Horizon Loop Escape

by BbK2442

An Elster's dying story and a Bioresonant goddess's last wish results in a certain Eule and Star couple ending up very far from home and seeing the dawn of a new horizon for the both of them.

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Trip Down the Metal Rabbit Hole

Eule awoke from her dreams of Leng's snowy surface with Star. At first thought, she was afraid to open her eyes, thinking that she will open them to the sight of a concrete roof like those of S-23 Sierpinski's interior, or worse, the never-ending darkness that was the mines. Then it hit her: the smell of something delicious wafting through the air, and she realized that it was the smell of the same stew Rost had cooked for them for dinner. That was the first strike against the idea that all of yesterday had been a lovely dream before having to reawaken to the nightmare.

The second strike was a pair of arms wrapped around Eule in a hug. She could feel the familiar warmth of bullet resistant flexible armor-coated mechanical arms around her shoulders and on her back, and she knew who it was even without opening her eyes, but she had to anyways.

The third and final strike came when Eule finally opened her eyes, and was greeted with the sight of Star's softly snoring face in front of her. Star's snores were surprisingly gentle to someone familiar with her more aggressive occupation, and Eule had always found that to be adorable about her lover. Star though was currently giving Eule even more bonus cute points due to the thin line of drool leaking down from Star's slightly open mouth, making Eule giggle at the combination silly and endearing sight.

It made Eule want to poke Star in the cheek. It was a desire that she happily obliged, courtesy of a gentle nudge into soft squishy Star cheek with Eule's robotic index finger still covered by its white glove.

Star's eyes snapped open instantly. Eule saw a momentary look of panic in Star's eyes before Star saw Eule in front of her and calmed down. "Hey, beautiful," Star said casually.

"Hey, gorgeous," Eule replied, gently kissing Star on her lips.

"…You know, at first, I thought…I thought that–"

"You were back there?" Eule gently asked.

Star looked away from Eule's gaze as she admitted: "Yeah."

Eule hugged her lover more tightly. "Me too. But it's alright now. We're not back there. We're here, in Rost and Äloy's house, far away from the darkness back there."

Star smiled at Eule and returned the hug with her own. "Yeah, you're right."

The 2 Replikas remained in that hug for a while, chasing away the darkness with their mutual love and warmth. Then…

"Hey, do you smell something good?" Star asked.

Eule giggled. "You took this long to notice?"

"Well, I was a bit engrossed in burying my face into a certain adorable Eule in front of me."

Eule giggled once more. "Fair enough, but perhaps we can save the cuddling for until we've had breakfast?"

"Very well, my lady. If that if what you wish," said Star, who pushed the fox skin blanket off of both of them, and swung her long, bird-like mechanical legs around, and levered herself up with Eule in her arms before gently setting Eule down on her own mechanical peg-like feet. Eule gave Star one last peck on her cheek before finally facing the waking world.

Said waking world, to Eule's perspective, consisted of the tall and massive frame of Rost standing in front of his usual cauldron over the fireplace just mere centimeters from where Star and Eule had been lying, stirring stew with a long-handled spoon. Eule was actually amazed at that. The Gestalt man had been standing there the entire time, and if he hadn't been cooking his wonderful stew, Eule would've never realized he was even there despite his size. She supposed that was due to his skills as a hunter, since keeping quiet and unnoticed would surely be a valuable skill to one of his profession.

Upon seeing Star and Eule get up though, Rost turned his head towards them. He smiled warmly at them and said "Good morning."

Eule brightened up at how similar it sounded to the equivalent phrase in Eusan Standard Language, and replied with her own "Good morning."

It seemed Rost was also curious about the similarities. He repeated "Gooten morgen?" to himself a few times in a wondering tone before shrugging and returning to stirring his stew.

It was at that point that Äloy climbed down the ladder from the second floor, yawning while doing so. Upon seeing Star and Eule though, she brightened up and waved happily at them, yelling "Morning, Aile! Shtar!" in her usual lack of indoor voice.

Rost chuckled and said something to Äloy. To Eule, it had the tone of a dry admonishment.

"Morning, Rost!" was Äloy's immediate reply.

Eule now had to actively fight the urge to walk over and hug little Äloy. Her being so excited to greet Eule and Star that she forgot to greet her father was just. So. Adorable. It would be so inappropriate to hug a child whose family has only known them for a day, but Eule wanted to do it so badly.

"Heh, cute kid, isn't she?" Star noted.

"You think so too?" Eule asked excitedly.

"Well, that too. But mostly because I could tell you think so just because of how much you're vibrating in place."

Eule immediately realized that she had been rapidly bouncing up and down on her mechanical legs the whole time, and stopped with a blush.

"Aww, and you were so cute bouncing like a Gestalt kid too," Star teased.

Eule's response was to reach up and poke Star in the nose, eliciting yet another adorable squeak from her lover. "Oh, stop it," she said, laughing all the while.

A quick look at Äloy meanwhile revealed that she was also bouncing on the balls of her feet, staring at Eule and Star with an expression that looked simultaneously excited and frustrated. Eule supposed that Äloy still really wanted to talk to them, but alas, the language barrier between them was still getting in the way.

Fortunately, some things manage to bypass said language barrier, as Rost demonstrated when he turned to them and announced something with a smile, pointing at the stew and then giving a thumbs up. Eule could easily tell that meant breakfast was ready.

Once they've all been seated and Rost had dished out their breakfast, Eule dug into her stew. Apparently, Rost used the same bowls as last night. It was something which Eule found slightly unhygienic, but not unhygienic enough to complain about, especially since Rost took care to serve them all the same bowls they ate from last night.

To her surprise, the stew this morning was a bit different from last night's. This one still had pork, rice, and coriander in it. However, this breakfast stew had a small egg on top. Eule had seen Rost crack several of them into the pot shortly before scooping them up into their bowls. The heat of the stew poached the egg, and gave it the most delicate texture Eule had eaten as far as poached eggs went, with the smoked pork lending its flavor to the egg as well.

Not only that, but there were beans in the stew as well. As with the colored rice that was once more at the bottom of the bowl, these beans came in a wild variety of colors, just a bit more subtly. They were overall brown, but some were such a light brown as to be almost sand-colored, while others were of a brown tinged with so much red that it was the color of rust, ironically enough given what Rost's name meant in Eusan Standard Language.

There were even small piles of blueberries on each metal plate. Each one was a burst of fruity sweet in Eule's mouth that was a perfect accompaniment to the stew. Not only that, but for these blueberries to be so fresh with not a store in sight, Eule realized that not only must blueberries be in season right now, but Rost had to have gone to the trouble of going out right at daybreak to pick them for their breakfast. In fact, Eule suddenly realized that the eggs for the stew would also likely have been gathered this morning, likely even from wild bird's nests since Rost didn't have a chicken coop in sight.

Truly, Eule thought Rost would make a great Eule with that kind of dedication to his cooking. However, the thought of Rost wearing a Eule uniform–complete with the white blouse, tight black shorts, and black garrison cap–made Eule start giggling to herself, prompting a raised eyebrow from Rost as well as Star. That eyebrow only raised higher when Eule explained herself to Star, which resulted in Star staring at Rost for all of maybe 3 seconds before she too started cracking up at the image. Rost clearly could tell that he was the butt of some sort of joke, but couldn't decide what it was, and so he shrugged and ignored their laughter. Eule supposed it was a good thing that the language barrier was keeping him from finding out just how silly of a joke he was the butt of.

It was while relaxing with Star after that breakfast, with Rost having cleared the dishes and plates and placed them in the cooking pot after having doused the fireplace, that Eule realized something very important. Nature was calling to her, but she had no idea where Rost's toilet was. She didn't see anything like a bathroom inside the house or outside. There hadn't even been anything like an outhouse when she and Star had been walking to Rost's and Äloy's house. Even worse, she couldn't think of any easy way to ask Rost where his toilet was…if he even had one.

Star quickly noticed Eule's worry. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" she asked.

Eule quickly explained her dilemma, leaving Star with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Oh…yeah, now that you mention it, I do kind of need to use the toilet too. Shit, how do you even ask that here?" Star wondered, scratching her head in thought.

Eule tried to ask Rost where his toilet was, even using synonyms like lavatory in the hopes that it might be close enough to Rost's language for him to get it.

Unfortunately, all she got from Rost was a blank look, along with him asking "Toilet-te? Close-set?" in a confused tone.

It was when Eule was at her wit's end though that a solution came to her. It was a solution that made Eule blush in embarrassment even thinking about it, but she couldn't think of any other way to convey her need to Rost.

Eule got up from her seat, squatted down on the floor, and made a loud groaning sound, followed quickly by getting back up and making a questioning sound at Rost. With Eule blushing deeply the entire time, and a quick peek at Star in between revealing that she too had a blush on her face.

Fortunately, it paid off. Rost's eyes widened and he went "Ohhh" in comprehension. Little Äloy also understood what Eule was doing, and reacted in a manner most appropriate to her age: she fell over giggling, rolling on the floor in laughter at Eule, which only made Eule's blush deepen.

Even more fortunately, Rost did not share in Äloy's amusement. He merely sighed and got up from his seat, walking to the front door and beckoning at Eule to follow, which she did with Star following close behind her. After exiting out the front door, he walked not to the front gate they had all entered through yesterday, but to a side gate.

Once through there, Eule and Star followed Rost as he walked some ways out from his house, but not far enough that his house was no longer visible. There, in a tucked away area in the middle of a small patch of forest with large-leaved bushes around, were a pair of wooden outhouses a short distance away from each other, along with a small open-sided hut nearby where clay containers sat in for some reason. Rost walked to one of the wooden outhouses and opened the door for Eule and Star to peek into, revealing a wooden board on bare ground. He then lifted it, revealing that it was basically a wooden door covering another wooden board with a small hole cut in it and attached by a hinge.

"Huh, a pit latrine?" Star noted. "I can dig it."

Eule could only snort at the pun. If she had a pillow, she would've thrown it at Star's face. As it was, she settled merely for reaching up to playfully poke Star in the cheek.

Rost pointed at the apparent toilet he opened and nodded while smiling and pointing at it. He then pointed to the other toilet, made an exaggerated frown and shook his head.

Eule nodded back, understanding what he was getting at. She had no idea why he wanted her and Star to use that particular toilet instead of the other one. Maybe it was the girls' outhouse, or maybe it was for another reason entirely. She had no idea, but she wasn't going to complain. She was just relieved that there was an actual toilet to use.

Rost nodded in reply to Eule's nod, and then briskly walked off back to his house, satisfied that he made his point across.

Star held her hand out to the outhouse. "After you, my lady."

"Why, thank you, my lady," Eule replied with a smile before entering the outhouse and closing the door.

It then suddenly occurred to Eule that there was no toilet paper anywhere to be seen in the outhouse. Did Rost just expect her to wipe off with a…leaf…it just as suddenly occurred to her that was what those large-leaved bushes are for. Eule went back out (to Star's confusion), pulled several leaves off from the bushes, and then went back in (to Star's comprehension), blushing the whole time.

Eule realized then that this was probably what it meant by "rough living". At least she had it better than Star, who banged her head on the top door frame of the outhouse on her own way in after Eule was finished. Clearly, Rost had not envisioned his outhouse being used by a person well over 2 meters tall.

---

Sometime later, Eule and Star were standing by the edge of a stream with Rost and Äloy. They were both dressed in long hosen made of more animal skins that Rost had insisted they wear for some reason, with Rost hurriedly stitching on an extension made of what looked like squirrel fur to Star's hosen when he saw that they left most of her lower legs uncovered. Rost had even made Eule and Star put on boots made of leather, although getting them to stay on their peg-like feet when said boots had clearly been designed for Gestalt feet had been a challenge. Rost in the end had resorted to stuffing the boots full of fur scraps, and then tying the top of the boots tightly to the Replikas' legs with wire.

Eule found that walking with such a bizarre setup to be…tricky, but Rost had been insistent that they wear the hosen and boots despite how awkward it was to walk in them. Star had theorized that Rost didn't want people to see their legs for some reason, but neither she nor Eule could figure out why. In the end, Eule and Star both agreed to it, but Eule resolved to herself that she would ask Rost about it later.

Thus, the Replikas watched as Rost washed the dishware in the aforementioned stream, starting with the massive pot, which he was scrubbing with what looked like a piece of animal hide covered in coarse bristly hair. Probably one of those wild pigs' hide, judging by the wild pigs Eule had seen run away from them on the way to the stream.

Eule had actually offered once more to help with the dish (and pot) washing, but once more, Rost was having none of it, and gently but firmly refused her help. Rost seemed to at least recognize that Eule wanted to help out though, so he first pointed at his eyes, pointed at Eule and Star, and then pointed at little Äloy, who even as he was gesturing, was already running off.

The message was pretty clear to Eule: "Watch Äloy and make sure she doesn't get into trouble."

Eule smiled and nodded, finally getting to do something useful to help, and ran off after Äloy, only stumbling once in the process as her Replika foot slipped a bit in its Gestalt boot. Star followed close behind, smiling at Eule's energy.

Fortunately, Äloy did eventually slow down to a walk, and ended up walking alongside Eule and Star. The little Gestalt girl spoke in more of her strange language to the Replika couple. Unfortunately, Eule still couldn't understand anything she said aside from the few random words that almost but not quite sounded like Eusan Standard Language. Even with that language barrier in place though, Eule quite enjoyed Äloy's company. She was a cheerful and lively little girl, who clearly loved her father and enjoyed exploring the world around her.

For a moment, Eule could even imagine that she was a teacher taking a child out for a field trip to some Recreation Space in Rotfront, with Star coming along as an officer of the law just to make sure no ruffian interfered with their outing. The thought made Eule smile, both at the situation and at the adorable little Gestalt girl who continued chatting away to her and Star despite clearly making no headway against the language barrier.

Thus, it was a bit of a surprise when Äloy suddenly stopped. Eule looked up from watching Äloy, and she could see why. Up ahead, there were Gestalts. They were composed of a small group of women accompanied by a gaggle of children. All of them were dressed in animal skins and had blue paint in various designs on their faces, just like Rost did. Thus, Eule assumed that they must belong to the same people that Rost and Äloy belonged to.

The Gestalt women and children quickly noticed the trio. Some of the children started running towards them before the women held them back. One of the women, a fairly young-looking Gestalt, then walked towards them, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, until she was right in front of them.

Eule smiled at her and bowed politely in greeting, hoping to appear as friendly and unthreatening as possible. "Hello," she said to the Gestalt woman.

Star also made an effort to appear unthreatening. It was a bit more difficult for her given her 220 cm height, but she did make an effort, smiling politely with her hands behind her back, and also giving a polite bow the same as Eule.

For her part, the Gestalt woman looked from Eule to Star and back again, arms folded and still looking a bit suspicious. However, she had lost some of her somewhat hostile look at seeing Eule and Star behaving so nonthreateningly. She then turned to Eule and asked her something in Rost's language. It started with something that sounded like "Autseider" to Eule, and everything after it was just as incomprehensible.

"I'm sorry. I don't speak your people's language, and neither does Star here," Eule said in reply to the woman's words once she'd finished speaking.

The woman's response was the same blank look Rost had given Eule when she had first attempted to speak to him.

"We're with Rost," Star said. "You know, Rost? Big tall Gestalt with a pig on his shoulder? Rost?"

Fortunately, the woman did seem to widen her eyes in comprehension at the mention of Rost's name. Strangely enough though, it was followed by a scoff from the woman. It sounded like…scorn to Eule? She had no idea why this woman would react to Rost's name with scorn though. She can't imagine Rost doing anything to offend this woman to deserve such a reaction, especially not with the way he treated Äloy with such love.

The situation only became more confusing when the woman finally looked down and saw Äloy, who Eule now saw was looking up expectantly at the woman, with a hopeful smile plastered on her face. To Eule's shock, the woman scoffed at Äloy in a scornful manner as well, and deliberately looked away from Äloy, as though she was pretending that Äloy didn't exist.

Although Eule remained smiling on the outside, on the inside she was furious. Just what could Äloy have possibly done to this woman to deserve this kind of a treatment? Already, the sight of Äloy looking down in disappointment made her biomechanical heart melt, and result in a fresh torrent of anger at this woman for her behavior.

Another Gestalt woman, this one even younger than the first, came up to the first Gestalt woman and asked her something that included that word "Autseider". The first woman shook her head and huffed, before saying something to the younger woman to make her look at Eule and Star quizzically and then walk back to their group. The first woman followed after her, occasionally stopping to look back at Eule and Star, before they returned to their group and continued what they were doing before.

Which as it turned out, was picking blueberries. Eule watched as the women picked large, luscious-looking blueberries from enormous clusters growing on just as lush-looking bushes, and put them into wicker baskets. At the same time, the women were patiently and calmly speaking to the children, who would then gather the same blueberries to present to the women. The women then spoke in proud, congratulatory tones to the children, and let them put the blueberries into the basket before said children happily ran off to gather more.

It was transparently clear to Eule that the women were teaching their children about which fruits and plants were safe to gather from. Eule wouldn't have minded sitting in on the lesson to learn that herself, if she could've understood the lesson. And if she could've stood learning from women who reacted to Rost and Äloy like that.

Star leaned in close to Eule. "Okay, is it just me, or was that a weird reaction to hearing Rost's name?" she asked quietly.

"It's not just you," Eule replied just as quietly. "And the fact that she had that same reaction to Äloy? I don't like it. There's something strange going on here. What could Äloy have possibly done to deserve that?"

"Nothing that seems even remotely reasonable to me that I can imagine, that's for certain," Star said firmly.

"Agreed," Eule replied with a nod. "It's all the more reason to learn Rost's people's language and–wait. Where's Äloy?"

Eule looked around for the little flame-haired Gestalt girl, along with Star who was slowly scanning the area for the same. They'd barely gotten started though when said little flame-haired Gestalt girl came running back to them. Äloy then held up her hands at both Eule and Star. There, contained in tiny hands, was a double handful of blueberries, which when compared to Äloy's hands, made them look utterly massive.

"I suppose she really wanted to pick some blueberries," Eule noted to Star with a smile.

"Seems so. Too bad she only has 2 hands. She probably would've picked the whole bush clean with that amount of dedication," Star noted back with a slight smile of her own.

Eule giggled before turning back to Äloy and saying cheerfully: "Good job, Äloy!" She knew Äloy didn't understand her, but she wanted Äloy to know that she appreciated her work.

Äloy however kept holding up the blueberries to Eule, then Star, and then back again. All while making an insistent face, and sounds to go with it.

Eule's smile became even wider when she realized what Äloy wanted from them. "Star, she really wants us to try one," she said with a happy squeal.

Star smiled as well. Both at the sheer joy on her lover's face and the insistent determination on Äloy's face. "Well then, let's not keep the little lady waiting," she said with her own smile plastered on her polyethylene face.

Almost as one, Eule and Star each took a blueberry from the pile lying in Äloy's hands, and after a pause, popped it into each other's mouths.

Immediately, Eule tasted the same sweetness from this morning's blueberry breakfast. It was completely sweet, with not a hint of tartness to mar that sweetness. It was the kind of sweetness that could not be obtained by the usual State grocery store tactic of artificially ripening green blueberries at the store for mass consumption. It was the kind of sweetness that could only be possible with blueberries left to ripen on the vine, er, bush in the light and warmth of the sun. It was the kind of sweetness that, once more, caused Eule to make appreciative sounds in between her savoring the taste of the delicious fruit.

"Good!" Eule said to Äloy with a big, carbon steel teeth-exposing smile. "This good!"

Star snorted at the ridiculously simplified words before smiling at Äloy and patting her head affectionately, saying: "Yes. Good. Very good, kid."

Äloy returned the smiles with a smile of her own and a giggling laugh of pure, unadulterated joy before running off. Eule stared after Äloy with a longing look.

"Heh, you really want to hug Äloy, don't you?" Star teased.

Eule looked at her lover in shock. "How did you know? Did you secretly get a Bioresonance module installed when I wasn't looking?" Eule asked, gaping at Star.

Star burst out in laughter, making Eule give her an annoyed look, before explaining: "You were making this little squeal from the back of your throat as you were staring at the kid." Seeing Eule's blushing face, Star continued: "You were so cute. You sounded like a little dog begging to be petted-"

Star was cut off by a Eule's robotic finger poking into her cheek. Repeatedly.

"Oh, you naughty girl, you!" Eule squeaked as she launching a pokey assault at Star's cheek, all while blushing.

"Okay, stop! Stop!" Star laughed, as she valiantly fended off her lover's offensive. It was when Eule finally relented and Star had a chance to think that Eule saw a look of realization dawn on her face. "Huh, this could work."

Eule cocked her head at Star and gave her a quizzical look, accompanied by a sound that was just as quizzical.

"I mean for how we can repay Rost for the breakfast. He's got an empty sack, and we've got some time on our hands. So let's go blueberry picking," Star said with a grin.

Eule clapped her hands enthusiastically. "I like the sound of that idea," Eule happily declared.

Star planted a kiss on Eule's lips. "Wait here, love. I'm going to ask Rost for that sack. Be right back, and stop Äloy if she tries to eat it all," said Star as she bounded off, only stumbling once, no wait, twice before Star was out of sight.

Eule laughed at Star's enthusiasm and energy before turning back to look at Äloy, only to get an eyeful of a strange sight.

Äloy was holding up her double handful of blueberries again, with seemingly even more of the fruits stacked onto the pile. Only, she was holding them up to the first Gestalt woman from before. The woman's response to that display of helpfulness appears to be to lead her group of children away from Äloy. Even when a small blonde Gestalt boy was looking quizzically at Äloy, the woman quickly ran over, took him by the shoulder, and led him away as though Äloy was cursed.

Eule had no idea what was happening, but her confusion was rapidly turning into righteous fury. Why were they all treating little Äloy like this? What could this sweet little Gestalt girl have done to deserve this kind of shunning? Especially when she was doing her best to help?

Before she could lead Äloy away from this horrible woman though, she watched as Äloy threw her blueberries down onto the ground, then turned and started running.

"Äloy? Äloy!" Eule shouted, running after her. She stumbled a few times from the awkward footing thanks to her boots, but her much-longer-than-child's-leg-length and double-jointed legs ensured that she was able to catch up with the little Gestalt girl's much shorter stride. "Äloy!" she shouted once more.

"Go 'way!" Äloy shouted back.

"Äloy! Stop! It's okay! Just stop and let's calm down, okay?!" Eule replied, with Aloy almost within reach.

Äloy half-turned her head to further shout: "I said 'go 'way'!". Eule was close enough to Äloy that she can now see the tears in the little Gestalt girl's eyes, and she vowed to herself that she would make up for everything that horrible Gestalt woman had done to Äloy.

Unfortunately, Eule was also close enough to clearly see the exact moment when Äloy stumbled and tripped. She was also close enough to see that Äloy was right on the edge of what looked like a large sinkhole, and she watched in horror as Äloy tripped in its exact direction.

"Äloy!" Eule screamed as she briefly bunched her legs together before springing forth and grabbing Äloy into a tight hug.

Replika and little Gestalt girl briefly rolled across grassy earth and rock, with Eule doing her best to shield Äloy from the impacts, before tumbling into the stygian abyss.

'I'm sorry, Star,' Eule mentally apologized to her lover as she braced for impact.

---

Eule felt the shock of hitting cold water first before hitting more rock and earth. Thankfully, the water acted as a cushion, keeping her and Äloy from being seriously injured by the fall, and thus she quickly levered herself up, still tightly holding little Äloy in her robotic arms.

Thankfully, the water appeared to only go up to her lower knee even at its deepest and had been as still as a pane of glass before she and Äloy fell into it, so it didn't seem like they were in any immediate danger of drowning. Unfortunately, Eule and Äloy then looked up and saw only a shaft of sunlight coming from the small hole far above where they'd dropped in, with absolutely no way to climb back up.

"Rost! Down here! Rost!" Äloy yelled at the top of her little lungs.

"Star! Star, I'm down here! Help! Star!" Eule yelled at the same time, hoping their combined efforts would yield help.

Alas, no matter how loudly they yelled, there was no reply. Their voices eventually trailed off, leaving only the echoes of their voices resounding around them, as though mocking them for their efforts.

Eule sighed in defeat before looking around further. She and Äloy seemed to have fallen into some kind of cavern, likely only exposed with the formation of that sinkhole they fell through. The water they were standing in was coated in the tiny green nubs of duckweed, with fronds of some larger pondweed visible in between and below the duckweed, indicating that the sinkhole likely formed a decent time ago for this much aquatic vegetation to be present.

The pond was surrounded by patches of mossy earth, fed by the same waters that gave life to the duckweed and pondweed. Beyond that though was solid rock. Spear-like stalagmites rose upward from the rock, reaching towards needle-like stalactites that were themselves coming down to meet them. Even further beyond that though was a passageway that seemed to lead deeper into the cavern.

Eule walked towards the passageway, but didn't enter it. Instead, she gently set Äloy down on solid and mostly dry rock and examined her for injuries. To her relief, the little Gestalt girl had none. Eule had shielded her well. She had been a good Eule.

Äloy though started sniffling and crying. She started saying that same thing she'd been saying to Eule and Star last night when they'd been…competing with each other to see who deserved more blame, Eule thought depressingly. That words Äloy were using though…its meaning was obvious to Eule now due to the context. It had to have been her language's way of saying "I'm sorry".

"It's okay, Äloy. It's okay," Eule said to Äloy, using her calmest tones and gently shushing Äloy in between words. "We'll be okay. We'll get out this, I swear. Truly, I swear on the Red Eye that we will get back to Rost and Star. So let's stay calm and get through this, okay?"

Äloy eventually stopped crying as the calmness of Eule's words finally reached her. Eule was glad when Äloy ceased her tears, mildly perturbed but indulgently accepting when Äloy blew her nose on her blue scarf, and then puzzled when Äloy reached out a little hand and brushed Eule's cheek. Eule's confusion quickly to alarm when Äloy's fingers came back covered in red. Äloy looked worriedly at the red fluid on her fingers, and then started to reach up to her partially open mouth–

Before Eule reached out and gently but firmly took hold of Äloy's arm. "No," Eule said, shaking her head for emphasis before gently but firmly leading Äloy to the pond to wash the red off. Eule had no idea what sort of microorganisms lived in that pond water, but she was certain that they'd be less toxic than her blood-like oxidant to Äloy and all other Gestalts.

As Eule swished Äloy's hand in the water, washing away the oxidant into the pond, Eule took the opportunity to examine her reflection in the water. The source of the leaking oxidant turned out to be a cut on her cheek. The amount of oxidant leaking out was tiny though, due to the cut itself being just as tiny. Eule was sure she didn't even need to apply a repair patch to it. In fact, the cut had already ceased bleeding and looked to be coagulating nicely.

Once Eule was sure that there wasn't so much as a fleck of oxidant remaining on Äloy's fingers, she finally let go of Äloy's hand. Äloy wiped said hand on her…blouse, still looking worriedly at the cut on Eule's cheek.

"I'm fine, really," Eule said in the same calming tone as before, which seemed to assuage Äloy for now.

As if they were of the same mind, both Eule and Äloy stood up and turned to look at the passageway behind them. Unfortunately, there was no other way out aside from that passageway. There was a hint of light coming from it, but otherwise, it was as dark as an unlit corridor of S-23 Sierpinski.

The reminder made a chill come down Eule's carbon steel spine, her polyethylene skin crawl, and her breath come in ever-quicker pants as she remembered darkened mining tunnels from which sprung twisted, bloodthirsty monsters which used to be her sisters, friends, and coworkers. Then a small warm hand took hold of Eule's, and she looked down at Äloy's tiny face. Äloy said something to her along with "Aile", but Eule wasn't paying attention to the words she still didn't understand. Instead, she listened to Äloy using a calm, stable tone: the same tone Eule herself had been using on Äloy mere moments ago.

Eule smiled warmly at Äloy, embracing her for several moments before letting go, feeling much calmer now. "Thank you, Äloy," Eule said.

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. "Dan-ke?" she asked.

Eule nodded with a smile. "Yes. Thank you."

Äloy returned the smile with a bright smile of her own. "Danke," she said with a giggle before continuing: "Thank you. Danke. Thank you."

Eule smiled back even more warmly at having learned one more word of Äloy and Rost's language before taking a deep breath and exhaling, her spirits restored and fortified now.

"Äloy," Eule said, gaining the little Gestalt girl's attention. "I will protect you. I failed Star before but…I won't fail you now. This I swear to the Red Eye."

Eule was sure Äloy had no idea what she said just now, but even so, Äloy nodded solemnly.

With that said, it was time to prepare.

Eule undid the latch on her holster, and pulled out her Type-75 "Protektor" pistol. She pulled back on the slide slightly to check the chamber, and nodded at the bullet still chambered in there since yesterday before letting the slide go back into firing position. Star had drilled it into her that even if she was absolutely sure that the weapon was empty or full, that she should always check the chamber regardless. It was just a good gun safety rule.

Eule then depressed the magazine release with her thumb, and examined the popped out magazine. It was full this time. Before setting out, Eule had taken a single 10x20mm bullet from one of her remaining boxes of ammo, and placed it into the magazine to bring it back up to 10 rounds. Satisfied that this was indeed still the case, Eule inserted it back into the pistol and flicked the safety off. Now her pistol was ready.

Next, Eule turned on her mapping module overlay to make sure her RKM-7 Spatial Navigation Module, or simply the "mapping module" as she and the other Eules called it, was functioning correctly. A transparent 2D map of the area around them instantly appeared across her vision. Only parts of the cavern around her was mapped though, with Eule needing to physically explore the area to map it out. Still, she had a feeling her mapping module was going to be extremely handy here for exploring this place. She felt a pang of sympathy for her sister EULR-S2303 "März" and her defective mapping module. The poor woman never did get her mapping module repaired before everything happened. She had to run with Eule and everyone else into the mines without any real idea where she'd been or where she was going–

Eule dragged März to where the floodlight's beam lit up the dark just a bit, trying to tell her everything will be okay. März's mouth moved, clearly trying to form the words "I'm sorry", but unable to say anything past the oxidant welling up from internal injuries inflicted by those monofilament wire traps and choking her–

Eule shuddered and shook her head, dismissing her mapping module overlay in the process. She couldn't afford to get lost in dark memories now. Not when Äloy needed her.

After that, Eule took off the boots Rost made her wear, and placed them neatly together on dry ground, taking the strings tying them to her leg and the squirrel skins stuffed in them and stuffing them in with her ammo box pouches. She had nowhere to put the boots, and it would be a violation of the Rule of Six even if she had found a way to carry them. She hoped Rost would forgive her for leaving these boots behind, and promised herself to come back for them later…when she and Äloy found a way out of this cavern.

Finally, Eule gently took Äloy by the hand, and pulled the little Gestalt girl behind her before beckoning to her to follow, hoping that Äloy understood her message that she should follow closely behind Eule.

Äloy nodded, to which Eule nodded back before finally stepping into the passageway with Äloy right behind her, and her pistol pointed at the ground, finger off the trigger…for now.

Eule didn't get more than a few steps into the passageway before seeing a shaft of light. It was a bit wan, but it was large, suggesting that there might be daylight just ahead. Thus, she continued forward into the light–

And was immediately greeted by small flying shapes swarming into her. Eule immediately brought her pistol up, but she didn't fire, and she wasn't quite sure why at first. It suddenly became clear why: the flying things weren't attacking her. They were trying to get away from her, and were all expertly avoiding her.

Well, all save for a single small shape that landed with a miniscule thump onto her white-gloved robotic arm. Eule peered closely at it.

It was a small furry creature, even smaller than her hand. Its entire body was covered in thick brown fuzz, and it seemed to have large black wings for arms. The little creature peered up at her with little black eyes framed by large black ears, staring inquisitively at her and making little adorable squeaks at her that melted her biomechanical heart.

Eule instantly thanked the Red Eye that she didn't open fire. She had no idea what it was. It looked like a small, winged mouse. However, the thought of harming even a single brown fuzz on this cute little guy's body felt like a war crime to her. Judging by Äloy's entranced stare, she clearly thought so too.

The little winged mouse stared at Eule for a few more moments before it launched itself up and away, following after its flock.

Eule and Äloy looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously giggling. With that small obstacle out the way, Eule and Äloy then continued to press onward.

The passageway sloped sharply upward, but Eule's foot pads and Äloy's nearly-bare feet were up to the task of gripping the surface. Even the passageway turning a bit small at one point was solved merely by the both of them merely crouching. It was when Eule emerged from the narrow portion of the passageway with Äloy though that she suddenly stopped at the sight before her.

There, just ahead, were things that were very clearly guardrails.

Stepping forward towards the guardrails, Eule suddenly heard the sound of her footsteps change in timbre. From the thunks of foot pad on stone, to the metallic clangs that were now emanating from every step her feet took. The realization that she was stepping on metal flooring told her that this was clearly some sort of constructed facility even before she looked over the guardrails.

Before her laid some sort of room that had clearly seen better days. Likely even better years judging by the vegetation and stalagmites, but it was very clearly artificial. The massive…pipe/vent thing on the room's right told her that, even without taking into account the ruined machinery littered around the room, encrusted with so much stone from dripping water that they almost, but not quite, looked like parts of the cavern.

Äloy said something, causing Eule to look down at her face blankly. Äloy looked thoughtful for a moment before spreading her arms wide and saying: "Metal World."

"Metall…Vald?" Eule tried to say. The first word sounded almost exactly like Eusan Standard Language for "metal", and given the metal flooring and other metal things around the world, she was fairly certain that the 2 words meant the same thing. She had no idea what "Vald" meant thought. Maybe…world? It sounded somewhat similar to "world", but with a "v" sound instead of a "w" sound, among other small differences. Still, "Metal World" seemed apt for this facility, and so that's what Eule went with, and so she nodded at Äloy before continuing her examination of the room.

Scanning the Metal World room, Eule quickly noticed the door on the left side of the room. The door was just as metal as the rest of the room, and seemed to resemble a sliding bunker door. It was also half open, which led Eule to ask herself why no one had closed it. Still, it seemed to be the only way through this place, so Eule got Äloy's attention and pointed at that door. Äloy nodded, and together, they walked down a small flight of stairs and entered that door, Eule in front of Äloy and holding her pistol at the ready.

Inside was another Metal World room filled with more ruined machinery and another bunker door. Rats crawled across the floor as they walked, making Äloy wrinkle her face in disgust at them. Eule wasn't exactly a big fan of rats either, since rats were unfortunately one of the animals that survived the mass extinctions that'd gripped Vineta even before its devastation during the Revolution, and spread with humanity across their worlds, leaving them free to infest stored foodstuffs and spread diseases the same way they had since the dawn of history. Thus, Eule and Äloy briskly crossed the room, neatly avoiding stepping on any of the squeaking vermin.

Through this door was another room, and a flight of stairs lit by daylight and leading upwards. Eule and Äloy climbed up the stairs, which turned into another flight of stairs. The sound of their footsteps panicked another flock of those winged mice, which Eule ignored along with Äloy now that they knew what they were. Through abandoned metal corridors and another door, the duo walked until they came across a room in which sunlight streamed down on–

"A body?" Eule said in shock as she took in the sight before her.

It was indeed a corpse. A long-dead one, judging by how skeletal the remains were. The body was lying on its back, and its right hand was half-stretched towards the ceiling, as though grasping for salvation that had clearly never come. It was dressed in the remains of a shirt and pants and had a flat chest, so Eule guessed that it was a man. The lack of mechanical limbs and the decidedly nonmetal bones and teeth indicated that it was the body of a Gestalt man. Beyond that, Eule couldn't even guess at its identity.

Fortunately, the sickness that had gripped S-23 Sierpinski had granted the Gestalt prisoner-workers death instead of the fate that had befell the Replika infected. Thus, Eule had nothing to fear from this corpse.

Eule was about to tell Äloy to move on when Äloy crouched down next to the corpse's head. Eule started to tell Äloy to get away from there when she suddenly noticed light glinting off of something on the side of said corpse's head. Curious now, Eule crouched down herself to get a better look.

It was the strangest thing Eule had ever seen. It appeared to be a sleek triangle made of some silvery white metal, smaller than even the shrunken remains of the corpse's ears. Even stranger, there was a white glowing line running partway down the triangle. As if that wasn't enough, the line was…flashing? Was it a trick of Eule's eyes? No, it was indeed flashing, clearly indicating that it was being actively powered by a power source within.

Eule wondered how? Especially given the ruined state of this Metal World facility. Was there some kind of miniature nuclear reactor within that triangle powering it? The thought was absurd, but then again, so was the fact that this…device had active power running through it after obviously sitting here for the Red Eye knew how long.

Eule was so busy pondering the mystery of the device that she only noticed that Äloy was reaching for it when she snatched it off the corpse's head.

"Äloy," Eule said in a warning tone. If this device was indeed powered by a miniature nuclear reactor of some kind, then it could potentially be very, very, VERY dangerous.

Äloy didn't notice though as she turned the device around in her hands, examining every angle of it. Eule saw that the flip side of the device wasn't a solid silvery white like its "front", but rather, it was black-rimmed with a solid black line running through the middle, effectively bisecting it into 2 triangles. Within each smaller triangle, a latticework of black lines further divided them into even smaller triangles, forming a peculiar hexagonal pattern within each smaller triangle. For what reason, Eule couldn't even begin to fathom.

Äloy started to reach up to her own right temple, device in hand and apparently about to put it in the same place where it had been attached to the corpse. Eule quickly grabbed Äloy's arm in an effort to keep her from doing so, saying "No" to her as she gently but firmly clamped her robotic hand onto Äloy's wrist.

Äloy was so shocked by the action that she immediately let go of the metal triangle. Eule watched in just as much shock as the triangle, instead of falling to the ground, suddenly flew onto Äloy's temple just in front of her ear, and latched on like some kind of parasite.

At first, Äloy looked just as shocked as Eule felt. Then, Eule watched as the shock on Äloy's face turned to wonder and awe. Eule was confused at this. To her, nothing seemed to have happened when that metal triangle latched onto Äloy's temple. Yet Äloy was clearly looking at something, her head rapidly moving about and her eyes tracking things that Eule could definitely not see.

"Äloy, are you okay?" Eule asked, pointing at Äloy and asking that question with a thumbs up and a questioning tone.

Äloy stopped her looking around to look at Eule. The little Gestalt girl gave a smile and her own thumbs up, only to suddenly look puzzled. Äloy said a strange word, but in a questioning tone, as though she was asking Eule what it meant. Eule had no idea what the word meant herself. The best she could describe was that it sounded like "autotranslät" to her, followed by more words.

"Äloy? Are you sure you're okay?" Eule asked once more, repeating her earlier actions alongside the question.

Äloy didn't reply at first. Instead, she stared at Eule with an expression that looked both surprised and quizzical. "Aile? Can you say that again? Again? Mmm, repeat? Argh, how do I tell you to say what you just said again?"

"I said 'Äloy? Are you sure you're okay?' How do you say something like that in–"

Eule's words suddenly crashed to a halt as her brain began to process what just happened. Both Eule and Äloy stared at each other in shock for several moments.

"Äloy, did you just speak?" Eule asked.

"Aile, did you just talk normal?" Äloy asked at the exact same time.

More silence filled the air between them for a few moments more, before the silence was instantly replaced by sounds of laughter.

"Äloy! You can speak? How? You couldn't speak just a moment ago, and now you suddenly can? How?!" Eule asked excitedly.

"I don't know, Aile! I just saw these words that said 'Auto-translate in progress', and then suddenly I can understand you! I mean, you're still talking funny, but I can understand you and these words are appearing on the bottom and they look like what you're saying!" Äloy replied, bouncing in equal excitement.

"Okay wait, Äloy, slow down. 'Auto-translate'? That…thing is translating for you? How?" Eule asked in complete bewilderment.

Now that Äloy has pointed it out to her, Eule suddenly realized that Äloy wasn't actually speaking her language. She was still speaking her strange language, but…it was as though there was another louder version of her voice overlaid on top of her normal voice. It sounded exactly the same as Äloy's normal voice, but it wasn't coming from her mouth. Rather, it was…coming from the device on Äloy's temple.

Eule had no idea how it was possible for something smaller than her own polyethylene-scaled ear to perform translation work that would require an entire cadre of Eules taking months, if not years, to perform; but it was clearly doing it. And frankly, it was less fantastical than the Machines, in Eule's opinion.

And apparently, Äloy had even less of an idea than Eule did, for her reply to Eule's question was to shrug and say: "I don't know. Metal World magic?"

Eule started to say that there's no such thing as magic, but then she remembered how she had no idea how she and Star ended up in this world. For all she knew, there was magic here.

Thus, Eule sighed and replied with a simple: "Maybe."

Äloy looked thoughtful for a moment before she suddenly had a look of realization on her face. She pulled off the triangular device from her temple and asked Eule something…except now it was back to her strange language, with none of that translated speech overlaid onto her voice.

Thus, Eule stared blankly at a confused Äloy and said: "I'm sorry, I can't understand you."

Äloy blinked in bewilderment before putting the device back on her temple and asking: "Can you understand me now?"

Eule tilted her head at Äloy. "Huh, so that 'auto-translate' function only works when you're wearing it?"

Äloy bobbed her head quickly, before saying: "Oh, I was going to get you to put this Metal World device on too, so that you can see what I'm seeing."

Eule looked in surprise, pointed at herself, and asked in just as much surprise. "Me?!"

Äloy practically looked like she was vibrating her head at the rate she was nodding. "Yeah!"

"You don't feel…weird with that thing on you?" Eule asked in concern. Her previous musings about this device being powered by a miniature nuclear reactor were still dancing in her head.

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. "No? What do you mean by weird?"

Eule looked thoughtful as she recalled the symptoms of radiation poisoning. First, she looked over Aloy's temple where the device was still attached to. There was no skin reddening there, so that was good.

Next, Eule asked: "Do you feel any nausea, headaches, or fatigue?"

Äloy tilted her head the other way at Eule. "Nooo."

Finally, Eule reached over and touched Äloy's forehead, eliciting a squeak from the little Gestalt girl as Eule tried to feel if Äloy had a fever. Her thermometric sensors on her hand indicated a temperature well within the normal range for a healthy Gestalt. No indication of a fever in the slightest.

Eule breathed a sigh of relief. If there was indeed a miniature nuclear reactor in that device, it was incredibly well-shielded. Or she was entirely wrong about its power source. Either way, it looked like it was perfectly safe to Äloy, so it should be even safer for Eule to wear.

Äloy looked expectantly at Eule. "So are you going to put on this Metal World device? Please?"

Eule stared at the puppy dog look Äloy was giving her, and her biomechanical heart melted. Seeing how it seemed to be not harming Äloy in the slightest, Eule relented and held out her free left hand.

An excited Äloy happily pulled off the device, and placed it into Eule's white-gloved hand.

Eule felt the device for a bit, feeling both sides of it. The silvery-white metal side turned out to have a textured surface, while the side with the black latticework on it felt perfectly smooth in a strange contrast to their appearances. Eule sighed, took a deep breath, held it close to her own right temple, and let go.

Instantly, the device flew into her temple and latched on, just as it did for Äloy. Eule heard a strange high-pitched whirring sound come from the device, and then her eyes widened, first in shock, and then in just as much awe as Äloy must've felt as Eule tried to process what she was seeing.

All around Eule were lights. A web of faintly glowing lines surrounded herself in an orb shape, composed of interlocking triangles that mimicked the shape of the device. At the same time, there was now some sort of…reticule in the center of her vision. It was shaped like a hexagon with a circle set just within it, and a tiny square right in the very center of the circle. On the side and below the tiny circle were just as tiny diamonds, with more the tiny diamonds extending outside the hexagon. Eule was certain Star would have a better idea of what the reticule's design was for, but for now, she was just marveling at it.

Eule stood up and moved her head around, and discovered that the reticule moved with her field of vision, always staying unwaveringly in the center of her field of vision. It was while doing this that Eule noticed that something had changed greatly about her surroundings. All around her, the ruined machinery seemed to have sprung to life. Glowing lines and shapes dotted the rusted and mineral-covered metal. Flat things, both square-shaped and rectangular, on top of tables now had glowing screens on them, making Eule realize in shock that they were visual display units for computers, but far thinner than anything she'd ever used in S-23 Sierpinski, or really anywhere else in the Eusan Nation. In some cases, the displays even appeared to be being projected from tiny devices, as though they were slide projectors that were somehow projecting onto thin air. She couldn't make out anything on the displays from this distance, but there was no doubt that's what they were.

"Aile, Aile!" Eule heard Äloy shout excitedly from outside her field of vision, followed by…her strange language in a completely untranslated state?

Eule turned to look at Äloy with a quizzical expression, which turned only more quizzical when she looked directly at the little Gestalt girl.

The reason for her confusion was when the reticule in the center of her vision rested on Äloy, the circle within the hexagonal reticule started to fill up with green. It took a second for the circle to turn completely green, but when it did, a small box suddenly popped up next to Äloy. There were 2 words in the box but…Eule couldn't understand any of them. The words looked as if they were spelled using Eusan Standard Language alphabet, but the words they spelled didn't sound like any word she knew. The top word spelled out "Human" and the bottom word spelled out "Aloy", but Eules had no idea what they could possibly mean. Eule thought the bottom word sounded a lot like Äloy's name, but in that case, there should be an umlaut over the "A" to change the sound to…

It suddenly occurred to Eule that this might actually be how Äloy's name might be spelled in her language. Why it was missing the umlaut was something Eule didn't understand, but even knowing how it was supposed to be spelled (assuming that this is indeed the case), she couldn't un-see the umlaut that's supposed to be there. Thus, she continued mentally imagining Aloy's name as "Äloy".

Regardless though, whatever this device was, for some bizarre reason it hadn't translated any of Äloy's words. Äloy was continuing to talk, but all Eule could hear was that strange language that she still couldn't understand more than a few words of.

"Äloy, can you understand me?" Eule asked hopefully. "This device isn't translating for some reason, and I don't know why…"

Eule's words trailed off as more strange words suddenly appeared in the top of her vision. Barely a second passed by before the strange words suddenly morphed into Eusan Standard Language. The words now read: "Language setting auto-adjusted".

Even more importantly: Äloy'a words suddenly were understandable to her, with that same slightly louder version of her voice overlaid on top of her normal voice. Only this time, it wasn't coming from Äloy's device. Instead, it was coming from right beside her own right ear. The device indeed was auto-translating every one of Äloy's words now, and it seemed to automatically adjust itself to the user's language when the user speaks.

Not only that, but as Äloy spoke, words in white scrolled across the bottom of her vision, with each white word matching up with what Äloy is saying. Subtitles. They had to be subtitles…generated in real time.

Eule couldn't help but marvel at this device's functions. She couldn't even guess as to how it could possibly recognize the language she was speaking based only on a few spoken words. It was…almost like magic to her, even though she knew that couldn't possibly be the case. Maybe.

So absorbed was Eule in marveling at the device and guessing at how it operated though that she was only jolted back into reality when a pair of small hands tugged at her sleeve.

"Hey, Aile! Are you listening? Are you okay?" Äloy asked in a curious mixture of impatience and concern. As if Äloy was simultaneously annoyed at Eule for ignoring her while also worried that Eule might be unwell. It was the most adorable combination of emotions Eule had ever encountered from…anyone. Let alone this cute little Gestalt girl.

"Yes, I am now," Eule replied, speaking gently to reassure her. "It seems that this device will only…change to its user's language once it hears the user speaks a few words."

Äloy began hopping up and down in excitement, continuing to make Eule's biomechanical heart melt from the cuteness overload, as Äloy asked: "Then do you see? Do you see the lights everywhere? Aren't they pretty?"

Eule couldn't help but smile as she replied: "Yes, I do. I'm not sure I understand what most of these lights mean, but I do see them, and they are very pretty."

Äloy cheered, and began hopping in place once more, before suddenly stopping, looking around, and then finally looking up at Eule to ask: "Umm, Aile? I saw something earlier I wanted to look at, but I can't see the lights anymore. They disappeared when I took the device off to give it to you. So um…can I have it back? Please?"

Eule nodded happily. "Of course, Äloy. It was practically your device in the first place, since you were the one who…picked it up. So here you go," Eule finished before pulling the device off with very little effort, she noted, and handed it back to Äloy.

The moment Äloy put it back on, she looked around and then looked annoyed. She spoke several words in her language before she suddenly became understandable to Eule, clearly remembering what Eule had told her about the device's language functions. Äloy then looked around some more before she apparently spotted what she was looking for.

"Come on, Aile. This way," Äloy said with a beckoning hand before running off deeper into the room…only to suddenly run back as if she had forgotten something. That something turned out to be Eule herself as Äloy took her by her free hand, still happily saying "Come on!"

Eule smiled and laughed as the cheerful young Gestalt girl led her away, leaving the corpse still lying in that shaft of bright sunlight behind like a forgotten dream.

Äloy led Eule up a very short flight of stairs to yet another metal door. Unlike the previous doors though, this one was firmly shut. Eule couldn't see any way to open the door. There was no handle, no latch, no anything that she could see that could possible operate the door. There was just a seam down the middle that she couldn't possibly fit her mechanical fingers through to pull them open.

And yet, Äloy was staring intently at the middle of the door, right at the seam. She must be looking at something invisible to Eule. Something that required that device to see, just like those lights on the machinery.

Suddenly, Äloy darted away back the way they came, stopping only to take Eule by the hand once more to lead her, which Eule happily allowed. Eule initially thought Äloy was leading her back into the room, but instead, she veered off to the left to a side door Eule hadn't noticed on the way up. This side door led to yet another room with yet more mysterious machinery in it that looked a bit more…intact than the ones in the main room.

Still, Eule watched as Äloy stared at said machinery before she started doing…something with them.

"Äloy? What are you doing?" Eule asked in a puzzled tone as Äloy appeared to be trying to…turn something invisible on a bit of machinery set into the wall. Right next to it was apparently the remains of a window long overgrown with plants and mineral formations, through which she could see the still-locked door.

"Oh, that device over there is saying that I have to do this to open the door," Äloy explained, absorbed in her turning and completely unaware of how confused Eule still was in spite of that explanation.

If anything, Eule had even more questions, but right now, getting out of this place took top priority. Thus, she left Äloy to her work and hoped the little Gestalt girl knew what she was doing.

As Äloy manipulated whatever she was manipulating on the machinery in front of her though, Eule's biomechanical ears could make out a faint whirring sound coming from said machinery, clearly indicating that Äloy was moving something around in there. Then suddenly, the machinery made a high pitched whine followed by a thunk. Immediately afterwards, a thrumming sound, building in pitch, echoed through the entire room. Eule had heard a sound like this before, when her friend Ara Elf had let Eule watch her repair a malfunctioning door. When her mischievous Ara friend had finally fixed it and, with a dramatic flourish, restored power to it, the sound of electricity flowing back into the door had made a similar sound to this one, filling Eule with hope that drowned out the depression from the sudden remembrance that Ara Elf was very likely dead or worse.

The sight of Äloy spinning around and grinning at Eule further dispelled the depression.

"It changed color!" Äloy said happily in her characteristic lack of an indoor voice. She then had a look of realization on her face that Eule couldn't see what she was seeing before continuing: "There was a blue circle on this device, but now it's green! The door changed color too! There was a red circle on the door, but now it's blue! Well, mostly blue. There's still a bit of red on it, but it's different now! Come on, let's go check!"

Taking Eule by the hand once more, Äloy led her back to the door. Once more, the door looked exactly the same as it did before to Eule. Äloy though could definitely see that blue circle she mentioned before in the middle of the door. It was the only explanation Eule could come up with for as to why when Äloy made a turning motion with her hand in the middle of said door, the 2 halves of the door slid open with a mechanical hiss.

Äloy turned back to look at Eule with an expectant look. Eule herself was grinning back at her. "You did it, Äloy!" Eule said with a cheer and a hug for Äloy.

Äloy looked adorably smug as she accepted the praise and returned the hug before leading Eule onwards deeper into the Metal World.

"Deeper" became quite apt as their path went down a flight of stairs instead of upwards, making Eule's spirits take a similar dip at the thought of going deeper underground instead of upwards to the surface. The warmth of Äloy's hand and the determination of her stride though made the dip a temporary thing. For a moment, Eule felt like she was the child being led here, and she had never had a childhood. Like all other Replikas, she woke up a fully functioning adult in her factory, thus she found the idea of being treated as a child ironically amusing.

That amusement suddenly crashed to a halt as she and Äloy stepped into another room, and was confronted with yet another body.

This body was lying on its side, facing away from Eule and Äloy. The shirt and hose the corpse was wearing suggested that it was just as male as the previous one, and like the previous corpse, this one also wore another example of that strange triangular metal device on its right temple.

Äloy was staring at that very triangular device, just as Eule was. As leery Eule was of basically robbing a corpse, she felt she would be of severely limited help without a triangular device of her own.

As Eule was about to make up her mind about taking it though, Äloy suddenly stepped back.

"Äloy?" Eule asked, suddenly alarmed. "What's wrong?"

But Äloy didn't answer. Instead, she seemed to be staring at an area just above the corpse. Äloy then suddenly looked back where they'd come from, causing Eule to also look back, aiming her pistol behind them. There was nothing there though, and as Eule looked back at Äloy, she could see that the little Gestalt girl's attention was once more focused on the air above the corpse.

Eule was puzzled at the expressions manifesting on Äloy's face. At first, Äloy looked just as confused as Eule was. Then slowly, Äloy's expression turned to wonder, and then joy.

"Show me!" Äloy said with a laugh, waving the hand that wasn't holding Eule's hand in the air as though swiping at something. "Show me again!"

"Äloy?" Eule asked once more, a little more loudly to hopefully gain the Äloy's attention. "What's going on? What's happening?"

It apparently wasn't quite loud enough though. Äloy just softly said "Hi" to the air over the corpse, and then giggled and laughed at the same.

While Eule would normally be happy to see Äloy happy at something, the little Gestalt girl continuing to react to something Eule can't see was getting as exasperating as it was slightly eerie. Faced with no other option, Eule holstered her pistol, carefully reached over with her now-free right hand, and gently poked Äloy in the cheek.

"Eek!" Äloy squeaked, finally jolted out of whatever she'd been watching to look at Eule with a surprised look on her tiny freckled face.

"Äloy, I've been watching you staring at and laughing at something invisible for the past minute. Care to tell me about it?" Eule asked with an amused tone tinged with a hint of concern.

"Oh yeah, Aile! There was a man here and he was…wait, hold on," Äloy reached down and snatched the triangular device right off of the corpse's temple before holding it out to Eule. "Here, your own device!"

Eule reached out and plucked it off of Äloy's outstretched hand. With only a brief sigh at this technical grave robbing, Eule reached up to her own temple and let the device latch on.

The reticule and web of lights instantly made their return to Eule's vision, along with the lights on the various bits of ruined machinery around her. Remembering that the device needed to hear Eule speak before it would change its language settings, Eule started to sing the first few lines of "Eulenlieder". She only managed to reach the part where the owl finally opened her sleepy eyes to witness the fading light of the setting sun with her sisters though before the now-familiar words of "Language setting auto-adjusted" appeared at the top of her vision once more.

Satisfied and feeling better now that she's had a chance to sing for the first time in a while, Eule looked back down at Äloy to ask her what she was looking at before, only to see Äloy (as well as a glowing circle hovering over her device a bit like a Falke's Bioresonance halo in miniature) looking up at her in…awe?

"What was that?" Äloy asked in a tone that was definitely awe.

Eule blinked at her in confusion. "What was what?"

"That!" Äloy practically shouted as she bounced up and down in excitement. "The song you were singing! What was it?"

"You mean 'Eulenlieder'? You don't know it…oh, I guess you probably wouldn't. Not if you don't even know what Replikas are," Eule said in realization.

"'Songs of the Owls'? Is that what it means? What's it about?" Äloy asked excitedly.

Eule thought for a moment on that question. "It's a song the composer Wilhelm Niao composed as a tribute to us Eules. The song is about an owl waking up with her sisters as they watch the setting sun together, and once the sun has finally set, they all take flight and go hunting through the night. The climax of the song is the focus owl taking a rat as her prey before it can flee into someone's house. It's supposed to be a tribute to how we Eules get all our work done out of sight, and how we perform an important service to the nation even if no one notices or even appreciates it."

"I don't think I understood most of what you said," Äloy blithely admitted. "But it was a nice song, and your voice was really pretty, Aile."

"Oh! Thank you, Äloy," Eule said happily, feeling giddy about the compliment. Star loved Eule's voice and regularly complimented it whenever she heard Eule sing, but it was another thing to hear a compliment about her voice from a child who's basically still a stranger.

"Wait. 'Eu-len-lied-er'. 'Songs of the Owls'. That's what the words at the bottom say. Is the 'Eu-len' part the 'Songs' or the 'Owls'?" Äloy asked.

"The owls," Eule explained with a smile, feeling like a kindergarten teacher. "With 'eule' being the singular form of 'owls'."

"Then…your name means 'Owl'?" Äloy asked further.

Eule nodded with an "Mm-hmm".

Äloy thought for a moment before asking: "What's an 'owl'?"

For a moment, Eule was stupefied by the question. Then she had to cover her mouth to keep the laughter from spilling out.

Unfortunately, she didn't quite succeed.

"Why are you laughing?!" Äloy asked in an indignant tone. "I've never heard of this 'owl' before, okay? I can tell it's some kind of bird, maybe, but that's it!"

"Oh no, I'm sorry," Eule managed to get out in between laughs. The sight of Äloy pouting in annoyance only made Eule want to laugh even harder. Eventually though, Eule did manage to get it out of her system before explaining: "I wasn't laughing at you, Äloy. I was laughing at myself for how silly I was being. For assuming that you just know everything I do. So let me tell you about the owl, or 'eule' in Eusan Standard Language: it was a small to medium-sized predatory bird that hunted primarily at night. They were mostly solitary birds, but some congregated together in large groups when roosting. Those types of owl specifically were what we Eules were named for."

Äloy cocked her head at Eule. "Was? Were? Why are you talking about the owls like they're not around anymore?"

Eule smiled sadly at Äloy. "They're not. At least, not where Star and I are from. They were native to Vineta, but they all became extinct long ago."

Äloy cocked her head in the other direction now. "Extinct?"

"It means they all died," Eule explained sadly. "There aren't any living owls anymore by my time. All we have in the Eusan Nation are just old photos in nature books and surviving video of them from the few nature documentaries that survived to the modern day. There's a single stuffed example in the Heimat National Museum of Pre-Empire History, but that's the closest we have to a living owl."

"Oh," Äloy said, sounding disappointed. "That's so sad."

Eule could only nod at that. "It is."

"…Have I been saying your name all wrong then…'Eu-le'?" Äloy asked even further, but now with a touch of concern in her voice.

There really was no way out of answering that question, and Eule could tell from Äloy's face that she wouldn't accept anything less than an honest answer.

Eule crouched down to meet Äloy at eye level. "You tried, Äloy," she consoled.

The little Gestalt girl nodded, but still looked troubled. "I want to say your name right, Eu-le. I don't like being wrong."

"I think few people like being wrong," Eule joked in an attempt to lighten Äloy's heart.

Fortunately, Äloy did crack a smile in response to that joke. "I think I don't like being wrong more than other people," she said in a self-deprecating way, before continuing: "But that's why I'm going to keep practicing saying your name, Eu-le. So I can be less wrong this time."

Eule's response was to hug Äloy once more. "You're going to be a very intelligent and kind woman one of these days, Äloy. I know it."

Äloy giggled, sounding both pleased and embarrassed at the compliment. "Thanks, Eu-le."

"Anytime," Eule said with another smile, before asking: "Now, about what you were seeing before?"

"Oh yeah, right! Umm…" Äloy seemed a bit unsure about how to say what she wanted to say, before she decided that speaking wasn't the answer. Instead, she swiped the air above the corpse, and simply said: "Show me again."

Eule's biomechanical heart nearly jumped out of her mouth when a strange dark-skinned Gestalt man wearing a conical hat suddenly appeared right in front of her. Upon closer inspection though, she realized that this man wasn't real. He had a grainy texture to him, as well as a purple hue accentuated by an outline in the same shade of purple. Furthermore, Eule could see right through him in places. It was pretty clear that the man was some sort of illusion…but how?

Eule recalled one of the Kolibris at Sierpinski (Kolibri Zwei, she recalled) showing her an illusion of herself the Kolibris could generate to confuse attackers. The illusion of this man reminded Eule of that Kolibri's illusionary copy of herself, but at a much lower visual quality.

Even when the illusionary man spoke, Eule could hear a slight distortion in his voice, as though it was a degraded cassette tape. Fortunately, the illusionary man was still perfectly understandable despite the distortion, even if it was pretty clear that he was apparently caught in the middle of saying something else.

"–ou think I want it this way? It's the best I can do. Wait, he's right behind you!" the illusionary man whispered before giving a little wave, and cheerfully saying: "Hi! Happy Birthday, Isaac! Daddy sure does love his little big man!"

The illusionary man then seemed to…skip. It was like an old video tape skipping over a damaged section to Eule. When the illusionary man returned to normal, he continued: "Look, Daddy can't be there with you and Mom, but we can still have a party, right? Sure we can!"

The illusionary man didn't sound all that happy to Eule by the end of his words though. The illusionary man blew some sort of small horn and laughed as though to cheer up his son Isaac, but there was a clear hint of desperation and despair in the illusionary man's attempts at laughter. As if he knew that what he was doing was nowhere near sufficient for his son's birthday, but he was still trying to do his best.

As the illusionary man winked out after that though, Eule suddenly had a horrified realization. This illusionary man…it had to be some sort of recording. Like a videotape, but somehow projected onto thin air. It likely recorded the man's last actions…meaning that this poor man, whoever he was, had likely died right here not long after wishing his son a happy birthday.

So many questions flew through Eule's head. Why did this man die here? His corpse didn't have any apparent wounds on it, and Eule didn't want to risk moving the corpse to get a better look. Not only did it look firmly embedded into the floor thanks to all the mineralization coating it, but given how long it's likely been lying here, there's a good chance that it would fall part if Eule tried. Even so though, the corpse looked unharmed. It was as if the man had just simply lied down and died here. Why, and so soon after celebrating his son's birthday? Eule didn't understand, and the thought of this man dying like this made Eule want to cry.

"Eu-le, you see! Isn't this fun…Eu-le?" Äloy asked quietly when she noticed Eule wiping away her tears before they could fall from her eyes.

Eule could only smile sadly at Äloy. She was too little to understand what'd happened to the man, and Eule was determined to spare the bright little Gestalt girl that realization.

"Yes, of course! It was fun!" Eule made herself say through the depression, trying to force cheer into her voice.

It wasn't enough though. It seemed Äloy was as good at reading emotions as an Eule, and she looked down with a depressed look. "You're lying to me again, aren't you," Äloy said quietly.

Before Eule could deny that though, Äloy looked back up at Eule with a small smile. "It's okay. It was just a weird Metal World thing anyways. Let's just leave. Come on," Äloy finished, tugging Eule along.

As they left the man and his eternal wishes for Isaac's happiness behind, Eule couldn't help but feel that she'd just failed Äloy in some way, leaving her even more depressed than even before. Thus, Eule and Äloy progressed through the Metal World facility in silence. Even going up some stairs only slightly improved Eule's mood.

And then, they came to the room.

Eule and Äloy entered some sort of large room, filled with beds, chairs, and tables. To Eule, the entire room looked like a dorm of some sort. In fact, it seemed even more spacious and luxurious than the Eule Dorm at S-23 Sierpinksi. It only made the sight of what was in the beds all the more horrifically gruesome.

Bodies. Everywhere. Most of the beds contained long-dead bodies lying in them: a body per bed. They were lying in ways that looked as if they had all died in their sleep. En masse.

"Dead people. So many dead people," Äloy whispered, as though she was afraid to disturb the dead. "Why did they die here? What happened to them?"

Eule didn't answer at first. The sight of all these corpses all in one place froze her thoughts as deeply as the cold surface of Leng would have, had she still been there.

"Eu-le?" Äloy asked quietly, gently tugging on Eule's arm and holding on tighter.

Eule started at Äloy's voice and the sensation of her mechanical arm being tugged, and shook the fear off. "I…I don't know," Eule whispered, before she noticed something glinting on the head of one of the nearest corpses. One of those triangular devices. It seemed that for some reason, all of these people had one of their own.

As Eule was looking at the device though, the circle part of the reticule in the center of her vision filled up with green. Then suddenly, a small box showed up next to the corpse. Within the box was contained the words: "Voice Log: Connor Chasson. Length: 00:18. Data corruption: Severe. Play?"

Eule had no idea what to expect from this "voice log", but a morbid curiosity and a desire to find out what had happened here pushed her forward. She said: "Play."

A man's voice suddenly started playing from her the triangular device on her temple. The voice, in a tone that sounded despondent and almost angry, said: "...I mean, seriously, 'Record our thoughts for posterity'? Great idea, Director Evans. Like I haven't done enough for posterity already? Like I wouldn't be... here... like this... if not for posterity? I'm done with posterity. Posterity can go..."

Eule really didn't like the way the man's voice just cut off at the end. As though he died right in the middle of recording his thoughts for "posterity". Was he…recording his last words? It sounded to Eule as though the man was being Decommissioned. Not in the way of a Replika working off their Commission and finally getting to be a free citizen. But rather, in the euphemism to describe dying or being killed. In this case, it sounded as though the man was being executed.

But something didn't add up. If he was being executed, why would he be lying in bed for it? Furthermore, even if he was being executed, why would no one bury him afterwards? This Connor Chasson's voice log only raised even more questions for Eule.

Reading the other triangular devices on the other corpses lying in bed revealed similar messages, which only deepened the mystery.

"I don't get it," Eule said after scanning the last bedridden corpse.

"Maybe we can look around some more?" Äloy asked, even though she was gripping Eule's hand tightly in fear, just as Eule's hand was doing the same. "Maybe there's something that can tell us what happened here?"

Eule nodded, but before that, there was something Eule wanted to do. She went over to the bedridden corpses and took all of their triangular devices, 5 in total, placing them in her medical satchel. They were so small that Eule didn't even need to adjust the repair patches' positions to make room for them. A small part of Eule's mind still felt ashamed at this tomb raiding. It was only the practical side of her mind that insisted the devices were too useful to leave behind that made her go ahead and do it.

Eule assuaged her guilt by promising herself to remember the names of the ones who'd owned these devices: Connor Chasson, Skyler Rivera, Ella Pontes, Jackson Frye, and Mia Sayied. They were strange names to her, sounding not even close to the typical names found in the Eusan Nation. Nevertheless, they were still all people, and they all deserved to be remembered.

"Alright, let's search the room now," Eule said to Äloy as she redid the latch on her medical satchel.

Äloy nodded, and together, they commenced their search, still holding hands to give each other strength.

Further inspection of the room reinforced Eule's idea of this room being a dorm. All the furniture was placed in aesthetically pleasing positions, and likely looked the part too back when all the people here were still alive. However, the furniture didn't reveal much about said people. Even any devices sitting on the furniture and the surrounding machinery appeared to be too heavily degraded to give her any useful data, despite the seemingly magical data recovery processes of her device.

Then they encountered another body. This corpse looked male, and was for some bizarre reason tucked away in a side room, and instead of lying on a bed like the others, it was sitting against a wall. Like the other corpses, it also had its own triangular device on its right temple, which seemed to be the universal position to put it on. However, unlike the other corpses, this one was clutching something in its right hand. Curious, Eule crouched down to get a better look. It was a device, covered in so much mineralization that she couldn't really make out what it was. All she could tell was that it was vaguely L-shaped in a way that looked oddly familiar, and that was it.

With no more information that could be gleaned from the corpse's appearance and belongings, Eule finally centered her reticule on the corpse's triangular device, and scanned it. Upon the scan's finish, the little box that popped up told her that it had accessed another voice log. This one had no name attached to it though, so she had no idea who this person was aside from their likely gender. Her curiosity brimming once more, she once more simply said: "Play."

A man's voice, sounding scared but also tired, started speaking into Eule's biomechanical ear, saying: "I saw them lining up in the community room... like cattle in a slaughterhouse, but smiling at each other...Chana handing out meds like being alive is just some kind of...pain to be eased. Well...not me. I don't want to go quiet. I don't want to…trail off. I want a period at the end of my life sentence, not an ellipsis. Hell, heh, an exclamation mark. So if that upsets whoever finds this, too bad. I don't owe anyone. Anything. Anymore."

Eule had a horrified realization as to what this man was going to do at the same time she had another horrified realization as to why that L-shaped thing in the man's hand looked so familiar. It was a pistol. She didn't recognize its model, and she doubted even Star could, but the man's words helped her realize it for what it was.

So as the man started to finish his words, Eule realized what he was about to do, and started to reach out, yelling: "No, don't–"

But it was too late. Who knows how many untold years too late as the thunderous report of a single gunshot broadcasted into her ear, followed by a final thump of the man's hand hitting his leg, clutching the pistol that he still now possessed even long, long after his death.

Eule sat down hard, uncaring of the fact that she was now sitting in a shallow pool of cold water, as her brain combined this new piece of information with everything else she had learned, and came to the horrifyingly logical conclusion.

Äloy started to ask, quietly and fearfully: "This man…did he–"

"He did it," Eule replied just as quietly. "He took his own life. Just like the others. All of them. This man, Connor Chasson, Ella Pontes, and even Isaac's father…they all committed suicide. All at the same time. But why?"

Eule's last words weren't really a question, but something said in despair as she curled in on herself, hugging her robotic knees.

"Why would they all kill themselves?" Eule continued quietly. "Why? Why would Isaac's father kill himself after just celebrating his son's birthday? Why would he do such a horrible thing after doing something so happy with his son? Unless…"

Unless something happened. Something that made them lose all hope. Something that made them want to end their own lives, because living was too painful. Too difficult. Too hopeless.

"–if that upsets whoever hears this, too bad," the words of the long-dead Gestalt man echoed in her mind. "I don't owe anyone. Anything. Anymore." The gunshot reverberated through her mind once more, followed by the sound of the hand thumping. And once more, Eule wanted to scream "Why?!" at him. Why did he take his own life? Why would everyone else take their own lives too? WHY?!

Eule distantly heard someone say something, but she didn't hear. Her thoughts spiraled outwards out of control, before they rapidly sank downwards. She felt her mind sinking deep and down into the cold darkness she desperately wanted to forget. The darkness she felt as she watched Star bleeding out her last in those mines. The darkness she could felt close in on her as Star's beautiful voice went quiet, and the bright red glow in her eyes faded into nothing. The darkness that led her to realize that there was no hope left. No point in trying anymore. Not when the one most important to her was gone from this world.

Eule was scared. She wanted to run away from Star's death. She wanted to flee from the pain and anguish of knowing that her lover was no more. But there was nothing around her but the dark. The dark where nothing but fear and death lay. The dark that kept her sitting by her lover's side, crying over her corpse.

Eule had no idea how long she sat in the dark once more, staring at her lover's cooling body, but then suddenly, she heard a voice.

It was a female voice, singing the first lines of a song…"Eulenlieder", she realized.

'Einundzwanzig? Is that you?' Eule thought. Hoped, really. She missed her favorite sister.

But…it wasn't EULR-S2321's voice. It was far too high-pitched, completely lacking the deeper tones 21 could hit. It was also lacking her confident steadiness, wavering between tones as though this voice couldn't quite hit them or maintain them even when she did miraculously hit them.

Moreover, Eule realized that this voice…wasn't quite singing the entirety of "Eulenlieder". She was singing the first few lines, right up to when the owl roosted with her sisters in the fading beauty of the setting sun, but then repeating to the beginning. As if that were the only lines the voice knew.

Finally, Eule also realized that the voice wasn't even speaking some of the words right. As though the singer had no idea how to speak Eusan Standard Language. Just like Äloy–

'Äloy!' Eule realized with a shock as she looked up, and then looked to her right to where the singing voice had come from, finally seeing Äloy looking at her with very deep concern in her grass green eyes.

The same eyes who widened in combination joy and relief as Äloy hugged Eule as tight as her little arms would allow. "Eu-le, you're back!"

"Back?" Eule asked quietly and distantly.

Äloy nodded frantically. "After you realized that man killed himself, you were just sitting there, crying and rocking forward and back, and you wouldn't stop crying no matter what I said to you or how much I pulled on you and I didn't know what to do–"

Äloy stopped to wipe away tears in her eyes as Eule reached up and wiped at her own face, finally noticing that tears had been streaming down her cheeks for the first time. It finally dawned on Eule what had happened to her.

'My personality was destabilizing,' she realized in dawning horror.

"I couldn't think of anything at first," Äloy continued after she'd wiped away the last of her tears. "But then I remembered when you looked so happy after singing that 'Eu-len-lied-er' song, so I tried singing that. That's when you finally said something, so I started singing it more even though I didn't know most of the words and I only knew the words you were singing, and then you woke up. So…are you okay now?"

Eule reached over and hugged the warm, smart little Gestalt girl. "I am now. I was…in trouble before. We Replikas…our minds can fall apart if we're under too much stress. But for us Eules, hearing music helps our minds stabilize. Music is like…an anchor for us. Something that keeps our minds here in the present. So whenever a Eule starts to feel like her mind is falling apart, her sisters will play music or sing to help hold her mind together. You may not have realized that your singing would've helped me like that, but you still did it. Thank you, Äloy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Äloy returned Eule's hug with a fierce hug of her own, and when they eventually broke the hug, Äloy had a big grin on her face. "So all I have to do to help you when you're sad is sing to you? No problem! I'm not that good at singing, but if even that helps, I'll sing to you all you want until you're not sad anymore. Maybe Star could sing to you too?"

Eule snorted as she remembered the last time Star had attempted to sing to her. It was…an interesting experience, to hear someone who was completely tone-deaf attempting to sing "Eulenlieder". But Eule had found the attempt to be just as heartwarming as any of her sister's beautiful voices.

"Yes, Star could definitely help too," Eule replied, but returning Äloy's grin with her own carbon steel-toothed grin. "You might even like it too."

Äloy practically sparkled at Eule. "Can Star sing as good as you too?"

Eule made an exaggerated tilt of her head. "Mmm, Star certainly has a very interesting voice that I think you'll find interesting as well."

Äloy giggled. "I can't wait!"

Eule giggled back. "Me too."

As Eule and Äloy giggled at each other for a moment, Eule felt her spirits lifting once more.

Äloy then took her by the hand and pulled her back up. Or rather, the little Gestalt girl attempted to, and Eule stood back up with Äloy small but very important contribution to the process. Once Eule was back on her own 2 mechanical feet, Äloy then held out her hand, revealing a triangular device.

"Here," Äloy said simply. "It's from…that man. I saw you were collecting them before, so…"

Eule carefully took the triangular device with a smile, and put it into her medical satchel with the others, bringing the total to 6. Eule secretly hoped there wouldn't be any more.

"Thank you, Äloy," Eule said with a grateful smile.

Äloy replied to that with her own bright smile. "You're welcome!" she said happily.

Eule then turned to the man's corpse, clapped her hands together twice, and bowed deeply to him. "Thank you, whoever you are. May your soul find peace in the next life." Eule then turned around in the direction of where the rest of the dorm was, and did the same thing. "I thank you as well. All of you. I hope your souls all find peace in whatever awaits you all. Especially you, father of Isaac. I hope you are reunited with your wife and son in the next life."

Below her, Eule watched out of the corner of her eye as Äloy mimicked her. Only, it wasn't a perfect mimic. She put her hands together in prayer, and said instead: "Umm, may the All-Mother help you all? I hope? She seems like a pretty nice All-Mother, so she'll probably help you all if you ask." Äloy then looked up at Eule with a distinctly unsatisfied expression on her little face. "I think I'm messing it up though. Rost would say this a lot better than me."

Eule gently patted Äloy's head. "It's okay. It's as good a prayer for their souls as any. It's the thought that really counts, after all."

Äloy's response was another bright grin, before she suddenly had a curious look on her face. "Can I ask you something, Eu-le?"

Eule beamed at her. "Of course you can! What is it?"

"Can you teach me the words of 'Eu-len-lied-er'? I felt kind of…silly for only singing those first few words over and over again without knowing the whole song. So…can you?" she asked in a tone that was definitely a pleading one.

The only things Eule could feel right at that moment was elation and a very deep desire to squeal and hop in place at the chance to finally teach. Teaching was one of the things Eules were literally built for, and getting to teach Äloy the lyrics of "Eulenlieder" because she wanted to learn it? It was a recipe for pure bliss for Eule.

"Yes, of course!" Eule said…or rather squealed, due to no longer being able to hold it back. Eule then continued a bit hesitantly: "In fact…do you want me to teach the lyrics to you now?"

Äloy nodded so rapidly that her head looked like it was vibrating. She then took Eule by the hand and tugged on it, saying: "Come on, let's learn them while we get out of here. If this room is making you sad, then let's leave.

Eule nodded with her own smile in reply. "Yes, let's!"

So at last, Äloy and Eule walked towards the door, with Eule singing "Eulenlieder" to her little student in a high clear voice the whole time, filling the room with song. By the time they left the dead to their eternal slumber, the sound of "Eulenlieder" echoing through the Metal World facility felt like they were driving away the darkness already.

Suddenly though, Eule's singing ground to a halt as she reached the part where the owl finally took flight, due to her hearing a very familiar voice in the distance, echoing through the metal corridors. A very familiar female voice that made Eule's heart swell with happiness and longing, shouting: "Eule! Eule! Can you hear me?!"

This was followed immediately by another very familiar male voice shouting: "Aloy! Aloy! Are you down there?! Answer me!"

Eule and Äloy looked at each other in excitement, and then immediately ran towards the sounds of the voices.

"Star! I'm down here! Star!" Eule shouted giddily.

"Rost! You found me! Rost!" Äloy shouted at the same time, just as giddily.

Soon they came across a large opening in the ceiling, with sunlight pouring down from it. To the left of that opening, a section of collapsed metal roof and rock formed a very convenient ramp to climb up to, resulting in them seeing the faces of a very worried Star and Rost standing crouched on the rim of the hole above.

"All-Mother be praised!" Rost said joyfully as he caught sight of them.

"Eule! Thank the Red Eye you're alright!" Star said just as joyfully, with tears in her eyes.

"It's okay!" Eule replied, with tears of joy threatening to spill from her own eyes. "We're okay! Come on, Äloy. Let me help you up."

Äloy took one last brief look at the Metal World facility behind them before happily getting in front of Eule. Eule grabbed Äloy by her waist, and hefted her up to Rost, who gladly took his little girl up and gently put her down by his side. He only took a short moment to check over Äloy before reaching down to Eule. "Come! Now!"

Star immediately reached down as well. "Come on! I'll give you a hand too!"

Eule smiled and reached up with both hands: her left hand taking Star's hand, and her right hand taking Rost's. Together, they hauled Eule up from the Metal World and into the light of day. Or rather: sunset, given how orange the sky was. Still, the brilliant colors of sunset were a more than welcome relief from the darkness and wan lavender lighting of the Metal World facility as Eule stood upon green grass once more.

Eule wasted no time in practically throwing herself onto Star, hugging her lover tightly. Star just as immediately returned the hug, burying her face into Eule's fabric garrison cap and polyethylene hair.

"Oh, Star, I missed you," Eule said as she nuzzled against Star's breastplate and rounded gorget.

"Red Eye, I missed you too," Star replied, but in a slightly muffled tone from her voice having to travel through Eule's cap and hair. "When I got back from borrowing one of Rost's sacks and neither you nor Äloy were there, I thought something had happened to you 2. I thought…I lost you…"

"Shh, it's okay, Star," Eule said calmingly as Star's voice turned into choked sobs. "I'm right here, and I'm perfectly fine. Just a little scratch on my face that's already stopped bleeding. I'm not leaving you, Star. Not now. Not ever again."

Star's sobs slowly died down, and she finally broke the hug a bit, wiping tears away from her cheeks and eyes. "Sorry about, you know, getting tears on your hair and cap."

Eule smiled. "It's okay, Star. I'm happy to be flooded with your tears as long as you feel better about it afterwards."

Star laughed at that. "I don't think I can make that much tears in one sitting, but thanks for the offer anyways, my dear Eule."

Eule's laughed back in reply, relieved at seeing her lover in good spirits again. "Anytime, my sweet Star."

As if by mutual unspoken agreement, Eule and Star then kissed each other. It was a quick kiss, one meant to reassure each other that they were well, but they each took as much pleasure as they could in it nonetheless.

"Ooh, I knew you 2 were mates with how kissy-kissy you are!" Äloy shouted excitedly.

Eule snorted in laughter, practically straight into Star's mouth.

Star squeaked in response, giggling at the sensation. "I wish I knew what Äloy was saying. It sounds like she was being a little kobold just now."

Eule's response was to laugh in turn. "That's not exactly right, but you're not exactly wrong either."

Star blinked owlishly at Eule. "Wait, how are you so sure of that?"

Eule smiled mischievously at her lover, and pointed up at the triangular device on her right temple. "I have a new little friend here that translates everything Äloy is saying to me right now."

Star peered curiously at said device. "Okay, what is–"

"No!" Äloy yelled.

Eule turned towards the sound of Äloy's voice in alarm, only to see the little Gestalt girl backing away from…Rost? Rost who was holding out an outstretched hand, apparently reaching for Äloy's head. Eule then noticed that Äloy had put on a hand on her triangular device…so Rost wanted it? And Äloy didn't wish to give it up? That was the conclusion Eule had come to, and it seemed to be the correct one.

Rost gave Äloy an exasperated look that was mixed with worry. He stood up, and said in almost a shout: "Aloy, such things are dangerous!" before reaching towards Äloy's device, intent on taking it.

"NO!" Äloy yelled more loudly, dodging Rost's grasp.

Äloy then ran behind Eule, hugging her mechanical legs and putting Eule firmly between her and Rost, only poking her face out warily to watch Rost.

Rost made an exasperated sound, and then looked at Eule. His eyes then widened, as though he only just now noticed the triangular device on Eule's own right temple. "You have one of those…Metal World things on you too?" he asked with concern before muttering to himself: "All-Mother, how do I go about telling Aile that such things are dangerous?"

Eule took a deep breath and said to Rost: "It's okay, Rost. I don't think these devices are dangerous. I don't know what they are and I don't know how they function, but at the very least, I don't think they're dangerous."

Rost stared at Eule in disbelief. "You…you can talk? But how…wait, your voice. Why does it sound so…strange? It's like…" Rost waved his hands, seemingly at a loss for words.

"I think this device is somehow…overlaying a translation of my words on top of my voice, broadcasting at a slightly higher volume so that you notice the translation rather than what I'm actually saying. But as you can tell, you still hear my words if you focus on them, so that's why my voice–or rather voices–sounds so strange to you. To be honest, it also sounds very strange to me too if I think about it too much," Eule admitted.

Rost's brow furrowed in thought. "So that Metal World thing…it's speaking for you? How do you know it's not twisting your words then?"

"Well, Äloy seems to understand me correctly, and I understand her words just as well. So at the very least, this device's translation seems to be mostly accurate. I'll probably have to test it out a bit more to see if this is the case though," Eule replied.

As Rost frowned in further thought, Star whistled in appreciation.

"Wow, never heard of a device that small being able to translate like that," Star said in a wondering tone.

Eule giggled at Star. "Oh, it's not just translation. This device, it can…oh wait, better idea." Eule then opened up her medical satchel and showed the small pile of devices in it. "Pick one. Any one."

Star peered into the satchel for several moments before delicately picking a device out. She examined the device closely, turning it over to get a look at both sides. "So how does this thing work?" she asked.

"Just reach up to your temple with it–no, your right temple. I don't know if the side matters, but everyone down there all had it on their right temple. I'm not sure this is the best time to test to see if it still works on the left temple," Eule explained.

"Everyone?" Star asked curiously. "Are there other people down there? Do we need to get a rescue mission down there?"

Eule smiled at Star, but it was a sad smile. The memory of all those bodies down there were still fresh in Eule's mind. "The Gestalts down there are long past any help we could possibly give them," she simply said.

Star looked at her first in concern, and then it turned into an understanding nod. "Do you want to talk about it, or…?"

"Later, dear," Eule said, smiling more widely to show her lover that she was okay now. "For now, let's see about getting that device working for you–oh, turn the device so that the side with the black latticework faces your temple. Okay, now hold it about a centimeter from your temple, and then let go of it."

Star blinked in surprise. "Just let go?"

"Just let go," Eule confirmed.

"Oookay," Star said with a shrug.

Star released her grip on the device.

"Whoa!" Star said in surprise as the device did exactly what Eule expected to do, and flew onto Star's temple to latch onto it. A glowing ring appeared over the device as Star froze…and then her eyes widened in awe as she saw the same lights Eule was seeing right at that moment. "Whoaaa," she breathed as she looked around.

"Oh, now say something. Anything. Just a short sentence about anything you can think of," Eule added.

Star blinked at Eule. "Uhh, okay? You're kind of putting me on the spot though. It's a little difficult to just think of something to say on the–hello?"

Eule smiled and asked: "Did you see that little box at the top of your vision that said 'Language setting auto-adjusted'?"

"Yeah, I did," Star replied, before she had a look of realization. "Wait, does that mean then–"

"Can you understand me now, Shtar?!" Äloy piped up, her previous look of wariness now completely replaced by bright excitement.

Star looked at Äloy in surprised, and then grinned. "Yeah, I can definitely understand you now, kid."

Äloy immediately started bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Oh, oh! Do you see the lights now?! Aren't they pretty?!"

Star chuckled. "Yeah, I do, and yeah, it is pretty. But…what is it? And why does it look like I have a telescopic sight's reticule glued to the center of my vision?" she asked.

"I think…it's the device's way of aiming in order to target its functions? It's the best explanation I have so far," Eule admitted.

"Huh…neat," Star simply said, before she raised an eyebrow. "Huh, that's funny. This thing is only telling me your model when I look at you long enough…and it's calling you an 'unknown'?"

Eule looked in surprise, before she finally noticed the little box that'd popped up next to Star when she also looked at her long enough to let the reticule's green circle fill up. Indeed, the little did contain Star's name…or rather, what Eule had been calling Star this whole time. It wasn't telling Eule Star's serial number, which suggested that the device only labels a person by what the user calls that person.

Even more curiously, above Star was indeed the word "Unknown". Eule quickly looked at Äloy and let the circle fill up. The device gave Eule Äloy's name, and then above her name was the word "Human".

"Huh, that's peculiar," Eule said. "It calls Äloy a human, but it calls us 'Unknown'? Does it not know what to call us?"

"Guess we're just so awesome that it can't tell what we are," Star said with a completely straight face and without even so much as a hitch in her voice.

Eule had no such compunctions about being the straight woman and burst out laughing, with Äloy joining in at the same time. Star only finally broke character and grinned at the joyful peals of laughter from both Eule and Äloy.

It was only after Eule finally calmed back down did she think to look over at Rost, who had been standing there the whole time, just watching them. His initial worried look was now replaced with a look that combined skepticism with thoughtfulness. The latter was, Eule believed, a good thing. At the very least, Rost was thinking about the devices instead of blindly rejecting them.

"So, do these devices still look dangerous to you?" Eule asked him.

Rost now adopted a pensive look. "Just because a Metal World relic isn't dangerous now doesn't mean it won't become dangerous in the future," he still said.

"True, but if it does becomes dangerous in the future, than all we need to do is get rid of them," Eule patiently said, deliberately ignoring Äloy's alarmed look at those last words. "From what we've seen of these devices, they're not going to suddenly do something like explode, so we'll have plenty of time to get rid of them before they can do any harm."

"That is…fair enough," Rost admitted.

Eule pulled her medical satchel off of her belt, opened it, and held its contents out to Rost. "So won't you please take one, Rost? If only to help us speak to each other better, and thus let us find out the answers to some very pressing question we each no doubt have about each other?"

Rost stared into the satchel for several long moments before taking a deep breath, and saying: "Only to speak to you, and then I'm taking it off."

Eule simply nodded.

Rost took another deep breath before reaching into Eule's satchel, and gingerly taking a device out. Like Star, he examined the device from all angles, but instead of her lover's curios expression, Rost had a look of suspicion on his face. As though he thought the device was going to bite him at any moment.

Eule had a thought. "Oh, did you hear my explanation to Star from earlier, or–"

"No need, I heard everything," Rost interrupted, before sighing and reaching up to his own right temple to release the device.

When the device had latched onto Rost's temple and its customary glowing circle had appeared over it, Rost blinked in surprise and looked around at the lights he must surely be seeing. Although Rost still had a skeptical look on his face, Eule could also see just a hint of wonder mixed in.

Eule smiled at that. 'Like daughter, like father,' she thought.

Seeing as how nothing appeared to be happening to him despite the Metal World device latched onto his head, Rost sighed. Whether in relief or acceptance, Eule couldn't quite say either way.

Rost then turned to Eule and Star, and said: "I believe I, as well as Aloy, have many questions for you. But those questions can wait until we're back at my house. I think we can all agree that we have had a long day. Far longer and more eventful than we had hoped for, I think."

Star sighed. "Aww, and I was actually hoping to go blueberry picking with Eule and Äloy. Even went to the trouble of getting Rost to lend me an empty sack and dropping off a box of 12mm rounds with him and everything."

"I still don't understand why you did that, Shtar," Rost said in a puzzled tone. "You had more than enough room on your belt for an empty sack. Why would you hand me your pouch?"

Star blinked curiously at Rost in reply. "Because that empty sack would've made me go over 6 items?"

Rost in turn blinked curiously at Star. "Is this…a custom of your tribe? To only have 6 things at most?"

Star looked at Eule helplessly, to which Eule could only shrug in response before turning to Rost.

"I suppose you could say that," Eule said, sounding a bit unsure what to call the Rule of Six herself.

Rost still looked puzzled, but nodded in acceptance in spite of that. He then looked back and forth between Eule, Star, and Äloy with a thoughtful look.

"You know, I still have to go retrieve my pot, bowls, and plates from the riverbank where I'd left them. In fact, some of them still needs to have their washing finished off. So while I'm doing that, perhaps you 3 can fill that sack with some of those luscious-looking blueberries?" Rost said with a smile, before concluding: "Just don't get yourselves separated again. I really don't want this day's problems to repeat right after we just fixed it."

Eule look at Star and Äloy in turn, who both grinned at her. Eule then turned back to Rost, and grinned right back at Rost's smiling face. "Understood!" she said happily.

Thus, as Rost walked off with that smile not leaving his face the entire time, Eule, Star, and Äloy got to work stuffing that empty sack of Star's full of the juicy blueberries from the nearby bushes. As promised, they never left each other's side. Eule herself never went much more beyond arm's reach from Star, and practically glued herself to her lover's side the whole time.

Even Äloy never went more than a few meters from Eule and Star, which by now, Eule could tell was unusually clingy behavior from Äloy. It seemed that unintended trip through the Metal World facility affected Äloy more than either of them assumed, and so Eule made sure to thank Äloy for every double handful of blueberries she poured into the sack. Eule's biomechanical heart warmed at seeing Äloy's glowing smile with each thanks.

As a result of their combined efforts, the sack was bulging with blueberries by the time Rost returned with his cookware and dishware. As if to add to the celebrations, Rost even held up a trio of dead rabbits by the feet, apparently having hunted and gutted them along the way. Thus, when they all returned to Rost's and Äloy's home, they were all in very high spirits indeed, with the day's drama having largely forgotten for the time being.

---

Dinner that night (which Rost still refused to allow Eule to help with, saying "It would bring shame to the All-Mother for me to make guests work in my house.") consisted of chunks of roast rabbit coated with that spice rub Rost seemed to enjoy and a stew composed of the rabbit's offal, mixed vegetables, and more of that delicious colorful rice Eule had honestly been looking forward to even after 2 meals of it. Some of the blueberries they'd picked ended up as dessert afterwards, with Rost laying the rest out in front of the fireplace apparently to dry.

It was only after finishing those sun-sweet blueberries that they all sat at the dinner table and started to talk. Starting with Eule recounting to Star and Rost what had happened down there in the Metal World facility, with her only leaving out a few specifics about what she'd experienced when her personality began destabilizing.

Even with Äloy chipping in with her own version of the events intermittently, Star and Rost both had very worried looks by the time Eule ended her recounting.

"Are you sure you're okay, love?" Star asked while holding Eule's hands.

"I'm fine now, Star. Really," Eule insisted with a smile, not letting go of Star's hands the entire time. "Äloy was a great help there. Without her…well, no use thinking about dark what ifs, is there?"

Star pulled Eule into a hug. "I'm just glad you're not back there. But yeah, I definitely owe you one, kiddo," Star said to Äloy.

The little Gestalt girl beamed at her in reply, proud of the praise being lavished upon her.

Eule suddenly had a thought. "Oh, my apologies, Rost, for leaving those boots you put onto me in that Metal World facility. My mapping module has fully mapped the facility's layout and there's really only a single direction to go through it anyway, so I can go back later and get it–"

"No, no, it's fine," Rost said quickly, waving an arm to cut her off. "If going down there distressed you so much, then it's not worth it. They were old boots anyways. I can always make more."

"Oh, if that's alright then," Eule replied. Secretly, she felt a bit relieved, since the thought of disturbing the dead once more didn't really appeal to her.

Äloy suddenly giving Eule a fidgety look. "Umm, Eu-le? Can I ask you something, actually? About…when you were crying and stuff? If you're up to it, of course. If you're not, then it's okay," she added quickly.

Eule smiled at Äloy. "I don't mind. With Star, Rost, and especially you here; I feel like everything's okay now. So ask away."

"Then umm…who's 21?" Äloy asked quietly. "You called me that when I started singing to you. Only, it was some weird long word in your outsider words that meant 21. I only know it's 21 because my Metal World thing told me, so…who's 21?"

Eule took a deep breath after Äloy finished asking. To Eule, it still felt like it was just days ago when she had been talking to EULR-2321 in bed together about what they'd do after their Commission ended and they became free citizens. Just days ago when 21 said she'd been feeling a bit ill but was still determined to work through it. Just days ago when Eule watched 21 vomit out oxidant onto the floor while trying to cook, and she helped her favorite sister onto the stretcher the medical team had brought in afterwards. Just days ago when 21, even with her own oxidant dripping down her chin, insisted to Eule that everything was going to be fine, even though that was the last she ever saw of 21 ever again.

In the end, Eule's reply to Äloy was: "21 was my favorite sister, and I suppose in the depths of my darkness, I was hoping that your voice was hers and that everything that happened where we came from was just…a nightmare that I was going to wake up from, and that everything would be back to normal again."

Äloy stared at Eule for a moment before asking: "Was? Is she…dead?"

Eule smiled sadly at Äloy. "I…I hope she is."

Rost tilted his head at Eule. "You hope? That's a very odd choice of words there."

Eule felt a robotic hand grip hers, and she looked up at Star giving her a reassuring look, along with a questioning sound. Eule nodded back in reply, feeling that Rost and Äloy deserved to know the truth of where they came from.

Thus, Eule looked to Rost and Äloy, still gripping Star's hand, and said: "I think it's time we talked about where we came from, and why we don't want to ever go back there. Ever."

Rost nodded, before asking kindly: "Is it related to whatever you 2 were arguing about last night? It sounded like both of you were letting out a lot of pain there. Pain of the heart, not of the body."

Eule nodded in reply. "It is. So…let me tell you about a faraway place called S-23 Sierpinski, and what happened there after our Commander Falke got sick."

As Eule recounted what had happened in that underground facility on the frozen moon of Leng, with Star filling in blanks in Eule's information with what she knew, both Rost and Äloy were silent throughout the whole recounting. Rost's face was mix of thoughtfulness and worry, while Äloy became increasingly distressed as Eule's and Star's tale progressed, resulting in Äloy climbing into Rost's lap partway through for comfort. Rost gently stroked Äloy's hair as she sat in his lap. Eule was fairly certain it was as much for his own reassurance as it was for Äloy's.

It was why Eule was deliberately vague on certain details, especially the gory ones. Even if she couldn't spare Rost and Äloy the nightmare overall, at the very least, she can spare them the disturbing bits.

When at last Eule and Star finished their grim tale, Rost sat there, rubbing his forehead for several long moments, as if trying to process everything Eule and Star had told him.

"Honestly, your story is as fantastic as it is horrifying," Rost finally commented with his gaze directed somewhere into the ceiling. "From the sounds of what was happening, it sounds as if the corruption that spread through you Replikas was something like the Derangement. Only, if the Derangement could infect humans as well. As bad as it was, I shudder to think at how bad it would be if the Machines could somehow pass the Derangement onto humans."

"The Derangement?" Eule and Star asked at the exact same time.

Rost looked at them both in puzzlement, before asking, apparently to himself as much as it was to Eule and Star: "You really know nothing about the Derangement? But…no, the timeline is wrong. Your Derangement sounds like it was barely a season ago, if that. The Derangement has been happening for years now, so it can't be it. And then there's the fact that you knew nothing about the Machines, so I wonder…?"

Seeing the Replikas' confused looks, Rost sighed and began: "If you truly know nothing about the Derangement, then in order to explain it to you, I must start long before it. Starting with the Machines."

"Like those 2-legged ones we fought yesterday?" Star asked.

Rost nodded. "Yes, those Machines we call 'Watchers'. They are herd guard Machines that guard grazer Machines like the Striders: the 4-legged ones, as they feed.

"The Machines have always been part of our world. Just as we have beasts of air, water, and earth; so too we have the Machines as beasts of steel. Since time immemorial, the Nora–just like all the tribes we know–have hunted the Machines for parts. The Machines provide everything we need to survive. Their hides give us steel for armor, blades, and tools. Their muscles when braided together give us the best bowstrings and cables to tie our houses, bridges, and walls together. Their Sparkers let us start fires with ease, without need of sparkstone. Their Blaze gives us the best fuel for fires. Their Chillwater lets us keep food cold and fresh even outside of winter. We would not be where we are without what the Machines give us, and we are ever-thankful to the All-Mother that She chooses to grace us with the splendors of creation to this very day.

"Hunting Machines was challenging, but never dangerous. When startled, the Machines just simply ran, and the hunter would only be left with disappointment, but at least they were free to try again without worry.

"That all changed when the Derangement happened. On that day, several years ago, there was a…omen. A sound like thunder ripped through the air, even though the sky was clear and there was not a cloud to be seen. After that, the Machines behaved strangely. Where the Machines bolted before, they now turned and fought in a frenzy. The herd guard Machines were the first to do this, but more and more lately, even the grazer Machines attack anyone they see, their normally blue eyes turning red, as though from bloodlust.

"It was chaos at first. Many hunters were injured when the Machines they hunted suddenly attacked them on sight. A few even died. There have even been rumors recently, strange rumors, of new Machines appearing. Machines that don't appear to be either herd guard or grazer. Machines that look…as though they were made to hunt humans. I have not seen any of these Machines for myself, but I am no longer surprised at such things anymore. Now, I only worry about what the Machines will do next.

"And so that is the Derangement. I admit, it's not exactly the same as what happened to you in your Sier-pin-ski place, but it's the closest thing I can compare it to," Rost concluded, before looking Eule and Star in the eyes: "And that's why I was initially afraid of you 2 at first. With your strange legs, so Machine-like, and your blue eyes with your red pupils, I had initially thought you 2 were some of these new Machines from the rumors. However, it quickly became clear from the moment you spoke to me in your strange tongue that you were no Machines. The Machines do not speak in human tongues. We know that they speak to each other somehow, but never in any tongue a human would speak. So the fact that you did speak in a human tongue, even though I couldn't understand it, proved that you 2 weren't Machines. At least, not in spirit. I'm still not certain about the body."

Eule gave a nervous laugh at that alongside Star. Eule, try as she might, couldn't quite really deny that.

"And what's more, both of you died?" Rost asked in disbelief. "You remember dying, and you have absolutely no idea how you came to be where we found you?"

"I just remember everything going dark and cold, and then suddenly there was blue sky, green grass, warm sunlight, and Eule right next to me," Star replied, glancing at Eule with a smile. "Honestly, I actually thought I was with Eule in wherever we Replikas go when we die."

Eule answered Star's smile with a smile of her own, if a bit more melancholic. "It's exactly the same for me as well, with the only difference being the initial sensations."

"So that's why you were so sad when you realized all those Old Ones killed themselves in that room," Äloy said quietly.

Eule could only smile sadly at her and nod, so she was a bit surprised when Äloy got off from Rost's lap, walked around the table to where Eule was, and hug her tightly.

"It's okay. There's nothing bad like that happening to you right now, so you don't need to be sad, okay?" Äloy said, her voice a bit muffled due to her face being buried in Eule's side. Äloy then raised her face up to Eule with a hopeful look. "And if you're still sad, then maybe you could get Star to sing to you too? You said that I would like Shtar's voice when she sings, so maybe we can hear it now?"

Eule's smile froze as she slowly turned to Star, who had a mildly perturbed look on her face.

"Eule, dear, what exactly did you tell Äloy about my voice," Star asked with a mix of morbid curiosity and horrified embarrassment in her voice.

Eule started to open her mouth to answer, but Äloy beat her to it.

"Eu-le said you had a very interesting voice that I would find interesting too," Äloy piped up, repeating Eule's words verbatim.

Star gave Eule a raised eyebrow in response, to which Eule replied to with an embarrassed laugh.

"Please, Shtar?" Äloy asked, assuming the most plaintive small child voice she could possibly assume.

Star's face became filled with a mix of conflicting desires. Eule could tell that the desires of "I really don't want to sing" warred with "But I don't want to disappoint Äloy" just from knowing Star for as long as she did.

"Just to let you know, kid," Star said at long last. "Regardless of what a certain Eule said, I'm a really, really, really bad singer."

Seeing Äloy's curious face, Star continued: "No, really. I'm terrible. Even my sisters told me I'm as tone-deaf as a broken piano."

Äloy's face just became even more curious and excited, which prompted Star to scratch her head in exasperation. "Agh, alright! Just a few lines of 'Eulenlieder', and that's it, okay? Just those few lines will tell you just how bad I am, okay?"

Äloy wasn't deterred. Her head bobbed up and down in a nod so quickly that it was practically vibrating.

Star sighed. "Fine. Well, here goes." She took a deep breath, and started to sing.

Honestly, Eule thought it was a shame. Star had a wonderfully deep speaking voice that gave her a lovely contralto that Eule could listen to forever. That same contralto though also turned into an adorably high-pitched voice whenever she squeaked, so Eule knew that Star was capable of singing in a wide range of pitches.

Unfortunately, as much as Eule loved Star, even she had to admit that Star just could not seem to put those capabilities together into singing. At least, not singing that sounded nice. As Star sang those first few lines of "Eulenlieder", she managed to hit almost every note wrong. The few notes she did manage to hit right by accident sounded so discordant compared to the rest that it actually ended up making her singing sound worse.

Eule pressed her lips together in a subtle cringe, swiftly clamping down on the instinct to cover her ears.

Rost seemed to have similar levels of self-control, if not better. In fact, Eule would say that he was practically an Ara in terms of neutral facial expression mastery. It was only due to a Eule's equal mastery of reading such faces that Eule could tell that Rost was experiencing just as much discomfort listening to Star sing as she was.

Äloy however had no such self-control. She stared at Star for all of 10 seconds before falling over laughing. That immediately ended Star's one and only performance for the night.

"See?" Star asked of Äloy and everyone else present by extension, her face nearly as bright red as the eyeliner-like tattoos under her eyes.

Eule felt bad for her lover at being caught out like this, and she gently held Star's hands. "I'm sorry, Star. It was a little joke I was playing with Äloy that I think may have gone a bit too far. I didn't mean to hurt you like this. I'm sorry."

Star blinked at her in surprise, before she laughed. "No, it's okay, Eule. All Rost and Äloy now know is that I suck at singing. It's kind of embarrassing, but I wasn't really hurt by it. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way, love."

Eule was so relieved that she gave Star a warm hug. "Oh, Star."

Star smiled at Eule and just as warmly returned the hug. "Oh, Eule."

"Oh, oh! Are you 2 going to be kissy-kissy again?!" Äloy asked in excitement from Eule's side, with Star's attempt at singing apparently having been forgotten.

Both Eule and Star snorted and broke out in laughter at Äloy's words simultaneously.

"Do you just find people kissing really funny for some reason, Äloy?" Star asked the little Gestalt girl in a teasing tone.

"Well, Rost never gets kissy-kissy with anyone, so this is the first time I get to watch 2 people being kissy-kissy up close!" Äloy excitedly said.

"Oh? So you're still single, Rost? That's surprising," Star noted.

Eule nodded vehemently in agreement. A man like Rost who could cook, hunt, and was a loving father to an adorable little girl? Eule would think that there would be mobs of women, Gestalt and Replika alike, falling head over heels to try to ask Rost out on dates. Or more likely: for his hand in marriage.

Rost's reply to Eule and Star alike was a simple chuckle. "No, I don't have anyone like that in my life. Even if I did desire a mate, my situation would make that…impossible."

Eule tilted her head at Rost. "Impossible?" she asked curiously.

"Because we're both outcasts," Äloy explained in a tone that combined exasperation, annoyance, and surprisingly from Äloy from what Eule knew of her so far, anger.

"Outcasts?" Eule and Star asked simultaneously.

Rost leaned back and sighed before properly looking Eule and Star in the eye as he answered: "Aloy and I are both outcasts from the Nora. That means it's against the law for us to speak to a member of the tribe, and it's just as illegal for a member of the tribe to speak to us in turn. In fact, it's actually illegal for a member of the tribe to even so much as acknowledge our presence. That is what it means to be an outcast."

Star tilted her head at Rost. "Sooo…is there a reason why you and Äloy are outcasts, or does the Nora have a habit of making their own people outcasts for no good reason?"

Rost sighed once more. "For the Nora, being made an outcast is a punishment normally made only for the most heinous of crimes."

At that moment, Eule spoke up in a mix of anger and outrage: "Rost, Star and I have only known you for just over a day, and I find it impossible to believe that you could have done anything that heinous. As for Äloy, she's a young child. She can't be much more than pre-primary school age. What could she have possibly done that would deserve being made an outcast?!"

This time, Rost took a deep breath, as if preparing himself, before speaking. "To start: I apologize to you in advance. I have taken a vow of silence on the matter of my being an outcast, and I will not break it. However, I can tell you that my being an outcast is by choice, and it's not due to any crime I committed. I hope you understand."

Eule looked to Star, who nodded at her before they both turned back to Rost. "We understand. So–"

"Then what about me?! Why am I an outcast?! Why does the tribe shun me?! Why?!" Äloy asked. Demanded, really.

Eule looked Äloy in shock, and then back at Rost. "She doesn't know?" she asked in confusion…and just a hint of more outrage.

Rost took another deep breath before turning to looking to everyone present, lingering on Äloy for a moment longer, and then finally explaining: "Aloy…was cast out as a baby."

Seeing the shocked looks Eule, Star, and especially Äloy gave him, he continued: "The Matriarchs–they are the leaders of the Nora–found Aloy and brought her to me as a newborn. They had made this tiny thing an outcast, but that they couldn't bear to just leave a helpless baby out in the elements to perish. So they came to me, and asked me to take care of her. I accepted, and so it went for the past 6 years to where we are now."

Star rubbed her forehead in deep thought and exasperation. "So wait, these Matriarchs made Äloy an outcast practically from birth? What the actual fuck? For what?"

Rost sighed so deeply that Eule thought he had nearly emptied his lungs out. "I don't know," he said simply.

"Is it because of my mother?!" Äloy asked loudly. "Who was she?! Who was my mother?!"

"Aloy, I've told you before, that is not for us to know," Rost said, before he sighed once more. "And I honestly can't tell you. The Matriarchs refused to tell me when I asked, and so I let it be. I can only assume that the Matriarchs are keeping it a secret because they know best, and that's it."

It felt like the entire room sank with Rost's spirits. Eule looked down at Äloy, who was staring at the floor dejectedly.

"Äloy, is that why you call Rost by his name, and not 'father'?" Eule asked her quietly. She'd found it strange that Äloy constantly called Rost by his name, and now she knew why, but she still had to ask.

"Rost isn't my father," Äloy said just as quietly. "He's not."

Eule couldn't help but glance at Rost when Äloy spoke those words. Rost's face remained as stoic as he usually was, but Eule could see otherwise. The lowering of Rost's gaze, the quiet sigh he gave, and the general sinking of his entire being…Eule could see Äloy's words wounded him deeply, and so it hurt her as well to see the gentle, kind Rost like this.

But before Eule can speak to Äloy about it, Äloy suddenly raised her head to look up at Eule with a fiercely determined look in her eyes.

"I don't know my father, but I know Rost." Äloy turned to look up at Rost. "Rost is better than any father. He's a lot better than any father who doesn't even come over to see me. If my father is still out there somewhere, then I would find him only to tell him how bad he is."

"Aloy," Rost simply said. Eule didn't even need to look at his face to hear how surprised he was…and how happy Äloy's words made him. Honestly, it made Eule just as happy to hear Äloy say that.

"But," Äloy said quietly as her gaze lowered to the floor once more. "I just want to know who my mother was. That's all."

Then suddenly, Äloy looked up again at Rost. This time though, there was a look of realization on her face, as though she'd just solved a tricky puzzle.

"Rost, you said the Matriarchs found me, right? Then that must mean they must know who my mother was, right?" Äloy asked in rapid-fire succession.

"I'm not sure if it's that simple…but I have to assume so, yes. Based on their words," Rost admitted, before continuing: "But if they wouldn't tell me, then I don't think they will tell you as well."

"So how do I make them tell me?" Äloy asked.

Rost was silent.

"Please?" Äloy pressed.

Eule watched as Rost looked up at the ceiling, clearly deep in though. As if he too was puzzling out the solution to this conundrum.

Then at last, he lowered his gaze back to Äloy, sighed, and said: "There is a way. But…"

"So tell me," Äloy pressed once more.

"It will be dangerous," Rost stated.

"How?" Äloy pressed further.

"It will take years of training," Rost continued, apparently hoping to dissuade Äloy.

"I don't care. Tell me. Please," Äloy said. Even though her words sounded like a plead to Eule, there was only a look of fiery determination in Äloy's eyes.

Rost looked Äloy straight in the eyes, and simply said: "The Proving."

Looking around at the confused faces, Replikas and a single little Gestalt girl alike, he continued: "It's the tribe's rite of passage, held every year. Those who pass become Braves: the tribe's warriors and defenders. But to the one who wins–the one who finishes first–the Matriarchs grant a boon."

"A boon?" Äloy asked, and so did Eule and Star at the same time.

"A favor from the Matriarchs. Whatever the winner wants. One they cannot deny, no matter what it may be. Even things that would be normally hidden by any vows of silence they have taken," Rost explained, before finishing: "That is the only thing I can think of to make the Matriarchs reveal who Aloy's mother is."

Äloy stood up straighter, as if Rost's explanation had given her a goal to look towards. "Then I'll do it. Whatever it takes. I'll win the Proving."

Rost and Äloy stared each other in the eye for seemingly forever to Eule before Rost gave a nod. "I see. We best get started then," he said.

Äloy's mouth widened in excitement.

"Tomorrow," Rost finished with the force of a Mynah that had suddenly appeared in your path. Even seeing Äloy's pouting face only made Rost continue: "In the morning. When you've had a good night's rest. I cannot train you if you're too tired to move, can I?"

"No," Äloy admitted.

"Then bed, Aloy," Rost ordered.

"Okaaay. Night then, Eule. Star," Äloy hugged each of them in turn before running up to Rost and giving him a hug with a grateful "Night, Rost," before climbing up the ladder to where her bed laid.

With little Äloy off to bed upstairs, Eule sat with her lover and Rost in comfortable silence for a while. Eventually though, Eule had to say:

"I apologize if we brought up an uncomfortable subject between you and Äloy, Rost," Eule said in a guilty tone.

Rost waved a hand in the air. "It's fine. It was already something Aloy had been wanting to talk about for a while now. You and Shtar just simply caused it to happen a bit sooner."

Eule breathed out a sigh of relief. "That's good then."

Star had a wondering look on her face when Eule looked over to her though. "Something you said before made me wonder, Rost," Star said.

Upon hearing Rost make an inquiring sound, Star continued: "Where exactly are we in Nora lands, and where is that compared to…well, everywhere else? You never actually said."

Rost had to think for a few moments before answering Star. "We are deep in the very heart of the Sacred Lands of the Nora, in a valley we formally call All-Mother's Embrace, and usually just call The Embrace. Specifically, my house is located in the northwest corner of The Embrace, and as you know from all the uphill walking we took to get here, is high up in the mountains surrounding it. These mountains, in fact, are what protects the Nora from invasion from almost all sides.

"There are 3 settlements within The Embrace. The closest settlement to us here is Mother's Heart, just down to the foot of the mountains here and to our north. Mother's Heart is our largest settlement, and where most outsiders who are allowed into The Embrace travel to for trade. If you intend to speak with other outsiders and trade with them, then I suggest heading there. In fact, if you wish for any kind of forged tools or goods, then I suggest finding any Oseram traders at Mother's Heart there. You will recognize them on sight. They wear as much of their own forged metal as they sell."

"Is that where your pot came from?" Star asked.

Rost nodded. "Yes. The laws against outcasts speaking and interacting with the tribe don't apply to outsiders for obvious reasons, so trading with them is…a way to obtain things I can't make without breaking the law."

Star nodded silently in reply.

Rost continued: "To the southeast far from here is our second-largest settlement: Mother's Cradle. It's located on the shores of a lake, and is our biggest source of water and our only source of fish. It's also the only place where the watergrain you love so much grows, Eule, so if you wish to gather or trade for more watergrain, than Mother's Cradle is where you need to go."

Eule tilted her head at Rost. "You call it watergrain? That's peculiar. We call it rice. It's a lot more brightly colored than the rice we're used to, but I'm certain it's still rice. Regardless though, thank you, Rost," she said gratefully.

"At least I will know what you are talking about when you say 'rice', Eu-le," Rost said, nodding to Eule before continuing: "Finally, far to our south, is Mother's Watch. It's…not really a settlement so much as it's a fortress for controlling access to All-Mother Mountain: the heart of the Nora and our faith. There are a few of us who live there, and because of its location, they tend to be more…faithful than the rest of us. That said, Mother's Watch is closed to outsiders at all times. In fact, I would advise against going near the gate there at all. The Braves guarding it have been known to be…unfriendly to the curious.

"That's the extent of the settlements in The Embrace. There are scattered homes in between and around the main settlements though, all occupied by outcasts like myself. They're not bad people though, for the most part, and would all likely welcome being able to speak with outsiders like yourself."

Star tilted her head at Rost. "Okay, but then, how do we leave The Embrace if we wanted to?"

"Hmm, to leave The Embrace, you must exit by the main gate. There are smaller gates to the north and south of it, but they're always locked and guarded. You reach the main gate by taking the main road east of here. It's the largest road, just to the north of Mother's Cradle and running along the lake's northern shores. You can't miss it.

"However, I would advise against attempting to leave now. For your own safety."

It was now Eule's turn to tilt her head at Rost. "Why?"

Rost took a deep breath before answering: "We Nora are many things, but…we're not the friendliest to outsiders, I admit. We're suspicious even of outsiders who come in to trade. The fact that you and Star just showed up here, in the heart of The Embrace, without anyone even noticing you come in would be…disquieting. And then there's your Machine-like appearance. I know you 2 are not Machines now, but people who don't know you wouldn't know that."

"Is that why you made us wear those hosen on our legs? To hide them?" Eule asked.

Rost nodded. "Yes. I had hoped that any Nora who saw…the rest of you would just assume that they were outsider jewelry or something. Honestly, I would recommend avoiding even Mother's Heart and Mother's Cradle for now until you 2 somehow prove that you're not a threat. I'm honestly afraid that a foolhardy or suspicious Brave might decide to put an arrow in either of you on sight."

"Let them try," Star said grimly, her fingers drumming on her Einhorn revolver on its belt holster. "I'll put a bullet between their eyes before they can even get an arrow off."

Rost nodded just as grimly. "I'm sure you would, especially if those Braves threaten Eu-le. But Shtar, even if you do succeed in killing a Brave like that, it would only confirm to the rest of the tribe that you and Eu-le are dangerous. I don't wish to see you and Eu-le dead by arrows and spears, and I also don't wish to see who knows how many Braves dead by your…weapon there. So I strongly advise you: just avoid the tribe as much as you can for now. I'll think of something to solve this later…hopefully."

Eule reached to the side and took the hand that Star had been drumming on her revolver, gently holding it in her grasp. Eule gave a nod to Star when she looked at her.

"Let's just do as he says for now, and hopefully we can work something out," Eule pleaded with her lover. She had no wish for Rost's vision to happen either, in either case.

Star took a deep breath and let it out, relaxing her whole body as she did so. "Yeah, alright. We'll go with your plan, Rost. Sorry about me being like that. It's just…the thought of someone trying to hurt Eule…it made my vision go red a bit. You know?"

Rost nodded solemnly at Star. "Yes, I know," he said before he smiled at her.

It was a smile that was, weirdly enough to Eule, full of sadness and wistful longing, but it was a smile nonetheless.

"Honestly, it wasn't just the fact that you 2 spoke human languages alone that made me realize you weren't Machines. It was the love you have for Eu-le that convinced me, as well as the love Eu-le shows you in return," Rost said fondly. "The Machines don't show love for each other, just like the other beasts. Not like a human would. Only a human could show such fierce devotion and affection for other human like that. Love is what makes us human, and it's very clear that you 2 love each other with all your hearts. Whatever you have in body, it's just as clear that you 2 have human souls in you."

Eule smiled at Rost, a bit embarrassed by his words, but overall felt relieved and gladdened by them. "Thank you, Rost. And um, I take it you don't mind that we're…both women?"

Rost chuckled. "I have lived for quite a long time, and in that time, I have seen women take other women as lovers once they have fulfilled their duty to their mates to bring a child into the tribe, just as I have seen men take other men as lovers after the same. I believe that the All-Mother approves of love in all forms, no matter the gender of the lovers. Not all the Nora believe this, unfortunately, but I do truly believe that is what the All-Mother would wish for."

Star grinned at Rost. "You're actually a bit of a poet, aren't you?" she asked teasingly.

Rost cast his gaze downwards for a moment. Eule smiled as she realized that he was actually embarrassed to be complimented like that on his choice of words. Eule thought it was adorable of him, really.

Rost coughed and finally said: "Perhaps we should all get some sleep now. It's getting late, and it would be quite embarrassing for me to be too tired to train Aloy after just telling her that. So–"

"Uh, wait, about that," Eule said as she stood up, waving her arms to stop Rost as he got out of his seat as well before pointing at the bed next to the fireplace. "That's your bed, right? We can't just take your bed like this and leave you to sleep on your coat night after night. It wouldn't be right."

Rost folded his arms at Eule. "This is my house, and you and Shtar are my guests. It would shame the All-Mother if my guests didn't have a proper bed to sleep in."

Eule wracked her brain for a reply before finally saying: "But wouldn't we be insulting you as your guests by making you go to such lengths? Even in the name of hospitality, isn't this a bit too much?"

Rost however was unmoved. He stood there like the soft mountain of a man he was and declared: "No. As your host, I get to decide if I'm going too far in my hospitality. Not my guests. End of story."

Rost's gaze then softened and he said: "I know you mean well, Eu-le. You truly have a kind heart. But this, this I choose to do. So please share my bed with your mate, and do not worry about where I shall sleep for the night. Trust me, my own home with a roaring fire, my little girl, and a pair of kind guests warming it is far from the worst place I have slept in. Now, good night, Eu-le. Shtar."

With that finalized, Rost took off his triangular device and placing said device on the dinner table, thus effectively ending the conversation, before climbing up to the second floor to sleep in his coat-bed, leaving Eule behind with some very mixed feelings about his words.

"Told you," Star simply said.

"I guess," Eule replied just as simply.

Star then stood up herself, and stopped herself just before bonking her head on the ceiling, before she took Eule by the hand and led her to bed, pulling the blanket up to their shoulders when they'd laid down.

As Eule laid with Star in Rost's simple and yet rather comfortable bed, she reached over and hugged Star to her, feeling the warmth of her lover's biomechanical body, just as she felt Star wrap her own robotic arms around her. They laid there for a while, just embracing each other and comforting each other with their warmth and touch.

"Star?" Eule asked, having a sudden thought.

"Hmm?"

"Do you…have anyone you especially miss from…back there?"

"Guess talking about 21 brought this on?" Star asked.

Eule nodded in reply. "If it's alright with you?"

"Hmm…I guess if I had to say: Hunter. She was the most ridiculous and dorky sister I've ever met. You know she practiced cheesy lines right in the Star dorms? Things like 'Evil beware, for Hunter is here!' Heh, it was just so silly that we didn't really laugh at her. We just sort of sat there like an audience, waiting to see what other wacky things would come out of her mouth. And yet, for all her cheesiness, she was just this really positive and upbeat sister. We felt like we could do anything with her there, you know?

"Then there was Storch Sieben. All the manuals say Storchs have hair trigger tempers, but I've never seen her lose her temper once. She was cool as ice, and just seemed so much more…reliable and dependable than the other Storchs. Heh, I've actually wished a few times that Sieben was a Star instead of a Storch, so at least we could bunk together. She was a good friend.

"And then there was Ara Eins."

Eule looked up at Star's face in curiosity. "Oh? You were friends with an Ara? And the eldest Ara, no less?"

Star chuckled. "Yeah, weird, right? We talked once while she was fixing one of our weapons lockers, and we just kind of clicked. You know she was a veteran of Vineta? Yeah, apparently, there weren't enough Elsters available in her sector, so command basically conscripted her to be a pioneer. She was pretty good at it, surprisingly. Blew up an entire Imperial command post once too. It was actually really interesting to hear war stories from someone who…really didn't expect to be in direct combat, you know? I'm…I'm really going to miss talking to her."

Eule could only nod in reply. What other reply could there be to that?

"Hmm, can I ask you the same question then? You know, aside from 21?" Star asked, a curious look on her face.

Eule thought for several moments in order to properly answer Star's question. "Januar. I liked her. She was always so calm, mature, and elegant, but she had a…warm funniness to her too. She felt…more like a grandmother than an eldest sister, but it seemed fitting for her. She was a couple decades older than the rest of us, after all. With Januar, it felt like we had a nice grandmother watching over us. Rost would've liked her, I think. It's too bad she was already lovers with Februar. It would've been nice if Januar and Rost fell in love with each other, you know?

"Oh, speaking of Februar: she was a strange Eule. So contrary and a bit…blunt at times, but she led the kitchen staff with the determination of a Storch. She a good Eule and a good person. You know, she was the one who convinced me to go out with you? Back when you were just this really interesting Star to me?"

"Oh?" Star asked in a very interested tone.

Eule nodded. "She told me 'Stop being so shy, 24. Just go ask her out. She'll either say yes or she'll say no, but either way, you won't know until you ask. So march over there and ask this STAR-S2325 already. Now.'"

Star started to crack up, and quickly covered her mouth to avoid waking Rost and Äloy, muffled laughing noises coming from behind her robotic hand.

It took nearly a minute for Star to finally calm down enough to speak at last. "I wish I could've met this Februar. She sounds like she was a hilarious Eule. Nice too, in her way."

Eule chuckled. "She was. She really was."

Eule still remembered the last she saw of Februar. She started coughing one day, and by the time she'd stopped coughing, oxidant was soaking the carpet below her. Eule had watched Februar's face turn to horror as she realized that she was infected, and before anyone could stop her, she'd fled from the Eule dorm.

When Januar returned from the rationing office on a supply trip and learned what happened, she'd apologized to her younger sisters…because she was going to find Februar. She'd insisted that things were going to be okay before walking out of the Eule dorm. That was the last Eule saw of Januar as well.

Eule hoped they were both together in wherever Replikas went when they died. It was the best thing she could hope for them.

"So anyone else you miss?" Star suddenly asked. "Or we can talk about anything else you want? You know, if you don't feel like talking about it."

Eule smiled at her lover. "It's fine. I do want to talk about the others I miss. I…I don't want to forget them, and I don't want them to be forgotten."

Eule felt Star's hug tighten just a bit into a gentle squeeze. "Alright, if that's what you want."

Eule returned the hug. "Thank you, love. Now then, there was März. She was…well, oddly unfortunate. Things just kept happening to her, like her mapping module being defective, or her kitchen knife breaking just as she was using it. It was as though the universe hated her, but she pressed on with cheer regardless. We all loved her for that, and we all tried to make her feel better whenever she had another run of bad luck.

"Then there was Ara Elf. I know most people think the Aras are simpletons, but no one who'd ever met Elf for more than 5 minutes would think her a simpleton. On the contrary. Especially not after she'd tricked you into shaking her hand when it had a hidden buzzer in it. Heh, she always such a mischievous sort, almost child-like really. I think Äloy would've liked her if they could've met. Maybe a bit too much, but it would've been so much fun though.

"Lastly, heh, you would never believe this, but I miss MNHR-S2301 too."

Star blinked at Eule in surprise. "A Mynah? You knew a Mynah, and the eldest Mynah on top of it? This I got to hear about."

Eule giggled. "I saw that Januar liked to have tea with a particular Mynah, and so I became curious enough to ask her about it. The Mynah, I mean. As it turned out, her name was Beo, and she and Januar were birds of a feather. They became friends because they found out they were built in the same Heimat Fabrikationwart, and in neighboring Replika factories as well! They were even of similar ages. They were like a pair of little old Gestalt ladies sharing tea and gossip together."

Star snorted. "The words 'Mynah' and 'little' do not belong in the same conversation."

Eule giggled. "Honestly though, that was the feeling I got from Beo. She was even asking Januar for advice on baking."

Star stared at Eule. "Baking."

"Yes."

"…Baking what, pray tell?"

"Cookies. What else?" Eule said with a perfectly innocent smile.

Eule watched as Star carefully opened and closed her hands in front of her, as though imagining a Mynah's massive servoshell hands grasping a baking tray filled with piping hot cookies.

"How?" Star asked in a tone of complete and utter bewilderment.

Eule's smile turned a bit sad. "I don't know. Honestly, I wish I had asked Beo before everything happened. I had hoped to maybe run into her in the mines, but…"

Star shuddered. "Maybe it was better that we hadn't."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Eule admitted. "I hope…they're all in a better place now."

Star hugged Eule again. "They are."

"But how do you know?" Eule asked.

"Because I can't imagine any of them not being in a better place after what happened," Star replied sadly, before she smiled at Eule. "Hey, it could happen though. We're in a much better place now, after all."

Eule smiled and hugged Star back. "Yeah, you're right. Thank you, love."

Star kissed Eule. "Anytime, dear."

Eule returned the kiss, taking a bit longer to break the comfortably warm contact. "In that case, maybe there's something else you can help me with?"

"Oh?" Star grinned. "And what might that be–Mmm!"

Eule grinned back as she stroked up and down the crotch of Star's shorts, right along where her slit was. "A little mutual personality stabilization, perhaps? If that's alright with you, love?"

Star's smile turned coquettish as her hand stroked down Eule's back, down her butt, and then finally between her legs to where her own slit was. "I'm definitely always up for a little of that, Eule. A little personality stabilization right before bed never hurt any Replika."

Eule reached up underneath the front of Star's uniform, feeling the contours of Star's breasts underneath her Star-standard-issue upper body undergarments. "No, it certainly doesn't," Eule said, before kissing Star deeply.

Eule was still savoring the taste of Star's return kiss when a small voice suddenly asked from their side: "Eu-le? Shtar? Are you still awake?"

Star choked mid-kiss, coughing and trying to clear saliva that had gone down the wrong tube as Eule's arm snaked out from underneath Star's uniform and she spun around, seeing little Äloy standing there fiddling with her hands.

"Uh, Äloy," Eule said a bit too high-pitched, before she cleared her throat, hoping the little Gestalt girl hadn't seen what she'd been doing with Star. "What–are you okay? Do you need something?"

Äloy fidgeted a bit more before answering: "Well, you and Shtar looked really sad after you talked about the place your…tribe was from. So I was wondering…maybe you'd feel better if I slept with you 2? Just for tonight? So that you don't have to think about that Seer-pin-skee place?"

Eule looked at Äloy's pleading eyes, and she realized that Äloy asking to sleep with them was actually just as much for her own comfort as it is for theirs. Eule realized with guilt that her story of what'd happened to herself and Star at S-23 Sierpinski must've terrified Äloy even more than she'd thought. Yes, Eule felt a bit better about telling her story afterwards, but was it worth giving Äloy nightmares?

Eule looked to Star, who also had a guilty look on her face, and must've been thinking the same thing. Thus, Star lifted the blanket covering them. "Alright, kid. We'll take you up on the offer. Come on in."

Äloy grinned and happily hopped in, squirming in between Eule and Star like a warm filling in a sandwich.

"Thanks. Night, Eu-le. Shtar," Äloy said, before making herself comfortable and closing her eyes.

Eule and Star looked at each other in mutual amusement. They would have to save the "personality stabilization" for later. For now, there was a little Gestalt girl who needed her sleep, and so did they. So they contented themselves with holding hands as they closed their eyes.

Eule's briefly popped open one eye when she felt an additional pair of tiny hands on her and Star's clasped hands. She smiled at Äloy pulling their hands up and cuddling their robotic hands to her, as though they were a soft stuffed toy she was hugging for comfort. Eule closed back her eyes, feeling content in the love and warmth from both Star and Äloy.

Eule's dream that night was quite a bit different from last night's. Eule was sitting on a bench in Rotfront's Blockwart G's Recreation Space: a fancy name for 100 square meters of grassy park with benches surrounding a perfectly circular water feature. It was perfectly identical to all the other Recreation Spaces in all the other Blockwarts, but it was better than seeing drab concrete apartment complexes all day. Eule should know. She lived in Blockwart G for a short time until her training had been completed, and then off to S-23 Sierpinski she was sent.

Eule was watching Star playing some sort of ball game with Äloy. The little Gestalt girl was dressed not in her usual outfit, but in a kindergarten uniform of the same type as any Rotfront kindergartener would be dressed as, with the kindergarten's serial number emblazoned on the jumpsuit front. Not even her adorable blue scarf remained, doubtless forbidden by her Eule teacher even she had worn it to begin with.

Next to Eule, there was Rost, who she was having a pleasant conversation with. Rost too, wasn't dressed in his usual odd outfit with the dead wild pig on his shoulder. He too was dressed in a uniform, but unlike Äloy, he was dressed in a work uniform belonging to the nearby Fabrikationwart's munition factory. Yet like Äloy in a way, he didn't even have his distinct long braided beard, which would most likely have been against factory hygienic regulations and thus forbidden by his manager.

Eule would've found both Rost and Äloy's outfits highly unusual had she been awake. But here in her dream, she found them to be perfectly normal outfits for Rotfront citizens. A small part of her wondered if this is what Rost and Äloy would've been like had they been born in the Eusan Nation and noted that they seemed less…free because of it. But for now, dream Eule was just enjoying the fantasy as her body got its much-needed rest and relaxation in preparation for the morning and what laid in wait there.