Chapter 2

Horizon Justice Calling

By McMysterio

2: A Gift from the Past II

Friend.

Jast remembered asking Grata several weeks ago its meaning after overhearing the word being used by the group of children he had been observing. What does 'friend' mean? He had asked Grata one evening after she had finished her prayers. Is it a good thing?

At this, Grata had taken a deep breath and sat in silence for a few moments, her eyes fixed upon the roof of their hut - something Jast knew Grata only did when she was thinking very hard. A friend is someone who spends time with you and helps you, she had explained, choosing her words carefully. And someone you spend time with and help in return.

Jast had frowned when he heard the answer. As far as he could remember, it had always been him and Grata. No one had ever helped them with anything - not when Grata went hunting, not when they had been fishing, nor when they had been cleaning the kill. The only times he could remember anyone helping Grata or himself was when he was helping Grata with the chores around their hovel.

Are we friends? Jast had asked innocently. It made sense - Grata had always looked out for him, cared for him and took care of him as long as he could remember. He had tried to help her in every way he possibly could in return. They must be friends, right?

Yes, we are friends. Grata had replied. But we are another kind of friends. We have a duty to each other.I have a duty to teach and protect you, and you have a duty to learn from me.

Jast had not understood what she meant that evening. But now, as he walked deeper into the cave with the girl by his side, he thought he was beginning to understand what Grata had meant.

Aloy, she said her name was. Jast reminded himself as he and Aloy navigated their way through the tunnels, which were beginning to narrow. When he had first heard the voice from the shadows, the first instinct that had leapt into his mind was that of suspicion. The memory of Bast leering down at him had been very much fresh in his mind, and he had been steeling himself for another wave of insults, name-calling, even another fight if necessary. Aloy, however, had not gotten angry, nor did she seem to be scared by his irregular behaviour - she had continued to talk in a gentle tone of voice, asking if he was hurt and pointing out the blood dripping from his nose when he denied his injuries. She had been nothing like the other children, who had simply watched or laughed as Bast had towered over him.

As he made his way deeper into the cave, Jast instinctively turned to look to his side to locate the source of the echo of footsteps belonging to another pair of feet, only to be reminded once again that he was not alone.

This felt completely new, and it was nothing like Jast had ever known before. Never in his life had he had worked together with someone other than Grata, and even then, he had mostly watched and learned. Yet oddly enough, it felt comforting to know that someone other than himself was beside him in this tunnel of stone, sharing a purpose.

A sudden gale of wind and the noise of beating wings brought the outcast boy out of his trance and back into the present, just in time to see the air fill with a swarm of bats. An involuntary shiver shot through his entire body as the leathery wings of the cave dwellers beat against his body. Aloy let out an audible shudder when the bats' wings made contact with her arms, and Jast could feel his new friend slightly trembling as the two pushed their way through.

As the last of the creatures disappeared down the way they had come, Jast turned to Aloy. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," Aloy replied, lowering her arms. "What are those things?"

"Grata told me they're called bats," Jast answered, recalling what Grata had taught him.

"Why do they live in caves if they can fly like birds?" Aloy wondered aloud.

"Grata said that bats were once birds, but they were punished by All-Mother when they aided the Metal Devil as he challenged the Goddess. She took away their feathers and cursed them to live in darkness like the machines." He frowned slightly. "I don't think she's right though."

"Why not?"

Jast shrugged. "How would she simply change a bird into a bat? I've never seen a bird turning into a bat before, nor has Grata."

As the two began to move forward once more, It occurred to Jast just how different talking to Aloy was, compared to his usual conversations with Grata. Grata seemed to know everything there was in the world, and she would always have a lesson to teach for every action he made, every chore he completed, and every mistake he made. To Jast, Grata had always been a warm figure who had protected him from the dangers of the wild, and who taught him everything he knew.

When talking to Aloy, however, there were no lessons or corrections. They would simply talk, ask questions, and say what they'd think about it. Though he cared for Grata very much, there would always be some things that Grata simply did not understand, no matter how hard he tried to explain or argue. It felt as if something buried deep inside his chest, which had been forcefully locked away, was slowly, but surely leaking out whenever he talked to Aloy.

What was more, Aloy seemed to actually understand his feelings.

Was this what Grata had meant when she said a different kind of friend? Jast looked over at the red-haired girl beside him. If this was what friends are, he thought to himself as he prevented himself from slipping on a particularly wet rock. I guess it's not so bad.

Moments later, the narrow passageway suddenly came to an abrupt halt, leaving only a hole tall and wide enough for the two outcast children to pass through if they crouched down as low as their bodies would allow.

"Looks tight, but we can get through," Aloy thought out loud. Jast watched as she squeezed through the cracks before following his new friend.

The cavern they found themselves in was even larger than Jast had imagined, large enough to comfortably fit the previous cavern multiple times. A large gap in the ceiling let a ray of sunlight pour through, the light reflecting on the water and shining on the walls like droplets of doo in the rising sun. Hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites grew from the shadows of the floor and ceiling, and bits of moss and other plant life grew around what little dry ground they could find.

But that was where the similarities stopped. He and Aloy were standing on a raised platform that overlooked the cave. The walls and floors were not the jagged and stony rocks of a cave but instead were smooth and straight, built entirely of metal. The pillars that supported the cavern, which at first glance seemed to be comprised of stone, were far too angled and artificial to have formed naturally. To their side, a flight of stairs complete with the remnants of a metal railing led down to the floor. Both Aloy and Jast looked at each other in stunned silence as the two outcast children realized the nature of the cave.

"This must be a ruin of the Metal World! One of the old places..." Aloy finally spoke, voicing both of their thoughts.

A ruin of the Metal World! They climbed down the metal steps and began to make their way to the tall crack formed by an enormous metal door, which marked their only way forward. Their footsteps echoed against the metallic walls, magnifying the sound a hundred times louder than usual. The tainted earth, Grata calls them. His mouth seemed oddly dry as he gazed around the once-great construct of the Old Ones.

Jast knew he was supposed to be afraid. Grata had forbidden Jast from even going near one of the old ruins, telling him that the ruins of the Metal World were cursed and forbidden places. The story of the faithless Old Ones and the Machines was a tale that he knew well, and Grata had often told him of the old tales of All-Mother and her creation of the world, as well as the defeat of the Metal Devil, the once-great king of the Machines, now locked in eternal shame and humiliation where All-Mother had cast him down.

Even so, Jast wanted to see more. It simply hadn't made sense to him that someone could get cursed simply by walking in such a place. Stalactites and stalagmites forced their way through the ceiling, walls, and the floor, and the stagnant water pooled on the ground gave off a foul smell. The entire place felt cold and dead.

But it had not been particularly dangerous yet.

There were no phantoms of the Old Ones haunting him and Aloy, no spectral voices cursed at the trespassers, nor did their bodies crumble away for standing on forbidden ground. Besides, he could always tell Grata that he had stumbled into the ruin while searching for a way out, right? He wouldn't technically be lying either.

"Rost said never go into places like this..." Aloy began softly, but the gleam in her eyes was one too familiar to the redhead outcast boy.

"But we have to find a way out." Jast finished, a small smile spreading across his face.

Walls of metal surrounded them from all sides as the two outcast children made their way through the labyrinthian place that was the ruin of the Metal World, the only light being provided by bits of sunlight shining through holes in the ceiling. The walls of the ruin were covered with strange shapes and metal devices, and moss grew from chunks of metal that lay scattered across the pools of water that seemed to be everywhere in the cave. Jast noticed the distinctive shapes of what appeared to be furniture in several of the rooms - rusty tables lined one of the walls of the room beyond the first door, metal chairs lined neatly behind, as if to awaiting to be used once more by their creators, who would never come.

Jast followed Aloy up a set of metal stairs and ducked down to avoid the swarm of bats that greeted the newcomers. He couldn't imagine why anyone would call these ruins 'cursed' and 'tainted'. While it was certainly unpleasant, nothing bad had happened to either of them as they had made their way through the Metal World. The worst thing he could say about the ruins of the Old Ones was that it was dirty.

As they rounded a corner through another metal door, Aloy's voice snapped him from his thoughts. "There's something up ahead..."

His heart thumping into his throat, he and Aloy continued moving forward.

The corridor revealed another enormous room of the ruin, rivalling the first room in size. The roots of a tree had forced their way through the rock and metal ceiling, and light poured from the sizable gap it had left, landing on a shape of something that contrasted with the artificial metal of the ruin.

"What's that?" Aloy whispered.

A hand! Jast fought back the urge to gasp. A human hand.

"A dead person," Jast breathed in quiet, horrified fascination.

The two dead bodies that lay in the center of the room were both horrifying and fascinating; one of the dead people lay on its back facing the ceiling, its right hand slightly extended upwards. The other body lay beside the first, one of its remaining hands laying across what used to be its chest. What used to be their skins had obviously rotted away long ago, and what little skin that lay on their bones was now brown and so hard it may have been carved from stone. Faint traces of their clothes were visible across their torso, bits of blue cloth clung onto one body, white on the other.

"There's something shiny there." Aloy pointed out.

There was something shiny. While the metal doors, furniture, walls and floors had become rusted and muted with time, the small metal triangles, the size of an arrowhead that stuck to the side of the Old Ones body's head was clean and shiny, even though it had been exposed to the elements of the world for who knew how long.

No, Jast suddenly realized. It wasn't just shiny. It was shining. The small line running down the middle of both devices was glowing with an unnatural light. Jast wondered for a moment if all the stories and legends about the Metal World told by Grata were true. Why was it shining? Was it one of the spirits of the Old Ones? Or was it because I am not supposed to be here? But nothing terrible had happened so far - and why would anything happen now?

With cautious hands, he reached out towards one of the metal objects.

A gasp escaped his lips, his entire body flinching as his fingers closed around cold metal. Jast looked down at his hand, expecting the worst only to find that his hand was quite safe, and nothing unusual had happened. The piece of metal came off the body's head with no resistance whatsoever when he pulled.

The outcast boy examined the metal object that now sat quite harmlessly in his palm. One side of the triangle was white, with a line of unnatural light running down its center. Turning it over, Jast could see that the other side was made with what seemed to be gold, with black lines forming intricate patterns on the golden surface. But what was it? The metal device, which should have been cold and dead as the rest of the ruin, felt warm. A faint sense of motion could be felt from the Old One's arrowhead as if the metal itself was humming.

It almost felt as if the metal itself was somehow alive.

But that couldn't be, could it?

Jast turned the item several times in his hands, allowing his fingers to examine every detail of the mysterious object, before slowly raising the item to the side of his head but not allowing it to connect with his skin. It was on the side of the dead person's head. He observed. Why would the Old One-

VIRRRRRRRR!

There was no warning whatsoever as the metal device lept from his hand and stuck to the side of his head. A strange sound, unlike anything that he had heard before, rang out from within his skull itself. His insides turning to ice, Jast yanked the item from his head and hurled it to the ground, finding himself at least two feet away from the metal arrowhead on his hands and bottom. He did not even notice Aloy's gasp beside him, merely able to stare at the device that now lay shining innocently on the rocks.

Grata was right, maybe this place was really cursed. There was nothing natural about the sound that had rung out from within his own skull. Maybe I'm cursed by All-Mother and the Old Ones already. The thought alone sent a shiver through his entire body.

But what was it?

Despite the fear that coursed through his veins, Jast simply could not bring himself to look away from the object. His curiosity seemed to eat him from the inside. And if I'm already cursed just by being in here, he reasoned, it wouldn't hurt to find out what this is. Now on his hands and knees, Jast crawled awkwardly over to where it had fallen.

Without a second to think about what he was doing or the consequences of his actions, Jast raised the metal object to the side of his head for a second time, hovering just above his right ear. As he clenched his teeth, the object lept from his hand once more and attached itself to his head.

VIRRRRRRRR!

As the sound rang out from within his skull once more, Jast's mouth fell open.

He was surrounded by what seemed to be purple light, dozens of triangles formed of the same purple light making up an intangible dome that surrounded him. When he got to his feet and began to look around, the dome of light moved with him. As his head turned towards the various objects of the ruin, lights began to appear. Flickering lights appeared on the strange devices placed upon the metal tables, as well as the several flat, protruding metal pieces above the tables. The lights formed completely foreign symbols, which flicked in and out of existence.

"What is it?" Aloy asked quietly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Jast noticed the other metal device from the body in her hand.

"Do you see that?" Jast breathed, more in wonder than any form of fear.

"See what?"

"The lights," was all that he was able to say before Aloy raised the metal item to the side of her own head. The outcast girl winced as the device leapt from her hand and stuck to her side, but in moments was staring around the ruins as well, the expression of awe and wonder mirroring his own.

"How does it do this?" Aloy wondered aloud, looking around the room in awe as they began to move deeper into the ruins once more.

A section of the wall nearest to them was illuminated with the purple light, which formed a large arch of purple. In the center was a bright red ring, made of the same intangible light as the arch.

"A metal door. Closed." Aloy observed, before looking at Jast. "Maybe this device we found can help?"

The dome of purple light, which had disappeared after his hand had brushed against the device, now reappeared as he touched the metal surface with his fingers. Where there had been only the cold, hard metal moments before, glowing purple lines now shone before his eyes.

"A shape," Aloy said, her hand also on the strange device stuck to her head. "It's connected to the door somehow..."

Jast looked around. Aloy was right - the intangible purple lines led to two rectangular shapes in a room to their right. Two of the purple lines were connected to a large metal box that glowed with a pink light, while two more were connected to a much smaller metal box attached to the wall that glowed with the same purple lights as the lines.

Two rings of light greeted them when they entered the room, though instead of a red circle with a cross inside, these circles were blue with a sliver of red in between. The metal boxes each contained one circle of light, though Jast noticed the red part of the ring was located in a different place.

"What do we do now?" The outcast boy asked, staring up at the large metal box that had glowed pink.

Wordlessly, Aloy reached out and placed her hand upon the ring of light on the smaller metal box. To Jast's astonishment, the light reacted to her touch, spinning around until the ring matched the shape upon the larger machine. The circle his friend had just manipulated spun around several times before changing into a pale blue colour with a strange chirp. Heading back to the closed metal door, both children noticed how the ring of light, which had been previously been red had changed into the blue circle with the sliver of red.

Without hesitation, Jast raised his hand to the circle on the door. With an odd tingling sensation, the ring of light on the door circled several times, changing into the pale blue of the previous room before disappearing entirely.

The door slid open with a small hiss.

Hey guys, it's been a little while since I last updated.

It's been hard to write anything with all that's been going on around me in the past few weeks. I suppose moving to another country in another continent has a tendency to do that - now that all is done and I've finished packing and unpacking everything, I should hopefully be able to update on a more regular basis!

Something I noticed while writing - the lore is really inconsistent as to how these machines actually work. The simplest, yet biggest mystery I ran into was: 'how do you activate the Focus in the first place?'

In the original game, the Focus seemingly activates when Aloy simply wants to, so does that mean she simply has to think about it activating for it to actually activate? But in other scenes, Aloy presses her hand to the Focus when the player activates it, so does that mean she has to touch the device to activate it? The lore really doesn't explain. I asked around in the HZD community what they thought, and no one could agree how the Focus was actually activated. So for these kinds of unknowns, I'll be filling in these details with what seems to make the most sense. (Of course, if Guerrilla Games provides an explanation on how these machines work, the story will be edited to fit said explanation.)

I also want to clarify one thing before proceeding to future chapters - I will actively be trying to avoid including any form of lemon/sexual content in this story. My original intention was to keep the fanfic as similar to the original narrative as possible, and as there is no lemon whatsoever in Horizon Zero Dawn, I'll be sticking to that. (Though while not actively including lemon, there might be several dialogues that imply sexual acts. I may decide to use these in future chapters as these dialogues actually exist within the game, and thus are within acceptable reaches of use.)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! As always, creative, constructive comments are always welcomed and I hope you have a great day!

Reviews:

Drinor: As stated above, I'll be trying to avoid lemon in this story. I'm not 100% sure if the topic of sex itself would be removed though. And yes, I'll be continuing the story :)

Lonski: Please, don't apologize. Honest criticism is what I need to write a satisfactory story. Thank you for the valid points!