Back in the Rocky Mountains, the huge metal doorway of that Cauldron opens and a single Glinthawk comes waddling out. It stops, spreads its wings, and takes flight into the eastern sky.
"Yes, my name is John," he finally stated with unease in his tone.
"Listen Cyan, there's a bigger issue we have to discuss," Aloy said, being quick on the uptake to cover for John. "It concerns Hephaestus. I think we might be able to defeat him."
Defeat him? How?
"We figured out where Hephaestus is," Aloy continued. "He's in the relay system. Jawn and I went to Meridian's relay tower and discovered this. Using a quantum processor unit that got dragged up to the relay tower which had a Subroutine named Hades within it, I managed to procure a Thunderjaw heart and started the unit back up and tried to draw Hephaestus into it, but we forced him to abandon it, at least temporarily that was."
It explains why I could not pinpoint Hephaestus' location. He is both everywhere and nowhere. But how will the discovery Hephaestus' location aid you in expelling him, Aloy?
Aloy explains to Cyan about their eventual discovery of Apollo.
"Show her, Jawn," Aloy finished as she regards about the Thunderjaw brain.
John takes off his backpack and sets it down, then removes the Thunderjaw brain to set before Cyan.
I did sense the presence of another artifical intelligence, but decided to let you explain yourself first Aloy.
"Can you communicate with Apollo, Cyan?" Aloy asked.
I can and will now.
The moment of silence lasts for about a minute, until . . .
I had a thorough discussion with Apollo. He explained to me what your plan is. You want Apollo to recover his purpose so that he will be strong enough to contend with Hephaestus.
"Yes, by downloading everything you know into Apollo," Aloy said. "That's the reason why we're here."
I understand. It is a shame that Ted Faro purged Apollo's knowledge. To think that such a noble man who helped the world recover during the Clawback Era could have fallen so far. And I did download everything I know into Apollo.
"Thank you, Cyan," Aloy said happily. "Now we might have a chance to overwhelm Hephaestus."
So you will purge Hephaestus, Aloy?
"No, I intend to reform him so that he will call off the machines from attacking humans. Hopefully, I can get him to agree to an arrangement with the humans. Maybe like allowing various machines of his to be used by humans in a manner that they will aid humans, such as pulling their carts or traveling on them like I do."
Just like the animals the original humans used to domesticate.
"They could use Broadheads for traveling or pulling their carts," Aloy said. "But they will have to override them like I do with that device I took off of the first Scarab I fought."
Then it means that all of the Scarabs out there have that component in them. And if the humans were to harvest them, then they should be able to override the machines to do their bidding.
"That's if they know about them," Aloy said. "The Oseram will especially love to get their hands on those overrides. But reforming the old Hephaestus comes first."
Now that you both have a plan in effect, I can speak on another issue. It concerns John. He is one of the original humans.
John shoots a look at Cyan that resembles one of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. All during this time, Aloy had been quick to speak and cover for him so that Cyan would not be able to question him.
"H-How?" He rasped.
Apollo told me. You also helped to create Project: Zero Dawn as one of the Betas. Then was cryogenically frozen.
"Yes it's true," John admitted. "Along with four hundred and ninety-nine others, but we were split up into ten groups of fifty, scattered across the world in one of ten cryogenic facilities. One of which is here in North America., but the rest of the forty-nine did not survive the thawing process because it was 98% fatal. And I don't know about the rest out there either."
When did you awaken?
"It was about a month ago," John answered. "The units were programmed to either thaw us out if an active human approached them or if there were only seven days of power left in them."
Tell me, John. Have you ever heard of Dr. Anita Sandoval? She was my chief programmer.
"I did hear that name before," as he looks upward in thought, then beamed. "Yes, I remember now! She was a Beta who worked on the Subroutine Demeter. It's odd when I think about it because she did not help Dr. Sobeck with Gaia directly."
"She must've been the one who downloaded all that poetry into those machine flowers," Aloy suggested.
"What machine flowers?"
"When I was traveling across the land, I encountered pieces of machines in the form of flowers. They didn't do anything, they were just . . . there, and surrounded by flowers growing in the pattern of a triangle. When I checked them out, they had poetry written into their coding."
"Now that you've mentioned it, I do remember someone on the team having mentioned that Dr. Sandoval liking poetry. And flowers too."
Anita did like poetry and flowers. So that means that she had coded her poems into the Subroutine Demeter, who in turn put them into those machine flowers and had them planted out there . . . Now then, John. How have the other new humans dealt with you being one of the Old Ones?
"Only Aloy knows. And I would like to keep it that way?"
Why?
"Because I would end up getting stressed out by it. After I awoke and realized that something went wrong with Apollo, I decided to keep my origin a secret. I went as far as to bend the truth about my origins, lie even. So as far as the rest of the new humans are concerned, the Old Ones died out. But even if I did decide to tell them what I was, they are far more likely to be skeptical."
Your anticipation of their skepicism is logical. You cannot prove that you are an Old One. Aloy, how is it that you learned that John is an Old One?
Aloy explains to Cyan about how she encountered John.
"It was at Devil's Thirst that we talked," she finished up, "with Jawn telling me about his past and how he got to be here, then I told him mine."
How did you react when you realized that John was telling you the truth about himself, Aloy?
"I was astounded, amazed! I never thought that there could be any Old Ones who survived! That I would actually get to meet one of them! Even more amazing was meeting an Old One who actually worked on Project: Zero Dawn and met Elisabet Sobeck!"
John, what will you do after this issue with Hephaestus is resolved?
John thinks about that in silence for a moment.
"I," he began. "I . . . I really don't know . . . Though I can't help but wonder if any of the other originals survived. The closest will be those who were sent to South America."
"You're thinking on going down there?" Aloy asked.
"Oh, I don't know," John sighed as he brushes his hand through his bristly hair.
But you cannot help but hope that at least one of them has survived and is living down there.
"Yeah," John admitted. "And I fear that hope might lead to my death."
"I could go with you," Aloy offered.
"But Aloy, it's so far away," John sighed. "I'm not talking days, but months to get down there. Probably a full year even. Then there's the matter of finding the exact location of that cryo facility. I knew the name of the country it was in, but that country is now long gone. And like I mentioned before, they're probably all dead."
I can understand your dilemma. I too was eager to seek contact and found it. Unfortunately, it was Hephaestus and he took me over.
"It's late now," Aloy said. "We'll be staying here for the night."
Excellent idea.
"I'll go see Aratak and have him join us," Aloy said.
"And remember, Cyan," John cautioned. "Don't tell anyone else what I am."
Very well. I will keep your secret.
"Thank you," John said.
Aloy leaves and soon returns with Aratak alongside her. There is little talk as the trio turn in for the night.
It is early morning as Cyan awakens them. The trio have a snack of travel rations and are soon preparing to leave.
Goodbye Aloy. It was a pleasure meeting you again. Goodbye, John, it was a pleasure meeting you too. And I do hope your plan to quell Hephaestus is a success.
"Likewise," Aloy said, then turns to Aratak and John. "Are you both ready to leave?"
"I am," John answered.
"As am I, Chief Aloy," Aratak said.
"Then let's go," Aloy said. "We're going back the way we came here yesterday."
The trio do so, reaching Song's Edge by late morning.
"Thanks Aratak for showing us that route," Aloy said.
"My pleasure, Chief Aloy," Aratak answered. "So you'll be returning to the South I take it?"
"Yes, as soon as possible," Aloy answered.
"Then don't let me keep you two," Aratak said, and he walks away.
Aloy and John walk through the encampment past the hushed and respectful whisperings about their Chief Aloy. The duo walk back down through the tunnel, all the way to the first dropoff.
"Okay," John said as he looks down over the dropoff. "I'm going to have to go back down the same way I got up here."
"I know," Aloy said as she takes out her grappling hook.
At each dropoff that John was pulled up, he was lowered down by Aloy as he would wrap a portion of the rope around his forearm and clasp firmly onto it while being slowly lowered down. It actually proved to be more difficult than going up because of Aloy having to fight against gravity so that her footing wouldn't slip. As for Aloy getting down, she simply leapt down from each crevice or handhold that she had gotten her hands within.
Eventually, John is safely lowered near the exit/entrance to the Grave Hoard. He next watches as Aloy casually leaps down with her hands as she clasps ahold of each handhold on her way down, until she reaches the ground with a sigh.
"You definitely would have won gold in the Olympics!" John marveled.
"What were those?" Aloy asked.
"They were games that countries from all over the world competed in. They sent their best athletes to partake in them. There were all sorts of sports that they could compete in for the glory of winning for their country."
"They sounded like the Nora Proving."
"I guess. The Olympics used to take place every four years and there were two types: Summer and Winter, and they were two years apart from each other. The Olympics were stopped during the Troubled Times, but was revived during the Clawback Era . . . Only to be permanently ended by the Chariot Line Model." Adding that last part morosely. "The Winter one was three years before the Faro Swarm, and the Summer one was the year before the Faro Swarm . . . So it's back to Meridian, right?"
"Right," Aloy verified. "And hopefully to reform Hephaestus."
"Hopefully," John said dryly as he is not anticipating such a success.
It is midday when Aloy and John acquire a pair of Broadheads since they had to ditch their previous mounts once again upon reaching Day Tower. By evening, the arrive within sight of Meridian and are once again forced to ditch their steeds in favor of walking. It is as they are walking along that John tells Aloy about sports and the different varieties of them. She has a hard time trying to comprehend them.
"All those sports," she mused. "The wealth that famous players could achieve. A lot of what you Old Ones did doesn't seem to make much sense."
"To you I suppose not," John answered, "but that was just how it used to be. Not everyone was interested in sports mind you. I was never much for sports."
"Do you think we'll wind up like that? Liking sporting events and other things that don't seem to make much sense."
"I don't see why not. In hundreds of years if you all continue to have steady progress, and are still around hopefully, there may be a worldwide civilization that could rival ours."
"Wow, and I suppose someone will end up creating machines that can consume biomass and replicate that end up going out of control and destroy life, only for someone to foresee all this and create another Project: Zero Dawn."
"I don't think such a thing could possibly happen twice."
One hundred Shadow Carja soldiers are doing maneouvers at a fortress across a lake within sight of Sunfall. They are suddenly interrupted by a shout of Glinthawk and they look west to see a Glinthawk descend and land in the training yard. The soldiers are quick to yell orders and warnings, prompting the rest of their comrades to come running so that they will have even more of their numbers to deal with the intruding machine.
But Glinthawk did nothing save to open its metal beak wide. A soldier groans as he briskly rubs his face, only to cry out in pain as a rapidly growing silvery black glob spreads over his face. His cries are choked out as his head transforms into a silvery black glob, causing his helmet to collapse along with the rest of his body as it also transforms in a larger silvery black glob.
His comrades barely have enough time to gape with shock at the horror of having witnessed what became of their comrade. They finally become aware of the danger as multiple small silvery black globs of that mass rapidly fly away from where their comrade had once been and onto them, rapidly dissolving each of them into large silvery black globs as well.
Chaos breaks out as the remaining soldiers try to run, only for each of them to be targeted by a piece of silvery black glob. By the time a minute has passed from the demise of the first human, all of the humans within that fortress are gone, replaced by a massive silvery black glob.
A mass that swiftly flies toward Sunfall.