Beta knocked hesitantly on the entrance to her sister's room, taking a step backwards and clasping her hands together unconsciously, nervousness rippling up and down her spine as she did so.
A few moments later, Aloy opened her door, looking a little bleary-eyed. Her elaborate braids were crumpled with the after-effects of a night's sleep and seemed not to have been tamed yet. "Beta?" she said woozily, still sounding half-asleep. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes," Beta replied. "No. Sort of." She squeezed her hands together a little more tightly. "I just… I wanted to get out of here, just for a little while – get some fresh air, maybe, and I was hoping you could help me learn to ride something."
"You mean like a charger?" Aloy asked, tilting her head quizzically. "You know how to ride those, don't you?"
"Yes, but…" Beta felt her words catch in her throat a little, "I don't want a charger. I want a sunwing."
Aloy blinked, clearly taken aback by her usually timid, insular sister's uncharacteristically bold request. "A sunwing? Are you sure?"
"Tilda tried to get me to do crazy things because she wanted me to be like Elisabet," Beta said, wringing her hands even harder. "I need to know I can do a crazy thing because I want to."
"That's as good a reason as any, I guess," Aloy said, looking impressed. "All right, let me get my spear and we can go hunting for some sunwings."
"Is it too late to change my mind?"
"You can do this, Beta. I believe in you." Gently, Aloy pressed her spear into Beta's hands, the chill of the mountain air making the steel wiring around the weapon's haft even colder. The two of them were crouched in the long grass near the sunwing nesting site atop the Base's mountain, and Beta could feel the wind cutting through her, almost to the bone. "Go ahead."
Beta swallowed nervously and gripped the spear so tightly she could almost feel her knuckles cracking, before she crept forwards as carefully as she could and jabbed the nearest machine with the weapon's override module. Blue tendrils erupted from the machine's body as it momentarily shuddered under the influx of invasive code flooding its systems. When the sunwing had stopped twitching, Beta tentatively reached out with one pale, slender hand to run her fingertips over its smooth metallic muscle. "Hi," she said softly. "Nice to meet you." She looked back to where Aloy was still crouching, a broad, uncharacteristic grin breaking out across her face. "Aloy, look! I did it!" she exclaimed excitedly.
Her sister smiled back at her briefly before putting her fingers to her lips and whistling loudly. A moment later, another sunwing with blue cables sprouting from its neck descended from the sky, seemingly from out of nowhere, and allowed her to climb up onto its back.
"Come on, then," she said, gesturing to the sky. "Let's go for a ride."
Beta felt her stomach lurch, all of her newfound confidence vanishing in an instant. "What? No, I can't –"
"Yes, you can," Aloy said softly, before she gestured to the blue cables on the passive machine. "Just hold onto those and you'll be fine." She smiled again, trying to reassure her sister that everything would be fine. "Don't worry – if you fall, I'll catch you."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise," Aloy replied. "You're safe with me."
"Okay," Beta said, running her hands through her hair and exhaling a long, strained breath before climbing atop the sunwing and grasping its reins. "Okay. Let's go."
It didn't take them long to reach the sunwings' preferred cruising altitude, and Beta was awed by how different the landscape was from the air. Nearby she could see roaming herds of chargers grazing quietly, lumbering behemoths treading a well-worn path through a canyon, and a single thunderjaw prowling around a lush green valley. Off in the distance was the outline of a graceful tallneck serenely tracing its circular patrol route, oblivious to everything except its assigned purpose. It was beautiful.
Beta wasn't used to beautiful things. Outside of the holo-novels and documentaries her AI tutors had allowed her to view, or the data-channel Tilda had briefly used to communicate with her before growing bored and casting her aside, most of her life had been spent looking at cold grey steel and plastic, or through reinforced glass at the lifeless vacuum of space. Seeing so much greenery and random, chaotic, vibrant life was still so foreign to her that the natural world felt almost… unnatural, in a bizarre sort of way.
She liked that.
"Glinthawks!" came Aloy's voice through her Focus, instantly shaking Beta out of her reverie and bringing her back to reality with a jolt. She looked around to see what her sister was referring to, and saw a flock of the airborne scavengers approaching quickly from her left, squawking aggressively and haphazardly aiming blasts of freezing energy at her and Aloy. Beta saw Aloy manoeuvre her mount expertly in order to get a better look at the monstrous mechanical vultures and found herself trying and failing to do the same, instead leaving her machine open to a direct blast of freezing vapour from the mouth of the nearest glinthawk. The blast hit her sunwing directly in its left wing membrane, causing the machine to let out a garbled screech of binary code as the webbing keeping it aloft shattered into icy fragments, sending it into an agonisingly slow, inevitable nosedive. Beta felt her heart pounding in her chest as she frantically tugged on the reins in her hands, trying fruitlessly to bring her dying, mutilated steed back under control.
"Help me!" she screamed, panicking.
"I'm coming!" Aloy said in her ear. "Just stay calm!"
Beta felt the sunwing abruptly stop moving under her, its final twitches definitively signalling its end. Its nosedive accelerated and Beta could not stifle a scream of terror as she lost her grip on her reins and began hurtling headlong towards the ground, her arms and legs flailing in all directions. She looked around in a panic and saw her sister swooping towards her on her own mount before leaping off it and aiming herself at Beta like a lance. "I said stay calm!" she cried through Beta's Focus. "Go limp!"
It took all of Beta's strength to do as she was asked, every fibre of her being screaming at her to move, to try to slow herself down, to escape – and then she felt her sister tackling her, knocking the breath from her lungs in the process and disorienting her even more than she was already.
"Hold onto this," Aloy told her as she quickly undid the bracer she wore on her arm and buckled it onto Beta's own forearm. "I promise I'll be back." With that, she slapped a button on the bracer and her energy glider sprang to life, causing both sisters to be grabbed by an abrupt updraft before Aloy pushed off Beta, whistling for her mount and leaving Beta dangling desperately from the glider, clinging to it for dear life with clammy, sweat-soaked fingers. She watched Aloy get snatched up and swung into her saddle by her mount before wheeling around to face the last glinthawk and launching herself from her sunwing to drive her spear through the machine's eye-socket, leaping away from its corpse and back to her sunwing almost without a pause. Beta might have felt impressed if she had not already been so terrified.
As she drifted, Beta saw Aloy moving her sunwing underneath her, so that she landed on behind her sister, the glider deactivating automatically as she came to a stop. Instinctively she wrapped her arms tightly around her sister's waist, knotting her fingers together as firmly as she could and feeling her heart finally stop pounding in her chest.
Aloy dropped one hand to touch her sister's fingers just for a moment. "It's okay, Beta," she said, reassuringly. "You're safe now."
The words were barely out of her mouth before the glinthawk came out of nowhere, striking at Aloy with its massive, jagged-edged talons and abruptly knocking her out of her saddle and into mid-air, her arms and legs flailing for purchase but finding none. Beta waited for her to activate her glider and begin a lazy descent to the ground, before she realised the glider's bracer was still strapped firmly around her own forearm, meaning Aloy was completely helpless.
She felt sick, a freezing knot of panic pulsing in her guts. The glinthawk must have been a straggler, slow to catch up to the rest of its flock but quick enough to take advantage of Aloy dropping her guard, and now it was turning its attention to finishing off its chosen target.
When it looks impossible, look deeper, and fight like you can win.
Aloy had told Beta that before they had headed out to Cauldron Gemini for the first time, and now the words seared themselves into her brain anew. She knew she was her sister's only hope, and nobody else could fill in for her this time.
Her brows knitted together and her mouth set itself in a thin, determined line as she shifted forwards on the sunwing's back, grabbing its reins and directing it downwards towards her sister. Unfortunately, the glinthawk latecomer had positioned itself between her and Beta, but that was inconsequential. Beta knew that sunwings weren't exactly built for prolonged close-quarters combat, but their beaks were long and sharp, and more than capable of piercing a target if they were determined enough.
When it looks impossible…
Beta urged her mount downwards into a steep dive, its beak aimed directly for the glinthawk's torso.
Look deeper…
The sunwing's beak stabbed through the glinthawk's armour, cleaving its heart in two and causing the creature to crumple in on itself and begin its final descent. Giving it no further thought – save to wish it to be eaten slowly and painfully by a pack of scrappers – Beta dug her heels into her mount's side, spurring it forwards to where she could see her sister still plummeting through the air.
Fight like you can win.
She quickly manoeuvred herself below Aloy, hearing her sister's pained exhalation through her Focus as she collided harshly with the sunwing's slender torso. Glancing back to make sure Aloy was okay, she extended a hand back to give her some purchase as she dragged herself into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around Beta's midriff.
"Thank you, Beta," Aloy said through her Focus, the words clear as day even through the rush of air around the two of them. "I think I'd like to get back to the Base now."
"You and me both," Beta said, relieved, before tugging on the sunwing's reins to steer it back towards home.
When they had arrived back at the Base and dismounted from the sunwing, Beta waited until the machine flew off to assume a holding pattern above the mountains before she turned and hugged her sister tightly. As always, Aloy was a little hesitant to return the embrace, but then clung to Beta with an unusual firmness.
"Thank you," she said again. "That was some fancy flying you did – I don't think even Sylens could have picked it up that quickly."
"He wouldn't have had anything to lose up there," Beta replied, her voice quivering a little. "I did." She squeezed Aloy a little harder. "I was so scared you wouldn't make it. I don't know what I'd do if you hadn't made it."
Aloy drew herself backwards, looking Beta directly in the face. "You'd be strong. That's what you'd be – I know you would." She smiled. "Don't let yourself think otherwise."
"I… I'll try," Beta said softly, dropping her gaze for a moment, "but I don't think I want to go flying again for a while."
Aloy laughed out loud. "You and me both," she replied. "How about we watch some Second Time Around instead? You can pick the episode."
"That sounds like a good idea," Beta replied. "I know just the one…"