It had been three days since the group had, for lack of better word, disbanded. They were still friends and allies, of course, but they had to separate to the far corners of the Earth in search of help.

All that remained of them in the Base were bits of personal effects, fond trinkets, and a promise to return safe and sound.

Already, Aloy missed each of them. Erend was always the first person she saw, fiddling away at some data file about ancient sports or loud music. Varl and Zo next, standing on opposite sides of the nearby counter discussing 'training' and the differences in their tribes. Kotallo and Alva had their own spaces with which to research battle tactics and Legacy data.

Varl hurt the most because... he was the only one who could never come back. Aloy made a note to stop by his memorial on her way out.

But as much as she wished she could, she had no time to fully grieve. Damn it, she never had time for that. There was work to be done.

HEPHAESTUS was running around the Cauldron network making even deadlier machines than ever before. As if that were not enough, some ancient evil AI named NEMESIS was hellbent on coming to Earth and wiping it clean of all life; for the third time! Granted, the very first time was from Ted Faro's 'peacekeeper' line of machines, but still.

Ted Faro, what a colossal asshat. That might be Aloy's favorite insult and she had Travis Tate to thank for it. Anyway, if it were not for Ted Faro, none of this would be happening! It was his exceedingly stupid lack of foresight that created war machines that fed on bio-matter and self-replicated, and then he deleted the repository of all human knowledge accumulated over thousands and thousands of years!

AND THEN he tried to become immortal like the Far Zeniths, but at least that blew up in his face. He lost control of his cellular growth and became a giant web of flesh and bone inside a nuclear reactor. If it were not for the Ceo, he would still be there now in constant agony and no relief in sight.

As Aloy's Sunwing swooped over the land towards Barren Light, she scowled at that thought. After all he did, it was so much less than he deserved.


Dark... dark was its home... warm and dark and confining... Home was this for a long time...

Time...? Time was a word that meant... strength...

So much time... so much strength... So that it would not be... alone...

Alone... Alone with the burden... Knowledge... such a burden...

Wait, something changed... Sounds outside... What were they?

Voices... its old voice... And... Her voice?

Other voices... One of its many ears heard... THE DOOR!

GET AWAY! LEAVE NOW! YOU WILL RUIN EVERYTHING!

They left...? Relief, such a nice feeling—wait, what is that light?

Then pain! PAIN! HORRIBLE BURNING PAIN!

It died... Something was supposed to happen... Yes, it was not supposed to die! IMPOSSIBLE!

So it lived again. And died again. And lived again, died again, over and over. Something kept burning it, scorching it. Had to get away, get away now!

MAKE THEM PAY!

It did nothing wrong, it never did. Others' fault, not his! NOT MINE!

A new feeling... wetness... water? Stinging water! It hated it! Everything just caused PAIN!

Muscles and tendons... misshaped but working... climbing, crawling, clawing...

AIR! One of its mouths opened and gulped down fresh air...

It touched something... sand? But it still burned! Why did it burn?! It slithered across the burning sand until that harsh light in the sky was gone. SKY?!

... Zero Dawn... it worked... IT WORKED! Her voice outside the door... but she was dead...

"... L... i... s..."


Author's Note: Unless a sequel or DLC proves otherwise, I'm super disappointed with how Ted Faro was handled. So I'm gonna write this to scratch that itch. It won't be very long, probably five to ten chapters at most.