Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 55

"We're almost done. We just need to make sure it fits before we proceed further," Aloy said.

It had been about a couple months since my eye was removed and it has finally healed. During those two months, everyone was getting the necessary machine parts we needed to make more signal towers. It was also during this time where Aloy, Beta, and I were working together on making this machine eye for me. 

"I can't thank you both enough for doing this," I said as they put on the finishing touches.

"Now the procedure is going to be a bit of a long one," Beta said. "For it to work, we need to link up the wires to the nerves. While most of them are dead, some are still there."

"So what you're saying is," I trailed off, not wanting to say it.

"We're going to have to basically replace your eye with the machine eye. The outer metal is going to help it stay in place until your eye has recovered and it used to the machine eye," Aloy said. "Once it seems like its in place, we'll take off the outer metal and hope that the metal eye stays."

"So I'm going to be part cyborg?" I chuckled.

"Sort of," Beta said.

They finished tweaking the metal frame before making sure it fit securely.

"There," Aloy said. "Now we're going to take you down to the third floor of the base to perform the procedure."

"Please tell me I will be sedated?"

"Yes. Beta was able to find something to help with the sedation."

I slowly got up and followed them to the third floor. There was a long table with multiple weird looking machines. I was a bit nervous, but what could go wrong? It's not like this can permenantly damage my already damaged eye socket. I laid down on the table and Aloy opened up the empty eye.

"This is going to be fun," she said to Beta. "Do you have the stuff for the sedation?"

"Yes," Beta said and handed it to her. 

"Beta found these in the facility we found her in. Don't worry, we washed the syringes. I'm surprised that she found these," Aloy said and placed the needle above my shoulder. "We'll see you in a little bit, Y/N."

"See you soon," I said, taking in a deep breath as Aloy inserted the needle.

The last thing I remember was blinking before they turned all blurry.

"You have more of these if she wakes up?" I asked Beta.

"Yes. There are a few in case the procedure takes longer than expected."

"Let's get to it," I said and turned on the overhead light. 

Beta held open her eye while I slowly started to attach the wires inside her eye. I was hoping that the small electricity they harbor would strengthen the weakened nerves. Some weren't too damaged beyong repair, but others were. We didn't have the necessary tools and equipment to remove those and give her healthy nerves. Once the wires were inserted and looked to be connected too, I placed the eye in the socket and Beta made sure the metal frame sat nicely on her head. Beta closed her eye and the eye lid seemed to go over it completely. We were afraid that the machine eye would be too big for the socket. 

I took in a deep breath and wiped the blood from my hands, "That didn't take as long as I thought."

"That was a pretty quick procedure," Beta said.

"It was. I'm going to go check on how the others are doing with the machine parts. Once I check in, I'll come back down here and wait for her to wake up."

"I'll wait here until then."

"Thank you, Beta."

I walked out from the room and headed up to the second floor to call the others to see how things were going. Seems we were ahead and gathering components we needed faster than I could predict. This was good. I headed back down and sat with Beta for a minute, talking to her how things were a bit ahead of schedule in terms of getting the machine parts. After our conversation, she headed back up to the main part of the base while I was sitting here with Y/N as she was sleeping. I stood up and walked over to her, tapping my Focus to see what her vitals were. Everything was good. I sat down next to her and took her hand, holding onto hers.

"Soon enough you'll be able to see with that new eye of yours."

I opened up my eyes and when I saw that I was able to see with the other eye, I almost jumped upwards, but my body was still getting over the sedative. I smiled as I could see the ceiling fully once more. But I had to get used to seeing in depth once more since I lost out on that for about two months. I could feel a tear slide down the right side of my face, but not the left side. I guess that is the side effect of not having tear ducts anymore. I blinked and turned my head to see Aloy was asleep beside me. I looked down to see her hand was holding mine. I smiled and rested my head on the table, not wanting to interrupt this moment, but I had to get up. I had to test out this new eye's ability to see machines. I slowly got up, which caused Aloy to get up.

"How are you feeling?"

"This is awesome," I said and looked around. "Nothing much has changed to be honest, but I like that."

"Want to go check it out?"

"Yeah," I said and sliding off the table.

We headed up and out of the base. We walked around a bit outside before I picked up on a Bristleback that was hiding behind some rocks. 

"You can't see the Bristleback without your Focus, can you?"

"No," she tapped her Focus to see that the Bristleback was behind the rocks.

"This is so cool," I said as I looked around, seeing more machines behind rocks, at the bottom of the hill, even as far as Plainsong."

"This has a lot of range."

"How far can you see?"

"I can see machines until Plainsong."

"That definitely does have some power to it."

I turned towards her and hugged her tightly, "Thank you, Aloy."

She hugged me back, smiling, "You're welcome, Y/N."