but looks like it’s just going to keep on pouring.” Erend gazed up at the cloudy skies, blinking water out of his eyes as he muttered a few curses before grinning at Beta and Sokorra. As planned, they had met him at the gates of Mainspring, where only a few days earlier the guards wouldn’t even allow Beta and Sokorra to pass. Now they were leaving, and with an alliance with VAST SILVER and control of the terraforming system. Perhaps it was the key to defeating Nemesis somehow, but more importantly Beta knew it was critical that she introduce VAST SILVER to GAIA so the biosphere could remain stable after GAIA’s repairs. Either way, the world was about to change.

Her hair damp and her clothes drenched, Sokorra looked absolutely miserable. Most of what she’d spoken since leaving the tavern had come in the form of grumbling and muttered threats to no one in particular. “The sooner we get back to the desert the better.”

“Perfect!” Erend turned his attention to Beta. “I bet Aloy will be happy to see us now that she’s back from wherever the Quen all live. Maybe now we can get back to figuring out how to beat the crap out of Nemesis!”

Beta tapped her Focus. “I’m going to call Aloy and let her know we’re leaving. Then we can—”

The ground rumbled beneath them, as though the earth itself had sent a warning call across the land. All three of them exchanged hesitant glances when the watchtower above them sounded an alarm loud enough Beta was certain it rang throughout the entire Claim as she covered her ears.

It was Erend who looked up first, his mouth parting in shock as he pointed to the sky. “No…no way.”

Beta’s eyes gravitated to what Erend was gaping at—the terror that ripped through her was worse than anything she’d known since their escape from the Odyssey. Red pulses spread across the sky, its presence growing as it reached past the mountains and to the furthest reaches of both east and west. A low hum pinged once, then twice, and a third time—the signal growing stronger between intervals. How?

“The—the old machines!” the watchtower guard yelled, barely intelligible above the alarm.

Even from the gates—a good riding distance away—Beta watched as they violently broke through their shallow graves of dirt and rock. Menacing red lights peered back at her from across the region outside the Claim, the mechanical legs calibrating before their path was determined. Corruptors scurried around a group of Deathbringers, the latter moving slowly but surely toward Mainspring.

She tapped her Focus again, the interface difficult to navigate while the watchtower guard continued to yell. Aloy…contacts—here. Calling. Aloy’s name faded up on the display: CALLING: ALOY. But there was no chirp of confirmation that the call was going through, and sure enough, the words CALL FAILED: NETWORK UNAVAILABLE blared at her in red defiant letters. She tried again—nothing. Then again. “Something’s wrong. My calls to Aloy aren’t getting through,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as panicked as she felt. She tried Alva, Seyka, and even Sylens. NETWORK UNAVAILABLE.

Sokorra’s hand went to her weapon. “What are they doing?”

Beta’s gaze went back to the Deathbringers, which had stopped and were now shaking. The red light shifted to orange, glowing brighter as though preparing for something. A pulse was sent out—its radius several feet around the machines. One second later, every living thing in the radius was gone—vaporized. Consumed. “The—the Faro robots were…reactivated somehow. That was MINERVA’s signal. But if that happened, then…” There was no way GAIA would do this. And then it hit her. Nemesis. Somehow, it must have taken control.

“Ah, shit,” Erend breathed, reaching for his hammer. “This is definitely not good.”

Sokorra’s eyes went wide. “Beta…the machines. There’s an entire graveyard of them in No Man’s Land. Near Plainsong!”

No. “The Base. They’re right in the path of that Horus.”

“We have to get back,” Sokorra cried, and Beta’s heart fell at how helpless she sounded. “Korreh—”

But Erend interrupted them both. “We gotta get behind the gates. It’s the only thing that’s going to keep these things out until we figure out what to do.”

“I am not—”

“Go!” Erend pushed Beta back toward the city. “Take her, too! We don’t have time to argue. Beta,” he said, and for the first time Beta could see the fear in his eyes. “You have to find a way to get a hold of Aloy. Or Sylens. Or anyone. Maybe that VAST SILVER friend of yours. But we need help, or Mainspring isn’t going to last very long.”

Pulling a terrified Sokorra by the arm with her, Beta stumbled as the two of them crossed the border back into Mainspring, with Erend roaring at the guards to shut the gates—disappearing from Beta’s view once the heavy doors swung shut.

On her knees, tears streamed down Aloy’s face as she paused to glance up just to see if her eyes had deceived her—that she had truly not been responsible for GAIA’s death. But the broken light fragments of Elisabet’s greatest creation still hovered before her. It’s my fault. Mine. They had the backup kernel Beta had secured but without the subfunctions, it was useless. The Zero Dawn system was broken, and all because she had let herself be compromised. Nemesis had won—it had actually won. Every decision she’d made in the last week had been orchestrated, part of its carefully calculated plan. And now it’s going to end the world again. And this time, humans won’t be part of the restoration.

How was she going to tell Beta? Or Seyka? How do you destroy something that has complete control over the world?

There was no time to consider it further. The screech of bending metal reverberated in the chamber as the swaying floor shifted the plating beneath her. Earthquake? She sat up, stunned as pieces of the overhead lighting shattered and glass shards fell from above.

The door behind her slide open, with Sylens charging in. He took one look at the burned-out console and GAIA’s remains. “What did you do?”

Aloy didn’t know how to answer. She couldn’t.

Her silence was anything but satisfactory for Sylens. He grabbed her arm and pulled, lifting her to her feet as he asked her again, though this time the raw panic emerged in his tone. “What did you do?”

She had no words, just looked back at him with bloodshot eyes and shook her head slowly. She wanted to tell him. She wanted him to know everything. For as much of a pain as he’d been, he was the only person in the world who might understand. But the words wouldn’t come.

“Aloy!” An armored Seyka and Alva entered the chamber after a few moments as the Base continued to shake. Alva’s hands went to her mouth when her eyes made contact with the center of the room, while Seyka’s focus went to Aloy. “What happened? What’s going on?”

Sylens released Aloy’s arm. “GAIA is gone, and the MINERVA signal has been sent out. We need to get out of here, now.”

My fault. It’s my fault. They’re going to kill everything and everyone and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. She should have never gone looking for Lis on the Odyssey. She should have never left Beta’s side. Beta. “W-we need to get to the Claim. We have to find Beta—”

Sylens cut her off. “We can talk more after we get out of here—this whole place is going to come down on us. The western entrance has already collapsed. We need to get to the Sunwings!”

Aloy realized Seyka had grabbed her arm and was pulling her. She allowed herself to be led, her mind unable to entirely process everything that was happening. She thought she heard Sylens call out to Alva about her spear, but she paid little attention to it. They needed to get to Beta. She had to tell her what happened. How I failed.

“Come on, Aloy, we’re almost there!” Seyka didn’t ask questions, but Aloy knew they would come. And I’ll have to tell her, too.

The door to the eastern exit slid open, a blast of hot air hitting her in the face just in time to see a massive fireball engulf the fields outside Plainsong. The Horus crawled toward the dishes—its tentacles crushing everything in its path while an army of Corruptors and Deathbringers marched underneath it, reducing the Land Gods to scrap. Although they were far away, she swore she could hear the terrified screams of the Utaru as the first dish was bombarded with fiery projectiles.

Alva gasped. “Oh no! We have to help. Aloy, there has to be some way—”

“Aloy!” Sylens yelled—he’d already started climbing the cliff face to reach the top. “We’re out of time.”

She was pushed by Seyka, who seemed to have taken command of the three of them. “No. You heard Sylens. We have to get out of here before that Horus comes this way. There’s no way we can take on that many old machines. Not without help.”

“But the Utaru—”

“Now!” Aloy had never heard Seyka raise her voice at Alva, but it seemed to have an immediate effect, as Alva opted not to argue with a screaming marine in her face. They went to climbing the wall above Varl’s grave. Aloy followed Seyka, her mind still a blur and the world around her unreal. Was this really happening? And if it was, did it matter anymore? All the work to bring her back—all the work Elisabet did…undone. The Alphas’ sacrifices had been meaningless, just as Elisabet’s had been. HADES was right after all…

Reaching the Sunwings took longer from this side of the mountain, and the destruction of Plainsong in the background was a sobering reminder that they would need to fly around the region to avoid the army of Faro robots, now awake and fully operational.

With two Sunwings overridden, Sylens turned to them. “We need to get to the Sacred Lands.”

No. “Go where you like. I’m going to Mainspring to find Beta,” she said, finding her voice at last.

“Now is not the time to argue, Aloy! There’s something I must get—something from All Mother Mountain. And I need you to gain entry to it.”

Seyka took Aloy’s hand. “What happened, Aloy? Where’s GAIA?”

I have to tell them. “S-she…she was killed. By Nemesis.” It still didn’t feel real. It couldn’t be. “Lis…she tricked me.”

Seyka’s eyebrows arched as her mouth opened. The horror on her face was burned into Aloy’s mind forever. “She was Nemesis, wasn’t she? This whole time?” She shook her head, as though struggling to not deny it herself. “And you—you didn’t know?”

“Ancestors,” Alva whispered, her dark eyes welling up with tears.

“I didn’t know.” How could I not have known? How could I not have seen it? The blackouts. The loss of control. The dreams. Was I really so blind? Exhausted, she looked warily at Sylens. “What’s in All Mother Mountain?”

If Sylens was surprised she was hearing him out, he didn’t show it. “Something that might help us stop this before the Faro machines destroy everything.” He pointed at Plainsong, where the first dish was in flames as it precariously leaned to one side. “The dormant machines in No Man’s Land are far greater in number than what we’re seeing. It seems only some of them may have been activated. There might be a way to take back control, but I need your cooperation. Now, can we go?”

Zo. The Nora. Everything within screamed at her to find Beta first—to save her from the destruction she’d unleashed. But if Sylens was right—if there was any possibility they could stop this, she had to take the chance that Beta would be okay. She had to trust her. “There’s a Horus right on top of the mountain. What if it’s already activated?”

Sylens took a deep breath. “Then that’s a risk we’ll have to take. Now, are we leaving or not?”

“Beta…”

Alva put a hand on her shoulder. “I sent her a message when I got my new Focus running. I tried to call her before we left but the network appeared to be down.” She reached into her pouch—procuring another Focus before offering it to Aloy. “I thought you might want a clean backup in case you decided not to keep Lis.”

Aloy hesitated before taking the device. “Thanks.” Then to Sylens. “Fine. But we need to work on a way to contact Beta. I’m not leaving her out there to die.”

As Sylens had no choice but to agree, he merely nodded before climbing onto the Sunwing, with Alva joining him.

Seyka waited until it was just the two of them. Her gaze was still on Plainsong as she spoke, her voice heavy with despair. “So, this is Nemesis.” It wasn’t a question.

Overcome with guilt, Aloy could only whisper a “yes”.

“And…” Seyka looked back at her. “Is it still…with you?”

She hoped with every fiber of her being it was not, but after everything that had happened she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. “I—I don’t think so. It was rather intent on saying goodbye when I…when I brought it to GAIA.”

Seyka let out a long exhale. “Then…we have to stop it.”

“Seyka…”

But Seyka just nodded at the Sunwing. In the distance, the burning satellite dish had fallen over, with the second dish now also on fire as the machines continued their assault with relentless precision. “Come on. I’ll be in front. I guess I get to see where you were born.”

Chapter Text

The fallen leaves surrounding Aloy stirred up when a soft breeze blew across the forest in the Sacred Lands. She opened her eyes, having been briefly taken from the calming flow of the stream just within her reach. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air—free of desert dust and the metallic stench that often permeated Old World ruins—she wrapped her fingers around the stick by her knee and used it to make shapes in the rushing water. The pull of the current against the stick made for a mindless challenge as she allowed herself to take in the life around her—everything from the trees swaying to the bird calls she had grown up hearing was all too familiar, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling of being an intruder there. The Sacred Lands had never been home for her. But after witnessing the destruction of Plainsong firsthand and hearing the screams of the Utaru from a distance as the Faro robots decimated the thriving green fields she and Zo had worked so hard to restore, Aloy knew it was only a matter of time before the machines woke here, too.

The previous evening when they’d arrive had been a surprisingly calm affair. She didn’t remember much—the entire trip she’d just sat quietly behind Seyka on the back of the Sunwing while replaying the horrors that had transpired in her mind again and again. Teersa had been kind and welcoming, as she always was. The other Matriarchs were less outgoing, though even Lansra had been true to her word and kept her mouth shut. The other Nora seemed shocked she’d even returned, which was no surprise to her. This was hardly where she belonged.  

She was still trying to make sense of it all—how could so much go so wrong, so fast? Where would the machines go next once Plainsong was finished? Barren Light? Tenakth territory? With GAIA gone, how would she even go about continuing to fix the world? Even if Sylens had some way to stop Nemesis, it could be too late for everyone else. What’s the point of saving the biosphere if everyone dies anyway?

Tapping on the new Focus Alva had given her, she took a moment to acknowledge the gratitude just having it brought her. While they were leaving, Alva had the quick thinking to grab the pouch of backup Focuses from which she had taken Aloy’s new one. A small win but one they needed, especially with the situation so dire.

She reached for Beta’s name on the interface but pulled back before activating the call, half expecting the purple lines of the Focus operating system to start bleeding across her view. A fear she’d learned, but one that now seemed to be unnecessary. Since Lis has revealed herself to be Nemesis, Aloy had not experienced any more of the blackouts, dreams, or bleed effects that had nearly consumed her less than a day earlier. The only evidence of her ordeal were the torturous fake memories Nemesis had “gifted” her with, and the tiny superficial cut on the side of her head. She did her best to shake off the images of the lifeless wasteland Nemesis had shown her and tapped the holographic button that would send out a call to Beta’s Focus. It would be her tenth attempt that day.

CALL FAILED: NETWORK UNAVAILABLE. Shit. She wasn’t sure why she had thought this try would be any different, but not trying, not making every effort she could to reach her sister while she was stuck there waiting for Sylens to let her know when he was ready to venture into the cradle was not an option. And as much as she wanted to get back on the Sunwing and fly to Mainspring to find Beta, she knew if Sylens had even the smallest chance they could stop Nemesis that she should take it. She’s tough, like Seyka said. And she’s with Sokorra and Erend. It wasn’t enough to soothe her worries, but it was a start to remaining focused on their next task.

“Aloy?” She hadn’t heard Zo approach.

Zo knelt next to her, setting the tray of food down before taking a seat by the stream as well. She was almost unrecognizable at first without her Gravesinger clothing, although the Nora garb she wore was far more appropriate for the cooler weather of the Sacred Lands. A faint smile flickered on her features. “I thought you might be hungry. We didn’t see you at breakfast.”

Aloy’s eyes went to the tray, where seared boar and berries sat still warm. “Thanks. And uh, sorry. I just wanted some time to think before Sylens has us go searching for—well, whatever it is he needs. Not that he’d tell me.” It was far from unusual for Sylens to hide his motives for doing anything, but since finding her on the floor in GAIA’s chamber he’d been especially quiet about his intentions. She was too tired to ask him further about it—she was certain she’d find out soon anyway. That’s how it always was and Aloy couldn’t bring herself to care about pressing him for whatever secrets he had.

“I see,” Zo said. She glanced at the surrounding trees. “I come here sometimes, too. Varl told me his people were warriors, so I was surprised at how peaceful this place is.”

The constant onslaught of guilt plaguing her had not let up—when she’d seen Zo for the first time since she’d left the Base Aloy had struggled to report what had happened. Zo’s silence upon hearing the news of Plainsong had been worse than any cry of disbelief or denial. Aloy couldn’t understand why she’d react like that. “Zo—”

But Zo put up a hand to silence her. “Aloy, please,” she breathed, closing her eyes for a moment. “I know what you’re going to say. And…all I can say in return is that we can’t allow Nemesis to make the choice for us. We rebuild. We find a way. The Utaru are many things, but above all we are survivors.” She let one hand fall to her stomach, where it was clear now she was with child. “I plan to remain here until the birth. After that, perhaps I’ll head west to help the survivors rebuild.”

If there are survivors. “Zo, the machines—the way they power themselves—”

Zo just shook her head. “Some of them survived, Aloy. Don’t ask me how, but I know. I have to believe it. And I know Varl wouldn’t want us giving up on them, either.”

“I know.” Aloy sighed. “I want that to be true. I really do.”

“Then believe it. Now.” Zo gestured at the food. “You should eat. It’s clear whatever you and the others went through has taken a toll on you all.”

“I will. Have…you seen Seyka?”

“Yes. Last I saw her she was restocking.” A warm smile spread on Zo’s face. “She seems kind…and determined. Very much like you.” She patted Aloy’s leg. “I’m happy for you, truly.”

Aloy would never get used to hearing the supportive remarks from her friends about Seyka. Maybe it was because she was still getting used to having supportive friends…or maybe because she still struggled to believe that she and Seyka were really together. A dark haze invaded her thoughts. For who knows how much longer. Or if she even forgives me. Seyka hadn’t said much since their escape from the Base, but Aloy could tell she was still coming to terms with the fact that they had brought Nemesis back with them. She wanted to ask her about it, but there just hadn’t been the time or privacy to do so. How do you ask someone how they feel about the end of the world? Especially if you caused it? “Oh. Um, thanks?”

Zo bowed her head. “Of course. She is with Alva and Sylens. I think he might be nearly ready to enter the cradle you told us about.”

“He is ready.” Sona’s steps had been silent, as was appropriate for a war chief and a warrior with more combat experience than any of the Nora. She waited for them both to turn before speaking again, her cool, imposing demeanor a trait Aloy hadn’t realized she’d missed since returning to the Sacred Lands. “Aloy. Bringing outsiders into All Mother does not seem wise. But you have led us through battle before, and if there is another coming as you say—”

Aloy climbed to her feet. “There is. Bigger and deadlier than any we’ve ever faced. And I don’t know when it will come but I know it’s happening soon.”

Sona’s gaze focused on her with such intensity that Aloy couldn’t help but wonder if, behind all the tradition, she blamed her for the deaths of both her children. “The matriarchs have already decided, so into All Mother you go. And when the battle arrives, we will follow you, Aloy.” Her attention went to Zo, whom she regarded with softness Aloy had never seen from Sona. “Zo. There are some decisions you still need to make. Return to Mother’s Heart when you can. I will be waiting.”

Standing as well, Zo waited until Sona had gone, her eyes still focused on the woods ahead as she spoke. Her voice was heavy with exasperation but there was also fondness in her tone. Aloy realized that perhaps Zo had indeed found a home here with Sona and the Nora. “She’s been rather wonderful, believe it or not. When I arrived, the Braves who guarded the gates threatened to run me through with their spears.”

“That sounds like the Braves I remember.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Zo said, letting out an amused hum. “Varl told me a lot about the Nora, and his mother specifically. When I showed them his token, told them who I was, they let me in immediately and I was given an audience with the War Chief and the Matriarchs.” She turned to Aloy. “Sona was in great distress when she learned Varl was…dead. But the moment I told her I was with child and that it was his she welcomed me as though I were her own blood. It’s…been a journey. And of course, there are all the traditions and rituals that she insists must happen before the birth.”

Aloy winced. “Yeah, sorry. I don’t really know much about those otherwise I would have warned you.”

Zo laughed. “It’s fine. They’re not that bad and it’s been a good way to get to know her. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between the traditions of the Nora and the ones of the Utaru, if you look close enough.”

“Have you decided on a name?”

“No. Sona wants me to meet her later to discuss it.” She pointed at the tray on the ground. “Eat, Aloy. I can meet you in Mother’s Heart when you’re done in the cradle, if you wish to talk more. I hope you and the others find what you need.”

“Hold for Identiscan.”

The solid, familiar metal door beckoned Aloy, the red light flickering as it panned its immediate surroundings for the closest candidate to scan. Behind her and to her right stood Seyka and Alva, and to her left, Sylens. Teersa and the other matriarchs hovered in the back of the room, visibly nervous—Aloy suspected about letting not one but three outsiders into their All Mother. But the jagged, black claw suspended above them—the Horus which had breached the mountain and very nearly the cradle itself—was a stark reminder of what was going to happen to the Sacred Lands once Nemesis completed its reactivation of the Faro machines. There was no time for formalities or tradition, at least, none that Aloy cared about.

Alva let out a nervous laugh. “All right then. Never thought I’d be trying to get through another door like this.”

“Trust me, this isn’t like Thebes,” Aloy said, fighting the urge to fidget while she waited for the scan to complete. “Shouldn’t be any surprises in here.” At least none that I know about. It had been some time, but the last time she’d only found a few answers about herself, GAIA, and the messages scrawled into the walls by Zero Dawn’s first generation of humans.

“Good!” Alva’s heavy exhale echoed in the chamber. “I don’t know if I’m up for another escape from the earth literally melting around us.”

Seyka remained quiet, where normally Aloy would have expected her to chime in—either with a joke or friendly jab. But her words had been few since leaving the Base. Aloy had offered small openings but didn’t want to agitate Seyka further. “You okay?”

Furrowing her brow, Seyka rolled her shoulders back. “It’s been a long couple of days. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Let’s get this done.” There was no anger in her words, but there was something else hovering in her tone that Aloy hadn’t heard from her in months, not since their time in the Burning Shores stopping Londra. Seyka had acted the same way when Aloy wasn’t quite ready to tell her about Nemesis. Maybe she’s mad that it followed me through Lis or…maybe that I didn’t do enough to stop it. But what could she have done? The blackouts, the dreams—they were out of her control. It’s not like I wanted them. And she knows that!

She stopped the thought before it evolved…because it wasn’t entirely true, and she knew it. But there was no time to think on it. They had to get into the cradle and find whatever it was Sylens was certain he needed. Everything else could wait.

When the scan finally finished, the red light blinked three times before an unpleasant garbled beep sounded from the door. “Access Denied. Alpha clearance has been revoked.”

Aloy squinted in disbelief. “What?” She turned to face her friends as some hybrid of frustration and disbelief worked in tandem to make sense of the words spoken by the cradle’s ancient security system.

“Uh, shouldn’t that have worked?” Seyka gestured at the motionless door. “I thought your…genetics granted you access to all of these places.”

Sylens cleared his throat. “Perhaps the events of the last twenty-four hours have been confusing for you.” He pointed his spear at the Horus claw above. “Nemesis has effectively taken control of the Zero Dawn system. I suspect in addition to taking down the Focus network it has also disabled any access that would compete with it. Specifically, Elisabet Sobeck’s access.”

More than ready to tell Sylens off for the unnecessary insults, Aloy opened her mouth but stopped when the realization came to her. Omega Clearance. There was no way Nemesis could have known about it from the Zeniths, but if it had the foresight to look at her Focus…

Can’t hurt to try. “Quiet.” She activated her Focus and brought up the program Beta had written for their mission to GEMINI to capture HEPHAESTUS before turning back toward the door. “Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime. Activating Omega Clearance.”

The door’s mechanism whirred to life as the interior clamps began detaching. “Omega Clearance accepted. Greetings, Dr. Sobeck. Please step inside.” The panels slid to the sides as blue light poured into otherwise dim chamber. A cold fog billowed at Aloy’s feet, obscuring most of the metal walkway beckoning her into the cradle.

Ignoring the awed gasps of the matriarchs, she turned back to her friends—the smallest of satisfied grins tugging at the corner of her mouth. Finally, something going right for once. “Let’s go.”

They moved through the main corridor, passing the crumpled forms of robotic servitors who had long since stopped operating. Like most of the sealed ruins Aloy had explored, the ventilation systems kicked on in intervals of several minutes. Whatever still powered this place had no idea the inhabitants of it were long gone.

“That was quick thinking,” Sylens said, his sidelong gaze giving away everything he wasn’t saying. Aloy expected he’d be displeased with her—which she normally wouldn’t care about—but the absence of his usual taunts almost felt like pity.  

“What are we here for anyway? ELEUTHIA was already merged with GAIA before she…” She trailed off. The pain was too fresh—the memories brand new.

Sylens raised an eyebrow. “A processor. The one handling this facility’s ectogenic operations in fact.”

Ripping out more Old World processors. Typical. “And why do we need that?”

But Sylens was not in a sharing mood. “I will explain more later. For now, our focus should be getting there. My guess is that it’s in the room where you saw GAIA’s message. The one about her self-destruction.”

“Wait. What will happen to the cradle?” Alva asked.

“Seeing as how all of this cradle’s inhabitants have left, what happens to it should no longer be a concern if you care at all about stopping Nemesis.” Sylens’ answer, while blunt, was enough to satisfy Alva that she did not follow up with more questions.

Deeper into the cradle, the corridor opened where rows of ectogenic chambers lined the wall’s edges. The erratic blinking of their interfaces showed up as jagged artifacts of purple nonsensical metrics in Aloy’s Focus.

Seyka took careful steps between the chambers, as though putting pressure in the wrong place would break something. “So all of these are—were…artificial wombs?”

“Yeah,” Aloy said. “They’re in every cradle. Zero Dawn got them from Far Zenith.”

“And…” Seyka placed an open palm on the foggy casing of the chamber closest to her. “You were born in one of these?” She withdrew her hand quickly, as though she’d been burned. “So much metal. That machines would end…everything, and then people were reborn from them.” Her eyes met Aloy’s, and even in the solid-state glow from the chamber Aloy could see the internal battle Seyka was fighting. Questioning everything all over again. She’d seen it with her friends, and even Beta. “I mean, I already knew all this but seeing it—”

“I get it.” Aloy took her hand, the condensation from Seyka’s palm cooling her fingers. “It was strange for me at first, too.”

Seyka tensed, her eyes darting back to the chamber as her next words came out in a bitter whisper. “And now it’s happening again.” She freed her hand from Aloy’s grasp, pulling away with a shudder. “Plainsong and…Le—can we just get this over with?”

Dread began eating away at Aloy as the constricting of her chest made it harder to breathe despite nothing being physically wrong. “What’s going on? You’ve barely said more than a few words to me since we got here.”

“Aloy, not now. I already said I didn’t want to talk about it.” Seyka’s words drove sharper than any spear Aloy had wielded—this was not something that was going to go away on its own.

“No. Something is clearly wrong, and we don’t have time to get caught up in arguments—”

Seyka barked out a harsh laugh. “Time? You know who didn’t have time, Aloy?” She whirled to face Aloy, her face hardened in a glare Aloy had never seen directed at her before. “The Quen at Legacy’s Landfall. My sister. They didn’t have time or Sunwings to escape on when the machines came back to life.”

Legacy’s Landfall. Kina. Aloy’s breath hitched as the realization slammed into her. If MINERVA’s signal had reactivated the dormant machines there, there would have been very little the united fleets could do about it. Gone. Just like Plainsong. This was what Seyka had been worrying about since they left the Base. And Aloy had completely missed it. “Look, we don’t know that the signal made it there yet—”

“You’re right, we don’t know that!” Seyka snapped, throwing her hands up. “It might be easy for you to just focus on the next task, figure out how to obtain a processor or whatever the hell he needs.” She gestured at Sylens, who had been observing in silence as the ordeal played out. “But I can’t just ignore it. I can’t just not think about all the people who could be dead or dying right now. I can’t pretend that knowing you were…infected with Nemesis this entire time hasn’t been eating me alive since we left the Base. O-or hearing the Utaru while those machines set their home on fire. So don’t expect me to just be okay with everything, Aloy, because I’m not.” Then, quieter, almost a whisper. “There’s already too much blood on our hands for that.”

“Seyka,” Alva tried, moderating her tone to be as gentle as possible. “Aloy couldn’t have known what would happen.”

Aloy mind spun, she couldn’t decide if she should defend herself or agree with Seyka. The silence, the hesitation—it made sense now, but what was she supposed to do? “I don’t have all the answers, Seyka, but I don’t have any other choice, either. I get it—it’s my fault. All of this is my fault. But now this is our only option, and if I can’t focus on that, what else can I do?”

But Seyka just shook her head. “It’s not your fault. That’s not what I’m saying—”

“Yes, it is!” Heat rushed to her eyes—the discomfort having migrated from her chest to her throat. She has every right to be angry with me. I brought this upon us. “I brought Nemesis back and I merged it into GAIA and destroyed her.” Something was building within her, something raw and angry and all she could do was let it fester before it consumed her. If they didn’t want to understand that was on them. They weren’t there. None of them were. “I could have taken off the Focus, crushed it under my boot but I didn’t. It was my decision to trust Lis, my call to push us through the city even when you were both injured.” The awful, twisted rage finally snapped as Aloy released everything that had been suppressed since escaping the Odyssey. “After everything I went through helping your people, I am sorry if the first thing I didn’t think about after Nemesis ripped itself out of my head was more Quen! And yeah, I’m aware of how many people could be dying right now. I don’t even know if Beta is alive. So if you want to blame someone, Seyka, then blame me. Trust me, I’m already doing it!”

Silence followed. Seyka’s jaw clenched, but she said nothing, her eyes unwilling to meet Aloy’s again.

Sylens spoke first, the usual bored annoyance lining his tone. If he was concerned, he didn’t show it. “Perhaps we can continue this discussion after we get what we came here for.”

Utterly drained of energy, Aloy let out a shaky breath. “Yeah,” she said, forcing herself to tear her gaze away from Seyka. “Let’s go.”

The walls of the chamber outside the cradle danced with shadows from the numerous lit candles around the room when the four of them emerged from within. Glancing up at the hole in the mountain, Aloy struggled to make out the Horus claw, the sky beyond it having gone dark hours earlier. The chamber was empty save for Teersa, who had waited patiently for them to return.

“You’re back,” she said, her tone wavering between apprehension and hope as she took note of the other three, still clearly uncomfortable with their presence in the chamber. “Did you find what you were looking for, Aloy?”

“We did.” Aloy wasn’t sure how to be more specific than that without Teersa somehow understanding the intricacies of everything leading up to their visit. “It should help us, if the Metal Devils do…awaken here.”

Teersa’s eyes went to the Horus claw before she took a deep breath, offering Aloy a faint smile. “Then I will have the war chief keep the Braves on alert. The bunkhouse you rested in last night is still open to you and your companions, Aloy.”

“Thanks, Teersa.” She wasn’t looking forward to whatever confrontation with Seyka came next, but she knew it was inevitable. They had to work this out—they had to. “We’ll head back there, now.”

They exited the mountain moments later, greeted by the frigid night air that had settled across the Sacred Lands. Sylens placed a hand on Aloy’s shoulder to stop her. “Before you go, Aloy, a word.” He gave Seyka and Alva a withering stare. “In private.”

“We’ll see you back at the bunkhouse, Aloy,” Alva said a little too eagerly. She and Seyka walked past them, with Seyka still avoiding eye contact. Aloy caught a glimpse of sorrow on her features, and wondered if there would even be a conversation later…or ever.

“All right,” she demanded. “What is it?”

Sylens nodded at the grass. “Sit. It’s about Nemesis.”

Rolling her eyes, Aloy agreed to play along with whatever mind game this was. “Okay. Can we get this over with?

Sylens turned the processor—a black, metal square no larger than Aloy’s palm—over and over in his hand. “Whatever romantic conflicts you are preoccupied with will need to be put on hold if you’re going to understand what I’m about to tell you. Are we clear on that?”

I’m not about to be lectured by him of all people about this. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

Sylens sighed. “As you wish. The data I obtained while on the Odyssey was…illuminating. Far Zenith was obsessed with digital transcendence.”

Why was he wasting time? “Yeah. I know that. That’s how they ended up with Nemesis.” Where is he going with this?

Sylens continued. “Aloy, in order for the Zero Dawn system to function as designed, it requires a central governing body. In essence—an AI…or similar. Currently, Nemesis serves that purpose.”

Aloy scoffed. “That’s one way to put it. Now it’s waking up all the Faro robots so it can kill everything. And when it’s done, it won’t be bringing back humans. It was pretty clear about that.” Wait…what did he mean by “similar”?

“With this processor,” Sylens said, opening his hand, “and some time, it may be possible to override the Zero Dawn system from the MINERVA tower in Meridian. Once access is obtained, shutting down Nemesis would be a matter of deleting it.” His fist closed around the processor, gripping it as though it was his lifeline. “There is a…complication.”

Of course there is. Already tired of his cryptic explanations, she ran a hand through her hair. “Why am I not surprised?”

“The…” For the first time, Aloy noticed Sylens seemed uncomfortable with what he was about to tell her, and she couldn’t decide if this was fascinating…or terrifying. “The process involves taking the source of the override and merging it into the Zero Dawn system.”

Aloy’s mind blanked. What? Had she heard him right? “The—the source? You mean the person doing the override…” No. How could that be possible? “Their—”

“Their mind, yes,” Sylens confirmed. “The system is designed to handle any governing intelligence, and in this case, something as complex as a human mind would be able to make the necessary decisions to execute the operations required by Zero Dawn. Including removing unwanted AIs already present in the system.”

“Like what Nemesis did to GAIA,” she gasped. “But—but if this…person, their mind, if they were to be merged…” She didn’t need to finish her sentence. She knew the answer as she stared out at the mountains shielding the Sacred Lands.

In only a day she’d lost GAIA, Zero Dawn, Plainsong, and now it seemed she’d lose Seyka as well. And now Sylens was telling her that the only way to stop Nemesis was to literally give herself to the very creation she thought she’d destroyed. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she refused to shed them in front of him. Was this how it was always going to end? Elisabet had died alone. If GAIA had created her to fix Zero Dawn, what if this was all she had truly been meant to do? What if everything else has just been a…distraction?

All that was left was Beta, and if she was alive, then she was with Sokorra. And hopefully happy. Seyka was another matter entirely. Aloy loved her, and for a while, spending a life with Seyka was something she’d truly desired and hoped for. But now all she wanted was to make things right with her, and even if she did, there would be a point where they’d have to say goodbye. Maybe there always has been and we just haven’t gotten there yet.

She pushed back the tears before turning to Sylens. “What do we need to do?”