Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Maker's End was what they called it now - a grim name for Aloy's last hope.

The building was a crumbling monolith that took up most of the horizon. The face of the structure had partially caved, in some assault or another, and the cool greys of the concrete and glass exterior had started to give way to the greens of moss, vines, and the occasional bird's nest. A collaboration between nature and the creations of long-dead men.

If the situation wasn't so dire, she could have admired the display of nature's resilience. Life and growth always found a way, after all.

All that Aloy could think, however, looking up at the ruined skyscraper, was:

"I'm gonna have to climb that fucking thing."

She heaved a sigh and cracked her knuckles. Eyeing the elevator shafts, Aloy shook her head. The disrepair was too great, and there was too much risk of making a loud noise. While the grounds surrounding the building seemed empty enough, Aloy didn't want to put too much faith in the quiet - Creatures could appear around any corner in a winding, decrepit place like this. 

"Stairs it is," she sighed to herself, checking over her shoulder before making her way to the lobby.

The first signs of trouble came as she eased open the door to the stairwell, her crossbow at the ready - the echo of a voice, a strangled kind of grunt, followed by slow, shuffling footsteps. 

Aloy wrinkled her nose as the Bellowback lumbered into view, a few flights above her. Stupid and slow, these Creatures were encumbered by the large amount of bloat their bodies had suffered during the disease's progression.  Once human, their skin was now blistered and bulging – and the smell, unbelievable.

These Creatures could see; but they were so laborious in their movements that they couldn't do much but wander in your general direction with a menacing groan.

This particular Creature locked its eyes on Aloy and stumbled a few steps in her direction; before tripping down the flight of stairs directly in front of her, moaning its dissatisfaction.

"Yeah, yeah- don't hurt yourself," Aloy grumbled, and swung her grappling hook, (affectionately named ‘the Pullcaster’) over her shoulder, aiming it for the stairwell several flights above the Bellowback. 

From there it was a small matter of hitting the pull mechanism on the hook and hoping to all that's holy there was no Creature at the top to catch her. 

Aloy landed nimbly on the next floor, and immediately dropped to a crouch, hearing more footsteps and groaning in the room connected to the landing. 

"Looks like I've got more company than just my friend down there." She rolled her eyes and combat-rolled past the open doorway.

Aloy continued creeping up the stairs towards her destination, quietly as she could. Just a few... dozen more floors to go.

It had been about fifteen years since the chaos had really kicked off, taking about two thirds of humanity with it, and making a good job of the remaining third - when the healthy survivors weren't busy killing one-another. 

In the modern world, you learned to fire a gun before you could ride a bike; to sneak silently through abandoned buildings before you could speak; and to patch your own wounds before you ever learned (if ever you learned) to rely on another person.

Still, traversing abandoned high rises on your own was certainly not for the faint of heart, and Aloy's contacts in her hometown of The Embrace had deemed her a raving idiot for her current escapade. As she slipped past another open doorway and covered her mouth to hide the sound of her own breathing from the Creatures waiting inside, Aloy couldn't help but agree with them.

But while safety and small comforts waited within the fortress walls of The Embrace - answers could be found in the ruins.

Answers about the disease's origin – about what force made some humans and animals alike fall mad with a rabid, hungry fury. Answers about the researchers who were so suddenly silenced, and how far they were from a cure. She heard from a trader in The Embrace about new research taking place somewhere in the Former United States - hidden from view.

And it simply wasn't in Aloy's nature to stand still while something could be done.  

She sent up a prayer of thanks as she reached the thirtieth floor without incident, and gingerly pried open the door to the CEO's board room. 

No Creatures inside - another blessing. Aloy dug her gloved hand inside her jacket pocket and scattered its contents - some broken glass from the fifteenth floor - in the doorway. 

Makeshift alarm system established, Aloy slipped inside the board room.

"Alright, Ted Faro: Harbinger Of The Apocalypse: what have you got for me?" she asked the room, pulling a lanyard from under her shirt and swiping the key card in the boardroom's security system.

A PC whined as it flickered to life - after such a long time collecting dust, the computer fan was painfully loud - Aloy winced and glanced at the doorway, but no Creatures seemed to catch on. 

She plugged in a hard drive and scrolled rapidly through a few files on the device, before clicking her tongue with a satisfied grin as she landed on one particular recording.

Aloy slipped one ear bud into her ear, the other left free for safety. 

"Jesus Ted -"

"I know- it's bad."

"This isn't bad. It's apocalyptic."

"But can we contain it?"

Silence, punctuated only by the hum of the PC.

"The short answer is no," said the other voice, tense with worry. "But we might be able to save some if we move now."

"Lis, our current projections are saying the disease will spread out of control in a matter of weeks. We're all fucked if we don't take action now. You've gotta give me something better than some-"

The recorded sound of hands slamming against the table gave Aloy a start - 

"I don't owe you shit. Especially not now. I might be able do something." Lis repeated. The sound of pacing feet, reached Aloy's ears. "I need to know more about the origin of the virus – give me what you have, and I’ll be able to give you an update in the morning."

"Fine. Fine. Lis, I'll give you anything you need -"

"Good to know. I won't rest while there's something I can do - you have my word on that."

"Thank you. I'm sorry."

"I don't need your apology- you owe your apology to everyone out there."

Lis let out a shaking breath, the sound distorting through the ear bud.

“You’ve killed them all, Ted.”

Aloy ended the playback with a low whistle. Not Ground Zero – but some more information, at least.

She dragged the remaining data on the disease's progression and survival statistics to her hard drive and sighed, hands on her hips. Then, she shrugged her backpack off her shoulders and whipped an old tourist road map out of the front pocket, scribbling her next location furiously in the margins. 

Contrary to Faro's fatalistic predictions, the world hadn't ended overnight - humanity lived on, in small sparks and embers across the world. Most living human populations in this state had holed up in small, well-fortified settlements where any outbreaks could easily be put to a (violent) halt. People lived off the land again, and usually had everything they needed. 

The unfortunate flipside of that arrangement was that nobody she knew had travelled beyond their settlement. Ever.

Aloy swore under her breath and pocketed her map. It had been over a decade since the initial outbreak of the virus - and a car was going to be mighty difficult to come by.

She glanced around the empty office space, and, sparing a final filthy look at Faro's desk, shouldered her backpack, grappling hook in hand. 

"Nothing else for it, I guess," Aloy shrugged to the empty room, swinging the rope lightly in her hand.  

"If I keep off the roads I should make it safely back to Devil's Thirst in a couple days- probably my best bet for finding a working car-"

Crack.

The glass she'd left by the doorway crunched, under a boot. Aloy froze, breath catching in her throat as something moved across the doorway to her right. 

Something human-sized. 

Sinking below the desk frame, and smoothly trading her grappling hook for a crossbow strapped to her back, Aloy crept towards the doorway, out of sight.

The human-sized something cautiously moved into view, one arm raised in front peaceably, the other guided the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun towards the ground. 

"You talk to yourself often?" said the intruder.

Aloy angled her crossbow slightly and fired a warning shot, just to the left of the intruder's head. "Only when I'm not expecting company," she quipped.

The stranger hummed in approval, completely unfazed by the arrow still quivering in the wall next to her eyebrow. 

"Cool. Recoverable warning shots. Smart - was the glass outside your idea too?"

Her eyes met the intruder's - a woman, about her height, but a few years older than Aloy, with a short crop of dark brown hair and a mouth set into a thin, serious line. She was wearing jeans and a tan leather jacket, a few sizes too big. The sawed-off seemed over-large in her hands too, but she managed it well.

Aloy took a quick assessment - the woman's skin had no pallor to it and she seemed to have her wits about her. Judging by her nervous glance back through the doorway, she also appeared to be alone.

"You clean?" The other woman asked, glancing over her for any signs of infection.

"Yeah. What are you doing here?" 

"Could ask you the same thing - you're a long way from Colorado, Red." 

Aloy smirked at the quick assessment of her appearance (and the Denver tourist t-shirt she had thrown on after an unfortunate run in with an exploding Bellowback).

She weighed her options. At a glance, she considered that she could take the woman on in a fight- but there was something about the set of her jaw, and the look in her eye that told Aloy it wouldn't be easy. Besides, she had crept through much of this building in silence and fear, and having back-up for the journey down could be valuable. 

Decision made, Aloy replied. "It's not Ground Zero." 

The stranger swore, loudly enough to make Aloy's heart race- ears pricked for any Creatures that might have heard the commotion. She kept her weapon trained on the other woman.

"But it is where they discovered the... magnitude of the problem -" she added, a placating hand stretched toward the stranger. "Look-"

As Aloy made to start the recording again, the woman shook her head, "I don't care about finding any cure. I'm... I'm looking for someone. Was told I might find a lead here..." She started to leave with an unenthusiastic wave. "Good luck with finding your answers, I guess."

"Me too," Aloy blurted, suddenly. The woman paused in the doorway. "I mean - I'm looking for - someone - they've been taken to a place called Apollo's Cell."

The stranger offered her a sympathetic look. Aloy's heart sank. "No one knows where that is. Sorry, kid. Your friend is probably lost for good."

"Someone might-" Aloy pressed, and the stranger cocked her head to the side quizzically.

"There's a researcher who made it out of the incident at Thunder's Drum, in the North? About ten years ago. I think he knows something. I can't find his exact location, but this data points me in the direction of another lab he might have used – he used the space a while ago, but it’s since been taken over by someone called?” Aloy checked her map, raising her eyebrows, “Dervahl?”

The other woman stepped closer. "I'm listening."

"The coordinates line up with a neo settlement called Pitchcliff."

The other woman hummed appreciatively. "You're pretty switched on." Almost as an aside to herself, she added, "It's as good a place as any to keep looking for the idiot."

"Care to join me, then?" Aloy shouldered her crossbow at last and offered a hand. "I'm Aloy."

The stranger took her hand cautiously. She had a firm handshake and a calculating gaze. "Ersa."

Aloy nodded. "Ready to get out of here?"

She sighed. "Yeah. Long walk down."

"Oh, I've got a better idea," Aloy replied with a mischievous grin. Ersa's eyes widened at the sight of the Pullcaster, but her shock quickly made way for a wicked smile. 

The rush of air as they dropped several stories down was like nothing else. When she first designed her climbing equipment, Aloy had become a little addicted to the feeling: the freefall, the wind roaring in her ears, the cold bite of the air rushing around her, it was incredible. She wasn’t used to sharing the journey with another, but Ersa handled the drop well, and laughed loudly with delight after her initial shock, arms wrapped tightly around Aloy's middle in a petrified bear-hug.  

Safely returned to the ground, Aloy's new companion let out a cheer of excitement as they landed hard on the forest floor, leaves scattering around them. The area around seemed completely deserted, and the air was frigidly cold - Ersa's voice seemed to carry for miles.

"That was fucking cool. A grappling hook. Why didn't I think of that – can you fly, too?"

Aloy chuckled, a little taken aback by the change in demeanour.

"I try. 'fraid that's where my coolness ends for the day, though. I've been travelling on foot."

Ersa had a contagious smile that just barely broke through her cool exterior - Aloy noticed - a glimpse of something warm and welcoming just below the stony surface.

"Good thing I've got a driver," she grinned, slapping a hand on Aloy's shoulder. "C'mon. Petra's gonna love you."

Chapter Text

Their driver, as it happened, was a raving lunatic.

Ersa led the way through the clearing that held Makers End, through brambles and bush to a crumbling asphalt road, half-covered in snow. She nudged Aloy in the ribs with an elbow and gestured with her shotgun to –

“Is that – is that a monster truck?”

One hand on her hip, Ersa grinned at Aloy’s bemusement. “Sure is. Oi! Petra! We’ve got– ah, shit!”

Ersa stumbled back with a start, pulling Aloy roughly back with her as a sudden flash-bang erupted from the underside of the truck. Two rockets shot out from the truck, followed by a blast that shook the earth beneath them as they struck their target – a concrete barricade, in a tidal wave of light and sound.

The source of the explosion cackled loudly from beneath the truck, and the sounds of more ammunition being loaded could be heard. Aloy gasped, but Ersa just rolled her eyes and raised her hands to either side of her mouth.

“PETRA!” she bellowed. “COMPANY!”

A welding mask that was painted to look like Mandalorian armour emerged from beneath the truck. The welding mask was followed by a pair of leather gloves, then the rest of Petra’s body rolled out atop a skateboard.

“Oh, good,” said Aloy drily. “She’s insane. She’s an insane person.”

“Uh – yeah I’d love to disagree with you on that one, but she’s pretty out-there.”

Petra removed the welding mask with a shake of her curly brown hair and a cheeky, crooked grin that spoke volumes of her character. She had an intelligent look in her eye, as she made a quick (and upside-down, still on the skateboard) assessment of their newest acquaintance. She brushed a stray lock of hair off her cheek with a gloved hand, leaving a streak of oil next to the delightful spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks.

“Is this what we’re doing now? Picking up strange forest women?” she queried, rising to her feet and pulling off one of her gloves.

“Coming from the strangest woman I’ve ever met,” Ersa retorted. “This is Aloy. Found her in the top floor of Maker’s End.”

“So not a wood nymph?” Petra offered her hand. “Petra.”

Aloy surprised herself with a giggle. “Nice ride,” she said, taking Petra’s offered hand with a grin.

“Nice… everything,” Petra replied, looking Aloy up and down wolfishly.

“She found some intel that might lead us to the rest of the Freebooters. Looks like we’re all heading to a place called Pitchcliff – Petra, kindly let go of Aloy’s hand.”

“I’m just helping the lady into the vehicle, Ersa,” Petra replied with a wink and a wicked smile at Aloy.

Aloy felt colour rising in her cheeks, despite herself – she coughed. “I can handle myself.”

“I’m sure you can.”

“Get in the fucking car, Petra!” Ersa barked and tucked herself into the back seat of the truck.

“What kinda music do ya want, Ersa?” Petra queried.

In reply, Ersa plucked an old CD case from behind the drivers’ seat and pressed a disc into her hand. Old CD’s had made a strong comeback in the last ten years, as regular power supplies and batteries became harder and harder to find.

“AC/DC? Again? Do you listen to anything besides ancient Dad Rock?”

“I like Dad Rock. It’s big. It’s loud. You can feel it.” Ersa shrugged. “You can take the front, Red – check the locks if it makes you feel more comfortable. We’ve got nothing to hide,” she added.

Aloy nodded her thanks – there was a strange, warm authority to Ersa that made her wonder if they had a lot more in common than she originally thought. She seemed used to taking care of others, anticipating their needs and accommodating them, but there was also a hardness to her, something wounded that she kept hidden away behind a rough exterior.

Conversely, this Petra seemed to be someone who obfuscated their intelligence and drive by hiding behind chaos. Aloy had to wonder what her motivations were, if any.  

Their bodies rocked with the movement of the truck as Petra pulled it out from behind their hiding spot and back on to the main road. Aloy spotted a ramshackle sign that indicated they were indeed headed towards the Pitchcliff. Still, she kept one nervous hand on her crossbow.

“I can hear the cogs turning, girl,” Petra needled, pulling the truck around an overturned bus and onto the road. “I’m no trouble. Just out here helping some old friends and fuckin’ up some old enemies. How about yourself?”

Aloy tapped her fingers distractedly against the centre console. “I’m looking for someone… my – my younger sister.”

Ersa suddenly gave her a hard, suspicious look through the rear-view mirror, and she elected not to share any further.

They travelled about an hour in silence - the crumbling landscape passing them by in a blur as the sun started to sink toward the horizon. The abandoned freeway stretched out before them, an unwavering presence as the landscape to the left and right became more sinister – open fields making way for burnt-out and dilapidated buildings. Aloy hadn’t cared much for populated areas before the end of the world. These days, signs of civilisation brought nothing but bad news.

She decided (perhaps stupidly) to strike up another conversation to calm her nerves. “Can I ask who the Freebooters are?”

Petra laughed, twisting her body to glance at Ersa in the back seat. “Did you find this girl under a rock or something?”

Ersa didn’t answer, appearing to ignore them both completely.

Petra shrugged. “The Freebooters are a mercenary group that travel these parts – we, or now they, since me and our lovely silent companion chose to defect - ” she corrected herself,
“- hail from the North West of the Country Formerly Known as the United States. They originally took issue with the behaviour of his lordship Jiran and his Kestrels in Meridian. These days, it just seems like they’re more out for trouble than anything else.”

“Why did you defect?”

Petra opened her mouth to answer, but Ersa interrupted sharply. “I didn’t realise we were handing out life stories, Red. What kinda trouble did your sister get herself into? What does she have to do with some dead billionaire?”

Petra fell silent, puffing her cheeks out and staring ahead at the road. Aloy frowned, and weighed her next words carefully;

“The kinda trouble I don’t want to drag you into. Just want to know if these Freebooters are going to be a problem for me.”

“The Freebooters are our problem,” Petra assured her, glancing back at Ersa. “Don’t mind Moody back there. She’s looking for her sibling too. Idiot kid’s got himself caught by an old acquaintance of theirs.”

Ersa seemed to deflate at that, staring out the window with her arms folded. Aloy offered her a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry, Ersa. We’ll get them back.”

Her assurance went ignored.

Aloy felt flooded with empathy for the other woman. When her sister had first disappeared, she’d been frantic. When she received a note, letting her know that Beta was alive, and not in immediate danger, the anxiety had made way for rage. The last living members of their family, they had only had one-another, until their mother’s past had come knocking and taken her sister away by force.

Now alone, forever on the road, and left with more questions than answers – Aloy no longer knew if she missed her parents or only resented them. The only certain thing in her life was that she was getting Beta back, if it killed her.

Aloy’s reverie was broken by Petra slamming on the brakes and screeching the truck to a halt.

“Much as I live for extremely uncomfortable silences, girls – we’ve got trouble ahead.”

“What kind?” Ersa queried, peeking out from behind Aloy’s seat with a pair of binoculars.

“A Watcher,” Aloy supplied, breath caught in her throat.

Said Watchers were among the newer mutations of the disease – fast-moving Creatures whose heads swung at unnatural, freakish angles – forever on the lookout for a fresh kill. They were bipedal, although they looked as though they had once been a four-legged animal, and they could run unbelievably fast on two or four legs.

Their mouths always hung agape, ready to scream an alert to others nearby.

Aloy took a deep breath, steeling herself.  Watchers were usually seen moments before disaster. Other Creatures tended to flock to them and their loud alert cries – and an ambush was sure to follow.

Ersa pocketed the binoculars, and surprised Aloy with a low chuckle. “What’s the plan, P?”

“I’m so glad you asked,”  Petra replied, disembarking from the truck with what Aloy would come to recognise as her signature swagger. “Whatcha got in the kiosk back there?”

“Erm – gin?” Ersa replied, pulling her upper body through the sun-roof of the truck to peer down at her friend.

“Gin’ll do,” Petra replied in a sing-song voice. “Aloy – how’s your aim with that crossbow?”

“It’s alright,” Aloy said, joining Ersa through the sun-roof. She used the hood of the car to steady her crossbow, eyes locked on the Creature.

“She just about shaved my eyebrow off from across a boardroom. On purpose.”

Petra laughed wickedly. “Alright – you two can do the honours. Ersa – on the count of three, throw that bottle over the head of our friend down there. Reckon you can hit that moving target, Red?”

Aloy smirked, and steadied herself, peering through the makeshift sights on the weapon. “You wanted the incendiary bolts right?”

Petra’s smile in response was feral. “I fucking love this girl. She gets me. We’re setting this bitch on fire.”

“Ersa, on the count of three! One! Two! Th-“

Ersa took a swig from the gin before hurling the bottle in a hard over-arm throw toward the Watcher. In moments, the Creature was alight as Aloy deftly followed up with a shot from her bow.

The Watcher rounded on them with an unhinged, empty stare. Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide as the Creature erupted with an unearthly, high pitched scream.

“Excellent!” Petra cheered, disappearing beneath the truck. For a moment, Aloy wondered what she was doing, until the metallic slide of loading rockets made Petra’s intentions clear.

The world around them fell eerily silent as the Watcher’s scream ended. They waited a moment, two, three – until the thundering sounds of an unearthly ambush reached their ears. Creatures poured from the buildings around the watcher on all sides – piling on top of one-another to reach the source of their disturbance; and the source of their next meal.

“How many do we have?” Petra called from beneath the truck.

“About twenty-five,” Ersa confirmed. “All in one place for you.”

“That’s what I love to hear,” said Petra and fired the first rocket straight into the gathering crowd.

Aloy hoisted herself through the sun-roof, and sat on the hood of the truck, watching the chaos unfold with a low whistle. Limbs flying and flames rising high, the Creatures stumbled about, unable to find and attack the source of the explosion.

Petra loosed the second rocket into a building nearby, causing the face of it to collapse into the fray below. Last one left alive, the Watcher wailed its final warning, and then fell silent.

“Fuckin’ beautiful,” Petra sighed dreamily and joined Aloy on the hood. Bemused, Aloy looked to Ersa, who only shrugged in response as she rummaged through the kiosk in the back of the truck.

Ersa settled herself between the other two with a satisfied smile and offered a bottle in each hand.

“Beer?”

“Beer!”

“Beer,” Aloy affirmed, and the three of them lounged against the truck, admiring their handiwork as the sun sank lower on the horizon – the golden glow mingling with the flames in the middle of the road.

“Fuck these are strange times,” Ersa said, breaking the comfortable silence between them.

Petra hummed her agreement. “At least the drinks are still good.”

The trio made camp a few clicks north of their Watcher escapade, exchanging hunting stories and survival tips well into the night.

By unspoken agreement, the three had decided not to fall asleep in the company of a stranger, but their mutual goal had called for more than just small talk, and Aloy found herself warming to the two women as they regaled her with stories of their travels with the Freebooters, and numerous skirmishes with the Kestrels.

They were fighting, they said, for freedom and family, as not much else was left in the world.

The Freebooters were a mercenary group that formed after the Kestrels’ leader, Jiran, started moving his mob further north into their territory (Petra referred to their territory as ‘the artist formerly known as Idaho’ – Aloy wasn’t entirely sure what an ‘Idaho’ was, born just on the cusp of their new way of living). He wreaked untold destruction in their part of the world, and had caused more loss of life and limb than any of the Creatures had in the last five years.

Ersa had lost her mother to Jiran’s raids. Petra, her entire family. And far too many friends were lost between them. Hearing this, Aloy felt a quiet, new-found gratitude for the isolationism of her hometown. It had been a strange and lonely upbringing, but a relatively safe one.

While a few of the locals in the North had folded, or joined the Kestrels, more still ran for the hills and never returned. Jiran’s raids left a rag-tag bunch behind, fending off the advances of the enemy, and the destruction they carried with them. In the early days, Ersa explained, the Freebooters were famed for their Guerilla tactics, taking back the North and keeping Jiran at bay with surprise attacks and clever weaponry.

Now, the Freebooters were led by a man with an insatiable taste for vengeance. Someone who would stop at nothing to turn the violence southwards, towards the enemy’s home city of Meridian, and return Jiran’s favour tenfold.

“That’s the guy you mentioned when we met – Dervahl. And that’s how we ended up in this position,” Ersa explained, staring into their small campfire with a distant expression, “I told Dervahl to reign in his forces. We had our home back – there was no need to push further. But he won’t stop until every one of them is dead, and he didn’t much like it when I disagreed with him. So, he kicked me to the curb.”

“And allegedly kept your brother as collateral,” Petra supplied grimly. “How do you know he’s even alive?”

“Because Dervahl knows what will happen to anyone who touches a fucking hair on his head,” Ersa replied, that same dark, unreadable look crossing her features.

“It sounds like Jiran’s people have taken a lot from you,” Aloy prodded. “Don’t you want your revenge as well?”

Ersa didn’t respond for a long moment, processing Aloy’s question. “Of course, and I’ll get it, mark my words. But Dervahl… he’s started to blur the lines between a retribution and a genocide. There are innocent people in that city who are in danger. I can’t stand by while he does that.”

They found themselves at Pitchcliff in the early hours of the following day, the dawn light just creeping over the mountain tops as Petra pulled the truck into a fresh hiding spot, a few hundred meters from the cobbled stairs leading into Pitchcliff.

When they arrived, though, it looked and felt just like any other settlement. The locals eyed them curiously, but refused to offer any information. Ersa tried to speak to a few of the traders on the outskirts of the town, and Petra tried the workshops – but it was to no avail. The entire village seemed to have closed ranks, afraid or unwilling to provide them with any information about the scientist Aloy was hunting, or whether Ersa’s brother was found with the other travellers in the area.

As they returned to the gates of Pitchcliff empty-handed, Ersa swore, and stormed back toward their car. Another dead-end had left her off-kilter and frustrated. Petra stole a knowing, nervous glance at Aloy.

“Ersa – we should regroup,” Petra called. “We don’t know what our next move is. Let’s just take a breather and – “

“And what? Do nothing? He’s not here! We need to get moving.”

“Moving where?” Petra retorted, frustration creeping into her usually easy-going tone. “We’re shit outta luck here!”

Aloy cleared her throat, causing both women to turn in her direction. “Maybe not completely shit outta luck,” she supplied. “There’s tracks here.”

“There’s tracks everywhere,” Ersa said, tiredly.

“I know but – look at these,” Aloy pointed to the ground a few meters away. “They’re uniform. Like everyone was wearing the same kind of boot. I think these villagers closed ranks because the Kestrels aren’t too far away.”

Ersa eyed the tracks that Aloy had spotted, impressed. They lead up and behind the hillside that held Pitchcliff. “It’s worth checking out.”

The three of them crept up the hillside with no small amount of effort – sure to keep low and quiet through the long grass that surrounded Pitchcliff. It wasn’t long before they could hear voices on the other side of the hill.

“That could have gone better.”

“We got the one that mattered,” one of the Kestrels barked dismissively.

“Yeah, but the younger one and the bitch with the big gun are still out there.”

“How long do you think they’ll last, exactly? The two of them weren’t exactly a unified front before they took off. Asera wanted to skin the kid alive- and they took off for the wilds Northeast of here – there’s nothing out that way. They’ll both be dead before tomorrow.”

Aloy spared a nervous glance in Ersa’s direction. She was livid, breathing hard through her nose and rooted to the spot.

Petra, on the other hand, fixed Aloy with a wicked smile. “Idiots. They have no idea there’s an old stronghold out there. I know exactly where they’ve gone.”

Chapter Text

They tore down the road toward Erend’s last known location at a breakneck speed. Ersa had taken the proverbial helm from the moment Petra had mentioned the place and was all but driving them into the ground to get there as soon as possible.

Petra gripped the handholds on the ceiling of the truck, pale-faced and none too impressed at being a passenger in her own vehicle. “Can we – Ersa, honey – can we potentially aim to get there alive?”

“And also- maybe- prepared?” Aloy chimed in from Petra’s side.

Ersa only grunted in response, handing Petra a key from a chain around her neck. “The safe in the back has everything we’ll need. We need to get there before either of them do anything stupid.”

Their destination was First Forge, an old sawmill that had been repurposed in the early days of the outbreak as a storage and manufacturing facility for weapons, barricades, and other materials meant to create strongholds against the onslaught of Creatures. Back in those days, humanity had been under the impression their only enemies were of the formerly-human variety. How wrong they’d been. The virus started arriving in forms that their barricades simply weren’t prepared for, in deer, canine, and even occasionally by bird.  What was left of First Forge was simply a husk, with a few choice hiding places and leftover lumber.

Aloy wasn’t entirely sure what to expect at their destination, or what condition Ersa’s brother and their former ally would be in when they arrived. She clutched the handhold on her side of the truck with one hand and peered through the windshield in trepidation as the mill came into view.Ersa screeched the truck to a halt. Almost immediately, signs of life could be found – traps and trip wires littered the ground, as though the person laying them had had no time to consider hiding them from view. A small fire could be seen through the windows of the foreman’s office.

The three of them crept up toward the office, settling behind a shipping container a short way away. The traps and bombs thinned out the closer they came to their target. Asera seemed to be running out of resources, and out of options.

“She’s getting sloppy, Ersa. She’ll be panicking,” Petra noted softly.

Ersa hummed her agreement. “Can you put these traps to use?”

“Not without a good look at them. She’s smart. I don’t want to tinker until we’ve got her put away.”

Ersa nodded, understanding, and then jerked her chin at Aloy, indicating a fire escape to the foreman’s office, which led to an open window. The ladder was almost completely ruined, but it looked as though there was a few good handholds on the way up.  “You alright with taking the fire escape?”

A strong climber, Aloy smiled, oddly excited. “It makes more sense for you or Petra to show up at the front door- this person doesn’t know me.”

“She’s about to get real acquainted. Get up behind her, quick as you can.”

“Can do.”

“Petra–"

“Keeping watch of the office door, on the off-chance that Asera has any remaining friends.”

“Love your work. Aloy, hang back until I’ve got her attention. I’m sure she knows that someone’s here by now.”

Aloy nodded, and sank low behind the shipping container. Ersa took her cue, watchfully making her way to the stairwell that sat, half derelict, beneath the office door, Petra following in Ersa’s footstep.

Whilst the other two, expected and awaited by Asera, made very little effort to hide their approach, Aloy silently picked her way over shrubs and under rusted machinery to the fire escape. As she reached the bottom of the building, she could hear a male voice carrying through the building, boisterously loud and apparently unconcerned with the threats coming from his companion.

“Aren’t you even a little bit worried about my sister turning up?”

Another voice scoffed in response to the first. “She won’t do anything that puts you in harm’s way.”

The first voice, Aloy assumed was Erend, hummed. “So, what’s the plan? Are we waiting for Ersa to rock up, or Dervahl? Oh! Or are we racing them – oof!” Erend’s attempt at facetious banter was cut off suddenly, with the unmistakeable sound of someone receiving the business end of a heavy object to the gut.

Aloy winced and stole a glance at Ersa making her way up the stairs. The older woman’s expression was positively thunderous. Aloy grimaced and began her steady ascent up the fire escape. Or rather, what was left of the fire escape – rusted and crumbling and decidedly not OSHA compliant. She lost a few handholds on the way up- and wondered for a moment if she had overestimated her climbing abilities.

After a brief struggle, she settled against the side of the building, one leg coiled underneath her on the top step of the fire escape, waiting for her moment to launch through the open window. Peeking over the window frame, Aloy spotted their targets in the room. A hardened looking woman in her forties, Asera was pacing the room almost frantically. She was sensibly dressed for the environment, in combat boots, denims and leathers, but her clothes showed the tell-tale wear and tear of someone who had been on the road for weeks with very little resources or rest. She was visibly exhausted, and at the end of her tether. She ran a calloused hand through her dreadlocked hair and whipped around to face her prisoner again.

“We’re headed to Dervahl,” she supplied, in response to Erend’s earlier question. “Not the other way around.”

Still hidden, pressed against the building, Aloy peered a little further, to gauge Erend’s response to this news. The man in question grinned, his smile almost comical behind facial hair that looked like it was from a bygone era, and ran a hand through a short, dark brown mohawk.  He was being held in a makeshift cell, made of a wrought iron gate, padlocks and filing cabinets – a testament to Asera’s ingenuity, and also her desperation.

“So you made a real mess of things when you left, too.”

Asera didn’t dignify him with a response, instead her eyes flicked toward the office door. “Did you hear something?”

She steadied her grip on the railings, and readied her crossbow with the other hand, awaiting Ersa’s signal.

Her cue came less subtly than she imagined, as Ersa kicked the office door clean off its hinges, cocked her shotgun and stormed toward Asera with vicious intent.

She leapt through the window nimbly, planting a crossbow against Asera’s back as Ersa jabbed the muzzle of her shotgun underneath the woman’s chin. “Don’t try anything,” Aloy warned. “She’s got back-up.”

Aloy kept the crossbow pressed firmly against her back and glanced up at Ersa for direction – her breath caught in her throat as Ersa glared up at Asera with what could only be described as pure malevolence. Everything seemed to fall still around them as they glared at one-another for what felt like an eternity.

No one moved or spoke. Aloy held her breath, caught under the murderous look in Ersa’s eye, and expected the worst.

Erend was the one to break the frosty silence.

“Cool it. She hasn’t hurt me.”

The air decompressed around them in a rush. Ersa lowered her gun with a shaky breath while Aloy calmly stood her ground.

Sensing the break in tension, Petra made her way into the room with a thankful nod in Erend’s direction. “Hey, bud. Nice to see you in one piece.”

“Did you get much out of her, yet?” Ersa asked, glancing over at her brother.

From behind the bars, Erend shrugged. “A little – the Freebooters aren’t coming and they’re not currently in contact with her. Asera’s not as arrogant as our bestie, Dervahl, so it’s a bit harder to trick her into thinking I’m a complete idiot and telling me everything.”

“You are a complete idiot,” Ersa corrected him. “And I’m going to kill you as soon as I get you out of here alive.”

Erend turned his gaze skyward, pondering her words in mock confusion.

Eyes still on the doorway, Petra snatched the cell keys from the workbench and tossed them to Aloy. Taking the hint, Aloy made her way to the cell door.

As she made to unlock the door, she took stock of their new compatriot. Erend was tall, with a strong build. Up close, she could see that he wasn’t too much older than her, but there was a look in his steel blue eyes that belied his experience with the world – he’d seen quite a lot, as his sister had.

Erend appeared a little taken aback by Aloy’s presence – confused but not unwelcoming, he smirked and leaned one elbow on the cell bars, looking over her appreciatively.

“Come here often?”

Aloy dropped the keys from fumbling hands as Petra cackled and Ersa groaned loudly. “You know what – Aloy, I changed my mind, fucking leave him in there.”

“Hey – you didn’t come all this way to let me die of starvation!” Erend called, and Aloy had to admit his laugh was a little contagious. “C’mere and kill me yourself!”

Ersa rolled her eyes. “Get her in the cell – I spotted a little friend out there that might help us get some more intel,” she ordered and disappeared down the stairs.

Erend huffed. “Haven’t seen each other in almost a month and I don’t even get a hug – just some barked orders and cryptic shit.”

“In fairness,” said Petra, “you smell something awful.”  

Between the three of them, they made short work of switching Erend and Asera’s places – though Asera managed a hard kick to Petra’s shin on her way into the cell. Petra hardly seemed to notice,  instead cheerfully asking Asera if she could take a look at the spring traps outside.

Asera sneered, but eventually shrugged in acquiescence, her respect for the other woman warring with her disdain at being captured. “You’ll make good use of them.”

With that, Petra bounded away, leaving Aloy and Erend to their own devices.

“Wonder what they’ve got planned for you,” Erend quipped, rummaging through the backpack that Petra had left behind. “Hopefully it’s just as exciting as what you had in store for me.”

“It’ll certainly be more interesting than anything you could come up with on your own. You’d do well to stop hiding behind your sister’s skirts one day,” Asera drawled, unimpressed.

“Aw, Asera,” Erend gleefully found his prize in Petra’s backpack- a bottle of liquor. “You break my heart. I really thought we had something special when we beat up those Kestrels together. I thought I felt a connection.”

“The only part of us that’ll ever be connected is my fist to your balls,” Asera barked.

Erend winked to Aloy. “I think she really likes me!”

“I’m going to eat your fucking liver.”

“That’ll kill you before it kills me, asshole.”

As if to emphasise his last statement, Erend flicked the liquor bottle open with one hand and caught the lid with his other hand, taking a long sip and leaning back against the workbench. Aloy wrinkled her nose as she read the label – straight tequila? At like eleven in the morning?

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” Erend offered the tequila to Aloy, dropping the arrogance that was reserved for handling Asera. “I’m Erend.”

“Aloy,” she replied, shaking his hand, but politely declining hard liquor before lunch time.

“How’d you run into my sister? And more importantly, how on earth did you get her to accept your help?”

“The long version is complicated,” Aloy explained. “The short version is I threatened to kill her, and I own some really cool climbing gear.”

“That tracks,” he said with a laugh, and Aloy found herself smiling back at him. This stranger was warm, and lively. “You seem like good company. Where are you headed after this?”

“I’m not sure,” Aloy confessed. “I’m trying to find someone who can point me in the direction of my sister’s whereabouts. Asera was our next lead.”

Erend smiled. “Ah, so you’re not only cool – you’re also an overprotective big sister. No wonder Ersa likes you.” His friendly grin broke into a laugh at the sounds of Ersa’s return.  “Huh- she’s brought a friend! What’s that one?”

“Ravager,” Ersa supplied gruffly, struggling through the doorway behind her new companion, who was firmly caught at the end of a makeshift catchpole. The Creature glared at them wildly, furious at the interruption to his day.

Ravagers were another Creature of the formerly-human variety. Quick, violent, and still capable of simple cognitive tasks, Ravagers were best left to their own devices in the wild. Once they took a liking to a place, it was theirs, unless you had the firepower to claim it back.

“This one’s got spark, by the looks of him,” Erend chuckled.

“You’re not serious,” Asera growled from behind the bars. “You’re not going to threaten me with a zombie.”

“I thought it wasn’t politically correct to refer to them as ‘zombies’?” Erend queried.

“Is there such a thing as political incorrectness when all the politicians have been eaten?” Ersa shrugged and pushed the Ravager towards the cage. 

This particular Ravager was once a tall, dark-haired man – he looked to be in his mid to late twenties. Not much else about him was discernible because of - Aloy grimaced – all the blood, however she did spot a pair of familiar, cool blue eyes.

“Huh,” said Aloy with bemusement. “I think I know this guy!”

“What? The Z’?” Erend asked.

“Yeah. We ran together for a while when I first left my hometown. His name was Nil. I’m surprised he got caught out like this.”

“No shit!” Erend said, impressed. “How are ya, Nil?” he addressed the Ravager directly.

At the sound of his name, the Creature Formerly Known As Nil swung its head around in their direction, and grunted hoarsely.

“Tell me about it, buddy. Always the way… Say, what was he like before the infection?”

Aloy thought on this. Nil had been a strange, quiet sort with few friends and a penchant for weird, somewhat violent hobbies. He was bright, competent, methodical, and an unwavering fighter, however, and it surprised her to see that he’d let himself become infected.

The blood all over him wasn’t a new concept, unfortunately.

“Not much difference, honestly.”

Ersa nudged The-Creature-Formerly-Known-As-Nil closer to the bars Asera’s cell with a huff. “You can either tell me where Dervahl is headed next, or you can tell your new roommate. Your choice.”

“So either way, I’m royally screwed.”

Ersa shook her head. “You’re smart enough to make your own way. If you can talk your way out of this cell.”

Asera’s expression twisted in consternation, her serious, dark eyes flicking toward the Ravager just inches away from her cell. She weighed her options for a moment and sighed resignedly. “You’ve made your point. Dervahl is planning an attack on Meridian in the next few months. I don’t know where he went, but I know that he’s been… postponed. His plans were waylaid by some scientist he ran into at Pitchcliff, so he’s liable to be making his way back to The Claim, to lick his wounds.”

Aloy’s attention piqued at this news. “What kind of scientist?”

“The faceless asshole kind. He kept in contact with calls and weird, cryptic messages. All I know is that he’s arrogant as hell and goes by the name of ‘Sylens’. He took issue with the planned attack and found a way to strip the Freebooters of all their resources before we were any the wiser. I’d wager there’s something in Meridan that he needs intact.”

“Do you know where he went next?” Aloy pressed.

Asera shook her head. “Not exactly. He said something about a ‘Proving Lab’ – might be an old research facility from back in the old days - when we all believed there could be a cure.”

Ersa nodded and drew Nil away from the cell, apparently satisfied. “That sounds like your guy.”

Aloy agreed, a determined look in her eye. A solid direction, at last.

Chapter Text

Asera watched incredulously as Ersa filled a spare pack with first-aid supplies, leftover ammunition and the remaining tequila. She unlocked the makeshift cage and shoved the bag toward the other woman without a word. 

“Just like that?” she said. “You’re letting me go? With supplies ?” 

Shotgun still levelled toward Asera, Ersa nodded curtly, “Erend is in one piece, and enough people have died for Dervahl’s bullshit. I’ll give you a half-hour head start. Do not make me regret it.” 

Asera lifted the bag with two fingers, as though it might burst into flames the moment she touched it. When this paranoia proved false, she slung the bag over her shoulders and eyed their group suspiciously. Aloy was impressed – they’d managed to find their next lead with little harm to anyone involved. She suspected a lot of their success lay with Ersa’s station amongst these fabled ‘Freebooters’. That, and her general menacing air contrasted well with Erend’s humour and openness. A classic good-cop-bad-cop setup. Ersa had proved herself helpful and honest to date, but she was ice cold, even toward her own brother. Aloy inwardly wondered where those good graces ended, and if Erend was truly as amicable as he would have them believe. She had no doubt that the pair truly trusted no other person completely, except one-another.   

Erend indicated the door to the office with a jerk of his head. “Don’t let it hit you on the way out. Petra’s by the car, don’t try anything stupid.” 

“I truly do not understand you two,” Asera replied, (a sentiment that Aloy inwardly echoed). And with that, she was gone. 

They picked their way back to the truck in thoughtful silence. The sun was beating down, high above them, signalling that it was about noon. As they reached Petra, Ersa stepped forward to help her disarm and load the new traps she had collected from Asera’s display, and Erend swung back to face Aloy. 

“You’re headed to these… proving labs? Right?”

Aloy nodded in the affirmative. “The labs are about two days from here on foot. This was much more helpful than I thought it would be. Thanks for everything.”

“Wait – we can take you there?” 

Aloy grimaced. She always hated this part of the conversation, when she made her own way back through the uncharted wilderness and leaving new companions behind. She understood their disappointment – a newfound ally almost immediately lost, but she staunchly refused to compromise on companionship. She had neither the heart, nor the fortitude, to keep anyone by her side for too long. No matter how keen or how helpful her new friends were, Aloy was better off working alone, for their safety, and her own sanity. 

“I’m better off going it alone, but thanks,” she replied, after a pause. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Ersa looking over her shoulder at the exchange watchfully. The other woman exchanged a meaningful glance with Petra, but said nothing. 

“At least swing by Brightmarket on the way through and resupply?” 

Aloy shook her head. “Again, thanks, but I’m good.” 

Erend’s friendly face closed off, and for a moment he looked profoundly put out- to the point that Aloy’s insistence very nearly waivered, as some unnamed sadness clouded his steel-blue eyes. 

She was a little taken aback by his eagerness, but in the same breath, it was heart-warming. If Erend’s affable nature was an act, it was a very good one. If it wasn’t, it was all the more reason for Aloy to leave him behind now. Erend and Ersa had shown mercy today, and they had been generally forthcoming and good-natured about Aloy’s intrusion on their business.  Vulnerable and kind people were a rare breed in this world, and Aloy would be damned before she put someone with a good heart in harm’s way. 

“If we go now, we’ll reach Brightmarket by evening,” Ersa called, interrupting Aloy and Erend’s shared reverie. 

Erend visibly shook himself back to his senses, and fixed Aloy with a bright and hopeful smile. “We’ll be in Brightmarket for the next couple of weeks recuperating and planning our next move. You should swing by after you’re done with the lab.” 

“I might take you up on that.”

His hope bolstered by this comment, Erend continued. “Ask after me when you’re there. You could come travelling with us? It’d be a whole new life, if you wanted it.” 

“Thanks, Erend,” Aloy said, not without regret. “We both better get moving.”

“Y- yeah, no worries. It was really good to meet you.” 

Something about his inspirited tone made colour rise high in Aloy’s cheeks. She inwardly banked this information, and supposed there was no harm in stopping by this ‘Brightmarket’ for supplies. “Likewise.”

Taking her cue, Ersa approached and offered Aloy a hand, and a couple of drinks for the road. Aloy accepted the handshake with a laugh. “I’ll be seeing you all again some day.” 

“Stay gorgeous,” Petra called from the driver’s seat of the truck, to no shortage of eye rolls from the other three.

The Proving Labs was an old cure and treatment testing facility, just north of the desert. There was very little else known about the lab or the surrounding areas, only that it had been abandoned in a rush about eighteen months after testing began. All records, findings, results, and identities of the persons involved had been haphazardly destroyed when the research team left the facility overnight and barred the doors behind them. There was no proof that many of the researchers had even made it out alive. 

Aloy wasn’t the superstitious sort, but there was something about the stories surrounding the Proving Labs that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. A kind of… melancholy fear surrounded the place – a building, once bustling with hope and new ideas, that suddenly fell silent. A ray of hope, snuffed out, without warning or explanation. 

And, fool that she was, she was walking into the mystery face-first. 

Aloy mentally prepared herself for what she might find once she reached the labs. The road was long, but largely uneventful as she kept to side roads and forest trails. There was a few mobs of Creatures to dodge here and there, but she made her way steadily to her destination. 

There were only three remaining personnel records associated with the Labs, that hadn’t been destroyed. 

The first was Elisabet Sobek, a prodigious bio-engineering professor who had dedicated her final years toward finding a cure for the alleged virus that swept their world. To date, Aloy had not managed to find any record of the supposed virus’ genetic makeup or nature, and, at this stage, it was unclear if they were dealing with a virus at all. Elisabet’s records were half-destroyed and half-missing, and piecing the research together had taken up most of Aloy’s days, prior to her sister’s disappearance. 

The second, was another researcher by the name of Travis Tate. Travis, Aloy recalled from her research, had specifically been pulled from a high security prison for the task of finding said cure. Most prisoners had been released, to fend for themselves, once the virus swept out of control. However, Tate and some of his more dangerous compatriots had been the exception, remaining in custody until Elisabet had asked for his aid directly. 

Elisabet had passed away a few years earlier, in a transport mission gone wrong – her team and vehicles were overrun by a swarm somewhere outside of Nevada. Elisabet had, according to the legends, patched up her wounds, and made it home to her family ranch just before passing away from her injuries.

Tate’s death was a much more mysterious affair, one day, about a year after Sobeck’s death, he had simply- vanished. Tate was just… gone, along with a slew of other researchers whose names had forever been lost to destroyed records and crumbling ruins. Tate had seemed to anticipate his disappearance, however, and was clever enough to leave back-up data about his research anywhere that someone could get their hands on. The others… even their names had been forgotten to the last fifteen years of violence and mayhem.   

Aloy had dug up Tate’s records extensively, traversing through ruins to find out if he had discovered anything that the equally mysterious Elisabet Sobeck may have left behind. 

She found it difficult to believe that such larger-than-life personalities could simply be snuffed out, but so far, her search has proven fruitless. 

The only thing she knew for certain was their connection to two other parties, which were still in existence: another, unnamed research group which had existed prior to the virus’ outbreak, and her current target. 

The third researcher associated with the Proving Labs was an independent contractor who only went by the handle ‘Sylens’. Unlike the other two, this particular scientist was still at large. He never appeared to be in one place for too long, and you were more likely to find traces of his comings and goings than the man himself. Aloy had been on his (extremely frustrating) tail for some six months, since her sister’s disappearance, but she had only ever found crumbs and hints at his presence – just enough information to lead her to her next location, but never enough to catch up to him. 

Sylens was the only (semi) contactable connection to Sobeck, and ergo, the primary suspect in her sister’s disappearance. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say his actions of leaving a trail for her to follow were deliberate.  

When she reached the Proving Labs on the eve of her second day on the road, Aloy almost stumbled across the entrance to the facility. 

It was a doorway, dug through the side of a hill face, dusty and propped open by wooden slats, it was very difficult to believe she was in the correct place until she noticed the tell-tale signs of another workshop. Another ‘easter egg’ planted by her mysterious benefactor. 

“So you’ve paved the way for me again, Sylens,” She muttered, miffed. “And you still won’t show your face.”

Almost as if in answer, a piece of paper caught her eye, fluttering lightly against the work bench on the outside of the entrance. A note, in the hand of Sylens himself. Six simple words, in lieu of any kind of greeting or explanation: 

You’re the one with the key.

Aloy sighed. “So you do know that I’m following you. Could have just met me here, instead of leaving me with this cryptic shit."

She grinned to herself as she echoed Erend’s insult directed at his sister. Her new acquaintances had made quite the impression – it surprised her how much she had enjoyed their company, and how much she regretted leaving them behind.

Shrugging off the odd feeling, Aloy made her way inside the makeshift entrance. 

What she found inside lay in stark contrast to the collapsing doorway in the hill-face. A vast entrance room, well-lit and with floor to ceiling walkways and offices littering the walls of the building. The research lab didn’t reach skyward, like most of the ruins she had traversed, but rather plummeted down, down . There were uniform office spaces, walkways and staircases as far as her naked eye could see. 

The only break in the monotony of the building lay at the very bottom – where the fluorescent lighting suddenly ended. She could barely see the stairwell at the bottom of the facility, blasted away and in ruins – and with a makeshift barricade against the elevator doors.   

And then, far, far below her, she heard the unmistakable grunts and wails of live Creatures. 

“Probably best not to dive straight into that,” Aloy shuddered, turning her attention to a holographic directory that shimmered away in the corner of the entrance hall. She tapped away at it, eyebrows raising curiously as another note wobbled into view on the screen, part of a treasure hunt she never consented to. 

Tate’s office: 34B. Sobeck’s: 97F.

“Uh, thanks Sylens,” Aloy said to the empty room. “Office of… there you are.” She confirmed against the directory’s map. “ Ninety-seven floors down. How far does this thing go?” 

Scrolling through the lab’s directory, she found her answer, “102”, as another note appeared on the directory screen.  

Live virus kept on 88-97. Testing on 101-102. Try not to get yourself killed.  

“Seriously?” Aloy barked, as a sick realisation dawned on her. “Are you seriously watching me right now? Where the hell are you?!”

The power is still working here. CCTV footage is live.

“Don’t you think it’s odd that they didn’t even turn the power off before ditching this place? There could still be someone in here. Or worse, the Z’s below could have found a way to get upstairs.”

Then you should get a move on.   

She rolled her eyes and made her way for the elevator. “Screw you, too.”  

The elevator wasn’t in the best shape, and it screeched and rattled ominously on the way down to the ninety-seventh floor, but it was still functional. 

Aloy pulled herself up through the service hatch in the ceiling and listened as hard as she could over the metallic grind of the lift, waiting for signs that the Creatures had been alerted to her presence. She could barely hear their grunts and wails through the thick concrete walls of the elevator shaft, but to her ear, it sounded like they were none-the-wiser. 

She reached the 34th floor without event – and when the lift doors opened and Aloy tipped herself upside down to peer into the hallway suspiciously, there was nothing much to report. This floor was made of uniform white halls, fluorescent lighting and neatly labelled office spaces, much like the rest of the building. 

The only stand-out feature was a door right at the end of the level, which was covered floor to ceiling in a chaotic assortment of… stickers? The accessories ranged from heavy metal band logos to some very distressing images of cartoon women. Aloy wrinkled her nose in disgust. 

“I’m guessing that’s Tate’s office,” she said to the empty room. 

When neither Sylens nor any unexpected Undead replied, she somersaulted out of the service hatch and landed neatly on the floor, and cautiously approached the eyesore of a door. She rattled the doorknob experimentally- unlocked – and eased it open, raising her crossbow in front of her. 

In the abandoned room lay a series of desiccated mobile devices- laptops and mobile phones, picked apart and taken for spare pieces. In the centre of this array, Aloy spotted another gift from Sylens, a shortwave radio, modified to include an earpiece. 

“Is this thing gonna explode when I put it on?” she asked cautiously. 

Silence. 

“No, you’re right,” said Aloy, gingerly picking the radio up, and examining the ear piece. “Why be upfront when you can be evasive, rude, and a little terrifying?” 

“I have my reasons,” the earpiece replied in a self-assured baritone. 

Satisfied that Sylens wasn’t about to murder her just yet, Aloy equipped the device. “I’m not trying to hurt you,” she told Sylens. “I just want to know what you had to do with-“ 

“A mystery that will be unravelled in due course, Aloy. For now, I suggest you make haste down to the one-hundred-and-first floor. You have the only key to Sobeck’s office, after all.” 

“A pleasure to meet you, too,” she grumbled, stepping back toward the elevator. “Does this thing go all the way down?”

“To ninety-six, yes.”

“Because a smooth run straight to Sobeck’s office would be too easy.”

“Sobeck’s office and the floors below have been cut off. Someone had the good sense to blow up the stairwell in their departure.”

Aloy was reluctant to ask if Sylens was referring to a departure from the Proving Labs, or from life itself, so she neglected to respond. 

Floor 97 lay in stark contrast to the rest of the labs. Dilapidated was an understatement – there was next to nothing left of the floor below, as Aloy exited the elevator on floor ninety-six, and crept down the remains of the stairwell. 

Jumping down the three-foot drop where the last stairs had been blasted away, she spotted twisted hunks of metal and concrete, blasted away and cast in shadow. The rest of the floor was plunged into darkness, and she could see only the shapes of furniture littering the halls.

Aloy hummed nervously. “Who took out all the lights?”

“Stalkers, I’d wager,” Sylens replied, voice low. “Don’t speak again until you’ve found the office.” 

She shuddered. To date, she’d only heard rumours of this new breed of Creature. Clever enough to lay traps, but still not cognisant enough to tell the difference between a friend and an enemy, Stalkers operated in the dark. They had no need for eyesight, as their hearing was supernaturally keen.  Aloy covered her mouth and nose with one hand and adjusted the belongings in her backpack so that they would not rattle together. 

Sobeck’s office was marked by a simple, unassuming white door to the left of the stairwell. It was unadorned, save for a plaque, and a key card reader on the door handle.  On the way to the office lay a minefield of cabinets, tables, and overturned storage cupboards, blocking her view of the entire hallway. She stepped forward carefully, wincing as a shattered piece of plastic crunched under her foot. 

Picking her way through the debris with painstaking care, Aloy reached a large, grey, and heavily beaten filing cabinet situated next to the door, she took another step toward Sobeck’s office, when Sylens suddenly hissed in her ear. 

“Get in the cabinet. Now .” 

She did as she was bade without hesitation, slipping into the cramped space and holding her breath, heart thundering in her chest. 

The Stalker made its way past her hiding place excruciatingly slowly. It meandered past the cabinet, close enough that Aloy felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up– and too close for her to shut the cabinet door. As the Creature reached her location, she pressed her lips together firmly and pinched her nose, face reddening as she held her breath for longer than she thought was possible.  

The Creature swung its head toward her, searching blindly in her direction. The hand on her face began to tremble as she saw the Creature’s eyes, milky white, unseeing, and bulging almost completely out of its head. She felt sick to her stomach. 

After an eternity, the Stalker shuffled on, and Aloy slowly released a shaky breath, sucking in air as quietly as possible. She waited a beat, two, three, and gingerly stepped out from her hiding place. The Stalker had moved to the other side of the hall, near the stairwell where Aloy had come from. Silently, she crept Sobeck’s office, and pulled her lanyard out from underneath her shirt. 

“Here goes nothing,” Sylens commented. 

Aloy nodded, steeled herself, and swiped the card. 

BEEP. 

“Well, fuck.”  

The Stalker swung its entire body in Aloy’s direction and began running toward the office door with alarming speed and agility. In seconds, it scaled her former hiding place with ease, and glared down at her, ready to pounce as the metal structure rattled beneath its weight.

“Get in there!” 

She didn’t need telling twice, and hurling the door open and slamming it shut behind her to the sounds of the Stalker slamming itself into the barrier between them, screeching and scratching and howling in rage. 

When she realised the coast was clear, Aloy slid down against the door, closing her eyes for a moment and sighing her relief.

“Aloy.”

“What?” she grunted from the floor. “What ? Can you give me a goddamn second.” 

“We don’t have a ‘goddamn second’,” Sylens admonished. “We need Elisabet’s last call log with an old friend.” 

Aloy stood up, fists curled in frustration at her side. “Who were you to Elisabet?”

“That is not of import. Go to her desk.” 

“No. Sylens, I want answers."

“I profoundly do not care what you want. Get the call log, or all of this was for nothing.” 

He wasn’t wrong, Aloy realised grimly, and marched to the desk with a frustrated huff.

The sit-stand desk and computer were situated at the end of the room, surrounded by LED monitors and an electronic whiteboard, bearing the remnants of Elisabet Sobeck’s last days in the Proving Labs. Aloy ran her hands over the workspace, staring at the handwriting on the whiteboard reverently. The writing was lively, with curls and loops where Elisabet’s words had blended into one-another. She always wrote with haste, as a fresh idea took her over.

Elisabet’s ideas were as unstoppable as the woman executing them, and Aloy was suddenly overcome with dismay. Such a towering intellect, and such a passionate advocate for humanity, taken far too soon.

Sylens seemed to take pity on her as she pored over Elisabet’s nonsense notes. “Your mother was an incredible, impossible woman, Aloy.”

Aloy’s head jerked upwards in shock. “How did you know she was my mother? Nobody knows that."

A pause. “A small number of people know. Some of the individuals in that number have your sister. Get the log, and we’ll be one step closer to finding her.” 

Mute with shock, Aloy logged into the computer.

So are you some kinda… Chosen one?

Travis Tate’s Southern drawl permeated the room, his voice lilted with amusement despite the gravity of their conversation.

Elisabet Sobeck seemed warmed to him, Aloy couldn’t help the grin that tugged at her own lips as she heard the smile in her mother’s voice.

Not chosen. Just a genetic anomaly.

Well , Said Travis, if anyone was fit to be anomalous it’s you.

Elisabet laughed drily. I can’t thank you enough for helping me test this theory quietly. You’ve been absolutely vital.

My pleasure, Lis. I’ve always admired you from afar. I guess freaks of nature flock together.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that that was a complement.  Her tone was dry, but not unwelcoming.   

It was. Travis assured her. We’ve got the first trial lined up – lets get this vaccine show on the road and see how we went.

Aloy’s mouth ran dry as she listened to the recording of Travis and Elisabet lining up their pilot experiment. There was a number of quiet shuffling sounds, followed by typing, closely followed by Travis and Elisabet exclaiming in unison.

Shit.  

Shit.

Aloy leaned forward expectantly, but no more words came. Instead, the Proving Labs intercom wheezed to life.

“I think you’ve had your fill, Aloy.” A woman’s voice announced over the intercom. “We’ll be taking this data now. You’ve overheard quite enough.”

Her blood ran cold as the Stalkers outside responded to the sound of the intercom. A few, maybe a dozen voices roared to life, furious at the intrusion of the intercom.  In her ear, Sylens cursed quietly, before his end of the radio fell completely silent.

It didn’t take Aloy long to realise she was completely alone, and with no way out. The air vents in the ceiling were far too small for her to crawl through. Her crossbow wasn’t enough to make it through the veritable hoard outside. She couldn’t fight them all by hand.  She was fresh out of options.

Chest heaving in panic, Aloy stared, wild-eyed at the door, until a second voice crackled through the intercom unexpectedly.

“Aloy! Aloy, we don’t have much time – can you hear me?”

Aloy gasped at the sound. She wheeled around the room, searching for the source of her sister’s voice. “Beta ?!”

“Aloy,” Beta repeated urgently, and the office door swung open by some invisible force.

“Run! ”

Chapter Text

Running for the exit was a far more complicated task than Beta made it out to be. Aloy vaulted over furniture, twisted her body past debris, and slid underneath the swinging arms of the Stalkers that reached for her, blind and enraged.

She lost part of her shirt sleeve as she pulled away from the horde of Creatures tearing their way toward her, and gasped as she narrowly avoided a bite. She made her way through the body of the attack with minimal injury, but when she reached the broken stairwell and clambered atop a filing cabinet, she realised the full gravity of the situation.  

Her only way out had been blasted away further, the next ledge to safety now six or more feet above her, and her grappling hook lost to the fray behind her.  

“You assholes !” Aloy screamed at the ceiling, “Let me out of here!”

The intercom regarded her silently from its position on the wall, either abandoned or unwilling to aid her.

“Shit.” Aloy gasped. “ Shit .”  

The Creatures closed in, wild with hunger. With rage . Aloy felt her heartbeat thundering in her throat. Chest heaving, she closed her eyes. Her only choice now was to take out as many of the Stalkers as she could and hope for the best. She sent up a prayer to whoever was listening that she could make it out – make it back to her sister.  

She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and raised her crossbow –  

“ALOY!” 

For the second time that day, a familiar but unexpected voice bellowed her name.She swung around, wide-eyed, to look at her salvation.  

“… Varl ?! How did – how the hell did you find me here?”

Her old friend looked down at her from the ledge that Aloy was too short to climb - that she had blindly leapt down from earlier. Varl’s expression was fearful.“There’s no time to explain! Grab on!”  

Varl swung a large rope downward, just low enough for Aloy to catch. They both swore loudly as the Creatures began clawing their way up Aloy’s filing cabinet. Aloy needed no further invitation, snatching the rope and twisting it into her legs for security.  

The cabinet toppled beneath her as she shifted her weight, and she lost her balance for a moment, smacking hard, forehead-first against the concrete wall in front of her. With no time to assess the damage, Aloy blinked away the spots in her vision and climbed as fast as she could.  

She kicked downwards at the Stalkers tugging at her shoes and leggings with a yell. “Pull me up!”  

“I’m trying my best!” Varl replied, equally frantic. “You’re so much heavier than you look!”

Despite the gravity of her situation, Aloy burst into laughter, half-hysterical with fear. “You always knew how to make a girl feel special, Varl!”

Unexpectedly, a second pair of arms reached out to the rope from behind Varl, and for a moment, Aloy’s heart stopped as she thought the Creatures had reached her friend from another level. Then, the second pair of arms started tugging at the ropes, aiding Varl’s rescue efforts.  

When she reached the landing, Aloy crawled over the ledge on her hands and knees. She stared at her new companions, stricken, for a moment. Her voice and her legs didn’t seem to want to cooperate.  

The newcomer was a woman about her height, and slightly older than Varl. She bore a serious but kindly expression in her warm brown eyes, and she immediately set to work checking Aloy for injuries. This stranger rubbed Aloy’s back gently as she recovered from her shock.  

“Holy shit,” Aloy finally croaked. “I thought I was done for.”

“We did, too,” the newcomer said. She had a deep, soothing voice which didn’t at all match their environment.   

“Thank goodness we got here in time,” Varl gasped as he offered Aloy a hand up. She waved her friend away and stood up on her own.  

Then, she promptly vomited, and fell like a tree into a dead faint.

Beta was here. She could feel it.  

Somewhere in these winding, white and clinical halls, her sister waited for her.  

But the place felt like a labyrinth. Everywhere she turned, new doors would open and close in her periphery. The walls themselves seemed to pulsate around her in a motion that made her sea-sick.  The sound of her footsteps echoed loudly, bouncing along the halls and announcing her arrival.  

Her pulse was quick – frantic– but her limbs were heavy and uncooperative. Her whole body felt clammy and sweaty. Sick with anticipation.  

Still, she pressed on, using the fear in her gut to guide her next moves.

“I would know if she was dead,” Aloy reminded herself, and forced her heavy legs to carry her forward, “I could feel it.”  

The shifting walls and fluorescent lights offered her no reply.  

After a time, she came across a boardroom, not unlike the one in which she had found Ted Faro’s last recording but – larger, somehow. It seemed to stretch forever, with curved ceilings like a cathedral.  

This time, there were no hidden voices inside the boardroom, only three figures, situated at an oversized table. One figure was at the head of the table, clear as day. The other two, cast in shadow, facing the first figure.  

The table seemed to stretch for miles and miles.  As Aloy tried to walk toward the first figure, she only seemed to get further and further away.  

Her mouth was dry, her speech slurred – but she asked, “What did you do?”  

From the end of the table, Ersa regarded her coolly. She seemed unafraid, despite the figures threatening her. “No worse than you, really.”  

“I don’t know how to help you.”

She gave no reply. The figures lurched forward and grabbed Ersa. Aloy watched in dread as the figure-that-was-Ersa slumped forward and disappeared, just for a moment.  

Not dead, but something worse.  

The figure changed.    

When the figure rose, Aloy was looking at a near mirror of her own face. Older, more tired. A face she hadn’t seen in years.  

“Elisabet?”  

Elisabet didn’t reply. The two figures in shadow raised their hands again, and Aloy couldn’t watch. She backed out of the room as quietly as she could, breathless and voiceless.  

When she exited the room, she found herself not back in the empty, white hallways, but in a lab. Some kind of pump was making a thunderous, thumping sound in sync with her heartbeat. Itgrew louder as she eyed the room and spotted a tank.  

The lab had six tanks, filled with a green fluid that suspended test subjects in a forced stasis. The first four contained Creatures, lost in slumber. The fifth, empty.  

In the sixth tank was Beta. Or at least, most of her. Beta’s hair was shorn, one of her eyes was missing, and the back of her head was torn open. The insides of her skull were kept in place with some kind of device.  

The thundering sound grew louder as Aloy crept toward Beta’s tank, feet heavy, throat constricted. She could barely hear her own thoughts.  

Her heart leapt into her throat as Beta’s eye snapped open. Aloy choked.

“I said I’d protect you.”

Beta’s remaining eye was wild with terror – she pressed her palms frantically against the tank, gesturing for Aloy to leave.

“Beta – Beta I’m so sorry, I said –“

Beta’s scream was muffled by the fluid as she slammed her hands against the glass barrier. Through the thundering machinery and her own horrified cries, she heard Beta shouting,  

“Run run run run RUN RUN RUN RUN-“

“Hold her down!”

Another voice, closer and clearer this time, and reaching Aloy’s ears over the machinery and the sounds of Beta’s cries.

“Varl, she’s having a fever dream – keep her still while I–”

Aloy didn’t hear the rest as a heavy body pressed downward on her flailing arms. She felt a pinprick, and her body flooded with warmth.  

And then, nothing.  

The next time she opened her eyes, Aloy was mortified.  

Stripped to her underclothes, sweaty, and looking every bit the drowned rat, she lurched upwards and began frantically searching the room for her belongings. She had to leave this place immediately , but her search was not in the least aided by the fact that the floor and walls kept moving.

“Hey there, crazy.” A gentle voice reached her ears. Varl, she supposed. “You’re not going anywhere in this condition. Zo insists you need to be on bed rest for another day or two at least .”

Aloy swung around to face Varl and let him know exactly what she thought of the term ‘bed rest’. Unfortunately she swung a little too enthusiastically, and stumbled backwards right into him. Varl scooped her up into his arms with a mirthful look. Try as she might to look menacing, Aloy could only manage a pitiful frown as Varl carried her back to a small med-bay cot.

“Sleep,” he insisted. “Or at least pretend to sleep so that Zo doesn’t come and kick your ass.”

“Who is Zo? Your friend from earlier?” Aloy asked groggily.

“Girlfriend!” Varl responded, his chest puffed with pride.

Aloy tried to ignore the jealous flip in her stomach at the sound of Varl’s excitement. Her old friend from home was a wonderful person who deserved every happiness. She envied only the spare time that he had to find himself a partner.  

“How did you two find me?” she asked, dodging the girlfriend conversation for the time being and curling her bedsheets around herself protectively.

Varl regarded her, his expression wary and concerned. “I was hoping you could shed some light on that. We got a message that filtered through our radio – it sounded like your voice, giving coordinates. Don’t you remember?”

“It wasn’t me,” Aloy grunted, shifting her body to get more comfortable. “It was my sister.”

“Whoa, whoa!” said Varl, raising a finger at Aloy, “I know we haven’t spoken in a while, but when did you get a sister ?”  

“It’s a long story,” she said warily. “We only just met.”  

“Thankfully,” Zo interrupted from the doorway, her arms loaded with medical supplies, “you’ll have plenty of time to fill us in. While you’re resting . Varl – is there any particular reason you’re bothering my patient?”  

“She was trying to – you know…” Varl indicated a person running away with his fingers. “She didn’t get far, though,” he teased, nudging Aloy with an elbow and grinning broadly. Still disoriented, Aloy neglected to inform Varl that there was briefly three versions of him speaking to her, and chose instead to roll her eyes.  

“You’ll be going nowhere until I get a good look at you,” Zo informed her. “Aloy, you were knocked unconscious.”  

“I’ve had worse,” she grumbled.

“You seem alert enough,” Zo admitted. “How do you feel? Do you think you can keep a meal down?”  

“Thought you weren’t supposed to eat with a concussion.” Aloy mumbled, rubbing her forehead gingerly.   

“Normally yes, but it’s been almost two days, Aloy.”  

Well, shit . She’d lost so much time already. The trail for Beta was probably already cold. Aloy felt the heat of frustration rise in her cheeks, and tried her hardest to swallow down her anger at being held back.  

Zo was a strict caregiver, but a warm and intuitive person overall it seemed. She knelt by Aloy’s cot, sensing her distress before Aloy herself had time to register it, and began combing the hair away from her face gently. Normally, Aloy avoided touch at all costs, but Zo’s capable hands steadied her, guiding her away from her panicky edge.

“Tell us what happened over dinner,” Zo suggested. Her voice was warm and her eyes were kind as ever.   

Varl carefully helped Aloy outside for their meal, letting her rest in the fresh air under the setting sun. The settlement where Varl and Zo had made their home was a sweet, quiet one–full of plants with curling vines and people with gentle faces. A quiet, sleepy town where the breeze carried well and a sense of peace wafted through the streets with the wind. It was called Stone’s Echo, Varl informed her, an outer settlement of the Utaru, who had little interest in fighting the Creatures or causing trouble with other factions. Varl had come here seeking trade opportunities, as well as to fortify connections with other groups surrounding Jiran and his Kestrels, – he and a few others from their hometown had long been suspecting trouble from Meridian, and Varl had volunteered himself to liaise with settlements to the West of the growing empire. He’d met Zo, he explained, and immediately decided to stay wherever she remained.  

Aloy could hear soft, soothing music through some of the apartment buildings that made up the outer borders of Stone’s Echo – the common area where they sat wassafely nestled in the middle of the high walls.  

Dinner was a delight – if tragically vegetarian – and Aloy ate ravenously. She relayed the last few days’ events in as much detail as she could, through mouthfuls of food – wholly aware that she probably looked like a wild animal. Varl, having lost his younger sister to the Creatures not long before Aloy met him, squeezed her shoulder affectionately as she explained Beta’s disappearance.

“So these people that have her – you have no idea who they might be?”  

“My main suspect just freely admitted he has no leverage over me, so no. I’m fresh out of ideas,” Aloy sighed.  

“Still, it must have been good to hear her voice. To hear that she’s in one piece.”

Aloy gave Varl a sympathetic look. “It was.”

It was true, she had plenty of motivation and hope to find her sister alive–but zero direction.

“I still can’t believe that you have a sister – why would your parents keep that from you?”

Aloy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She had explained very little of her family history to Varl, who had always accepted her silence on the matter with good grace. The truth was, she was raised by a foster parent hand-picked by her mother, and had very little to do with her biological parents. She had met Elisabet once before her untimely demise– the same day she had met her sister– and the conversation hadn’t gone well. Aloy and Beta had made the joint decision to cut Elisabet out, something she was deeply regretting, now that she had learned more about her mother. She frowned at the ugly memory she tried her best to avoid.  

“I’m interested in this strange trio you happened upon,” said Zo, caught on to Aloy’s discomfort. “Do you think they have ties with the other groups in this area? I’ve not heard of Freebooters before.”  

“I don’t think so – they said they hail from further east, and before that, the far north. And they were a little stand-offish, at first – said they’d just left the Freebooters before running into me.”  

Zo tapped her fork against her plate thoughtfully, “They sound like a formidable group, going it alone in these parts.”  

Aloy watched Varl’s partner with a surveying look – there was a lot more to her than met the eye. She was softly spoken, gentle, and conscientious, but there was a feistiness to her that Aloy appreciated. She was small in stature, but fierce, analytical, and knowledgeable. She handled Aloy’s injuries with expertise and calm, which suggested she was some sort of medic. But Aloy got the sense that she also knew her way around a fight well.  

“Tell me about the people in these parts?”  

Zo smiled, “I suppose planning your next move almost counts as resting,” she acquiesced. Aloy was delighted to realise Zo hadn’t been fooled by her for a minute.   

“It’s as close as we’re gonna get,” Varl grinned as he began to clear their plates. “What do you want to know?”  

“I think I’m on the lookout for a particular researcher – the bastard that threw me under the bus at the Proving Labs, Sylens – he seems to be my only connection to my sister at the moment.”

Zo pursed her lips thoughtfully, “I haven’t heard that name before, but there’s three major settlements here. You’re in Utaru territory at the moment. We’re more interested in the fine arts of agriculture and doing nothing than in joining any resistance.”  

“The next group are the bloodthirsty Tenakth.” Varl interjected mischievously.    

Zo shot him a look . “He means the largely peaceful Tenakth, with a few exciting exceptions – we have an excellent trade agreement with our neighbours west of here, and I won’t have some foreign boy messing that up.” She chided, “If you’re looking for some insight into the research in the area, the Tenkath might be able to give you a few leads, but I doubt it. Their main focus at the moment is unification of this territory. They’re all too aware of the trouble Jiran and his lackeys are causing to the east of here, and currently the three main groups of Tenakth are quite spread out.”

Aloy nodded, she’d heard nothing good about the goings on back East. She wondered what her previous travelling companions, Erend, Ersa and Petra were thinking, heading straight back into the fray. “And the third?”  

“A funny sort.” Zo replied, “They call themselves the Quen. They don’t have much to do with any other group in these parts, but they’ve managed to fortify an island to the far West and it suits the rest of us just fine. They don’t seem to be looking for trouble, yet.”  

“Rumour has it, the Quen are picking their way through old research facilities, much like yourself.” Varl added.

“That might be worth looking into,”  

“Hm,” said Zo, eyes crinkling in amusement, “I didn’t know she could fly.”  

“I wouldn’t put it past her.” Varl replied cheekily.  

“What?” Aloy queried, flummoxed.  

Zo took pity on her, her beautiful brown eyes twinkling, “The Quen control all the waters surrounding their research island. You’re not getting there safely by boat. So unless you’ve got wings we don’t know about, I’d put that idea to rest – at least for now.”  

Aloy bit her lip. She seemed to be reaching dead end after dead end. Sylens was leaving a tidy trail of only exactly what he wanted Aloy to find, and she still had no proof he was connected to the people that took her sister from her. With no solid direction in the West, she pondered her options back East –  she could go home, back to the facility where her mother last worked in Mother’s Cradle, but she was reluctant to retrace her steps that far. It was entirely unclear if anything laid to the North, and she had dug through every inch of the other research facilities back home.  

And then there was Brightmarket.  

Her interesting new allies made it clear they could be found in this trading town– from what Aloy heard in her travels, it was a bustling open market of ideas, resources, supplies and inventions of all kinds. Even if she found no answers there, she might find some new ideas.

Toying with the idea, she looked to Zo once more, “What do you know about Brightmarket?”

The older woman was watching her with no small amount of concern, as though her brewing ideas were written all over her face. Brightmarket sat on the edge of the city Meridian – a towering settlement which had been built upon a mesa some thirty years ago. Jiran’s city. 

Travelling alone in a foreign area, so close to the territory of a crazed war-lord was some feat of madness, she knew, but it seemed like her best chance to regain her feet, and her direction.

“That it’s a funny name for a black market,” Zo offered diplomatically, her disapproval of Aloy’s idea written all over her face. Aloy smiled at Zo’s expression.

“I can hear you worrying. Don’t - I can handle myself.”

“Can you handle yourself in your current state?”  

“My acquaintances from the Faro building are waiting for me there. I can reach out to them if I get stuck–”  

Before Aloy could finish reassuring Zo, they were interrupted by an announcement at the gates of Stone’s Echo– a stranger, approaching for help.

The runner who had announced their visitor was young, an uncertain teenager who looked to Zo with consternation. “They haven’t opened the gates yet. He doesn’t look like he’s from around here. He says he’s lost somebody,” she blurted.

Zo calmed the girl with one hand on her shoulder, “Did you catch his name?”

The teen nodded, “Erend.”  

Aloy’s sharp intake of breath caught their attention, “How could they have lost each other again so soon?”  

“You know this guy?” Varl queried.  

“He’s one of the group I was just travelling with,” Aloy replied, brow furrowed. Erend had seemed unconcerned with politics in these parts, more focused on the disturbances back East. It troubled her that he had somehow followed Aloy this far – was he aware that she was also at Stone’s Echo? Did he have some ulterior motive for travelling further West? Was his easy-going attitude a front for something more sinister?

“Don’t let him in,” Aloy decided, “I’ll see him at the gates.”  

Zo nodded in agreement, “That’s probably wise. Let’s figure out what he needs first. We’ll come with you.”

She offered Zo and Varl an apologetic look as her friends helped her up and to the outer border of Stone’s Echo. A gap in the high gates opened for them to pass through. “I had no idea that someone would have followed me.”  

“Aloy, you’ve had no idea where or who you were for the last two days, I believe this wasn’t planned,” Varl replied, “by you , at least.”  

Erend was seated quietly on a bench outside the walls of the village, elbows on his knees and his head buried in his hands. He looked distraught, and, to his credit, genuinely shocked to see them. He stood up when he noticed their approach, and Aloy noticed he was wearing the same clothes she had last seen him in. But, through the dark circles under his eyes and his obvious exhaustion, he seemed every bit the genuine, open person she had met at First Forge.

“Aloy?” he asked, a little breathless. His face lit up into a disarmingly sweet smile, despite the worry that remained in his eyes. Aloy couldn’t help but grin in response.  

Zo watched their exchange with a wary, thoughtful expression. She nudged Aloy with her elbow and whispered with a taunting grin, “ You didn’t tell me he was handsome. ”  

Aloy shook her head as Varl snickered, colour rising in her cheeks, “Erend, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”  

“I was hoping to stop here for help, but the Utaru are a pretty closed-off bunch. I need to head back to Meridian, I think. I think they headed to Meridian. I don’t know .”

Aloy raised an eyebrow, “Right back into the fray? You only just left Meridan last we spoke. What’s back there?”  

Erend pressed his lips together tightly and ran a hand through his mohawk, worry creasing his features. He seemed to shrink in on himself in his distress, “It’s my fault,” he mumbled in a rush, “I shouldn’t have let her go it alone. I’d drunk too much the day before and just wanted to sleep- Asera and I were on the road for weeks and Ersa swore she was only doing some recon, but Dervahl took her. She swore that-”  

“Hold on,” Zo said, interrupting his disjointed, ruminating thoughts, “Who is Ersa? If someone is in distress near Meridian there’s no way you should be headed out there alone–”  

“She’s my sister, and I have to – I can’t leave her there,” he answered quickly, voice thick with emotion. “Dervahl might still have her, and I don’t know what will happen to her. We’ve only got each other, and I–”  

Erend dropped back into his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose hard. He took a deep breath, and looked back up at them with shaking hands.  

“I don’t know what to do.” He finished weakly.  

Aloy’s heart lurched in her chest. She knew Erend’s distress all too well, and the raw panic that must be setting in. Her only family was missing too – someone that she swore to protect, and the look on Erend’s face answered every remaining question that Aloy had about their dynamic. She believed his worry was genuine, and that he had no ulterior motive for coming here.  

She reached out and touched his arm lightly, trying to ground him, even as her own chest ached in empathy, “I’ll help.”    

Erend’s eyes went wide with surprise and an endearing hope. Colour rose in his cheeks as his gaze flicked between Aloy’s face and the gentle hand on his arm. He looked up into her eyes with awe and couldn’t seem to find the words to answer her. His expression was open, sweet and vulnerable, and Aloy was overcome again with the urge to protect this man from all that was happening around them.  

At the realisation, Aloy shook her head, and withdrew her hand quickly. “I mean,” she cleared her throat.“I was heading that way anyway.”  

Zo coughed (a little too loudly), and approached Erend with an appraising look. “There’s no harm in you joining us for the evening,” she said. “Have you had anything to eat today?”  

When Erend shook his head, Varl smiled genially and offered a hand. “We were just clearing up, but I’m sure there’s plenty of leftovers for you.”  

“Vegetarian leftovers,” Aloy added, as a caveat. 

Erend let out a watery laugh as Zo rolled her eyes. “Hard pass.”  

When they returned to Varl and Zo’s home under the suspicious gaze of the other Utaru, Aloy took stock of her belongings. Her bow was un-damaged in the chaos from two days earlier, and her map remained mostly intact. But, she realised with a disgruntled noise, her food pack had been left at the gates to the Proving Lab facility–most likely lost forever.  

“I’ll trade you some food for your extra first-aid supplies?” Erend offered with a grin.

“By first-aid supplies do you mean the–”  

“The vodka, yeah.”

“Have you considered solid food recently?”  

“Considered it unnecessary,” Erend replied cheekily, sweeping past her to steal the bottle out of her pack.

They took their leave the following morning to the sounds of Zo’s protests. They said their goodbyes at the gates to Stone’s Echo, and looking over the vast, dry landscape surrounding this apartment block. Most of the other inhabitable areas in these parts had been blasted away in a vain attempt to clear a ‘no man’s land’ between the infected and the rest of society. This operation lasted only a few weeks before the Creatures swept the world with force. What remained were echoes of humanity – an open field of ghosts.

“I’ll be fine,” Aloy assured Zo, “I’ve been beaten up worse than this before. Thank you again for keeping me in one piece after the Proving Labs.”  

“You’re more than welcome,” Zo replied kindly, “I’m still not happy about you leaving so soon, but it sounds like time is of the essence here.”

“Are you sure you don’t need us to come with you?” Varl asked, a worried presence at Zo’s side. Aloy shook her head.

“Keep an ear to the ground about this researcher, Sylens. I’m worried he’s involved in something a lot bigger than my family drama.” Aloy advised, “Meet us in Brightmarket in two days?”  

Varl nodded solemnly, “I’ll let you know what I find.”

Ersa’s last known whereabouts was an intersection of road about halfway between Brightmarket and a ruined holdout that didn’t survive an airborne assault from the Creatures. Birds-that-were-no-longer-birds had stripped the area bare, leaving only red clay, dust, and some bony remains that Aloy sincerely hoped were not human. While the ground was empty, the sky was a different story entirely, and it was much safer to travel at night.  

Intrepid and wilful, some uninfected animals remained in the area – rabbits, lizards and the like, along with the odd flowering cactus.  Beyond that, the land was barren, and not even humans or their formerly-human infected counterparts remained.

“Reminds me of an old Western movie, out here.” Erend commented, and mimed tipping the brim of a cowboy hat with a wink. Aloy snickered, her cheeks pinked by the blazing sun above them, and replied by swinging an invisible lasso.

A million tracks led to and from the location that Erend was leading her to – it was a well-used road, but those who traversed it were typically wise enough to move along quickly, to keep quiet and under cover where possible, and to travel at night. They spent the first day of their journey quietly picking through the canyons and rock faces that made up the outskirts of the area, only making softly-spoken conversation when they were sure that no Creatures were passing through the area. They made camp under a small stone archway at noon, and settled in, ready to recommence their journey at dusk.

Aloy passed Erend her canteen of water, which he took gratefully, “What can we expect to find at the crossroads?”

Erend didn’t answer immediately, his steely blue eyes fixed on the flat, strangely beautiful landscape.

“A mess,” he answered after a thoughtful pause. “We’d been tracking Dervahl since we left First Forge. He was planning an ambush on a Kestrel squad passing through here – thought we could catch Dervahl out while he was busy with the attack–”

“I thought you two were working against Jiran and his people as well?” Aloy asked warily,

“We are, but Dervahl more so – he’s a danger to everyone, not just Jiran’s people.” Erend explained. 

“Anyway, we were spyin’ on them – and shit went south. The squad turned out to be a lot bigger than anyone expected, some VIP is travelling with them, so Dervahl doubled back – drew attention away from himself, then threw Ersa under the bus for good measure.”  

“It doesn’t seem like Ersa to get caught out like that.”

“It’s not. That’s usually my bit – being a sloppy idiot.” Erend’s half-joke was met with a concerned look from Aloy. He kept his gaze on the horizon, the corners of his mouth turning down underneath his moustache, “She hates Dervahl so much she gets… rash. Hasty. I don’t know. He sets her off.” 

“Why, what’d he do?”

Erend scoffed, “What didn’t he do. He’s a real piece of work – he turned a moral resistance against Jiran into an extremist nightmare. But it’s not so much about what he does as what he’s like . He reminds her of our old man – controlling and drunk and fucking… mean-spirited.”

Erend folded his arms close to his chest and hunched his shoulders over, his expression distant. Aloy waited a moment before opening her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, Erend shook his head, and fixed her with a bright grin.

“Thanks again for coming along. You didn’t have to help me with this – I know you’ve got other places you’d rather be.”

For the life of her, Aloy suddenly couldn’t think of any place she’d rather be than in Erend’s pleasant, unassuming, and optimistic company. She opted to reply with a playful punch of Erend’s arm, “Thanks for trusting me to help – I get the impression you and Ersa don’t often let people travel with you.”

“’s why I knew I liked – I mean, uh, trusted you the second I saw you.” Erend confessed with a bashful smile, “Ersa doesn’t warm to anyone –plus, people tend to think she’s an asshole –  when the truth is she can’t always hear them.”  

Her mind went back to the first day travelling with Ersa, and their very awkward conversation in the car. It struck Aloy that Ersa had been looking out the window when Aloy offered her words of encouragement, and she let out a surprised hum. That whole exchange suddenly made a lot more sense.  

Erend laughed at Aloy’s quizzical expression “I’m not surprised she didn’t tell you she has a hearing loss – she never tells anyone, stubborn fool that she is. She had an… altercation with Dervahl, a few years ago now. Lost some of her hearing because of this -device- he set off.”

His expression was serious, recalling Ersa’s injury clearly causing him some distress. Aloy racked her brains for a change of subject, and happened to land on exactly the wrong topic -  “Do you have any other family?”

“Nah–” Erend said, waving his hand dismissively, “Our parents weren’t exactly what you would call attentive- and they’re long gone now. It’d be real nice if there was some extra protection in our lives from the world-ending virus, though.”

Aloy didn’t have a direct answer for that – she only clutched Elisabet’s flash drive and lanyard under her shirt with nervous hands. “I’m sorry–”

“Don’t worry about it.” Erend said, and his voice was warm and genuine. “Anyway, her hearing loss combined with the fact we had kind of a rough childhood… she doesn’t connect with other people easily – but  shit,  she took to you immediately . She’s real closed off. Hasn’t made a friend in a long time – and it… I dunno, it just made me really happy to see.”

Aloy’s face reddened, trying not to read too deeply into the word liked , she reached out and retrieved her water canteen from his slack hands. “I’m flattered. I’ll be even happier when we bring my new friend back in one piece.”

“You and me both,” Erend said softly, the dark circles under his eyes seeming more pronounced as he sat by her side and ruminated. It occurred to her that he likely hadn’t slept since the ambush.

“I’ll take first watch, Erend. Get some rest.”  

As dusk fell, Aloy nudged Erend awake with a cautious hand. He was quick to rouse, a mark of someone who had spent a long time on the road, and nodded his thanks as he collected their things.

“Anything exciting happen while I was out?”  

“Group of Sunwings, in the direction we’re heading,” Aloy grimaced. Sunwings were so-named for the glimpses of sunlight that could be seen through the remnants of their tattered wings. Thin, rabid, and falling apart, these Creatures now resembled dinosaur remains more than the brightly coloured birds they used to be. They spelled trouble if passers-by fell victim to an airborne attack, but they were less observant at night.  

The night air around them was bitterly cold, typical of an empty desert, and Aloy found herself accepting a spare jacket from Erend’s pack (“payment for the vodka”). It was overlarge, and she had to roll the sleeves up about half a dozen times, but it did the job.

“The ambush took place a few hundred meters away, but the crossroads is probably empty by now.” Erend supplied.

“We should take a look there first.”

A winding dirt road led toward the crossroads, occasionally punctuated with cattle grids. This area must have been a ranch of some kind back in the day, Aloy mused. The crossroads themselves sat in the most awkward position Aloy had ever seen. She understood suddenly why Dervahl had chosen this location for an ambush – the road sat nestled between a blank, indefensible canvas of a field, and a cliff face that looked entirely too prone to landslides. As they stepped towards the intersection, Aloy felt rather than heard the Sunwings above them announce themselves.

“So much for keeping things quiet!” she hissed, and ducked as low to the ground as she could.

Erend followed suit, and narrowly avoided a Sunwing’s talons as he hit the deck. “How many do you see?” he called over the sound of beating wings.

“You take the two on the left, I’ll take the two on the right?”

Erend gave her a short, sharp nod – fixing his eyes on the Creatures to their left.  Aloy barely had time to admire how suddenly he channelled his sister’s competent, resolute and calculating demeanour before he was upon them, swinging a large axe in both hands like it weighed nothing.

Aloy dispatched her two enemies quickly, plucking them from the sky with the practiced ease of using her crossbow. She turned to check in on Erend, just in time to see him finish the job with a mighty swing of his axe. Aloy caught herself staring – Erend was fairly covered up with heavy clothing. But even hidden away, the power in his arms and back were an undeniable thing. As Erend straightened up, he ran the back of his free hand across his face, swiping away the sweat, and fixed her with that truly disarming grin she had grown so fond of.

“Not bad, Aloy,” he said.

Aloy, momentarily robbed of language, only nodded. Had Erend always been this tall?

A pause.

Erend raised an eyebrow, tilting his head in question. 

“Tracks!” Aloy announced, as though that neatly solved the mystery of her missing brain cells. “I found some tracks.”

Chapter Text

The tracks in question revealed a haphazard departure from the crossroads.  

Aloy crouched down and eyed the ground suspiciously. The boots of the Kestrels had trampled in every direction at first – but lightly, as though they had made camp right here in the middle of the empty road.  

It wouldn’t have been an entirely idiotic decision, Aloy mused, as the area had good visibility on a long, flat plane of earth. However, the one angle the Kestrels couldn’t successfully defend was the goddamn sky , which turned this reasonably sensible location into one of the most brilliant displays of raw, unadulterated stupidity Aloy had ever witnessed.  

As expected, the next set of tracks Aloy found marked the Kestrels’ hasty departure from the crossroads, as a flock of Sunwings had rained down upon their party with unbridled fury.

“Nice one, geniuses.” she huffed under her breath. 

Heavy footfalls scarred the ground in all directions, until eventually, Aloy spotted a pattern on the southern edge of the crossroads.

“They went this way – running from an airborne attack. They made camp in the middle of an open field full of infected birds… and were – somehow–  taken by surprise when the infected birds attacked.”

“You’re kidding. These are the people taking over the area?” Erend said drily, though his brow furrowed with worry.  

“I wish. Looks like everyone got away in one piece, though. The infection rate from birds is quite low. You’re more likely to get pecked apart than get sick,” she assured Erend, gesturing for him to follow.  

The tracks led them uphill to a rise that looked as though it once held a block of buildings surrounding a courtyard. Though very little was left of the original layout, tents and small campsites littered the area – filled with Jiran’s Kestrel soldiers.  

The guards were largely in one piece, with a few of them sporting nasty scratches but no signs of infection (Aloy breathed a sigh of relief). They were making a profound mess of the area, littering the ground with trash, boots, bottles, and discarded bullet shells. A few of the Kestrels were drunk, playing games and laughing loudly. Others were busied with cleaning their weapons, cooking, and talking by their campfires.  

Loud and obnoxious, the guards hadn’t noticed their footfalls, and Aloy and Erend were able to creep quietly behind some scrub and concrete rubble at the edge of the encampment. They peered over the ledge of their hiding spot in unison.  

There were two exceptions that stood out from the crowd before them. The first, was a young man, perhaps a little older than Erend, with dark hair and tanned skin. He was perched atop a blanket on the very outside edge of the camp, with a book of all things in hand.  

Aloy tilted her head in curiosity– the young man seemed so very out of place amongst the rabble, reading quietly to himself on the outskirts of the temporary settlement. Even from a distance he seemed to have a kind and sensitive disposition, as he watched the second outlier with an empathetic frown.  

The second exception to the scene was Ersa, who was the furthest possible cry from a quiet and sensitive onlooker.    

Aloy counted six large men trying their hardest to pin Ersa down. The fierce woman had managed to slip away from the guard and free her legs from the electrical tape holding them together.

Even cuffed and greatly outnumbered, Aloy had to admit Erend’s sister was thoroughly kicking ass . She made short work of the first two Kestrels who approached her unprepared, and managed a few nasty kicks to the shins of a third. The other three were standing back, apparently fearful of this small, solitary woman and her fury.

The third Kestrel hopped backwards with a snarl, clutching his bruised shins, “ Get her on the fucking ground !” he barked.

The remaining three fell upon Ersa at once, and Aloy and Erend let out synchronous hisses in sympathy as the three much larger figures battered Ersa into the ground.

Though she was obviously unable to move, one of the Kestrels punctuated her defeat with a heavy stomp against the back of her right leg.

Had she not been winded, Ersa might have screamed. Instead, her face turned a sickly shade of green.

“Try running away again now, bitch.”

Beside Aloy, Erend took a step forward from their hiding place, without thinking. His rage was written all over his face as he growled, “ I’m going to fucking kill that guy .”

Aloy snatched the nearest part of him she could reach in a desperate attempt to keep him from blowing their cover. “No! Not yet . Get down!” she pleaded, tugging at him.

From the edge of the camp, the strange young man with the book winced, and rose to join the commotion.

“I think that’s quite enough. Take her back to the post and leave her be.”

“Sir–” one of the soldiers began to argue, but the young man’s expression was haughty, and the other Kestrels wilted a little.

He must be the VIP that Erend had mentioned previously, Aloy mused. He was odd, and didn’t have the bearing of someone high up in the Kestrels’ ranks. Who was this guy?

“–this woman is highly dangerous; she needs to be watched–”

“She’s not running anywhere in her condition now. Leave her be and tend to the other prisoner.” The other man replied firmly, and returned to his earlier seat.

As the chaos died down, Erend crouched beside Aloy once more. His expression was fraught, and he took a few minutes to catch his breath.

It took them a few minutes more to notice that Aloy was still holding his hand.  

With a flushed face, Aloy tried to offer her companion a soothing smile. “If they wanted her dead she’d be gone by now. It’s getting late – we’ll wait til most of them are asleep and then we’ll help her.”

Erend nodded, wide-eyed. He was staring at their hands as though someone had just given him something extremely precious and breakable. “Alright.”

Aloy abashedly snatched her hand away as Erend took a seat beside her.

They watch in silence as the soldiers tie Ersa to a post on the border of the camp. She was a little pale from the pain in her leg, but still managed a few choice words in the Kestrels’ direction. They turned their backs on her with a sneer, and she was left alone.  

Aloy stole a glance at Erend, and his expression was stony. Furious. She tried to distract him with speculation.

“Who do you think the other prisoner is?”

Erend shrugged, “Be funny if it was fucking Dervahl .”  

Aloy hummed her agreement, “That would make our lives a lot easier,” and settled in to watch and wait.  

Ersa was a mess, filthy, bruised and exhausted. Even as she checked her surroundings for another escape opportunity, she was shivering from the cold, pain and shock. Aloy could see that it was taking every ounce of his self-control, not to leap into the camp and tear away with his sister.  

After a few minutes, the odd man from earlier glanced up at Ersa from his book. “Are you cold?”  

Ersa, looking in the opposite direction, predictably didn’t reply. The man’s brow furrowed for a moment, and he seemed to consider her, before reaching a conclusion. Collecting his blanket in his arms, the man approached Ersa with caution, and tested his theory by brushing his fingers against her arm.  

Once he had her full attention, he repeated the question.  

Ersa’s expression was wary, unsure – but after some hesitation, she nodded, and shifted uncomfortably as the man wrapped his blanket over her shoulders.  

“Why are you helping me?”  

“Because I can. Because it’s the right thing to do,” he replied warmly and held a canteen of water up for her to drink. Together they used a nearby rock to prop up her injured leg as best they could.

“Any chance you can get them to let me go?” Ersa asked drily, the canteen clutched protectively in front of her with both hands.  

“Not without risking both our necks. But leave it with me. I’ll see what I can manage,” he replied. His tone was teasing, but his expression was earnest.

Aloy and Erend watched the scene before them with confusion. Who the hell was this guy?

Ersa seemed to echo the sentiment, asking him quietly as he adjusted the blanket over her injured leg. His answer was too soft to be overheard by the pair, but whatever it was caused Ersa’s face to pale even further, and shuffle away from the young man.

“I don’t want your help,” she declared suddenly. He opened his mouth in protest, but Ersa shook her head firmly. “I don’t want your help.” 

Crestfallen, the young man left her side and retreated to his spot, his back to her.  

As the dusk air went still and quiet around them and night truly fell, the Kestrel unit was reduced to just dregs, a few soldiers keeping watch for the night. Aloy tapped Erend on the shoulder as the last tent zipped closed, and he nodded, reaching into his backpack for a weapon.  

Aloy shook her head, “We go in quiet. If we’re quick we can get her in and out before anyone notices. We just need to come up with a distraction.”  

As if on cue, a tent caught fire, causing the whole camp to turn, panicked, in the opposite direction.

Aloy and Erend stared at the flames, and then back at one-another incredulously. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Aloy shrugged, and they moved toward the post–low and quiet as they could.  

Ersa’s eyes were closed with exhaustion, and she didn’t hear them approach immediately. Erend reached out to wake her with a worried expression, withdrawing his hand quickly as she started awake. She stared at him, bleary eyed, for a moment, before her expression became absolutely thunderous.  

“ What the fuck are you doing here ?!” she hissed. “I told you not to follow me.”  

“Nice to see you too.” Erend huffed.  

“We better get moving.” Aloy said, making quick work of Ersa’s binds with a pocket knife, to which the other woman whispered her thanks.  

“But we can’t leave!”

“Ersa – we’re getting you out of here. Let’s get a move on!” Aloy muttered in response, and slung one of Ersa’s arms over her shoulders to help her up.

“You don’t understand–” Ersa interjected, “He’s–”  

“–whatever it is – it can wait, we have to go, now, ” Aloy insisted. “Erend, kneel down, I’ll put her on your back.”  

Aloy looked up just in time to see all the colour drain from Erend’s face as he stared over Aloy’s shoulder.  A set of footsteps behind them made Aloy’s blood run cold.  

Erend slowly moved into the space between Erend and Aloy, and this newcomer – “We’re taking her with us,” he said firmly, blocking the stranger’s access to them with his entire body, and reached for the gun at his hip.  

“I’m not going to stop you,” said the stranger quietly, surprising the group.    

Aloy risked turning around to see the odd man who had helped Ersa before. Up close, he appeared to be about Ersa’s age. His dark hair was curly, and framed a tanned, handsome face. He had warm, brown eyes, and stood around Erend’s height, although much smaller in frame.

“We can’t leave ,” Ersa insisted again, refusing to make eye contact with the stranger. “Dervahl is here.”

The stranger’s lips quirked in a shy smile. “Stubborn one, you are. Dervahl will live for you to have your vengeance another day,” he replied, amused. “I think you’d better listen to your friends. The fire is starting to die down.”

Ersa acknowledged the man with only a dark look.

Aloy’s eyes widened, “Did you set that distraction?”  

The man nodded, “Don’t let it go to waste, please. I don’t think I have another one up my sleeve.”  

True to his word, Aloy could hear the pandemonium in the background dying down as the fire was brought under control. The voices of the Kestrel soldiers were still distant- but growing closer. They had a few minutes at most.

Ersa’s face twisted in consternation, and Aloy felt a pang of empathy for her. She had been torn to shreds in this fight, humiliated, tied up, and exhausted beyond belief – and she was so, so close to removing Dervahl from the picture. 

But it wasn’t to be. It was far more important to everyone in their rag-tag group to keep Ersa alive and well, than to let Dervahl take her down with him. Including, it seemed, the handsome stranger before them.  

“Take the back path down the mountain,” said the stranger. “I’ll keep them busy a few minutes longer.  

Erend nodded his thanks, dumbfounded, and dropped to one knee to allow Aloy to lift Ersa onto his back. Before she could do so, Ersa raised a hand and hopped toward the stranger on her good leg.  

“How will you distract them?”

“I’m not sure – perhaps one of you should rough me up a little?” he suggested nervously. “It’ll make it look like you got away on your own.”

“I can help with that,” said Ersa with a smirk. And without any further preamble, she headbutted him.  

“ Jesus Christ, Ersa ,” Aloy hissed as the stranger crumpled to the ground with a grunt of pain. She hoisted the smaller woman onto Erend’s back and dropped to her knees to make sure the stranger was still conscious.

She shot Erend an incredulous look as he tried his best to stifle a giggle. “Thanks buddy, really took one for the team.”

Nursing a nosebleed, the stranger only waved his acknowledgement form the ground. “Get going! And be safe!” he added.

Ersa raised an eyebrow at his well-wishing, whilst Erend and Aloy took his cue and slipped into the darkness on the edges of the ruins.  

They crept around the outskirts of the building as quietly as they could, cringing at every crunch of rock and glass under their feet. Aloy kept one cautious eye on the crowd of Kestrels – to take the back path down the cliff face they would have to walk clean past the busiest part of the camp. She was suddenly struck nervous, wondering if the dark-haired stranger would come through on his promise to keep the squad distracted, or if this was all an elaborate trap. Would he come to their aid, or simply get them all apprehended?  

As they reached a chain-wire fence on the very edge of their path and began to tip-toe toward the gate at the back of the camp, two things happened simultaneously.  

The first thing that occurred was that they were spotted. A large man, with a sneering, angry face squawked in shock as they approached. He was tied to another post on the far side of their escape route and cried out in fury as they reached his line of vision.  

The Kestrels blessedly did not notice Dervahl raise the alarm, as a voice from afar let out an obnoxiously loud yell of agony.

The stranger had indeed made good on his promise; and was putting on an award-worthy performance of injury and shock, as far away from their escape as he could possibly get.

“Help! HELP ! She attacked me!"

Several of the soldiers swore – realising their mistake in leaving their most important charge unsupervised with a rebel. A rebel of such notoriety as Ersa, no less. They fled to the man’s side, and, as suddenly as it was crowded, their end of the encampment became unpopulated.

“She went that way!” the stranger cried, pointing down the path that Aloy and Erend had taken up the cliffside. In their confusion, none of the soldiers appeared to notice that Erend and Aloy’s footprints were pointing toward the camp, and they sprinted, full-pelt, in the wrong direction.

Erend blurted out a raucous laugh, “That was incredible. Jiran’s best and finest, outsmarted by some skinny pretty-boy. What a legend.”

Before them, Dervahl’s face twisted in rage as he realised the ruse, “ You! YOU! ” he howled at Ersa, pulling at his bindings in a fury.

From her position on Erend’s back, Ersa only raised both middle fingers in reply as they ran past and away into the night.  

The first thing they did was steal (“Borrow” Erend insisted) a car sat at the bottom of the hillside. A small sedan – some 90’s model, not good for much besides on-road travel. Aloy was surprised to find the vehicle had no modifications at all – who on earth would use such a thing?  

In response, Ersa remarked on the stereo–fitted with an old-school CD player, as Petra’s car had been, and with a healthy stash of music in the back.  

“What’s the apocalypse without a few simple pleasures?” she asked, with a winded “oof” as Erend dumped her into the back seat of the sedan with little care. He hadn’t said a word to Ersa since their escape from the camp, and seemed to be suddenly in a very poor mood.  

“You got me there,” Aloy said with a shrug in response, and plucked a CD from the collection. She meddled with the stereo settings until the bass was turned up high, and winked at Ersa’s appreciative smile.

Erend, for his part, had nothing to say about the exchange.   

Ersa, laid across the back seat of the car, ignored her brother’s sullen attitude and folded her arms behind her head, lifting her injured leg onto the arm rest. Ostensibly, she didn’t have a care in the world, which Aloy now knew to be profoundly untrue. Her nonchalant front was frustrating to Aloy, who barely knew this woman well enough to be worried about her health . To Erend, Aloy realised, it must be beyond infuriating.  

“Where to, next?” Ersa queried lightly.   

Erend took the driver’s seat and stared darkly through the windshield, brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. He looked absolutely furious.  

“Brightmarket,” Aloy supplied cautiously, trying to ease the tension in the car. “I’ve got some friends waiting there, asking after Sylens.”  

Ersa nodded. “I think Petra is in the area as well. Might be able to get some leads on your guy. And at least we know Dervahl is headed to Meridian. I can kick his ass another day.”  

“Isn’t it enough to know that Jiran has him?” Erend growled, from the driver’s seat.

Ersa didn’t respond, though the cool expression on her face indicated that she had heard him, clear as day. Without another word, Erend changed the CD with a huff and a punch of his finger, and pulled the car onto the dusty desert road.  

He drove carefully, despite his obvious frustration, and their journey to Brightmarket began -  the uncomfortable silence punctuated only by the sound of heavy metal music and the occasional pointed sigh from Erend.  

The desert landscape around them took on soft purple and blue hues as the sun began to rise behind the surrounding cliffsides. The road rumbled beneath them, and surrounded by the cliffs and mountains older than humanity itself, she felt… small, secure , almost insignificant–in a good way. Exhausted from the last few weeks, Aloy felt her eyelids grow heavy as she gazed out at the watercolour landscape. There was nothing for her to do for the next few hours, except place her trust in the capable hands driving her to her next destination.  

That sensation of trust washed over her – reminded her of an easier time in her life. Back when the monsters that plagued them seemed like a distant threat, and she was nothing but a little girl, falling asleep as Rost drove them home after a long day.  

Those days were long gone, but the landscape stood firm and immovable as ever. It filled her with a sense of security that, to this ancient sweeping desert, she was nobody .  

Erend’s soft voice broke her peaceful reverie after an hour or so on the road. “Thank you for your help, Aloy.”  

She looked over to him and tried to bite back a yawn. Erend seemed to pick up on her exhaustion, and his lips twitched in amusement. He leaned forward in his seat and shrugged off his jacket, placing it over her gently. It was oversized, heavy, and warm. It smelled like wood smoke and a little of whisky.

“Get some rest. I’ve got you.”  

The blue of his eyes matched the cool dawn light, she noticed, as her eyes fluttered closed, her fingers curling into the collar of the jacket.

Brightmarket was chaos personified. Everywhere she looked, there were vendors peddling food, munitions, gadgets, combat training, and even vehicles. It was a whirl of sound, smell, colour and movement, the likes of which Aloy had not seen before.  

There were so many people packed into one place it made her edgy and unsure, despite the fact that Brightmarket was considered neutral ground by all groups in the area. It was a place of trade in all things – goods, services and information –and the ideal location to reassemble the group and to take stock of what intel they had gathered so far.    

A few vendors, much to Aloy’s irritation, were selling “cures” or preventions to the virus that plagued them – the cause of the Creatures’ aggression and change in appearance. She scrunched her nose, annoyed. There was no readily available cure so far as she knew.  

Her fingers touched the lanyard and flash drive under her shirt again–a reflex. She wondered if she had missed any data in her latest ventures, or if there was Some information that the strange voice from the Proving labs had, that Aloy was not privy to. What was the stranger trying to stop her from finding? And who was she? She, that held Aloy’s sister ransom. Aloy felt sick at the memory of Beta’s voice in the proving labs – had she defied this stranger by helping Aloy? If she had, what sort of punishment was her sister facing now?  

Beside her, Erend groaned as he shifted Ersa’s arm over his own shoulders. Try as she might, Ersa couldn’t yet bear weight on her right leg, and carrying his sister to their destination was doing nothing for Erend’s thunderous mood.  

Zo and Varl had sent word ahead at the gates of Brightmarket to meet them in the square – a makeshift hotel had been created in the market centre – an old office building where cubicles could be used for short stays and sleeps. It was hardly five-star, but it was secure, and dry. The couple had hired out a corner office in preparation for the group’s arrival.  

Varl looked on in bemusement as the group toppled through the office doorway. Zo took stock of their rumpled appearances, and immediately began digging through her pack for first-aid supplies and food. Aloy brushed a hand against Zo’s shoulder in thanks as she passed. “You should keep these supplies for yourself,” she suggested.  

“Nonsense,” said Zo, her voice steady and soothing. “I’m here to help.”     

Erend shoved Ersa into a nearby office chair none too gently, and rolled his shoulders with a grumble of pain.  

“How are you so short and yet so heavy?”  

“Have you considered being less whiny?” Ersa griped, trying and failing to settle more comfortably in her chair as her right leg gave out under her. Erend sat in a chair opposite her, and held out a hand.

“Have you considered being less stubborn? Give me your leg, we need to see how bad it is.”  

“I’m fine . You keep ignoring me when I say that I’m fine. Just like you ignored me when I told you to stay put .”  

“Oh, and you were CLEARLY fine then, too, when Dervahl threw you to the wolves, you absolute moron . If it wasn’t for Aloy tracking you and that other guy taking pity on you, where would you be? Give me your leg .”

“Still fine,” Ersa insisted, scowling “The last thing I needed was you causing a ruckus back there, you dickhead. I could have gotten out of it myself. You are very good at tracking though, Aloy. Sorry to trouble you,” she added with a flash of a smile at the redhead, before rounding on Erend with the same glower from before.  

“ Leg ,” said Erend pointedly. “And could you please, please learn to accept help for once in your goddamn life. I’m so angry at you – you said you were just going to see what happened!”  

Ersa ignored the reprimand, squinting at her brother with sudden concern. “You look like shit! When was the last time you ate? You’re never taking care of yourself! Did you literally just drink the entire time I was gone? Did you at least sleep?” she barraged him.  

“ Give. Me. Your. Fucking. Leg, ” Erend growled and snatched Ersa’s right leg out from under her with enough force to send the office chair rolling in his direction.  

Ersa folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “Aloy, there’s some canned fruit in my backpack. Can you please help me feed this idiot?”  

Aloy obliged with a baffled expression. “Are you two helping each other, or just fighting?”

The siblings considered her question for just a moment before Ersa answered, “Both.”  

Erend nodded in agreement and scrutinised Ersa’s injury with a frown as Aloy collected the food.  

“Ersa. This is bad.”  

“What?” his sister asked, wary.

His expression was mournful. “Your leg – it’s a symptom of something worse. I… I’m so sorry to tell you – but you’ve been diagnosed with ugly .”  

“Oh, fuck off.”’  

He dropped her leg with a chuckle and accepted the food that Aloy handed over, “Just a bad bruise. You’ll be up and running again soon.”  

Zo rapped her knuckles on the door frame lightly and let herself in the room, Varl in tow. “Now that the argument has died down,” she said, unimpressed, “Might I offer some help with your injuries?”

Ersa opened her mouth to once-again insist that she was fine, thank you , but was promptly silenced by a stern Look from Zo. She huffed and, after an encouraging nod from Aloy, offered her leg back to the other woman’s attention.

“Oh, so you’ll listen to a stranger–” Erend began.

“She’s cuter than you,” Ersa supplied, as Varl nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “But actually, I was listening to Aloy.”

Erend replied with a shrug, “She’s also cuter than me. I’m gonna head out and get us some grub before I pass out. I’ll bring everyone some breakfast.”

“I just gave you the fruit,” Ersa said incredulously.

“I’m gonna eat that too. I’m a growing boy.”

“You’re a freak.”

“Love you too.”

“Love you more. Go away.”

Aloy couldn’t help her chuckle of amusement at the pair, even through the pang of loneliness in her chest. She missed her own sister, and desperately wondered if she was okay.

As if by some psychic force, Zo sensed her anguish, and stepped away from tending to Ersa to pull Aloy into a hug. Varl followed suit, and her friends enveloped her gently. Aloy accepted the gesture with a stiff, rigid posture and took a shaky breath to fight back the moisture in her eyes.

“Did you find anything?”

“We think so,” said Varl brightly. “A friend of yours passed through-”  

“A rather flirtatious friend of yours,” Zo added, to Ersa’s surprised laughter. Ah, so Petra had arrived in the town before them.  

Varl nodded, “She’s a real character – she said she had a lead on that Sylens guy you were looking for – that they could both be found in ‘Free Heap’.”

“That’s her favourite stomping ground,” Ersa supplied, “We’ll come with you, Aloy. We owe you that much.”

Chapter Text

Erend returned victorious, a half-hour or so later, his arms laden with the spoils of his hunt through the food court. The music, shouting and rumble of activity in the streets below followed Erend as he opened and closed the door to their hired room.  

It was still fairly early in the morning, but it appeared as though Brightmarket never slept – a kaleidoscope of movement, colour, smell and sound, and of people from all walks of life. Brightmarket wasn’t the most well-fortified human settlement that Aloy had come across, but it seemed mostly unaffected by the infected. This was likely by virtue of being so heavily populated, as there were guards and observant bystanders passing through Brightmarket’s gates at all hours of the day.

Their security was a little limited for Aloy’s liking, however. A simple temperature check at the door and a once-over by a guard to check for any obvious signs of infection, and they had been let right in. All it would take was one moment of inattention. and a contagious human or animal could have free reign in the city. She shuddered to think of the devastation that might cause, and resolved to limit her time in the markets below, as a precaution.

“I wasn’t sure what everyone wanted, so I got a little of everything.” Erend said with a sheepish grin, “Ersa’s treat.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Ersa said drily, clearly not too distressed at Erend spending her shards.  

Aloy’s mouth watered. The packages Erend dumped on the table nearby smelled divine … after weeks on the road—eating nothing but canned food, dried meats, and whatever edible plants she could find—she was eager for a cooked meal. Erend sure had delivered, trading some of their supplies for fresh bacon, eggs, fruit, and even pancakes.  

“The Brightmarket food stalls are a religious experience,” Varl said, digging into the bacon with glee.

Erend nodded in Zo’s direction. “I wasn’t sure if you were vegan or vegetarian, so the pancakes are vegan.”

“Thank you, Erend,” Zo replied, pleasantly surprised. “Just vegetarian with a few exceptions – there’s no need to avoid eating things that are freely given from animals.”

“I really admire your conviction,” Aloy remarked. “How do you maintain a vegetarian diet when there are no supplies?”  

Zo’s eyes twinkled. “I’m not strict, but I am very resourceful. I can teach you all a thing or two about edible plants, when you have the time."

Erend chuckled. “Thanks, but if I‘m found dead it won’t be with a stomach full of leaves.”  

Zo’s expression hardened for a fleeting moment. Sensing her irritation, Aloy elected to change the subject. “What do we know about this place— ‘Free Heap’?”  

She immediately regretted her question as most of the room rounded on her with wide-eyed disbelief. She felt a familiar pang of frustration at her own ignorance, and anger at her family’s unexplained decision to raise her in almost total isolation. Petra’s comment about ‘growing up under a rock’ had stung a little, but not as much as this room full of pitying confusion.

The only exception to the group was Varl, who took liberty of standing between Aloy and the brunt of the judgement she was facing.  

“Aloy and I grew up in a pretty quiet town,” he offered. “We weren’t told much about the outside world.”  

Aloy felt a rush of affection for her oldest friend and his kind, intuitive ways. Once again, Varl had come through for her in the most unexpected fashion.  

“Ostensibly, it’s a bar,” Zo supplied. “But it’s more of a… doorway, you could say? It sits just underneath the western gate to Brightmarket.”  

 “I’ll head there now,” Aloy said, eager to get moving. “What am I walking in to?”  

“By yourself?” Erend snorted. “No way.”

Aloy huffed. “Isn’t Petra there alone right now?”

“Petra’s… Petra . She’s got a whole crew on standby in Brightmarket. It only looks like she’s alone.”  

After much conjecture and protest from Ersa (involving Erend repeatedly shouting the word ‘leg’) about being left behind- it was agreed that Varl and Erend would accompany Aloy to Free Heap. 

Aloy reluctantly accepted the help, fully prepared to leave for this new location on her own, until Varl gently reminded her of her last solo adventure.

“Let us join you,” Varl admonished, “I swear we won’t embarrass you - much .” 

Imagine a bar. A jaunty, dimly lit, noisy affair with plenty of dark corners for dark deeds. The kind of bar you would find in a novel featuring adventurers, pirates and the like. Now, imagine that bar was built during the end of the world, as all the laws of man fell to dust.  

Said bar, which Aloy assumed was the aforementioned Free Heap, was a whirlwind of loud noises, obnoxious smells, and spilt drinks. Aloy could barely hear herself think over drunken shouts and terrible live music as they entered the first room in the tavern. Patrons played games of darts, dominos, finger fillet, and arm-wrestling all around them. Every few minutes, the cacophony was punctuated with the smashing of glass.  

To her left, Varl gaped at the chaos before them. To her right, Erend looked like a kid in a candy store.

And in the centre of their group, Aloy immediately decided this was going to be a long, long day.  

The first person that they happened upon was Petra, devoid of her usual jackets, gloves, welding mask and weaponry, seated in the middle of the bar. She was dishevelled and red-faced, sweat dripping down a white shirt with a deep V-neckline as bold as the woman’s personality-

-and she was thoroughly humbling a much larger man in an arm-wrestling match.  

The stranger threw his entire body weight into the struggle as Aloy and the rest of their crew watched in amusement, the man visibly struggling as an inebriated Petra goaded him – her arm perfectly still and in control. As the stranger began to lose steam, Petra shrugged, threw back a shot that was waiting on the table beside her, and slammed the man’s arm into their table with enough force that it rattled the empty glasses and bottles around them.  

Far from humiliated, the man joined in the raucous cheering as Petra waved to the gathered crowd with a cocksure grin. Behind her, someone threw a chair at a musician on the stage to resounding applause.  

Petra’s eyes landed on them, and she cheered in excitement at the sight of their little crew, wading through the crowd to throw one arm each around Erend and Aloy.  

“It’s been a minute, Red. How’s the road been treating you?”

“Could have been better,” Aloy said. “Got my ass handed to me once we split up.”

At the concerned crease in Petra’s brow, she nodded in Varl’s direction. “I learned the value of having some back-up. But I believe you’ve already met my friends.”

“Met,” said Petra. “Admired. Connected with.”

“She means we exchanged information,” Varl supplied abashedly. “Not uh. Not anything else.”

“Of course. Where’s Ersa?”  

“Also got her ass handed to her on the road,” Erend supplied. “She’s back up at Brightmarket resting, against her will.”    

Petra nodded and released Erend and Aloy from her hug, snatching four shot glasses off a passing waiter’s tray.  

Erend, Aloy and Varl accepted their drinks with amusement (though Varl did offer a meek “It’s not even lunch-time” before downing his own).  

Aloy tipped her shot back with a grimace. Some kind of hard liquor with a rough note. It tasted sugary and almost painfully strong, like the way that homemade fuel smelled. Erend cheerfully supplied that the drink was called ‘Scrappersap’ – whatever the hell that was.  

“You said you had a lead on the guy I’m looking for?” Aloy asked, after coughing her way through the drink.  

“Not a lead. I found him. Well, he found me after I asked around a bit, and told me to shut the fuck up,” Petra replied cheerfully. “Real uhh, abrasive personality. Very sure of himself. He’s down below in the bunkers. He knows we’re up here.”  

Aloy’s heart thundered in her chest. After all this time, she finally had a solid lead. Sylens was waiting for her, in the flesh, right below their feet. She glanced nervously at the group surrounding her. Hopefully Sylens’ request for Petra’s silence was indicative that he wasn’t the type to share secrets. She wondered if she could trust this little crew with the small amount of information she had gathered on Sobeck and her past dealings with Sylens, and on Sobeck’s daughters.  

She must have visibly paled, because Erend nudged her in the side gently and turned to Petra, “Tell us about this guy?”  

“He’s savvy,” Petra said, uneasy. “And refused to tell me anything about what was going on.”

Varl shook his head in agreement with Petra. “I’d prefer we were all nearby, just in case, Aloy. We’re coming with you,” he insisted.

Erend pointed the way to a hidden staircase behind the bar, and Petra led the way down with a crude but joyful gesture directed at the bartender. That was when Aloy discovered the true magnitude of Free Heap.  

Free Heap wasn’t a bar at all, but an underground trading centre. It was a decommissioned doomsday bunker-city, set just outside of Brightmarket, and the bar sat atop as a front. Below, was a set of bunker rooms that had been converted into clubs, brothels, and stalls for… other, less savoury trades. They made their way down the first set of stairs into the darkness below, and Aloy was assaulted with sights, sounds and smells.    

She tried to tell herself she was imagining the sounds of Creatures meandering the halls of Free Heap. Until she happened upon a sign that was in no uncertain terms selling Creatures as a commodity.  

‘For Research Purposes’, the sign assured them. Aloy raised an eyebrow in concern.    

Varl looked between Erend and the sign, aghast. “It’s like the evil version of Brightmarket.”

Erend laughed loudly over the synth music pumping from one of the clubs. “That’s not a bad way of putting it.”  

They approached a locked stall at the end of a long hallway. Here, the bunkers were dimly lit, and the sound of the surrounding clubs was muffled, but just loud enough that any soft conversations would not be overheard. Aloy would have missed the door to this stall entirely if it wasn’t for Petra pointing it out. It was unmarked, and partially blocked by a mop, bucket and ‘wet floor’ sign.  

“He really doesn’t like visitors, this guy. But he seemed eager to meet you,” she said by way of explanation, and rapped loudly on the door.  

The door didn’t open immediately–instead a deep and deeply annoyed voice rang out through the peephole. “You said you were bringing Aloy, not an entire procession.”  

“You meet with our friend, we stay here to protect her, Sylens. That was the deal.”  

A pause, though which Aloy swore she could hear Sylens’ irritation.  

And then the door slid open.

Their group piled inside, taking stock of their surroundings. This stall appeared much smaller on the outside, and they were surprised to notice a large bunker room behind the sliding door, filled with all manner of gadgets and research materials. Most notably to Aloy, a centrifuge, petri dishes and a number of vials could be seen in a second room within the bunk, no bigger than a broom closet. So, gadgets, hacking, and now cure development? Exactly how many hats did this guy wear?  

Petra let out a low whistle, impressed by some frightening-looking device in the far corner of the lap.

“Sweet EMP.”  

“Get any closer to it and you’ll find out just how ‘sweet’ it is.” A voice replied and stepped out from the smaller room.  

Sylens was tall, with dark skin, heavily-lidded and intelligent brown eyes, a clean shaven head and an aloof, almost bored expression. He was clearly unimpressed to be hosting a large group. His eyes scanned the room before landing on Aloy.  

“Well, it would be difficult to miss which one of you is Elisabet Sobeck’s daughter.”  

Aloy’s blood ran cold. She had been banking on Sylens having some goddamn tact. To her friends’ credit, none of them visibly reacted to the announcement, besides a wary glance from Petra, and a concerned look from Varl.

“I, um.”

“My apologies, if that wasn’t public knowledge. Until today, nor was the location of my living quarters,” Sylens drawled, with some bitterness. “Perhaps we should continue this conversation in private to avoid another faux pas ?”

Sylens raised an eyebrow with a smug expression. Aloy narrowed her eyes. So, he’d dropped this bomb to gain the upper hand. The bastard . She nodded curtly and jerked her chin in the direction of the cure testing room. “After you.”

“Uh, Aloy,” Erend called, an uneasy edge to his voice. “You just met this guy. Are you sure you want to be speaking with him alone?”

Aloy shot an apologetic glance at the group. “I need this. I need to know where my sister is. As far as I know, he has no reason to harm me. I’ll be right back. Just hold on.”  

They stepped into the next room, and Aloy immediately rounded on Sylens, her hands curled into fists as he leaned back against a workbench and folded his arms across his chest. His smug expression was causing a rising frustration in her chest. 

She considered asking him why he knew so much about her, about her history, and her mother. What was his involvement in the Proving Labs, and the other scientists that had just vanished? A niggling curiosity in the back of her mind also wanted to ask about Thunder’s Drum, and the bombing that happened years before his apparent association with Elisabet and her company.

But she saved her curiosity. The most important thing in the world had to come first.

“Where the fuck is my sister?”

Sylens regarded her for a long moment, before unfurling his arms with a long-suffering sigh, “A veritable wealth of knowledge at your fingertips, and you’re worried about immediate family. I’m disappointed, Aloy. I thought you would dream bigger.”

Aloy felt a lump rising in her throat and bit back a scream of frustration. She stared Sylens down resolutely, “Beta. Do you know where she is or not?”

“I understand that you’ve come here for information. But there’s very little I can provide you.”

Aloy tried to control the petulant note in her voice, “Why? You knew her – surely you know something about this research, about why my sister has been taken?”

She looked Sylens up and down, and in a moment of desperation, reached for the lanyard under her shirt. Sylens watched her cautiously, eyes widening just a fraction at the flash drive and key card attached. His fingers twitched at his side, almost reaching for the devices, and Aloy knew at once that she had the upper hand.

This realisation came with a pang of dread. If Sylens didn’t have access to the research and records Aloy had already compiled, he must be ignorant of some of Elisabet’s other endeavours. Her eyes narrowed, and she held the lanyard a good distance from Sylens’ reach.

“You’re locked out of Elisabet’s research,”  she accused, voice rising. “You need me – not the other way around.”

“I certainly don’t need anyone ,” Sylens bit back, affronted. “You and I may be of benefit to one-another. It’s true that I don’t have access to Sobeck’s later records. Your exploration of the Proving Labs was my first glimpse at Elisabet’s activity since we parted ways. But I’m hardly dependent on you, Aloy. I have my means.”

“By ‘means’ I think you mean to say that I’m your ticket into Elisabet’s old research labs. What did you do to get locked out?”

“In a sense, because I died.”

Aloy watched Sylens, the anger in her wavered as she struggled to interpret his words. Sylens appeared to take pity on her and gestured to the workbench. To the right of the space sat a rebuilt laptop. It was a messy thing, with a million drivers and attachments, but it seemed to suit Sylens just fine – built for utility and maximum impact instead of aesthetic.

“As you well know, a number of researchers disappeared after Thunder’s Drum. I was among them, but I was one of only four who survived. I went into hiding immediately thereafter.”

Aloy took stock of his words: Elisabet Sobeck, Travis Tate, and now Sylens. The fourth name evaded her, but she knew immediately that it had something to do with the strange woman who spoke before her sister at the Proving Labs.

“Here,” he said, “I’m not the enemy. I believe we can aid one-another. You have access to Elisabet’s most current experiments. I have the context behind them.”

Without any further ado, he turned to his laptop, opened a file, and hit play.

“We don’t know the origin, species or even the full progression of this disease yet, Elisabet. Don’t you believe it’s a little short-sighted to start testing immediately?”

Aloy’s eyes widened at the sound of Sylens addressing her mother directly through the tinny speakers.

“Of course it’s too soon, Sylens. But we don’t have that kind of time. We don’t even know if this thing is viral, bacterial, or something else. All we know is that Ted has so profoundly fucked things up, and that I’m the only one who can-”

“Well,” Sylens interrupted Elisabet here, “Not the only one who can,”

“Enough. We are not telling my daughters anything.”

“If my theory about a genetic mutation is correct, your daughters buy us more time. They also create more opportunities for testing. You’re only one person, Elisabet.”

Aloy took a step back, heart thundering as Elisabet raised her voice. Through the laptop she could hear Elisabet stepping into Sylens’ space, and could almost imagine the expression on her face: brows furrowed, fists clenched in anger.

“We are not telling my daughters. A. Goddamn. Thing.”

A charged silence. Followed by the sound of what Aloy had come to recognise as Sylens’ customary sigh of dissatisfaction. “Fine,” said the recording of Sylens. “We’ll do things your way for now.”

Sylens clicked the file closed with a meaningful look in Aloy’s direction. Her breath was caught in her throat, and her face felt hot. Tears threatened to pool in the corners of her eyes, but she bit them back. She refused to let Sylens see that kind of weakness in her.

“So, it’s not just me.”

“And not just your sister,” Sylens confirmed. “It was your mother, too.”

“Who knew about this?”

Sylens looked at her almost sympathetically. “Just us, and one other group of researchers. A woman that Elisabet used to work with held the information about her. I believe this is the person who has your sister.”

Aloy recalled the woman’s voice: lofty, detached, cutting Aloy’s discoveries short. The voice belonged to a person who almost killed her in favour of keeping her separated from her sister. Aloy shuddered.  “Who is she?”

When Sylens didn’t answer immediately, Aloy stepped into his space, echoing her mother’s actions from the recording. “ Who is she?! ”

  Sylens eyed her. “Before I give you that information, I want to ask for something in exchange.”

“And what do you want?” she hissed. 

“A blood sample will do for now.”

Aloy raised an eyebrow. “I’m not your guinea pig.”

“Ah,” Sylens replied with his customary infuriating tone. “But you want to develop a cure as badly as I do. I’m asking for something very small, really.”

“Right. And when you develop this cure, you’ll give it away to the masses for free. Out of the goodness of your heart.”

“Of course not. What do you take me for? Some kind of bleeding heart?”

Aloy rolled her eyes. She was fresh out of options, and Sylens appeared to be making some headway with his work here. It was risky, giving a sample to a complete stranger, but her dogged determination to find her sister won out.

“Fine,” she said. “Fine. Take samples from my friends as well so that they don’t suspect anything.”

Sylens nodded. “That seems like a wise choice.”

After repeated assurances from Aloy that Sylens was just a regular, run of the mill scientist, the three of them allowed blood to be collected. Sylens acted quickly, calmly and professionally – and the needle barely stung her arm as the samples were collected.

“So what?” Erend queried. “Are you gonna test our blood against the virus and see what happens? What if it creates a whole new kind of mutant?”

“That’s part of the theory,” said Sylens, though he spoke to Erend with the airs of someone trying to explain quantum mechanics to a toddler. “You may have noticed in your travels that we’ve seen a number of different variations in the disease, and it appears to have differing effects on different human bodies. I want to know why, and what variations might occur dependent on age, race, gonadal sex, et cetera.”  

Erend hummed his acknowledgement – a little out of his depth, but also quite clearly miffed at being condescended to. Aloy offered him an apologetic glance.  

“Alright,” Aloy said, demanding. “We’ve upheld our end of the deal. Where is she?”

Sylens didn’t respond immediately, instead taking his time to carefully label and shelve the samples he had collected.  

Just as Aloy’s frustration began to mount past the point of no return, he turned to her and said “Beta is being held in the company of an individual called Tilda Van Der Meer. Elisabeth and I worked with her- before the outbreak.”  

Cutting to the chase, Aloy held up a hand. “Alright, but where is she?”  

An excruciatingly long silence, before Sylens, out of options to stall, admitted, “I don’t know.”  

Aloy couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t hear anything of Sylens explanation through the rushing in her ears and the pounding of her heart. The heat in her face threatened to spill over, and she suddenly stormed away from Sylens, stalking out of the bunker without another word.  

She wasn’t sure where she wound up in the rabble of Free Heap. She recalled tearing out of Sylens’ bunker and taking a sharp left, into a crowd of people dressed in old-school goth clothing, almost cartoonishly exaggerated and heading into one of the clubs. She waded through the crowd and took the first flight of stairs she found downward, determined to get as far away from that room as possible.  

Dimly, she was aware of a voice calling after her—but through the noise, crowd, and Aloy’s losing battle with her frustration, she didn’t pay them much mind. She let the loud music of the clubs fill her head as she ran on.    

She dodged a few aggressive salespeople on her way through the halls, shoved off one pick-pocketer, and narrowly missed being dragged into a weapons demo, before she landed inside a market stall that looked reasonably quiet, well-lit, and safe.  

It was filled with retro technology and vintage wares, considered old even before the end of the world began. A quirky, excitable man could be seen chattering to a customer at the far end of the stall. The customer who was with him seemed a little put off by the man’s exuberance and theatrical mannerisms, but Aloy was only grateful that the shop keep was distractingly loud, and nobody had noticed her.    

Aloy sequestered herself to a far corner of the shop and did her utmost to pretend she was examining a beautiful antique mirror while she furiously scrubbed away her tears.  

Beta was still missing. Still fucking missing. All this way, weeks of travelling alone, repeatedly dealing with Sylens, almost dying (twice), and she was still no closer than she was before.  

Aloy took a shuddering breath, furious with herself for crying. She gave up on scrubbing her face as the tears moved faster than she could wipe them away.

“Come on . I don’t have time for this,” she scolded herself. “Where can I go next?”

Focused as she was on controlling her emotions, she didn’t notice Erend’s footsteps until he was right behind her. He cleared his throat before touching her gently on the shoulder. Aloy refused to look at him, and instead stared at the decal around the mirror as though it had personally offended her.

Erend didn’t move his hand. He stood calmly beside Aloy as she studied the inanimate object and breathed steadily in time with her, quietly waiting for her to get her emotions back under control.

After the flood of tears subsided, Aloy peered up at Erend, who was studying her reflection in the mirror.   

“Wow. Your face gets super red when you cry.”

Aloy watched her face split into a grin as she answered him with a watery laugh. “Shit, this is so embarrassing.”

“If this is embarrassing for you, I’m never telling you about the stupid things that get me all emotional. You’re exhausted – it’s alright,” Erend supplied carefully, rubbing his thumb against her shoulder. Aloy found herself leaning into the contact; a proper hug would have broken her, in that moment. Erend’s steady hand was just enough comfort.   

“Listen, Sylens had a little more to tell us – but how about we finish up with him and regroup back in Brightmarket?”

Aloy shook her head. Every fiber of her being revolted against the idea of resting while her sister was missing. She knew it was hypocritical after allowing Erend to rest at their campsite, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop moving.    

Erend’s expression was admonishing, though his tone was affectionate. “You’re no good to Beta if you’re burnt out—and we know she’s not in mortal danger right now.”

They stood at a stalemate for a few seconds. Aloy, refusing to look anywhere but the mirror, started pulling her long hair back into some sort of order. She set her mouth into a thin line and looked up at Erend’s reflection.

“I can’t rest. I can’t —” she stressed, ignoring the frustration on Erend’s face, “I can’t talk about it… about why. But it’s my fault she was taken, and I need to get her back.”

“I won’t pry,” Erend replied softly. “But I’m here for you. Whatever you did–or didn’t – do, you need to stop running yourself into the ground. Please , Aloy–”

They were interrupted by the stall owner awkwardly clearing his throat to announce himself. Aloy turned around to examine the shopkeeper–a man in his 40’s or 50’s with a wide nose, light, twinkling blue eyes, and a round, expressive, joyful face.  

“Hello there, my friendly travellers! Welcome to my humble shop! My name is Gildun!”

Erend smiled apologetically, “Sorry, buddy. We’re not interesting in buying anything-”

“Such a pity–you won’t find wares like this anywhere else! I’ve travelled far and wide to collect these antiques from abandoned sites, museums, mansions and the like – this piece right here – early nineteenth century!”

“So… you stole it from a museum?” Aloy queried.

“But I digress!” Gildun said, cheerfully ignoring Aloy’s question. “This may sound a little odd, my friends, but I’ve been asked to pass on a top secret message to you! My old radio back here just started speaking to me! Will wonders never cease?! It spoke with the voice of a young lady calling herself ‘Beta’! You must be a mysterious sort, Aloy, to have this sort of technology and intrigue on your side. What sort of dashing adventurers have crossed my path! Will wonders never cease–”

“Wait, wait wait, Beta is speaking to you right now?” Aloy interrupted Gildun sharply.

Gildun nodded enthusiastically. “My, she sounds just like you!”

“Is she still there?!”

Gildun’s round-faced smile faltered ever so slightly, “Oh – I didn’t think to check, follow me!”

They rushed to the rear of the shop where a crackling old radio set was situated. Gildun began to wax lyrical about how he listened in on the comings and goings of travellers near Brightmarket, but nary had anyone ever reached out to him on the set –  

Aloy crouched by the radio, holding the handset up to her mouth with shaking hands, “Hello?”

The relief that washed over her at the sound of Beta’s voice was indescribable, “H-hello? Aloy? Is that you?”

“It’s me,” Aloy said, trying to hold back the emotion in her voice. “Are you alright?”

A pause. “Physically, I’m fine. I don’t have much time, I just wanted to know if you were okay, and I heard talk about movement in Brightmarket - figured it wouldn’t be long until you caught up with Sylens.”  

She couldn’t help the pride in her voice as she realised that her little sister had deduced their location so quickly. She must have followed their activity from the Proving Labs, and been able to track movements in and out of the markets somehow. How she found them in Gildun’s store was a mystery to her – but it didn’t surprise Aloy in the least– Beta was incredible .

“So you know about Sylens?”

“I do. He’s correct. I’m here with Tilda.”

“You mean that snake from the Proving Labs that tried to kill me?”

Aloy could hear Beta considering her next words carefully. “She’s alright, actually. We had words about what she tried to do with you. She’s very apologetic.”

Aloy was taken aback, “Beta, are you serious ? She–”  

“ I don’t have much time ,” Beta reiterated. “We’ll discuss it when I can reach out to you again. But listen, your friends Erend and Ersa are on the right track. One of the people holding me here, Erik Visser – he has dealings with the man your friends are chasing, Dervahl. Those two are your best lead.”  

“What kind of–”  

Suddenly, there was a muffled thumping sound, and footsteps on the other end of the radio. “Aloy, I’m sorry. I have to go. I love you.”  

“Beta – Beta !” Aloy cried. But there was nothing but static in reply.  

Aloy felt faint as she placed the radio mic down on the bench carefully. She could feel that her hands were shaking and hear Erend and Gildun fussing behind her. She didn’t much care – the one indomitable truth going through her mind was that Beta was okay, and they had another lead.  

When she caught her breath, she turned to face Gildun and Erend with renewed hope. “We’re on the right track. Thank you so much, Gildun.”

“It’s my pleasure – what an exciting day this has been! I’m so glad to have been a small part of your adventures, Aloy!” Gildun cheered, taking Aloy by both hands gleefully. “I wish you all the luck in the world.”

“Uh, thanks Gildun,” Aloy smiled, despite the shock of the last few hours setting in. “You don’t seem like you belong in a place Free Heap – you’re so… much –” she gestured inarticulately.    

Gildun laughed and released Aloy’s hands with a flourish. “I think so too, but I’ve learned some people have very strong feelings about multiple counts of grand larceny.”  

Erend burst out laughing. “That’ll do it. Thanks again, buddy.”

They returned to the front door of Sylens’ bunker to a very bewildered Varl and Petra. Before they opened the door to the bunker, Erend offered Aloy his canteen of water, and she gratefully washed her face and rehydrated.  

Inside, Sylens was none-too-impressed with Aloy’s sudden departure. “Are you quite done with your little episode, Aloy?”  

Both Varl and Erend opened their mouths to defend Aloy, but Petra silenced them both with an elbow to the ribs. Now wasn’t the time.  

“I’m alright, thanks for asking,” she replied coolly. “Erend mentioned you had something else to show us?”  

“Something to give you, in fact,” he said, waving to another work bench, where a number of small headsets sat. “These are all modified for long-distance communication on the same network. It will keep us in touch while you continue your search. Petra has already tested hers out.”  

“What? Are you planning on staying here and keeping your hands clean?” Aloy barked, glaring up at Sylens in disapproval. “I’m out there risking my neck while you play with electronics all day!”  

“What I do whilst you’re away is none of your concern,” Sylens bit back disdainfully. “You will be able to reach me using the headsets. I’ve given you a number of spares as well. Enough for you and all your little posse .”

Aloy rolled her eyes at the jab and donned one of the devices, pocketing the rest.

“Thank you. I’ll be in touch.” As she made to leave, she turned back, “Oh, and keep an eye on the antique store on the next floor below, and the shopkeep, Gildun. Beta was able to reach us through him.”  

She left the room, smugly aware of Sylens’ surprised face.

“Well,” said Varl, as they made their way back up the stairs. “That sure was eventful.”

“And disappointing. I thought this Sylens guy was supposed to be some sort of tech legend – but those weapons left a lot to be desired,” Petra remarked. She slung an arm around Aloy in farewell.

“I’m gonna hang back at Free Heap for now and see if I can find out where the Kestrels have taken Dervahl – but it was good seeing you again, Red. Mind if I keep this?” she queried, holding up a headset.

“Definitely keep one, Petra. We need your eyes and ears around here.”

“Happy to help,” she assured the younger woman, and farewelled the trio with a facetious salute and her customary cocky grin, sauntering back into the chaos of Free Heap.    

They wandered back to their rented room in thoughtful silence, Erend only occasionally pausing to check in with the pair, ensuring they had survived their first foray into Free Heap with dignity intact.  

Both men seemed to tactfully ignore Sylens comment about Aloy’s relation to Elisabet Sobeck. That, or they simply didn’t know who the other woman was.  

“So,” Erend began. “These dainty little ear-pieces are supposed to be useful? We can use it to contact one-another over long distances?”  

“That’s the idea,” Aloy confirmed as they picked their way through the crowd and began walking up the stairs to their hired rooms. “I worked with Sylens using a prototype radio back at the Proving Labs. He updated this design pretty quickly.”

“ Petra updated the design,” Varl corrected her with a satisfied grin. “She helped him touch up a few things in the lab while we waited for you two to return. She’s some kind of genius... and some kind of creep. But very good at what she does!”  

Aloy chuckled, all-too-aware of Petra’s intensity. “I bet Sylens was mighty unimpressed when Petra showed him up.”

Varl shook his head. “He was happy about it, actually. He said he was, quote, ‘pleased to finally be working with someone who wasn’t trapped in a veil of ignorance’.”

Aloy quirked an eyebrow as Erend scoffed. “That arrogant fucking egghead. We’ll show him ignorance!”  

“ You’re doing an excellent job of demonstrating your lack of awareness right now. ” Sylens’ voice pierced through their conversation, causing the three of them to clutch their headsets in shock. “ Well done. None of you appear to have noticed that you’re being followed . ”

Chapter Text

The three of them froze as they realised Sylens was correct—a fourth set of footsteps could be heard in the stairwell, trailing behind them. They had reached their floor—and had Sylens warned them of this intrusion a second later, this stranger could have followed them straight into their hideout.  

Aloy swore under her breath and wheeled around on the staircase, crossbow at the ready. Erend and Varl followed suit, Erend facing the incoming threat head-on while Varl kept his back to the pair, checking the higher levels for any signs of an ambush.  

The silent warning from their ally had bought them some time, and their stalker continued up the staircase, unaware that they were waiting for him.  

The air was charged, fearful, and tense as they waited for the intruder to show his face. The trio didn’t dare breathe or move until the stranger rounded the corner of the stairwell and—  

“What the fuck ?” Erend barked. “What’s this guy doing here?”  

The man that was following them opened his mouth to speak, but before he could offer any explanation, Aloy reached forward, hoisted him up the next few stairs by the collar, and dragged him into the rooms.

Her friends followed, absolutely bewildered, as Aloy pounded on the office door, the stranger still caught in her hand. A startled Ersa answered, hopping out of the way on her good leg as Aloy barged past and shoved the stranger into a chair in the corner of their room.

“Your buddy followed us,” she said to Ersa accusingly and pointed her crossbow directly between the man’s eyes. “What’s going on?”  

The dark-haired man from Ersa’s rescue mission looked up at them apologetically, one eye still half-closed—bruised and swollen from being so recently headbutted.  

Ignoring the black eye, however, he looked like a complete mess—covered in dirt, scratches, and fresh wounds that had nothing to do with their last meeting. His hands were scraped and still bleeding across the knuckles and heels of his palms, and there was an almighty bruise rising on his right cheek. Aloy guessed by his posture that he had a couple of bruised or broken ribs as well.  

The stranger looked over to Ersa, expression hopeful. Under the bruise he had a strong jawline, and his good eye was wide and expressive, a warm honey-brown colour. Up close, Aloy figured he would have been handsome if it wasn’t for the current state of him.  

“Hi,” he said meekly.  

“Hello,” said Ersa, her body still rigid in the doorway. She stared at the strange man with suspicion and wide-eyed shock, as though he might leap forward and attack them at any moment.  

Or, Aloy considered, as though Ersa might bolt out of the room in fear, without warning, and never to return.

The man raised his hands in front of himself in a placating gesture. He appeared unarmed, hurt, and genuinely fearful. “Please. I’m not here to cause any trouble.”  

A pause.  

“Hello,” Ersa repeated, quite stupidly.  

“I’m—”  

“ Leaving ,” Ersa interrupted him firmly, appearing to remember herself. “You’re leaving. What the hell were you thinking, following us here?”  

“Hang on,” Erend cried. “Shouldn’t we find out what he wants before we kick his ass? Who follows a person all this way after they get assaulted by them?”  

Ersa rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to know what he wants. We’re not associated with this person in any way. And he is leaving .”  

“I think he’s really hurt—” Varl said. “We can’t just leave him to fend for himself in his condition.”  

“Can someone please tell me who the hell this person is,” Aloy shouted over the confusion, with mounting frustration.  

“ He’s a dangerous ally, but he could be a valuable asset—” Sylens’ haughty voice rang through their headsets. “ He is—”  

In almost perfect unison, Erend, Aloy and Varl ripped their headsets off, leaving Sylens completely out of the loop.

“Can anyone except Sylens tell me what is going on?”  

Aloy corrected herself. “Who is this mystery guy?”  

“Not a friend,” Ersa said brusquely.  

“My name is Avad,” the stranger said, ignoring Ersa’s frustrated groan. “I’m here to help.”  

What followed was a series of incoherent shouts, accusations and panic. In the rabble, Erend and Ersa seemed adamant that this stranger should leave, immediately . Varl was on the fence, incredulous and confused. Zo, ever the pragmatist, disregarded the other three and was quietly laying out their first-aid kit. Somewhere in the background, she could hear Sylens chattering through the headsets, demanding to be reintroduced to the discussion.  

Aloy raised a hand to her mouth and whistled loudly—which worked surprisingly well, the group fell completely silent in seconds.  

“Now. Forgive my ignorance,” Aloy started, her tone stern. She shot a wild warning look at Varl when he made to interrupt. “But why all the fuss?”  

Behind her, Ersa ran both hands through her short hair in frustration and huffed loudly. In the same breath, she seemed to reach a decision, and began helping Zo with cleaning the strange man’s wounds.  

Nobody was more shocked than Avad when Ersa dropped to one knee and began patching up the cuts on his hands—but he composed himself well—just a little colour rising in his cheeks.  

“There’s no easy way to say this,” Avad said softly, and seemed to be trying his utmost to sit still while Ersa roughly tended to his injuries. “I’m Jiran’s son.”  

Aloy’s eyebrows nearly flew up into her hairline in surprise. She recalled Sylens’ words – dangerous ally indeed. His VIP treatment in the Kestrel camp suddenly clicked into place. What remained unanswered was his kind treatment of Ersa, and his determination to reach their little hideout.  

Still, she doubted that his intentions were harmful. He was in no condition to be fighting five competent adults, and appeared to be alone, in shock, and exhausted. Something must have happened to the Kestrel crew they abandoned the other night, Aloy mused.  

“Should we be helping him?” Varl asked nervously.  

“If he wanted us dead it would have happened by now,” Zo replied, calm as ever. “We’re not going to leave him in this condition.”  

Behind her, Erend had collected the dropped headsets and handed them out to the group, noting that they had five spares. Warily, Aloy placed hers back against her ear to hear what Sylens had to say.  

“ You would do well not to ignore me like that in the future, ” Sylens snapped, ire dripping into his voice.

“I’ll ignore you all I please. I don’t need a speech, Sylens. Do you know something we don’t?”

“ Avad’s presence here gives weight to a rumour about discord within Jiran’s ranks. Their people are beginning to tire of his poor excuse for leadership. Word got around in Free Heap yesterday that three high-ranking dissenters of Jiran’s rule had been put to death. The first was his eldest son, Kadaman. The second was a nephew by the name of Fashav. ”  

“And you’re looking at the third execution order,” Ersa supplied darkly. “Did the other two get away?”  

Avad slumped forward and covered his eyes with his free hand. His “No,” was almost inaudible, but his body language spoke volumes. Aloy’s heart immediately dropped into her stomach in horror. She knew by the way Erend’s wary expression crumpled that he and Ersa felt the same. It was hard enough knowing that her own family was alive, well, and simply out of reach.  

Avad’s pain must be unimaginable, to anyone except Varl—who asked in earnest, “Can we keep him?”  

“You can stay,” Ersa agreed, seeming to surprise herself.  

“ It could be a trap, ” Sylens warned. “ Or the head hunt for Avad could bring an entire army down on your head. Is that something you want? ”

“He could be useful,” Aloy argued, surveying Avad analytically. “We know Dervahl is in Jiran’s custody – and that nobody in our group knows Meridian as well as Avad. My sister mentioned that the people holding her captive have dealings with Dervahl – she could be held in the same location as him now.”  

Sylens hummed his agreement, thoughtful. 

“It’s not about use. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go. That’s the end of it.” Ersa responded sharply and turned back to Avad. “You can stay. Just– just don’t get in our way, alright?”  

Avad lifted his gaze to Ersa’s, and then down to his hand, still caught in her own. A charged silence sat between them before Ersa coughed uncomfortably and began wrapping his wounds with more force than was strictly necessary. She declined Zo’s offer of assistance, though, much to Zo’s quiet amusement.  

Decision made, Aloy turned to practical matters. “What happened, exactly? And why did you choose to follow us?”

“I didn’t realise until later that my brother had sent me to the Freebooter ambush site as a contingency plan. He knew they were weakened recently, and that I was better off dealing with Dervahl’s decimated crews than being back home. Kadaman and Fashav rallied their people, the Carja that were ready and willing to overthrow my father’s reign—”  

Here, Avad drew a shaky breath, “As you know now, they failed . Jiran sent a team after my crew shortly after you escaped. I managed to get away—and now I’m here. I figured I could buy some time to recuperate in Brightmarket—but I saw you three heading back from Free Heap and knew that I could give you some dirt on Dervahl.”  

Aloy nodded—for someone desperate and without allies, it was as good a plan as any, especially after he had already showed their group some kindness. He was obviously hopeful they would throw him a bone.  

Erend was sceptical. “Why would Kestrels be so keen to overthrow Jiran? Under him, you all live like kings.”  

“ Carja ,” Avad corrected, visibly annoyed although mild-mannered to a fault. “Not all of my people are soldiers, and they certainly don’t all benefit from my father’s rule. There’s a difference between a Kestrel soldier and a Carja citizen—I don’t ask all of your people to answer for Dervahl.”  

Erend nodded in agreement, humbled. “You make a good point. So—where is the scumbag now?”

“Dervahl?” Avad asked, flinching a little as Ersa taped a cut on his cheek closed. “Headed to Meridian to stand trial. It would have been smarter to quietly execute him, but as with most things, Jiran enjoys making a show of his victories. He’ll be in the prison cells under the city in a week or so.”  

“Perfect. That gives us a week or so to prepare,” Aloy said decisively. “We’ll head to Meridian and deal with Dervahl ourselves.”  

Avad’s eyes widened in shock, and Ersa and Erend burst out laughing in unison. Even Varl looked over at her quizzically. “What?”

“Aloy, Meridian is a massive fortress run by an army. How do you propose we stage a goddamn full-frontal assault with just the six of us?” Erend asked.  

Aloy grinned conspiratorially. “Two things—the first is that it’s the six of us, plus Petra, who is a one-woman army. The second—it’s not going to be a frontal assault.”

“ You’re proposing a heist, ” Sylens concluded through their headsets, amused and impressed. “ There are ways to travel in and out of Meridian, sight unseen. You could get in and out of there, Dervahl in-hand, and without Jiran noticing a thing. It’s incredibly bold, but it could in fact work. ”

As the rest of the group listened to Sylens and Aloy’s bold suggestion, equal parts thrilled and terrified, Avad looked on, nonplussed.

“What is going on? Why are you all staring at each other in silence?” he pleaded, expression not unlike a lost puppy.  

“Oh shit—sorry buddy. Meet Sylens.” Erend laughed and handed Avad a headset.

Sufficiently fed, rested, and patched up, the group slept until the very early hours of the following morning.  

To Aloy’s right, they were watched over by Zo and Ersa, who had missed the previous day’s excitement and volunteered to keep watch. Woken by a nightmare, Avad sat awake with the two women, and the three of them conversed in whispers and hand gestures for most of the night.  

To Aloy’s left, Erend snored quietly. He had dark circles around his eyes and was clearly still exhausted from the last few weeks’ excitement. She marvelled at Erend’s resilience. First, held captive by Kestrels and by Asera, he then moved straight on to a week-long rescue mission for his sister, quickly followed by the drive to Brightmarket and yesterday’s escapades. And throughout it all he had remained peaceable, cheerful and supportive of Aloy and her trials.

It was nice, Aloy mused, to see that her new friend was getting some rest. She drifted off to the sounds of her companions around her, hale and well.  

As the grey dawn light began to fill their hideout, they took stock of their ammunition, food and kits before considering their next move. With their items pooled together, they had limited resources, but weren’t destitute. They needed more ammunition—just in case—and something for a quick getaway.  

In need of someone with great knowledge of mechanics and supply stores, Aloy called on Petra to join them from Free Heap. Their boisterous companion was delighted beyond measure to strike up an acquaintance with Avad.

“I worked in Meridian awhile, before shit went really south,” Petra explained, dumping an armload of electronics into the centre of the room with a flourish. “I always knew this one was gonna cause trouble for his dear old dad . Whenever the family were paraded through the city he was mortified.”  

Avad’s smile in response was wan, but genuine. “The achievements of Meridian’s people should be celebrated—not the luck of my family. Not to mention half the city was built by foreign engineers like yourself. It was mortifying.”  

Petra snorted, “Still—I’d sooner have you on display than myself. You’re much nicer to look at. Don’t you think so, Ersa?”  

Petra nudged the younger woman in the side with a cheeky grin which only widened when Avad stole an abashed glance in Ersa’s direction. Ersa stood silent and rooted to the floor, expression utterly thunderous as a result of being put on the spot. Perhaps wisely, Ersa pretended that she hadn’t quite heard Petra.  

Aloy’s interest piqued at Petra’s comment, and she elected to save the day. “So you have a more intimate knowledge of the city—is there a way to get in quietly?”  

“I’d say so,” she replied. “Prince Charming and I can discuss it in further detail while we’re on the road. We need to head out to a place called the Greenhouse Garage. It’s about a day’s drive and it has our getaway rides, plus another fun little device I’d like to get my greedy hands on. You can thank Sylens for the directions.”  

Erend wrinkled his nose. “You sure he’s not just sending us all to our deaths for a laugh?”  

“Nah—I think he’s a little scared of me,” Petra assured the group. “Pack your shit. We have a long drive ahead.”  

Whilst the others gathered their belongings, Aloy turned her attention to their new compatriot. She was already packed—always ready to be on the move at a moment’s notice—and travelled very light. She set about helping the kind stranger collect a pack of his own. He was clearly not used to being on the road and kept eyeing supplies with confusion and despair. She put some basics together for Avad in a backpack and handed it to him with an encouraging smile.

“Don’t worry—we’ll have your back out there. And you did alright—you made it here on your own.”

When Avad’s shoulders only slumped further, she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to your family. I can’t imagine—”  

“By the sounds of it, you can imagine a little,” Avad interrupted. “I can’t do anything for my brother now. Let me help you find your missing sister.”  

“Thank you.”

Avad shook his head, “Don’t thank me. I appreciate you all for taking me in. Can I ask—why has your sister been taken captive?”  

Aloy felt the eyes of the entire room fall on her. Her skin prickled uncomfortably, and she shifted her weight from foot to foot. Her eyes dropped to her hands, braced in front of her, and she picked at a loose piece of skin she found on her index finger.  

“No, I’d rather you didn’t ask.”    

For the most recent time in a million, Varl saved the day for Aloy. “Aloy’s got her reasons. I’m sure she’ll tell us what’s going on when she’s ready.”  

“Glad to have you with us, Varl,” Aloy said, relieved.  

“Um. About that.”  

Aloy tilted her head in question.  

“We’re staying behind, for this one at least,” Zo stepped in. “For one, there’s not enough space in the car. And… I was hoping to have a little more time before we announced it, but I’m… pregnant.”  

“Oh, shit,” Ersa gasped without hesitation. “What are you gonna do?”

Zo looked at her quizzically. “Have… a baby?”  

“Right,” Ersa laughed uncomfortably.“I forgot some people are into that.”  

“Ersa, babe, do you have any social skills?” Petra asked, concerned. “Like any?"

Comprehension reached Aloy in a rush, then, and she threw her arms around Zo and Varl with abandon. For all her adventures, there was nothing so frightening to Aloy as becoming a mother in this new world. Zo was achieving something Aloy was in no way prepared or brave enough for, and she was genuinely beyond proud of her friends.  

“That’s… incredible! I’m so happy for you two! And you’re right—please stay here, and stay safe ."  

Varl nodded, his grin wide and cheesy with excitement. He tapped his headset meaningfully and said “We’ll be backing you up from right here!”

Their group of five walked to Petra’s truck in awkward silence. Aloy and Petra busied themselves with mechanics—making sure the truck was locked and loaded for a long day’s drive, while Erend and Ersa arranged everyone’s packs in the trunk.  

Avad hovered in the sidelines, unsure of where he should be or how to contribute. Aloy felt another pang of sympathy for the man, a stranger in foreign territory, with no back-up and no knowledge of the group dynamic.  

The day hadn’t quite yet begun,grey light slowly illuminating their faces as they piled into the vehicle. It was a massive car, and roomy, but five adults and most of their belongings was a stretch for anything short of a bus, and there was some awkward shuffling and apologising as they arranged themselves in the back.  

Petra was driving, and as the tallest of their group, Erend had called dibs on the front passenger seat.  

Shorter than Aloy by a hair, Ersa’s thunderous and uncomfortable expression returned as she found herself in the middle back seat, wedged between Aloy and Avad. She stared moodily at a mirthful Petra through the rear-view mirror, but said nothing, opting instead to lean her body as close to Aloy (and as far away from Avad) as she possibly could.  

“Who’s picking the music?” Petra queried as the truck roared to life, “Anyone but Ersa or Erend,” she added quickly. “If I have to listen to Last Girls on Earth or Immigrant Song one more time I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”    

Aloy plucked their limited music collection from behind the driver’s seat and offered it to Avad. “Let’s let the new guy pick.”  

Avad took the offered CD’s with careful hands and a trepidatious expression. He flicked through every page with careful consideration as they rolled out of the truck’s parking spot and out onto the road. After a long moment, he looked up at the group with a furrowed brow and admitted, “Um. I don’t know any of this.”  

“What are you talking about? It’s all the classics,” Ersa asked incredulously. “What about this one?”  

“Is that… Nirvana?”  

Ersa choked on air, and Aloy chuckled quietly, “It is not . This is Led Zeppelin.”  

When Avad shrugged helplessly, Ersa’s awestruck expression only grew, “Right. Next question: what dimension are you from?”  

“I wasn’t allowed to listen to any of this.”  

Ersa’s shock made way for dismay, and she waved at Erend in the front seat. Understanding his sister without the need for words, Erend plucked an old Walkman from the glovebox and handed it to her.  

“Right. Your education begins now.” Said Ersa determinedly, and handed Avad an earbud, who accepted the item as one might accept something precious and breakable. Ersa shuffled over in her seat so that they could comfortably share the music, shoulders brushing and seemingly unaware of Avad’s wonderstruck expression.  

From the driver’s seat, Petra shrugged and kept driving. “Contemplative silence for the rest of us, I guess.  

They drove on, due west, in companionable silence while the sun rose behind them—the quiet only occasionally punctuated by Erend’s yawns and Petra meddling with the gears of the truck. The Greenhouse garage was a long haul from their current location, closer to the beach, and they had plenty of time for chatter when the day had fully awoken.  

Aloy watched the changing landscape out of her window as they travelled on. Brightmarket was a jewel tucked away in the wilderness—well hidden in a jungle of sorts and set amongst bright and beautiful foliage. The greenery gave way to browns and golds as the ground beneath them changed from grass and rainforest to sand, dust and clay. She knew the landscape would eventually change again—back to tall, dark forests and eventually marsh and beach-scapes—but for now she sat back and appreciated the harsh beauty of the desert unfolding before them.

Just after lunch time, Petra yawned loudly and stretched. “We’re about halfway, if anyone wants to take over the drive for a while. It’s pretty much a straight run until we hit the beach.”

Aloy raised her hand to volunteer, eager to do something with her hands, and equally keen to feel the power of this truck under her control. She had a good eye for mechanics and transport, and enjoyed the small victories of understanding what made an engine tick. It piqued her interest more than the small electronics that Sylens specialises in. She could see the utility in these larger creations and loved all things impactful.  

Petra cheerfully handed her the keys, hopping down from the driver’s seat, and said “If you like this baby you’re gonna love the off-roaders at the Greenhouse Garage. We’re picking up three Bristleback-600’s. They were a little side-project of Ted Faro’s back in the day. Compact off-roaders with an unstoppable roll-cage, and they can be fitted with projectiles .”  

“You’re kidding. I’ve heard of these! They’re rough and loud, but I reckon we can work some magic. I’m in love already,” Aloy exclaimed.   

“All it takes is a cool car to win over the ladies!” Petra waggled her eyebrows and hoisted herself into the back seat of the truck. She was careful not to disturb Avad and Ersa, who had fallen asleep beside Aloy on the long drive—lulled by the tinny sounds of some rock ballad through the Walkman. It wasn’t lost on Aloy that their hands were brushing. Petra shot her a meaningful look and Aloy smirked in response.  

“What was the other device you wanted to get a hold of?” Aloy queried. 

Petra sighed dreamily. “Another Faro side project. She doesn’t have a name. It’s a wall-cutter that theoretically can cut through anything. I can’t wait to meet her.”

“The inanimate object?” Erend queried.  

“Don’t talk about the future love of my life like that.”  

Erend rolled his eyes and fixed Aloy with an affectionate grin as she situated herself beside him, pulling the truck forward carefully, with Petra’s guidance.  Once they were comfortably on the road again and Petra had also fallen asleep, Erend turned to Aloy with a cautious expression.

“Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?” Aloy glanced over at Erend, hands gripping the steering wheel just a little tighter. 

“Hearing Beta’s voice like that, yesterday. I know it’s hard, that she’s just out of reach for you. I didn’t tell the group anything that happened yesterday.”

Aloy smiled tiredly. “About me crying, you mean? Contrary to popular belief, I don’t mind when people find out I’m only human,” she laughed softly. “It was hard, but wonderful to know that she’s alright.”

Erend hummed thoughtfully. “She sounded well. Stressed—but healthy.”  

Aloy nodded her agreement. She could feel Erend’s eyes on her as she watched the road. He didn’t press her for any more information, but Aloy felt strangely compelled to keep sharing with this man. He had already seen her as a complete mess on more than one occasion, and it never seemed to faze him. Erend was safe, fair, and supportive. He was clearly devoted to the people he cared about, and she suddenly wanted so badly to be considered one of those people – held safe in his patient and unwavering companionship.  

She tapped her fingers along the steering wheel before glancing back in his direction.

“She’s tougher than she seems, my sister,” she offered. When Erend only watched her with a kind, patient expression, all the words came tumbling out of Aloy at once.  

“I come across as the unbreakable one, but it’s not the truth. Beta can survive almost anything. We only met a couple of years ago, and we both grew up extremely isolated. Our mother… something happened to our family, made us all feel like freaks. Like outsiders. It… shaped me. I don’t connect with people easily.”  

She drew a shaking breath and sent up a silent prayer that Erend could understand what she was getting at. To his credit, he was listening with rapt attention  

“But Beta… she’s a worrier, about everyone and everything, but she’s never afraid to do the things that need to be done. And she’s never afraid to let herself be heard. Be understood.  

“I want to … share things about myself,” Aloy continued. “But I can’t do that. I can’t be open like her. I have to get her back. She’s the only good thing about me—”

“Hey—I doubt that very much,” Erend interrupted firmly. “I know that you’re a good person on your own.”    

Aloy didn’t have a response for that, and kept her eyes locked on the road. A long silence passed, before Erend asked gently, “What happened with your mother?”  

Her heart clenched in dismay. Beta would have been able to talk about it—she held all the emotional strength in their dynamic. Beta would have looked back on their limited memories of their mother with fondness, and a little bitter-sweet joy. Aloy—just…  

“I can’t . I want to, but… I can’t talk about it yet. I’m sorry. I’m not ready.”

Erend wasn’t bothered in the least. “I’ll still be here when you are ready,” he promised.  

The warm, affectionate silence that settled between them was promptly interrupted by Avad yelping in surprise as Ersa awakened with a snort, and shoved him away as far as she could.

They reached the waterfront in the late afternoon, peering through the windshield as the heavy golds and reds of the afternoon sun blinded them. Aloy could hear the rush of the ocean water somewhere ahead of them and smelled the salt in the air. Their view of the sea was partially blocked by two cylindrical monoliths, bearing down on them on the horizon. They were smooth, grey and otherwise nondescript, which meant they stuck out like an eyesore on the beachfront. At the front of the building, a half-toppled sign indicated that the property was once owned by Faro Industries.  

Or at least, Aloy assumed it was the front of the building. The Greenhouse had been so thoroughly overrun by vines and other foliage that she could hardly tell where anything in the building began or ended.  She surveyed the sight with scepticism.  

“Are you sure that this equipment will be in good condition?”

Petra nodded enthusiastically and flicked her headset on. “Absolutely. Those cylinders there were designed to withstand any kind of rain, hail, shine, or frontal assault.”  

“And how do you expect that we’re going to get in, then?” Avad asked, equally dubious.  

Petra indicated Aloy with a flourish. “Our good friend Sylens tells us that we have a key.”

Aloy raised an eyebrow quizzically—it was true that her mother’s key card was given unlimited access to all of her former colleague’s facilities that were relevant to the outbreak —but the Greenhouse was another matter. A separate facility for Faro’s side projects, the Greenhouse had nothing to do with Elisabet.  

As if hearing her thoughts, Sylens piped up through the headset. “ I’ve added the code to your key-card. ”

“When—what the hell , Sylens?”

“ Would you rather I didn’t help you? ”

“I’d rather you ask first. Don’t touch my shit. What’s wrong with you? Also, why do you have the code?”  

“ I have the code because I wanted the code. ”  

“I’ll have your damn head if you go through my things without permission again,” Aloy warned, and lifted her lanyard out from under her shirt warily, as though the cards might catch fire.  

Sylens didn’t deign to reply. Aloy rolled her eyes and huffed. As far as he was concerned, the end justified the means, and there was no arguing with him.  

The group picked their way through the scrub and sand cautiously, reaching a well-hidden, overgrown doorway to the first cylinder, labelled ‘product testing’. She raised the lanyard with a serious expression and swiped. Almost taking her by surprise, the security light beeped and turned green. Sylens was true to his word once again.  

She glanced over her shoulder at the group and signalled for Erend, Ersa and Avad to keep watch. “Petra and I will keep going.”  

Petra shouldered a bag full of tools and supplies with a grin. “We need a little private time.”

“Petra, no .”  

With a stifled laugh, Aloy pushed hard against the facility door until it gave way.

The inside of the building filled Aloy with concern. The interior had fared no better against the onslaught of vines and climbing plants than the exterior, and she again wondered whether their time had been wasted, coming here for supplies. At her side, however, Petra seemed unperturbed, and made her way over the plant-infested grounds with ease.  

“If our contacts are correct, the vehicles are on our way out. There should be a vault somewhere in product testing which holds our wall-cutter—I’ll need your brains and your key-card to get into that safe, but we’ll cross that bridge when we find—”  

Petra fell stony silent suddenly and dropped low to the ground at Aloy’s side as they overheard the chatter of a voice carrying through the halls. Aloy’s stomach dropped.  

She took a steadying breath and looked over to her companion, suddenly business-like and serious in a way that Aloy had never seen before. Petra, not one to fuck-around, drew a pistol from her belt and jerked her head in the direction of the voice.

“You do the talking first. I’ll back you up.”  

They crept down the halls to the source of the noise. As they approached, they noticed a deep male voice answering the chatter of the first. The first speaker sounded young, female, and highly energetic. The second sounded much more reserved.

“I’m sure it’s here. I’m sure of it . I’ve seen the maps, I’ve done the research—I wrote an entire thesis on this lab! All of my sources point to this exact location . But there’s just… a wall!”  

The second speaker opened his mouth to speak but didn’t get far before the first voice interrupted.

“Kotallo, am I losing my mind here—can you see anything other than a wall? Am I imagining the wall? Have I stressed about this so long and for so many sleepless nights that my mind has created this insurmountable unsurpassable roadblock? Is it a metaphorical wall? Have I created this wall because I’m afraid of what I might find behind it? Please tell me there’s actually a wall here, and I haven’t completely gone off the deep end… or, wait! Maybe it’s better that I don’t find out there isn’t a wall. You should leave me behind here to my madness, Kotallo. I don’t think I can handle finding out there is no wall. Will that be the last straw for me? Will I succumb to the stress ? Will there be anything left for me in the remnants of this world once I see what’s behind this wall? If I ever see what’s behind this wall? Is this all my research has boiled down to? Kotallo—I can’t take it anymore! Is there a wall ?!”  

A long silence followed, in which the second speaker’s exasperation was a palpable presence. Not one for elaboration, he simply confirmed “There’s a wall.”  

“Oh,” said the first voice. “Well, it’s a small relief to know I haven’t completely lost it.”

“Hm,” The second speaker replied, and obviously begged to differ.  

Deciding to roll the dice, Aloy stepped out from behind her hiding place with Petra close on her tail. “I hear we’ve found a wall,” she offered to the pair, trying to keep her tone light.

The woman who had been monologuing squeaked in surprise, hands flying to her mouth as her eyes flew wide in shock. She was a touch shorter than Aloy and perhaps a little younger, with short crop of black hair. She had pale skin, lovely freckles and a thin but expressive mouth which matched her large brown eyes.  

The second stranger could not have been more starkly contrasted with the first if he tried. A serious looking man in his late-twenties to early thirties—he was tall, well-built, and covered in scars and tattoos in equal measure. Between his height, the numerous marks on his skin and his soulful dark eyes, it took Aloy a surprisingly long time to notice that the man only had one arm.  

She offered a handshake to his remaining right arm. “Aloy.”

He stared down at her hand for a moment, before carefully grasping her fingers. “Kotallo.”

“I gathered. This is Petra—and you are?”

She turned to the younger girl, who was still frozen in place from shock, and offered her hand. She took it with trembling fingers and a wide-eyed stare. “I’m Alva. And you’re Beta’s sister!”  

It was Aloy’s turn to freeze in surprise. “How did you—”  

Alva “She sent me here! Well—really, she knew I was trying to find this place. And she got a message to me through the networks we have set up on the island, a code written into my own research . She’s unbelievably smart, and my god—she looks just like you!”  

Aloy raised a hand to silence the girl. “Hold on—from the top. Why did she send you here?”

“Oh!” said Alva excitedly. “Because I have this!”  

She produced a second lanyard from her pocket, marked with the same globe print as Aloy’s own. “Beta said it was hers, and that you’d recognise it. She said something about programming it with the ‘other key’?”  

In her headset, Sylens made an impressed noise, which Aloy echoed. Beta certainly had her ways.  

“So what made you research this building? ‘Cause I’ve called dibs on the vehicles,” Petra said in warning, stepping away from the group to examine the wall in question with her bag of tools. “Hands off.”  

Alva blinked, her face the picture of innocence. “What does anyone research Faro labs for? I’m looking for a cure, of course.”

“Ah, that old dream,” Petra scoffed.  

Behind Alva, Kotallo nodded his agreement, his expression stern. “I keep trying to tell her there’s nothing here. There’s nothing left in any of the facilities in the area, and no sign that Ground Zero ever existed here.”

“So you’re not a researcher?”

“I’m here on behalf of my people to make sure her people don’t cause too much trouble.”  

Aloy nodded at Kotallo’s missing arm, which was still freshly bandaged. A jagged keloid scar ran up from underneath his bandaging, still pink and fresh. “You look like you’re no stranger to trouble.”  

Kotallo looked down, clearly unhappy to be discussing his injury and Aloy didn’t press the matter.  

“We’re not looking for the cure. Not here, anyway,” Aloy admitted. “We need a couple of devices that Faro was developing—the vehicles and a wall-cutter.”

“A wall-cutter would be a real gift right about now,” Alva said wistfully, eyeballing the unforgiving barrier that stood between her and the next stage of her research.  

“But not necessary,” Petra declared from her exploration of the barrier in question. She held one hand out behind her, waving her fingers at Aloy demandingly. “Keys, please. Both of you.”  

The tinkerer had identified a digital lock in the wall, to be opened simultaneously by two key-cards, next to one-another.  

Aloy eyed Petra with concern, reluctant to part with her lanyard. She pulled the key-card from her shirt, and with a cautious glance in Kotallo’s direction, collected the second key from her new companion. Alva was more than happy to part with the device, and handed it over cheerfully. She traced her fingers over the card – identical to her own, except for a small laser-cut pattern of a bird in the bottom right corner. This was definitely Beta’s own.  

“I’ll do it,” Aloy said, suddenly unable to part with her sister’s belonging. “Step aside.”  

“If you insist. Be careful.”  

The other three stood back as Aloy approached the lock with trepidation. She slid each key-card into their slots slowly, as though diffusing a bomb. They waited a second—two- three—before each slot beeped lightly and turned green. Aloy breathed a sigh of relief as the tell-tale metallic slide of shifting locks and bolts could be heard on the other side of this gigantic safe.  

“There you are, baby,” Petra sighed as the wall parted for them, and the wall-cutter came into view.  A seemingly innocuous device, Petra’s eyes lit up as she lifted it from its display cabinet…  

And immediately tripped an alarm.  

“ Ooh ,” said Petra gingerly. “I might have fucked this one up.”  

They felt the Creatures rumbling through the floors overhead before they heard them. Dozens— hundreds —of footfalls shook the dust from the ceiling above them as the groans and wails of an entire facility worth of infected began to pour in waves from every stairwell surrounding them. It was sickening, the way they tumbled over one-another in desperation to reach the fresh meat that had caught their attention. Kotallo braced himself, immediately stepping in front of Alva protectively and raising his gun. Aloy looked frantically back at Petra, white as a sheet, and made a decision.  

“I’ll back you all up—get them to the car and get everyone out of here.”  

“You’re coming with us,” Petra demanded, clutching the wall-cutter to her chest.

“I am,” Aloy promised, firing her crossbow at a few of the faster Creatures as they approached. “I just have to do something first.”

She raised her crossbow, a fabric-tipped arrow loaded in, and nodded at the ceiling above them, where a tremendously large fluorescent sign sat bearing the facility owner’s name in bold lettering.

Petra laughed, a little nervously, and fished a lighter out of her pocket, tossing it to Aloy - “Thank the heavens for Ted Faro’s enormous ego. Light her up, girl. I better see you leaving right behind us.” And with that, she grasped a shocked Alva and Kotallo by an arm each and guided them toward the exit.  

Aloy steeled herself with a deep breath. If she could cut the advancing Creatures off, they might still have some time to grab the getaway vehicles. She braced herself, swiping at the sweat on her forehead, and aimed directly at the light, and fired.  

The wave of Creatures advancing on her barely slowed only the slightest amount as the sign fell to the ground on top of the front-lines, aflame and full of heavy, twisted metal. The Creatures behind didn’t seem to notice at all, trampling over the rest of the herd and directly through the flame to reach her. Their flailing, unfeeling limbs brushed against the climbers and vines in the building, lighting them up with a speed that terrified her. It wouldn’t be long before ethe entire facility was alight.

“Shit. Shit ,” she hissed, taking a few steps backwards. The hoard kept coming. Rather than slowing down they ran toward her with renewed rage, and on fire. The smoke and noise was overwhelming—she couldn’t see her way out of the building. Aloy’s heart stopped dead in her chest. She had failed. She was done for .  

A large hand tugged roughly at her shoulder, pulling her out of her panic. She wheeled around to find Erend looking down at her. He was pale with fear, but determined, refusing to leave her behind.  

“I saw the others escape. I’m not leaving you,” he declared, tugging at her jacket. “Forget the rest. You’re more important. Run!”  

She did so, hot on Erend’s tail, and they weaved their way through the burning underbrush and vines—the building collapsing around them.  

Erend reached the door with seconds to spare, slipping through the gap ahead of Aloy, who stumbled backwards as a burning beam landed directly in her path. Erend swore, and reached out through the doorway for Aloy, who shook her head.

“There’s a window over here,” she called, waving, to her right. “Shoot it through and I’ll jump out.”  

Erend obeyed quickly—but the loud gunshot drew the attention of more than a few creatures, piling over themselves to reach the source of the disturbance and blocking her back-up escape.  

Aloy rolled her shoulders and decided there was nothing else for it.  

Running full-speed toward the Creatures as they clambered over themselves, she kicked the two nearest in the face, using them as a launching pad to hurl herself toward the window. On the other side, Kotallo and Erend dove forward and pulled on her legs as her lower body cleared through the window – her arms caught by a stray Bellowback which had clumsily grasped at her on the way through.

What followed was a gruesome tug-of-war as Aloy tried to free herself from the Creatures’ grasps, and Ersa and Petra tried to shoot the advancing crowd away without hitting Aloy herself.  

Erend gave one final almighty pull, tugging her clear through the window and to the ground below, where they landed in a heap, panting and exhausted. As Aloy’s body fell through the window, the ceiling of the facility collapsed behind her, crushing the advancing Creatures beneath the burning rubble.

“Aloy! Don’t you ever pull that shit again,” Ersa barked, shoving Erend away to examine Aloy. She helped Aloy out of her jacket which was still smouldering, caught alight in her escape.  

And froze when her hand came away wet and dark.

Aloy stared between the darkening patch on her shirt and Ersa’s shell-shocked expression, understanding and fear dawning on her before the pain of the Creature’s bite registered. A deep gouge, with teeth-marks decorated her right shoulder at the junction to her neck.

“No…” Erend gasped, looking stricken and clutching his hands behind his head, “No, no, no. Aloy .”  

Ersa took a few calming breaths, ignoring her brother’s grief in favour of grasping Aloy’s hand. “I’m so sorry,” she said softly, her eyes shining as she looked Aloy over. “How do you want to do this?”  

“I’ll be fine.” Aloy snapped, almost dismissively. “I swear. Just help me clean up.”  

“Honey, it’s your neck ,” Petra said, her voice choked with emotion.  

“I’ll be fine . Please just listen to me—” Aloy snapped, wiping at the bite wound with her free hand. It was excruciating, and she felt faint from the pain and blood loss, but otherwise coherent.  

Kotallo watched the exchange with a mournful expression. “We could have cut off the affected limb if it was an extremity, but-”  

Erend looked close to tears as Petra and Ersa approached, both despairing and prepared to dispatch Aloy humanely.  

She shook her head, frantic. She had never seen her companions look so upset before—so genuinely horrified at the knowledge that Aloy had sustained a ‘fatal’ injury, and it occurred to her that she owed them an explanation, after all they had done to help her.  

She threw her arms up as the group advanced on her, chest heaving with the exertion of her escape, pale and clammy from her injury.  

“Stop! Stop ! Please! I’m immune .”

Chapter Text

“I’m immune !”  

Aloy looked at the group with a pleading expression, begging them to understand. The air was awash with disbelief, and she could tell immediately her excuse hadn’t worked. While Erend looked up from his despairing position with hope, the others remained cautious, disbelieving, and almost sorry for her.  

“That’s… never happened,” Alva said softly. “Aloy—"

“I’m serious !” She yanked her arm away from Ersa’s firm grip, and the other woman let her go with alarm. Aloy pressed a finger against her earpiece and spoke to the air, frantically tugging her shirt-sleeve up to reveal an older, healed bite wound along her forearm. “Sylens. Back me up here. I’m immune. There’s no need to put me down. Please, please tell them.”  

The wait for Sylens’ response was excruciating. The group watched Aloy anxiously as she pressed on her earpiece again, begging, “Sylens. Please .”

Eventually, the tell-tale crackle of Sylens’ voice echoed across five shared speakers.  

“She’s not lying,” he confirmed at last, although audibly annoyed at the secret being shared amongst so many. “ Her sister as well. She can prove it, so long as you don’t do anything stupid right now.”  

Aloy swiped a bloodied hand over her face, trembling from equal parts shock and relief. “Thank you.”  

The others remained unsure, watching her with consternation. She supposed that was fair – they had no way to truly believe her words, and only knew that she did not want to die here. People had a tendency to say anything to avoid being shot after a bite.  

Avad, surprisingly, was the firm voice of reason in their decision-making.

“It takes about twenty-four hours for symptoms to commence,” he declared. “If what Aloy and Sylens are saying is correct – I think we all owe it to her to wait it out and see.”

Slower to trust, Ersa and Kotallo both remained stock-still while the others agreed with Avad’s proposal immediately. Eventually, Kotallo muttered something very quietly to Ersa, and she set her mouth into a thin line, jerking her head once in agreement. He stepped away from her, and back to Alva decisively, motioning for them to take their leave.

“You bought the rest of us time, today,” Kotallo explained. “I’ll be frank: I don’t believe you. But we won’t kill you here – as long as you leave my people’s territory immediately.”  

It was a fair deal, and Avad nodded as well. “We’re headed back to Meridian, anyway.”  

Aloy relaxed at last and, overcome by the events of the last hour, swayed violently on her feet. Erend sprang to action, pressing the fabric of her destroyed jacket against the wound on her neck. Pale and exhausted, Aloy could only raise a hand to brush his own in thanks.

“I don’t know why – but I believe you,” he whispered quietly in her ear as he guided her away from the group. “Let’s get you to the car.”  

She raised an exhausted hand in farewell to Alva and Kotallo, dismayed that she wouldn’t have more time to speak to her sister’s acquaintance. Thinking quickly, Aloy drew a spare pair of headsets from her pack and handed them to Alva and Kotallo. “I’ll reach out to you both when I’m patched up and definitely not a Creature.”

“We’ll see each other again, I’m sure!” Alva called, a cautious smile spreading across her sweet, freckled face. She already believed that Aloy was immune without question, and Aloy dimly wondered what exactly Beta had told the girl. “There’s more research labs out West, on the islands – come and see us when you can!”  

Aloy could barely nod as Erend helped her up into the back seats of the truck. As he stepped forward to climb in beside her, Ersa tugged on his arm roughly. She could hear their hushed voices arguing outside.

“Why are you sitting back there with her?”

“Because she needs help, Ersa. And because I believe her,” Erend protested.

“What if she’s lying? What if you get hurt?”

Aloy peered through the window down at Ersa. She looked pale and worried sick. Aloy couldn’t blame her. The two women locked eyes, and Aloy pressed a hand up to the glass to hold Ersa’s attention.  

“You think I’d let him get hurt?” Aloy asked Ersa softly.

A pause.

Ersa took a deep breath and glanced between the two of them with a grave expression. At length, she placed her hand against Aloy’s on the glass.  

“Alright,” she said, “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

Aloy closed her eyes once Erend was safely seated beside her, tending to the wound on her neck, and let sleep overtake her.  

  On the road, her dream was as strange as the last. Beta floated asleep in the chamber where Aloy last found her, not quite alive, not quite dreaming. Aloy raised a hand to tap on the glass and wake her sister, only to find she was suspended in a similar state. She wasn’t drowning, but she had… forgotten how to breathe. It wasn’t necessary in their current state: suspended. Not really living. Not quite human.  

Aloy was prodded awake by Erend before she could let the dread of her latest dream overtake her. He was gingerly lifting the gauze he had wrapped around her bite wound, checking for signs of inflammation and infection.  

Around them, the sky was ink-black and the air was freezing cold – they were halfway back to Meridian with the wall-cutter in hand. Petra declared that she would have to make do with other vehicles, but it was no matter. Everyone was alive and ready to fight another day.  

As Aloy expected, all Erend found at the bite site was broken skin and painful bruising. But none of the flesh had worn away, Aloy’s cheeks remained the appropriate shade of pink, and her cognition remained intact.  

“Believe me yet?” she asked groggily.

Erend smiled softly, “I always believe in you. But the others are right to wait two days to take your word for it.”

“I know,” she acknowledged quietly, lifting a hand to brush against his own. “Thank you. For coming back for me.”  

“Ah, don’t mention it. Really don’t mention it,” Erend said hurriedly. “Ersa is furious with me for risking my neck like that.”  

Aloy couldn’t help the hushed giggle that escaped her, signalling to the rest of the car that she was awake.  

Petra glanced in the rear-view mirror at Aloy, appraising her. “Ah, so our little miracle has awoken. You’ve been out for a few hours.”

“Blood loss will do that to you,” Erend retorted, clearly unwilling to tolerate any implication that Aloy might be sick. “She’s doing fine.”  

Petra raised an appeasing hand, “I’m not implying anything, Erend. Just worried. The plan tomorrow is to take Dervahl from Meridian’s prisons, right out from under Jiran’s nose, but Dervahl has dealings with these people that took your sister and the city is on high alert already—are you gonna be alright to fight with us tomorrow, Aloy? If it comes to that—”

Aloy nodded – she would be fit and well by tomorrow, but the question remained: were they equipped to handle this? 

The plan was to sneak in and out of Dervahl’s cell sight unseen – but if something went awry, they hardly had the firepower to defend themselves against a frontal assault from Jiran’s men. Aloy could hold her own – but short of her impressive immune system, she hardly had superpowers.  

As if reading her mind, Petra leaned toward the front passenger seat and jabbed a contemplative Avad with her elbow. “Prince Charming here reckons he’s still got some connections in the city – give us a little extra fire-power.”  

“Assuming Jiran hasn’t taken issue with the Hunter’s Lodge since I left,” Avad added cautiously.

“I thought the Hunter’s Lodge was full of stuffy old privileged assholes anyway?” Ersa said curiously. “What sort of connections would we have at the Lodge?”

Avad glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the group, “Fashav, Kadaman and I weren’t working alone. I’ve got a few friends stirring up trouble. The leader of the Lodge will be happy to help us if it’s possible. And if we can get word to the prison warden it will make our plan a lot easier.”  

“ Really ?” Ersa said, her tone betraying the fact she was impressed. “Meridian’s prison warden is a friend of yours?”

“One of my closest friends. They’re no fan of Jiran’s. I think you two would get along, actually. They’re a… severe person as well.” Avad explained with a shy smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ersa snapped, “I can be less severe. I can be so calm and carefree—”    

“Clearly,” Petra interrupted drily.  

Avad said nothing, though his eyes twinkled with amusement.

The Lodge was a gigantic building situated on the Southern rim of Meridian, just outside the city walls. It was a resort, once upon a time, with broad wooden beams that held up an A-frame building full of windows. It almost looked out of place in the humid surroundings – more suited to a ski lodge than the rainforest landscape around them.  

Once the outbreak really began, the Lodge was taken over by a guild of well-meaning hunters and soldiers, who intended to guard the city of Meridan from the outbreak and use the Lodge as their base of operations. Since then, the Lodge had descended into competition and sport hunting of Creatures – a concept which filled Aloy with curiosity, though she didn’t see the practicality in it – and eventually it had become a sort of exclusive club, for members who were affluent enough to have the time to hunt purely for sport.  

As they pulled into the driveway, Avad sank low in his seat, keeping out of view.  The Lodge sat just outside of Meridian’s walls, and therefore exempt from its laws – but there were more than a few mercenaries who would jump at the opportunity to sell him out, and Petra’s truck drew more than enough attention on its own.  

“How are we supposed to sneak you in and out of this place, Avad?” Aloy queried, voice still thick with exhaustion and pain.  

“There’s a back way into the Lodge. Someone needs to go to the check-in desk and ask for the Sunhawk. They’ll show you where you need to go,” he explained in a whisper.    

Petra volunteered, hopping down from the truck with a stern warning to any occupants who might feel the desire to drive away with her most prized possession, and made her way into the front of the building.  

She returned a few minutes later, a new set of keys in hand and a rather dumbstruck look on her face. Aloy looked at her questioningly, but Petra simply shook her head and pulled the truck into a more secluded location. “You better know what you’re doing, Avad.”  

Petra’s keys opened the door to a room—sparsely decorated and innocuously marked as ‘storage’ behind the back of the building, where they were directed to wait for their contact.  When the highly acclaimed Sunhawk arrived, they were not at all what Aloy had imagined.  

A woman (which was as shock in itself, from what Ersa had said about the Lodge), who was about Erend’s age, greeted them with a sweet smile and a sympathetic hand on Avad’s shoulder. She was well put-together, with a style and confidence that complemented her clear athleticism. She was young for her position of power but she carried the authority well, with easy confidence and a cocky, gorgeous smile.  

“This is Talanah,” Avad explained. “She’s a childhood friend of mine.”  

“Close enough friend to risk my neck like this for you,” the Sunhawk teased, raising a hand in greeting. Her intelligent eyes glanced over Aloy and the obvious wound on her neck. “Are you alright?"

“I’ll live,” Aloy replied gruffly. “Avad says you might be able to help us?”  

The hunter tilted her head in acknowledgement, long black ponytail falling over one shoulder, and pointed to the doorway behind her, “I can’t – but the Spymaster can.”  

A second woman followed them into the room. She was a little older than Talanah, and incredibly beautiful – with smooth dark skin, expressive brown eyes and a knowing grin. She moved with a feline grace through the room, surveying their little group.

Avad seemed taken aback, looking to Talanah for confirmation. “I didn’t know you were siding with us, Vanasha.”  

“That’s because I’m good at my job, little prince – you never know who a spy really works for until the eleventh hour,” Vanasha said, by way of greeting.  

From her tone, Aloy could tell the woman was a smooth talker, and the source of Petra’s dumbstruck expression from earlier suddenly made a world of sense. Petra stood beside Aloy now, silent and almost frozen in place – completely stunned. Aloy glanced over at Ersa for confirmation and found her friend fighting back a smirk. It seemed Petra was able to flirt with anyone, except people that she really fancied.    

Apparently unaware, Vanasha continued. “I’m here to make sure your little team gets into the city sight unseen. We’ll hand you over to Janeva after that. They’re pleased to hear that you’re safe and sound, by the way.”  

“Janeva is happy about something?” Talanah queried.  

“Well,” Vanasha said thoughtfully. “As happy as Janeva gets.”  

At this, Avad bit back a smile but tried to direct them back on topic. “I appreciate the two of you helping us – I know it’s a big ask.”  

Talanah interrupted him with a wave of her hand. “Think nothing of it, my friend. I’m angry about what happened to your Kadaman and Fashav, and I know what you’re going through.”  

“It’s a terrible thing to have in common,” said Avad quietly, grief lacing his voice in a way that gave them all pause. Aloy watched as Ersa stepped forward, reaching out to comfort Avad, but stopped herself just shy of touching him. “But I’m glad you understand, Talanah. Thank you,” Avad added once he had collected himself.  

Talanah’s expression darkened. “It looks like Jiran has learned nothing since he killed my father and brother five years ago. If he keeps executing anyone who disagrees with him, there’ll be no one left in his precious city. It’s time to take a real stand – this can’t go on any longer.”  

Aloy decided on the spot that she liked this girl. She was pragmatic, charismatic, honest and honourable.  Aloy could work with that. She stepped forward into the centre of the group – it was time to lay out the plan.  

“Our goal is straightforward,” she began. “We get in, collect Dervahl from his cell in the city, and try to find any signs of my sister. Avad, you know the city better than any of us – is there a place we can safely use the wall-cutter to break into the walls?”

“There’s a Colosseum-style stadium a short walk from the prison cells called the Sun Ring,” Avad supplied. “It backs on to the Western wall of the city – it’s the safest place to sneak in.”  

Aloy nodded, emboldened by this knowledge. “We’ll go in that way. We need to keep this as quiet as possible – there’s not many of us, and who knows what the guard will do to any prisoners if we get caught—"  

“I appreciate that,” Petra interrupted, unusually serious. Her eyes flicked back to Vanasha for just a millisecond. “But we need a game plan if quiet doesn’t work out for us, Aloy. I’ve got a store of C-4 that I picked up from Asera’s workshop that we can put to good use. Talanah, Vanasha, and I will stay behind and light their asses up if you do manage to get caught. We can blast through the Eastern wall for a quick getaway and provide cover-fire from there.”  

“Ooh— explosives ,” Vanasha chimed in. “I know we need to try and keep quiet, but I do enjoy when things get loud and messy.”    

Petra’s expression fell anxious and out of sorts. She seemed to be oscillating rapidly between delight at Vanasha’s proximity and utter, utter terror that she might say something idiotic.  

“Uh – yes,” was all she managed.  

Vanasha didn’t appear thrown off at all by Petra’s stilted reply and instead slinked across the room, moving closer to the other woman with a sly smile. Petra remained rooted to the floor, wide-eyed like a deer in headlights. “I look forward to us working together. We best get going if we’re going to make it to the western wall by sunset.”  

Ersa couldn’t help the guffaw that escaped her as Petra tripped over her own feet on the way out.  

The afternoon sun was unforgiving – beating down on them as they inched their way closer to the outer walls of the Sun-Ring. By dusk the plan was set, and they were ready to move in on the city.  

Petra sliced a small opening through the outside of the Sun-Ring with her wall-cutter, before handing it to Aloy. “Take good care of her,” she pleaded.  

Aloy nodded, solemn, as she stepped through the gap with Erend, Ersa and Avad on her heels. Their other three companions remained behind – Talanah hoisting a large pack over her shoulders containing the body of the explosives Petra had salvaged. She handled the weight with ease but looked a little unsettled by the contents of her burden. “Here’s hoping we don’t need this distraction.”  

Aloy offered Talanah a self-assured smirk. Her new friend was wily, and game. It seemed Avad had good taste in allies. “We’ll be in and out before you know it. Stay safe, alright?”    

As Avad had promised, the prisons were a short distance from their entry point. They crept toward the prison cells with no small amount of anxiety – treading lightly over the dusty, barren ground that made up the floor of the Sun-Ring. Avad explained that this part of Meridian was barely guarded when the Sun-Ring was closed, and they didn’t encounter any trouble. Between the destroyed grounds, discarded armour, the cloying, overwhelming scent of death that hung over the arena, Aloy could see why – nobody in their right mind would want to spend time in such an unforgiving place.  

“What is this for ?” Aloy queried, immediately regretting her curiosity as Avad’s expression fell.  

“Murder,” he said simply. “My father finds it amusing to send dissenters to fight in here for sport.”  

“To fight each other?”

“Each other. Creatures. Animals. Whatever fulfils his sick imagination at the time.” He cut himself off with a shudder, and his kind eyes were filled with some kind of dark emotion. “I’ve seen too much here.”  

It wasn’t the right time, but Aloy was struck with a strange sense of pride in her companion. It would be all-too-easy to fall back on the privileges his powerful, war-like family had provided. To uphold the status quo that Jiran had laid out – one which worked to his benefit. Instead, she found herself fighting alongside three people who spoke against the unfair ways of the world. If they didn’t succeed tonight, she knew at least that she had chosen the right people to lose with.  

The prison cells sat just to the side of the Sun-Ring. A grey catacomb filled with underground tunnels for dark deeds and above-ground cells for the remaining residents. Aloy shuddered to think about the implications of the prisoners within its walls – forced to watch every battle in the arena before they were sent to their own deaths.  The building was eerily quiet despite the obvious signs of life within. The people inside were fearful. Grim. Awaiting their fate.    

As they approached the cells, a single soldier stood posted by the western entrance, and Aloy found that Janeva was every bit the character Avad had mentioned. Serious, authoritative, and candid to a fault, Janeva made their feelings about this endeavour known before they even bothered with a ‘hello’.  

“If you get killed tonight: I’m going to resurrect you—and kill you again, Avad,” Janeva said sternly, by way of greeting.  

“Always such a joy to catch up with you, Janeva,” Avad replied smoothly, pulling his rather reluctant friend into a hug. Janeva didn’t seem too perturbed by the contact, though Aloy suspected Avad was the only person on earth permitted into their personal bubble. “How have you been?”

“How do you think?” they replied with a scoff. “This place is brimming with ‘dissenters’ now, and I’m running out of space to keep them all contained safely. Your brother and cousin were awfully popular.”  

“I just hope I can do them justice,” Avad whispered, mostly to himself.

“You’re already honouring them,” Ersa interrupted sharply. “Look how far you’ve come."  

Janeva regarded Ersa with an analytical gaze. The two would have heard of one another through the grapevine, but had never been on the same side of the battlefield before today.  

Ersa stared back at the warden haughtily, until Janeva nodded with a smirk, apparently liking what they saw in her. “I couldn’t agree more with your new friend here. You’ve set the wheels in motion for big changes—as long as you make it out of this in one piece, I’d be happy to follow you.”  

Janeva nodded in Ersa’s direction. “Both of you,” they added thoughtfully, looking between the two. Aloy didn’t miss the shy, relieved smile that crossed Avad’s face. He and Janeva obviously cared deeply about one another’s approval.    

Aloy called the pleasantries to a halt,anxious for news on her sister. “Where do we go from here?” she asked the warden directly. “We’re looking for Dervahl, but also a younger girl who looks like me.”  

Janeva was hardly an empath, and their response was cool and direct. “Bad news on both fronts, I’m afraid. Dervahl has an audience with our fearless monarch, this evening. He was taken for interrogation a few hours ago. The girl has been moved on.”  

“What do you mean ‘moved on’?”      

“She was here with a delegation from God-knows-where. Apparently, this group had first dibs on Dervahl, and Jiran had to cut a deal in order to keep him here,” Janeva explained, nose scrunched in disgust. “Something to do with cure research – a pipe dream, if you ask me – the group took the girl and went on their way this morning.”    

Aloy’s entire body felt cold, numb, and worn threadbare. Beta had passed through here, just a short time ago. Again, she found herself so close to reuniting their little family, only to have her sister snatched away.  

Effortlessly attuned to Aloy’s frustration, Erend spoke up next. “Did they say where they were taking her? Any word on where they might be going?”  

When Janeva shook their head with a grimace, Aloy stepped forward with trembling hands. “No. That’s not good enough. Take me to where she was staying,” she said determinedly. If Beta had sent them here, it was for good reason.  

Janeva looked to Avad. “Who is this kid?”

“Do as she says,” was all the answer Avad provided. Janeva shrugged, and with a final warning look in Avad’s direction, gestured for them to follow.  

They hadn’t travelled more than a few steps when Aloy looked back with confusion. Avad remained still, hovering behind the group and looking up, eastward, toward the colossal tower that Jiran had fashioned in his own honour. A monolith in the distance, holding both of their targets.  

Janeva read Avad’s mind before their friend could speak and clapped a frustrated hand on the prince’s shoulder, trying to pull him along. “ No you don’t .”  

So, he was planning to leave. To take on Jiran and Dervahl here and now. Aloy couldn’t blame him for wanting to try – it was a rare and terribly wasted opportunity to catch the two warmongers in the same location. But to take on Jiran’s guard in such small numbers was suicide.  

Ersa caught on next, rounding on the pair with a determined look in her eye. Without a single word from Avad, she was on board with his plan. “We could—”

“No, you fucking couldn’t,” Erend cried, aghast. “You’ll be killed before you reach the rooms.”  

“You know that I’m quick,” Ersa retorted. “And smart. And Avad knows this city like nobody else.”  

When Erend merely glared at her, Ersa stood firm, unwavering and strong.  

From the look on his face, Avad was right there with her. “This could be our once chance to take them both out. To put a stop to all of this, tonight,” he pressed.  

Janeva rolled their eyes, shaking Avad’s shoulder a little. “And I suppose you’ll be the one to do it? Avad, you’ve never so much as hurt a fly – how do you plan on killing your own kin?”  

Aloy found herself awash with frustration. She understood the opportunity that Ersa and Avad faced in this moment, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. This wasn’t her fight, or her war. She was here for one reason only, and that reason had left hours before they arrived. Assassination attempt or no, Aloy had had enough – fuck the politics – she was heading to Beta’s old cell now, even if it killed her. Without a farewell, she made to walk away from the group with a frown.  

Ersa’s snap decision stopped her in her tracks.

“Erend, Janeva – go with Aloy. Avad and I will go into the tower quietly and do what we can.”

“You could be killed,” Erend bit back, his voice strained with worry.

“Or we could end the war tonight. The risk is worth the reward, Erend,” Ersa pleaded.

Erend was petrified for his sister. She had made some ugly choices to lead her to this moment – and putting an end to this chapter in their lives could separate the two forever. Was this about principle? About putting an end to bloodshed – or was it her personal vendetta against Dervahl that drove Ersa to this?  

The charged silence that sat between them all broke suddenly, with the tinny ‘beep’ of a wristwatch. An alarm.

“Twenty-four hours,” Aloy said quietly, a little surprised. “You were timing me.”  

Ersa locked eyes with Aloy and a silent understanding passed between the two of them.  

“So, you are immune. I believe you, now,” Ersa said firmly. “You’re going to be okay. And you’re going to take good care of Erend, no matter what happens next.”  

Aloy nodded, solemn. There was no changing Ersa’s mind. And before Erend could protest any further, the group separated – Ersa and Avad slipping into the shadows and making their way eastward toward the tower in the distance.  

“Fuck,” Erend breathed, equal parts angry and terrified. “ Fuck . Why does she have to be like this? Why does this have to be her fight?”

“Come on,” Aloy said, her heart clenched in sympathy for her friend. She pulled at his jacket sleeve gently. “We’ll see her soon.”

Beta’s cell was fucking barren.  

Aloy wasn’t entirely sure if all of Beta’s belongings had been taken from her in the abduction or if her captors were simply too good at cleaning up behind themselves – but there was nothing at all to be found in the simple lodgings where her sister had been held.  

Janeva watched Aloy examine the room from the doorway, arms folded across their chest. If they felt any sympathy, they didn’t express it – only watched with an aloof curiosity as Aloy tore the cell apart, searching for any kind of clue.  

“What did Ersa mean?” Janeva asked cautiously. “When she said you were immune?”

Aloy paid the warden no mind, dropping to her hands and knees to examine the floor and the space under the bed in Beta’s cell.  

Erend glanced in Janeva’s direction, wary. “It means exactly what it says on the box. I watched Aloy get bit and live to tell the tale."

Janeva hummed, and with no small amount of scepticism to their tone, they said, “That’s mighty impressive. Maybe there was some weight to the girl’s cure research, then.”  

“Immunity and cure aren’t the same thing,” Aloy snapped, bereft of any remaining patience. “Did Beta go anywhere else in Meridian during her stay here?”  

“I only look after the prisons,” Janeva said drily. “But there are research labs, two blocks from here.”  

Labs. Of course . Aloy pushed herself back to a standing position and strode toward the warden with a fire in her gaze. She balked, annoyed, when Janeva refused to move from the cell doorway. What were they waiting for?  

“Lead the way,” Aloy commanded.

“We can’t go there.”  

“Why the hell not? You’ve already led us halfway through the eastern side of the city by now,” Erend barked, eager to get this detour over with and return to his sister. “What difference does it make if you show us to the labs as well?”  

Janeva shifted their weight uncomfortably, stoic expression slipping just a little.“Helis is there.”  

“Who the fuck is Helis—” Erend began.

“We’re going there,” Aloy interrupted decisively. “I don’t care who or what stands in my way.”

“You don’t understand,” Janeva said, holding firm. “He’s… he’s infected . An old guard of Jiran’s who got bit. They keep him locked up for the fights and by night, he’s left to guard the labs.”  

Aloy recoiled – a Creature, kept within the walls of the city like a rabid guard dog. What was Jiran thinking? Still, she had turned Beta’s cell upside-down in search of any sign of communication from her sister and come up empty-handed. The lab was the only direction they had left. Behind them, Jiran’s tower stood eerily silent – Avad and Ersa’s arrival had clearly yet to be announced, or they were already done for.  She glared up at Erend and Janeva, desperation rising within her, and stood her ground.

“Take me there. You can turn back if you need to,” Aloy begged.  

“Aloy—” Janeva protested.

“ Now !”  

Janeva glanced over their shoulder, exasperated by the volume of Aloy’s voice. Before they could argue any further, the group was interrupted by a panicked shout from the east. A small fire had been set at the base of the tower, drawing the Kestrel’s attention. In shadow, they could see two figures creeping along the highest balcony.  

Janeva ran a hand through their hair shakily and tossed her a set of keys with a grimace.  

“Avad and your other friend better know what they’re doing,” Janeva sighed. They jerked their head in the direction of the labs. “The girl you’re looking for was working in B-Block. Take the third left. Helis is loose in there, guarding whatever it is your sister was working on.”  

Aloy nodded with a thankful look at Erend as he stood his ground beside her, ready to join her at the labs. “Thank you, Janeva.”  

“I need to do some damage control here,” they huffed, turning their back on the pair. “Be careful—and don’t let that thing out, or I’ll break your fucking arms,” Janeva warned.

“Duly noted,” said Erend with a two-fingered salute as Janeva set toward the tower at a jog.  

The labs were every bit the unearthly picture that Aloy had imagined. Meticulously clean, empty, and devoid of all signs of life in the clear, white halls. Each lab was filled with numerous testing stations, refrigerators, centrifuges, and—disturbingly— cages . It was deadly quiet save for one set of slow, shuffling, heavy footsteps in the corridor of B-block. Aloy and Erend crouched low to the ground, avoiding the lab windows as best they could while they tried to find their destination.  

She felt Helis’ presence before she saw him: a weighted shadow looming over their hiding spot. A rattling breath. An empty, hateful stare out of a wide, sickly face. He was enormous – gigantic shoulders taking up most of Aloy’s field of vision as she glared upwards at the Creature. He hadn’t spotted them through the tinted windows yet, but he seemed able to tell that something was amiss as he sniffed the air curiously.  

Erend shuddered. “Aloy – we can’t take that thing on. Look at the damn size of him.”

She considered her options. All they needed was to look over the lab for any signs of Beta – engaging with Helis wasn’t necessary. A thin grate at the end of the hall caught her eye, and she scanned the room for its partner, inside the walls of the B-block lab. It was in the perfect location, surveying the room from a height just out of Helis’ reach.

“I can get a good look from the air vents,” she declared.  

Erend’s expression was stunned, and then rapidly morphed into fury. “So, you think I’m skinny,” he said, completely deadpan.

“No,” Aloy said, huffing out a laugh despite the gravity of their situation. “Wait here. He can’t get me from the vents – I’ll crawl in, check the labs, easy peasy.”  

“You’re insane if you think I’m going to just let you go in there alone.”  

“We don’t have any other choice, Erend,” Aloy snapped, tugging on his arm insistently. “Come on, give me a boost into the first one.”  

Erend did as he was bid, albeit regretfully, and hoisted Aloy toward the ceiling as though she weighed nothing. She was struck (at the worst possible moment) by Erend’s strength and capability, as he lifted her with ease. Perhaps alone they wouldn’t have been able to handle the threat within the labs, but together … together they could probably handle anything.  

She had just enough room within the vent to wriggle around and face Erend. He was worried sick, but tried to hide it behind a genial smile. “Just get in and out of there without causing any trouble, okay?”

Aloy nodded. “Thank you. I’ll see you in a minute.”  

As she made to turn around again, Erend drew a sharp breath and called for her attention. “Aloy—"

“Hm?” she queried, looking up.  

Erend shuffled his feet uncomfortably, the tips of his ears turning pink. “Just… just be safe, alright. Please?” He steeled himself before looking up into her eyes. “I really care about you.”  

Aloy froze. Erend’s expression was genuine, open, and afraid. He gazed up at her – not as though he was expecting an answer , but as though he was trying with all his might to convey the weight of his words and their meaning with his eyes alone. Unconsciously, she shifted back a little, almost in fear of the response she felt compelled to give him. Against all her better judgement, the feeling was mutual, but —

“Erend I—"  

Behind them the heavy footfalls of Helis could be heard, shifting away from the window and deeper into the lab. The lumbering sounds snapped Aloy back to the present moment. Finding Beta was all that mattered.  

“I don’t have time for this.”  

She turned away before she could see the hurt on his face.  

The vent was a tight squeeze, but Aloy was small and managed the space with ease.  With a few awkward moments of shuffling and wriggling, she reached the second vent, which gave her a clear view of the entire lab.

She scanned the room for any sign of Beta with desperation, her eyes landing on a messy, used workspace to the left.  

That was odd in itself – Beta was meticulously clean and was often irate when shared research spaces were left in disarray. Aloy had been on the receiving end of that rant on more than one occasion – but the notes on the whiteboard were clearly written in Beta’s hand. Her sister’s handwriting was nothing like their mother’s scrawl, but they had one thing in common – a strange, sweet quirk that her mother and sister shared.  

They never capitalised their letter ‘ i ’.  

Aloy squinted, trying to get a better look at the notes on the board. An equation, from what she could tell – with a bit of algebraic nonsense here and there. Aloy was much stronger at the hands-on flavour of engineering, and typically left the math to her baby sister. Still, she was usually able to make heads or tails of Beta’s scientific rambling, and this whiteboard looked like nonsense.

She needed a closer look.

Peeling the vent open with a careful wince, Aloy crept feet-first out of the vent and slipped quietly to the floor, jerking her head upwards and checking for Helis as she landed. The Creature had yet to notice her, shuffling around at the far end of the room.  

Erend, on the other hand, was livid , signing frantically for Aloy to climb back to safety.

She waved a hand dismissively at her friend and mouthed “ it’s fine ,” crawling closer to the whiteboard. Erend, bless him, looked fit to breathe fire clear through the window as he watched her with wild eyes.  

As she reached Beta’s old desk, she noted that the disarray was in fact organised chaos, each ‘discarded’ item pointing to a space in the corner of the workspace. She spotted the note at almost the same time as she spotted Helis moving a little closer. Aloy slipped further into shadow, holding her breath as the monstrous Creature stopped dead in the centre of the room. After an excruciatingly long moment, Helis seemed to shake off his confusion, and stumbled in the opposite direction to Aloy.   

The whiteboard was a red herring, she realised – gibberish designed to make it look like she was working on some formula. What she had written on the board appeared to be a soup recipe, if Aloy wasn’t mistaken, in a shorthand Elisabet Sobeck had developed herself.  The real message was taped underneath the workbench.  

Aloy sank lower, creeping forward one nervous step at a time. In her periphery, she saw that Erend had drawn a handgun and was sneaking toward the lab door on the off chance that Helis spotted her.  

Slowly but surely, she found herself under the desk, peeling at the note Beta had left behind. This was only the second sign of contact from her sister in months, and her heart swelled with the knowledge that Beta had this much faith in Aloy. She knew her sister would be here – albeit a little too late.  

A grunting noise broke her out of her reverie, as Helis rounded the corner nearest to Aloy’s hiding spot. She was out of sight, despite Erend’s audible gasp of terror, and hunkered down to wait it out until the Creature passed by her location.  

His shuffling footsteps seemed to take an eternity – or perhaps it was the fact that Aloy had to endure the smell of Helis that made the interaction feel like a lifetime. He wandered past the desk laboriously – every breath and every step seemed to pain him – and for a moment, Aloy felt a pang of sympathy for the once-human. The disease progressed rapidly at first, but Creatures seemed to be trapped in this perpetual, brainless and painful state for years. He could very well be in agony.  

Her sympathy came to a screeching halt, however, as Helis’ left hand drew level with her eyes.  

A lock of deep auburn hair was clutched in his fist.

He had hurt Beta.

He had hurt her. And someone here had allowed that to happen.  

The next few minutes were a blur of movement, noise and colour, as Aloy lunged blindly from her hiding spot at the Creature and tackled him down to the ground by his monstrous legs. She was faintly aware of Erend’s horrified shout, and a second, animalistic scream as she came crashing to the floor atop Helis, swinging wildly at his face and arms.  

The creature was only startled for a moment, and quickly began wriggling its way out from underneath Aloy’s clutches, tugging at her hair and clothes with fury.  Helis lunged forward, swiping at Aloy’s face, and drawing blood with its nails as Aloy shrieked, pounding her fists into any part of Helis that she could reach.  

He lurched forward, hands slipping against her blood-slickened face, before clutching at the back of Aloy’s head, squeezing her skull tight against the palm of his massive hand, and tugging her downward.  

Distantly, she was aware that Helis was hardly making a sound.  

That the animal scream was coming from her .  

And that she had no way out of his clutches—now that he had her by the head. She felt like she might burst and, far too late, began trying to claw her way backwards out of his grip—  

The panicked rushing in her ears and the rawness of her throat as she roared into Helis’ face were brought to an abrupt halt by three loud CLACKS , one right after the other.  

Helis slumped backward as quickly as he had grabbed her, and his wide, sickly eyes became dim. Unseeing. A thin trail of blood trickled from the smallest hole in the Creature’s forehead, as his hands loosened their grasp on Aloy’s head.  

Behind her, Erend. Gun raised, expression equal parts fraught and furious. In the distance – sirens, shouts, and gunfire .  

They had all been caught.  

She turned to him slowly, collecting herself with ragged, gulping breaths and shaking hands. There were bruises forming down either side of her face where Helis had grasped her and squeezed . Her arms were aching. Her hair was in disarray.  

“Erend,” she started desperately.  

“ No ,” he said firmly. Erend’s expression left no room for argument – he was in no mood to hear her excuses. “ No . We got what we came for. Now, get up and run .”  

As they burst through the B-block doorways and into the night, the acrid smell of smoke reached them first. To the east, Jiran’s tower was almost completely alight, and scattered at the foot of the tower were hundreds of civilians, each vying for a piece of their oppressor. There was no sign of the despot or his prisoner, Dervahl. Nor any signal that Ersa and Avad had made it out of the city alive. They didn’t wait to investigate, instead stumbling back to their meeting point at the edge of the walled city.  

As they passed, the noise from the prison was deafening – innocent and guilty inmates alike shouting – piling against one another for a better view of the chaos unfolding in Jiran’s tower.  Janeva was barking orders at their men, flitting between the cells in a vain attempt to settle their enraged captives as they tried to join the riot unfolding outside. They ran through the grounds, unseen in the mayhem.     

Aloy didn’t think her heart could beat any faster than it was already, but as they reached the meeting point, and found Ersa and Avad, she realised true fear. Erend’s distraught shout ripped clean through her heart as they reached the pair.  

Ersa was covered in blood, almost head-to-toe.  

She was white as a sheet, shivering, and wide-eyed. Her hands bore the worst of the mess, slick and dark and trembling in front of her, as though she didn’t know what to do with them. Down her front – red hand-prints on her shoulders, and a large, dark spill down the centre of her chest.  

Avad was relatively untouched—but pale and stricken. He clung to Ersa’s arm, trying to tug her through the gap in the wall, and begging her to run.  

On the other side, they could hear Petra truck tearing toward them in a car. A second vehicle rolled in behind the first, and Petra, Talanah and Vanasha could be heard shouting for the group to get a move on.

“Ersa! Ersa!” Erend almost wailed. “Talk to me – where are you hurt?!”

“It’s not mine…” she said, so softly that Aloy could barely hear her. “None of it is mine. Jiran is dead.”

Chapter Text

  Petra had snuck two vehicles out of Meridian’s stores with Vanasha’s assistance. She insisted, in a poor and failed attempt to lighten the mood, that her beloved monster truck should not be sullied by the mess that covered both Ersa and Aloy.  

The group bundled through the gap in Meridian’s wall, the way they came in. The moment they realised Ersa wasn’t dying today, Erend grew cold and quiet. “There’s an empty truck stop outside of Brightmarket. We’ll meet there,” he said, his voice rough and low and exhausted.    

Once he had glanced Ersa over for any obvious injuries, he removed himself completely from Aloy and Ersa’s presence, settling into the car ahead of them with Talanah and Vanasha. He was stony-faced as he departed without a word. Ersa was lost for words after dropping her last bombshell, and only watched Erend’s back as he left them. Avad remained glued to Ersa’s side, trying in vain to cover her as she trembled.  

“Judging by your pitiful expression, Aloy, I’d say things didn’t go according to plan,” Petra sighed, waving the first car off. “No Beta?”

“No Beta,” Aloy confirmed, suddenly hyper aware of the skin, dirt and blood under her fingernails. “I found a note, but she’s been hurt. I don’t know—I don’t know—”  

“Car,” Petra interrupted, uncharacteristically gentle as she reached up and arranged Aloy’s wild hair into some kind of order. “We’ll deal with the rest once you’re cleaned up.”  

Ersa barely made a sound as they journeyed to the truck stop. Her eyes were glassy and distant, though Aloy was grateful to see her shivering had stopped. The last thing they needed right now was to stop and treat someone for shock.  

The truck stop they pulled into seemed to be in reasonable working order, though completely abandoned.  

“Hidden gem, this place,” Petra said softly as she pulled up beside the second car. “The showers still work, too, once you get the genny running.”  

The room was deadly silent as Aloy made her way to the showers first—her companions staring at her as though they had never really understood her before today.  

Each cubicle was built large enough to be a small private bathroom. She peeled off her sweat-slicked clothing as the water began to rumble through the pipes—the sound mingling with the hum of the old generator that Petra had started up outside. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real, hot shower—perhaps back in her strange and isolated hometown. Aloy felt like she didn’t deserve the luxury now, after the havoc she had just caused—with Meridian and, she realised with a painful and roiling guilt, with Erend’s heart. What kind of person responds to affection like that?  

Aloy already knew the answer. She had so few friends, and no family besides her sister. Her foster carer had died when she was eighteen—a stray bite from some Kestrel soldier turned Creature. Her mother she had never really known.  How was she supposed to know what to do with friendship? Or more?  

Aloy sighed, a rasping, drained sound escaping her as she tried her best to melt into the hot water pummelling her from above. She gingerly pulled her hair out of its braids, the skin of the healing bite wound at her shoulder pulling and stretching with the movement—the pain had really set in now that the adrenaline had worn off, and her movements were slow and laboured. She managed to rinse off her hair and scrub the worst of the grime from her hands and fingernails before resigning herself to simply standing under the water.  

A click in the bathroom door caught Aloy’s attention just as her eyes began to slip closed under the water. She waited, stock still, until the sounds of Ersa shutting herself into a shower a few cubicles away could be heard. Satisfied there wasn’t a murder afoot, Aloy relaxed once more, and turned her own shower off—best to give the other woman some privacy.  

She had just begun rummaging through her pack for a fresh set of clothes when a quiet sniffle stopped her heart entirely.  

Conscience and concern battled for control of Aloy’s actions. Her inability to gauge social situations screamed at her to abandon the room as quickly as possible and leave Ersa alone with whatever she was going through.  

Her better judgement and worry for her friend, however, reigned supreme.    

“Are… are you alright?"

“What?” (The sounds of someone frantically trying to scrub their face and hide the thickness of their voice). “Yeah— yeah I’m good."

Aloy waited.  

Ersa didn’t elaborate. Except with another pitiful sniff.  

Aloy tilted her head back in a silent groan before shaking herself—she needed to get it together and check on her friend. “You’re not good. Have you ever killed someone before?” she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral. “A human someone, I mean. A non-infected someone.”  

Ersa considered the question for a long time—no sound falling between them but the hum of the generator—before responding curtly, “Yeah. This just—I’m sorry—I’m normally more composed than this. It just brought up a lot of shit.”  

“Understandable,” Aloy replied carefully, trying to gauge the distress in Ersa’s voice. “I’m here if you want to talk about it. I’ve…I have, too. Just so you know. It’s never easy.”

Another pause. Locked away in her own cubicle, Ersa must have realised Aloy couldn’t see her nodding. “Yep. Yeah. Thank you.” Another pause. “Same goes for you, Aloy. Tonight was rough.”

“Thanks,” Aloy said, her face twisted in concern. Before today, Ersa seemed to hold it all together with good humour, sharp wit, and bold choices. She had never seen the other woman so quiet. So disturbed. And so small .  

“We’ll be okay,” Ersa promised, at last.  

Aloy returned to her backpack as she heard the sound of Ersa’s own shower starting, the rusted pipes groaning under the effort of use after a long abandonment.  

“We will,” Aloy agreed as she selected a change of clothes. “Also, this is a really weird conversation to be having naked.”

Ersa’s sudden, bright laughter was the greatest victory Aloy had experienced in weeks.  

Stepping back out into the cafeteria area of the truck stop, Aloy hesitated. It was as though the atmosphere changed immediately as she entered the room. Avad and Erend were speaking in hushed tones a short distance away.

“I tried to—" Avad whispered, “—but she took over – I couldn’t—"

Erend silenced him with a wave of his hand. “I know what she’s like—don’t worry.” He paused. “Thank you for bringing her back in one piece.”  

“I owe her so much more than that,” Avad confessed. Though the bruising across his face had faded, his exhaustion was more apparent than ever.  

Erend seemed to catch on, raising a hand to Avad’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“ No ,” Avad said honestly, but there didn’t seem to be anything further to add. The two fell silent as Aloy cautiously approached. Erend’s iciness from earlier returned in full force, and he offered Aloy nothing more than a curt nod.    

From the other side of the room Petra was eyeing the interactions warily but said nothing. Her card game with Vanasha and Talanah sitting abandoned between the trio as they waited for someone to speak.  

Aloy opened her mouth to say something to the group—they should reconvene in Brightmarket, or at least find out what went down in the tower—but found that no words came. She shrugged helplessly, damp hair clinging to the back of her neck and shoulders, and she simply stood dumbly in the centre of the room.    

Looking clean but drained, Ersa crept into the cafeteria shortly after, dumping her bloodied clothes in the cafeteria bin as she walked toward them. When she reached them, Erend finally deigned to address the pair.  

“Sit.”

He didn’t yell, but his tone was so commanding and so final that Avad almost followed the order as well.  

Ersa raised her chin at Erend defiantly, until she noticed Aloy had simply obeyed. Now wasn’t the time for a pissing contest, and Aloy knew they had really, truly fucked up. Ersa padded across the room to Aloy’s side and, with an exaggerated eye roll, took a seat beside her, arms folded.  

Aloy half-hoped that Erend would shout, curse, throw something. But his voice remained quiet and his body language soft as he sat opposite the women with his elbows on his knees - hands clasped together in front of him, white at the knuckles.  

“You—" he gestured to Aloy “—I was there for that mess. Ersa—what happened?”  

“Avad was there t—"  

“I want to hear it from you.” And here, Aloy’s heart broke almost completely as Erend’s voice cracked, just a little, and he took a deep breath. “Avad tells me that Dervahl got away.”  

“Right,” said Ersa, lips pressing together in a thin line, hands raised in acquiescence. “Okay. He did.”  

“Was he there?” Aloy asked suddenly. Dervahl was their main target, besides Beta. Where had he crept off to now?  

“He’d been evacuated before we got to the tower. I think he got away from the guard after that,” Avad explained. “We never saw him. We just heard talk of ‘the prisoner’ being moved on.”  

“Anyway, when we reached the tower, it was just Jiran—almost like he was waiting for us,” Ersa added, a faraway look in her eyes. “I’m sure you can gather the rest.”

“Enlighten me,” Erend requested. “Just so I know we’re all on the same page.”

This gave Ersa pause. She glanced between her brother and friends in the closest approximation to nervousness that Aloy had ever seen on Ersa’s face. Eventually, she took a deep breath and opted for a neutral answer.

“Jiran was killed.”

“Excellent use of the passive voice, Ersa,” Avad said drily, though his voice was gentle. “Ersa did what I couldn’t manage to do. I’m sorry I put you in that position.”  

“I’m not,” Ersa said firmly, locking eyes with Avad. “I’ve done it before. I knew I could do it again.”

At this comment, Aloy glanced quizzically at Erend, who shook his head and didn’t elaborate.

“It should have been my responsibility,” Avad protested. “It was my fight, and I—"  

“It’s a good thing ,” Ersa interrupted him ferociously. “It’s a good thing that you’re gentle. And it doesn’t matter—what’s done is done and we should change the subject. Aloy, did you get any closer to finding your sister?”  

Aloy suddenly recalled the note from earlier, tucked carefully into her backpack. She nodded. “I think so. She was evacuated as well, but someone got their hands on her— hurt her—and I lost control … a little.”  

“Understandable,” Ersa said without a trace of irony, eyes flicking toward her own younger sibling.  

Erend looked down at his hands, laced together in front of himself, and brought them back to the topic at hand.  

“I almost lost both of you tonight,” he said with a shaking breath, so softly that Aloy could barely hear him, and was certain that Ersa had missed it.  

Ersa didn’t need to hear his voice to see the broken expression on Erend’s face, however, and her unapologetic veneer cracked. She rushed forward and pulled her brother into a tight hug, eyes scrunched against a fresh wave of emotion as she buried her face in his shoulder.  

“Please,” Erend pleaded. “Both of you. Just think before you do shit like this.”    

“I’m sorry.”

“I am as well,” Aloy added, abashed. “I lost control. It won’t happen again."

Erend’s mood lightened almost immediately, and he chuckled, lifting his arms to tug Ersa closer until she was struggling against his grip with a laugh. “An apology from both of you ! Will wonders never cease?”  

“I’m not sorry for getting the job done,” Ersa explained firmly, though her hands were still curled in the sleeve of Erend’s jacket. “We had an opportunity to deal with Jiran and I took it. Dervahl is a problem – but maybe now Meridian can be run by someone with two brain cells to knock together and a little less… despotic fervour .”  

At Erend’s side, Avad bit back a sardonic smile. “That’s one way to describe him. But it’s not exactly safe for us to return now.”

“Leave that to me, my friend,” Vanasha called cheerfully from across the room. “I’ll have the people rallied to their new leader in no time.”  

“Thank you, Vanasha.”  

Tension broken, they settled into the common area to rest. There was enough fuel left in the generators for everyone to have a warm shower and a cooked meal. Once they had all been cleaned, comforted and fed, Aloy felt a little closer to human, and the group set their plans for their next venture.  

It was agreed that everyone should reconvene at Brightmarket to report back to Petra’s men as well as to Varl and Zo. Aloy was especially keen on this idea, hoping to reach out to Sylens in person once more and see if he had made any headway establishing a more secure connection with Beta.    

As they laid out their bedding for the night (all sleeping in a huddle in the cafeteria), Aloy felt the pain and ache in her shoulders return as she tried in vain to pull her clean hair back into submission. The bite wound was healing well, but the skin was raised and badly bruised, and she could hardly lift her right arm high enough to arrange her long hair into a simple braid.  

The long, auburn waves were impractical, given their environment, but Aloy couldn’t bring herself to part from them. Aloy, her mother, and her sister were almost identical in every way, and her long hair was the one thing that set her apart from the others in appearance.  

When she was injured, though, her hair was a nightmare.  

It was too painful and too awkward to keep going. Aloy tugged the worst of the knots out with one hand and resigned herself to try braiding it again in the morning.  

“Need a hand?”  

Aloy looked up at the offer. Erend was watching her calmly from his own bedroll, one hand outstretched. She glanced around the room, finding the rest of the group asleep or otherwise occupied, and cautiously handed Erend her comb.  

Erend crawled over and settled on the bedroll behind her, gently parting her hair in the middle. Aloy shivered as his hands raked through the tresses and gently brushed against her shoulders. The touch wasn’t unwelcome, but it was very odd. Nobody had offered to do this for her since she was old enough to hold her own brush.  

“How—"  

“Ersa had really, really long hair when we were kids,” Erend explained with a chuckle, starting the comb at the bottom and gently picking out a knot that Aloy had missed. “Like down to her butt. And she was always getting hurt—dislocated shoulders, cuts and bruises—once she broke both elbows at the same time.”  

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. She’s an idiot,” Erend said, but Aloy could hear the smile in his voice. “I got pretty used to looking after her hair. At least, until she got sick of being coddled and shaved her head completely bald.”  

Aloy looked appraisingly over at Ersa. She had tucked herself into the far corner of the room, away from the rest of the group and was fast asleep. Only her signature dark brown pixie cut could be seen above the sleeping bag that engulfed her. “I can imagine that.”  

“I think she didn’t want me to feel like I had to keep helping her,” Erend confessed. “But I didn’t mind. I didn’t—I don’t —expect anything in return.”  

Such a sweet, vulnerable thing to say. The guilt at dismissing Erend so cruelly began to eat at Aloy’s conscience once more, as he neatly separated her hair into three parts, and began linking them together into a simple plait. She had meant what she said—it wasn’t a dismissal or a rejection—but Aloy simply didn’t have time to consider a future with anyone, not while Beta remained missing.  

And Erend—  

Erend…  

“Everyone should be so lucky to have someone in their life like you,” she said softly, as he finished tying off her braid, sweeping it over her uninjured shoulder. “I’m sorry that I—”  

“Hey!” Erend interrupted, voice gentle. “I meant what I said. I don’t expect anything in return.”

“It’s not that I don’t feel the same,” Aloy blurted. “I just…”  

Erend looked down at her, his eyes and heart wide open—curious but undemanding—waiting for her to collect her thoughts.    

“How could I begin to deserve you?” Aloy asked, more to herself than Erend.

To his credit, Erend tried his best to hide the incredulous look that passed over his face. He bit his lip to try and contain his amusement that Aloy , of all people, could think she wasn’t deserving of affection, and handed her comb back.

“You’re right, Aloy. It’s not the right time.”  

She nodded. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from happiness. That’s what I was—very badly— trying to say.”

“In fairness to you, my timing was awful,” Erend replied with a grin. “And I can wait. I’m happy already.”

Nothing could have prepared Aloy for the state of Brightmarket.  

The first thing she noticed was the watchtower—crumpled on the ground like a piece of paper, ripped clean from its pages. Bodies littered the ground around it as though the guards of the tower hadn’t had any time to escape.  

The second thing Aloy noticed was the screams . Hundreds of people in distress, racing toward the settlement exits, calling for friends and family, fighting, crying, and clamouring for safety as they were overrun with Creatures pouring into Brightmarket from all sides.    

The gates were broken. The watchtowers down. The guard posts were aflame.  

Brightmarket had fallen in less than a day.  

It was an overcrowded settlement, and once the first watchtower had fallen, the rest of the village was swift to follow.  

The group stared in horror as they pulled up at the gates of the settlement. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.  

“Free Heap,” Petra gasped, a gut-punch fear lacing her voice. She ripped the parking brake of her truck upwards, hard, and was out the door before the vehicle had come to a complete stop. To their left, Vanasha braked their second vehicle with equal force.  

“Keep her ass alive!” Ersa shouted after Vanasha, who saluted the group with two fingers, and took off after Petra at a jog. Talanah followed suit, calling after the pair.  

Aloy tumbled out of the truck next, almost losing her balance as she hit the ground running.    

Smoke assaulted her vision and her lungs as they tore toward the office building where their group had last met. Aloy’s own safety was forgotten, and the only thing on her mind was a mounting terror:  

Varl and Zo were in there somewhere .  

She leapt over rubble, dodged clamouring villagers as they ran past her in the opposite direction, and set toward the office building at a hard sprint. The rest of the group were close on her heels, pushing through the crowd and clearing the Creatures out of Aloy’s path as she ran.  

“Aloy!”  

A shout of grief tore its way out of Aloy as they reached the building.  

“No—no, no, no.”  

“ Aloy ! Get back !”  

There was nothing left but smoke and rubble, and no sign of their friends. From what she could see, the makeshift hotel was the first building to be assaulted by the Creatures which had been unleashed on Brightmarket—and the village had responded with explosives.  

Before her, the ceiling of the tower collapsed with an almighty crash.  

“ Fuck !”  

“ Aloy, can you hear me? Get back! There’s nobody in there !”  

Aloy froze. She had forgotten her earpiece in the frenzy of the last two days. She pressed a shaking hand to it now. “Varl? Varl ?!”  

“We got out—all of us!” Varl’s voice was a beacon of hope in the chaos, and the relief made Aloy fall to her knees in the rubble. “Get to Free Heap as fast as you can!”  

Ersa, Erend, and Avad reached Aloy’s side, gasping for breath and tugging at her, lifting her back to her feet.  

“I heard him,” Erend said, awash with relief. “Let’s get going.”

The group made for Free Heap at a breakneck speed, tumbling through the doorway of the bar as Varl and Petra frantically waved at them from the doorway.  

The bar, which acted as a front for Free Heap’s lower floors, had been all but levelled—with stray shards of glass littering the ground and massive holes blasted through its walls—the bunker door to the black market stood unharmed, and half-ajar, waiting for the runners to file through.  

Coughing, out of breath and shaking from shock, the new arrivals fell to their hands and knees the moment they crossed the threshold to Free Heap, with Petra hurling the bunker door shut and locking it behind them.  

“What the hell happened?” Aloy demanded from the ground. “It looks like a war-zone out there!”  

Varl shrugged, alarmed but unharmed. “We haven’t pieced it all together yet, but rumour has it the attack was triggered about the same time as all the fuss in Meridian kicked off.”  

At this news, Petra’s head jerked upwards in surprise, and she levelled the four causes of Meridian’s “fuss” with a hard stare. Her face, usually streaked with car grease, was covered in soot from the fires above. She was livid .  

“This—" Petra said, with the airs of someone barely holding their anger at bay “—is why we were supposed to keep things quiet . How many people are hurt because we sent a great big fucking ‘go to war with me’ message to the Kestrels today?”  

“Surprisingly, very few,” Varl said, trying his utmost to disarm Petra’s anger, and the way that Ersa and Aloy visibly bristled in response. “We have Sylens to thank for that. Well, Sylens and Beta.”

At this, the tension in the group immediately evaporated. Aloy’s eyes widened, and she grasped Varl’s arm with excitement, despite her earlier shock. “Beta’s here?”  

“Not quite,” Varl said apologetically. “I’m sorry to get your hopes up. She managed to establish a more secure line of communication with Sylens, and she gave us the heads up that the attack was coming. She saved almost everyone in Brightmarket. Come on—see for yourselves.”  

As they made their way into the bunkers below, Aloy saw dozens—maybe hundreds– of people from Brightmarket huddled into the stores, containers, and clubs of Free Heap. Around them, they could hear cries of distress and confusion: children calling for parents, and families arguing amongst themselves as they tried to carve out space to rest in their new sanctuary.  

Free Heap’s residents were a rough sort, unused to accommodating more delicate individuals in their midst, and while they were doing their best to provide for the residents of Brightmarket in their time of need (under the strict orders of Petra and her men), tensions were clearly rising. A few merchants had closed their doors entirely, unwilling to risk an infected person amongst the hundreds of healthy refugees.  

Aloy’s worry grew as she realised that surely some infected must have been missed amongst the chaos. When she raised this concern with Varl, however, her friend only shrugged and explained. “Sylens and Zo have it covered, apparently.”  

She wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but it would do until she’d had an opportunity to speak with the parties in question, and with her sister.

Varl led them to a wide area in the first level hall of Free Heap. It was labelled with a haphazardly thrown-together sign that read “INTAKE”. The remaining floors of the settlement stood behind, blocked off and heavily guarded by volunteers. While the people queueing through the intake area were visibly distressed, the crowd was orderly and happily complying with the required checks that would allow them to enter the lower levels of Free Heap.  

For all his attitude, Sylens had done a remarkable job saving the lives of Brightmarket’s residents with relatively short notice, and Aloy couldn’t help the impressed hum that escaped her.  The rest of the group seemed to concur, shuffling into the intake lines to await their turns.  

With a fearful jolt, it was then that Aloy remembered the healing wound on her neck— unmistakably a bite— and she wheeled around to look at Varl. “I can’t go through this line. My wound—"

“Ah, right,” Varl said, and while his wariness at her recently-bitten status was visible, he did a remarkable job of covering his surprise and confusion at Aloy’s immunity. “Sylens filled us in about your… uh. I’ll sneak you in.”  

They slipped down a side alley, Aloy waving with one hand to Erend and Ersa, indicating that she would meet them on the other side of the intake line. Erend waved back as Ersa and Avad tried their best to obfuscate Avad’s recognisable features by mussing his hair and ensuring he was covered with just enough grime from the chaos outside. The crowd around them barely seemed to notice the fuss, exhausted and afraid.     

Varl and Aloy found themselves alone, in the back alleys of the first floor, creeping through service areas and side streets to their destination. When he was sure he wouldn’t be overheard, Varl rounded on her, his brows knitted together with worry and hurt. “Aloy, why didn’t you ever tell me that you were—"  

“That I was what ? Immune ?” Aloy replied curtly, suddenly defensive. She hadn’t told anyone about her immunity, or her sister’s. Not just for their own safety, but for her peace of mind. Aloy wasn’t some marvel to be put in a lab and examined. She was a person , and as far as she knew, nobody was able to replicate the immunity. “A freak? Something to be locked up and experimented on? A false hope for the rest of humanity? I couldn’t imagine why.”  

Varl raised his hands between them in a placating gesture. “I’ll sneak you into Sylens’ rooms, don’t worry. I just thought we were close enough to share a big secret like this.”

“We are close,” Aloy protested, the tension falling from her shoulders. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to look at me any differently. Besides, I have no idea how any of it works. As far as we know, it’s just a freak genetic mutation and nothing more.”  

Varl’s concern only seemed to grow with Aloy’s words. “I’ll do what I can to protect you from being found out, then,” he promised. “Just… quit hiding things from me. First your sister, now this .”

“I hear you,” Aloy replied softly. The weight of the last few weeks seemed to fall upon her with a vengeance at the sound of Varl’s distress. She could handle Creature attacks, tyrants, and the odd crying Ersa—but to disappoint her best friend? Unthinkable.  

“I screwed up out there, Varl,” Aloy said, her voice choked. “I feel like I’m unravelling. I need her back.”  

Varl looked her over, expression softening. “Hey—come here.”

“What?”

“I’m going to give you a hug.”  

“Oh—uh.”

“Aloy,” Varl commanded, arms encircling her slowly. “Hug me back.”  

Stiff as a board, Aloy couldn’t help the snort that escaped her. “No, thank you.”  

“This is happening,” Varl said, undeterred.

“This is torture. I think I’ll go back outside and face the zombies again.”  

“Could you just let someone love you, for once ?”

Sylens was the most animated Aloy had ever seen him as she entered his workshop with a sheepish expression. Before she had fully crossed the threshold, Sylens was upon her—verbally, at least—he wouldn’t sully his hands by touching another person, even in anger.  

“Before you say anything,” she began, as Sylens strode toward her with intention, his expression livid. “I know. I know .”  

“I don’t think you do , Aloy.”  

Varl took a cautious, protective step between the two as Sylens advanced and raised his hands between the pair. “Everyone got out alive. Jiran has been… deposed … and Aloy has another message from Beta.”  

“You may as well have lit a beacon for their attention, Aloy.”  

“We don’t even know who they are!” Aloy struck back. “How was I supposed to know how they would retaliate?”

“That’s precisely why we had agreed to exercise caution ,” Sylens hissed, crowding into her space in his frustration. Were it not for her own irritation at Sylens’ arrogance, she would understand where he was coming from. Meridian was a disaster and it was primarily her (and Ersa’s) fault. “You’re fortunate that your sister has considerably more sense than you. She was able to warn us of the attack before anyone was badly hurt.”  

Aloy took a deep breath, collecting herself, Beta had been one step ahead of them all, again. “She reached out to you?”  

To her surprise, Sylens’ anger dissipated somewhat as well. He nodded curtly, and indicated a radio set up which had since been attached to his laptop. “She has established a secure line of communication with us and reaches out when she’s able. Unfortunately, the timing of her calls is… unpredictable.”  

Varl nodded solemnly and finally relaxed, stepping away from his position between the pair. “Whenever she gets a free minute away from her captors, she talks to us, Aloy. She’s alive—I know someone hurt her in Meridian, but—"  

Aloy’s blood boiled as she recalled the handful of red hair caught in Helis’ hand, and her own hands curled into fists as she tried to push down the fresh wave of anger that overcame her. Beta may be alive, but she wasn’t well . She wasn’t where she needed to be.  

“They would have been testing her immunity. Those sick fucks .”  

“ I don’t much appreciate being referred to in such an ugly manner, ” a crackling voice interrupted the trio – rasping through the radio set up behind Sylens. “ Seeing as I’m only trying to help. What would your mother think, Aloy? ”  

Aloy whipped around at the sound of the strange voice through the speakers. It was distressingly familiar – and her whole body ran cold the moment that recognition reached her. The woman from the Proving Labs – the voice that draw the horde of Creatures to Aloy, and almost had her killed. One of the people that currently held her sister captive.  

Aloy could hardly breathe as she stepped slowly toward the source of the voice. “What do you want from us?”  

The radio didn’t answer her—not directly. “ Apologies ,” she said, her voice was a smooth alto – appealing, in a strange way. She sounded softly spoken and very articulate, and despite herself, Aloy was drawn toward the cadence of the strange woman’s words. “ For my colleagues’ terrible attack on Brightmarket. I tried to stop them from causing so much harm. I’m just grateful I was able to give Beta a moment alone with this…device…in order to get the word to you. Erik and Gerard were terribly unhappy that your friend severed their strongest connection with Meridian and felt the need to take it out on your base of operations. It was a petty revenge, and I told them as much. ”  

“Wonderful to hear your voice again, Tilda,” Sylens said, his voice dripping with sarcasm – likely in an effort to hide his surprise. “And more wonderful to hear that we’ve interrupted your plans for Meridian.”  

“ Come now, Sylens. We both know that’s not true, ” the radio replied drily. “ Your attitude is uncouth and does us both a disservice .”  

“I rather think it’s more uncouth to be keeping a young girl captive against her will,” Sylens retorted.  

“ Interesting – have you grown a conscience in the last fifteen years or are you simply annoyed that you don't have this resource all to yourself? "    

When Sylens neglected to reply any further, face tight with irritation, it struck Aloy at once that the two were known to each other. Tilda was the name she had previously forgotten.  

The fourth survivor of the bombing at Thunder’s Drum.  

Aloy stepped forward cautiously. The bite wound at the junction of her neck throbbed angrily as her blood raced. "You said that you tried to help Beta stop this attack on Brightmarket?”

“That’s correct, Aloy. Believe it or not, I do want what’s best for you. For Beta and for the rest of humanity. Again, I’m deeply sorry for Erik and Gerard’s poor behaviour.” 

“You knew my mother,” Aloy said. It was less a question and more an accusation.  

“ I did. Quite well. ” She wasn’t sure, but Aloy thought the stranger’s – Tilda’s – tone sounded almost wistful. “ She would be proud of the research you’ve obtained on your own. But perhaps I can help build on your achievements. ”  

“What do you mean?”  

“ I’m inviting you to see the origins of this —" Tilda paused, clearly stopping herself from referring to the Creatures as a disease. “— condition for yourself. ”  

Aloy shook her head, as though she had forgotten who she was speaking to. Her hands curled into fists once more as she stepped backwards, away from the radio. “I want to speak to my sister.”  

“ Your sister has already left you a message. Check the note she left for you, Aloy, and you’ll find coordinates. I strongly suggest that you follow them. ”

Chapter Text

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Ersa cried, advancing on Aloy with the airs of someone fully prepared to strangle their friend to death.  

Aloy flinched a little when Ersa actually did raise a hand in her direction and felt silly as Ersa simply ruffled her own hair in distress. She clutched Beta’s note in front of her between both hands, a comforting gesture—the presence of her sister held safely to her chest.  

“The note—"  

“ Fuck the note,” Ersa barked. “This is obviously a set up!”  

The group had reconvened in Sylens’ labs after Aloy and Varl had successfully skirted the quarantine lines, and Avad had crept in under just a few suspicious glances. The room was crowded, with Ersa and Aloy bickering in the centre of the lab while the rest of their crew stuck to the sidelines, not eager to stand between one hurricane of a woman and another.  

Erend, Zo, Avad, and Varl made up the far wall of the room, leaning against Sylens’ workbench and watching the exchange with the wisdom of four people that had plenty of experience trying to argue with the pair in the middle of the room.  

Ersa paced the room, toward Petra, Talanah, and Vanasha who stood awkwardly in the opposite doorway, trying as hard as the other four to keep themselves out of the debate. “Isn’t there more sensible work we could be doing here?”  

“Oh, certainly,” Vanasha replied with a sly, amused smile, “This faction that keeps Aloy’s sister captive has closed ranks with the remaining Kestrels from Jiran’s army. We need to convert a few more people from Meridian and Free Heap to our side.”  

“Perfect!” Ersa exclaimed with a wild gesture in Aloy’s direction, “A goal that isn’t a suicide mission. Where do we start?”  

To her credit, Vanasha was one of the few people on earth that didn’t cringe when they told Ersa ‘no’. “Espionage and politics are my field of expertise. I love your style, Ersa, but you have all the social graces of a wildcat who’s just been told to take a bath. It’s best if I go quietly back to Meridian on my own—or at least, with a small group,” she said quickly, glancing in Petra’s direction. “And start using my womanly wiles to collect some new allies.”  

“That might work on the Carja, but if you start batting your eyelashes at an Oseram faction in these parts they’re just going to kick you out,” Ersa retorted, shaken from her rage.  

“That’s—um—why I’m going with her,” Petra interrupted awkwardly.  

“Oh,” Ersa said, understanding dawning on her face. She didn’t seem angry, per se, more surprised and deflated at the sudden loss of Petra’s companionship. “Okay.”  

“Vanasha will have things under control in no time,” Avad assured Ersa with a gentle tone. “In the interim, there’s nothing for us to do but follow the coordinates on this note.”       

Sylens’ disdain for his situation was palpable. He despised being responsible for so many people. He had helped Zo and Varl orchestrate the evacuation of Brightmarket, and now he had inadvertently earned himself a reputation as some kind of hero when he really wanted nothing more than to be alone.  

The mention of the note was where Sylens seemed to see his opportunity to remove this large and noisy group from his (proverbial) hair.  He stepped forward, earning a frankly terrifying glare from Ersa, and interrupted their argument.  

“The intel is good,” Sylens began. “Aloy is adamant this handwriting is her sister’s, and it appears to be in a code that only a few people understand.”  

Ersa rounded on Sylens and fixed him with a sneering look. “And I’m supposed to take your word for it? I barely even know you.”  

Sylens regarded her quizzically for a moment. “I was under the impression that Aloy had given all of her companions a headset. Haven’t you been listening?”  

At this, Ersa became suddenly uncomfortable, gaze flicking back toward her brother for salvation as she mumbled, “Sometimes.”  

Aloy’s heart clenched as she realised how difficult it must be for Ersa and her poor hearing to follow any conversation through the headset. Erend must have been secretly filling her in on Sylens’ messages as they travelled.  

Aloy opened her mouth to make up some excuse for her friend, but Sylens was sharp as a tack, and intolerant of social graces. His brows creased, and he tilted his head in Ersa’s direction as acknowledgement. “I’ll make some adjustments to your headset before you leave,” he said bluntly. “You’re one of the only people here with half an intellect – it won’t do to leave you in ignorance.”  

Ersa frowned, caught somewhere between humiliation and gratefulness. “We won’t be leaving anytime soon because I’m not letting Aloy walk directly into a trap .”

“It’s not a trap,” Aloy insisted. “It’s a message from my sister."

“If I left you a note like this, you’d follow,” Erend informed Ersa.  

“I remember homeschooling you,” Ersa bit back with a dry tone. “If you left me a code that was this complex, I’d know for certain it wasn’t you.”  

Erend’s lips quirked upwards in amusement at the affectionate jibe. “So, it’s decided.”  

“Excellent,” Sylens said, clapping his hands together eagerly. "I’ll make some upgrades to your headsets tonight. You can all leave. I’ll have these back to you in the morning.”  

Aloy scoffed. “We don’t have anywhere to st—”  

“I cannot begin, Aloy , to explain how far beyond the reaches of my concern that lies,” Sylens snapped. “Find somewhere else to sleep, all of you.”  

The group reconvened in a food court area on level two of Free Heap. They went to a hot wings place that Petra recommended with her whole heart and soul as an impromptu goodbye dinner for Petra, Talanah and Vanasha as they set off on their next mission.  

Zo plucked at her fries with a wrinkled nose as she watched Aloy, Varl, Talanah, and Erend engage in a loud and chaotic wing-eating competition, though her disgust evaporated into giggles as Talanah emerged victorious and completely unfazed by the spices.  

Aloy, cheeks flushed a delightful pink from the hot food, conceded her defeat by offering Talanah a high-five, which she reciprocated with enthusiasm. “You came a close second, Aloy—I’m impressed !”  

Aloy (cautiously) wiped at her nose with a napkin, oblivious to the suffering of Varl and Erend beside her as she shook her head. “You beat me by a mile! We should do this again sometime!”  

Talanah’s expression split into a delighted grin. “I was just going to say the same thing—okay, this might sound a little over the top—but you’re super cool.”

“I think you’re super cool,” Aloy blurted. “I was too nervous to say anything before.”  

“Oh my god—my god no . I’m anything but cool. Okay, once this fight is over, we’re hanging out at the hunting grounds,” Talanah declared, slapping Aloy across the shoulders. “We have to rectify this mess.”  

Aloy examined her empty plate, suddenly shy— once this fight is over —if it was ever over. She could imagine Beta’s delight in this strange group of friends—in their humour, chaos, and overwhelming support. Aloy’s sister was less blunt and carried less confidence, but she was markedly more open and forgiving than Aloy. She would fall madly in love with her new friends… once this fight is over .    

Talanah caught on to her concern quickly, and squeezed Aloy’s bicep with affection. “We’ll win. Don’t you worry.”  

“Should invite our two buddies from out west,” Petra added, mouth full of chicken. “I think mister tall, dark, and sullen would enjoy the hunting grounds.” She nodded in Talanah’s direction.  

“Oh, he sounds like a dish ,” Vanasha chimed in, the corners of her eyes creasing in amusement as Petra fumbled and dropped the chicken wing she was holding, surprised by the sound of Vanasha’s voice. “He might enjoy the woman running the hunting grounds just as much.”  

Talanah flinched. “I don’t know about—”  

“Baby, nobody said anything about commitment ,” Vanasha interrupted with a wave of her hand. “Just consider putting yourself out there again. It’s staggering to me that anyone would go back to their ex after being with you .”  

Talanah’s shoulders hunched as she visibly deflated. “ Try to go back to their ex, you mean,” she mumbled.  

At this news, Aloy raised her eyebrows, nudging into Talanah with her shoulder. “Need me to kill a guy for you?”  

“You’re a treasure,” Talanah said with a sparkling smile. “But I’m quite alright.”  

Aloy hummed, considering her new friend with affection. “I need to reach out to Kotallo and Alva anyway, now that we’re headed back west. I’ll put in a good word for you,” she teased, delighting in the colour that rose high on Talanah’s cheeks.

Alva was over the moon to hear from Aloy after their hasty departure from the Greenhouse a week prior. A bundle of joy as always, she was audibly bouncing up and down with excitement when Aloy contacted her through the spare headset she’d provided.  

“ I KNEW it! Kotallo, what’d I tell you? She’s immune—immune! Think of the future the world can have, now that we have someone who is immune to the infection! Two someones! We could develop a vaccine – change the ways of the world – maybe we could even cure the infected?! The possibilities are endless – is your headset working, Kotallo? You’re awfully quiet. ”  

Aloy waited with amusement for Kotallo’s voice to crackle into their channel with a blunt “ It’s working. ”  

“Thanks for having my back, Alva,” Aloy said, unable to help the smile crossing her features. “It’s nice to know someone believed me. And my sister.”  

“ Of course—have you found Beta yet?"

“Well,” Aloy said, her voice pitchy as she considered her response. In the end, she elected to tell Alva the whole truth. “Not quite. She left me a note with coordinates. It’s back your way, in the west.”  

“ How far west ?” Alva queried, her tone trepidatious. “ It’s just… we would need to lay some groundwork if— ”  

“It’s right on the island,” Aloy confirmed. “A place called — uh — ‘Thebes’. On the old tourist maps it looks like business center, or something? But I can’t find any other information on it.”  

A pause.  

“ I…Aloy, there’s no way that Beta is there. ”  

Aloy’s brow furrowed. Even so, these were the coordinates her sister had sent. The writing was unmistakably Beta’s. Unless it was another set up. But who would have the skill set to perfectly replicate Beta’s handwriting and code? “What is there, if my sister isn’t there?”  

“ I’d love to tell you, ” Alva sighed. “ We don’t know either. Nobody knows. ”  

At this, Kotallo spoke up for the first time. “ Perhaps Beta and Aloy’s keys have something to do with Thebes. The two of you grow more mysterious by the second, Aloy. ”  

“I try my best,” Aloy replied drily. “We’re about a week or two away from the West Coast — or what’s left of the West Coast — is there any way you can meet us somewhere?”

Aloy could hear the cogs turning in Alva’s mind through the small headset. At length, Alva replied earnestly. “ Of course. I’ll do my best, Aloy. ”  

That was all she could hope for. “Thank you. We’ll see you at the coast in about ten days?” 

“ See you there! ”  

“ Travel safe, ” added Kotallo. “ If your sister has information on Thebes—the two of you are much more important than even you realise. ”

“Well,” Aloy sighed, tapping her headset off, “that was cryptic. And terrifying.”  

“That seems to be Kotallo’s MO,” Erend quipped, hauling his bag into the back of their new truck. “Wonder what happened to his arm?”  

“Ask him directly,” Ersa teased, her rucksack following suit. “Get your ass kicked. C’mon, it’ll be funny .”

Erend chuckled, elbowing Ersa in the ribs. “He doesn’t strike me as the type to start fights. Just finish them.”  

Aloy watched the pair with amusement as she helped Talanah, Petra and Vanasha strap down their own belongings into a second truck. The group were going their separate ways again, once Zo had given them medical clearance and enough food to feed a small army on the road. The three women at her side were now headed back to Meridian and surrounds, to get the lay of the land after Jiran’s departure and stir up support for Avad’s claim to the territory.  

For his part, Avad wanted very little to do with the leadership position, but understood that he had a role to play in the future of the city whether he liked it or not. As it was, it wasn’t safe for him to return to Meridian just yet, and he was joining Aloy, Erend and Ersa on another rushed, mysterious and undeniably dangerous road trip.  ‘Team Meridian’ as the girls had dubbed themselves had expressed concern about Avad on the road, but Ersa had assured them all that he could handle himself under pressure.  

Something had shifted between Ersa and Avad after the fateful night in the tower. Ersa seemed to soften considerably whenever the man was around. He was gentle, reliable, and softly spoken, and his presence seemed to take the edge off her wariness. Aloy got the impression Avad was nothing at all like the men Ersa had grown up surrounded by. For Avad’s presence, Ersa was sweeter with the people around her now, though she still hadn’t extended that newfound kindness inwards, to herself.  

Sylens’ updates to Ersa’s headset meant that she was much more in the loop with everything going on around her. Aloy was still highly suspicious of Sylens’ activities and motives, but she had to admit that she was grateful to see Ersa laughing and joining in the conversation a little more.  

The shift seemed to take an emotional load away from Erend, as well. Though he was always jovial, there was a newfound lightness to him, now that he wasn’t quite so worried about his sister’s wellbeing. The weight off his shoulders was a visible thing that seemed to make him stand taller, smile brighter. And it made that twinkle in his blue, blue eyes all the more captivating.  

Aloy’s heart leapt into her throat as she recalled Erend’s crestfallen expression after her harsh dismissal. She tried to push the tight, crushing sensation of sorrow down. She had only meant to protect him from her chaotic life.  

In the end, he was still by her side, travelling with her. Warm and sweet and caring, he helped Aloy without ever expecting her affections in return. He was kind. He was beautiful.    

And Aloy didn’t have a goddamn clue how to repair what she’d done.    

She pondered this mess of her own creation as they set out toward the West Coast, Erend driving for the first leg and Aloy tucked into the front passenger seat beside him.  

As the cool morning light made way for a bright, hot and glorious midday, Aloy found she couldn’t keep her eyes from Erend for more than a few minutes. He was made for daylight — the sun dusting his cheeks and the tips of his ears a soft pink, his jacket abandoned to reveal a threadbare yellow t-shirt, strong chest giving way to a soft midsection that rose and fell with stifled laughter as Ersa tormented Avad in the back seat with a game of slaps.  

Lunch-time approached (Avad had lost the game by a mile), and the group kept an eye out for a safe rest stop amongst the wilderness.  The rainforest landscapes surrounding Brightmarket and Meridian had once again given way to a drier landscape, and there was little to be found by way of shelter, and few buildings upon which they could gain higher ground if needed.  

Aloy stretched out as best she could in the passenger seat, her legs pressing her upwards against the floor of the car, and tried to swallow a yawn of boredom as they passed by another overrun truck-stop, Creatures shambling around the outside of the building. “There’s gotta be somewhere around here that isn’t completely taken over? I need to get out of this car.”  

“It’s not looking very promising,” Avad agreed, rubbing his sore hands. “Maybe we should pull away from the highway?”  

Erend hummed thoughtfully. “We’re out near the city formerly known as Las Vegas — the tourist area fell hard and fast about fifteen years ago — our buddies taking over the truck-stops are the remnants of people who tried to escape the outbreak that tore through the main strip in the early days.”  

“It must have been horrifying,” Aloy shuddered — she remembered the stories — Vegas was rumoured to have been the target of a deliberate attack, though nobody ever found out the source of the infection, or why Creatures had been planted in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip. Most of the city had worn away under the desert sun and flowing sand, but what remained was a very odd sight indeed — partygoers, impressionists, and artists alike still wearing their original costumes as the infection took them over.    

“Much as I’d like to throw hands with a demonic Elvis impersonator," Ersa said drily, “maybe we should pull over here instead?”  

She pointed in the direction of a reasonably intact building in the distance — very few Creatures seemed to populate the grounds surrounding the structure, which was about the size of a large warehouse. To the left hand side of the warehouse they could see three stout-looking men struggling to mobilise a large, heavy object back toward the door of the building.  

The way they paced around the problem with analytical stares, hands on their hips, and a dark-haired figure in the middle waved in emphatic frustration told Aloy that the group were not infected.  

Insane, perhaps, as they were struggling with machinery, unprotected from the beating desert sun or the roaming Creatures, but they were human as far as she could tell.  

Erend pulled the truck to a halt a respectful distance from the trio, waving genially through the driver’s side window as they watched the vehicle approach with caution.  

The shortest man in the middle dropped his hold on the object (which Aloy realised with surprise was an old pinball machine ), and waved cheerfully at the group. The dark-haired individual from before grasped the other man’s hand and pulled it back down to his side, hissing something about engaging with strangers.  

“We come in peace — and we have our own supplies,” Erend offered cheerfully, waving back at the shorter man. “Whatcha got there?”

The third man spread his arms wide, a broad smile gracing his face as he greeted the group. “A surprise group of newcomers join the narrative as our heroes languish in the desert heat, struggling to manoeuvre their latest investment. The newcomers ask, ‘What do you have there?’ And what better way to answer than with this: a spark of a dream.”  

Ersa guffawed, tapping at the side of her ear. “Did Sylens fuck with my headset or something?”  

“Nope,” Aloy said, equally incredulous. “I think he’s narrating .”  

She looked the group over. Two men in their early to mid thirties, and one older gentleman (the narrator) stared back at them. The dark-haired man had a sharp, critical look to his face and a sour turn to his mouth. He seemed like the sort who was perpetually at his wit’s end. The middle, the shortest of the trio by a hair, had a bright smile and a youthful, open face with gentle expression. Despite his companion’s warnings, he waved again.  

“Hi there! Think you could give us a hand?”

“What? We don’t know these people !”  

“The trio decided to take a chance on the strange newcomers,” the Narrator declared, as the critical one ran a hand through his hair in distress.

“When, Stemmur? When did we decide this?”  

They seemed harmless enough, and Aloy decided to take the lead, offering her hand to the friendly, gentle-looking man in the middle of the group, “I’m Aloy.”

“Morlund,” the stranger replied, shaking her hand with a sweet smile. “And this is Stemmur,” he pointed to the narrator. “And Abadund. What brings you out this way?”  

Cautiously, Aloy dodged the question. “Is that a pinball machine? I’ve never seen one in real life before!”  

“Oh — oh, really? Here!” Morlund’s face shone with excitement. He grasped the hand that he was shaking Aloy’s tighter and tugged her toward the object with a skip in his step.  

Aloy followed with some bemusement, her fingers clutched between Morlund’s as he guided her over the crumbling concrete path leading to the warehouse. As they got closer to the pinball machine, Aloy could hear tinny music, beeps, and rattles inside the building, and tilted her head curiously as Morlund brought her closer with a flourish.      

“It’s in perfect working order — have you ever seen anything so well preserved? I can’t wait to get it inside and get the old girl running! If you’ve never seen one before I’d love for you to do the honours, Aloy.”  

Their fretful companion piped up again. “Oh, so we’re just letting complete strangers into the arcade now?” he asked, eyes fixed with a hard, wide-eyed stare at Aloy’s hand, still held carefully by Morlund’s.  

Aloy snatched her fingers away with an awkward shuffle of her feet, and he seemed to relax just a fraction.  

“That was always the plan, Abadund,” Morlund replied patiently.  

“Sorry—” Erend said, completely taken aback by the exchange, “did you just say arcade ?”  

Abadund opened his mouth, likely to respond with something unfriendly, but was interrupted by the bubbly Morlund bounding over to Erend, grasping his arm, and tugging the complete stranger toward the front doors of the warehouse.  

“Welcome!” he declared, ignoring Abadund’s enraged spluttering in the background, “to Hidden Ember!”  

Stemmur stepped forward and opened the warehouse doors with a bow. Aloy gasped with delight as her eyes adjusted to the dimness, and a gaming arcade unfolded before them.

Old pinball machines, claw machines, games, dance pads, and obstacle courses littered the room in a bright array of colours, music and bright lights. She could barely hear the hum of the generator that powered the building over the jingles from each machine. A bow and arrow first-person shooter caught her eye, along with basketball hoops and a number of raucous gambling-style machines which shone and beeped for her attention.  

Almost everything was in perfect working order, and the sight was absolutely incredible.  

“How the hell did you find this?!” Ersa blurted, a surprised laugh bubbling out of her chest, “And uh – what’s with the claw machine?”  

Aloy turned to the source of Ersa’s confusion — a jumbo claw machine to their right with a very large, very confused Creature stuck inside. The Creature in question appeared to be a particularly slow Bellowback, its face pressed comically against the inside glass of his accidental prison in rage and indignation as it regarded the group. He wore the uniform of arcade staff and a faded nametag bearing the title ‘Tolland’.  

“We um — we can’t figure out how to get him out,” Abadund admitted bashfully.  

“Leave him in there,” Aloy replied. “It’s kinda funny.”  

“It’s a bizarre sort of tomb but perhaps this ‘Tolland’ deserves a clownish end,” Stemmur remarked.  

“By that he means we checked the employee records; and this guy was in charge of rigging the machines,” Morlund said with a shrug. “But enough about that horror show — put your feet up! Explore! Have fun!”  

Brimming with childish excitement, Ersa and Erend didn’t need telling twice as they set off at a sprint towards a set of bumper cars in the back of the building, vaulting over furniture and jeering threats at one another as they ran.  

Aloy giggled and turned to Avad, who was eyeing the room like he’d unexpectedly set foot on another planet. She wondered what sort of dull and oppressive childhood he must have had — the least-favoured charge of a despot — if he was so taken aback by video games and rock music .

“Wanna join them?”

“Will we get hurt?” Avad asked with trepidation.

“Probably,” Aloy shrugged. “I think grievous bodily harm is half the fun.”

Erend may have walked away from their game of bumper cars with a limp and a mild case of whiplash, but he also emerged victorious. Ersa tapped out following a full ten minutes of vehicular assault from her brother. 

Aloy had the sneaking suspicion Erend was going easy on her, but he could have just been completely focused on bullying his sister for entertainment.

The bow and arrow shooter was next, and Aloy left the device with a raucous cheer and high score that dominated all the game’s predecessors, even from before the outbreak.  

Avad proved surprisingly adept at puzzle games and was left holding a distressingly large claw-machine teddy bear that nobody wanted (least of all Ersa). He eventually set the prize upon the cafeteria counter, serving as Abadund’s supervisor at the old cash register. Abadund offered the plushie a curt nod before returning to his efforts to crack open the safe underneath the bench.  

“What are you hoping to find in there?” Avad queried.  

“Maybe a gun, hopefully some cash,” Abadund answered brusquely, disinterested in conversation with strangers.

“What use do you have for cash these days?” Aloy asked, tilting her head in curiosity. “Nobody uses money anymore.”  

Abadund’s sneer was irritated, but after a gentle elbow from Morlund, he relaxed a fraction and supplied. “I’m a coin collector.”

“Gotta have something to keep you busy,” Erend chuckled, scooting behind the cafeteria counter to survey the available beverages. “Do you mind?”  

Morlund cheerfully cried, “Help yourself!” in perfect unison as Abadund’s “We do mind, thank you very much.”  

Erend cheerfully disregarded both, cracking open a beer and tossing one in Avad’s direction, who caught the drink as one might catch a live grenade. When Erend raised his eyebrows in question to the girls, Ersa shook her head, miming that she would take the next shift of driving, and Aloy waved away the offer, her attention already captured by the basketball hoops across the room.  

She felt…on edge, like she needed to keep moving her body, even during this moment of rest. Logically, Aloy knew she couldn’t keep constantly pushing herself to her limits, and that Alva and Kotallo would need a little extra time to set up for their arrival, but it was so difficult to reconcile the ideas of waiting and relaxing .  

Ersa seemed to catch on to her frenetic mood, checking Aloy with a shoulder and setting off in the direction of the hoops. “You boys find something interesting to do — I’m about to dominate Aloy at basketball — c’mon.”  

Ersa seemed equally fidgety as they reached the hoops, oblivious to the raucous shouts of Morlund and Erend debating which music to play over the loudspeakers (they settled on EDM, much to Erend’s very loud chagrin), She punched the ‘VS’ option on two adjacent basketball machines and very deliberately avoided eye contact as they began the game.

A touch taller and more used to weapons of accuracy, Aloy thought she had the advantage, but Ersa was quick, adept, and appeared to be on a mission.  

Midway through the game, she shot a furtive glance in Aloy’s direction, almost throwing Aloy off her rhythm when she asked. “Do you think I should grow my hair out?”  

Aloy missed her next shot. “What?”  

Ersa didn’t quite meet her gaze, her next shot landed perfectly, nothing but net. “I — I just thought — it might look pretty? I guess? Isn’t that what pretty people do? Have long hair?”  

“Why are you asking me this?”

Ersa shrugged. “You’re a pretty people — I mean —person ,” she stammered, still avoiding eye contact. “Was just wondering.”  

Her friend’s discomfort was suddenly very visible, almost palpable. Like she might sprint away if Aloy looked into this conversation too much. Aloy gaped at her. “Is this—” she started with the utmost caution. “Is this about Avad?”  

Ersa seemed to shrink away. “No. I dunno, I’m just spitballing here. Forget I said anything—"  

“—because if it is ,” Aloy continued, still very carefully, “you should know you’re already a pretty people — uh, person . And that he thinks so, too.”    

“You don’t know that.”  

“I know that I have two functional eyes, Ersa,” Aloy continued uncomfortably.

“I’m stupid. This conversation is stupid,” Ersa declared suddenly, stepping away from the machine as her useless arcade tickets poured out. She had won by a mile and yet she looked absolutely crushed. “Forget it. I’m not —enough— I’m being ridiculous.”  

Aloy smirked, placing a hesitant hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m not good at these things,” she admitted. “But take the teddy bear and watch him light up. Or alternatively, just talk to him ?”  

Ersa considered her advice for a moment. “Talk about feelings? That’s literally impossible — wanna go shoot some stuff instead?”

“Absolutely I do.”  

Erend joined them once more for the mirror maze, while Avad was engaged (trapped) in conversation with Stemmur.  

The maze was set up in an adjacent room — right next to a laser tag arena that the group had avoided by silent agreement, as it was far too close to real life. Aloy had thought at first that the maze would be a breeze, but the loud music, flickering lights, and crowded spaces had her heart racing unexpectedly.  

Not to mention the mirrors themselves. A thousand thousand warped versions of her own face, staring back at her. It felt far too much like one of her bad dreams: trapped in a lab, frantic and searching for answers; or in a busy crowd—except the crowd was all Aloy, and every version of her had no idea what to do next.  

By the time they reached the third fork in the maze, Aloy’s chest was heaving, and she was trying to hide the tremor in her hands from the overstimulation.  

Ersa bumped Aloy’s shoulder with her own, her expression jovial. She either missed Aloy’s mild panic or ignored it to help the other woman save face. “You two take the left hall. I’ve got a good feeling about the right. I’ll see you suckers on the other side,” she teased, and set off at a jog, fingers trailing along the mirrored walls.  

It was too loud and too bright. Aloy knew there was nothing they could do but rest for today, but it felt wrong to be having fun. She felt monstrous for relaxing while Beta was still missing, and she closed her eyes against the rush of anger at herself. Every reflection surrounding them felt like an admission of guilt. Aloy clenched her hands tightly into fists and tried to slow her breathing. She should get out of here, solve the riddle quickly, and go back to making herself useful .   

“—look at me instead.”  

Aloy’s eyes snapped open. “Huh?”  

“I said if it’s too much, look at me instead,” Erend offered, rubbing the back of his neck with an abashed smile. “I know that mirrors can be too much. I’m not the greatest view but it’s better than freaking yourself out. I — uh — I get a bit weird about looking at myself sometimes, too.”  

“Why?” Aloy blurted, without thinking, the panic still clawing at her throat. “You’re beautiful.”  

The words tumbled out of her before she could take them back. When Erend’s gaze rose up to her own, a blush creeping high up the back of his neck and right to the tips of his ears, she found she didn’t mind that she’d been caught off-guard.    

“So are you,” he replied with a nervous chuckle. “But I get it — it’s hard to look at yourself with kindness sometimes… after everything.”  

Aloy took a deep breath, steadying herself. It was alright to have a day off. It was alright to return some of the steady joy and sweetness that Erend had offered her without expecting anything in return.  

She reached out with one hand. “C’mon.”

As Erend took her hand the lights changed, startling them both. From the strobes and lasers from before, a constellation of different colours flickered into existence from a large collection of small bulbs behind the glass. Outside, Aloy could hear Morlund let out a muffled “ ooh! ” of excitement as he experimented with the light and sound settings in the maze.  

The view was incredible, a floating, twinkling galaxy of coloured dots that stretched on into infinity. And in the middle of it all was Erend. His hand around hers.   

“Erend, I—”  

A loud crash and Ersa’s muffled “ What the FUCK! ” interrupted whatever Aloy was going to say next. The pair whipped around and ran toward the sound, tracing their steps back to the entrance of the maze.  

Breathless with exertion as she crashed through the door, Aloy thought for a moment she was hallucinating as Ersa stood in the exit doorway of the maze, a few metres away. Ersa had tugged a hidden knife from her boot and was brandishing it at a newcomer who had just arrived in the arcade.  

A newcomer with a tall figure, steely blue eyes and a strangely empty smile.  

“ Nil ?!”

“Dude, you were fucking infected !” Ersa shouted, knife raised between them and eyes wild.  

“Ah. That,” Nil said, entirely unconcerned with the knife near his face. He raised a hand in a casual wave to Aloy. “Long time no see, partner. I heard there was good game in Las Vegas — it shouldn’t surprise me to see you here.”  

Erend tilted his head curiously. Nil the Alleged Ravager seemed clean and well put together, speaking in full sentences and apparently fit as a fiddle. “Did your buddy Nil have a twin?”

Aloy shook her head, expression incredulous. “Uh, no — that’s definitely Nil. And we are not partners—we ran a few hunts together while I was looking for Maker’s End,” she added as an afterthought, frowning in her former travelling partner’s direction.  

“Such a pity,” Nil replied with a twinkle in his eye. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your gathering — I heard all the chaos inside and thought there may have been a hunting opportunity.”    

“Just healthy humans here,” Ersa retorted through gritted teeth. “Including yourself , apparently.’  

“Apologies for our unfortunate first meeting. I thought it safer to disguise myself as a Ravager instead of confront you that day,” Nil said to Ersa, tone mild and cheerful. “You seemed to be on a mission. You’re quite frightening. I like it.”  

“We could have killed you!” Ersa cried.  

“You were travelling with Aloy,” Nil said, as though that was an explanation in itself.  

Aloy sighed, rubbing at her temples in exasperation. “I tempered Nil’s worst habits when we travelled together. I don’t like killing Creatures if I don’t have to—”  

“But when you have to, you’re a true artist , Aloy—”  

“ Nil , on the other hand — a little too enthusiastic about the fight,” she finished, shooting a warning look at her strange acquaintance.  

“That explains it,” Erend said with amusement. “But wait – I have one question: when we met you, you were covered in blood and gore. Where did that come from?”

He fixed Erend with a chilling grin. “Don’t worry about it.”  

The incredibly uncomfortable silence that followed was interrupted by an incoming call beeping through Aloy’s headset. “I’ve gotta take this — are you staying a while Nil?"

With a shake of his head, Nil replied, “I’ll continue south to the ruined city. Will you—”  

“Absolutely not,” Aloy interrupted. “I’ve got my own mission.”  

“I see,” said Nil mournfully. “I’ll miss you terribly.”  

“Okay,” said Aloy with an uncomfortable grimace. “Goodbye, Nil.”  

He seemed to take this as an answer, and farewelled the group with a genial wave before heading back outside to his vehicle.  

Ersa took a moment to pick her jaw up from the floor and sheath her knife as Aloy picked up the call.  

“Alva?”  

“ Aloy! It’s always so good to hear your voice, and Beta’s !”  

“Have you spoken to my sister recently?” Aloy asked curiously. She hadn’t heard from Beta since the note.  

“ Just yesterday—he told me they were monitoring the channels she uses to contact you, but that they weren’t aware of my headset yet. I feel like a spy! ” Alva explained with a nervous giggle.  

“And she’s alright?”

“ A little worse for wear after a run-in with a Creature called Helis, ” Alva said. “ But she’s in one piece. ”  

Though she already knew Beta was alive, relief flooded Aloy when she heard Alva’s confirmation. “Thank you for being a friend to her.”  

“ It’s my pleasure, Aloy. You’re both incredible people, ” Alva said sincerely. “ Now, I’ve managed to lay some groundwork with my superiors—it should be safe for you to meet us on the coast in the next few days—let us know when you reach the docks and I’ll take it from there. ”  

 “Sounds good, Alva.”

Aloy, Ersa, Erend and Avad bade the three eccentric showmen a farewell the following morning, with genuine promises to return once they had their arcade fully equipped and set up. Ersa gifted the trio with some extra ammunition and tools to help safeguard the arcade in the event that the horde travelled further north to their location. She did so with Avad’s prize teddy from yesterday tucked neatly under her arm, and a thunderous expression that dared anyone in their group to question the presence of the plush toy.  

“It wouldn’t hurt to stay in contact with Nil. He’s an oddball, but it would be his pleasure to help guard this place against Creatures,” Aloy advised as she hugged Morlund farewell. The two had become fast friends in an evening of repairing old arcade games together and swapping ideas.     

“Noted—I’ll reach out to him!” said Morlund brightly, at the same time as Abadund said “I think the hell not.” 

Aloy giggled, giving Morlund’s arm one last squeeze as she hoisted her pack onto her uninjured shoulder. “We’ll see you again soon!”  

Abadund was uncharacteristically warm as he shook Aloy’s free hand with both of his own, smiling down at her with affection. “We’ll hold you to that.”  

Chapter Text

The Docks, as it turned out, were a terrifying sight. 

Aloy had expected a pretty redwood forest by the sea when they reached the coast, not unlike the scenery surrounding the Greenhouse Garage.

What greeted them instead were the ruins of a war.  

Sunken ships, broken bridges, and half-submerged planes littered the coastline before them. Dozens of passenger vessels were facing toward the mainland in various states of destruction.  Looking outward, towards an island on the horizon, were an alarming number of war machines. Fighter planes and the like. But something seemed to have severely damaged them as they approached their destination. Few had made it all the way to the island in the distance. It seemed as though the ruined civilian vessels were just collateral damage to this unknown force.  

It was fairly early in the morning when they arrived at the beach, and Aloy struggled to find a sensible place to hide their vehicle in the disarray around them. Eventually she managed to pull their truck into a low hanging tangle of vines which swept low around an old shed.

Aloy tried to hide her amusement as Ersa stepped nimbly from the car and walked to Aloy’s side, unaware of their taller companions, Erend and Avad, scrambling through the vines behind her.  

“What do you think happened here?” Ersa queried, surveying the scene before them. The cool morning light made her steely blue-grey eyes seem more striking than ever, but it was contrasted by the ocean breeze sweeping her hair into a disorganised mop atop her head. Try as she might to seem cool and collected, she was about as dignified as the men still struggling behind them.  

“Hopefully Alva can shed some light on it. It’s strange. It almost looks like half of these machines just… fell out of the sky,” Aloy theorised, and then shivered. She knew that the Quen had access to some unusual research and tech from the good old days, but she hated to think about what the human cost of an incident like this had been.  

Avad reached their side, gently removing a stray leaf from his curly, dark hair and reaching up to tuck it behind Ersa’s ear instead. She ignored him, but her lips twitched just a fraction as she fought back a laugh.  

“My father sent scouts out this way, a few years ago,” Avad said. “The crew that reported back that most of their navigation equipment just stopped when they got closer to the island.”  

Aloy glanced in his direction. “The crew that reported back? What happened to the rest?”  

“They were ordered to continue west to the island. We never saw them again,” he answered sombrely.  

Reaching the group at last, Erend shuddered. “Whatever they saw on that island clearly wasn’t supposed to leave that island. Are we sure about this?”  

“Beta trusts Alva, so I trust her,” Aloy answered, though looking at the scene of destruction and chaos before them, her heart wasn’t in that declaration.  

The group walked cautiously along a large, concrete jetty that jutted out from the coastline. Besides the wind and chilling cold, the area was eerily quiet and devoid of human life.  

From the end of the jetty, they could see a fishing village to the distant north which was well-guarded with wooden beams and heavily armed guards. To the south were the remnants of a large mansion, a grey monolith spliced into the side of a rolling green hill like an ill-fitting prosthetic. Like it didn’t belong there.  

Something about the building made Aloy feel uneasy, and she turned her attention back to the west, making an outbound call as she scrunched her eyes against the ocean spray. “Alva?”  

“ I know ,” Alva replied quickly in her ear. “ We’re almost at the jetty .”

Aloy’s uneasiness grew with Alva’s response. How did they know the group had already reached the coast? She hadn’t given any indication of their location since Vegas. “How did you—”  

“ I’ll explain when we reach you. Just… Aloy, tread lightly here. Please. I’m worried for you all. ”

“This is our only lead,” Aloy frowned. “I have to see this through. What can we expect?”

A pause. Alva took a shaky breath and began again. “ The crew here. They’re funny about newcomers. Funny about anyone finding out their practices and discoveries. I’ve made sure you can reach the island safely, but please follow my lead .”  

“Is Kotallo with you?”  

“ He’s on the island ,” Alva confirmed. “ But in a very limited capacity. Not everyone is allowed to see the whole area .”   

“Interesting,” Aloy said, her sense of discomfort rising. “Will they let me into the areas that I need to see? I need to find out more about my sister. What if I name-drop Elisabet?”  

Alva’s nervous laugh in reply did nothing to put Aloy at ease. “ Aloy, they already know who you are .”  

“Alva! Did you—”  

“ No, I didn’t. It’s common knowledge over here. Hold on—we’ll be there in about half an hour. ”  

In the distance, Aloy could see a small passenger boat weaving carefully through the sunken wrecks ahead of them. She wrung her hands nervously. “Maybe I should go this one alone, guys,” she said with trepidation.

“We’ve come all this way with you, Aloy,” Avad assured her. “We’re not about to leave you now. Besides, they let Kotallo on the island.”  

“Sounds like they’re willing to at least give us an abridged tour of the place,” Erend added, placing a protective hand on each of her shoulders. “C’mon. It’ll be fine. We’re here for you.”    

Aloy’s chest flooded with warmth at the feel of Erend’s hands on her. He would never know how much this unwavering support meant to her, someone who had travelled alone for so many years. She cleared her throat and reached back, placing her fingertips gently on the backs of his hands. “Thanks,” she mumbled. She really owed him a conclusion to their conversation from the arcade.  

“Look at the fucking gear they’re carrying,” Ersa exclaimed as the boat drew closer to the jetty. She didn’t seem phased by Aloy and Erend’s contact. Perhaps a little amused and trying her best to ignore their tentative connection until the pair were ready to define their relationship. Aloy was quietly grateful for the disinterest. She knew Ersa was deeply protective of her brother, but it seemed as though Aloy had passed some sort of unspoken test in the last few weeks.  

She could see herself joining this strange little family, if they still wanted her around when all of this was over. Maybe when she found Beta—maybe she could let herself rest, just for a while…  

Aloy cut her own fantasy off, turning her attention instead to the military-grade gear approaching them at a steady pace. On the bow of the boat stood Alva, waving cheerfully at the group as though their recent conversation hadn’t sounded like a dire warning. Kotallo stood behind her, solemn and stony as ever.  

Around them gathered half a dozen Quen, covered head to toe in tactical gear and carrying identical semi-automatic rifles in mint condition. They stood together, organised and deliberate and incredibly intimidating. 

As they reached the shore, Aloy cringed as the military-style personnel stepped on to the jetty in formation and surrounded them, immediately searching the group for concealed weapons and confiscating a truly alarming quantity of knives and pistols from Ersa’s person.  

Ersa complied with no small amount of petulance. “I better get those back.”  

“Your weapons will be returned to you on the mainland,” one of the guards assured her before turning to Aloy with a formal “Ms. Sobeck.”  

The sound of her rarely-used surname made Aloy feel a little sick, but she returned the greeting with a curt nod. Behind his shoulder, Alva offered Aloy a look of apology, her cheeks rosy with embarrassment. She mouthed ‘ tread lightly ’ to Aloy once more, before wrapping her in a hug once the guards had finished Aloy’s pat-down.  

“What’s with the AK’s?” Ersa asked curiously. “They weren’t standard issue for these parts. Where are you guys from?"

“That’s classified,” the soldier responded gruffly, turning her around and pulling another knife from the collar of her jacket with an impressed noise.  

“Ooh, spooky ,” she drawled. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”     

The boat ride to the island was mostly uneventful, save for Kotallo gradually turning a very threatening shade of green beside them. Alva fixed him with a Look as he quietly held the back of her seat in a white-knuckle grip. “You could have stayed on the island.”  

“I’ve been tasked with your supervision. I don’t take my role lightly,” Kotallo ground out through his obvious nausea.  

“I know, but I’m back amongst my people,” Alva argued with a gentle giggle. “And you’re half-dying out here.”  

His only response was a moody grunt, which Ersa seemed to understand perfectly.  

“He’s protective of you, Alva,” Ersa explained with a chuckle.  

Erend barked out a laugh and punched his sister lightly in the arm. “Take it from someone with a helicopter older sibling—you won’t be able to talk him out of looking out for you.”  

“Well, I’m thankful. We’ve had quite a few adventures together now,” Alva said with a delightful smile that spread across her whole face.

For want of a better description, the Quen were…  

… entirely too much.  

Aloy tugged awkwardly at her mismatched old clothes (a cropped shirt and leggings for manoeuvrability and a large overshirt, borrowed from Erend when her jacket had been destroyed at the Greenhouse Garage and subsequently never returned), feeling gravely out of place amongst the military style uniforms and Alva’s outfit, which looked like some kind of regalia.  

Their boat drifted gently to the island shores after an hour or so in clear, eerily still waters.  Aloy was thankful for minimal fog over the sea, giving her a clear view of the structures approaching on the horizon.

A tower stood before them, unbelievably tall and ornate and not tarnished or crumbling from the last fifteen years or so of neglect. It was lined with tinted windows, shimmering blue in the midday light. They couldn’t see inside the building but entering and exiting the building at the base were a few dozen people dressed in white and mint green uniforms. Most of them were carrying briefcases, medical equipment or research binders of some description.  

A lab, then?    

Kotallo was the first to exit the vessel, grateful in his own stoic way to be back on solid ground. Aloy and her friends followed suit, and Aloy tilted her head curiously at the blue-black building filling their vision.

Alva nudged her with an elbow. “Cure research! They’ll be so excited to see you!”  

Aloy suddenly felt sick, stopping in her tracks. “I won’t be staying.”  

Alva hummed in agreement, her nose crinkling slightly in amusement. “I haven’t told them anything yet. They just know your mother is very, very instrumental to our research.”  

“Let’s keep it that way, Alva.”  

They were met with a small procession on the shoreline who again checked them for weapons and ammunition (and somehow collected further munitions from Ersa’s person) and led to a shaded condo-style building on the water’s edge.  

An ornately dressed Black man with a medium build, a cool disposition, and a sharp gaze greeted them with his hands folded neatly behind his back. He offered Alva a lukewarm smile as she approached and introduced him as Bohai.  

To Bohai’s left lounged a tall, fair man with icy blue eyes and a smug smile who didn’t bother standing to greet them.  

“One of the famed Sobeck women, I see, and a famed revolutionary in tow,” said the blue-eyed man, nodding in Avad’s direction.  

He paid no mind to Erend, Ersa, or Kotallo at all. Aloy was about to speak up, until she noticed that Avad was haughtily returning the disrespect, ignoring the lounging man completely. An awkward silence stilled the air amongst the group, until the stranger acquiesced, rising to his feet to greet the newcomers.     

“That’s more like it,” Aloy whispered to Avad, taken aback by the exchange.  

“ Immediately , I hate this man,” Avad replied under his breath, before offering his hand to the stranger. “A pleasure to meet you. Avad.”  

“Ceo,” the stranger replied, refusing the handshake with the slightest grimace. “I’m pleased to see that people of your standing have reached our corner of the world. A world leader and a beacon of hope, joining us on this expedition.”  

“And our incredibly valuable allies,” Aloy gestured to Erend and Ersa, who were regarding this exchange with no small amount of amusement.  

“Yes, well,” Ceo replied, still electing to ignore their companions.  

Aloy opened her mouth to retort, but one pleading, wide-eyed look from Alva silenced her. She could hold on to her irritation for another time. “You said you were here on an expedition, Ceo?”  

He nodded and visibly puffed out his chest. A second, frantic warning look from Alva put a stop to Aloy’s smirk. “We’re here to uncover the secrets of the great inventor, Ted Faro.”  

Ceo jerked his chin toward the strange tower that Aloy had spotted before.  From a distance the tower seemed brand new, shining, futuristic and impenetrable. Up close, however, she could see that the façade was cracked, the foundations were becoming unstable, and the window tint was flaking and damaged. The state of the upper levels was even worse: from the shore she couldn’t see that half the penthouse was missing, an open wound to the sky.  

“I thought that Faro was some kinda businessman,” Erend piped up, curious. “I had no idea he was an inventor.”  

Ceo flicked his gaze in Erend’s direction with no small amount of disdain. “I’d expect that assessment from a member of the uneducated masses,” he determined, tone lofty.  

Aloy stepped forward to say, “Hey!” in perfect unison with Ersa, and Aloy didn’t think that Alva’s eyes could get any wider if she tried. Before either of them could speak again, Avad interrupted.

“Forgive me,” he said drily. “I must have been living in ignorance as well. What exactly did Faro invent?”  

“A new way of life,” Ceo said with a grand gesture in the direction of the poorly-made tower. “A lifestyle. A philosophy , if you will. A new kind of thinking.”  

Avad pressed his fingertips together in a prayer-like gesture and leaned forward in earnest with his eyebrows raised, trying to prompt a direct answer. “Which was?”  

Silence.  

Aloy bit her lip and stared at the ground, refusing to look up at Alva, whose face was twisted in a mask of distress, silently begging the group to keep their composure for just a few moments more.  

For want of anything valuable to say, Ceo waved in Bohai’s direction and retreated towards his tent a ways off the shoreline. Aloy quietly considered it to be more of a mansion than a tent, so covered in luxuries and fancy that Aloy hadn’t seen since before the apocalypse had really kicked off. Ceo’s rooms were surrounded by art, vases, and other expensive things. Further into the tent, Aloy spotted a vast wardrobe and what appeared to be a bathhouse . 

“Bohai will explain. I must prepare for our journey,” Ceo said without elaborating any further.  

The ornately dressed man from earlier stepped forward as Ceo departed, and Alva breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Bohai greeted each member of the group with an icy gaze (and to his credit, an equal lack of enthusiasm).  

“Perhaps you can explain this venture with a little more clarity, Bohai?” Avad queried with no small amount of amusement at Ceo’s retreat.  

Bohai nodded. “As Alva kindly mentioned earlier: we’re in the business of cure research. Our sources have led us to believe that the Thebes tower you see up ahead contains vital information about the source of the infection.”  

Aloy glanced sharply in Alva’s direction. That conversation had been private, but somehow immediately discovered by the man before them. She shot Alva a questioning look, but the other woman kept her eyes to the front, standing carefully still.  

Her headset unexpectedly crackled to life, and Sylens’ unimpressed drawl announced, “ these Quen have eyes and ears everywhere .”  

Bohai’s lips quirked when Aloy failed to respond to Sylens. “You can answer your headset, Aloy. I doubt your associate holds any information that we don’t already have—”  

“ I have leagues of data that the Quen have never seen .”  

“—or that we couldn’t garner from him at another time.”  

“ I’d sincerely like to see them try .”    

Aloy lowered the volume on her headset just a smidge and informed Bohai that Sylens wasn’t very impressed with that assumption.  

“He’s welcome to take the issue up with us personally, though I doubt our fearless leader, Ceo, would allow him within the walls of the Thebes tower.”  

“I doubt our fearless egghead would bother to get his hands dirty,” Erend replied drily.  

Aloy rolled her eyes and returned her attention to Bohai. “Why is access to the tower restricted?”  

“We have reason to believe we are on the verge of a significant discovery. The information held within the Tower of Thebes is highly sensitive and restricted only to the most important persons on the island. Yourself, for example, and Ceo. Alva, as one of our leading researchers, is permitted to access information which we deem acceptable for her to—”  

“ Delightful. A strict hierarchical society that controls the flow of information and speaks far too enthusiastically of Ted Faro. Where do you find your friends, Aloy? ”  

“—review. Aloy, are you alright?” Bohai queried as Aloy scrunched her nose against Sylens’ tirade in her right ear.  

She nodded, tilting her head to the right to hiss “I won’t hesitate to mute you” into the headset.  

Avad stepped in, clearly at ease navigating this type of social structure. “We’re very grateful for the opportunity to see this marvel.”  

“ Some of you will be granted the opportunity,” Ceo corrected, re-emerging from his tent, somehow even more overdressed than before, in some approximation of a business suit, headgear and—was that a cape? “The Oseram will need to remain on the shore with Alva’s bodyguard.”  

Avad’s neutral mask slipped ever-so-slightly as his gaze darted in Ceo’s direction, clearly irritated and placing a placating hand on Ersa’s elbow as she stepped forward to voice her displeasure. “Erend, Ersa and Kotallo have just as much right as anyone to access this information—”  

“My decision is final,” Ceo said haughtily.  

The ocean breeze rustled the sand at their feet as the group fell into a deeply uncomfortable silence. Ceo’s attempts to look down his nose at the group fell flat, as he was noticeably shorter than the other men in the group. Opposite Ceo, Ersa looked livid, as though she was ready to challenge the entire island to a fistfight.  

“I don’t recall asking for your permission,” Aloy snapped, eager to get this over with. “What gives you the right—”  

“A peace offering,” Bohai announced a little too loudly, stepping into the centre of the tense group. “Another Oseram individual sought asylum on our island a few days ago. Around the same time as all the ruckus in Meridian, so I heard. Perhaps Erend and Ersa would be interested in catching up with their compatriot instead?”  

Erend tilted his head quizzically, almost in disbelief. “What are you saying?”  

Aloy’s heart rabbited in her chest as she reached a simultaneous epiphany with Ersa.  

“He’s here, isn’t he?” Ersa asked, voice low and flat. “Dervahl.”  

Bohai nodded, looking mightily pleased with himself. “I can give you his coordinates, in exchange for your word that Oseram forces remain on the mainland.”  

“What makes you think I have that kind of power?” Ersa asked.  

“The Freebooters were the largest organised Oseram force until their unfortunate split. They’ll need someone to follow once this… disagreement … between yourself and Dervahl is resolved.”    

Ersa scoffed. “And you’re willing to back a hot-headed asshole like myself. You’d get along well with Vanasha.”  

“Ersa,” Aloy interrupted. “This could work. You could forge an alliance between Avad’s people and the Oseram that remain loyal to you. It’s not a terrible idea.”  

“Gather an army and take the fight to your creepy friend, Tilda,” Ersa agreed. “All I have to do is put your lives at risk,” she snapped, gesturing between Aloy and Avad. “I’d rather let Dervahl go.”  

“Ain’t that some character growth,” Erend laughed, though his eyes were serious. “Can you promise our friends will be alright?”  

Ersa chimed in “‘Cause if anything – anything —happens to them—"  

“We can handle ourselves,” Aloy soothed the siblings. “I’m more than capable of getting us out of a sticky situation.”    

The group hesitated still. Reluctant to part ways in a strange land, but desperate to meet their separate goals. Dervahl was incredibly dangerous—perhaps even more dangerous now that he was desperate and alone, and Aloy was walking blind into this… Tower of Thebes, and whatever hellish secrets Ted Faro might have hidden there before his disappearance.     

“It’s settled, then,” Bohai declared smoothly, leaving no further room for argument. “Harriem and Kristia will provide you with the coordinates to Dervahl’s shelter, and I’ll send a guard with you for good measure. The rest of you, with me.”  

Erend pulled Aloy into a tight hug without warning, whispering “Be careful,” against her temple with a shaky breath.  

“You be careful,” Aloy ordered, surprising herself by tugging Erend closer.

Despite her better judgement, Erend had truly found his way under Aloy’s skin. She felt strangely frantic at the idea of leaving him behind for a day with minimal contact. Aloy had never given much thought to relationships with people outside of her immediate family and the odd acquaintance. But something about Erend’s presence– his warmth, his reliable and joyful nature– had left Aloy wondering if there was more to life. Erend’s presence and giving heart had unlocked a part of Aloy that she didn’t even know existed. A new and fragile part of her that wanted a future, a home , and a partner to share it all with.   

Aloy stepped back after what felt like an age, immediately missing the feel of Erend’s hands across her back and the warmth of his arms.  “I’ll see you soon.”  

“You bet.”  

Beside them, Ersa approached Avad with something akin to nervousness, reaching forward for a handshake before thinking better of it and pulling him into an equally uncomfortable side-hug.  

“Just uh—don’t get dead in there. Please,” she grumbled, fingers unconsciously curling into the sleeve of his jacket.  

Aloy dutifully pretended not to notice as Avad leaned over, pressing the gentlest kiss to Ersa’s cheek. “You, too.”  

Ersa stood, wide-eyed and almost comically stiff, until Avad stepped away with a sweet smile and gently pried her hand from his jacket, squeezing her fingers in farewell. Ersa stared at their joined hands, dumbfounded.  

In classic younger brother fashion, Erend opened his mouth to voice his discomfort before Aloy silenced him with a harsh elbow to the ribs. “Don’t you dare say a word. I’ve been waiting for this.”

The group parted ways with extreme reluctance (once Ersa had recovered her ability to speak in full sentences), filled a day pack each, and made for their respective destinations.  

“I trust that you’ll all be able to exercise discretion,” Bohai began. He seemed unfazed by the crowd of Quen scientists that parted ways for their small group, following behind the five of them in a strange, worshipful procession.    

“I’m keeping the headset on,” Aloy declared to Bohai and Ceo before they could continue down this road.

She’d spotted both men eyeing her gear during preparations and had already decided that she absolutely would not compromise. Painful as his presence could be, Sylens would have the strongest grasp on the information they were likely to find inside the Tower. Selfishly, Aloy also didn’t want to face Sylens’ snide remarks if she left him in the dark.  

“ I have been to Thebes before. I need our connection to remain stable in the building for three minutes and forty-six seconds ,” Sylens informed her.   

“What if I can only give you three minutes and forty-five seconds?” she muttered under her breath, ignoring Avad’s smirk and Alva’s fraught expression as they overheard the conversation in their own headsets.  

“ If the three of you stop huddling in a pile like newborn kittens I might need less time, but you’re in an almost identical proximity to the nearest router. Precisely how much hand-holding do your friends need? ”    

Aloy sucked her teeth and didn’t reply, simply shooting Avad and Alva a ‘you heard him’ look and gesturing for the three of them to spread out as they entered the ground floor foyer. The area was sparse and looked almost new with polished marble floors in a deep emerald green that met clean white walls and intact windows with gold trimmings. Aloy was having a hard time remembering how broken the top of the building had appeared. She could see that most of the technology in the lobby was intact and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Sylens would be able to follow them through almost every room in the building.  

“I can see the CCTV is functional. Do the lifts work?” Avad queried, and then repeated himself as Alva rounded on him with an alarmed squeak.  

“Yes, they do! I am so sorry! I’m just not used to important people speaking to me directly. Or at all. Or being noticed in general by—”  

“You’re just as important as I am,” Avad assured her quietly. “Between us girls , I’m not a big fan of your boss’ attitude.”  

Aloy snorted. In her periphery, she saw Ceo commanding one of the scientists to call the lift, even though he was standing closest to the button, and rolled her eyes. The scientist had her arms loaded with equipment and looked absolutely terrified to drop any of it.  

Taking pity on the girl, Aloy strode forward and pressed the lift button with a meaningful glare at Ceo and Bohai. “What’s this discovery we think we’re on the verge of?”  

“Ah, that,” Ceo said grandly, “is Ted Faro’s greatest achievement. On the highest floors of this structure stand a number of passkey locked labs, each large enough to contain a small group of personnel and an operating table. That’s all we can see from the outside. Tables and safes.”  

“Alright,” said Aloy, “I already hate where this is going, but have you been able to access the inside of any of these labs?”  

Before the cogs in Aloy’s mind could finish turning, Sylens said “ I’m on it ” into her headset.  

“That’s where you come in,” Bohai informed her. “Alva has come across one of the passkeys, gifted to the Quen by an anonymous donor. The other, I believe, is in your possession.”  

The lanyard under Aloy’s shirt suddenly felt a thousand pounds heavier than before. Unconsciously, she lifted a hand to brush her fingers against the object hiding beneath her clothes. “You don’t say.”  

“Your esteemed mother had access to these labs, Aloy,” Ceo concluded, a rapturous excitement in his tone. “It’s surprising, that a no-name scientist was permitted to see the greatest and most exclusive works of Ted Faro, but who are we to question his wisdom?”  

Aloy’s retort of “fucking sensible” and grunt of pain as Avad deliberately stepped on her foot were drowned out by the ding of the elevator’s arrival.  

The inside of the lift was enormous, unusually large for a commercial building and spacious enough for the entire crew with extra wiggle room. The emerald, white and gold details carried seamlessly through to the inside of the carriage, as did Aloy’s sense of foreboding. Her footsteps felt incredibly heavy as she followed the team inside, and Alva punched in the directions for the upper levels.  

As the elevator began to rise, an infographic began to play on the screens to her left, spouting nonsense about ‘Faro Industries at the forefront of life enhancing and life extending technology’.  

“Sylens?” Aloy asked, surprised by how meek her voice sounded. “Are we about to see what I think we’re about to see?”  

A pause. “ Are your friends faint of heart ?” Sylens asked. If Aloy didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that Sylens was equally anxious.  

Avad shook his head ‘no’, reaching forward to grasp Alva’s shoulder as all the colour drained from her face. Aloy ducked her head to answer Sylens in a furtive whisper. “They’re hit and miss. Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is?”

“ Aloy, I’m not in the business of letting people delude themselves. This is a remote, high security building containing a number of labs that only your mother and her personnel had access to. Lastly, any records or directions to this building were destroyed with my research labs in Thunders Drum, by an unknown force. ”    

She felt her hands begin to shake and laced her fingers tightly behind the back of her neck to steady them. Aloy’s breathing became shallower as the elevator rose, and the lights in their carriage began to flicker. She whipped around to address the team directly.

“I’m leading the way into the labs alone. Once the coast is clear I’ll let the rest of the team through. Alva, Avad—stay by the lift. Anything goes wrong and you both run , hear me?”  

Ceo’s face twisted into a mask of disdain. “You are not the one giving orders here, Sobeck. This building was a hub for cure research. I didn’t think you’d be one to shy away from witnessing greatness.”  

“We’ll be witnessing something, alright,” Aloy retorted as the lights in the lift flickered around them again. “You’ve found Ground Zero.”

“ I said I would give you six months, Ted. I’ve given you nine. ”

“ Lis, you can’t leave now .” Through the recording, Faro’s voice was plaintive and panicked. A distressed whine. “ We’re no closer to a solution than we were half a year ago. Why? You’re brilliant. You’re unstoppable. I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re holding out on me? ”

A loud bang, like a ledger being slammed against a table.  

“ Holding out, Ted?! Holding out ?! I have worked tirelessly to try and rectify your mistake. I’ve kept my mouth shut. I cut Sylens off — our top researcher—because he threatened to publicise this mess. I missed the birth of my second child to run labs on every member of your staff. ”  

“ Lis, I didn’t mean— ”  

“ I haven’t spoken to my oldest in a month because I don’t know what to say to her, ” Elisabet snarled. “ I’m sorry, Aloy, Mama can’t come home because she’s busy cleaning up after the man that killed the world. ”  

“ Now that isn’t fair— "

“ You know what’s not fair, Ted? Seven hundred and ninety-six staff, and one person is immune to the fucking super-virus you’ve thrown together upstairs. What’s not fair is that we no longer have the time or resources to replicate their immunity. ”  

A frantic, shuddering breath. “ Are you saying we’re out of time? ”  

Elisabet was strangely calm. “ We reached the point of no return three weeks ago. The virus will become public knowledge any day now. After that… I don’t know. ”  

“ There’s gotta be something you can do. At least tell me the name of the person with immunity. ”  

“ I’m going home, Theodore. I’ll… I’ll keep working, but I’m going home to see my children.” Elisabet said, before adding a final parting shot. “You got your wish, though. That war crime you brewed upstairs seems to keep the infected subject alive indefinitely. It’ll only cost them everything.”

“Happy?” Aloy barked, snapping the laptop shut to emphasise her distaste. “Your life-changing hero was responsible for all of this.”  

The entire room fell painfully silent, watching Aloy as she clutched the edges of the lab room table with white knuckles. They stood in the shattered remnants of the top floor of Thebes. Most of the building was unsalvageable, but two labs stood with perfectly intact, locked doors.  

Still in possession of Beta’s passkey, Alva had helped Aloy open the first room with trembling hands and a small voice. She had stood back once the recording began, her face white and drawn with anxiety. Aloy kept one eye on Alva’s body language throughout the ordeal, wondering distantly if Alva was afraid of hearing more information than she was allowed to discover. She wondered what the consequences would be, amongst the Quen, for knowing more than you ought to.  

After a pause for a deep breath, she gestured widely at the room, her nose scrunching in irritation at Ceo’s face twisted in consternation. “A new way of life .”  

“I don’t understand,” Ceo said quietly. “I don’t understand—what was Sobeck doing here?”  

Avad looked up from where he was steadying Alva’s shaking. “Cure research, Ceo. Exactly what it says in the recording. Faro’s research in life extension led to this— all of this—"  

“Are you suggesting that this building holds the original virus?” Bohai had spoken next, causing the room to descend into chaos, researchers arguing with one-another in a confused rabble. Aloy was quietly thankful that Ceo had forced them to cut contact with Sylens on the way up to the top floor, though she could see the tell-tale blink of CCTV stuttering back to life as Sylens watched on without sound.  

“Should we be here? Is it dangerous?”  

“I doubt the original virus is being held here—”  

“What if it was sold?"

“It should be in containment—”  

“What if it isn’t?”  

“This is the motherlode, we can’t turn back now!”  

“The next lab—what’s in the next lab?”  

“Who was the person with immunity? We need to find them—"  

“Why were Faro and Sobeck even recording this conversation?”

“Insurance, probably. They clearly weren’t on good terms.”  

Aloy slammed her hands on the table, hard enough to shock the entire room back into silence. “ Enough ! Alva, help me unlock the next lab—after that, all of you step back.”  

“I think not,” Ceo barked, recovering himself. “It’s my right to see the contents of Faro’s labs.”  

Aloy paused, incredulous. “On what authority?”  

“My family helped to fund this operation, prior to the outbreak. Whatever information—whatever treasures—are held in this room are my birthright,” he explained. “Check the infographics. A joint venture between Faro Industries and the Richards family. Since Faro left no heirs, this building—this legacy—is mine.” 

“You might regret that inheritance,” Avad said curtly. “I’m in the business of cleaning up family messes. There’s nothing honourable about it.”  

“Nonsense,” Ceo snapped, striding past and snatching the passkey from Alva’s hands. His feet slipped slightly on shattered glass as he walked toward Aloy and grasped her upper arm. He dragged her roughly out of the first room and to the door of the second locked lab. “The second lab will fill in the gaps and cement my legacy. Aloy—the other lock.”    

Aloy glanced from Ceo’s unwanted touch on her bicep, down to the glass on the floor, embedded in burn marks along the green carpet. Before them stood a stainless-steel door that looked good as new. To either side of the door, two fob locks.  Ceo nudged Aloy to the lock on the left, and stood with Beta’s key on the right-hand side.  

“Aloy, my patience is running thin. Now .”  

She shook her head in frustration. “The rest of you stand back. I wasn’t kidding earlier.”  

To her surprise, Alva spoke up in a soft voice. “We’re not leaving you behind, Aloy.”  

She sighed, turning to face Ceo with a stern look. “Touch me like that again and we’re gonna have a big problem,” she warned darkly, raising her passkey. Standing at this door, she could hear the hum of machinery inside. “Let’s do this.”  

The doors slid open with ease, which surprised her given their age. What greeted them was ostensibly a messy engine room. The far end of the room was lined with empty tanks, large enough to hold an adult human. What drew their gaze, however, was several solar powered generators, running to supplement the tower’s stuttering, unreliable power, plugs leading upwards to a sealed tank in the centre of the room. The back of the structure was facing them, though Aloy could see the tank had an open front, facing the outside window, as though whatever was contained in the structure would appreciate a room with a view .  

Before the tank laid a stainless-steel table, littered with syringes, vials, research papers in disarray. Someone had scrawled haphazard notes on the table itself, and in the centre of the mess, a laptop with a recording ready to play, just like the one that held Faro’s previous conversation with Sobeck.  

The front room appeared to be clear of threats, and Aloy gestured for the team to step back and allow Alva to enter. Before he could argue, Aloy plucked the passkey from Ceo’s hands and returned it to her friend. “Beta meant for you to hold on to this, Alva.”    

“Of course. I’m so sorry—”

“No apology needed. She trusts you, and so I trust you, too.”  

Eager to regain command over the situation, Ceo huffed and stepped forward. Gesturing grandly for the remainder of the team to step back out of the lab. “These discoveries are for people of import, only. We’ll share the next recording as appropriate.”  

“And then Aloy, Alva, and myself will share the recording in its entirety,” Avad countered with a disdainful glance at Ceo. “Ceo was right. Whatever we discover here will be instrumental to cure research."

“But it sure as hell won’t be pretty,” Aloy confirmed with an approving nod at her friend for once again disrupting Ceo’s bluster. “I want to take this computer apart before we listen in, in case Faro has it wired to self-destruct or we lose anything—”  

Before she could continue Ceo shoved past the trio, hitting ‘Play’ with a triumphant rap of his knuckles on the keyboard. It was a little satisfying to Aloy that he seemed to hurt himself with the gesture, eyebrows drawing together in the slightest indication of pain. “Again, I’m giving the orders.”  

A shuddering breath could be heard through the small, tinny speaker of the computer.  

“ This was never my intention. My only hope was to create a better future — an endless future — for us all. Of course there were some minor errors along the way, but I never expected the world to abandon me after one slip up. Great risks reap great rewards, and this experiment was a tremendous risk to create the greatest of rewards: eternal life. I expected Lis and the rest of the team to understand that. To have a higher vision, like me, and to join me in creating a new and better world, once we tidied up this mess. So, version A of the drug caused some undesirable side effects, I won’t deny that .”  

Aloy rolled her eyes, shooting a meaningful look back at her friends who watched the recording unfold with stricken expressions. As Faro’s recording continued, she crept around the side of the tank and barely swallowed her shuddering gasp at the view from the other side.  

“ But this version—this is gonna be the version that saves the world. Lis was happy to surrender to the virus. Happy to face death. But I’m not ready to give up the fight just yet. ”  

A Creature, suspended in green liquid, unlike any she had faced before. Its head hung low in a gesture that almost seemed like shame. Its skin was peeling away like a burn, revealing the rotting musculature underneath. One side of its face was missing, revealing a row of cracked teeth, protruding from receding gums like a broken smile.  

“ I’ve got to pull myself together. Version B will give me what I need to try again. To be here for what remains of humanity. For Lis’ kids to find me and help develop the cure.”  

Ceo and the rest of the scientists crept around the corner with trepidation. One of them screamed at the sight while another was almost physically ill. Ceo clutched his injured hand carefully to his chest. He looked a little pale as the Creature came into view.  

“I pulled the data from Lis’ latest labs. It was her. She’s immune and there seems to be a genetic link. No wonder she was so eager to leave me behind and take the glory for herself .”  

The Creature shifted, noticing movement from the corner of its eye, and raised its ugly head with a startled sound, muffled by the green liquid surrounding its body.  

“ Well, I’ve taken care of Lis. She was smart enough to separate the kids before I could reach them all, and there’s no sign of the eldest. Her youngest daughter will get my message from the Zeniths when she’s old enough, though, and with her we can continue making the world a better place. ”  

Until the opposition intervened. The realisation crashed into Aloy like a wave. Beta’s captors were well-aware of their immunity and sought to control the development of a cure for themselves. Beta was a commodity to them. Held for ransom against… against this. 

“Ted,” she addressed the Creature with a shaking voice. “Can you understand me?”  

The Creature regarded her for a few moments, before recognition dawned in its eyes. Ted Faro nodded, pressing a palm to the glass of his tank. A desperate gesture to connect with her which was interrupted by Ceo – unsurprisingly centring himself in the conversation.  

“I’ve made an incredible discovery today,” he gasped. His voice sounded oddly creaky, dry and breathless. Aloy noticed he was trying to hide the smallest drop of blood from his hand. A needle stick injury from the mess on the lab table.  

“What happened to you?” she asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.  

“This? Nothing of import compared to what I’ve found h—” before he could finish, Ceo doubled over with hacking coughs.  

The needle stick injury on his hand was swollen, with a deep purple bruise surrounding a small wound site which seemed to be growing larger by the second. As Aloy stepped closer, she knew she would recognise the smell of Ceo’s breath anywhere.  

He was turning.  

Unpredictable, profoundly arrogant and exposed to a version of the virus Aloy had never seen before, she couldn't take the risk of the rest of the team becoming exposed to Ceo as he was right now. Without any further hesitation, Aloy grasped him by both shoulders, shoving him backwards, toward the nearest open tank and slamming the door shut with a frustrated shout.  

A handful of the Quen team raised weapons to Aloy as she isolated Ceo. Two of them wrestled her roughly to the ground, pinning her arms behind her back. In front of her, Ceo scrabbled uselessly at the walls of the tank, unable to open it from the inside.  Behind her, she heard Alva shriek, frantic as a member of Ceo’s guard pressed a pistol to Aloy’s temple.  

“Wait! WAIT! He’s infected!” Aloy grunted, trying to turn her head away from the muzzle of the gun.  

“A likely story,” Bohai quipped, stepping around the chaos to look Aloy in the eye. “And a bold move, attacking our leader in front of so many eyewitnesses. We’ll decide what to do with you once we’ve collected—"  

His speech was interrupted by Ceo loudly vomiting inside the tank and collapsing into terrified sobs.  

In the distraction that followed, Aloy felt the gun to her temple drop as Alva snuck up from behind and smashed a beaker across the back of the guard’s head.  

Straightening herself, Aloy shot Alva an appreciative grin. “Nice.”  

“I literally cannot believe I did that,” she replied in a squeak, hands flying up to cover her mouth.  

Aloy turned to a shocked Bohai. “I did tell him not to touch the table.”  

Avad strode past and collected the gun from the unconscious guard. “That you did. Perhaps his team should have kept a better handle on his behaviour, and they wouldn’t have found themselves culpable for Ceo’s death,” he addressed the room coolly.  

Finding her confidence, Alva joined Avad’s side with a raised eyebrow. “What a shameful failure. But as our friend here demonstrates,” she added, pointing backwards at Faro’s tank, “everyone makes mistakes.”  

“Mistakes we’d be willing to overlook in exchange for the data on that laptop,” Aloy confirmed.

“And some one-way tickets off this island,” Bohai finished smoothly. Behind him, Ceo’s sobs had given way to rabid, gurgling shouts. “I believe that can be arranged. But what should we do with these two?”

“I certainly wouldn’t let them out,” Avad offered cheerfully as Aloy began picking her way through the laptop.  

When the data was collected and copied, Aloy handed the laptop back to Bohai with a courteous smile. “Pleasure working with you.”  

She turned her attention then to the Creature suspended in Faro’s tank. His broken, peeling hands were still pressed against the glass, vying for her attention. She approached with caution; the corners of her mouth turned downwards in disgust. It almost seemed fitting that he was sentient. Fitting that he should have to live with his guilt. The man who ended the world in pursuit of his own desire for fame.  

From inside the tank, she heard a muffled “Beta?” 

His voice was croaky and soft from lack of use. As he turned his head to glance at the rest of the group, she saw that his throat had partially wasted away.  

Aloy shook her head. “It’s Aloy. The kid you couldn’t track. Thank you for the lead on my sister, and the intel on Sylens,” she said, voice dripping with venom. “Sylens and I will need to have a long talk about disclosing our fuck-ups when I get back to Free Heap.”    

“A-loy…”  

“Congratulations on the eternal life thing, by the way. I can see that it’s a lot of fun. You’ve certainly achieved something here,” she said drily, before adding, “I also want you to know something. From the very bottom of my heart.”  

“Help—”  

“I won’t be helping, Ted,” she said with a cold laugh. “Beta and I will develop a cure on our own. Nobody will find you here. And nobody will ever, ever remember you.” 

Chapter Text

The ride back to the ground floor of the Tower of Thebes was solemn. A shocked and loaded hush fell over the entire group as they descended. The silence was broken only as the lift doors slid open at the base of the tower, and Bohai opened his mouth to pass an order to Alva. 

“Nope!” Avad interrupted Bohai brightly before he could speak. “She’s coming with us for a while.” 

Bohai sighed. “I can’t argue with that. Alva, I expect your reports back to be reliable.” 

Alva could only offer an apologetic grin and an awkward salute to Bohai, trailing behind Avad as he returned to the foyer.  The two waited by the exit door as Bohai and the researchers were swarmed by other Quen, peppering him with questions about what they found, Ceo’s location, and what the next steps were from here.

“You’ll be informed of the outcome of our mission in due course,” was all Bohai could reply with. Drawn and exhausted, he tilted his head in Aloy’s direction. “Head towards the lighthouse you can see in the north, and you’ll find your friends interrogating Dervahl. He has been holed up there for a couple of weeks.” 

Aloy nodded curtly, aware that this was a dismissal before she got roped into answering Quen questions herself, and turned on her heel to run in the direction Bohai had sent them. Avad and Alva followed, hot on her heels, and they slipped out of the building before anyone could catch them.

The journey to the lighthouse was a tense one, fraught with worry. Aloy and Avad, by silent agreement, hadn’t voiced their concern for the Oseram siblings waiting for them to the north, or the mess they might find.  

Astute as ever, Alva kept blessedly silent for the trek, only occasionally pausing to exchange warm, sympathetic glances with her two travelling companions.  Aloy knew that their troubled silence must have raised an equal, terrible fear in Alva’s heart for her friend, Kotallo. 

Their faces were cast in shadow as they wandered through the ruins of the city, patched back together by Quen-style construction which stuck out in contrast to the grey skyscrapers and crumbling bitumen. Everything reeked of salt, rust, and decay. Far from relaxing, the rush of the ocean’s rising tide filled Aloy with a renewed sense of dread. What was waiting for them in the lighthouse? Had Bohai’s instructions been genuine, or was this simply a trap? What if Dervahl had snuck away once more? What if he had put up a fight and won ?    

They crept over an old tourist footbridge, half washed away by the sea, and a flock of gulls circling overhead drew Aloy’s eye to the lighthouse. The structure stood eerily calm, as a strangely bright day surrounded them. The lighthouse had withstood the test of time well. It was isolated enough to be reasonably safe from Creatures, which littered the more populated areas of the city, but under enough cover from vines and foliage that it would be exceedingly difficult to find someone who didn’t want to be found within its walls. 

As they reached the other side of the bridge, their shoes slipped in the sand that dusted the wooden palings. Most of the construction of the past had been washed away here, and as Aloy looked down she spotted tracks. Heavy and messy, the tracks showed deep scuffs in the ground as though their owners had been running full-speed.   

Wordlessly, they followed the tracks over a knoll, where sand gave way to grass and mud, and Aloy froze. The tracks here were chaotic, like a group running in circles, or as though a fight had taken place. And further ahead on the ground— 

“Blood.” 

Not enough to be fatal, but enough to be concerning. 

She paused to get her bearings, trying not to let the panic blind her, even as it constricted her throat. Behind her, Avad wrung his hands together tightly until Alva took pity, and grasped one of them. She tugged him a few steps forward and slipped her other hand into Aloy’s own.

“We won’t know until we find them,” she said, sounding a lot braver than Aloy felt. “Let’s keep going. Where does this lead us?” 

Aloy took a deep breath, squeezing Alva’s hand in thanks for the reassurance. “Straight to the steps of the tower. Keep low, and stay behind me in case Dervahl has a look-out.” 

Alva and Avad nodded solemnly and crouched low into the grass surrounding them. They crept uphill until they reached the front steps of the lighthouse, with no lookout and only a few disarmed traps to be found. Aloy’s brow furrowed in confusion. Dervahl had been described to her as somewhat of a genius. Resourceful and wily. She hadn’t expected to find one of his lairs barely guarded. 

Unless… 

“Unless he’s alone out here,” Aloy breathed. With mounting hope, she took the front steps of the lighthouse two at a time, her companions scrambling behind her. 

As they burst through the door, they could hear voices arguing loudly at the top of the tower, and fell almost face-first into Kotallo’s chest.

Kotallo greeted the group with a disapproving grunt. “Good to see you’re all back in one piece,” he said gruffly. “What did you find?” 

“Ceo wasn’t so lucky,” Alva said with a shudder, “but the mission was productive. I’ve been given leave to join Aloy and her crew on their journey to find Beta, if you’d like to join me?” 

Alva’s eyes were bright and pleading, and Kotallo, despite his cool exterior, folded almost immediately. “Aloy is impressive,” Kotallo said with a nod in her direction. “If she’s tough enough to break the stalemate upstairs I’d gladly follow her command.”

“Are they with Dervahl?” 

“Mm,” Kotallo confirmed with a low hum, glancing upwards at the spiral staircase which led to the top of the lighthouse. “He holds necessary information about your sister. Ersa and Erend have been kind enough not to murder him until he informs them of Beta’s whereabouts.” 

“How gracious,” Aloy said with a sigh. “But it leaves us in a bit of an awkward position. We can’t kill him or send him away until he—” 

A man’s pained howl from upstairs interrupted their conversation, punctuated by Ersa’s frustrated swearing. 

“I’d better go up and deal with that,” Aloy said resignedly. 

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Kotallo replied with the barest hint of a smirk.

The steps to the top of the lighthouse were winding and painfully narrow. Alva hovered behind at Kotallo’s side, while Avad made the trek upstairs with Aloy. 

The scene at the top of said stairs was unsurprising but confronting all the same. The trail of blood that Aloy had spotted earlier in their hunt led them to the balcony railings, and belonged mostly to Dervahl. He was sporting a broken nose and a missing front tooth. One of his eyes was swollen shut. 

Ersa, incensed as she was by Dervahl’s presence, seemed not to notice that she had a nasty gash across her right hand, caused by a paring knife which had since been dropped to the floor. 

As Aloy and Avad crossed the threshold, Erend nodded to them in a resigned and gruff greeting. He had a bruise across his cheek that was already turning black and purple, and a small cut to his right forearm. It seemed as though he had blocked Dervahl’s stab with his arm before Ersa set upon their enemy with fury. And really, Aloy thought to herself, that one was on Dervahl. Anyone should know better than to take a swing at Erend in front of his sister.  

“Ahh, Avad is here too. Look at you, holding hands with the enemy,” Dervahl taunted Ersa from his position on the floor. “Every alliance is just a means to an end for you.”    

“The girl,” was all that Ersa snapped in response. 

She paced around Dervahl like a feral animal, lips curled back into a snarl. She swiped a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and left a streak of blood behind from her injured hand but paid it no mind. 

Dervahl coughed weakly and spat on the floor at her feet. “Why would I give you her whereabouts, bitch? That information is the only thing keeping me alive.” 

Aloy glanced at Erend for confirmation, who started an exaggerated roll of his eyes before wincing as the gesture stretched the bruising skin on his cheek. Aloy barely caught herself, almost raising a hand to brush her fingers against the injury gently. 

“Our intel was good,” Erend explained with a grimace. “Dervahl was in cahoots with these—" Erend paused, searching for the right word, and turned back to the interrogation behind them. “Hey, ugly! What was this organisation called, again?” 

Dervahl glanced up at Erend with his one good eye. “ Ugly ? You referring to me or your sister?” 

He paid dearly for the jab, Ersa’s boot connecting hard with his ribs, causing a sickening sound that made the entire room shudder. When he caught is breath, Dervahl managed to hiss out the word “Zeniths.” 

Aloy’s brow furrowed. “I just heard that word, before. Up in the tower of Thebes. What did this group have to do with Ted Faro?”

Dervahl snorted. “I don’t even fuckin’ know who you are to them, kid. But messing with these folks is gonna get you a special kind of dead.” 

At that threat, Aloy’s eyes lit up with grim inspiration. She stepped over to the older man, itching to get a closer look at the man who held the final piece of this months-long puzzle. 

She stopped short when Ersa stood firmly between them, her expression caught somewhere between fear for Aloy’s safety and a possessive kind of cruelty. This was Ersa’s fight. Dervahl’s fate was Ersa’s call. Aloy showed her understanding with a solemn nod, hoping that the look in her eyes could convey her message. 

Ersa acquiesced, slowly stepping away from Dervahl and letting Aloy take the floor. Aloy crouched before Dervahl, tied to the railing of the lighthouse, and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “Hi there,” she said cooly, tilting her head to make sure they were holding eye contact. 

Behind Aloy, Avad and Erend had sprung into action patching up Ersa’s injured hand and seating her on a stack of crates across the room. She allowed the assistance, but her eyes stayed locked on Dervahl in a predatory stare. 

“You look awfully familiar,” he joked, sly smile crossing his features. “How’s about we cut a deal. Your sister’s coordinates in exchange for my freedom?”

“That’s tempting,” said Aloy, fishing in her shirt pockets. “But I have a better idea.” 

She sat, cross-legged before the older man, just far enough that he couldn’t reach her with a kick, and placed a small syringe between them on the floor. 

“You’ve just been on a field trip,” Dervahl said, though his cocky demeanour couldn’t hide the nervous edge to his voice. “Pick that up from the tower in the south?” 

“I did,” Aloy replied, voice still light and genial. “I’ve seen what it can do, too. Well—” she corrected herself, “—I’ve seen what it can do to other people. I’d be perfectly fine. I think you already knew that.”   

“Immunity. It’s a mighty impressive party trick,” Dervahl said. He couldn’t break his gaze from the syringe. “Here I’d been told that you Sobeck girls were soft . That you wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.” 

Aloy shrugged, glancing back at the group of friends watching her carefully. “That’s usually the case. But—Dervahl, I’ve been waiting an exceptionally long time to see my sister. I’ve been halfway across the country and back. I’ve been bit—more than once— I’ve almost lost my friends a few times, too.” 

She plucked the syringe from the ground, deftly flicking the cap off the needle with one thumb, unafraid for her own wellbeing. “Worst of all, I had to spend an entire day in the company of Ceo . And now, there’s some jerk withholding information on my sister’s whereabouts. And I’m very. Fucking. Tired.” 

“Doesn’t matter if I tell you where the Zeniths are or not,” Dervahl grunted. “Either way, I’m dead.” 

“I don’t think she’s planning on killing you,” Ersa said, voice low and venomous. “I think she’d be quite happy to leave you just like this.” 

They sat in silence while Dervahl considered his options, unable to tear his eyes away from the syringe. The sun was hanging low on the horizon, just starting to dip beneath the waves to the west. The light filtered behind Dervahl, almost like flames rising beneath him. Aloy raised the syringe to his eye level, fixing him with a hard stare. 

“Where are the Zeniths?” 

In a final, desperate bid to create discord between his enemies, Dervahl swung his attention back to Aloy and Erend.

“I wouldn’t trust that one,” he said frantically, jerking his chin in Ersa’s direction. “She’ll stab you in the back as soon as she’d help you. Nobody can trust her. Erend —kid, look at me – did she ever tell you what really happened to your dear old dad?” 

Erend tilted his head in confusion, glancing in Ersa’s direction for clarification. When he was met with stony silence, he turned to Dervahl with trepidation. “What happened?” 

“All I’m saying,” said Dervahl, slowly and carefully, “is that family means nothing to a person like Ersa.” 

“You were there,” Ersa blurted, rising to her feet suddenly. Erend flung an arm out to stop her approach. “You saw the kind of person my father was. You know it wasn’t that simple.” 

“Simple enough,” Dervahl retorted, straining against the rope that kept him fixed to the balcony railing.  “Your friends ought to know that you’re the kind of person to kill a family member for your own gain.” 

Erend’s confusion seemed to grow. “Ersa, you said that dad got bitten?” When his sister didn’t answer, only running a hand through her hair in frustration, Erend grasped her arm tightly.  “What happened?!”

In the background, Aloy saw Avad try and fail to catch Ersa’s gaze, his expression more mournful than afraid. Ersa ignored them both, gaze locked on Dervahl, unblinking, hateful, and afraid .  

“Ersa?!” Erend tried again. 

“ Fuck off !” Ersa snapped, wrenching her arm away. 

Aloy raised a hand to interrupt the confusion. “I can see what you’re trying to do, but it won’t work. My sister, Dervahl. Tell us where she is, and we’ll put you down with dignity. Keep this from me and— well —you’re gonna wish you were dead,” she said firmly. 

After a tense silence, Dervahl folded. “Alright. I saw your buddy Ted up there. No way I’m putting myself through that. Put that shit away.” 

Aloy nodded, placing a cap on the syringe and pocketing it, gesturing for Dervahl to continue.

“For starters, the kid is safe. She’s grown close with one of the rich fuckers running that operation in Apollo’s cell, Tilda. All I know is that Apollo’s cell is in a new military-style bunker on the far west coast of the mainland.  The building is massive but hidden. Tucked away on the coast. These people… they’ve got bank , Aloy. We’re talking old-world billionaires. They had me and my crew running equipment and personnel for the cure research taking place in the Cell.” 

“In exchange for what?” Aloy asked. 

“Munitions. Resources. And that one ‘get out of jail free’ card I banked in Meridian. Erik and Gerard got me out, just before you hit the tower,” Dervahl explained with a cool glare. 

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Ersa said warily. 

Dervahl raised his eyes skyward, huffing in resignation. “You, asshole . You screwed up my business deal by letting the Kestrels capture us both. After that, and after you added another murdered father to your repertoire,” he said, nodding in Avad’s direction. “The Zeniths considered me nothing more than a liability. The final nail in the coffin was Asera. Said she ‘owed you one’ and gave my location to the Quen in exchange for amnesty. Said you saved her life. Never thought I’d see the day when you showed a little mercy, Ersa.” 

“You’re out here on your own,” Aloy concluded. 

“High and dry,” Dervahl confirmed with a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes. “If you catch up with the Zeniths, I hope you fuckin’ ruin their day.” 

“I’ll try my best,” Aloy said drily. 

“Excellent,” said Dervahl. “Now, if you don’t mind—” 

With that, he suddenly swung both arms free from his constraints, having used their conversation as cover to loosen the ropes. He grasped Aloy by the throat with one hand, using the other to snatch the syringe from her shirt pocket before shoving her roughly to one side. In the blink of an eye he had Ersa pressed to the opposite wall. Aloy barely had time to right herself before the syringe was at her friend’s throat, full of a live virus sample. 

“I’d say see you in hell, Ersa, but I hear this shit makes you live forever,” he hissed, pressing their faces close as he began to push on the plunger of the syringe with his thumb. 

Ersa could only manage a grunt of pain, followed by a high-pitched noise of terror when Dervahl suddenly stopped short. Halfway across the room, Aloy stopped in her tracks as well, gasping for air and shocked to her core. 

Behind Dervahl, Avad had snatched the abandoned paring knife from the floor and plunged it deep into the base of the other man’s skull in an effort to save Ersa. The whole room froze, Dervahl staring hard at Ersa until his hateful glare made way for shock, fear, and then nothing . His body pitched forward and down, with only a faint gurgling sound to mark the end of his life.    

As Dervahl’s body fell limply to the ground between them, Avad rushed forward into Ersa’s arms, shaking from adrenaline. 

Ersa took a moment to get her bearings, before tugging Avad close to her chest, pressing a firm kiss to the top of his head. “Thank you— thank you . I’ve got you. Fuck … it’s okay.” 

“We’re okay,” Avad mumbled back, searching for confirmation. 

“We are. My god, I love you,” Ersa whispered back, seemingly before she could stop herself. She froze for a short moment, before a shocked laugh bubbled its way out of her chest and she clutched Avad tighter. “I love you.” 

Aloy kicked the syringe across the floor with a horrified sound, mortified that her own plan was used against her. Once she was satisfied that her friends were safe, Aloy shook her head to clear the shock and fear away and turned her attention to Erend. He was watching the scene with a drawn and shell shocked expression, brows drawn close together and lips parted in a small ‘oh’ of surprise. It looked as though he was still processing the information that Dervahl had let slip when the chaos had unfolded. 

Aloy reached over, finally giving in to temptation, and brushed a gentle hand against the bruise on Erend’s cheek. “Let’s give them a minute and go get you cleaned up.” 

Erend nodded, expression numb, and allowed himself to be led back downstairs.

Once back at the base of the lighthouse, Aloy gave a deeply worried Alva and Kotallo the short version of events and set to work cleaning up the gash on Erend’s arm. If her touch lingered on his skin longer than was needed. If she used her own hands to hold a cold compress to Erend’s bruised cheek, when he was perfectly capable of doing so on his own, well, that was their business. 

Erend didn’t seem to mind, cupping her small hand with his own and leaning into the touch, his earlier shocked expression making way for something akin to adoration.  “Thanks, Aloy,” he whispered. 

“Get some rest,” she said softly in reply. “I’ve got you.” 

Twilight had fallen, and the sound of the tide washing in and out was punctuated by cicada calls and other wildlife. In the distance, Creatures could be heard wandering the abandoned city, as well as living humans, Quen on the shoreline, going about their business. Erend spent the next hour or so dozing lightly against Aloy’s shoulder.   

It took some time for Ersa and Avad to return downstairs. When they did, it was obvious Ersa was in a hell of a state, with dried tears streaked through the blood she had swiped across her face. There were circles under her eyes that were so dark they looked almost painful, and she was visibly drained, head hanging low. 

Still, she approached her brother without hesitation. “I owe you an explanation.”

“Not really,” Erend said softly. “I met dad. I know he was a piece of work.” 

Ersa nodded and took a shaky breath as Erend pulled her into a hug. His faith in his sister was unwavering, even after this bombshell was dropped. 

“He was awful—to you most of all, Erend—I knew by the time you were ten years old that it was going to end with either you or dad in the ground. And it was never gonna be you, not on my watch. So… I found some help with the Freebooters.” 

“Dervahl gave you the means—” 

“And the weapon,” Ersa confirmed, her voice wobbling with exhaustion and emotion. “S’why we worked with Dervahl for so long. He was our ticket out. Until he started to get real creepy. He seemed to be labouring under the delusion that he owned me because he helped me. I tried to avoid him, but it all came to a pretty violent head when he set a trap for me. I lost part of my hearing and Dervahl lost a hell of a lot of blood… and dignity.”

“Do I wanna know?” Erend asked with trepidation. 

“No, you really don’t. And so, then we ran away. Again.”  

“It’s done,” Erend said, rubbing her back reassuringly. “It’s finally over. And now we’re running toward something. Next stop is rescuing Beta and dealing with these… Zeniths.”

“And perhaps to ask Sylens a question or two about his involvement with Ted Faro,” Avad added.

Aloy’s hands curled into fists at the thought. Sylens had been lying to her for months now. Dodging all of Aloy’s questions about his knowledge of the virus, the Zeniths, her mother, everything . Based on Faro and Elisabet’s recording in Thebes, she had good reason to believe that Sylens was involved with developing the virus in the first place. She raised a hand to her headset before thinking better of it. This was a conversation best held face-to-face, when they made their way back to Free Heap. She didn’t want to give Sylens the heads up that she was returning and allow him an opportunity to slip away once more. 

“Headsets off until we get back to Free Heap. Get some rest, everyone.”

They took the next boat off the island, surrounded by the same military personnel that escorted them to the tower at the beginning of this venture. The trip was silent and tense, punctuated with a little amusement when Ersa’s entire collection of munitions was returned to her in a large safe. 

Sweet, bubbly, and nervous Alva had joined the gang at Bohai’s request, with Kotallo in tow, sticking out like an intimidating sore thumb. If she wasn’t so busy considering how to approach Sylens about his involvement with Faro’s project, Aloy would have found the contrast between her two new companions amusing. 

As it was, she couldn’t help but ruminate on how she was going to deal with this new information. If Elisabet and Ted’s recording was accurate, Sylens had known the origins of the virus from the very beginning.

Aloy drummed her fingers against the railing on the boat, agitated and tense. Sylens had wilfully sent Aloy into dangerous situations, time and time again, without all the information she needed to navigate them. 

And to what end? What was Sylens hoping to achieve, using Aloy as a proxy for his updated research. Had he hidden behind Elisabet in the field as well? Did he know what happened to Sobeck, in her final days? 

Perhaps most concerning of all, Aloy wondered if Sylens had just been involved in the discovery of the virus that created the Creatures, or if he was responsible for creating it. 

A large, warm hand covered both of her own, stopping her agitated movements and surrounding her with comfort. 

“You saw some shit up there, didn’t you?” Erend asked softly. “You okay?” 

Aloy nodded in reply, not yet ready or willing to voice her concerns to the rest of the group. She didn’t even know where to begin with the events of the last twenty-four hours. She just knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was unbelievably grateful to see her friends whole and well and by her side. 

Without giving it much further thought, Aloy removed her hands from the railing and tugged Erend toward her into a tight hug, clutching the back of his shirt and burying her face into the crook of his neck. 

Erend managed a surprised “Whoa, hey!” before pulling her toward him, squeezing her hard enough that her feet lifted off the floor just a little. 

Their embrace was interrupted only when the boat landed ashore, bumping into a sandbank with a soft thud and a sudden shout of surprise. 

“The fuck are you doing here?” Ersa bellowed across the small distance of land that laid between their group and Petra, Sylens, and Varl waiting for them along the shore. 

“You were taking too long,” Petra called back cheerily. “We decided to escort your asses home. I see you’ve added to our collection,” she added, nodding at Alva and Kotallo as they disembarked from the boat.

“The more the merrier, of course,” Varl chimed in, before stumbling back in shock as Aloy shoved past him, making a beeline for their sullen companion.

“ YOU! ” 

For all her plans to remain calm and collected when she confronted him, the very sight of Sylens sent Aloy’s temper clear over the edge of frustration. Face running hot with anger, and skin prickling with disgust for the man in front of her, she barrelled into Sylens and shoved hard enough to send him tumbling awkwardly into the sand. 

“We need to talk,” she hissed. 

Sylens stared up at her from the ground with a baleful glare. “In private,” he said, voice low and threatening. “Not here.” 

The rest of the group seemed to know better than to intervene. Their unfriendly Quen escorts paid them just enough mind to dump the group’s belongings on the sand and set off again, monitoring the exchange from a safe distance on the water. 

“I want the rest of them to hear it,” Aloy shot back, stepping forward until she was standing over Sylens menacingly, her chest heaving with exertion. She bent over and curled a fist into the front of his jacket, pulling him roughly toward her with an aggravated grunt. “You. Faro. Explain .” 

“Aloy—" Sylens began, raising an appeasing hand to the fist raised in his face. 

“ Answer me ! What were you doing working for Ted Faro. What were you responsible for?! Did you follow us here just to clean up your mess? Or maybe cover your tracks, now that I’ve discovered you were working for Ted Faro? Is that what you did to my mother?” 

Sylens lowered his gaze at this comment. Silence reigned as Aloy struggled to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. The rest of the group came to stand in a loose circle around the pair, preventing any escape. The salt in the air took on a cold taste and the wind picked up around them. A storm was brewing offshore.   

“I didn’t come here for absolution, Aloy,” Sylens sighed at long last. “I know that we’re well past that. You should know by now that I’m no fool, though. I’d never lay a hand on Elisabet when she was the only one that could have saved us all.” 

“So why—” 

“I was contracted to her research team, not Theodore Faro’s. Thank you very much,” Sylens snapped. “As the recording stated, Elisabet was the one who severed contact with me after I told her I would publicise Faro’s mistake. That I would tell the world he had pushed the drug to human trials much too soon, and caused the mess that we find ourselves in today.” 

Sylens rose to his feet slowly, appeasing hand still raised before Aloy to show that he wasn’t planning any sudden moves. “Elisabet was right to try and prevent panic, but I’m not one to tolerate living in ignorance unless secrecy is a necessity—as it was when I met you—and it mattered very little in the end, because by the time I had found out about the human trials, the infection was already out of control.” 

“Why would Elisabet want to keep the infection a secret from the world?” Aloy asked, stepping towards Sylens in a predatory motion as he stepped away. 

“Because it was a matter of personal interest to her. To prevent the story from getting out. There was another funding source for the drug testing, besides Ceo’s family.” Sylens’ gaze flicked to Alva. “You’re a Quen historian and researcher, correct? You have partial access to Faro’s and Sobeck’s research?” 

Alva nodded, eyes wide with shock and confusion. “Y—yes. That’s correct.” 

“The other sponsor. What was their name?”

“Well,” Alva began, her voice pitched high with nerves. Kotallo instinctually stepped closer to his friend as the group’s attention was directed to her. “It was placed under a family name, but there was only one living member of this family at the time—” 

Sylens prompted her to continue by raising his eyebrows and snapping. “If you don’t mind—I’d rather make it out of this exchange alive . The other sponsor. What was their name?”’ 

“Van der Meer,” Alva said, befuddled by her role in this conversation. “Tilda Van der Meer.” 

Sylens nodded and turned his attention back to Aloy, who was watching Alva with a hard, suspicious glare. Beta trusted this girl wholeheartedly, and she had no reason to lie to Aloy that she knew of. But why would Elisabet have such a personal vested interest in Beta’s captor? 

“According to the personnel records at Elisabet’s company, Tilda and Elisabet were one another’s emergency contact for a period of about two years. They also had the same address. Other email records from Sobeck’s time at Faro Industries indicate that they were most likely a couple, for a time,” Alva clarified in response to Aloy’s thunderstruck expression. “I… I think Elisabet was protecting Tilda.” 

“They were a couple,” Sylens confirmed. “Until Ms Van der Meer threw a considerable sum of money in the direction of Faro’s research. A drug that was intended only to be made available to an elite upper class. So that they might continue their lives indefinitely. 

“Elisabet walked away from their relationship not long after that… significant moral dilemma. She was called back specifically by Faro when it became apparent that the infection was out of control.”   

Aloy’s brows furrowed in confusion. “That doesn’t explain why she remained silent after their… involvement ended,” she said, frustration mounting. 

“Elisabet had a plan, to set things right again,” Sylens continued. “A plan to develop, fund, and execute a cure in record time with a crack team of researchers, including myself.”

“And?”

“And she failed,” he finished simply. “Faro was dragging his feet, too concerned with his reputation. I was sent away. Tilda withheld information and funds as a means of trying to draw Elisabet back into her life. And the infection rate was already critical by the time Elisabet was made aware of the issue. We couldn’t complete the work in time.” 

“I see,” Aloy said, letting the word ‘failed’ tick over in her mind. She had a complicated narrative in her head, surrounding her mother’s life and death. Her feelings towards Elisabet were mixed, confused, and equal parts angered and in awe of the larger-than-life figure that her mother’s ghost had left behind. The Elisabet Sobeck of her imagination and memory was an unstoppable human, who had all the answers. Aloy had been chasing her story for as long as she could remember. 

And whilst she didn’t look up to the woman blindly. There was not once, in her life, that Aloy had ever expected to hear that her mother had simply failed . 

“After she realised she couldn’t stop the outbreak,” Sylens continued, seemingly oblivious to Aloy’s face twisted in consternation and confusion, “Elisabet wanted to go home. She wanted to continue her research with her children by her side. Which—as you already know—is when she discovered the immunity had a genetic link.” 

“And that the rest of the world would see Beta and I as—”

“As valuable assets, yes,” Sylens concluded. If Aloy didn’t know any better, she could have sworn she saw the faintest hint of sympathy in his eyes. “The Zeniths, and Tilda in particular, saw Elisabet’s motherly instincts as a liability.” 

“So they separated us,” Aloy breathed. The group around them seemed suddenly too close. Epiphany crashed over her like the waves on the shoreline. Tilda was responsible for Elisabet’s death, whether directly or indirectly, she had divulged the information about Elisabet’s immunity, which led to everything else that happened. “The swarm that killed her outside of Nevada was no accident.”  

Sylens nodded solemnly. “And now, Tilda seeks to control Beta’s life. Not just as a means of rectifying her terrible mistake, but as a way to control the narrative. I doubt very much that your sister is aware of the full story, yet,” he added. “But I have reason to believe this is why she reached out to your Quen friend, here.” 

“Alva,” Kotallo corrected Sylens firmly. “Her name is Alva.” 

“I beg your forgiveness,” Sylens said with a disdainful glance in Kotallo’s direction. “We have far more pressing matters to address than the introduction of names . For instance, Beta’s whereabouts.” 

Dervahl had given Aloy a hint as to Beta’s whereabouts. A vague location that she was hoping to piece together with the help of her friends. Sylens offering Beta’s location now, as though it was the easiest thing in the world, filled Aloy with renewed rage. 

“You know where she is?” she barked, “Are you planning on holding it over my head until we let you go?” 

Sylens visibly restrained himself from rolling his eyes. “I am not a good person, Aloy, but I am not Tilda. I also see no utility in keeping the two of you apart. Beta is in the Zenith research facility on the far west coast. They’re right on the water, not far from the city formerly known as Watsonville.” 

At this information, Aloy’s shoulders immediately relaxed. She took a step back from Sylens and gestured to the group to do the same. The tension broke like a cut wire. 

Petra approached Aloy cautiously, rubbing a firm hand up and down her bicep to snap her out of her turmoil. “That’s not far from here, we could—” 

“No,” Aloy said, her tone still a little hollow from shock at the day’s revelations. “We should reconvene. We need to be careful, and we need to do this properly, as a team.” 

Petra nodded her approval, before sweeping Aloy into a bear hug that was largely against her will. Before she knew it, the rest of the group had followed, practically crushing her with affection (save for Sylens who watched on, deeply unimpressed). 

Aloy erupted with relieved laughter, at long last letting herself lean into the love surrounding her. They finally, finally had hope. They had direction. Now, they just needed a plan. 

“Alright guys, get it together. This is way too much affection,” she ordered, though she was sure to hold on to Erend and Ersa until the very end of the group hug.

Petra slapped her across the back jovially. “Sounds good to me! Let’s gather the troops and go get your sister!”

“Gathering the troops” was markedly easier in theory than it was in practice, Aloy quickly discovered. 

The logistics of bringing together a large mass of people to face the Zeniths was messy when one took into account the previous decades of discontent, skirmishes and outright wars that had occurred between each region. 

More socially adept than his sister, Erend had immediately been tasked with collecting Oseram figureheads in the surrounds of Meridian and convincing them to enter the city for discussions of reparations, and then to help with clearing and restoring Brightmarket after the Zenith attack had levelled half the settlement. Ersa’s immediate goal was arranging some kind of military order amongst her people for protection of the city. There had been heated debate about what to name her troops, but eventually the group had landed on ‘Vanguard’ at Alva’s suggestion. 

True to her word, Vanasha had successfully created a reputation for Avad that long preceded his return to Meridian, and he was hailed back as a hero—as some kind of conqueror, really—and Ersa was rightfully credited as the woman that made his success possible. 

“It would be a lie,” Vanasha said cautiously, as they wandered the halls of Meridian’s main tower, “to say that you’re both very popular.” 

That much was apparent in the haughty Carja stares that Ersa was being fixed with everywhere she went. Aloy fought back a snicker as Ersa glared right back at a well-dressed couple who were whispering snide remarks about her presence, and loudly asked them “What?!” 

By Vanasha’s side (and with one arm snaked around Vanasha’s waist), Petra cringed. “We’re going to need to work on your courtly manners .” 

Avad shrugged, entertained as Aloy was by the exchange. “Not necessarily. Ersa will be instrumental in keeping the new Oseram troops in line. I wouldn't want her to lose her spark or her candour for the sake of Meridian’s high society.” 

Petra rounded on Ersa with a grin. “My friend, if you don’t marry this man immediately, I will.” 

“Yeah, alright. It’s been less than forty-eight hours,” Ersa remarked, though she couldn’t fight back her smile. 

They rounded another corner of the tower and found themselves in a large, circular chamber near the top of the tower. A massive, round table filled the centre of the room, which Petra had taken the liberty of building with her own hands. Lining the walls were small window seats, and other more private rooms for quiet conversation. 

Atop the table was a topographic map of their current target, the Zenith base, and it's surroundings. 

Aloy’s face split into a grin and her heart soared as she noticed Erend already seated at the round table. He returned her grin with a wink, and raised his glass at the rest of the group entering. At his side sat Kotallo and Alva, ready for the meeting they had called. Leaning against the back wall with his arms folded, stood a sullen Sylens, though even with his poor attitude he couldn’t refuse Zo when she offered him a snack from a platter that she was holding just over her slightly rounded belly. 

Janeva surprised the group by rising to pull both Avad and Ersa into a relieved hug, clearly overwhelmed at seeing them both hale and well after the chaos they had left behind. Behind Janeva, Morlund had already launched into an excited discussion with Petra about the craftsmanship of her table. Abadund stood shyly beside him, only slightly rolling his eyes as Stemmur plucked a pen out of his breast pocket and began drafting a sonnet about the occasion unfolding before them. 

Before Aloy could walk around the table to take the empty seat next to Erend, she was engulfed in an excited hug from Talanah, who squeezed her hands in delight. “It’s so good to see you again!” 

Aloy returned the hug with a bashful grin, and Talanah clutched her shoulders, guiding her to sit beside Erend with a teasing wink and a pat of Erend’s forearm. 

The interaction wasn’t missed by Varl, who waggled his eyebrows in Aloy’s direction before clapping his hands to gain everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for joining us here! I know it was a huge venture for some of you to travel all the way to Meridian.” Aloy’s heart swelled with pride at her friend's command of the room. Everyone was listening with rapt attention as Varl announced the agenda of their meeting. “We’ve all been called here to talk about an urgent matter of concern—Aloy’s sister, Beta, has been held captive by an organisation called the Zeniths for several months now. Now, Beta seems to be as unstoppable as her sister, and has managed to reach us through a few hidden messages, here and there. Through Beta and Aloy’s research, we’ve discovered that the Zeniths hold some extremely valuable information about the infection that causes Creatures.” 

Janeva tilted their head to the side curiously. “What exactly do they have?” 

“We’re not sure exactly how far they’ve gotten into their research,” Aloy confessed, “but we have reason to believe they are developing a cure for the disease that only they can control.” 

Petra nodded solemnly, joining Varl’s side at the table. “We can’t let these bastards hold the monopoly on a cure.” 

“More or less,” Aloy said, taking command of the room by rising to her feet. “I originally thought that finding my sister was my mission alone, but this has become so much bigger than just rescuing one person. It’s critical that we take this information—and my sister—back from the Zeniths, and fast, before they take total control of the situation.” 

Ersa rapped her knuckles on the table sharply. “So, Erend, Petra, and I are keeping the Oseram in line. Avad has Janeva, Talanah, and Vanasha’s support to rally the Carja.” 

Kotallo chimed in next, voice a deep rumble across the room. “There’s no love lost between my people and the Zeniths. We can send a few squads to your aid.” 

“The Quen,” Alva added meekly, “have uh… agreed to remain neutral. Which sure is… something .”   

Aloy fell still, listening to the offers of support, warriors, and munitions from all the friends she had gathered on her journey over the last few months. “I’m not comfortable with this,” she declared suddenly. And it was true, her heart was racing at the idea that her friends—her family—would be putting themselves in grave danger to complete this mission. 

“Aloy,” Erend began gently, “you said it yourself. It’s critical we take control back from the Zeniths. This isn’t just for you, it’s for the good of humanity.”

“I understand that,” Aloy said, frustrated patches of colour rising in her cheeks. She was suddenly petrified. “But there’s no way I’m going to throw masses of lives at the Zenith base like this. We saw what they did to Brightmarket! I don’t want to lose—I can’t lose —anyone here.” 

Except, perhaps, Sylens, who pushed himself off the wall with a disgruntled sound. Aloy glanced at him sharply, almost recoiling at his presence since his involvement with Faro’s research had come to light. She could only imagine what information he had been withholding until this moment, where he could put it to use against Aloy. 

“We may have somewhat of a solution to this,” Sylens said carefully. “Petra and I—” 

“Mostly Petra,” Petra interjected. 

“ Yes ,” Sylens said with gritted teeth. “ Mostly Petra . We have developed a larger scale version of my—my—prototype EMP which you may have noticed when you broke into my labs in Free Heap.” 

A confused silence fell across the group, in which Sylens, quietly pained, seemed to realise that he was going to have to explain the purpose of the EMP to the group. 

Erend saved Sylens the trouble, however, piping up with a delighted sound. “You’re gonna shut down their communications?!” 

“Correct. It will also shut down any electronic protection they have set up around the base.” 

“Won’t that leave Beta in the dark?” Aloy asked cautiously.

“For a short time, yes,” Sylens confirmed. “It is a risk, but I would consider it the safest option for everyone else, including yourself. ” 

Aloy weighed her options, and nodded slowly. “I hear you, but I want to increase our chances of success. Take Morlund with you. We also need something that’s gonna create a big distraction once we get spotted in the Zenith’s territory.” 

She addressed Avad next. “There’s a high ridge, just southeast of the target. The Carja troops should camp there and provide cover fire. This will double as an area for the Oseram to fall back.” 

Ersa nodded, impressed. “And I’ll lead the brute force through the eastern entrance here,” she confirmed, clapping a hand against Aloy’s back. “Smart. Kotallo’s team knows the area best and can set the area up with traps with Alva, Zo, and Varl’s help.” 

“And you, Erend,” Aloy declared, “are with me.”

“Always,” Erend said confidently, just when Aloy didn’t think her heart could fill with any more affection for her friends. “We’ll sneak through the base during the chaos, and find your sister.”

The group left the conference room in waves, separated into teams in order to discuss specifics (and Aloy pinched the bridge of her nose when she noticed Sylens was already getting snarky with Morlund, earning a threat of violence from Petra).

When the last of the gang had exited, Aloy turned to Erend, realising with a racing heart that they were alone together for the first time in days. Unconsciously, she raised her hands to chest height, picking at her nails for want of a distraction from Erend’s expectant smile.  

“What’s the game plan, boss?”

Aloy took a deep breath. “Yeah,” she said with a nervous quiver to her voice. “We need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Aloy took a deep breath. “Yeah,” she said with a nervous quiver to her voice. “We need to talk.”

Almost against her will, Aloy’s fingers laced together in front of her protectively. She plucked at a stray, calloused piece of skin on her right index finger, before forcing her gaze back upward. Back to Erend.

Erend smiled patiently, his eyes twinkling with a hidden amusement. Aloy was almost certain that Erend knew what she was up to. He slowly rose from his seat at the round table and indicated to one of the more private booths that Aloy had spotted previously. “Let’s hear it.”

Once they were seated at the booth, Aloy took in the sight of him again, her mouth running dry. Erend’s eyes looked striking in the light—pale blues complemented by the colours shifting across the room.  His smile, however, was a little on the smug side for Aloy’s liking.

Aloy opened her mouth, and snapped it shut again. She wasn’t sure how to formulate her sentences correctly—or in the right order—to make him understand where she was coming from. She settled for rising from her seat abruptly and pacing around the small space a few times.

“So,” she said.

“So,” Erend replied, his voice thick with suppressed laughter.

“I have,” Aloy continued, straightening her back into a ridiculously rigid posture. The corners of her mouth turned down in seriousness, as though she was about to formally address the man before her for—for what? Crimes? “I have come to a conclusion.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Erend said, leaning back with folded arms. “About?”

“You. Me. Us.”

“Ah,” said Erend, brows rising as he watched Aloy take another frantic lap of the room. “Should I be privy to this conclusion?”

“Of course,” Aloy snapped, nerves taking over.

“Of course.”

Aloy pinched the bridge of her nose and willed her racing heart to slow down just a little. Erend looked completely relaxed— entertained , even—by her nerves. He didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Then again, she supposed, he had probably reached this conclusion about them weeks ago.

She looked back at her friend. Erend had unfolded his arms and leaned forward, paying Aloy the most rapt attention. His gaze was warm, affectionate, nonjudgmental and safe .

Erend was beautiful. He was here for her. He was patient, undemanding, and he deserved the whole world. The words came tumbling out of her before she could reconsider her right to share them.  

“I love you, Erend. I’m in love with you,” she blurted. Shock and relief took over her in equal measure and her shoulders slumped. The weight was lifted from her chest. She could take this next step on her journey without worrying if Erend would ever know. “I didn’t even know I could feel this way about someone but you—you did something to me.” 

Erend’s calm façade cracked. His barely concealed amusement shone through his face as it split into a grin. “I did something to you?”  

“You know what I mean. You’re— special —I don’t know!” Aloy took a few steps toward Erend, and immediately reconsidered, turning around and shaking her arms out around her to try and relieve some tension. When that didn’t work, she settled for a few quick bounces on the balls of her feet, raising her hands to run them through her hair as she did so, before becoming acutely aware that she looked fucking ridiculous.  

“Erend. Say something, please.”  

He simply stared at her with the same delighted grin.  

“Come on, man. Don’t ‘Han Solo’ me!”  

“Alright,” Erend said, raising his hands, palms facing Aloy in a gesture of peace. “I’m gonna be real with you—”  

“… What?” Aloy asked cautiously, suddenly reconsidering every choice that she’d made today. She wondered if she might combust on the spot, every part of her body wanted to run from the room as she waited for him to respond with bated breath.  

“I didn’t think the happiest moment of my life would be accompanied by the words ‘ come on man, don’t Han Solo me ’, but here we are,” he replied with a chuckle.  

“Erend!”  

“ Aloy !” Erend shot back, before relaxing into an easy grin and beckoning her over. “Come here.”  

He was seated by one of the large bay windows in the booth, sunlight streaming through the fractal glass and sending prisms of colour over Erend’s warm expression. It was almost like the lights from the maze in Hidden Ember, but this time it wasn’t manufactured. It was real , and Aloy’s heart clenched as she looked over the scene with affection and awe.

She stepped forward, more nervous than she had ever expected to be in her life, and into Erend’s space. Erend raised a hand as she approached, and she wove her fingers between his own, creeping forward until she was standing right over her friend where he sat, and the coloured lights from the window were surrounding them both.  

“I love you,” she repeated, her voice fading to a whisper, raising her free hand to press against his cheek. “I don’t know how else to say it, except—can I—?”  

His cocky humour forgotten, Erend nodded. His brows were drawn together slightly as he gazed up at her in the most earnest look of adoration. He managed a breathless “Yes—” just before Aloy dove forward and captured his lips with her own.  

Aloy had never been one for much physical affection. She had been kissed before, even had the odd fling with good friends from her old life, but she had never regarded physical contact with much excitement. For her, it was enjoyable on occasion. Until now, though, she had never felt that urge to chase someone for their touch, to follow them into their personal space, and to explore them in a way that made her discover things about her own body. Her own desires.  

This kiss, though, was the first in her life that had been preceded with the words ‘I love you’, and to Aloy’s mind and body, it made all the difference. She felt like she had been set alight, and the only way to douse that feeling was to touch every part of Erend she could reach, all at once. Erend’s touch was soft, but firm, and when he slid a large hand around her waist, the other lifting to cradle the back of her head, it unlocked a hunger in Aloy that she had never felt before.    

Unthinking, she curled both hands firmly in the front of Erend’s jacket, holding him in place as she climbed forward, straddling his lap and swallowing the surprised sound that her movements drew from Erend’s mouth.  

She mimicked his movements, curling her fingers against the back of his head and tugging lightly at his short crop of hair until another muffled laugh from her friend interrupted their kiss.  

“I’m enjoying this—I’m enjoying this a lot , Aloy—but we are in public,” Erend said with another giggle.  

Aloy leaned back a fraction, just enough to lightly press her forehead to Erend’s while her hands on his shoulders held them both steady.  

His cheeks and nose were dusted a light pink, and his eyes crinkled in a broad smile. Aloy knew she was probably a severely unbecoming shade of red, but Erend didn’t seem to mind. He shifted slightly underneath her, very obviously savouring the small gasp his movement drew from Aloy, and rubbed his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion.  

“We should find a less public location,” Aloy prompted quietly, frowning as she leaned in for another kiss that Erend deftly dodged. “Maybe once the battle is won,” she added gently, and pulled him closer into a tender embrace.  

“Agreed. When we have all the time in the world,” Erend said in response, sighing against Aloy’s shoulder as he buried himself into their hug. Something seemed to unravel in Erend’s body language as Aloy held him close. A tension released and forgotten, that left him pliant and relaxed in her arms. “I love you.”  

“Oh, cool,” said Aloy with a sly grin, and brushed their noses together. “I was wondering.”  

“Shit! I was trying so hard to stay cool I forgot to say it back straight away,” Erend said with a mortified groan.  

“Don’t tell me you were nervous as well?”

“ Terrified ,” Erend confessed. “But I do—love you, I mean. You’ve become my best friend in these last few weeks. And my inspiration. Everyone you meet seems to become a better person for knowing you and I—I don’t know how to explain it—but I just know I’ll love you forever. You’ll always have me, Aloy. Whatever way you need me.”

Plan established, they rode at dawn. After Petra threatened to kill anyone that made that joke.  

The topographical map that Aloy had seen laid out in Meridian didn’t do justice to the landscape that unfolded before them. She had been expecting more of the same: ruined cities, towers, maybe the odd forest, but what she saw was a veritable jungle which filled gorges and valleys as far as the naked eye could see.  

They were set to meet Kotallo’s contacts on the other side of what he called the ‘Valley of the Fallen’. On the way in, Erend and Ersa had debated at length as to whether this was the actual name of the valley, or just some more scary and cryptic behaviour from Kotallo.  

The former was confirmed by a friend of Kotallo’s at the edge of a sheer cliff-face—a woman named Ivvira with a warm demeanour, a competitive streak, and a wide, gap-toothed smile. Ivvira led them over the cliffside and across a waterfall-carved gorge so deep that even Aloy’s head started to spin as they crossed a narrow wooden bridge to the other side. Far, far below, she could hear the chaos and cries of a Creature horde that had fallen into the valley below, never to return. Their voices echoed under the rush of a waterfall, tumbling over the northern edge of the gorge.  

Aloy and Erend had agreed to join Ivvira and Kotallo to scout ahead with the other locals, before sending the other crews in behind them later in the day. Avad and Ersa had stayed behind to keep the peace between and coordinate with Oseram and Carja who had joined to help. Between her group of friends with their varying influence, they had amassed almost a hundred volunteers to join the onslaught. Aloy was shocked, but word had travelled far since Meridian, and she knew that the prospect of finding a cure was too tempting to resist.  

“Not many foreigners return once they enter the valley,” Ivvira explained, using the same cheery tone one might use to describe the morning weather. “Hunters. Thrill-seekers and such. They think they’re up for the challenge. Most of them are mistaken. What is it that you’re looking for again?”  

Erend struggled immensely with the walk, clutching Aloy’s hand so tightly she thought that it might drop off, but he managed to grunt out a response. “Heard there was an old government lockdown facility on the beach, behind all this jungle.”  

Ivvira considered, pausing to lean against the bridge railing, deep in thought. “There might be. My old man worked at the marina over at Tide’s Reach before everything went south. He said one day a bunch of lab-coats and uniforms rocked up, took most of their stock and civilian vessels, and just… disappeared . He’s been looking for some of his old favourite ships in that wreckage near the ruins of San Francisco, but most of them never turned up,” she said before swinging her arms and body forward, causing the railing to wobble just a little as she made her way further along the track.

Erend made a noise so high-pitched it would likely have caused any dogs in the vicinity to start barking uncontrollably. Aloy squeezed his hand in reassurance and promised to save any teasing until they had reached the ground on the other side.    

“This facility may still be in operation,” Kotallo said to Ivvira directly. Imperceptibly, the woman’s back straightened as though being addressed by a commanding officer. “How many fighters were you able to gather?”  

“Not a lot of people, besides Gettak and the rest of Fox Squad. Hekkaro and Yarra sent a surprising number of supplies—turns out Aloy and Ersa’s reputation travelled fast after all the excitement in Meridian—but the two of them didn’t send many troops,” Ivvira replied, before looking to Kotallo with a heavy sigh. “I’ll give you three guesses how Tekkoteh’s reaction went down.”  

Kotallo didn’t answer, but his expression tightened into a funny sort of grimace. Aloy elected not to ask her new friend about the reaction. A question for another day.  

Once they reached the other side of the rickety bridge, Ivvira signalled for the next team to follow. Varl, Zo, Morlund, Abadund and Petra crept along the wooden slats, arms laden with supplies for traps and diversions that they intended to plant in the jungles ahead.  

On the far side of the bridge, Aloy noticed a clearly marked and well-lit trail leading over the cliffside and down to the ravines and beaches below. “I thought you said people didn’t often come here?”  

“They used to,” Kotallo replied. “It was a popular tourist spot, and most of the Creatures from the previous settlement are stuck in the gorge below us. Lately though, it seems like they’ve found a way to climb out.”  

“Or… they’re being pulled out,” Aloy said.  

“Fill the valley with Zs to keep any unwanted visitors away?” Ivvira asked.  

“I think so—let me get a better look,” Aloy replied, jerking her chin in the direction of a large tree that sat to the right of their path. “If I climb this I should be able to get a better look at the other side of this hill, and the beach below.” 

“Great idea,” Ivvira said, in perfect unison with Erend’s cry of “Are you out of your damn mind?!”

Aloy gave Erend’s hand one final squeeze, before hoisting herself up the lowest branch of the tree. “I’ll be right back, promise.”  

Aloy was always filled with a sense of childish glee when climbing. She was quick, sure-footed, and surprisingly strong for her small stature, and it meant that she could climb with speed and agility. She could get away from any predator, spot secrets and beautiful views, and run away from almost any problem when climbing. She could even set up camp in the boughs of particularly large trees when she was away from civilization. When she was little, and overwhelmed by the state of the world, Aloy used to scale whatever cliff face, building, or tree she could find and think to herself just try and catch me .

This time, though, she was climbing directly into the face of a problem. When she reached the top of the tree, the Zenith base revealed itself to her. The forest canopy overlooked a gorgeous, untouched cove. It looked like it could have been a private beach, once upon a time. Planted on an island about half a mile from the shoreline, a large and unyielding grey monolith stood. It was surrounded by some sort of… pulse? The barrier that Sylens had spoken of. The building was enormous, and towered over the mainland, supervising a scene below that she was in no way prepared for.  

“Sylens,” Aloy whispered, tapping on her headset. “They’re not just using the barrier."  

“ Creatures? ”  

“… so fucking many of them, Sylens.”  

And it was true. There were a few dotted along the cliff face where Aloy and her crew were. But below that, past a small archway, a shambling wave of horror littered a plateau just above the shoreline. At the water, about a dozen more.  The mass of Creatures seemed to be isolated to one spot, but it was an area where Aloy simply could not see a way around. She had to get through there alive.  

“ That’s what your Oseram friends are for ,” Sylens replied.  

“I’m not throwing them to their deaths!” Aloy hissed. “Even if it means waiting to find Beta, I’ll find another way.”

“ Don’t be crass, Aloy. I planned for this, as you should have, too. The distraction that your friend Morlund will be causing is for the infected , not for the Zeniths. ”  

He never failed to surprise her. Aloy breathed a sigh of relief and tapped on her headset once more. “Thank you, Sylens. I’m surprised to see another shining example of your good conscience.”  

“ Oh, please, ” Sylens retorted, though there was the faintest hint of amusement in his tone. “ Don’t accuse me of having a good heart. A head-on fight would simply have been impractical .”

By twilight, the rest of their teams had arrived, with small campfires dotted along the ridge overlooking the cove. Ivirra and Kotallo kept a close eye on each camp, ensuring that they kept a low profile.  

Zo had stepped into a position of leadership at Aloy’s side, creating a makeshift medic bay in the cool shade of a smaller waterfall. She spotted some useful plants by a mossy pool at the base of the falls, and set to work supplementing their existing food and first-aid supplies with the flora.  Alva, of course, was quite knowledgeable in history and cartography, and led a small team in creating more detailed maps, outlining what the crews headed for the plateau below could expect.  

Ersa proved herself to be a tough but fair leader, dividing up her Oseram crews between assisting Zo with the medic bay and arming the Carja hunter teams who followed Talanah and Avad. Erend backed her every move, conveying orders when Ersa couldn’t be present herself.  

Aloy was so taken with her friends and their skills, that she felt almost lost herself. She flitted between teams and caught up with as many groups as she could, carrying supplies between camps and sharing information as needed, but she felt a constant sense of distance and isolation from the crowds. Her role in this fight was a solitary one. Only she had the key, the knowledge, and the incredibly bad luck to be tasked with infiltrating the Zenith base below. And for her plan to work, she had to go in alone.  

Or mostly alone.  

At the first sign of Aloy’s quiet rumination, Erend had practically teleported to her side and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head.

“You said I was with you on this,” he admonished, chuckling quietly as Aloy leaned into his touch, her hands wandering across his broad back as he pulled her into a hug. “No take backs.”  

“No take backs,” she assured him. “You’re stuck with me.”  

“Ugh. I gotta hang out with the most beautiful woman on Earth. What a chore !”  

“I bet you say that to all the top-secret bunker invading, zombie-immune girls.” Aloy laughed softly, but the sound became breathless as she felt herself filled with a sudden, almost painful need . This night, this quiet before the storm, could be her last chance—her only chance—to really show Erend how she felt.  

“Only if they have a really weird family history, too,” Erend replied. Then, he flinched suddenly in surprise at Aloy’s hand as it drifted towards his ass. “Hey there!”  

“Hey, yourself,” she replied, her fingers plucking at the hem of Erend’s shirt with a coy grin.  

“You keep messing with me like that, I’m gonna start to think you have a crush on me.” Erend’s tone was light, but there was a tell-tale strain to his voice.    

“My tent,” was all Aloy said in response, still tugging at Erend’s shirt. “ Now .”

Come morning, they were as ready as they’d ever be. In the early hours of dawn, Petra, Ivirra and Kotallo returned from the forest below with Alva in tow. They handed a map to the anxiously waiting Morlund, along with a spare headset for communication with the rest of the group.  

At Aloy’s behest, a series of traps had been laid at escape points from the cove below. The idea was that Morlund and Petra, after causing an initial distraction, would be tasked with coordinating the fall back. The Oseram forces who were set to storm the beach would be directed to escape points before Morlund sent the caverns and forests crumbling to the ground, blocking the path behind the evacuees. If Aloy had her way, not a single person would be killed or injured today. After a quick hug from Morlund and a facetious salute from Petra, the two crept away to their first ambush point with Abadund, who had staunchly refused to leave Morlund’s side, in tow.  

Sylens told Aloy that she was wasting her energy with this plan. Aloy considered that Sylens should stick to what he knew, and leave the human, empathetic behaviour to her. Sylens regarded her with an unimpressed scoff and said, “Well, then. Lead the way.”    

Before a huge battle like this, Aloy had expected to be met with either fanfare or a tense silence. She should have known better, given how many Oseram had been recruited to this cause. The rows of fighters, mercenaries and creatives that comprised her small army were boisterous, even in the face of destruction. As she made her way to the front of the procession, she was met with a mixture of friendly and crass gestures, pats on the back, and a few grim jokes. They were armed to the teeth with weapon, armour, and—

“Are those riot shields?”

Ersa smirked, pulling Aloy into a brief hug as she approached the front of the procession. “We liberated a few shields from the Kestrels’ storage,” she explained.  

“Does Avad know about this?”  

“It was Avad’s idea.”  

Aloy’s face scrunched into a barely-suppressed giggle as she tried to keep composed in front of the crowd. Of course it was Avad’s idea.  

From the front of the battalion, Aloy saw a flash from the corner of her eye. She looked over the crowd and spotted Talanah and Avad’s forces on the ridge surrounding the cove, ready to provide cover fire. The flash had come from Talanah, who pocketed a small mirror with a wave and a cheeky wink before shouldering her rifle and settling in to wait for the action.  

Ersa reached Aloy’s side and stood a few inches behind her, to the left. “On your orders, Red.”  

Aloy froze. The entire crowd had set their eyes on her, and she felt as though she’d suddenly lost her voice.  How could she ask this many people to help her? To put their lives in danger for a chance at a cure that they barely understood?  

On her right-hand side, Erend took pity on her.  

“Public speaking ain’t Aloy’s forte, folks,” he explained to the crowd. “She’s good at just about everything else, though. Let’s give her a minute.”  

Aloy gulped down a nervous laugh before turning to the waiting crowd. “You’ve all been briefed on what we’re trying to achieve today, but here’s the short version: my sister is the only person on Earth who has come close to finding a cure in the last fifteen years. And those assholes up there on the island? They want to keep my sister and the cure research all for themselves .”  

A low, disgruntled rumble began in the crowd, and Aloy pressed on. “That research belongs to all of us. All of us who have suffered for the mistakes of a few bored billionaires who thought they had the right to play with life and death. Well, screw that!”

The rumble in the crowd grew to a shout.

She braced herself with a deep breath before shouting,  “Let’s take our lives back!”  

And then to a roar.  

The Oseram crews, with Ersa at the helm, didn’t need any further encouragement to leap straight into the hunt. They thundered into the valley below with abandon, secure in the knowledge that the Carja crews were providing cover fire from the cliffsides. Aloy, on the other hand, felt stricken with worry—they were running straight into a horror show. She reached for her headset frantically as she jogged behind the front line of Oseram fighters.

“Sylens, you said you had a plan to keep them safe? Well, now would be a good time to execute it,” she barked.  

“ In good time, Aloy. That’s for the second wave ,” Sylens replied.  

“The second—” Aloy began, before a gasp from one of the Oseram in front of her drew her attention. From behind a boulder on the beach below, a much larger hoard seemed to appear out of nowhere.  

By her side, Erend sped up and jogged ahead. “Ers, you see that?”

“ I see it ,” Ersa’s voice confirmed over the radio. “ When does Morlund take the reins? ”  

“ Let them come a little closer, until— " Sylens commanded.  

Aloy missed the second half of his sentence as they reached the front lines against the first wave of Creatures. A Watcher had led the charge from the opposition, sending the other Creatures into a frenzy with an unearthly howl that echoed through the entire valley. Before the Watcher could finish its call, a clean shot through the head from Talanah silenced the battle cry.  

But the first call was enough. The earth shook with the weight of the approaching hoard, and they were vicious. Twenty or so Ravagers, with enough brain power left to hide behind an approaching wall of Bellowbacks, started their assault. The noise was overwhelming, the smell was unbelievable, and the sight was chaotic, confusing and panic-inducing.  

Undeterred, Ersa moved her soldiers into an easy formation, as though she had been training for this her entire life. They made a wall of makeshift shields and human bodies, covered head to toe in thick armour that protected them from the bites. The Oseram crews moved forward slowly at Ersa’s command, corralling the Creatures into a confused huddle. Erend joined the push with Aloy’s nod of approval, his large frame adding a significant amount of size and strength to the assault.  

The Carja crews picked off the stragglers on the outside of this manufactured crush, and at this distance, safely armoured, all the Oseram had to do was mow them down. Moving in step with Ersa’s plan, Aloy raised her crossbow and began shooting down any Ravagers that got the bright idea to climb over the mess of moving bodies.  

It was working . Ravagers and Bellowbacks alike were clumped together, overheating, confused, and turning on one-another in a blind rage. The first few dozen were dispatched with ease. The only issue, however, was the approaching hoard from the beach, who were rapidly scaling the valley hillsides. It would only be a matter of minutes before the second wave crashed into them.  

Aloy reached for her headset again. “Sylens? Sylen — shit. ”  

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Erend’s leg slip. The crush had churned up the ground underneath the group, and he lost his footing in the mud, falling hard onto one knee with a shout of surprise. Erend was incredibly strong, holding his shield up against a massive Bellowback bearing down on him with one hand, while trying to regain his posture with the other, but he couldn’t hold his position for much longer.  

Frantic, Aloy sprinted to his aid, narrowly missing a Ravager’s grasp as she hurled herself through the crowd to Erend’s side. Just as Erend’s protective stance faltered, Aloy lunged forward, snatching a dagger from her pocket and driving it deep into the throat of the Ravager that was still swinging for Erend. He pressed into Aloy from behind, giving her the leverage that she needed to finish her kill. The Ravager slumped backwards with one final death rattle, and as its weight shifted, so did Aloy’s. The sudden release sent her staggering backwards and straight into Erend’s lap on the ground. They landed on the ground with a simultaneous ‘oof’ as the rest of the Oseram crowds pushed forward to fill the space they had left vacant.  

Ersa passed by them with a wild cackle, alight with excitement from the fight. “Now is really not the time, guys.”  

They pressed on, Aloy offering a hand to help Erend right himself. 

When the front line of shield bearers had almost reached the second wave of Creatures, Aloy noticed that their army was faltering. The first attack had spent a great deal of their energy, and Aloy wasn’t sure if everyone could make it through the second wave unharmed.  

She needn’t have worried, she realised, as the ground beneath the wave swallowed them up completely. The familiar motor-oil smell of C4 rose through the air, and the Oseram army staggered backwards in shock, before erupting into an excited cheer.  

Aloy barked out a laugh, jogging forward to survey the deep pit that had just opened up before them. It was more like a chasm, well-hidden by foliage and expanding on a small valley that had already been present in the landscape. She touched her headset with a wide grin. “Nice one, Petra.”

“ You think that’s cool? Wait ’til you see what Morlund has planned! ”  

On cue, a cacophony of noise and colour arose from a cliff face to the south-west of the Zenith base. A third wave of Creatures, unnoticed by Aloy’s crew until this moment, immediately turned in the direction of the disturbance with a snarl, unaware of the explosive traps that laid ahead.    

Above the horde, Aloy spotted Morlund atop the cliff, safely tucked away with Abadund and Stemmur by his side. The small figure that was Morlund waved at Aloy from the ridge, and she raised a hand in reply.  

“ Morlund ! ” Erend called through his own headset. “ You’re my hero. Where did you even find all those fireworks? ”  

“ Hey! I’m more than just a pretty face you know, Erend! I made them! ” Morlund replied.  

“ You’re amazing and definitely more than just a pretty face, ” Erend cried back. “ I better quit before I make your boyfriend jealous, though. ”  

“Or your girlfriend,” Aloy added with a wink. At first, she thought that comment might have been presumptuous, but the gigantic grin that spread across Erend’s face made the gamble worthwhile.  

“Say that again,” Erend said softly, raising a hand to cup Aloy’s face. For a moment, the chaos around them felt like nothing. Like background noise. The two of them were at a standstill inside a hurricane.  

“When we get out of this alive,” she said. “I love you.”  

“I love you, too.”