Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 74

I fell to the ground and was slow to get up. The Stalker disappeared and I was left not knowing where it was. Not even the Focus could pick up on it. I grabbed my bow and loaded it with some arrows. I scanned the area, waiting for the Stalker to show itself. But it was smarter and more dangerous than the ones I have faced before. It attacked when it was still in its stealth mode. It scratched me along my face before scratching my arms and legs. I grabbed another spike thrower and lodged it into its body. It uncloaked itself and it finally fell to the ground. I let out a sigh as I stood up to see where Lis went. 

"Aloy," I breathed out, trying to catch my breath.

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

"I lost Lis."

"You lost her?"

"A Stalker attacked me and she was still on the Charger."

"I don't know where she is either."

"I'll go see if she went back north to help the others," I said and ran off, trying to ignore the pain I was in.

I looked around, seeing there were more machines coming. They would just not stop. I shook my head and ran off towards the north to see where Lis could be. She wasn't with the group that I was aiding earlier. 

"Hey, have you seen a child on a Charger come through here?"

"Yes. She went farther north where the source of the machines are coming from."

I took off and ran as fast as I could. While I was running after her, I took down the machines that were coming from the north. When I reached the top of the hill, my Charger was there, but no sign of Lis. I tapped my Focus and picked up on her footsteps. I followed them to see she went into an opening of the mountain. I looked up to see it was a Caludron. It must be a new Cauldron. Looking over to the right, I saw Lis was stuck in between two Scorchers. She was tucked behind some rocks so that the Scorchers wouldn't get to her. I took in a deep breath, scanning them before fighting. They were both Apex Scorchers. With the Cauldron door open, more machines were going to be pouring out. With HEPHAESTUS no longer in GAIA's control, we weren't able to control what kind of machines come out of there. I loaded my bow with the right arrow and looked at the Scorchers, remembering what happened earlier this morning.

"Hey!" I yelled, gaining the Scorchers attention. "Come after me!"

The Scorchers ran towards me and I shot at one before shooting at another. It was like this back and forth game before I finally killed the one. The other one was still standing and I was running out of frost arrows. I was getting burned and scratched along the way of fighting these two Scorchers. I was about to shoot, but the Scorcher charged and knocked me onto the ground. I was in such great amount of pain that I was trying to get up, but I was unable to. The Scorcher made its way to me, it growling lowly.

"Yeah, yeah I remember you. I fought your kind before."

It snarled before roaring.

"You don't scare me."

It was about to jump, but an arrow lodged into one of its weak points I had exposed earlier. It fell onto the ground nearby. I picked my head up to see Lis had come out of her hiding spot.

"Lis," I smiled, laughing. "Lis!"

She rushed over and hugged me, "I'm sorry for running off, mom."

"It's alright. All that matters is you're alive."

"I had an idea on how to get rid of the machines."

"What's that?"

"We destroy the opening so that they're trapped inside."

"That's a good idea. Here," I said and handed her some explosives I had. "Place them all along the top of the mountain. Your mother taught you how to climb. So climb up there, place them at the top, and then come down. I will trigger the explosion."

She nodded and did just that. I watched her as she was climbing up the mountain. I smiled to myself, seeing much of Aloy's fighting spirit within her. She set the bombs there and made her way back down. I handed her one of my fire arrows and she lined the shot up. She released and the entire front side of the mountain exploded. Rocks began to fall and close up the Cauldron opening. Once it was closed up, there were no machines able to come out. I looked over at her and smiled.

"You did it, Lis."

"I did it! I did it! I finally did it!"

I chuckled. I slowly got up and made my way over to the Charger. I got on and she hopped onto the Charger. We rode off to Plainsong and took down some machines along the way. When every machine was finished off, I met up back with Aloy and Beta. When I stopped the Charger, Lis jumped off and Aloy ran towards us. She jumped into Aloy's arms and hugged her tightly.

"Oh my gosh, you're safe," Aloy breathed out.

"Mommy, mommy, I stopped the machines from coming!"

"You did?"

"There was a Cauldron door. She had an idea to blow up the front of the door and cause the rocks to block up the door."

"That's a very smart idea you had there," Aloy said to Lis. 

Aloy stood up and walked over to me to see I was bleeding in multiple areas.

"How's the scratch on your face?" she asked, looking closely at it.

"It's nothing compared to the time those rebels scooped my eye out with a Clawstrider claw," I said.

"Yeah that's probably the worst thing to happen to you. Let's get you to Plainsong and get you patched up before we head home."

"Aloy, we still need to capture HEPHAESTUS."

Aloy nodded her head, "We will work on that as soon as you're healed. The three of us can go get HEPHAESTUS."

"Can I come?" Lis asked.

Aloy looked down at her and then at me.

"I say you're allowed to, but it's up to your mom."

"Can I come, mom? Am I ready?"

I looked at Aloy and then down at Lis. I nodded my head, "You're ready."

After I got cleaned up at Plainsong, we headed back home. We were planning things to get ready to recapture HEPHAESTUS. We needed something stronger to contain it so it wouldn't run all around the Cauldron like how it did a Gemini. While Beta and I were doing that, Aloy was informing Lis about GAIA and the history of it. She even thought it was time for her to have her own Focus to help her. I looked over at the two of them and smiled. We knew this was going to be a long road to recapture HEPHAESTUS since it didn't want to be recaptured when we did before.