The clear sky shows that the day is ending as the sun is about to dip below the horizon, which is a part of a continent once named North America. A westerly breeze travels over relatively flat almost treeless semiarid land that was once a part of Nevada. The ruin of a ranch house is located in this area, along with a stone bench facing it.
Aloy lounges upon that bench while staring downward at a freshly dug grave.
Nearly one thousand years ago, a man named Ted Faro created robots for the purpose of war, giving them the ability to consume biomass as fuel and replicate; only to go haywire and destroy all life on Earth. As that was happening, a woman named Elisabet Sobeck oversaw the creation of Project Zero Dawn, a massive terraforming project that would eventually shut off Faro's robots and begin the task of resurrecting life on Earth. It was as the Faro robots were devouring the last crumbles of life that Elisabet got trapped outside Gaia Prime after saving it from the detection of an oncoming Faro swarm. She said her goodbyes to the Alphas still inside, telling them that she was going home.
After traveling nearly three hundred miles, the architect of Zero Dawn finally arrived and sat upon that bench. She passed away and there she remained during those near one thousand years, undisturbed and forgotten, until Aloy finally found her and decided to give her a proper burial. Aloy tried digging into the soil, but it was too rocky and she decided to let a machine do that task. She knew that a behemoth would do since they eat rocks as easily as most people eat biscuits. Aloy located one and led it back to the ruins, then made it dig that grave; a task that took only a minute to complete for the behemoth as it left behind a large heap of pulverized rocks as its excrement. Aloy sent the behemoth away because she understood that while they are excellent at digging holes, they are useless in refilling them and would have to do that by herself. She also wanted to have a sense of intimacy with the burial. Aloy laid her "mother" into the grave and filled it in. Afterwards, she decided to encircle the grave with large stones so as to elaborate it.
From finding her mother up to placing the last stone, the task took all day. The sun sets as Aloy continues lounging upon that bench; nodding as she gets sleepier by the second.
In another place, a place like no other, a lid to a chamber rises to reveal a man encased within it. He is bathed in a blue liquid of which is being drained away. He stirs, but does not want to awaken.
Until a voice, a familiar voice, urges him to do so.
Help.
A blonde blue-eyed man wielding a sword glaring with defiance . . .
Help.
A palace bathed in a purplish black cloud that forms into a beast bellowing with a hunger for death and destruction . . .
Help!
Within that beast is a white light, and within that white light is a blonde green-eyed girl; her face twisted with desperation . . .
HELP!
Aloy gasps intensely as if suffocating and almost hits the ground face first, but her reflexes prevent that as she throws her hands out at the oncoming ground. She shuts her eyes tightly while gasping repeatedly and remains on her hands and knees. Her heart beating quickly.
"Wh-What was that . . . ?! Wh-Who was that . . . ?! A-And how did they get on my focus?! No, those images were too intense for my focus to display . . . ! Were those truly visions?!"
She groans while pushing herself up into a sitting position, then briskly strokes her face downward. With a sniff, she opens her eyes to see mountains and hills.
But no sign of the ruins nor Elisabet's grave.