Nice work, Becks. Next time, try to be more of an asswipe. Need to make sure that there's absolutely no way she'll want you back there. Not that Aloy would. As angry as I had been, I knew I had no right to say the things I did to her.

I glanced down at my scraped-up hand as I stormed through the market district of Meridian and shook my head – disappointed at myself. She knows what I went through. She knows why I don't want to do this anymore. We shouldn't have argued. I could have just said that to begin with instead of punching a hole in the wall like a fucking barbarian.

Ugh. Maybe we should have waited. What if this is just a sign that we moved too fast? What if-

No. Can't think that way. It won't help anything.

The sun had been up for a bit when I saw the merchants of Meridian begin to make their way to their carts, getting ready the day. I paused and opened my pack to inspect its contents. There were a few machine parts I had collected during my journey as well as some wrapped pieces of food – a combination of meat and dry rations I had either caught myself or picked up in one of the small towns. Could probably sell some of this. I didn't have a plan - not really - but I figured as long as I was out walking about I might as well get some shards to bring back to Aloy. Assuming she'll even speak to me.

I closed my pack and slung it over my shoulder before continuing and surveyed the selection of carts before me. All sold different things – some food, others weapons and hunting supplies. Maybe one of these people will want to trade.

And then what? Aloy was right. Even if we did leave, we had to assume Far Zenith would succeed in their crazy plan to activate HADES. I wasn't naïve enough to think that the Carja or the Nora or any of the other clans had even the slightest chance of defeating an organization with 2060s technology plus GAIA's help. But this wasn't like before. We didn't have subordinate function cores to put in place or a ring to get. These psychos saw me as nothing more than a test subject and thought even less of Aloy. I had no idea how we could possibly stop them, but I also knew that I just wanted for Aloy and I to have a chance of living a normal life together.

"Normal". What the hell was that again? I sighed. Maybe it was time I finally admitted that my life stopped being "normal" the second I went into that cryo tank – probably even before that.

Whatever. I tried to push the argument and depressing thoughts from my mind. Just get the damn shards and go back.

"Becks!" A familiar voice. Not Aloy. Something about the voice, or maybe just the memory of it that I couldn't recall irked me. I ignored it and kept walking – my destination: a guy standing behind a small cart on the other side of the dusty street that looked to be selling weapons and armor.

"Becks!" This time the call was much closer. I spun around and nearly lost my balance when I came face to face with none other than Talanah, Aloy's friend from the Hunter's Lodge. Her dark hair was pulled back and she was outfitted in full hunting gear. A massive bow made from machine parts hung on her back. I hadn't seen her since that day on the Bitter Climb when we stopped Faro and Jenna from taking over GAIA. When I first met Talanah, I wasn't a huge fan of hers – she was very friendly with Aloy, a bit too friendly despite Aloy's insistence that Talanah only saw her as something close to a younger sibling. I still wasn't completely convinced, but she did help us take down Ted so I had to give her credit for that.

"Oh…hey, Talanah." I gave an awkward wave. "How's it going?" I wasn't sure what to say. Wish Erend was here. At least I actually know what to say to him. If Aloy had been around it would have been easier since she usually did all the talking.

Instead of answering, Talanah lunged forward and threw her arms around me, nearly knocking me off balance. "It's good to see you again!" She pulled away and looked me over, her excited gaze gravitating to my hand. "You-how are you feeling? Is Aloy here? I haven't seen her in some time – I just got back from a rather long excursion."

"Oh." I kicked at the ground a little. "Um, I'm good. Better…uh, you?"

Her smile did not falter. "I'm great. Picked off a Sawtooth and two Glinthawks last week. You know one of those stupid machines actually tried to steal the armor off my back during a fight?"

The thought of a Glinthawk swooping down and trying to steal Talanah's armor was too funny to not picture and I couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry. Glad that it didn't, um…get away with it."

Talanah huffed. "The fight definitely could have gone a lot smoother but hey, I got the trophies and it's not as though I had anyone there to judge my techniques."

"Your secret's safe with me," I said.

"Thanks." She tilted her head, giving me a curious stare. "So, is Aloy here in Meridian with you?"

I didn't feel right telling Talanah every detail of the argument I had with Aloy. "Yeah, she's here – she's back at the house." I pointed to my pack. "I was just going to sell some stuff before heading back."

Her smile returned. "Ah. Well, good! Must be nice to have things back to normal."

Hah. "Normal". If only she knew. Her words gave me pause – layering on my earlier thoughts about what my life had become. No. What our lives had become.

I looked at my hand again – the scrapes already scabbing over, the dust from the wood covering most of the cuts. I am such an idiot. I made a promise to Aloy over a year earlier – the promise we made when we realized we couldn't see a future without each other. Running away might keep us safe for a short while, but I knew she wouldn't be happy knowing that people, even if they would never be her people, were future victims of the destruction that Far Zenith was prepared to unleash. There had to be a way to stop them, sabotage their projects and keep them from using HADES.

Hm.

I looked back at Talanah as an idea began to form in my mind. It was a long shot, but it was all I had. "Hey, I know this probably sounds really weird, but I need a favor. Can you help me?"

She seemed genuinely surprised for a few seconds before she spoke. "Oh! Of course. What do you need?"

I told her my plan, or at least what I had of it so far. When I finished, she stared back at me, one eyebrow raised. "You sure you don't want to go get Aloy first?"

"I'm sure," I said. "I have a theory, but I won't know if it's possible unless I check it out first. Once I know for sure, we can go back to the house and talk to her."

"Well…all right." She rolled her shoulders back, jostling her bow a little. "I'll follow you then?"

"I'm pretty sure Aloy will not be happy when she learns about this."

I snorted. "Probably not, but if I'd told her first she would have tried to keep me from going." I spotted movement ahead of the spread of tall grasses where we hid. Several meters ahead I could see the suspiciously sophisticated metal walls of the newly constructed Far Zenith base. The architecture left no question that GAIA and HEPHAESTUS had built this structure. "Shh, something's coming."

A blue light was all I could make out at first. It bounced slightly as it approached.

"Watcher," Talanah whispered. She reached for her bow. I grabbed her wrist.

"Don't. They've got control of every machine. We alert one – we could alert them all."

She seemed puzzled but lowered her arm anyway. The Watcher let out a few clicks and waddled past as we remained undetected. "You going to tell me what this is all about?"

I took a deep breath. "Did Aloy ever tell you about GAIA?"

Talanah nodded. "A fair bit. I only know that it's a being of great power that helped us stop the metal demon from destroying Meridian. That man we tracked last year – he wanted control of it."

"Right. Ted," I said, the name leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. "These people – they're called Far Zenith, and they tried to take over GAIA twenty years ago. They're from my-they're Old Ones. Like me." I looked at the ground, trying not to feel guilty for something I didn't do, even though these people were from my civilization. "Like Ted."

Talanah made an affirmative noise. "This is all really strange and a little hard to believe, but I gotta say - you people from the Metal World are something else."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't I know it. They survived the same way I did and made a…copy of Aloy. They used her to take control of GAIA and the machines."

Her dark eyes widened. "That doesn't sound good. Aloy should really be here, Becks. Surely, she should know-,"

"She does. She's been here. We-we tried to stop them at the Bitter Climb over a month ago and…and failed. They took me hostage and she tried to get me out, but…" I shook my head. "Look, we have to stop them now. I have an idea, but if Aloy knew I was here there's no way in hell she'd let me try it. I just need to get close enough to the entrance to get a scan with my Focus."

"Why do you need me here then if not for my bow?"

I held up my hand. "I'll tell you in a minute. Just stay behind me and keep an eye out for machines, okay?" I crept forward through the grass, Talanah following close behind me. Aloy is going to be pissed.

Finally, I had a good view of the bunker entrance. A single blast door stood at the end of a long metal catwalk that had been bolted into the rocky ground. The door was closed – there were no guards posted but Watchers prowled the area. Probably inside – monitoring everything like the creeps they are.

I activated my Focus and sure enough, the door had a holographic lock on the front of it. "Perfect."

"What? What's perfect? What are you doing?" Talanah craned her neck to try and see what I was doing with my Focus.

"Hang on. Just getting what I need and…" I waited while the Focus scanned the door. The reticle turned from white to green as the Focus recorded the door's signature. "There!" I turned back to Talanah. "Give me just a second to get this ready for Aloy."

"Aloy? Why? What did you just do?"

I quickly brought up an interface and began configuring the next step of my plan. "There's a device that Aloy used to shut down HADES when it attacked Meridian. It's called a master override. Either she still has it or it's still at MINER-the Spire."

COMPILATION COMPLETE. NO ERRORS. DEPLOYMENT READY. CONFIRM? Hell, yes. My teachers would have strongly disapproved if they knew what I'd written. Mom would have lectured me on responsibility and Dad would have nodded behind her and later asked to see it. Jenna would have been amused and probably would have asked to borrow it. It was beyond crude and in any system from my time it would have been scrubbed immediately.

The good news was that this system wasn't built in my time.

Talanah gave a quick scan to check if we had any visitors before returning her attention to me. "All right. What about it?"

Done. "Okay, so she needs to use the master override on the door to get in."

She gave me a tentative glance. "What did you do?"

"I uploaded a vir-uh, it's a thing that's going to let Aloy use the override to get into that bunker," I said, pointing at the structure ahead. "If I'm right, and I think I am, what I made is so old that they won't even think to look for it."

"And why can't we just get her and do that now?"

I sighed. She wasn't going to like this, either. "Because I need time to get in there and find out the differences in that clon-in that copy of Aloy. There's got to be some log of it somewhere. These people are meticulous and probably keep logs of everything. Once I do that, we can figure out a way to use that override to take control of GAIA and maybe stop all this."

Talanah looked at me before directing her gaze at the bunker and then back to me, her expression lighting up with realization. "You're going to offer yourself to them. Becks, you can't-,"

"There's no other way," I said, surprising myself with my own confidence.

"What if they hurt you? Aloy would never forgive me."

"They won't. At least, I don't think they will. I need for you guys to buy me time to see this through. Aloy…hopefully she'll understand that." I met her eyes. "I know you risked your life helping us last year, Talanah, but please trust me when I say this will be terrible for everyone if we don't stop them. I-we could use your help again. Erend's, too."

She gave me an apologetic look. "I don't know, Becks…"

I grasped her wrist. "Please. Tell Aloy everything and ask her to tell you what we learned about Far Zenith."

"And just how are you going to…'take control' once they capture you?" she demanded.

Yeah. Good question. "Uh, well, if I got out once, I can do it again." I shrugged. "I'll figure it out." And this time Branwell isn't getting within ten feet of me if I can help it. When Talanah still hesitated, I held out my arm to make a point. "I've been training with Aloy. Trust me – I'm tougher than I look."

She said nothing, and for a long moment, only the faint snapping of the tall grass swaying in the breeze filled the silence between us.

"Aloy is going to kill me."

I grinned and prepared to make my run to the door. "Do me a favor. Tell her I'm sorry and that it's my fault."