Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 75

Six years has gone by and it took us all six years in an attempt to recapture HEPHAESTUS. All that time we tried to recapture it, it kept running off to a different Cauldron. It resulted in us chasing after it. We had to go back to Gemini to recapture it, but we haven't been to Gemini since Varl had died. We wanted to hold out hope that we were going to be able to recapture it, but our hope was running thin. 

During that time, Lis was training and getting stronger to help us the best way she could. Aloy thought it would be a good idea to start teaching her how to use a Focus. Lis was beginning to look more and more like Aloy. It was almost as if she had no features of myself within her. It frustrated me, but how could it? I loved Aloy and her features. But we had created a child with the intent of her inheriting both features from us. The only feature she had gotten from me was her eye shape and some of my height. It bothered me a bit, but not to the extent where I voiced my concern to Aloy. 

"How is it going?" Lis asked as Beta and I were reconfiguring our plan to head back to Gemini.

"Going fine, I guess," she said. 

"We're going to try something different since HEPHAESTUS was pretty pissed off at us the first time we tried to merge it with GAIA. Even the time we tried to capture it at Gemini it was mad at us."

"What if we tried to soothe it?" Lis asked.

"Soothe it?"

"Yeah, mom was telling me how she soothed MINERVA when you tried to get into the base the first time. And MINERVA didn't want you guys in there."

"HEPHAESTUS has been making deadly machines since Aloy was a young girl. So over twenty years it has made these machines bigger, stronger, and much harder to kill. Who knows if trying to soothe it will be worth anything."

"It'll be worth a shot," Lis said.

I nodded my head, "We will consider it. But there is malicious code that we need to break and only Beta and your mother can do that."

"It's because they're tied to Elisabet Sobeck, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"She's the woman I am named after, right?"

"Yes."

"You never told me about her."

"I didn't. Because it is not my story to tell. Your mother has to tell you because she has a deeper reason on why we called you after her. Where is she anyway?"

"She's checking on the Utaru. She'll be back in a little bit."

"Why don't you go wait for her. She'll be happy to see you."

She nodded and walked out of the house, sitting on the stairs to the house. Beta looked over at me and I looked over at her.

"Do you think that could work?" I asked.

"It may when we capture HEPHAESTUS and start the merging time. Since GAIA has received seven out of the eight subordinate functions that are not wiped from existence, the merging time might be a lot less than the first time we tried to get them to merge."

"Right, right," I said. I took in a deep breath as I looked out onto the water, looking at Legacy's Landfall. "I hope all goes as planned."

"I hope so as well."

I was walking back to the house, the reins of the Charger in my hands. I turned my head to see Lis was sitting there. I smiled at her as she walked over to me.

"Hey, Lis," I said, putting the Charger back in the stable. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah, I was just talking to mom and Aunt Beta."

"How are they doing? I know they're working really hard to find a way to merge HEPHAESTUS with GAIA."

"They're trying their best, but I thought of a way."

"I'm listening."

"What if we try to either soothe it or reason with HEPHAESTUS?"

"Soothe?"

"Like how you soothed MINERVA when she tried to force you out of the repair bay."

"I see. I'm surprised you remembered that conversation."

"How could I not remember it?"

"It might work, but HEPHAESTUS has been making machines even before I was a little girl."

"That's what mom said."

"But that doesn't mean we can't try. MINERVA came to her senses when I told her that all misery would cease. If we inform HEPHAESTUS of what it was originally made to do, maybe it will listen."

"There was something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"What's that?"

"The woman I was named after, Elisabet Sobeck."

"Yes."

"Why was I named after her?"

I put my hand on her shoulder blade and led her to the small firepit we had made. We sat down and I looked over at her.

"Elisabet Sobeck was the woman who essentially made me. I am her clone. She made GAIA and the Zero Dawn project after a deadly plague was ravaging the Earth almost a thousand years ago. It wasn't a human plague, it was a machine plague. It was called the Faro Plague made by Ted Faro, a colleague of Elisabet. She wanted to save life on earth since the Faro Plague was feeding off of the world's biomass until it was rendered inhabitable. Zero Dawn was the hope of the future. And her mission was a success. But after I found out that I was her clone, I felt that Eliabet was the closest person I would have to a mother."

"What about grandma?"

"She is another person who I consider like a mother. Before I met her, Elisabet was the only woman I considered to be my mother. After I met your grandmother, she was definitely considered to be one. You see, Lis. You're named after a very important woman who saved life on Earth nearly a thousand years ago."

She nodded her head, "I understand now."

"But that doesn't mean you have to be in her shadow. That doesn't mean the pressure of the world is going to be on your shoulders."

"Why's that?"

"Because I had to bear it. Because," I tapped my Focus and a hologram of Elisabet appeared. Then an image of myself appeared. It showed us how identical we were genetically. Then an image of Beta appeared, again showing the indentical gene codes we share. 

"Because we had to bear it. We're the ones closely related to Elisabet."

"What about me?"

I tapped my Focus once more and an image of her appeared and an image of Y/N came up. It showed Lis her genetic code that the three of us shared. And then I compared it to Elisabet Sobeck.

"You have half of her gene makeup. So there are things that you'll be unable to do that Beta and I can. Such as opening gene locked doors."

"I see."

"Don't think of any less of yourself, Lis. We wanted to name you after her because we envisioned bright things for you once we pass."

Lis nodded her head.

"And we wanted to name you after her because of such accomplishments she was able to achieve. Knowing well that you will do the same."

Lis looked over at me and smiled, "Thank you, mom."

"Of course, Lis."