AN: Hi! Sorry for the delay in posting. I still haven't figured out the schedule yet, and last night I wasn't feeling the writing bug. BUT ANYWHO, here is Chapter 3. I hope you like it.

Slight warning: lots of swearing, some PTSD, and...a character. That's all I can really say.

"Ouch!" I dropped the spear. "Fucking shit!"

Aloy frowned and stepped back, her own weapon hanging at her side. "You can't just pay attention when you feel like it, Becks."

I nursed my right hand, which was already starting to bruise. "I wasn't! I mean, I was paying attention, but what the hell am I supposed to do when you start hitting my hand like that? Why would anyone do that?"

Aloy just shook her head and walked over to the pile of leaves where my spear had landed. "You were distracted. I can tell. I took advantage of it and disarmed you." She bent down and picked up the spear before walking back to the small circle in the forest clearing where we had been training most of that fall afternoon.

"I was not distracted," I protested as I took the weapon in my aching hand. "Shit, this is going to be ugly in a day or so. Let's take a break?" I gave her my best hopeful smile.

She didn't seem to have much sympathy as she reclaimed her position a few steps in front of me. "Stop whining so we can do it again."

She's so serious when we train. "You're no fun. And you hurt my hand."

Aloy didn't skip a beat. "It's just a bruise, Becks. And I'd rather not be 'fun' than have something happen to…to you again because I didn't show you how to defend yourself."

Ugh. At some point, she was going to need to stop feeling guilty over what happened at GAIA Prime with Jenna. "I wish you wouldn't do that."

She tilted her head. "Do what?"

I sighed. "That. What you said just now. I'm fine, okay? I'm all better and you don't need to feel guilty about it."

"You're not 'all better'."

As cold and discouraging as her words sounded, I knew they came from a place of love. I knew she felt guilty, that she took responsibility for what had happened. But I'd told myself that I was tired of looking back, tired of living like the world was going to end again. I needed Aloy to be onboard with that plan as well. And she had been, for the most part, but sometimes – times like this – she seemed to have more difficulty than usual with it. "For the five hundredth time, Aloy, it wasn't your fault."

But she wouldn't let it go. "Becks-,"

I do not want to argue about this right now. I held up my spear despite the pain in my right hand as I gripped it. "Nope, not listening. Now, come on. Show me what you've got."

Aloy raised an eyebrow. "I thought your hand hurt?"

"It does, but you're right and I'm tired of talking about it," I declared. "Now, come on."

She didn't hesitate further. She swung, her weapon coming at me from the side. I twisted my body just enough for her to miss before countering with my own attack. My weapon clipped hers and she jumped back, twirling her spear a few times (like the show off she was) before coming back around for another attempt. She swung from over her shoulder and tried to disarm me again. My hand throbbed from being hit earlier and I instinctively put my left arm out in front of me to protect it.

A loud pop followed by dust and splinters exploding between us startled me and I ended up dropping my spear anyway. The broken pieces of Aloy's weapon fell to the ground, clattering on top of each other.

We stood in frozen silence while staring at the remains of her spear. The aching in my hand reminded me that time had not actually stopped.

"How-how did you do that?" she asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

I inspected my left arm to find that while there was some dirt and a few scratches that I was otherwise unharmed and not in any pain. "I…I guess the implants are more resilient than we thought?"

Aloy actually laughed, a loud bark that made me grin. "'Resilient'? You broke my spear!"

Holy shit. I wasn't really sure how to respond so I just sort of gave her this dumb, shy grin.

Aloy, however, was really excited about the whole thing. "We should try this again. I'll need to get another training spear, though." She glanced in the direction of home. "I think there's a few back at the house near the training dummies."

"You…want me to break another spear?"

She smirked. "I can make more. And we should probably take a look at your hand, anyway."

Oh, now she cares. "Thought you said it was just a bruise?" I teased.

"It would be interesting to see how you do with the training dummies as well," she continued, ignoring my jab. "I want to see how strong those implants are."

"Training dummies?" Now I was laughing. "I feel like I've suddenly become an experiment."

Aloy surprised me by reaching for my uninjured hand. I took it, appreciating its warmth in the chilly weather. "Never," she said, her smile genuine. "But if you were, I like to think it would be pretty 'cool' as you Old Ones say."

I groaned. "Please, just…don't ever do that again."

She laughed again and gave my hand a light tug. "Come on. Let's head back."

"Up this way. Not enough to grab over there. It should be at the top of this climb."

I grabbed the nearest rock that jutted out the side of the cliffside. "I have been here before, you know."

The rope connecting us slackened for a moment as Aloy turned her head to face me. She gave me a worried look. "Are…is this going to be okay for you?"

Oops. My comment was intended to poke fun, not to make her all concerned again. It'd taken nearly the remainder of the entire day after my failed hunt to convince Aloy that we needed to get to GAIA Prime sooner rather than later. She'd argued, of course, and said that she wasn't certain I was ready to make the journey because of my implants. I told her I didn't get those implants just so I could let something happen to GAIA again – like the machines acting up – and she finally relented. She had a theory – that an old ally of hers might had overridden the Watcher that attacked me – but after a few trips out to the forest, we discovered that it wasn't just the Watchers that attacked us on sight, but several other machines as well. It wasn't all of them either, but the effect definitely seemed to be spreading. What that meant…well, neither of us had any idea. But we knew if anywhere had answers, it would be GAIA Prime.

"I'll be fine, Aloy," I told her. A gust of wind blew hair in my face and I shook my head so that I could see the redhead clearer. It's fucking freezing. We were pretty high up by this point and the weather had long since changed from a warm, sunny day to still sunny but with bitter cold winds and snow everywhere.

Aloy definitely seemed like she wanted to say something else, perhaps debate with me about leaving the Embrace again, but instead she gave me a tentative stare before returning to climbing. The Bitter Climb – I had done it once before, over a year earlier when Aloy, myself, and a group of friends and allies had made our stand against Ted Faro and restored GAIA. Though, I remember this being a lot harder.

It was gradually becoming apparent to not only myself, but to Aloy as well, that I was growing stronger the more comfortable I got with my implants. As long as I favored my left arm and leg, pulling my body up the side of the cliff was nowhere near the difficulty it had been the first time I'd done it.

When we finally reached the top, Aloy helped pull me over the edge before we both took a moment to rest and take in the scene before us.

GAIA Prime. Rebuilt by HEPHAESTUS, the AI we'd befriended on our journey to restore the system, the structure was massive – the front walls reaching far up into the sky while the back of it was built into the mountain behind it. The metal walls glowed a fiery orange as did the snow around it as the sun began to set, the streaks of light signaling the day's end spreading across the sky and reflecting off the mountainside.

"Well, we made it," I said, my breath visible in the air. I grabbed my water pouch and took a long drink before handing it to Aloy. "Can't say I missed the cold, though."

Aloy nodded before taking a sip herself. She closed the pouch and gave it back to me. "Hopefully it's warmer inside." She stood up and offered her hand to me. "Come on. GAIA will probably want to see how you're doing."

I took her hand and let her pull me to my feet. "Yeah. I should tell her to include some instructions to help us out next time. You know, like 'Robotic Limbs For Dummies'."

Aloy blinked. "Um…what?"

I leaned in and kissed her cheek, her skin cold against my lips. "Nothing. Just a crappy joke. Let's go."

"Hold for IdentiScan."

"Did this always take so long?" Aloy muttered as the red light slowly passed over her.

I shrugged. "I never went anywhere that had restricted access, so I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if the system's degraded over time, though. It's been a while." I looked around and found myself feeling a little nauseous. We stood outside the blast door – the entry to the main control room of GAIA Prime. A few of the bars holding the structure up as well as the metal platform we stood on were blackened, scorched by the bomb Jenna had used. A console stood a few steps away, the side of it smashed in. There was no blood, no remains, though I knew there had been before…

Blood dripping down the side and front of my face. Can't see anything.

"…Zeta Override. Lock…lock out Omega access."

Screaming. So much screaming…it was gone. How could something just be ripped away like that? How could anything hurt this much?

" No! Becks, please!"

"It would have been better. It-,"

"Becks?" A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped, letting out a frightened squeak. I spun around, ready to defend myself if I had to when she caught my right wrist.

"Hey! It's just me, Becks. It's me." Aloy's eyes locked with mine, and already I could feel myself beginning to calm down.

I lowered my hand. "I-sorry. I thought…" I nodded toward the console. She followed my gaze – the darkening of her expression letting me know she immediately understood.

"We shouldn't have come here," she said, fists clenched - her tone hard. "Bringing you up here was a bad idea."

I shook my head. We are not fucking this up because of me. "No, it's fine. I'm fine, Aloy." I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her closer to me. "Please." I moved my hands to her face – forced her to look at me. "I want to do this. If there's something or someone fucking around with the system…we didn't go through all that just so we could let it all go to hell again."

"But-,"

I leaned forward and captured her lips in mine, kissing her with everything I had. She didn't need to say anything – I could feel the hesitation, the sadness, the guilt. And it needed to fucking stop. We needed to push on. I wasn't dead and I refused to live like I was.

Finally pulling away, I slowly met her eyes once more – our breathing quickened. "I'm here. Okay?" I asked.

She nodded, the reluctance obvious. "Okay."

I released her and looked at the door. "Good. Now then, what the hell? This thing is slow. Maybe it's broken?"

"Scan accepted. Welcome back, Dr. Sobeck." The blast door hissed as it slid open, revealing the entry chamber of GAIA Prime. We exchanged hesitant glances before Aloy took the first step in and I followed after.

"Holy shit," I gasped as I stared up at the towering ceilings. The room was metal throughout, with consoles and screens lining the walls. The lighting was white and a bit harsh, similar to that of the cauldron I'd been in. Everything from the walls to the ceiling, to the consoles and floor lights had been obviously designed by a machine. This place probably looked very different back when Elisabet and the other Alphas lived and worked here.

"I've never been in here," Aloy breathed as we slowly walked through the room. The consoles all appeared to be online and a multitude of displays filled the back wall at the far end of the room.

"This facility has been redesigned to better suit the management requirements of the core system."

I spun around, looking for the origin of the voice that spoke. It was familiar – female, deep, almost human but laced with an uncanny quality that made me certain it was synthetic. The volume was loud enough that it reverberated off the walls of the room, making it more difficult to determine the owner.

"Welcome back, Aloy. And welcome, Rebecca. It has been too long since I've heard your voice."

"GAIA," Aloy said. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips and I suddenly felt happier than I had all day. This is what we'd fought for. What I'd sacrificed for. And she was finally real.

"Yes. I am pleased to see you have recovered, Rebecca."

I grinned. Despite being an AI, GAIA's voice had a soothing quality to it. I immediately grew more comfortable – it was like listening to an old friend telling you what had happened over the years after not seeing them in forever. Definitely a strange feeling, but in that moment, all I could think about was that we had really done the impossible – we had restored her. We would ask her about the machines and everything would be okay.

And we can finally move out of that cabin and go somewhere new.

"Just 'Becks' is fine." I wasn't really sure what to look at when speaking so looking up seemed like the next best thing.

"Very well. I detect that your implants are working as intended and that your body has not rejected them."

Nice. "Yeah…though it would have been nice to know that was a possibility," I said, giving Aloy a concerned look. I noticed GAIA hadn't really said much to Aloy, but I figured it was just because she was gathering information about my recovery.

"My apologies. Next time I will make sure to include as much information as possible to help accelerate your recovery."

I snorted. "Well, I'm hoping there won't have to be a next time at all."

"Machines are going rogue, GAIA," Aloy spoke up. "A Watcher attacked Becks. And other machines are going hostile at the sight of humans."

Silence.

"Uh…did you get that, GAIA?" I said.

"Yes. Apologies for the inconvenience, Becks. I'm afraid you were in a designated test zone at the time of your attack."

What? "'Test zone'? What the hell are you testing? And why are you doing it where there are people around?"

"I'm afraid that is classified information, Becks. I cannot release further details at this time."

I looked over at Aloy, who nodded. "GAIA, stop the testing and tell us what you were doing. Now."

"I'm afraid I cannot, Aloy. Your voice authorization has been removed from my administrative permissions. As such, this facility will initiate a security breach in thirty seconds."

My chest tightened. "H-how is that possible, Aloy?"

Aloy unslung her bow. "We'll figure it out later. We need to get out of here."

"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment." A man's voice. It was English in origin, I could tell that much. We turned to our left, where the voice had originated. A door had opened, no doubt an entry to the rest of the facility. In front of it stood an older man, perhaps in his late-fifties. His grey hair was cut short and he wore a white lab coat. He was flanked by three men and a woman – all outfitted in combat gear and armed with large guns.

These were no Carja or Oseram or even Banuk. These were Old Ones. Like me.

The man smiled. Before the Faro Plague, I probably would have thought he seemed like a nice guy. He might have even been one of Dad's friends. But something about this guy at first sight gave me the creeps. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but I knew something was not right with him.

He looked up. "Please close the front door, GAIA."

"Activating front entry. Door closed." A bang in the distance – the blast door had been shut and sealed.

Aloy nocked an arrow and aimed at the man before anyone could say anything. The air immediately tensed and there were several rapid clicks as his bodyguards pointed their guns at us.

The man put up his hands. "Now, now. Let's not do anything we might regret. She would be displeased if we were forced to put you down now."

"What are you talking about? And just who the flying fuck are you?" I demanded.

"James Branwell," he said with an unsettling smile. "Doctor, actually. I ran the Center for Cloning and Genetic Exploration. Well," he chuckled, "still run it, I suppose." He grinned at his bodyguards, who all gave a quiet laugh.

Aloy lowered her bow, but only slightly. "For Zero Dawn?"

Branwell laughed again. "Oh, goodness, no. Patrick was far too close-minded for me to get anything done. No, we are a branch of Far Zenith. Perhaps you've heard of us?"

"I've read about you," Aloy said, not bothering to hide her suspicion. "You sent…something beyond Earth. It didn't work."

"The Odyssey, yes," Branwell clarified. "A shame it failed. But, that's why we have contingencies. The best scientists, thinkers, businessmen – they always do."

I hated this guy already. "Cut the bullshit and tell us what you want."

But Branwell wasn't fazed. In fact, it was almost as though he was stalling. For what? "It's 'Rebecca', right? I believe I met your father at a conference a few years before…well, you know. A very smart man, or I thought so, anyway."

Oh, hell, no. "Yeah, you don't get to talk about my dad. So, either tell us what you want, or let us go," I snarled.

"I'm not in a position to do that, I'm afraid. My job is to collect you once she's made her assessment and decided what to do with you."

"Try and take us," Aloy challenged him. "You'll have an arrow in your skull before your people take a single step."

The doctor raised both eyebrows. "A pity we were once again reduced to such…savagery. Ah, but it's a work in progress I suppose. I'm actually not here for the both of you. You may go," he said, addressing Aloy. "I must insist that Rebecca here stays."

"Not going to happen," I said, glaring at him. I wanted to reach for my spear, but I wasn't confident I could do anything with it before those guards put a hundred bullets in us.

"Sorry I'm late. Oh, put the guns down, Jim! I don't need her any more traumatized than she already is," I heard Aloy say. Except…she didn't.

Wait. I did a double take and looked over at Aloy, whose face had been drained of color. She lowered her bow, staring straight ahead as though she'd seen a ghost. I turned my head to face Branwell again and gasped.

She was probably in her early to mid-thirties, maybe a few years older. Her hair was longer - past her shoulders - but she had it pulled back. Whereas I was used to a chaotic, wavy sea of red, her hair was straighter, more controlled. The freckles were almost a match. Her eyes were hazel, appearing darker in this light than they usually did. She was well-built - very fit - as though she worked out intensely every day. The clothes were different – black pants tucked into combat boots and an olive-green shirt that I'm pretty sure Jenna had an exact replica of at some point.

"You heard me, Jim. Enough with the guns," she repeated. That voice.

Branwell nodded and gestured to his guards, who hesitated before finally lowering their weapons.

"That's better. Now then," she began briskly, "I guess introductions are in order. Elisabet Sobeck, though everyone just calls me Liz."

More AN: Intrigued? Upset? ANGRY? Very concerned?

One thing I will say about the sequel - it will probably not be as high in chapter and word count as the first season...but it will be denser. Hope that kind of makes sense. Regardless, see you next chapter!