Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 52

I struggled underneath her grip, but she was pushed off of me with such extreme force that I thought it was Erend. It was Y/N. She turned to look at me, there was blood covering her face and her one eye was closed. Her mouth was tied as well. She was still on top of Asera as she struggled to grab at Y/N. I grabbed my bow and shot her right in the head, killing her on the spot.

"Y/N!" I rushed over to her and grabbed what was in her mouth.

She coughed and gagged for a minute before regaining her breath, "That was awful."

"Are you ok?" I asked as I untied her bindings.

"For the most part, but I'll get by," she said as I helped her up. 

"What happened?" I asked, examening her face.

"I accidentally flew over the last rebel outpost and they shot me down. I blacked out from there and they brought me in after they saw I had a Focus on my head. Old one's crushed."

"That's why we have backups," I said. "I'll send you all the data you had on your old one."

"Thanks. They thought that I could be used as bait to bring you here so that Asera could finish you off, along with the rebels that are still loyal to Regalla."

"I saw," I said and pointed to the mouth of the cave. "Let's get you back to the base."

"I'm sorry, Aloy."

"For what?"

"For letting this happen. If I was more vigilant this could have been avoided."

"It wasn't your fault, Y/N. I wouldn't worry about it. What I would worry about, is the amount of blood that is on your face. And on your arms."

"That's not even the worst part."

"What's the worst part?"

"I'll show you when we get back to the base."

We walked out of Asera's base and I got back on my Sunwing with Y/N sitting behind me. We waved goodbye to Erend before flying back to the base. 

"How did you get the Sunwing to find me?" I asked her.

"I put in the coordinates to where our meet up place was and hoped that it would get the message."

"It certainly did. Maybe have a message attached next time," I chuckled.

"Duly noted. Maybe I will send it when my life is not in danger next time," she chuckled, but I could hear she winced due to the amount of pain she was in.

"Where else did they get you?"

"I'll show you when we get back. I didn't want to show it with Erend there."

"Understood."

We got back to the base when the moon had just reached its peak in the sky. I helped her down from the Sunwing and helped her into the base. The others came over, worried that we were getting back later than any of us had expected. Her mother was the most worried of all.

"What happened?" she asked, looking at Y/N's bloody face.

"Rebels," she breathed out.

"I hope you took care of them."

"We did," I said. "I'm going to look at her injuries."

We walked into our room and I closed the door before helping her to the bed. She painfully sat down and looked down at her abdomen that was slightly bleeding. She took off parts of her armor and she was only left in a cloth wrapped around her chest. I looked at the three scars she had received from the Zeniths. But there were new wounds. One was next to the first stab wound she received from Erik. That's what causing the bleeding in her abdomen. Next there was a wound on the center of her stomach.

"What happened there?" I asked as I handed her some bandages.

"Burn mark. They took a hot iron plate and burned me right there."

"What about the stab wound?"

"It was from Asera when I had tackled her. That's not the only bad thing that happened."

I walked over to her and looked closely at her closed eye, "May I?"

She tilted her head up and I placed my fingers around her eye, opening it to see there was nothing there. I grimaced as I closed it.

"They scooped it out with a Clawstrider claw. They were trying to get information out of me about you."

"And this happened in only a few hours?"

"Yes."

"Let's get you cleaned up. I'll be back," I said and walked out of the room, the door closing behind her.

"How is she?" her mother asked.

"Banged up, but she will be just fine. Zo, I need your help," I said and walked towards the exit of the base, grabbing a bowl on the way out.

"What's wrong?" Zo asked when we stepped outside.

"She lost an eye."

"She did?!"

"Yeah. Is there anything to treat it so it doesn't get infected?"

"Yes. I have some medicinal herbs and berries that might help. Wrap it in a bandage and apply it to her eye, not a lot."

"Thank you," I said and dipped the bowl into the water, adding some salt to it.

We walked back in and Zo handed me the berries and herbs she had mentioned. I grabbed some more bandages before walking into our room. She was lying on our bed, looking up at the ceiling. I walked over to her and sat next to her, dipping a rag into the salt water.

"This is going to burn for a second," I said and dabbed the wet rag on her stab wound.

I wrapped that up in bandages and began wiping the blood off her face. Once that was cleared, I put some of the berries and herbs on a bandage and wrapped it around her eye.

"There we go."

"How am I going to get by like this?" she asked.

"I'm sure we'll find a solution," I said, which spurred on an idea.

I tapped my Focus and some images popped up. They were images of fake eyes for those of the Old World. Some were even robot eyes.

"We can make you a fake eye. I don't know how we'll be able to perform surgery, but we'll think of something."

She nodded her head.

"Hey, I'm just glad you're alright," I said, leaning towards her. "I am a little upset that you had to endure all that pain and suffering. But you're alive and made it back to the base in mostly one piece."

She chuckled, "Maybe 98% of me."

"98% is still better than half or nothing at all. I don't know what I would have done if Asera killed you."

"I don't know what I would have done either."

I smiled and placed my forehead against hers.