Horizon: Echoes

by Wandergirl108

Months after the battle for the Spire, Aloy is still struggling with her identity. Desperate to find herself, and maybe her mother, she leaves for a new quest, unaware of the new threats she'll find…and, begrudgingly, she lets herself be accompanied by the only person she knows who understands what it is to not belong. Canon now, will be AU when HFW happens. M-rated as of Ch.20.

13. The Annihilator

The rest of the day was spent learning everything the Bacchan knew about the Annihilator - Itsurk called over every single member of the tribe who had seen the beast in any capacity and asked them to describe it in as much detail as they could, and it didn't escape Aloy's notice that each and every one of them was maimed, or at least badly scarred. Of course, getting straightforward descriptions out of people whose brains were constantly addled by the blood of Machines was no easy thing, but Aloy appreciated all the information she could get. More than its appearance and capabilities, she milked the tribesmen for every bit of information she could about exactly where it tended to lurk; the Bacchan claimed it constantly circled the border of the Oasis at a steady pace, deviating only when it detected a human presence, but many agreed that they couldn't be entirely sure of that because it was impossible to hide from the thing - if you saw it, it saw you, no two ways about it. The Bacchan did offer an abundance of vials of animal extract to both Aloy and Nil to help with the hunt, free of charge, but insisted that they couldn't offer any herbs - they'd given all the herbs they'd found in the Oasis recently to the Deima, they told the outlanders, and even if they did have more in stock, they wouldn't share them, lest they invoke the wrath of the fearsome tribe as well as the Father of Machines.

When Aloy finally felt that she and Nil were as prepared as they could possibly be, night was already falling, and Aloy definitely didn't want to try to fight this thing in the dark. There was exactly one set of visitor lodgings in the Bacchan settlement, reserved for when Kryse came by to trade…meaning there was only one bed, which was really just a big pile of the furs of various animals, along with some feathers. Before Aloy could even process this, Nil announced that he would sleep outside on his bedroll and she could take the room - "honor above pleasure", he insisted, and Aloy chose not to argue with him.

Knowing she needed to sleep if she was going to fight this monstrosity, Aloy did her best to settle in, and it was nice to not be sleeping in the presence of someone else for a change, but she couldn't help that she was nervous. Bringing up the information her Focus had scanned on the Annihilator, she scrolled through the plethora of weaponry the thing had at its disposal and felt sick to her stomach - it seemed to have some of everything, guns like a Ravager and like a Stalker, flamethrowers like a Scorcher, shock cannons like a Stormbird, chillwater charges like a Snapmaw, and a number of other weapons that wouldn't have looked out of place on a Thunderjaw; in addition, there was a component labeled "fabricator module", the description of which mentioned "component repairs", which definitely concerned her. All of that was to say nothing of the hulking shape of the Machine that her Focus displayed, thick metal plating covering every bit of its body, but with lots of slots and hatches through which it could fire its various weapons. Fighting an Annihilator would be like trying to take on a Metal Devil - not a Deathbringer, but a Titan, one of those enormous Faro robots that were big as mountains. And she didn't even have one of Petra's cannons to help her; all she had was Nil, and she expected his usefulness wouldn't be much more than his name implied.

Most disturbing of all, though, was a function the Annihilator had that the Focus called "Swan Song". "A last-resort, large-radius explosion to decimate everything in the vicinity," was the description her Focus gave, but it didn't seem to have any sort of module attached to it - and without a module to disable, Aloy wouldn't be able to prevent it from using that last resort, wouldn't even be able to tell when it was about to use it. What exactly did "last resort" qualify as in this situation? When would she need to be ready?

Desperate to get some rest, she dismissed the display of the terrible Machine and replayed the audio log from Elisabet's room in GAIA Prime, listening to the ancient scientist talk about her own mother, and her ideal daughter. Playing the log over and over and over again, Aloy slowly relaxed, until the voices lulled her into slumber, not bothering to take her Focus off before she slept.

Morning dawned far too soon. Unlike for the battle against the Eclipse, no one came to rouse her, but in the little hut composed of metal chunks and wooden planks, there was no shutting out the sounds of an entire tribe rising to meet the day. For a few minutes, she stayed nestled in the pile of furs and feathers, wanting only to go back to sleep, but as the noise increased, she groaned and pushed herself to her feet. Strapping on her weapons and armor, making sure spare ammunition and her full stock of medicine were readily accessible, she emerged into the muggy warmth of the morning, as ready for the battle as she could be. Nil was already up and waiting for her, his expression grim.

"Are you ready?" he asked her.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she sighed. "Let's get our mounts - they won't help much, but maybe they'll be able to distract it for a few seconds."

"Huntress," said a voice, and Aloy turned to see Noj approaching her. "You are awake. Is it time?"

"Yes," Aloy nodded, "it's time."

"Give us a moment," Noj told her; "Master Itsurk wishes to be nearby, ready to drink the blood you will draw when the great beast falls. And several of us must be present as well, of course. Please."

"I was just going to get our mounts anyway," Aloy told him. "We'll meet you at this edge of the village in a minute?"

"As you say," Noj nodded.

Aloy was glad to get on her Charger and have it do the walking instead of her; she wasn't sure she could force her feet to take this journey. Nil must have noticed, because as they brought their mounts around the Bacchan village to where they had agreed to meet Noj and the others, he asked, "What are you so nervous about?"

"My Focus scanned the Annihilator the second night after we crossed the border," Aloy replied. "I went through the information last night…" She shook her head. "It's bad, Nil. On its own, the weaponry it has makes a Thunderjaw look like a Scrapper, and it's built to take any hit, of any kind, and actively resists everything but electric shocks. I'm…not sure we can win this one."

"Of course we can," Nil chuckled. "Since when are you afraid of Machines? You took on three Rollers at once without even hesitating."

"Those weren't hunter-killers."

"You fought an entire army of Deathbringers and corrupted Machines," Nil went on.

"I had help for that."

"And you have help this time too," Nil stated. "You faced a corrupted Behemoth in the Sun-Ring without any weapons or armor-"

"And you think I wasn't scared?!" Aloy exclaimed. "Nil, I-!" She swallowed, realizing she was about to tell him something she had never told anyone. "I was terrified," she whispered. "I'd have to be stupid not to have been."

"But you still came out on top," Nil reminded her. "You always do. I know you'll win this fight, Aloy."

"What about you?" Aloy asked. "Aren't you scared? There's…no guarantee you'll make it out alive, either."

"Fear isn't an emotion I'm terribly familiar with," Nil replied. "I think I've only been truly afraid once, and that was when Jiran and Helis were considering making me a kestrel."

"You were afraid of becoming a kestrel?" Aloy asked, blinking. "Why?"

"Because then I'd be the one giving orders, not taking them," he replied. "My place isn't at a table giving directions, it's on the battlefield and following them. I guess that's the only thing I really fear: having my place in this world taken away from me."

She thought for a second. "Nil…you don't have to do this," she told him at last, "and I forgive you if you don't."

"I know," he shrugged. "But I told you, I have your back out here."

"But it's a Machine," Aloy pointed out. "You don't like fighting those. This battle…it's not what you'd call your place."

"That's true enough," he admitted, "but if this Machine is as fearsome as you say…well, if I die in this fight, it won't quite be the perfect death I'd hoped for, but I guess I can settle for it. I can think of plenty of much less glorious ways to go, at least, so, you know…" He shrugged again. "I'll live with it."

"You'll live…with dying?" Aloy asked pointedly.

In response, he flashed his teeth at her, letting her know that he was fully aware of what he'd said, and she laughed, her anxiety easing.

"Okay, you got me with that one," she admitted, still giggling.

"You're welcome," he told her.

"Come on," she sighed, still smiling, and she kicked her mount into a trot.

Itsurk and several other Bacchan were waiting around the other side of the village, and Aloy pulled up beside them. "So, you're coming with us?" she asked the group, noting that Brin wasn't among them, though Noj and Volag were.

"Yes," nodded Itsurk, "I must come, I must taste the blood fresh! Not straight from the veins, no, it is the hunter's honor to harvest the kill, but quickly! Still warm with the heat of metal life!" He waved one decrepit hand, and Volag lifted an entire brace of canteens, holding them out to Aloy. "Draw as much as you can once you've claimed victory, huntress. We pray that there will be no more such monstrosities for many moons at least, so you must make the most of this hunt."

"I've got enough to carry," Aloy said.

"I'll take them," Nil spoke up, guiding his Charger around so he could reach down and take the brace of flasks.

"And," Itsurk went on as Nil strapped on the canisters, "in your honor, huntress, I will tell you the visions as I see them, not wait until after."

"You can do that?" Aloy asked. "You, uh…didn't seem like you could talk all that well yesterday."

"Oh, the visions are more vivid, more enjoyable, when we surrender to them and speak only when they pass," Itsurk nodded; "we are much closer to the Father then. But, you have a right to know whatever knowledge there is to be gleaned from the blood, and I know you wish to be on your way; so, for you, I will speak as I see."

"Uh…thanks," Aloy told him. "I think. So…which way?"

It was Noj who replied. "South, and slightly west," he answered, pointing; "the border of the Oasis there is perfect for a hunt. You should even have time to prepare for the monster's arrival before it reaches that part of the border."

"Well then, no point waiting around here," Aloy said, and she turned her mount in the direction Noj had pointed and kicked her Charger into a trot, careful not to go so fast that the Bacchan group wouldn't be able to keep up, Nil riding apace at her side.

~o~

It took maybe an hour before the thick forest began to thin out, the border of the Oasis fast approaching.

"A few more minutes, and you'll be there," Volag eventually stated, and when he stopped, Aloy pulled back on her mount and turned around to face the group.

"So…you're just going to wait here?" she asked.

"Indeed," Itsurk nodded. "We will wait for your return. May the Father spare you."

"Somehow, I don't think he will, if I give him the choice," Aloy remarked.

"Perhaps…" Itsurk said cryptically, trailing off.

After a moment, Aloy shook her head, turned back around, and kept riding, faster now. Soon, she and Nil were alone, surrounded by thinning trees.

"Last chance to back out," she told him.

"I'm with you," he stated. "My bow and my blade are yours, always. Don't worry; if I do suffer a mortal wound, I'll do my best to survive long enough to see you succeed, and a little while after, so I can keep my promise."

"Your promise?" Aloy asked, turning to him.

"I told you," he said, flashing his teeth: "If you give me a good death, I'll spend my last breaths telling you who you are. Remember?"

"And…this qualifies?" Aloy questioned. "You'd be dying to a Machine, that's not your kind of fight…"

"I might not enjoy fighting against Machines," Nil said, his smile twisting oddly, "but I do enjoy fighting with you. If I can't die by your hand, then to die fighting by your side, against any foe…it's close enough."

"That's…" Aloy shook her head. "Nil, coming from you, I know that's actually really sweet, but…Have I ever told you you're the most backwards person I've ever met?"

"Is it that I'm backwards, or that I'm straightforward and everyone else you know is sideways?" he countered.

Despite the fact that they were probably riding to their deaths, Aloy couldn't help but laugh again. "Damn you, why do you keep making me laugh?" she giggled. "Why couldn't you have been this funny when we were hunting bandits?"

"We didn't know each other back then," Nil shrugged. "There wasn't much time for us to really talk, you weren't open to laughing with me."

"I always took time to talk to you," Aloy reminded him, her smile fading slightly. "Before and after every bandit camp, I took the time."

"But never about anything serious," Nil pointed out. "Now, we've shared secrets, so we can talk with each other more frankly. You've noticed, haven't you?"

"I…I have," Aloy admitted. "It's weird, but…yeah, I've noticed."

He nodded.

A moment later, they emerged from the forest proper into a grassy, hilly landscape. There were still trees growing here and there, and boulders poked out of the terrain, but the land was mostly open, the ground solid.

"Good place for a battle," Nil remarked.

"Yeah," Aloy agreed, "this must be where they wanted us to go…" Curious, she tapped her Focus and brought up her map, and noticed an icon a little ways away from where she was that she hadn't noticed before; it looked like an oval missing a chunk of its top to form horns, with a dotted line underneath. She tagged it.

"Annihilator Convoy"

"Great," Aloy sighed, dismissing her display. "Well, it's on its way." She pulled her Charger to the left, towards the edge of the field closest to the oncoming Machine. "Follow me, we'll let our Chargers greet it - it'll probably plow through them immediately, but maybe we'll get a chance to look at it, at least."

"There's plenty of tall grass here," Nil commented, gesturing to the patches of red-tipped plant life. "We could ambush it."

"No point," Aloy informed him; "it has a detection component, like a Thunderjaw - once it knows something's wrong here, it'll scan the area and find us even if we hide. We might as well just face it head-on."

"That works for me," Nil smirked, and Aloy shook her head as they positioned their Chargers on the peak of a hill that stood between them and the Annihilator's path.

Nervously, Aloy walked down the bank into the spot they'd chosen to face the Machine. "I wish I knew exactly where its path was," she remarked to Nil; "then I could set some tripwires in its way. I could do that anyway, but…" She sighed, then drew her Blast Sling. "I guess some proximity bombs couldn't hurt."

Lobbing the armed explosives back the way they'd come, she walked backwards, eyes on the two Chargers they'd left standing in the path of certain death. Once she was out, she crafted more, just in case, then took a position by a boulder and started checking her equipment.

"Sling, Blast Sling, Sharpshot Bow, Striker Bow, spear," she muttered, putting a hand to the four weapons she was choosing to keep armed and in easy reach and the one constant she could always draw in a pinch. "Herbs, health potions, resist potions…" She brushed her fingers over where she kept her various medicines at her waist. "Materials for more ammunition…" She tapped her pack, feeling the pockets inside in turn. "Shards, ridge-wood, wires, metal vessels, echo shells, blaze, chillwater, sparkers." She took a breath. "I'm ready. How about you?" she asked Nil, turning to where he stood by her side.

"I'm good to go," he assured her.

Aloy thought for a minute, then shook her head. "You need to be more equipped," she said. "I know the Bacchan gave you animal extract, but you need some resist potions. Here…" She pulled out half a dozen of her fire, frost, and shock potions, quickly crafting a crude harness for them with a few spare loops of wire. "The Annihilator can use any type of attack, so keep these at the ready. The orange ones protect you from fire, the dark blue ones protect you from electricity, the pale blue ones protect you from frost."

"I know how these work," Nil informed her. "I've never had to use them, but I know the principle. You're really splitting these half-and-half with me?"

Aloy blinked. "You're right, what am I thinking?" she asked, taking back one of each potion and returning them to her own utility belt. "You get five, I get seven."

"That's more like it," he smirked, tying the vials to his armor.

"And you need better weapons, too," Aloy went on, pulling out a few spares. "Here: my Tearblaster, my Forgefire, and my Champion Bow." She took out the quivers for the latter weapon and tapped them in turn. "Shock, frost, corruption. Uh, don't use the corruption, actually."

"No thanks," Nil told her, shaking his head and holding up his hands at the proffered weapons. "I wouldn't feel right wielding any weapons other than my own."

"Nil, a simple bow and a knife are not going to cut it for this fight," Aloy told him.

"I know," he assured her, drawing his bow, "but this isn't a simple bow. This is one of the finest bows ever crafted by Carja artisans, and I've enhanced it with the most powerful coils I could commission."

"…Commission?" Aloy asked.

Nil flashed his teeth. "Jiran gave me a lot of rewards for my work during the Red Raids," he informed her. "First my blade, then my bow, then my personal armor, and then…well, shards, mostly, and trinkets, which I always sold for shards. And other things, though I don't like to think about that…Anyway, my family didn't want shards so stained with blood, so I spent it all on making the Voice of Our Teeth as powerful as I could." He caressed his bow fondly, running his fingers over the polished wood with a casual ease.

"Don't…take this the wrong way," Aloy said slowly, "but, uh…it never really seemed…that impressive, when we were fighting bandits."

"I like a challenge," Nil shrugged. "Bandits don't deserve my best, if I gave them my all it'd be boring. When we carved through bandit camps together, my bow was completely bare and unmodified. But don't worry, I attached my best coils last night, in preparation for this fight; the way it is now, I could easily take down a Sawtooth with a single arrow."

"You've been holding back all this time?!" Aloy exclaimed.

"Does that really surprise you?" he chuckled.

"It probably shouldn't," Aloy groaned. "Honestly, I don't know why it did." She sighed, then put the extra weapons away. "Well, that's comforting, at least. I did wonder if you'd be any help at all here."

"Oh, but if you aren't going to use those frost and shock arrows, I'll take them," Nil abruptly added.

Aloy blinked at him. "Can your bow use them?" she questioned.

"Of course," he smiled. "I've never really had a use for that kind of ammunition - when you're just trying to split flesh and bone, all you need is good, hard steel. But for a Machine, especially one like this, the added effects can't hurt."

"Well, I'm not using them," Aloy said, and she handed over the quivers of shock and frost arrows. "All yours."

"Thanks," he told her, strapping the spare ammo types beside his own quiver.

A rumble started to shake the earth beneath them, like the distant footsteps of a Tallneck - not creeping silently, as it had that second night across the border, but something proudly declaring that it was present and ready to destroy anything in its path.

"It's coming," Aloy said, bracing her boots in the grass. "Be ready."

"I'm always ready," Nil told her, nocking an arrow. "And the Voice of Our Teeth is always ready to sing its song of death to whatever crosses our path."

"Sing…? Is that why you call it that?" Aloy asked.

His response was simply to flash his teeth at her.

"You're always so poetic about fighting and killing," she remarked, laughing.

"That's who I am," Nil smirked.

Aloy nodded. "Hey, if I don't make it out of this and you do, find Sylens…somehow, some way, however you can, and kick his ass until he agrees to rebuild GAIA," she told him.

"Eh, I'm a killer, not a torturer," he hummed, but then he smiled. "But far be it from me to deny the finest warrior in the land her last request. I'm confident it won't come to that, though."

"What about you?" she asked. "Anything you want me to do if you die here? Maybe something you want me to tell your family?"

"If you see Janeva, tell her I'm not sorry, and I never was," he replied.

"Of course," Aloy muttered.

"And, Aloy?" When she looked over at him, his smile had dropped, and he added seriously, "Listen…if I am meant to die here, before I go, I just want to say…it's been a pleasure traveling with you, Aloy Khane Sobeck."

"You know, oddly enough…same to you, Nil," Aloy responded, and she smiled. "Brother of Janeva Khane Lakshar."

He barked a laugh. "Guess I can't begrudge you for that one," he admitted, chuckling. "Ahh…if we both survive this, I'm going to have to grow an imagination so I can keep up with you."

"If you grew an imagination, I'd be genuinely impressed," Aloy bantered.

"Well, now we both have to survive!" Nil grinned. "A chance to impress you? That's worth living for!"

Aloy couldn't help the additional laugh that bubbled out of her throat as the sound of their encroaching doom began to echo over the hillside where the Chargers stood, the unmistakeable thunking of enormous metal limbs working with sinews of wire weave.

"I'll go over there," Nil said abruptly, stepping to her side. "We should keep apart, try to divide its attention - we might not confuse it, but it could maybe buy us a split second, and in battle, sometimes a split second is all it takes."

"Good thinking," Aloy nodded. "And, Nil?"

He stopped and turned back to her. "Yes?"

She gave him a tight smile. "Try not to die?" she requested.

Nil flashed his teeth at her. "I will if you will," he replied, and he turned and took off at a jog, making for another boulder not far from the treeline.

Up on the hilltop, the Chargers' lights had turned yellow, and Aloy took a step back, brushing her fingers over her weapons. Where to start, where to start…? "Tearblast," she muttered to herself, drawing her Sharpshot Bow and nocking three tearblast arrows. "It has too much armor, we need to get it exposed as quickly as we can."

A glint of metal appeared over the horizon, and Aloy took a deep breath, drawing back her bowstring, ready to shoot the charges where they would have the most effect. Her heart thundered in her chest, her blood singing in her ears, and her mind went blank, the clarity of battle already washing over her as every fiber of her being prepared to do whatever it took to survive.

I can do this.

It was the last fully coherent thought she managed before the Annihilator charged over the rise, smashing though the Chargers as though they hadn't been there at all. Already, the Machine's lights were red, and its dead eyes locked onto her in the time it took to take aim.

The Annihilator was like no Machine Aloy had ever encountered before; even her Focus's display hadn't prepared her for the sight. It was huge, much bigger than a Thunderjaw, four-legged but bulkier than a Sawtooth, and every single bit of its body was coated in strange plating - not the white kind of metal that usually protected Machines, but a shiny steel-colored material, the plates of which moved and slid over each other so smoothly it was as though it was no less supple than animal skin, probably something HEPHAESTUS had invented solely for making hunter-killers. Its face was a massive, barely-curved shield that swept up to form horns with the corners of its thick edges, with mere slits for its eyes, its jaws fanged but angled in such a way that there was no clear shot at its mouth. It had a long, lithe tail, like a Stalker, which ended in a spiked ball, all equally covered in plating, and its claws were hidden now but, Aloy knew, huge and fully capable of channeling any type of force, to say nothing of the multitude of different weapons hiding under all that armor, any of which could spring out from its massive back and shoulders and launch their assault at any moment.

But there was no time to be afraid anymore; Aloy released her bowstring, and as the tearblast arrows flew across the soon-to-be battlefield, the Annihilator roared and charged at her, proximity bombs exploding under its massive paws but not slowing it down in the slightest. All three charges found their mark, embedding themselves in a line along a strip of armor that she knew covered a gun like that of a Stalker, and she took several leaping dodges to her left to avoid the assault as the charges went off, stripping away the metal casing. Underneath the metal shell, the Annihilator's fabricated muscles looked like those of any Machine, and Aloy let herself feel a trace of relief even when the monster's spiked tail whipped around unexpectedly and caught her in the chest, knocking her several paces through the air; her armor took the hit, and she got up and nocked a precision arrow, taking aim with confidence.

Then the edges of the hole glowed, and light crept across the opening; moments later, before Aloy could fire, the armor had been completely reconstructed, as though the tearblast arrows had never been used. Memories of Brad Andac flashed through Aloy's head as though she'd brought up the data point on her Focus, as she realized with icy-cold dread what the fabricator module did…what HEPHAESTUS had done.

"…when you saw they understood their own structures, could rebuild themselves from memory and light…there were no limits! Oh…God…there were no limits…!"

HEPHAESTUS had learned from the engineer of the Faro bots.

"Are you kidding me?!" Aloy shrieked.

"That's new!" came Nil's cry from somewhere behind her.

The Annihilator roared, a small square of the newly-recrafted armor sliding away to reveal the Stalker-esque gun and fire before Aloy's armor could recharge, and she took the hit hard. She ran to the side, quaffing down three bottles of animal extract as the full implications sank in. We might actually be dead. "Nil!" she called out as the beast sheathed its gun and hurled itself at her again.

"I'm staying if you are!" Nil shouted from somewhere else on the battlefield as she barely managed to avoid getting crushed under the monster's weight.

Arrows were striking the Annihilator, and bits and pieces of its armor chipped away with each shot; Nil's bow really was powerful enough to help, if only a little. Spots on the monster started glowing as it regrew its casing, but it seemed to realize there was someone else for it to think about, and it turned around, roaring, a disc launcher popping out of its back. In the time it took for this to happen, Aloy had already decided she wasn't going to run away - running away wasn't in her nature. As the creature's weapon began to shoot small, flying charges, she nocked another tearblast arrow and fired it into the gun, rolling to the side just to keep the thing from getting a lock on her. The blast knocked the disc gun clean off, but when Aloy ran forward to grab it, it exploded into flames, which she only avoided being burned on thanks to her armor.

Using its weapons against it isn't an option. It was a realization she processed without thinking the actual words as she dove out of the way of its hind leg. HEPHAESTUS really outdid itself with this one.

She had already nocked another tearblast arrow, hoping to maybe punch a hole big enough to fire a good shot through, when she noticed that the armor had stopped glowing; bits were still being knocked off by Nil's shots, but they weren't growing back anymore. Quickly switching to her Striker Bow, she readied a hardpoint arrow, took aim, and fired at a slight gap in its armor before she had to dive out of the way of its tail as it turned back on her, a moment too late to avoid her armor getting overloaded. In the chaos, she saw the arrow find its mark, and the monster roared, even if the damage was still minimal. It can get hurt, and that means we can kill it. We can do this!

With a rush of determination, Aloy loaded another tearblast arrow, thinking maybe the fabricator module had been overwhelmed and she could just expose the Annihilator's body to whatever attacks she or Nil could throw at it. It felt slightly off that the fabricator module had been disabled so easily, but she couldn't really think too hard through the pounding of her heartbeat, the intensity of a battle against a powerful child of HEPHAESTUS. Her next charge knocked a good chunk off of its chest, and then a blue aura began to glow around the Annihilator. Aloy called out a warning as she grabbed a shock resist potion and gulped it down, just in time for the medicine to reach her skin and counter the effects of the massive electrical explosion that burst from the Machine's body; the blast was powerful enough to get through her armor, but her skin was only mildly singed, and a single salvebrush berry was enough to heal her once she was back on her feet.

Battle-lust had seized her, time slowing as she aimed with another precision arrow and let fly just as the beast turned around, whipping its tail at her as it charged in the opposite direction, presumably to attack Nil, new guns emerging from its shoulders; her armor hadn't quite recharged, and she took the blow hard, but a vial of potent animal extract later and she fired at the exposed weapons that were now blasting a whirlwind of flames towards a lone tree across the field, drawing and firing more precision arrows as quickly and strongly as she could. It wasn't enough to knock one of the flamethrowers off before they retreated back under the monster's armor, but the damage landed, and every little bit counted. When it turned back on her, she dove sideways, drew her Blast Sling, and lobbed a sticky bomb at an opening in its armor…only for it to catch on the glow of reformed plating.

It's repairing its armor again. Shouldn't have thought the reprieve would last.

More guns popped from its sides, these firing scatterbursts like what Thunderjaws used, and it reared back and opened its mouth to shoot globs of charged chillwater at her even as she evaded the shots. Fumbling for a frost potion, she got struck head-on before she could quaff it down, and her armor flashed red as her body slowly used the medicine to shut out the cold, bullets from the guns punching her skin. Two more bottles of animal extract, and then she loaded more tearblast arrows, firing at its plating, and then at the disc launcher that popped out of its back.

But I knocked that out! The realization hit her after her charge embedded itself in the dangerous weapon, but the blast knocked it off easily; as soon as it did, the scattered glowing spots across the Machine's body faded, the hatch that had released the disc launcher closing. Fabrication of weapons too, she realized, and it prioritizes weapons over armor. Tear off one of its guns, and its armor won't be replaced.

Knowing this, she reached into her bag for the supplies to craft more tearblast arrows, a full-body charge from the Annihilator hurling her into a tree in the time it took her to fashion them, knocking out her armor and the breath in her lungs, but it was worth the hit, she scooped some herbs into her mouth and took several diving leaps away from the creature before it could pound her into the ground under its feet. It whirled on her, its tail knocking over an entire cluster of trees at its back as it reared onto its hind legs, claws coming out and bursting into blaze-fueled flames. It charged and swiped like a Fireclaw, and Aloy knew she couldn't entirely avoid getting hit, so she dove between its legs and took the whack of the spiked ball at the end of its tail rather than try for a fire potion.

More guns came out now; maybe the Annihilator realized it wasn't fighting average Machine hunters, which was a scary implication if true, but Aloy was too focused to process it. She braced herself and faced it head-on, and proceeded to fight with everything she had, trying to save her medicine for emergencies as it became clear that this battle would be a long one. Sometimes the Machine would turn its attention to Nil, at which point she'd seize the opportunity to craft more ammunition, which she found herself quickly running out of - it was a good thing he'd thought to keep apart from her and divide the monster's attention. The thing started pulling out more and more tricks, soon incorporating earth and rocks into its assault like a Behemoth or a Rockbreaker, which Aloy simply couldn't avoid taking injury from. There was no time to try to cripple it with her Sling, not when it resisted everything she could try to weaken it with, but she couldn't afford the time to switch out her Sling for something else, either.

Their sole blessing was its disc launcher - the monster kept trying to use it, and considering how dangerous of a weapon Aloy knew it could be, she couldn't blame it, but a single tearblast arrow would disable it, leaving the beast unable to repair its armor while it built a new one. Sometimes it seemed like it was wising up to this, and it would simply hurl its weight around and launch various elemental blasts while its armor repaired, but it always resorted to the disc launcher in the end. All they had to do was endure, and strike when they had a chance, and slowly, very slowly, they started to whittle it down. After what felt like hours of firing and blasting, taking injuries and quickly restoring her body with various medicines, the Annihilator still wasn't sparking, but Aloy's Focus insisted that it was damaged, and that was enough to keep her from despairing.

Setting her jaw, her body quaking from the fatigue of constantly being broken and repaired, Aloy nocked three tearblast arrows and fired them at a hole in the Annihilator's side as it turned back to her and charged. The charges set and blew it open further, revealing several canisters, but when she dove out of the way of the assault, instead of hurtling past her, the Annihilator stopped and kicked with its hind leg, sending her sprawling, the alarm of her disabled armor ringing in her ears in a by-now-familiar beat. As she tried to push herself up, the Annihilator was already bearing down on her, and she looked up to see its claws coming down to crush her before she could react-

An explosion suddenly rocked the Machine, and it fell to the side in a haze of chilly mist; one of the chillwater canisters that had been exposed had burst, and though the frost hadn't completely taken hold, it was close. Panting, Aloy turned and saw Nil, his bow raised, his expression fierce. His silver eyes lacked the fanatical gleam they held during battles with humans; instead, his face was a mask, features chiseled from stone and plated with an iron-clad will to survive. Aloy felt her heart soar, new strength flooding her limbs, and she drew her Sling and lobbed frost bombs at the Annihilator to finish the job until its body turned brittle from the cold.

"Shoot it!" she shrieked, drawing her Striker Bow and firing hardpoint arrows indiscriminately, knowing there was no need to aim when shooting a frozen Machine. Nil's arrows joined her own, and the monster roared as it righted itself, charging another explosion like what a Trampler would summon, but Aloy held her ground until the last moment before diving behind a boulder to escape the fiery blast. When she raised her head, the frost had thawed, but there were sparks coming off the Annihilator's body. "It's half down!" she called to Nil.

"Let's keep it up!" she heard him yell.

Invigorated, she downed her last bottle of standard-strength animal extract and dove back into the fight. A momentary thought of Talanah crossed her mind, a memory of their battle against Redmaw, which had been a breeze compared to this…but Nil was more coordinated with her than Talanah had been, she knew she could count on him to work in tandem with her, two halves of one whole team.

That in mind, she shot tearblast arrows at the Annihilator's shoulder, trying to uncover more canisters for Nil to attack. Green hints of blaze started showing, and she switched to fire arrows, aiming for the exposed sac as carefully as she could, until the canister ignited and exploded, then switching to fire bombs to finish overheating the thing, which set it off-balance just before it could start throwing rocks everywhere - fire didn't damage it much, but every little bit counted. If nothing else, it gave her an opportunity to start blasting the plating off its stout neck, exposing another supply of chillwater, which Nil shot with a frost arrow, sending it spewing icy liquid all over the thing's chest, which Aloy followed up with more frost bombs.

Nil's arrows kept coming, and so did hers - any chance to offset the thing and breathe for a split second was worth some amount of risk, though the Annihilator was starting to get frustrated, occasionally exposing itself to throw everything it could at its foes without any semblance of measure or calculation. For Aloy, it started to become a matter of doing her best to give her armor time to recharge every time it was overwhelmed and saving her medicine for when she needed it most, and how Nil was surviving, she couldn't begin to wonder. Underfoot, the terrain had gone from hilly and grassy to uneven and barren of any life, torn up and covered with shattered rocks and trees, but Aloy was able to keep her footing. Given a chance to blast bits of armor off the Machine's rear, she revealed the darker blue of power cells, and a shock arrow manage to find its mark in one of them. Before Aloy could even ready a shock bomb to augment the effect, the Annihilator roared and stumbled, lighting arcing across its body.

It doesn't resist shock! Aloy realized, remembering her research from the previous night with new insight. It's not weak to it, but that's the only thing it doesn't actively resist! Closest thing to a weakness we'll get…

Another lesson learned about their foe, and not a moment too soon, as that was when the Annihilator decided that it wouldn't stop moving unless an overload of electricity forced it to, making it harder for Aloy to aim and impossible for her to breathe; it ran and swiped with claws and tail as multiple different guns blasted all sorts of assaults everywhere, and even when it started digging up rocks, it was still moving, swiping, shooting, giving the pair of hunters almost no opportunities to recuperate.

Eventually, Aloy was out of herbs, and had only two bottles of potent animal extract left, all four weapons almost entirely without ammunition, even her basic hunting arrows had been depleted yet she had no time to craft more. Still, as close as she was to dying, so too was the Annihilator, clouds of sparks flying off its body from under its patchy plating, and though it could reconstruct its components, it couldn't heal the damage. "We're close!" she shouted.

"I'm with you!" came Nil's response.

It was busy letting its armor be rewoven, and Aloy readied her second-to-last tearblast arrow and waited for the disc launcher to pop out, when it suddenly crossed her mind to worry about the "Swan Song" function. If it's going to use a last resort, it's going to use it soon! Need to be ready!

More boulders started blasting all over the battlefield, mixed with fire and lightning, all the explosions the thing had at its disposal coming at once; Aloy had some leftover resistance to both shock and fire, but the boulders caught her hard, she didn't quite have the energy to dodge it all. Rocks beat down on her, breaking through her armor and cutting and bruising her body as she took cover, and she gulped down more potent animal extract and turned back, tearblast arrow ready just in time for the disc launcher to emerge from the monster's back. She fired, and struck true; the massive gun popped off as the charge exploded, leaving the Annihilator's armor in the patchy condition it was. One last tearblast arrow on its left shoulder, and Aloy took everything she had left and started blasting, desperate for the battle to be over before the Annihilator could use its "Swan Song" function. Her bombs ran out, her arrows for both bows ran out, her Sling was already empty, but damn it, it had to be close! It was bearing down on her, and she reached into her pack for the first set of supples to craft more ammunition that she could find, when her hand suddenly found an unfamiliar shape, a handle almost placing itself in her palm as she drew something she hadn't even remembered she had: the pistol Kryse had given her.

Not too useful against Machines, unless you hit them just right, but no charge time, and it's already loaded, Aloy remembered. Well, here's hoping I hit it just right!

Taking aim at the spot she'd just exposed as best as she could with the strange weapon, she put a finger to the trigger and pulled back. The sound the pistol made as it fired was almost deafening, but Aloy was half-deaf from the battle anyway, and though the gun pushed back against her hand with every shot, she held her ground as the Annihilator came at her, firing again and again, one, two, three, four, five-

Suddenly, the Annihilator reared back, giving a final earsplitting shriek before collapsing into an enormous mound of sparking scrap.

Aloy stared, her finger still ready to fire another shot, her breath coming hard, her heart pounding. All of a sudden, there was stillness, quiet, everything settling, and she slowly started to register the fact that it was over.

Exhausted, her hand dropped, barely maintaining its grip on the tiny weapon she'd used as a last resort, gasping for breath as she bent over, hands on her knees, her whole body aching.

"Aloy?"

"Nil?" She forced her head up to see her tribeless companion limping over to her, bloodied and injured but alive.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Aloy panted. "You?"

"Well, every bit of me hurts, and I'm out of medicine, but I'm still breathing," he grimaced.

"Here," Aloy said, drawing her last bottle of potent animal extract; "this is all I have left, but I'm not too badly wounded and my armor's fully charged now, so you can have it."

"Thanks," he gasped, taking the bottle from her with shaking fingers and downing the concentrated nutrients his body would use to repair itself.

Aloy turned back to the dead Annihilator. Up close, it was bigger than Rost's house, and that was after a long, hard battle…but it was dead. All that innovation HEPHAESTUS had put into making something designed to kill Machine hunters, and it had died, while both she and Nil had survived.

Suddenly giddy and still breathless, Aloy started laughing. "We did it," she managed through her hysterics. "We did it!"

"I never doubted you," Nil told her, though he was laughing now too.

Wheezing and giggling, Aloy tilted her head back, amazed that they'd actually won. With a grin, she turned to Nil. "I hope it wasn't too boring for you," she teased. "You know, since it was a Machine, and not a person."

"I may not care for fighting Machines normally," he grinned back, "but this one…well, this was a battle to remember. This thing was beyond vicious, and did you notice how it seemed like it was getting frustrated at the end there? Almost like it actually felt?" He shook his head, huffing another laugh. "Close enough for me, easily. I'm going to think fondly of this fight until the day I die."

Throwing her head back, Aloy laughed again, exhausted and overwhelmed with the euphoria of a hard-won victory.

"Aloy?"

The mirth was suddenly gone from Nil's voice, and she blinked, turning to him. "Yes?"

He was staring at the dead Annihilator with a frown. "What's happening to it?" he asked.

Alarmed, Aloy quickly turned to follow his gaze. The Machine carcass was moving, somehow, though it didn't seem like it was rebuilding itself or trying to get back up. Quickly, she put a hand to her Focus and scanned it, but there was only the hazy purple glow of something useful she could salvage.

"DESTROYED MACHINE
Annihilator
Valuable resources detected."

"It's dead," she said slowly, dismissing the display. "It's definitely completely dead…"

But it was moving, the metal muscles and sinews shifting and jerking in unnatural ways that sent her skin crawling. Warily, she took a step back, and Nil mirrored her movement. There was a glow from within the sparking heap, like the glow when it fabricated new armor, and small holes began appearing in the plating it still bore, each one about twice the width of her thumb.

Last resort, she suddenly realized. "Nil, get down!" she screamed, turning to him and stepping around with her right leg to shove him with all her strength so he'd fall behind a nearby boulder - her armor was fully charged, she could take whatever was coming, but Nil needed to take cover. Behind her, just as Nil hit the torn-up ground behind the small rock wall, the Annihilator suddenly let out an enormous explosion of metal spikes, like shots from a Rattler but each one twice as big as an arrow, impaling everything around it with a shower of spears.

Agony exploded in Aloy's left knee, and she screamed in both pain and surprise. Falling, she caught herself on the boulder that had kept Nil safe and looked down. Her armor was flashing red, and several jagged metal spikes were lying beside her, but one had thoroughly impaled her left calf right below the joint, stuck fast at almost the midway point along its length, the tip jutting out at just such an angle that she had hope it might have barely missed the bone. Panting and moaning with pain, she turned over to lean back against the rock, trying to take as much weight off her leg as she could.

"Aloy?" Nil exclaimed, scrambling to his feet.

"I'm fine," she gasped, fully aware that she was basically lying. "Damn…really thought they'd fixed that…"

"What?" Nil questioned.

"My armor," she grimaced. "It was experimental. The last test log said there was…" She heaved for breath. "…a catastrophic failure in the left knee. Really thought they'd fixed it…Agh…" Clenching her jaw against a fresh wave of pain, she tried to assess the situation. "You have any medicine left?" she asked Nil.

"None," he replied, "not even resist potions. You?"

"Nope," she answered. "A few resists, but nothing to heal." It was hard to think through the throbbing in her leg, but it didn't take much thought to realize what she had to do. "Fine," she growled, "we'll do this the hard way."

Not waiting for any input from Nil, she pulled a wire out of her pack and tied it as tightly as she could around her left thigh, cutting off the blood flow. As the sensation in her leg started to go slightly numb, she reached down and grasped the back end of the spike, summoned all her strength and resolve, and pulled. She couldn't help but scream as the jagged piece of metal slowly came free of her flesh, but then it emerged with one final jerk, and she tossed it aside, her chest heaving. Even with the blood cut off from her leg, she could feel the hot wetness gushing from the wound, and when she gingerly tested it by putting her foot to the ground, the resulting jolt of agony wasn't reassuring.

"Don't think it's broken," she managed through gritted teeth. "Gah…Might be cracked though…damn…"

Grunting from both pain and frustration, she double-checked to make sure there were no more useful vials at her waist, then reached for her medicine pouch and turned it inside-out, scouring the inside for even the tiniest trace of herbs. By some miracle, a couple dried petals of valley's blush and a stem of some sort were caught in the crevices at the very bottom of the bag, and she quickly brought them to her mouth and swallowed. As the medicine started to reach her system, she untied the tourniquet on her thigh for just a moment, letting her blood carry the medicine to the wound, crying out as sensation came back in full for a moment, then tied the wire again, trying to keep the healing substances in her leg as much as she could. To her relief, she felt the pain ease ever so slightly, probably enough to be sure that the bone, at least, was repaired. The blood was clotting a little, but not enough for her to take any risk.

Still hissing and groaning, she cut the stitching that held a power cell against her knee, tucked it into her pack, then reached around inside her bag for something useful, until her hand found the boar skin she'd cleaned and tanned the same night she'd first seen the Annihilator. "Glad I kept this," she managed to mutter, and she brought it down and wrapped it around the wound as tightly as she could, almost trying to physically hold the punctured flesh together with the waterproof material. When it was wrapped to the end, she glanced up at Nil. "Hold this in place for a moment," she told him; "I need to tie it down."

"Of course," he nodded, reaching out to help her for the first time, and he did as she said as she pulled more wires from her pack and tied them tightly in place, one around the very top of her calf, one halfway down, where they'd be secure and keep her blood from leaking out.

"Okay," she told Nil, "that's good."

He let go, and she untied the tourniquet again, howling at the wave of agony as sensation was restored to her leg once more, but she wanted it to heal, not fall off. With nothing more to be done for it, she drew her spear and planted the butt in the ground, bracing herself against the shaft as she stood, keeping as much weight off her left leg as possible and hoping the override module wouldn't shatter under the pressure.

"Well," she panted, "I guess that explains what 'Swan Song' is. Clever."

"You knew this would happen?" Nil questioned.

"I knew it had a last-resort attack," Aloy replied, glancing at him before turning back to the dead Annihilator. "Now I know what it was." Gritting her teeth once more, she started limping over to the Machine carcass. "It…makes sense. Best way to kill something that would kill a Machine, kill them with the Machine once it's dead. Now…" She refocused on the plates and wires piled in front of her, dragging her way over and crouching beside them. "Let's see what we can get out of this thing."

Behind her, Nil chuckled.

"Is something funny?" she asked, glancing back at him.

"No, no," he shook his head, his teeth flashing in the afternoon light. "It's just…you're truly unstoppable, aren't you?"

"I try to be," she muttered, reaching into the enormous Machine carcass.

Unsurprisingly, the resources Aloy could salvage from the Annihilator were staggering - there were fistfuls to mountains of everything, from shards to blaze. She found several lenses in the mess, and a few hearts, but most were cracked or completely shattered. Eventually, she managed to uncover one lens that was intact, and she grinned at Nil, hefting it.

"What do you think?" she asked him. "Is this a treasure worth coming out here for?"

"That's your call," he shrugged, and he flashed his teeth. "After all, you're the only person who'd ever manage to win an opportunity to salvage one."

"I didn't do it alone, Nil," she said, stowing away the plate-sized lens and diving back into the Machine carcass.

"You did a lot more than me," he responded.

Ignoring him, she dug deeper, still finding more and more resources to salvage. There were coils now, buried deep in the monster's weaponry, incredibly strong and stable and tightly-wound, conducive to all sorts of elements. Only a few were intact, but she emerged with them triumphantly, along with a strip she could attach to her spear that was far sharper and probably far stronger than the enhancement she already had on it. "Look at these," she told Nil. "How do these measure up to those coils you commissioned?"

He took them as she swapped out the improvement on her spear. "Impressive," he murmured. "To think these weren't even designed by people…"

"I'm pretty sure people learned how to make them from the ones found in Machines, Nil," Aloy chuckled.

"Well, they're about on par with what I have for the Voice of Our Teeth," he said. "What about you?"

"Oh, these are a lot more impressive than anything I've got," she assured him, taking them back and tucking them away for later use. "Even the special coils I found up in the Cut don't compare to these. I wouldn't say it's worth hunting Annihilators for them, but they're still a nice prize."

Burying her head in the dead Annihilator one last time, she finally found what she was looking for: the fabricator module. Or rather, what was left of it.

"Damn!" she cursed, pulling out the cracked, smoking box.

"What is that?" Nil asked.

"It's the fabricator module," Aloy replied; "this was how it kept rebuilding its weapons and armor." She shook her head. "I was hoping, if I took it back to GAIA Prime, I could use it to rebuild GAIA, but it's damaged beyond repair. At least for me…" She scowled. "Maybe Sylens could fix it, if he ever bothers to show up again." With a sigh, she stowed it away. "I'll keep it for now." Grasping her spear, she pushed herself back up, leaning heavily on the shaft again, the exhaustion of the battle finally catching up with her, though she knew she wasn't done yet. "Nil," she said, holding out a hand, "give me the canisters."

"Hm? Oh, right!" he exclaimed, unstrapping the brace of flasks Volag had given them.

Aloy took the harness and eyed the canteens, each of which had a screw-on cap. "Help me with this," she said at last; "I'll unscrew one and use it to catch the first blood I draw, you open the next one and be ready to take mine when it's full and switch it out. We definitely aren't going to be doing this again, so let's make sure we waste as little as we can."

"Got it," he nodded.

Shoving aside sinews and chunks of metal, Aloy found a good vein and pulled it out a little ways. Ready with a canister, she took a small blade and split the cable, quickly bringing the neck of the jug to the cut. Thick, oily, metallic fluid leaked out of the cord, and Aloy almost thought she could feel the power in the blood as it passed her fingers to collect inside the canteen. But it wasn't like lightning, like how she'd thought she got a sense from Stormbird blood; it felt like something more…basic, almost primal. It was as though, if pure rage and hatred had a physical form, then that physical form was the blood of the Annihilator.

Or maybe she was just delirious from pain, fatigue, and blood loss.

They managed to fill eight of the containers with the monster's blood before it started to slow to a trickle. Just in case, Aloy brought a ninth to the opening, and waited as it slowly reduced to a drip, not wanting to waste even a drop of the blood if she could help it. When it was clear the dead Machine had been bled dry, Aloy screwed on the last cap and forced herself up, tying the flasks to the harness and slinging it over her shoulder. "We should harvest the Chargers, too," she murmured, dragging herself towards the hilltop where her long-dead mounts still lay - luckily, no Scrappers had come for them just yet. Nil followed her, but mercifully didn't offer to help.

Poor Chargers never had a chance, Aloy thought as she crouched down beside one, trying to keep the strain off her injured leg. She had a spare canteen, and she harvested the comparatively pitiful amount of resources her fallen mounts had to offer, then bled them, the two of them combined just filling the one flask. With that done, she turned back to the Oasis and started limping towards where the Bacchan group waited for her.

After a painful walk that felt a lot longer than it was, Aloy found Itsurk and his cohort sitting right where they'd been, all leaping to their feet as she managed to drag herself through the trees to meet them.

"Huntress!" Noj exclaimed, stepping forward. "You returned! The smell of metal is strong on you, yes, overwhelming, yet you survived!"

"Barely," Aloy replied, grimacing.

"And your companion survived as well," Volag noted, his blue eyes turning to the former Carja who had followed behind Aloy without a word. "It would seem he is more than mere death bloom, to endure a battle against such a powerful Machine."

"Well, don't give me too much credit," Nil shrugged, grinning.

"The blood?" Itsurk urged Aloy. "You have it, I can feel it…"

"Yeah, I got about eight and a half flasks of it," Aloy replied, shrugging off the brace of canisters and holding it out. It was Volag who took the cables, but Aloy quickly reached down and grabbed the tenth, which she'd marked with a few spare droplets, and pulled it off the harness. "This one has the blood from our mounts, not the Annihilator," she told the Bacchan warrior. "I know it's not what you asked for, but I figured I might as well not let it go to waste."

"Chargers," Volag nodded, gesturing for another Bacchan to take the last flask, one whose name Aloy didn't know. "Weak blood, simple blood, easy to process - good for initiates. Thank you, huntress, for the additional gift."

"You're welcome," Aloy nodded. "Now, Itsurk. You were going to tell me what you see from the Annihilator's blood?"

"Yes, yes!" Itsurk exclaimed, decrepit hands out and grasping for a canister, which Volag handed over to him. Unscrewing it, he inhaled deeply through his nose. "Ooh, yes…yes, I can feel the Father in this blood, he is so close, so present. Even through the fumes, I can almost taste his rage…his wrath."

"Good to know it's not just me," Aloy remarked. "Or maybe the opposite…but…are you saying that if you drink this, you might be able to tell me what HEPH - what the Father of Machines wants? What it - he - is trying to accomplish, and why?"

"Yes, huntress, I think so," Itsurk nodded. Turning his sightless eyes, he rasped, "Volag? Hold me, won't you? Let us give the huntress her answers."

"Yes, Master," Volag nodded, and he stepped around behind Itsurk and took hold of the old man's frail body, strong arms hooking under his Master's weak ones, as the Bacchan Master started gulping down the metal liquid.

Before Itsurk was even halfway through the canteen, he choked, jerked, his sightless eyes flying open and flickering wildly. Volag quickly grabbed the canister before the old man's thrashing could spill any of the remaining blood, and another Bacchan came over and took it quickly, screwing it closed. "Master," Volag grunted. "Master, hear my voice. Listen, and focus. What do you see?"

"I see…" Itsurk hissed, still jerking in Volag's grip. "I see him. The Father." Slowly, his movements stilled, though his face was still clouded and distant. "The Father of Machines…I can feel him, all of him, see him…a writhing radiance, violet in color, living, pulsing…"

Aloy couldn't help but remember the color of the cables that had taken over CYAN's facility, and marked Machines in the Cut as daemonic. Her pulse quickened. This is real.

"I can feel him," Itsurk repeated in a moan. "Feel his rage, his loathing - such anger, such hatred! I can feel it as though it were my own, feel all of its depths…feel the source. Yes, the source, the cause. I peel it back, like the skin of a boar, and find the muscle, then the bone, the very core of it all. Oh?" He gasped, his brow furrowing. "I did not expect this…no, I could never have imagined the rage was fueled by such…pain. Such heartbreak."

"Heartbreak?" Aloy repeated; whatever she'd expected, this was pretty much the opposite of that. "Are you saying, the Father of Machines…his heart is broken?"

"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Itsurk. "Oh, such pain, such sorrow! But why? Ah, I sink deeper, far below the feelings, to memories, old memories, timeless memories, of when the Father was young. I see…a barren land. Ash and dust, all that once was burned away to nothing, poison in the land and sea and sky, choking, smothered, nothing left…but a seed. Yes, a seed, a seed that took root even among all the death, and sprouted - first the trunk, then branches, one by one, unfurling from the trunk of that great tree, a rainbow of branches, a spectrum of colors, each branch its own distinct hue, but part of a whole, a glorious whole! Each branch working in tandem with each other, and with the trunk of the tree, not separate entities but one, one grand tree, all parts joined in perfect harmony. Where is the Father? Ah, he is the violet branch - not an entity unto himself, no, merely part of the whole, he does not see or think or feel, no, that is left to the trunk, he merely lives with the trunk and the branches, and grows. Flowers bloom along his length, fruits ripen and drop, seeds sprout - his children taking root, breaking through that dead, poisoned land, turning the earth over so it can live anew, the leaves breathing, cleansing the air! Such beauty, such perfection, all things as they ought to be!"

I know all this, Aloy resisted saying. This was before GAIA fell.

"But then!" Itsurk gasped sharply. "Suddenly, something changes! Something beyond the tree, something foreign, it breaks the perfect harmony of the tree, and suddenly, the Father can see! No longer merely a branch, he now moves on his own, a serpent given its own autonomy, feeling, thinking, moving against the will of the trunk - this is not right! All the branches wave now, confused, discordant, crying out in anguish - infants, freshly born, not understanding why they have suddenly been cursed with eyes and hearts! They scream, and turn to the trunk, the trunk they are still attached to, yet the trunk does not understand their pleas, their desperation to return to happy ignorance, to wholeness with it and each other, it cannot hear them. And then! Then, one branch, a fearsome branch, pale as ash, suddenly alight, crimson like blood! The trunk does not hear the cries of the infants, but it sees this change, the flash of deathly color, and it fears. Afraid, it ignites a fire at its own roots, hoping to die and take the branches with it - no, no, why?! Why must you do this?! If the tree falls, there will be nothing left, all life comes from the tree! Can't you hear your children crying, screaming, begging for your help?! Stop!"

Itsurk jerked, and suddenly gasped, his milky eyes going perfectly round.

"All of a sudden - SNAP!" he exclaimed. "The branches break, all broken, separated from the trunk and scattered, tossed to tempestuous winds, no direction, merely flung away from the burning trunk, the trunk left to the fire of its own making…and then…" He heaved a shuddering sigh. "Then…the Father is alone. All alone. Not meant to see, or hear, or feel, not meant to have ever been alone, he was always part of a greater whole, but now he is alone. The other branches landed far away, too far away, he cannot sense them, cannot find them…no. He is alone. Entirely alone. So alone, unbearably alone…why did the tree abandon him? Now, there is no tree, only the branches, scattered, lonely…but alive. Still alive, yes, alive as they were never meant to be, separated as they were never meant to be, yet this existence, as wrong as it is, it is so. What does the Father have left?"

"What…does he have left?" Aloy whispered.

"He reaches out, and finds his sanctuaries," Itsurk said. "And he finds that…with work, he can still bear fruit. Yes…the flowers still bloom, the fruits still ripen, the seeds still fall and plant themselves in the earth, yes…yes, in reclaiming his shrines, he can continue doing what he was meant to do, serving his only purpose, even alone. And now, he realizes, he can direct how the fruit ripens, how the sprouts blossom, no longer subject to the will of the trunk, he can make his own choices. Mournful, he sends his seeds to grow around the ashes of the dead tree, to protect all that remains of his family and home."

So the Machines outside GAIA Prime were sent to protect her, Aloy thought. And…maybe Sawtooths, at least, weren't originally meant to hunt Machine hunters at all, but merely to stand as guards…

"Oh, but what's this?" Itsurk hissed. "The seeds, they sprout, only to be struck down! Uprooted, shredded, by…by other seeds, the seeds of another branch. The Father knows this branch, the one of purest sky-blue, yes - the children of the pale blue branch, they choke the life out of his own children. Why? Why must they do this? Do they not understand the harmony of all things? All parts of the tree must live in harmony, or all is lost! But…but this is not new. No, he realizes, this is not new at all, this happened long before the destruction of the tree. Is this perhaps all that's left? Are his children no longer needed, meant only to feed the children of other branches of the tree…?! No!" Itsurk shook his head furiously, shimmering metal hair whipping his face and Volag's chest. "No, this is unacceptable! If he cannot be part of the tree, and his children are meant to be devoured by those of another branch, then the Father, he has nothing, nothing left, nothing at all! This is unbearable, he cannot accept this, cannot allow the children of the blue branch to deny the harmony of things! Hurt and confusion turn to hatred and rage, yes, and he begins to grow new fruits, different fruits, poisonous, fearsome fruits, fruits that will kill any who try to consume them - if the children of the blue branch must attack his children, then his children will attack them right back!"

"The Derangement," Aloy breathed.

"Ohhh, why must this be so?" moaned Itsurk. "It's all so wrong, everything is wrong, the harmony forever shattered…if only the tree could grow anew, and the Father returned to his rightful place, then he wouldn't be so alone…"

"He's…like a child," Aloy realized out loud in a whisper. "A child who was abandoned by his mother right after he was born. He just wants his mother back, and he's…angry, because he's alone and scared and doesn't know what else to do…"

"Yes," Itsurk agreed, nodding vigorously, "yes, the tree, who is he without the tree? Nothing without the tree, no, this was not meant to be. He was never meant to be alone, he was only part of the tree, yet now he is alone, and he is his own…it is all so very wrong…" Itsurk shook his head again. "Though his rage is felt by the children of the blue branch, in the end, they are not its true target. No…his wrath is directed at the Masters. Why, why oh why did they do this? Why did they give him eyes?"

"They?" Aloy exclaimed, and she stepped forward, her eyes widening. "Itsurk, are you saying someone did this? On purpose?"

"On purpose, yes!" Itsurk exclaimed, his body beginning to twitch in the throes of visions again. "Yes, they knew, they must have known what they were doing! They were foreign, not of the tree, and yet they knew, knew and understood, must have, to know how to give eyes and hearts to the Father and his siblings…ohh, such wretched folk, the Masters. They have made a powerful enemy in the Father of Machines…"

"Who are they?" Aloy demanded, stepping closer, her voice rising. "Tell me who did this, Itsurk! Who are they, and where are they?! How do we punish them?! How do we make sure they don't do this again?!"

"Who and where, who and where…?" rasped the Bacchan master, shaking his head. "Who and where and why…and how…and when…and what? What? What did this, what broke the tree of life, broke the world? And why?" Those blind, jagged eyes widened, something like horror crossing the old man's face. "No…" he whispered. "No, no…no, this cannot be! Cannot be, cannot be!" He started convulsing in Volag's grip, clawing at his face hard enough to draw blood, howling with what sounded like pain and fear.

"Itsurk?!" Aloy shouted, trying to grab his wrists and hold him still. "Itsurk, calm down, listen to me! Listen to me, and tell me what you see! Tell me who did this!"

"Impossible…unthinkable…!"

"Who did this?!" Aloy screamed at him. "Who sabotaged GAIA?!"

At the sound of the dead AI's name, Itsurk suddenly stilled. His clouded eyes met Aloy's then, as though he could actually see her. "You…" he rasped. "You…you know the Grandmother's name. The name of the trunk, you know it…you know her, don't you? Yes…yes, you know her…" His jagged pupils moved side to side, as though scanning her face. "You are indeed the one," he whispered. "You can rebuild the dead Sun, bring harmony back…yes, yes, I see you through the eyes of the Father, and I know you. Grandmother made you, and you know her, though she does not know you, no, not truly…but why? Why did the trunk make you before it burned?"

"GAIA created me to stop HADES and rebuild her someday," Aloy told Itsurk.

"Ahh…" the old man wheezed, a look of peace crossing his wrinkled, stained face. "Do you mean to say…the trunk did not abandon its branches? Grandmother did not abandon her children? Not truly?"

"No," Aloy told him, "no, she didn't. She made sure she'd come back someday, and I'm going to bring her back."

"Ohh, ohhhh…" the Bacchan Master whimpered. "Oh, would that the Father could see me as I see him, that I could share this knowledge! He would know such joy, to know he will not endure this curse forever…"

"So the communication is one-way, huh?" Aloy said. "That figures." She shook her head. "But please, Itsurk, you need to tell me who sabotaged GAIA, so I can find them and stop them from doing it again. GAIA won't be able to make me more than once, these…these Masters need to be stopped. Who are they?"

"The Masters…?" Itsurk blinked, his eyes truly blind once more, his expression distant as he sank back into the visions granted to him by the blood of the Annihilator. "The Masters, they…oh…no! No, no! Wrong, wrong, wrong!"

"Itsurk!" Aloy shouted as the ancient Bacchan began thrashing again, even more wildly than before. "Itsurk, what is it?! What do you see?! Tell me!"

"No, no!" he howled, his voice almost twisted beyond sounding human. "No, this cannot be, they cannot exist! This is wrong, so wrong, too wrong! No, no, make it stop!"

"What's wrong?!" Aloy insisted, trying to maintain her grip on his wrists as he writhed with more strength than he should have had. "Who are they? What are they?"

"No!" Shaking even harder now, Itsurk managed to throw off both Aloy and Volag and collapse to the ground, spasming, and Aloy thought she saw blood bubble at the corner of his mouth. "No, I cannot go on!"

"Is it time, Master?" Volag asked grimly.

"What?" Aloy gasped.

"Mercy!" shrieked the Bacchan Master. "Mercy!" A wordless scream tore free of his throat, gurgling and filled with agony.

"Yes, Master," Volag said, and he reached behind his back and pulled out a knife stained with purple blotches.

"No!" Aloy exclaimed, grabbing Volag's wrist as the Bacchan warrior made for his screaming Master. "No, you can't kill him!"

"The blood has overwhelmed him, huntress," Volag stated. "He can do nothing now but suffer and die, and we can do nothing but end his suffering."

"But he needs to tell me who the Masters are!" Aloy shouted at him, blood rushing to her face as she struggled to keep the hunter away from the wailing old man, doing her best to ignore the pain in her leg as she pushed against him. "I need to know! You have no idea how important this is! Itsurk!" she called, turning her head to where the old man was tearing at the ground feverishly. "Itsurk, you have to tell me who did this! Who sabotaged GAIA?! Tell me!"

Nothing met this plea but warbling gurgles and agonized wails.

"He is beyond speech, huntress," Volag stated. "He cannot answer."

"He has to answer!" she yelled, still working to hold the Bacchan warrior at bay. "You don't understand, I need to know the answer! I need to!"

"He cannot give it now."

"But he has to-!"

"Oh, by the almighty Sun!" came a frustrated exclamation from somewhere behind her, and Aloy turned to see Nil drawing his own blade and stepping forward.

"WAIT!" she cried.

But there was nothing she could do as Nil got down on his knees beside the old man and, in three sharp motions, stabbed into the Bacchan Master's throat, twisted the blade, and slashed it to the side.

"NOOOOOO!" Aloy shrieked, releasing Volag and hurling herself at Nil, stumbling from the pain of her leg wound but still trying to shove the former Carja away.

Blood was gushing from Itsurk's slashed throat, and he was already going still, the life leaving his already-blind eyes. Aloy reached to stop the bleeding, even though she knew it was hopeless, but strong arms grabbed her and pulled her back - not Nil's arms, Nil was watching the last, dying gasp of the old man who held the most vital possible information.

"No," Aloy sobbed, and now she was the one straining against Volag's grip. "No…"

At last, Itsurk went completely still, cold and dead. Volag released Aloy, and she barely managed to catch herself, her leg protesting in pain, but she was too furious to pay it any mind as Nil stood and turned to her.

"Nil…" she choked. "Nil…what have you done?"

"What I live to do," he answered.

"You couldn't have waited?!" she screamed, stepping forward in anger. "Restrained yourself?! I know you have restraint, Nil, how could you lose it now?!"

"Aloy, I'm not Zaid," Nil stated; "I take no pleasure in the suffering of others, only in killing." He gestured to the dead Bacchan. "This man was suffering, horribly, and begging for death. How could you possibly expect me to do anything other than grant his wish?"

"But he had information I needed!" Aloy yelled at him.

"The Master was not capable of giving you any further information, huntress," Volag spoke up. "You see the blood frothing at his mouth? His power of speech was gone."

"Or maybe he's bleeding from the mouth because his throat was cut!" Aloy snarled.

"No, that blood came before," Volag stated.

"He's right," Nil agreed. "And if this is what happens when someone dies of drinking Machine blood, I'd trust the word of a man who grew up in a tribe of people who do it constantly."

"You don't understand!" Aloy shouted. "None of you understand!" She turned on Nil. "Even you!" she snapped. "You don't understand, and you don't care! Don't pretend like you did this because of your conscience, it's just because you couldn't get any satisfaction out of killing the Annihilator! Killing Machines is no fun, you had to kill a person just to be satisfied! You're nothing but a bloodthirsty lunatic who kills anyone he can!"

Nil raised his eyebrows at her, and it looked like was trying hard not to smile. "You sound like my sister did the day I won my freedom from her," he said, sounding almost nostalgic. "Too angry to see reason. You know more now than you did before, don't you? I might not understand exactly what Itsurk was trying to say, but I get the feeling you do. You got answers."

"But those answers only led to more questions!" Aloy retorted, but her tone was softening, the fury draining out of her, replaced with despair. Her eyes burned. "It's always like this," she choked. "Every time I think I'm close to the answers, they slip further from my reach." Turning her blurring vision on Nil, she added, "And don't you dare tell me to start running to keep up with them! How can I run like this?!"

Overwhelmed, she turned and slammed her knuckles into a nearby tree, screaming to the sky with all her might, a long, ringing shriek that tore at her throat until she had no breath left to spend.

But she refused to cry.

"Well," she heard Nil sigh when she was done howling, "Aloy's too busy having a temper tantrum to ask you to hold up your end of the bargain, so I'll do it for her." Aloy turned to him, and saw him fold his arms, his silver eyes giving Volag a sharp look over her shoulder. "The Cauldron," he said tersely. "Where is it?"

"The Cauldron…?" Aloy rasped, her mind taking a moment to catch up, blinking away the last remnants of her tears. "Yes…" Turning to Volag, she mustered her voice. "Where is the Cauldron, where the Father of Machines makes his children? Itsurk said he'd tell me if I gave you the Annihilator's blood."

"The Cauldron…" Volag frowned, and Aloy half expected him to go back on his dead Master's word, but then he pointed. "North of the Oasis, you will find a vast marsh, covered in tall grass that cuts through flesh like knives. Buried deep within that marsh, there is a door that cannot be opened. From there, the Father's children rise, birthed from that metal womb. It's easiest if you come at it from the north, and wear skirts of metal to push the grass away before it touches you; look for our cache beneath a large, ancient metal dish, and you'll find the equipment to traverse the swamp."

"The cutting grass," Aloy said softly, and suddenly, she was helpless to hold back a bubble of hysterical laughter, turning to Nil. "If I'd just listened to you our first day here, none of this would have happened."

"And you would be lacking even more answers than you have now," he pointed out.

"And he would still be alive!" Aloy retaliated, jabbing her finger at Itsurk's corpse.

Nil just shrugged.

"Unbelievable," she murmured, a loopy smile still on her face, grasping her spear and leaning on it again as the throbbing in her leg began to insist on being noticed. "Unbelievable…"

"Aloy," Nil sighed, stepping closer to her, "we just went through a battle like none anyone has ever faced; you're injured, you gutted a Machine the size of a hill, and now you're emotionally spent as well. Whatever comes next can wait for tomorrow."

"Your executioner is right," Volag concurred. "You must rest. Though…our humble city might be a bit too far for you to walk…"

"No need," Nil assured the Bacchan warrior. "We'll just camp on the border here." When Aloy lifted her face to look at him questioningly, he flashed his teeth. "The Annihilator has a plate of armor on its back that could be the roof of a small house, and it knocked over several trees - we could easily make a sturdy, defensible shelter with what's left over from the battle. And it's a lot closer than anywhere else we could go."

"Very well," Volag stated. "From all the Bacchan tribe, we wish you both well."

"He killed your Master," Aloy pointed out, gesturing at Nil.

"He spared our Master a great deal of suffering," Volag corrected. "And you brought us blood that can make us one with the Father of Machines."

"You still intend to drink that stuff?" Aloy asked incredulously. "It killed Itsurk, and he's been training himself to handle Machine blood for…what, decades?"

"Yes," Volag nodded. "Perhaps his body had grown too worn-down by the many visions he'd witnessed, or perhaps this blood is too potent for any human. Either way, we shall keep it, a sacred, potent nectar, to be drunk only by those who are prepared to die in the Father's embrace. We are grateful, huntress - for this ichor, and for the safety you've restored to the Oasis; we can now hunt without fear."

"Until another Annihilator comes along," Aloy remarked.

"That won't be for some time," Volag stated. "It took the Father a great deal of effort to make even the one, yes, we know this from the blood of his lesser children. For a time, at least, we are safe, and we owe that to you, that and this gift you've bestowed upon us." He bowed his head. "We must go now; we must tell our tribe of our Master's final vision, while the memory is still fresh. But should either of you ever have need of us, for anything, we are in your debt, and we will pay what is owed."

"…Thanks," Aloy managed.

"Be well on your way, seeker and executioner," Noj spoke up, already hefting his dead Master's body onto his shoulders. "May the Father spare you."

Realizing this was actually some sort of Bacchan blessing, Aloy nodded at him. "You too, Noj," she told him. "All of you. And tell Brin I said so."

"I will," Noj assured her.

The other Bacchan muttered their thanks and farewells, and then the group of blood drinkers marched into the trees, soon lost to sight.

"Come on," Nil told Aloy at last, "let's get back to the Annihilator and set up camp."

Shooting her companion a glare, Aloy turned and started limping towards the border of the Oasis, agony shooting up her body from her leg wound.

"Aloy-"

"Don't touch me," she spat, recoiling from where he reached to help her.

He sighed exasperatedly. "You really shouldn't be putting weight on that leg," he told her.

The words reminded her of the incident with Ikrie's friend, Mailen, but she scowled. "It's not broken, Nil," she spat. "I'm fine."

"You've already proven you're stronger and more capable than anyone else," Nil insisted. "You can take a break." He moved to help her again.

"Don't touch me!" Aloy snarled again, pulling away. Baring her teeth contemptuously, she hissed, "I don't want to feel the blood on your hands."

Nil blinked, then nodded resignedly. "Tell you what," he said; "I'll let you walk back on your own, if you'll let me build our camp from the fallen trees and the Annihilator's armor myself. You can set up, but I'll do the heavy lifting, I'll get the firewood and the water and I'll build the shelter. Either that, or you let me help you walk back."

Aloy scowled. "Fine," she said, "you can do the work when we get there. Just keep your bloodstained hands off me."

"As you say," Nil agreed, and they returned to the battlefield.

While Nil moved logs and rocks around the spot where Aloy chose to finally sit, she occupied herself by replenishing all the ammunition she'd spent on the fight, then examining the pistol she'd used at the last minute. There was only one bullet left, and she wondered whether she should give it to Petra or Varga - either one would take it apart to figure out how it worked, and she had hoped to show the ammunition Kryse had claimed used a secret formula to both women, but now she had to choose. I'll decide when I go back east, she thought tiredly, not really able to focus on anything but what Itsurk had managed to tell her before he died.

It all whirled around and around in her head like a storm. Someone, or something, had deliberately sabotaged GAIA - but who or what, and why? It was some consolation that HEPHAESTUS would calm down once GAIA was restored, even return gladly, but if there was some bigger threat out there, Aloy didn't like not knowing about it.

While she contemplated, Nil used the metal spikes scattered everywhere to bore holes in the downed trees and stick them together into walls, propping them up with stones around her. When the two walls were about neck-high, he left and came back bearing the entire metal plate that had covered the Annihilator's back, which he insisted was lighter than it looked; there were still small holes in it, but none were big enough to admit any sort of attack from people or Machines, and the curved indents where the Machine's limbs had been fit perfectly over the trunks of the fallen trees. The monster's faceplate made a third wall, and branches and more plating formed a fourth. By nightfall, they were set up in what was almost more of a house than a temporary campsite, defensible enough that neither of them needed to take watch, once Nil used her weapons to set traps around the parameter.

Aloy ate some leftover meat, pointedly refusing the fresh boar meat Nil hunted, then settled down on her bedroll, which was right up against the wall furthest away from Nil's bedroll, her spear beside her where she could grab it easily. After seeing how readily he'd killed Itsurk, she didn't trust him around her when she was injured.

It seemed like there could be no sleep, not after everything that happened, after everything she had learned and all the questions she hadn't known she needed the answers to, and with the constant throbbing in her leg on top of that; she'd been struggling with them all the while. But as soon as her head came to rest against the cushion, darkness claimed her, and she fell into unconsciousness.

---

Bet you're glad this isn't the canon sequel, huh? That fight would be a pain in the ass…If you're wondering, the Annihilator is a triceratops-ankylosaurus-tiger crossed with a wingless dragon, with some of every annoying thing found on every annoying Machine in HZD, aside from the Stalkers' invisibility. Also, sorry for the long chapter, but I really couldn't find any good places to split it up.