Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 17

"ALOY!"

I ran to where the tower collapsed to see Aloy was sitting on the ground. I let out a sigh of relief and ran towards her.

"Aloy, are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. Are you?"

"Yes, but," I handed her rappel back to her. "Why did you give me your one and only rappel?"

"Because I wanted to make sure you were safe getting down."

"But don't kill yourself over something like this. I-I can't continue your search without you, Aloy."

She looked up and gave me a small smile, "You definitely wouldn't be able to."

I reached down and held out my hand. She reached up and grabbed my wrist. After I had pulled her up, she dusted herself off and then all of a sudden the head of a Slitherfang popped out from the rubble.

"Not going anywhere, are you?" Aloy looked at the Slitherfang as it was struggling to get out.

"Guess we need to finish this the hard way," I looked at her.

"Guess we do," she said and got her bow ready.

I loaded up my bow as well and we both shot at the Slitherfang as it was trying to get out from the rubble. It broke free and it opened its mouth, spraying acid at us. We both ran in different directions and started to get in some damage to it.

"Aloy!" I yelled and tossed her a small bomb.

She caught it and ignited it, throwing it at the Slitherfang's mouth when it opened up. It exploded upon impact and it caused it to slow down on the acid.

"Go for the throat!" Aloy shouted at me as she aimed for the neck of the snake.

I scanned the Slitherfang to see that another weak spot was the tail. I pulled my bow back and shot at the tail. It didn't know what to do with two of us hitting at it at once. So it drove into the ground and started to slither around.

"This isn't good," I said and tried to scan where it was going.

"Look out!" Aloy said and pushed me aside as the Slitherfang came up from the ground.

Aloy was caught in the mouth of the Slitherfang. The only thing that was keeping her from falling into its mouth was she was holding onto her spear. Her spear was lodged in the mouth, keeping it from closing. 

"Aloy, what are you doing?"

"Getting a little up close and personal," she said as she reached into a pouch she had, revealing a small bomb.

"Aloy," I said and ran to where the Slitherfang was heading.

She ignited the bomb and tossed it in the mouth of the Slitherfang. Using her entire weight, she propelled herself forward and upward, removing her spear along with her as she shot out of the mouth of the Slitherfang as the bomb had just went off. The Slitherfang fell onto the ground, which I stopped dead in my tracks as it was about to fall on me if I kept moving. She landed on the ground and rolled just a tad as she tried to stop herself from hitting a boulder nearby. I ran over to her as she was slow to get up.

"Aloy, are you ok?" 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm ok. Let's get into that data center now," she said as we walked towards the data center.

It was underground. I had never been to a facility that was underground before. 

"I bet you're used to this sight," I said and looked around. "I'm not used to being underground like this."

"You were sort of underground when you gave yourself to the Carja."

"That was different. I knew the dungeon was kind of underground."

"I am sort of used to it, but it still creeps me out. To think that GAIA had made it so that the people, who came after the Zero Dawn project was successful, came out from underground bunkers. I couldn't imagine being underground for so long and not get any natural sunlight."

"The sunlight does wonders for the skin," I chuckled.

"That is if you're wearing the right stuff."

"That's also true."

We continued to wander down into the data center until Aloy came across the room she needed to be in. She put the blunt end of her spear into a node and something rose up from the ground, but nothing was there. She let out a sigh as a hologram came up show GAIA and Elisabet. There was another guy who walked over and said that stealing the AI was not allowed. It was a ridiculous message it played, but I could see Aloy was upset by this matter.

"This was my only chance of getting a backup of GAIA," she sighed and stormed out of the data center.

"Aloy," I ran afterher. "Aloy, Aloy, hey, I'm sure there's another backup out there somewhere."

"Where do you think it is, Y/N?" she abruptly turned around when we reached the entrance of the data center. "If it took me this long to even get an inkling of where a backup would be, who knows how long it would take me to find an actual backup of GAIA. We don't have time right now, Y/N, to think of where another backup would be. We don't have time for any of this. I need to find a backup before this blight and the crazy weather patterns destroys the world!"

I just kept my mouth closed. I didn't have anything to say after what she had said. This was the first time I have ever seen her this upset and frustrated. I can see where she's coming from with her frustration, but it didn't feel good she was taking it out on me. Maybe she wasn't and I'm just reading too far into things again. I looked away from her gaze, but when she saw that I wasn't looking at her, she seemed to loosen up.

"I'm sorry, Y/N. I-I didn't mean to snap at you."

"You have every right to do so, Aloy."

"Why say that, Y/N?"

"I followed you even though you didn't want to be followed. It seems you know what you're looking for. I'm just going to hold you back," I said and walked past her, like how I did at the balcony in Meridian.

She reached down and grabbed my hand. She wasn't able to the first time I had walked past her, but now she has. I turned and looked at her. 

"Don't repeat that night in Meridian."

"You remember?"

"Of course I remember. I hurt you then and I don't want to hurt you now."

"But it's true, Aloy," I said and grabbed her hand, pulling it off of mine. "I'm just going to be a hinderance. I'll see you back up there," I said and walked back to where we were before we jumped down to make our way to the tower.