Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 26

Early in the morning we were riding out to Cauldron Gemini. Kotallo, Erend, Alva, and Zo were on their own Chargers. Varl and Beta were riding on a Charger together and I was on one by myself, watching the cargo in front of me. Aloy was leading everyone until Kotallo, Alva, Erend, and Zo broke off and it was just the four of us. I looked ahead of me to see Aloy wasn't even looking back at me. I remember when we rode the three of us before, me, Varl, and her, she would look back to make sure I was ok, but she never even looked back at me. I knew I messed up last night when I didn't make the move on her. Maybe we both thanked my hesitation because there was this gut feeling I had that something was going to go wrong while we were at Gemini.

When we reached the Cauldron, we got the rig set up and it was time to merge GAIA and HEPHAESTUS. But HEPHAESTUS did not want to merge back with GAIA and started to receed from the core. Aloy headed out in the Cauldron to get HEPHAESTUS back.

"You're not going to go with her?" Beta asked.

I looked up, my mind being in a haze from last night.

"N-No. Usually she tells me to come with her, but she can handle it," I said lowly.

Beta walked over and sat next to me.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I messed up, Beta. I seriously messed up."

"I heard you last night all the way from where I was. Everyone was worried something happened when you and Aloy went outside and only you returned."

"I was so close to her, Beta. I was so fucking close and I chickened out. I think it was her worries of starting a relationship that made me chicken out a second time."

"I'm sure the third time will be the time you do it," she said.

"If there is a third time," I said. "I think she's upset with me."

"I think she wants this mission to go well. We really need HEPHAESTUS to merge back with GAIA. So maybe she didn't say to come along with her is because you have a duty with me as well."

"That's right, I'm meant to protect you."

"HEPHAESTUS is coming back your way!" we heard Aloy from the Focus about some time later.

HEPHAESTUS returned to the core and Beta was ready to start the merge. Aloy came running back in and was ready to do it with her.

"Alright, now we need to get rid of HEPHAESTUS's malicious code and we need to do it carefully," Beta said as a hologram appeared before the two of them.

I watched in awe as both of them were in sync with one another. Once the decoding process was finished, a Sunwing appeared and it hovered in front of Beta. Beta tossed it over to where Aloy was and she held the hologram in her hands. She pushed it towards her Focus and turned to look at Beta. All things were going smoothly, but an explosion appeared and the Zeniths were here.

"Well, well, there she is. It's time to get this over with."

Aloy grabbed her bow and was about to shoot at the Zeniths, but a gun appeared on the middle man's arm and he shot at Aloy, knocking her onto the ground. I stood up and got in front of Beta, drawing my bow.

"Erik, get Beta."

"With pleasure."

Varl came in and we both saw some parts hanging from the ceiling.

"You see what I see?" Varl asked.

"Yeah," I said and we both shot at it, causing it to fall right on Erik. 

He was crushed underneath the rubble, but he emerged unscathed. It was those shields they had. Varl dropped his bow and grabbed his spear. I drew my bow back, but I knew it was pointless. I think Varl knew that too, but we had to protect Beta at all costs. I went to shoot his head, but it just reflected off his shield.

"Stay close, Beta," I said.

Varl tried his best to get through the shield, but it just kept reflecting off of Erik. He grabbed Varl by the throat and raised him in the air.

"Now we're having fun," he said and a sharp pointed edge appeared on his arm, stabbing Varl.

"No!" Aloy exhaled as she was getting up from being blasted.

It was all up to me now. Erik tossed Varl to the floor. He looked like he was about to do the same with me. He grabbed me by my throat and started to choke me out first. I took out my spear and tried to stab him, but my efforts were not rewarded. He was about to stab me, but Aloy shot an arrow, redirecting the blade to where it didn't hit any of my main organs. But it still hurt like hell. He pulled his blade out and was about to stab me again.

"Erik, quit playing around and grab Beta."

Erik dropped me and kicked my stomach, but that didn't stop him from stabbing me once more.

"Y/N!" Aloy yelled.

"Y/N," Beta rushed over to me.

"R-Run," I whispered. "Run, Beta."

She was about to, but Erik grabbed her and started to float back up to where the others were. With my hazy vision, I looked to see one was coming down to where we were.

"Get GAIA and HEPHAESTUS ready for transport, Tilda."

"Aloy," Beta called out to her.

Aloy pulled back her bow, looking like she was about to shoot either one of them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. 

"Tilda, are you listening to me?"

"I failed," was the last thing I heard before everything around me went white. 

I opened my eyes to see the base's ceiling above me. There was pain pulsating throughout my head as my memories were slow to come back. Seeing Varl die right in front of me was something I didn't want to remember. I knew something was going to go wrong and everything that could go wrong did. I raised my head up, but my vision was still blurry and a bit doubled. I was so light headed that my head fell back onto the bed, my eyes slowly closing once more.

"Aloy."