Aloy was a bit torn, seeing as there was another version of herself in the base. Beta was clearly having a mental breakdown, as she was distraught over how far behind they were in terms of intelligence.
"How is she?" asked Elisabet.
"She seems a bit...overwhelmed," said Aloy.
"Understandable. She's likely been held captive and made into a tool for to access GAIA's systems," said Elisabet with open empathy. "Just give her some time...I don't think she'd react well to my presence just yet."
"What do you suggest?" asked Zo.
"If you mention me to her, call me Rhea. That way we can ease her into the fact there's another person here who can help," said Elisabet. "She needs to orient herself to the base before we shock her too much."
"I agree," said Zo.
"So...what should we do now?" asked Aloy.
"You've already acquired POSIEDON, and AETHER. DEMETER should be next on the list," said Elisabet. "But with the way things are, that might not be enough to properly integrate with HEPHEASTUS."
"Well the Zeniths have the others," said Aloy. "Unless there's another subordinate function that they missed, we have no other options."
"Wrong. We have HECATE and APOLLO," said Elisabet.
"Wait... I thought Faro deleted APOLLO?" said Aloy. "And the Zeniths already have it, according to Beta."
"They have a corrupted copy," said Elisabet. "That arrogant brat who made HADES alerted me to what they did, so we sent them a corrupted version in their last transmission before deleting their access. And Faro only had access to all the ones already installed on GAIA's network...he wouldn't have known about the back-up we made of the original code before we used the finalized product on Zero Dawn. The original data should still be there."
"There's a back-up?" said Aloy. Finally, some hope.
"And to think my team used to call me paranoid," said Elisabet, shaking her head.
"Paranoid?"
"I insisted on redundant back-ups of all the programs, to be stored in secure locations. Some...more than others."
"Does that include HADES?" asked Aloy.
"Absolutely not. One HADES and one redundant back-up was enough for this world, and I was outvoted on it's necessity," said Elisabet annoyed. "If there's one truth in this world, it's that life finds a way to adapt. The only thing we did with Zero Dawn was give it more of a starting base to work with in a shorter time period once the conditions were met."
"So APOLLO and the others have back-ups," said Aloy, with some relief. "The only question is where to find it."
"We need to figure out which ones were taken out by that idiot first, to narrow down which one remains," said Elisabet.
"So we need to talk to Gaia then," said Aloy. It was surprisingly easy to talk to Elisabet. While she still hadn't accepted Elisabet as her mother, the seeds were at least sown.
Elisabet's annoyance grew once they spoke with Gaia. Faro had been very thorough in wiping out APOLLO. All the ones she had personally installed into the CRADLES had been wiped out. Not even GAIA could connect to them.
"This is bloody ridiculous," scowled Elisabet. "I knew he was a fool, but to go this far and delete APOLLO just to cover up his mistake?"
"Are there any copies left?"
"I'm trying to think. I know I made extras, but they were connected to a network so he might have deleted them as well," said Elisabet, before something occurred to her. Ted might had gone above and beyond to delete APOLLO, but he had no idea HECATE existed. "We might be going about this the wrong way. Gaia, can you connect to HECATE?"
"Searching. HECATE found, however I am locked out. It will take some time to override and access the subordinate function."
"Not if you had the access codes to it, considering I deliberately left her dormant," said Elisabet. "Gaia, connect to HECATE and enter the passwords I'm about to give you."
"One moment...connected. Ready for authorization."
"First password. Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus."
"Password approved," said Gaia.
"Second password. Just and Loyal, True and Unafraid of Toil," said Elisabet.
"Approved."
"Third password. Wit Beyond Measure is Man's Greatest Treasure."
"Approved. Subordinate function has begun to go online."
"Fourth password. If you wish for peace, prepare for war."
"Approve. HECATE is now online, I require a final password for full access."
"Final password. I Solemnly Swear that I am Up to No Good," said Elisabet.
"One moment," said Gaia. "HECATE subordinate function is now fully operational. My capabilities have risen by thirteen percent."
"What exactly was HECATE meant to do?" asked Aloy.
"HECATE's primary purpose was to teach magical children how to use their gift alongside the general knowledge of APOLLO," said Elisabet. "But...we can use it to access the database APOLLO had, and see if any of the offline copies of the program still exist."
"Searching for APOLLO," said Gaia.
"Don't look for APOLLO specifically," said Elisabet. "I didn't want the others to know I had made an extra copy of the final product, so I used an alternate name for it. Search for HATI and SKOLL."
"HATI and SKOLL?" said Aloy confused.
"Ted would never think to look for subordinate functions like APOLLO under a name based off of wolves that would chase the Moon and Sun," explained Elisabet. "Vikings would say that they had managed to catch their prey whenever an eclipse happened to explain the event."
"HATI and SKOLL functions found," said Gaia. "Attempting access now."
Aloy could barely maintain the hope in her chest.
"APOLLO and ARTEMIS subordinate functions located. However I am unable to access them at this time," said Gaia.
"So we need to get them before the Zeniths do. Where are they?" asked Aloy.
"I cannot upload their location. However both functions did transmit a code before they cut off access."
"Code?" said Aloy.
"Good. So HECATE is still working," said Elisabet.
"What do you mean?" said Aloy.
"I told you, my team called me paranoid. Aside from GAIA, HECATE was another AI I created to protect the Zero Dawn protocol from...outside interference. Ted might have agreed to help, but by the end his paranoia and so-called intelligence gave me a bad feeling. Especially with how adamant he was that GAIA have a kill code," said Elisabet. "I knew he was smart enough that he could likely create his own kill code to ruin things...which he obviously used to gain access and delete the APOLLO program."
"So what did HECATE do?" asked Aloy. Considering what happened, Elisabet's paranoia was completely justified.
"HECATE is using some of MINERVA's cloaking routines to shield the other functions from someone who might be listening in. Just because we have the passcode doesn't make us trustworthy to have something, especially considering how far Ted went. There's no way it would be able to tell if the one who inputted it was friendly or managed to get lucky after hacking in," explained Elisabet. "The code is the clue to finding the subroutines, and once we get there it'll test us to decide whether it's safe to hand them over."
"So...pretty much the same thing I've been doing anyway," said Aloy. "Wait...if HECATE has APOLLO and ARTEMIS, then does that mean it might also have HEPHEASTUS?"
Elisabet shook her head.
"The only copy I have of that program is the prototype that I saved in case the original file was corrupted before we brought it online. I'm not sure it could help," said Elisabet.
"But it would be a start, and it's more than we have now," said Aloy. "If we could get that working..."
"We can only try. Like I said, it was the prototype we were using before the final code was created and we put the entire system online. I have no idea if it'll work or not."
Aloy could only feel relief she wasn't in the base when Beta ran into Elisabet. She could feel the shock and awkwardness from where she was climbing in the mountains to find ARTEMIS.
Since HECATE had gone online and granted partial access, Aloy had taken to listening to the lessons via her Focus on how to use magic.
Elisabet had long since lost her old wands, and had found a way to use her focus and hand gestures instead. It was a bit harder and required more training, but it was far less awkward than using a wand. Besides, she would have outed herself as a witch to outsiders years ago if she had kept relying on it.
So she kept practicing and eventually found a way to use the Focus as well... her magical focus. And she had recorded everything she learned including her mistakes to HECATE so the future humans could use them as a base to work with.
After all, she hadn't actually planned to wake up in the first place.
Aloy found it relaxing to hear Elisabet's voice and found her lessons fun and very instructive. It made her wonder what Elisabet could have been had she not turned to engineering.
In the base...
To say Beta was taken aback meeting the actual Elisabet was an understatement. Her poor anxiety was in overdrive.
Elisabet said nothing. She simply held Beta to her to let the poor girl anchor herself.
"This is...how did the Zeniths not know you were here? Was there another clone?" said Beta, rambling.
"Easy child," said Elisabet. "Follow my voice and just breathe. Breathe in and out. Can you do that?"
Beta did her best to follow the instructions. Elisabet gently counted to ten, and made sure Beta was breathing in time with her voice. It helped a little, at least to anchor the girl.
Where Aloy was strong and assertive, Beta was an absolute neurotic mess. The two were polar opposites.
Elisabet didn't try to strong-arm Beta into anything. The girl needed mothering first, gentle correction later. Aloy was the outgoing one of the two, and while she had a somewhat loving childhood she was unused to physical affection.
To put it simply, Aloy was the war general who reminded Elisabet of herself in her fifth or sixth year, while Beta was the woman she had been during the aftermath of the war when everything began to take it's toll.
There was a reason she had changed her name completely and did her best to FORGET as much as she could about being Rhea Potter and had thrown herself into Elisabet.
"This...how is this possible? Why make two clones?" said Beta, once she could think.
"I'm not a clone. I'm the actual Elisabet Sobeck."
"But..."
"There are more things in heaven and earth,Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," quoted Elisabet.
"Hamlet," said Beta.
"Of course I could have gone with 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"
"Sherlock," said Beta absently. "So magic really does exist?"
"Of course. I used a potion to put myself into a hibernative sleep, and Aloy used the counteragent I had hidden to wake me up," explained Elisabet. "Which really begs the question of how you know about magic. I know for a fact I hid my nature as a witch from everyone after I left England, and I doubt the Zeniths would have trained someone they planned to use as a tool on it's use."
"Oh...um. One of the Zeniths apparently slipped them into my training protocols," said Beta. "I know how to cast 'first year' and 'second year' magic and I was starting to learn runes before we reached Earth."
Well, at least she had more to work with than Aloy.
Either way she wold have to use a more gentle touch to work with Beta, as the girl was a complete mess emotionally.