Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 70

"W-We'll be over as soon as we can," she said.

"Y/N, we need to go."

"Let me finish getting these blazes," I said and shot off another one. "What did GAIA want?"

"It's time."

I looked over my shoulder and at her, "It's time?"

"Yes. It's time."

I quickly finished off the remaining Bristlebacks before gathering the parts and the blazes. We ran out from where we were and Aloy called her Sunwing. It flew above us and she grabbed onto it, reaching her hand out for me to grab. I jumped and grabbed onto her arm. She hoisted me up before she climbed up. I grabbed the reins of the Sunwing and we flew back to the base. When we reached the mountain, I landed the Sunwing and we got off of it. We headed into the base and ran towards where GAIA was. When we got there, GAIA was pleased to see us.

"Good morning, Aloy. Good morning, Y/N."

"Morning, GAIA," we said.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes. Yes we're ready."

"Downstairs on the third floor is where she will be."

"Thank you," we said and headed down to the third floor.

We reached the third floor and there was this pod looking machine that looked like the pod Beta was found in. In there was a living, breathing child. The hatch opened up and the baby started to cry. I reached down and pulled her out from the machine. As soon as I embraced her, she immediately stopped crying. Aloy came over and ran her hand against the back of her head. We both smiled at one another before we looked down and smiled at her.

"Hello, Lis," Aloy said.

"Welcome to the world."

"I am sending her genetic makeup to both of you know in case you wanted to know which part of your genes went to her," GAIA said.

"Thanks, GAIA," Aloy said. 

"I can already tell that she has your hair color," I said and pointed out to the small hairs on her head being bright red like hers. "And she has your freckles."

Aloy chuckled and looked down at Lis, "Mind if I hold her for a bit?"

I carefully handed her to Aloy. She cradled her gently and close to her chest. A few tears slid down her face as she looked down at her daughter. 

"This is absolutely wonderful," she said. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Y/N."

"Thank you as well, Aloy. We couldn't have done this without one another."

We headed back upstairs to the main base and we headed out to where the Sunwing was.

"I made like a baby carrier for Lis," Aloy said. "I-I should of brought it with me."

"It's ok. I can wait in the base until you come back."

"I won't be gone long," she said and got onto the Sunwing and flew back towards home.

I headed inside to wait for her there. I sat down in the main part of the base. Tapping my Focus, I called my mother to tell her the news.

"Y/N, what's the matter?"

"You're a grandmother now," I smiled.

"I'm a grandma?!" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, you're a grandma."

She smiled and I could hear she was crying tears of joy, "What's their name?"

"Her name is Lis. After Elisabeth Sobeck."

"I thought you two were going to call her that. Congratulations, Y/N."

"I never thought I would be a mother."

"Neither did Aloy. But here you two are."

"Yep. Here we are. I think we're going to wait a bit before we head out your way so you can see her."

"Take as much time as you need, Y/N. I know it's a long trip and traveling with a little one will be dangerous."

"Yeah. So we might wait until we can take her out of the baby carrier."

"Smart idea."

"Well, Aloy just walked in with the baby carrier. I'll talk to you later, mom."

"Talk to you later," she said and the call ended.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah."

I grabbed my cloak and wrapped it around Lis before carefully putting her into the baby carrier. Aloy helped strap it to my shoulder. It was similar to the one Rost had when Aloy was a baby. Once we made sure it was secure enough, we walked out of the base to find the Sunwing was there waiting for us. Aloy got on first before she helped me on. I made sure Lis was alright before we headed off into the air. We were flying carefully and I looked over my shoulder every few seconds to make sure she was alright. Once we got home, we landed on the perch and Beta came out to help us, since Aloy had told her what was going on. We headed inside and I took the baby carrier off my shoulder. Beta looked down at Lis as she was sleeping. 

"I can tell she inherited the hair," Beta chuckled.

Aloy walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You're an aunt now, Beta."

"I guess I am. I promise to look after her."

"We all will," I said and looked down at Lis as she was peacefully sleeping.

I removed her from the carrier and walked out onto the porch with the others. The moon was high in the sky and we sat down, watching the stars. After a while, the others were getting sleepy and I decided to stay outside for a little bit longer. I wished them goodnight and I watched as the ocean waves crashed along the shore. Lis was still sleeping, which I was surprised by since babies weren't usually this calm upon being born. I smiled down and held her closely to my chest.

"You're going to have so much fun when you grow older. We're going to teach you everything we know and show you the world. Give you the opportunity that neither of us had when we were growing up. Since we were born in a tribe, we had to follow rules. Now that we're free, so are you. And you have the freedom to do whatever you like and whenever you like. Just as long as you're safe. And we will keep you safe from harm."