The Old Ones were ancient humans who built a Metal World with towers that reached the sky. Thousands of years ago, they ruled the world and lived a life of prosperity, wealth and gluttony. They had created marvelous machines, but their arrogance coupled with their short-sighted views led to the downfall of the Metal World. The new world would not exist if it were not for the compassion of one old one, Elisabet Sobeck, and her Project: Zero Dawn. The idea was simple, since nothing could stop their previous machines from destroying all biological matter on Earth, they would make new machines that would terraform the entire planet once the devils ran out of food. They would remake the world from the smallest ant to the largest elephant, even recreate humanity itself.

These new machines would be under the guidance of GAIA, an artificial intelligence, to help guide the machines into recreating the world with its very own machines in animal form to help with the delivery of resources and planting of the future. But around twenty years ago GAIA fell, and her creations have become much wilder. Thankfully the new humans have been able to adapt and survive alongside the machines, though it is as tribal warriors, hunters, and gatherers trying to make their own ways of life. One of the most important of these tribe folks is Aloy, an outcast turned Nora Brave. She is the daughter of Elisabet Sobeck and GAIA, the reason being when GAIA found out that one of her systems HADES had gone rogue. She needed help to try and stop it but thanks to her programing she could not interfere herself or let the tribe folks in without proper clearance. So, GAIA had taken the genetic material of Elizabet and created Aloy so that the world might survive the coming danger. Thanks to Aloy the world was saved the metal devils and life was getting back to normal, or what would be considered normal for this new world.

She was on a sort of vacation to help relax from all of the madness with HADES a few days ago. Her friends understood this and promised they would deal with things while she was gone, she was really hoping that the people could do things on their own, but she really didn't want to jinx her vacation this early. She was riding a Strider that she had overridden a while ago, taking in the beauty of the world and enjoying some alone time. There were many machines near her, and she made sure to stay out of their way. There were herds Striders aside from the one she rode, a few Shell-Walkers walking with whatever was in their shells, a few Grazers going at the grass, a small amount of Watchers to watch for danger for the other machines, and finally a lone Sawtooth just keeping an eye out for any hunters wanting to attack eh rest of the machines. So long as she stayed out of their way she wouldn't be in any trouble. She reached a lake and just looked out at the world and sighed a breath of relief. For the first time in a very long while she was calm and so was the world.

Then suddenly a strange green circle appeared out of nowhere spewing green lightning and spooking every machine in sight, as well as Aloy's Strider causing her to fall on her back. As the machines fled Aloy looked at the circle as it looked like it was going to break apart. Then suddenly a person fell out of it and tumbled on the ground. Once they stopped the circle then closed itself but when it did a sort of shockwave followed it causing Aloy to brace for the impact. Once the chaos was over, Aloy looked at where the circle was, and it appeared to have never been there in the first place! Shaking the panic away for now she went to the person that fell out of the circle.

She flipped them onto their back and got a good look at them. It was a young man, maybe only a few years older than her. He had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and some facial hair in a sort of goatee. He was holding some strange ball, but she took it out of his hands for now and put her head to his chest to make sure he was still alive. After a few seconds she heard a heartbeat, but it didn't sound like any heartbeat she'd heard before. To be fair she hasn't heard many heart beats so that could be the case. Once she got off his chest, she noticed the man was wearing strange clothes. He had on some sort of strange shirt in a pattern she had never seen before as well as a style of pants that hasn't been on any tribe she'd met before. Even his shoes were strange, made with even stranger materials that looked soft, she wondered why someone would were something soft on the hard ground. Wouldn't it break apart easily?

As she was looking him over, she than began to notice the ball he was holding. Well not exactly a ball but ball like with edges. She went to examine it and noticed that it had strange details all around. All of a sudden, she could hear whispers, she looked around and saw no one. Her attention was returned to the ball and the whispers grew in numbers. As she hears thousands of whispers the ball began to slowly glow light blue in a sort of path fowling the markings all around the ball's outlines. What she didn't notice what that at the same time those same glowing line could be seen outlining her own Focus, an Old Ones' machine used for communication and searching. On and on the voices grew until the ball was fully glowing and then suddenly all the voices whisper shouted one thing.

"ALOY!"

Out of shock she screamed and dropped the ball and it began to lose its glow. She couldn't even begin to understand wat just happened. What just happened? Who was talking? What in the ever-loving hell is going on right now? Before more questions could pop in her head, she heard rustling and looked towards the man. He seemed to gain consciousness, so she hurried to him asking,

"Hey, are you alright?" The man groaned and grabbed his head as he began to get up and replied,

"Yeah, just some minor brain damage. Nothing too serious." He said jokingly as Aloy helped him up to his feet. Once his pain subsided, he was able to see the person who helped him. A strangely dressed woman with fiery orange hair.

"Thanks for helping me up. Names Cade, Cade Yeager. So, who do I have the pleasure of meeting and thanking?"

"Oh, well I'm Aloy. Nice to meet you Cade Cade Yeager." She says as she holds out her hand for him to take, which he does but not without some confusion on his face.

"Um? Just… just call me Cade."

He looks around, trying to find anything that he might be able to recognize but so far, he finds nothing. Well except for the strange ball that he rushes to and picks up. He then turns around and walks back to Aloy and asks,

"Hey um, Aloy? I know we just met and all, but do you mind telling me where I am. I'm kind of lost here and I need to get back to my friends a soon as possible." He says with a hint of urgency and fear in his voice

"You're just outside of Devil's Greif." She stated but those words were on deaf ears, like it meant nothing to Cade. Just then he heard noises and finally noticed the machines. He backed away in fear and confusion.

"What the hell. Okay now I think I have a concussion because I am seeing animal machines in herds here." He turns towards Aloy, "You're seeing this, too right? I'm not going crazy?"

This had confused Aloy, quite literally everyone knew about the machines. Why would he think he's imaging them?

"Uh no. That's pretty normal. You know machines, animals and people living in harmony?"

He looked at her like she just said something crazy and she didn't know why. Cade then noticed something behind her. He ran past her and she followed suit. He was near the edge of a cliff and stopped. There before him was the ruins of the Old Ones. He looked on in horror like this was a recent horror. He tried to speak tried to say something, but he could think of nothing. Aloy grew concerned and asked,

"Hey, are you alright? What about this Old Ones' city has you so spooked?" She asked hopping for an answer.

"This… this was a city. I was here just a few days ago. It was bustling with people, cars, noise! What the hell happened?!" he asked while he grasped at Aloy's arms trying to understand the situation.

"A few days ago? But these ruins have been here for thousands of years how can they not have been like this a few days ago?" She asked equally confused but not as scarred as he was.

He let go of her in shock, paced around a bit muttering to himself, stopped towards Aloy and then asked,

"Have you heard or seen of anything like Transformers, other worlds, or even huge spaceships?" He asked and she shook her head no to conform his theory. He stopped and rubbed his forehead in stress. Taking a deep breath, he told Aloy,

"Okay this is going to sound insane but… I think I'm from another earth entirely." Looking towards Aloy he had expected judgment, ridicule, or even denial but what he got from her was a simple,

"What?"