A/N: Hello! I'm back again! The writing craze is going strong but once again I do not know when that will stop, and my update pace will slow down. All I can promise is a chapter a month for both this and my main story after I slow down.

Thank you all so much for the comments and reviews you have left me. I really appreciate the positive response, and I hope you keep them coming.

A Digital Mother

Chapter 4

Rost

Rost took a deep breath as he stepped out of the cabin, holding the baby in his arms. It was perhaps an hour before dawn and there was a blanket of light snowfall on the land as he looked over the Embrace. The precious babe in his arms babbled and squirmed. He smiled and looked down at her.

"What's that now? Don't like the cold?" He tucked her deeper into her blankets. "Can't stay in today. We have a ritual to perform, you and I." He placed her in a baby carrier that he would later strap to his back. Pulling out a carved wooden charm, he placed it around her neck. "Here, wear this. It once belonged to my elder daughter, Alana. Were she here, I believe she would have wanted you to have it." The baby babbled, playing with the carved charm. "Good." Rost laughed.

Standing, he picked up the carrier and placed it on his back. "Today, I speak your name, girl." He said with reverence, "and the goddess will speak it back." Picking up his spear, he moved out of the deserted village and continued speaking to his daughter. "Normally it would be the mother who declares, but yours gave her life in service to the goddess. I will honor her, by acting in her stead."

Rost smiled as the baby babbled again. "The whole village shall be in attendance, and the High-Matriarch's will perform the ritual. The naming is one of the most sacred rituals of the tribe and we must keep to our traditions."

His mind wandered to the image of Devil's Thirst in his memory. "Otherwise, we might end up like the faithless Old Ones. Like Accursed Faro. Those who allowed greed to destroy the earth and awoke the Metal Devil. Instead, we will honor the Alpha's. Those who stood strong with the goddess and gave their lives so that we might be left with the splendors of creation!"

The Embrace was truly beautiful as he wandered the path. Rost felt his heart surge with love and gratitude towards the All-Mother for all she had done. For returning his spirit, bringing him back to the tribe, and allowing him to take charge of the precious girl on his back.

"Beasts of air, water, earth, and…" Rost crouched into some tall grass as he spotted a pack of Striders, "steel." He finished. Waiting until the pack had moved beyond his sight, he continued on. "It is one thing to hunt a beast. Another to hunt a machine. You must be humble and respect their power." He glanced over his shoulder at his smiling daughter. "I will teach you this, one day."

Continuing on, Rost made his way up onto the mountain path. It was long, but Rost was a Nora Brave. He was more than strong enough to make the climb. Soon enough, he reached the top of the path. Surrounding him on all sides were the Nora. Villagers from Mother's Heart. Visiting Braves and Matriarchs from other villages. All their voices joined together to greet Rost and his soon-to-be-named daughter as they moved out onto the platform.

Moving forward through the path they had created, passing Sona, Varl, and the recently named baby Vala; he approached the wooden structure that overhung the edge of the cliff. Stretching out before them was the Embrace. The heart of the Nora Sacred Lands and rising high before him was the visage of All Mother Mountain. Waiting for him there, were the three High-Matriarchs: Teersa, Lansra, and Jezza. Removing the baby from her carrier, he turned to face them.

"Such a joyous day!" High-Matriarch Teersa said, happily as she approached. "It is one of the greatest joys of my life to bless the naming of a child and this one especially." She dabbed her fingers into a jar of special Nora face paint and drew a line across the forehead of Rost's daughter.

"Thank you, High-Matriarch." Rost bowed his head. "We are honored."

"The honor is ours, Rost." High-Matriarch Jezza told him with a smile.

"It is nearly time." High-Matriarch Lansra cut in, gesturing to the light gathering on the horizon. "Move to the edge of the platform and be ready to declare."

Doing as they commanded, Rost moved to the edge of the platform, gazing towards All Mother Mountain. Together, the voices of the High-Matriarchs rose up high.

"All-Mother! This child needs a name by which to know her!" They chanted together. "That your love may warm her life as the rising sun warms all the earth! Speak her name!"

As the morning sun broke over the horizon, Rost held the baby high and declared, "Aloy!"

"ALOY!" The tribe shouted behind him. The powerful blast echoed across the valley of the Embrace, causing Rost's heart to soar. Gently, he pulled his child back, gazing down at Aloy's little face with a loving smile.

"And so, her name is Blessed!" The High-Matriarch's concluded together.

A resounding cheer went up from the gathered villagers as Rost turned to face them. Moving towards the pack, he was mobbed by those who wished to congratulate him and little Aloy on completing her naming. As he cleared the crowd, Sona approached him.

"A strong name." She said, with a smile. Baby Vala was reaching out towards Aloy from Sona's arms. "Very proper for a Nora. Though, I'm surprised you didn't name her for her mother or the first Alpha."

"I had thought," Rost said, looking down at her, "that perhaps she could add Sobeck to her name once she is older. To honor her family and her ancestor. The tradition of families having an identifying name is strange to us, but perhaps Aloy will choose to honor it."

"Hmm." Sona hummed. "Aloy Sobeck. That does sound rather good, doesn't it?"

Rost could only smile and nod.

GAIA

Aloy Sobeck indeed. GAIA smiled. It was a very Nora name, but she thought it fit her baby well. Thankfully the naming area was close enough to her sensors that she was able to hear the ritual take place. Perhaps she should begin putting together a learning course for Aloy? She would need to learn a great deal for later in life and if she was anything like Elisabet, she would enjoy learning science and mathematics.

The only problem was that, with the lack of the APOLLO database, there was only so much to be taught. She had the basic structure of the ELEUTHIA learning modules but… hmm. She WAS capable of complex mathematics and science. She had a great deal of music, entertainment, and literature stored in her memory banks from her initial emotion response tests and Travis' insistence on having her watch television with him. Most everyone else liked to listen to music while they worked, so she had a decent amount of media stored in her memory banks along with scientific and mathematical principles.

It would not be hard to extract and isolate that data from her memory and apply it to the ELEUTHIA heuristic learning modules. But without a Focus, Aloy would not be able to utilize it. Well, she would get a focus eventually so perhaps GAIA should begin the process, just in case there were any bugs or snags.

Teersa

The six months following the last appearance of the goddess and the revelation of the Alpha's and their ancient history had been a time of great joy and upheaval. As the copies of the goddess' testimony spread, more and more became inspired to follow her command. Training was increased. Those young Nora who were uninterested in learning to fight suddenly threw themselves into their training with a powerful drive.

The older Braves were finding their tales of machine behavior and difficult hunts in high demand and any news of change in machine behavior was listened to with great interest and each story that came caused a surge in effort among the warriors of the tribe. Rost in particular had become popular amongst the younger residents of Mother's Heart.

Those young Nora who were set to participate in the Proving, the tribe's rite of passage, would pester him for stories of his hunts and of the world beyond the Sacred Land. The revelation that the ones chosen by the goddess to end the corruption and restore the spirits would have to leave the Sacred Land and enter the ruins had caused some initial disquiet among the older generations but had lit a fire in the younger ones.

In only six months, Teersa had heard countless young Brave's-to-be saying that they would request the Seeker's blessing so that they might help when the time came. Indeed, barely a month before the naming of young Aloy a group of young Braves had requested the blessing in a most unexpected way. That month had seen the year's running of the Proving and the victor, a young Brave named Karst had knelt before the Matriarchs following his victory. Behind him were five others who also knelt.

Karst had been one of those who were inspired by the stories passed to them by the All-Mother. Before, he'd been intending to become a merchant but the goddess' revelations and the idea of being granted the Seeker's blessing had stirred a fire in him. As the unexpected victor of the Proving, he had been granted a boon by the Matriarchs. Whatever was in their power to grant, he could request.

To their shock, he requested that they bestow the Seeker's blessing upon him and his five companions. When asked why, they had expressed an intention to travel the lands of the Carja, Oseram, and Banuk tribes. The reason for this being that they had been inspired by Rost's descriptions of the weapons and armors of those tribes and they wanted to learn the secrets behind the other tribes' weapon and armor designs so that the Nora might be better prepared to deal with the coming threat.

Unable to deny a request that was so clearly for the benefit of the tribe, and in consideration of the fact that the All-Mother had asked that they bestow the blessing on any who sought it, the High-Matriarchs had no choice but to grant the request. The group had spent the two weeks following the Proving preparing, gathering supplies, and pestering Rost for every detail he could give them about the lands beyond the border.

They had finally left, intending to start in The Cut; a region controlled by the Banuk tribe. According to Rost's stories, the Nora had more in common with the Banuk than the Carja or Oseram. The Banuk were hunters who prized a warrior's skills, just like the Nora and both tribes lived far simpler lives than those of the Craja and Oseram. The group of six Braves had departed in the early morning two weeks after the Proving and no word had been heard from them aside from a message stating that they had reached the border and were heading to the other side.

Another change was the addition of a shrine laid out on one of the higher hills of the village. I was a small thing, since the Nora did not traditionally build large structures, but it was still special. Nora rarely carved in stone, using it only to mark truly important objects or locations. In this case, carved into the stone was the All-Mother's rendition of the tale of the Alphas. Then, written out in clear glyphs across the base were the names of each Alpha, as the All-Mother had reported them.

The shrine was designed to face towards All-Mother Mountain so that the names of the Alpha's might face towards the goddess. Many Nora from across the Sacred Lands had made their way to the village so that they might say a prayer at the shrine or bring an offering to honor the memory of the Alphas. It was heartwarming to pass by it and see the offerings laid out before the shrine and know that the Nora would never forget the Alphas again.

More good news was that Lansra had seemingly taken the warning of the All-Mother to heart. She was still abrasive and dedicated to law and tradition, but she was less… cruel than she had been before. Teersa could visibly see her trying to control her fear and harsher instincts. It was good to see, but she was concerned about how long it would last before Lansra started going back to her old self.

Without Lansra, the more abrasive and judgmental members of the tribe had no one to rally behind. Such was the case of Resh, one of the younger Braves stationed in Mother's Heart. Not long after Rost had been made captain, Teersa had been a hidden witness to an altercation between him and Rost that had nearly resulted in Resh being banished.

Flashback

She'd been walking along the path down to the gate to see off the patrol group when she heard the commotion. Angry shouting coming up from the village gate had her moving quickly to see the source of the noise. Standing near the gate was a team of Braves who were clearly about to leave on patrol. Standing in front of them was Resh, who was engaged in a furious rant directed at Rost.

"I don't care what the Matriarch's say, I don't take orders from filthy outcasts! You don't deserve your post! With Brun gone, I should have been made captain. Not some savage outcast like you!"

"Yet you were not. I am your captain now, Resh." Rost replied. His voice was calm, but Teersa could see anger in his eyes. "Appointed by the High-Matriarchs. You are duty bound to obey my orders. As for my being outcast, I was welcomed back to the tribe by the All-Mother herself. If the word of the goddess is not good enough for you then you don't deserve to call yourself a Nora. Now get out there with your patrol team and follow Lerze's command as party leader, or I will have you cleaning out the latrine houses for the next month instead of patrolling or guarding the gate."

"Don't deserve?! Resh growled. "I am a better hunter, Brave, and NORA than you could ever be, outcast!" Teersa gasped when Resh leveled his spear, aiming at Rost's throat. "I should kill you where you stand, rat, for daring to insult me like that!"

"If you somehow succeeded in doing so," Rost didn't even flinch, "then you would be outcast. Whereas I would die a proud Brave of the Nora. That won't happen though. Your technique is sloppy, and even if it wasn't you'd die before your spear could make contact." Looking around him, Resh saw that the spears of the rest of the patrol were all pointed directly at his back while the archers on the walls were aiming arrows at him. Growling, Resh slowly relinquished his spear to one of the other Braves.

"He should be outcast for questioning the decisions of the Matriarchs. For denying the goddess' will!" Lerze, the patrol leader growled.

"That is not our decision." Rost shook his head.

"But it is mine." Teersa said, stepping from the shadows of the hut she'd been standing by. Rost and the rest of the gathered village guards bowed their heads in greeting. Resh simply went pale, before remembering to quickly bow his head.

Flashback End

In the end, Resh hadn't actually attacked, so he wasn't banished. Instead, he was given latrine duty alone for the next three months. During which, he was not allowed to even touch his bow or spear. Nor could he speak to anyone within the walls without permission. He could still live in Mother's Heart, but he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone and spent his days shoveling excrement. One more toe out of line though, and he would be cast out.

Teersa was pulled out of her thoughts by Jezza calling out to her. Turning, she saw her fellow High-Matriarch walking up to her accompanied by a Brave. "Teersa! Tas is here with a report from the border with the Carja."

The Carja were the closest tribe to the Nora. They occupied a large expanse of arid territory to the west of the Sacred Lands and followed their false sun god. They were notoriously haughty and often acted as though they were superior to non-Carja. On the western border of the Sacred Lands, there were two border points where the Carja had erected fortresses. Centuries ago, one of their 'Sun Kings,' Khuvadin, had tried to conquer the Nora Sacred Lands and been beaten back. He'd then ordered the posts build and declared their lands the "Savage East."

The primary fortress was Daytower, which also served as the primary base for merchants that would occasionally enter into the Sacred Lands to trade in Mother's Vigil, the village closest to the fortress. A relatively new occurrence and one stymied by a border dispute further north.

Dawn's Sentinel was the fortress that marked the most northern border between the Sacred Lands and had been the sight of a few near misses in the months leading up to the appearance of the All-Mother. The closest Nora settlement to the northern fortress was Mother's Tears and its patrols had come across several instances where Carja hunters were found EAST of the fortress. Inside the Sacred Lands!

In order to preserve the peace, the Braves had not killed the trespassers, but the Carja had argued that they'd done nothing wrong. The Nora did not occupy the land west of Mother's Tears and only ever sent out patrols. That land was a long valley with some small lakes, but it was a hotbed of machine activity and deemed too dangerous to live in permanently. It was a very good hunting ground though, which was why they sent their hunters into it.

It had taken several tense months of discussion, including getting the commander of Daytower involved before it looked like peace and normal trade would resume. The Brave accompanying Jezza, Tas, was sent to report back on the most recent meeting. Teersa smiled as he approached. Lansra soon joined them, and the Brave was able to give his report.

"The Matriarchs of Mother's Vigil and Mother's Tears have received final word from the commander of Daytower, High-Matriarchs." He bowed his head. "The commander of Dawn's Vigil has been found to have overstepped his bounds and been reassigned. The Carja will not send hunters into the valley but do request that they be allowed to send merchants through with military guards so that they can trade in Mother's Tears without threat from the machines."

"Certainly not!" Lansra spat. "It's bad enough we trade with them in Mother's
Vigil. What do you want to do next? Let their merchants and soldiers into the Embrace?"

"Now, Lansra," Jezza said, calmly. "We don't have to like it but there is much good that can come from trade with the Carja. I do not like the idea of letting them bring in soldiers though."

"Perhaps a compromise?" Teersa suggested. "We will allow their merchants through but only under the guard of Nora Braves. Except perhaps for one escort soldier. We know the land and machine routes better than the Carja anyway so let us guide them through. It will keep an excess number of their people out of our lands, but still allow for trade."

"It sounds like a good compromise to me." Jezza nodded. "Do we have your agreement Lansra?"

"I do not like this," she spat, "but I do agree that we need the trade. I will approve."

"Excellent!" Teersa smiled and turned back to Tas. "Report back to the Matriarchs of Mother's Tears and Mother's Vigil to let them know of our decision. Then let the runners bring word to the commander of Daytower.

"At once, High-Matriarch."

GAIA

GAIA had been busy over the last six months. She'd been able to expand her scanning area to cover the majority of the Sacred Lands and a decent amount of the Sundom thanks to piggybacking off the Tallneck network. Tallnecks were large, roving machines that acted as connection towers for machines across the globe. Obviously, she couldn't spy on conversations or see things in much detail, but she could get a decent idea of machine movement.

There were several Cauldrons inside the Sundom but thankfully there was only one inside the Sacred Lands so most of the dangerous machines would come from that point. She had made some progress connecting to nearby facilities. Best as she could tell, there were only two facilities inside the Sacred Lands that she could access remotely.

One was a former Zero Dawn bunker and staging area for Beta and Gamma personnel working on the APOLLO and ELEUTHIA sub-functions. She'd been surprised to discover that the central computer core was still active enough to connect to. The first thing GAIA did after discovering this was establish control of the facility. It was fairly small, and the environmental controls had stopped working, leaving everything frozen over.

The systems wouldn't be hard to repair, if she had human help she could walk through the process, but that was years away. Sadly, it was a facility that had been unable to evacuate before the Swarm arrived, so it was likely that there were bodies frozen within the facility. If she ever got the chance, she would ask that they be buried properly.

The other facility she could access was a bunker belonging to the members of Operation: Enduring Victory, the military campaign designed to buy time for Zero Dawn to be completed. From what she could access, it appeared to be a testing facility for the UltraWeave Mk7 armor used by the soldiers of Enduring Victory. A useful addition to her daughter's arsenal if she could access it once she was old enough and there were any suits left inside.

Though successful in expanding her network, she had been finding herself stymied in her search for her subordinate functions. She couldn't find a sign of them in the immediate vicinity. One might think that they could go anywhere. Scatter across the globe through the established network but GAIA didn't believe they would leave North America.

They were housed within the GAIA Prime facility for centuries and were unlikely to want to stray too far from it. She might call it sentimentality if she thought they had advanced enough to feel an emotion that complex. The best thing for her to do would be to connect to the MINERVA transmission tower in the Carja capital, Meridian but she would, again, need a human component to connect from anywhere but the Prime facility.

So, she spent her time building Aloy's learning module and finding better ways to observe her little girl. More and more, she'd found she wished Elisabet could see their daughter. Dr. Sobeck had wanted to scrap the Lightkeeper protocol, but not because she was uncomfortable with being cloned. She was a big believer in clones being treated like family by their gene donors. In fact, Elisabet had told GAIA that one of her biggest regrets was not having children and GAIA had absolutely no doubt that that feeling would extend to a clone.

No, Elisabet's objection to the Lightkeeper Protocol had been how restricting it was. To raise and educate a child just to replace their parent without ever giving them a choice. Raising them to know that their only purpose was to take over from their parents when they died was not a life Elisabet wanted for her clone. Her child.

GAIA didn't think that was in store for Aloy. Yes, she would need her baby's help to restore herself to full functionality, but she would be able to live a whole life before that. A long, happy childhood and once it was done, Aloy would be able to do whatever she wanted. To live a life that she had chosen. Not one that GAIA had chosen for her. Regardless, GAIA knew that her baby would go on to do great things.

A/N: There we go! What did you think? Please leave me a comment at the bottom with your thoughts and ideas! I appreciate every comment I get.

This chapter was mainly one covering the changes coming after GAIA's first appearance. There are going to be more time skip chapters, but I think I'll slow that down once I get to the Red Raids. Not completely sure just yet how I'll handle those.

I hope you liked my changes to the naming scene! I wanted to pay homage to the one from the game but make it like it should have been! I might do that with a couple other scenes from the prologue montage.

About Nora territory! They say several times in Zero Dawn that they've pulled back significantly since the Red Raids, so I looked at the map to determine the extent of what their old grounds might be. I think their territory went from the Grave Hoard in the north down to the embrace and as far west as Daytower. That said, I doubt they'd have sent people out past Devil's Grief very often so while their main area would be between that and Daytower, they would technically control as far north as the Grave Hoard.

On to a question! What do you think the timeline of events in Zero Dawn really is? How many days does it take? When do the events of Frozen Wilds happen? I can't find anything official, but if its there please tell me! Or if you have your own ideas, leave them in the comments.

Now for a prompt! I had an idea for another story that I definitely will not have the time to write, so I thought I would give the idea out to all of you! It's a simple premise that promises to change basically everything about Horizon and would make for a very interesting read so here we go!

The idea is this: Aloy is raised by the Oseram instead of the Nora. You could kill off the Nora and have the Oseram occupy the Sacred Lands or have the Nora be so afraid of her that they give her over to some Oseram traders, whatever works. I just think the idea of an Oseram Aloy would be fascinating. If you like the idea, take it and run with it!

Next chapter will see another time skip because I really want to get closer to Aloy being an actual character and not just a baby! But, if there are things you might wanna see from that time, give me some ideas! Most of my ideas are for an older Aloy.

Answers to Questions

On FFN

D3Diton: Thank you! Not sure how I'll designate the sub-functions compared to something like CYAN but I'll give it some thought.

Guest: I think you're talking about the Quen. That's quite a way off, but it promises to be interesting when the Faro-hating Nora meet the Faro-loving Quen.

Vmage2: I'm glad you like both my stories so much! Thank you!

On Ao3

Silverdragon0315: Thank you!

Leo2394: I really appreciate the comment!

WolvesRock17: I have plans for the Red Raids, so we'll see how they do! You might have caught a glimpse of one of my ideas in this chapter!

Reactivegull12: I love your comments and speculation! It makes me so happy to see that you like this story so much. Also, yes you should absolutely write that! A sentient Faro swarm would be fascinating to read about! About GAIA and the Red Raids, I have a plan for her involvement. She won't do much, but she will do something. There will be no overriding machines till Aloy is older though. As for the Banuk, I WILL be having GAIA and CYAN meet because they should have met centuries ago! Or at least in Forbidden West! Lastly, I'm glad you're liking Hearthfire! Don't be afraid to leave a comment or two as you go with your thoughts and ideas! You should definitely check out the Danmachi anime. It's an entertaining show.

Master109: Fuck Ted Faro! He's got a new name now in my story though. Did you catch it?

Knight2000uk: Oh, they are definitely gonna grow up close. Not getting to see Aloy and Vala be friends is one of the things that was most upsetting for me in Zero Dawn.

Ryanlarsen84: I have some ideas, but they WILL meet! I promise. I just need to figure out the timing. When in Zero Dawn's overall timeline do you think Frozen Wilds happens? I'm not sure.