Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 79

"You're ok," Aloy said.

"Yeah. I just threw it before it went off. It exploded in the air, not hurting anything."

"What was that all about?" Lis asked.

"He was trying to kill you."

"Kill me?"

"Yes. He said that once word gets out about Lis being born in not the normal way, people are going to try to get their hands on GAIA."

"Who is going to believe him?" Aloy asked.

"You never know whose mind is so twisted that they believe what he says. We better be careful whenever we head back home."

"Why don't we all stay here for the time being. See if things actually do happen. Sylens could have been spouting off some bullshit. To be honest, I was hoping he would never show his face here ever again."

"Let's not worry about that now," I said. "Let's just get back to the celebration."

During the celebration, I couldn't stop thinking about what Sylens had said. I sneaked off and headed to where GAIA was. I walked over to her and she could tell I was in some sort of distress.

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

"It's what Sylens had said to me. Could that be true? That people want to clone people or bring people back from the dead?"

"With that kind of power, we don't want it to fall in the wrong hands."

"I agree with you there. But is that possible, GAIA? To bring people back from the dead."

"They would come back from the dead, but in a different way."

"Like how Aloy and I came back."

"Yes. It would be more like in your situation. If given enough DNA, they could bring back someone. But if there were no specifications on their attitude, things could go wrong."

"If they weren't given their memories, they could become self aware and know that they're clones. And then they could cause havoc."

"Correct."

"We need to ensure that doesn't happen. Does anyone know about this?"

"From what I gathered from Sylens, is that only he knows."

"But he could tell other people. Is the Sons of Prometheus still around?"

"No. You had cleared them out when Aloy and Erend had come to save you."

"I see. So he can't tell them. Who can he tell it to?"

"Whoever is willing to listen and whoever is willing to let him persuade them."

"We need to go after Sylens," I said. "He holds too much information and he needs to be dealt with once and for all."

"He does seem to be the only looming threat as of now. With so much knowledge he has, he is a force to be reckoned with."

"Then we better hurry," I said. "Can you track him?"

"I cannot. The only signal I picked up from him was when he left the vicinity of the base. I cannot locate him."

"Great. Alright, looks like we have to go after him."

"That would be a wise, but also unwise decision."

"Why's that?"

"Sylens is a mysterious person. I have no other knowledge of him other than what Aloy was able to capture on her Focus."

"So our knowledge is limited here."

"Yes."

I let out a sigh, "I guess we have to do the old wild goose chase then."

"I would proceed with caution when you go out there. Who knows, he may be after you. Once he kills you, he might be able to bring you back here to open up the doors."

"That's also another thing to look in to as well. I'll have to rework the coding with Beta and then we can set out to find Sylens."

"That would be wise."

"Thanks, GAIA."

When I went back to return with everyone, they seemed to calm down a bit and were starting to get sleepy. I guess Erend's drinking tired everyone out. I walked over to see Beta was awake though.

"Didn't drink like the others?"

"No, when Erend fell asleep after drinking too much, everyone settled down. Aloy and I didn't drink. Var and Lis are in your old room talking about what happened."

"There's something I need your help with."

"What's the matter?" Aloy walked over to me and sat down.

"We need to rework the gene lock's code."

"Why?"

I informed them on what Sylens and GAIA had told me. They too were worried about the looming threat Sylens is creating. With that, Beta and I opened up the code we had created for the gene lock doors. We started to rework it so that if it detected any of us without a pulse, it wouldn't open. That was pretty easy, but we found ways to ensure that it would be fool proof. While we were working on that, Aloy got up and informed Lis of what was going on. She was really taking being honest with her to heart, which I was glad. Lis needs to know the situation and how important things were going to be from here on out. Our plan to go after him needed to be accurate and almost fool proof. We needed things to go in our favor and we needed to ensure he dies. We can't let him live. I hate to want to do that to someone, but for the safety of everyone here, we need to make sure he cannot live anymore.

"I told Lis what is happening," Aloy said and sat down next to me.

"What did she say?"

"She was sorry if she caused any of this."

"She didn't, though. It was Sylens."

"That's what I told her. She's beginning to doubt her existence now."

I shook my head, "We need to make sure that she is safe no matter what."

"Y/N, I know you want to look after her, I do as well. But she is an adult and she can make her own decisions."

"I know."

She reached over and put her hand on top of mine, "We did the best we could to protect her and show her right from wrong. Now it's up to her to determine what is right and what is wrong. It may be time for her to leave the nest and go on an adventure of her own."

I sighed and nodded, "You're right. W-We're not going to be around forever to help her when she's in a bind."

"That's right."

"I would love to be around forever, but that's what gives life meaning. Knowing you time is short and living it to the fullest."

When everyone was asleep, I snuck out of the room and looked around. My moms and Beta were sleeping against the bar. It looked like they had a long night going through the code and making sure everything was in order. Kotallo, Erend, and Zo were asleep and Var was asleep as well. I slowly crept towards the door, making sure I had everything, and left the base in search for Sylens.