Across States Pt. 3

The journey into the Forbidden West was nothing like Aloy had thought it would be.

Of course she had delved into these lands before. According to an old map she had found in metal ruins one time, the last step of her journey was made here, searching Nevada for the home of Elisabet Sobeck. She had found it, and took with her a memento; the little round artifact of earth that was held in the mummified hand of the scientist, long dead. She now kept that same artifact tied around her neck with a rope, along with her necklace from Rost.

"You never told me you had been here before," Vale had said as they rode through the vast plain.

"Once. Right after the battle with Hades at the Spire," she had answered. It wasn't as harrowing of a journey as Vale's was. But the path to Elisabet's childhood home was more in the north than his journey from his village. In the northern half of Nevada, the ground was dried up into hard dirt and dead trees. The southern half consisted of more sandy terrain and dangers that she hadn't heard of before. "You said there were machines out here once. What kind?"

"Long, skinny. Kind of like worms. But I don't think they like this hard surface. They move through the sand a lot better," he answered. "Why? Where are we going?"

"To visit a special place. I want to show you something."

Aloy had been thinking about it ever since they had entered Zero Dawn. His surprise at their method of entry brought forth the issue that Vale still didn't know her most closely guarded secret. And now she was preparing to tell him the truth.

In truth, she thought he deserved way more now. Vale had long since proven himself of her trust, fighting machines and learning how to stop Hephaestus together. And as he gradually learned more, he grew more understanding of the situation. Vale was a quiet wanderer on his own as she learned, which was how most of their traveling went – in peaceful silence and steady guard for machines. There was no need to worry about him spilling her secrets to anyone, and it gave her reassurance. This, along with that fact that his strong conviction to help with with the ongoing crisis, convinced her that her next decision was a wise one.

It was time he knew the truth between her an Elisabet.

"So Hephaestus keeps calling you Elisabet. There's an actually reason behind it?" he asked when she explained what she was preparing to tell him. "I thought he was just mistaking you for someone else."

"It'll make sense once I show you," she assured him. He nodded contemptibly.

It was a six day ride by the time they reached Elisabet's home on Strider back in the dead of night, much faster than the two week journey Vale had going the other way. He grumbled about it jokingly, but it made her realize something.

"Every Corruptor in the world is dead. I couldn't find another override device for you even if I wanted to," she broke to him, which was true. The destruction of Hades also resulted in – collaterally – the permanent deactivation of every Faro machine in the world. Even if Aloy did find a Corruptor, all its parts would be useless.

The house was exactly how she remembered it. The gateway to the lot still stood, with the label 'Sobeck' on the sign. The house was missing its roof but most of the walls still stood. A few trees surrounded it and a stone hedge circled the entire area. Aloy knew that the Old Ones liked to build houses right next to each other and square off their land for property, but looking around everywhere else, no other houses seemed to be around, not even broken down ruins of any kind.

In the old yard was where she still lay, back up against the stone, encased in an environmental suit half fallen apart by hundreds of years of exposure to the elements. Aloy approaches it slowly and stops just before the row of flowers that surround it, twinkling purple in the moonlight.

"There she is," she says. Vale appears beside her and observes the setup.

"That's Elisabet Sobeck right there?"

"In the flesh. Well… not in the flesh anymore, but…"

"I got it," he replies and looks down at the flowers. "May I?"

Aloy nods and Vale steps over the line of flowers and kneels down next to Elisabet. She joins him and the man taps his Focus, to view the pop ups on the body. He looks solemn.

"I feel it's unfair that nobody knows who she is," he says. "I mean, she created an AI to save the world. That's incredible."

"It is unfair," Aloy responds and sits down on her knees. "But we can't do anything about it. You know how people would respond."

Vale doesn't respond to that, and instead remains silent for a few moments. It reminds Aloy of why they're here and she ponders how to begin the conversation.

"Vale, there's a couple of files I wanted to show you…"

Vale turns to face her, but his lips are prized in a grim line. "You can't show me those files, Aloy. I've tried everything but I can't figure out how to connect our Focuses together. They're just not compatible."

But then Aloy plucks her Focus from her ear and holds it out for him and he becomes silent again.

"You can just view it from mine," she says innocently, but Vale seems hesitant. She can understand it though; she had never given her Focus to anyone before. When she had been captured down in the Zero Dawn bunker and had later escaped thanks to Sylens, he had given her a Focus with all the data she had accumulated on her journey, and even quoted one of her oldest files. But that was different. Aloy never really gave him permission to search through her Focus, but he never brought up any of it to her. He had probably copied the files to explore on his own anyway.

"Are you sure?" he finally says. Aloy nods and smiles, reassuring him that it was okay.

"I trust you."

He takes the Focus hesitantly and holds it in his palm like a fragile jewel. Aloy gets up and starts looking for lumber in the dead trees. They were camping out here tonight.

Aloy tells him which files to look up; the two holovids made by General Herres and Elisabet Sobeck in the theatre rooms of Zero Dawn. She was glad that she had recorded them, because now that the Sun Ring had collapsed on it, she was sure most of the information was gone and not retrievable, even if the Shadow Carja did want to poke around down there. She also told him to watch the message from Gaia from the Cradle facility, and she watched as Vale became still as he watched the fire she built grew. They set up their fire inside the house and Aloy took a chance to look around Elisabet's old home.

It was a small place, bigger than a Nora lodge but as fancy as the Carja homes in Meridian, minus the years of wear and ruin. There were four different rooms and a bathroom. Two of them were bedrooms and Aloy could easily tell which one Elisabet's room was. There was a bookshelf, but only a couple of books remained and the rest had decomposed into flakes and dust. Looks like Elisabet appreciated the feel of physical literature as well, and not transfer it all into digital pages. A large desk with a monitor sat in the corner, but the power to it had long since gone out and now it stood exposed to the elements of the desert. Dirt, leaves and rocks covered everything.

When she returns to the fire in the living room, Vale was still where he was, leaning up against a window sill and staring at the fire. The light on her Focus was still lit, meaning he was still watching the message. The huntress sat herself by the fire and waited until he moved again, but it was only the cross his arms over his chest and stroke his beard as he let out a sigh. She was nervous to ask what he thought.

"So, Elisabet isn't just your ancestor. She's your… uh…"

Aloy knew what he meant.

"A clone. That's what the Old Ones called it; a genetic physical copy of someone, every drop of blood the same," she answers. She knows that Vale came to the same conclusion, but he didn't seem too happy that she could tell what he was thinking so easily.

"And Gaia… she didn't just sacrifice herself to stop Hades; she sacrificed herself to make you too," he continues.

"At the ruins of Gaia Prime. Zero Dawn was discovered by the Faro Plague, so all the Alphas relocated there to live out the rest of their lives. There was a reactor core that Gaia used to blow it up, so now there's nothing left. Every decision that Gaia made was powered by that core, and without it, the terraforming system would fall apart."

"Fall apart… like how the machines become more dangerous. The sub functions that create the world don't have a master to answer to anymore, so they carry on aimlessly," Vale realizes.

"They became self aware, concerned only about their specific purpose instead of working in tandem."

"And now Hephaestus wants to step in and take control with this Command Protocol of his…" Vale brings up and shakes his head. But he relaxes. "Aloy… this is a hell of a story."

She huffs. "That's one way of putting it."

"This explains why he keeps calling you Elisabet; you are her. A reincarnation. Gaia made you in her image."

"Yeah… I guess that's a nice why to put it," she says. The idea amuses her, and it's an analogy she's ever considered before. Reincarnation sounded a lot better than cloning.

"And with the weight of the world on your shoulders…" Vale approaches the fire and sits down next to her, crossing his legs. "I can't imagine how that feels."

Aloy shrugs. "It's more exciting than living the rest of my life in a single valley."

A hint of a smile appears on Vale's face, but it disappears quickly.

"So… you're not…"

Vale beats her to the punch. "This is a lot to take in. I mean, it's a lot. But I feel it makes so much sense. The machines, the ruins. This is the answer to our history, why things are the way they are. That's a big secret to keep to yourself."

"It hasn't been easy," she admits. "There are times that I wished I could explain everything to someone, but it's so hard to make them understand because everything… everything…"

"Is tied together!" They both say at the same time.

"Exactly!" Aloy exclaims. "I mean you can't just explain that the machines are terraforming the world. You have to tell them why without offending them because they grew up believing that the machines sing songs to each other."

"Uh… sure?" Vale nods, not quite understanding what that meant. Aloy sighs again and tries to calm herself.

"I just wish people would be more open to new ideas. It makes me feel trapped, alone for the rest of my life with this secret."

Vale pulls himself closer to her and lays his hand on her shoulder. When Aloy looks up at him, she can notice that his normal stoic stare is replaced by a caring one. "You're not alone anymore. You have me. You shared the world's secret with me and I'm not about to abandon you to fight this battle on your own. Truthfully, I don't think you can do it alone. You need people by your side." Vale removes his hand and plucks her Focus from his ear and holds it out to her. "I'm honoured you chose me."

Aloy stares up at Vale, and being so close, she notices immediately how the light of the fire reflects in his eyes. The blue contrasts the red light and almost makes them look green, and the dancing of the flames make them look alive, sparkling in a way that reminded her of the moonlight reflecting off the surface of a lake. On calm nights like those, she could just stare at the lake and let herself get hypnotized by the lights. It made her think if other bright lights could have the same affect, like Oseram fireworks.

Before she let's herself get carried away, picks up her Focus and places it on her ear where it belongs, while trying to ignore the swelling in her heart.

"Thank you, Vale. You're right, I did choose you. It's a requirement to know everything in this line of work. We can't figure this out together if only one of us knows the truth," she says.

"Truth is a hard thing to come by, but I'm glad you told me this. I'll try not to let you down."

Aloy smiles and hesitantly leans closer to him until her head is resting on his shoulder, and she closes her eyes. Vale doesn't move or flinch at her touch. In fact, he seems to relax.

"I don't think you will."

They're both quiet for several minutes, listening to the sounds of crickets and beetles outside and the crackle of the fire in front of them. Aloy suddenly feels drained, physically and emotionally. They suspended of watching Vale listen to the holovids and waiting for his reaction had made her anxious, and it ate away at her until just now. She a wave of relief washed over her, as well as a whole new level of appreciation for her companion. Vale just never seemed to disappoint her.

"It doesn't stop with Hephaestus, does it?" he says quietly.

"No," she replies lazily, the word almost slurred rolling over her tongue. "All the sub functions need to be found and brought together. And restoring Gaia is another problem."

"What will it take to bring her back?"

"I'm not sure exactly. Either we have to rebuild the reactor core at Gaia Prime or bring enough of the sub functions together so that Gaia can piece herself together. And they both take a lot of work," she explains lazily. She was finding it hard to keep her eyes open now. It was late in the night, and they still had another day of riding ahead of them.

"One issue at a time, then."

"Yeah…"

She can hear Vale snort. "You can go turn in if you want. I'll watch the fire so it doesn't burn this place down."

Aloy smiles and lifts herself up to her feet. She's about to leave the room but stops at the doorway and faces the fire again. "Thank you again, Vale. It means a lot to me that I have your support."

He gives her a silent nod of approval before she leaves. She finds Elisabet's room and lays down in what the bed might have been, but the fabrics that made it were withered down and the layer of soot had hardened into dirt, so she laid a leather blanket down on top of it. Normally she would have slept near the fire and dozed off to the sounds of crackling coals and embers, but here in the home of her predecessor, Aloy had hoped to gain a sense of connection and perspective by sleeping in Elisabet's bed. She sooner fell asleep to her own thoughts, to what it must feel like to be a scientist who lived in a small countryside home that could create an AI to reshape the planet. How simple in retrospect that sounded when she thought about it…

… … …

It was a windy ride up the west side of the dry mountains that bordered Vale's homeland. The wind kicked up sand, and the sand blew into their faces, but luckily they both had face protection. Vale's helmet covered his whole face while Aloy's Kestrel armour covered her eyes. A pair of crystal clear visors fitted into the eye sockets of her head gear perfectly so she didn't need to worry about getting sand in her eyes. But everything else, like her boots and gloves, were scratched with grains of sand and damp from the heat of the desert.

They searched for another flock of Glinthawks to refill their reserve of chillwater before ascending the mountains. They weren't tall, but they were wide and difficult to climb. The soft ground made it hard for their Strider mounts to get good footing, making the trip unbearably slow, but they were making headway.

Aloy notices the wind began to die down as they reach the summits. Vale led her through a pass in the large crevices of the mountains, ginormous cracks in the earth that were eroded by the sand-blasting weather. Vale explained to her that this path was safe because of it. No one would bother setting up an ambush out here with conditions like these.

Coming to the end of the path, they stopped. The wind had become barely more than a breeze now and Aloy removes her head piece to let the wind blow through her hair. It was refreshing; it cools her scalp and dries away the sweat. But when she gazes ahead she freezes.

Lush green land lay in front of her, from the base of the mountains onward. To the north, a wave of trees and hills. And to the south, prairie land.

But what amazed her most was the never ending ocean that stretched across the horizon. The Great Ocean.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Vale says, watching her reaction. "I almost forgot what it looked like, being so far inland."

Aloy points to a structure in the distance. She can't quite tell what it is, but it sticks out with its grey colour in the mountains. "What's that over there?"

"The Central Kingdom. We should probably head there first," he says. "I have a contact among the advisors who can get us a look at one of the treasures."

Aloy stares in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"A Tallneck. It sits next to one of the barracks of the local army. We'll need it's data to get a fix on the land."

"Your people captured a Tallneck?"

Vale shakes his head. "No, more like the Tallneck knows nothing about personal space and suddenly stopped right next to the kingdom, nearly trampling several homes. But it hasn't moved in twenty or so years and, well… you can't exactly push it."

"So it just… stands there?"

"Basically. The people there built a tower around it to study it, or honour it, depending on who you ask. But it's still alive, and we can get some information out of it before we go find Minerva."

"Sounds like a plan," Aloy replies. The man nods and stares ahead. She assumes that he wants her to get them started, but she clears her throat. "Lead the way, Vale."

"What?"

"This is your land. You know the roads and towns better than I do. I showed you around my home land, now you get to be the guide," she tells him. Vale seems to hesitate for a moment, but picks up his reins quickly.

"Right. Well, uh… this way," he says and pushes his Strider into a walk. They still have a ways to go before they reach the bottom of the mountains and into better conditions, but even from where they were, Aloy couldn't help but marvel at the grand sight. Especially the ocean. It was just so vast.

Something made Aloy realize that it was Vale's first time back in months. He had explained once that he never looked forward to returning and pondered over what that could be. She got the impression that he had enemies, or a strained relationship with someone. She hoped that they wouldn't come across any of those problems in their journey here.

A few bad apples or not, this was his home. Vale had a family somewhere and she was interested in meeting them. She watches Vale as they ride. He kept his head down.

"Welcome home, Vale," she says. She doesn't know what kind of effect that might have coming from a stranger to these lands, but she wanted to make him feel better despite the looming dangers ahead.

The man looks up at her and returns a warm smile in appreciation.

Sigh, there just isn't enough time for me to write everything I wanna write at once! I got so many ideas runnin around my head I get confused. Pray I can start writing at full speed again soon.