Living Antiquity

~31~

Blazing along, I passed Daytower, swooping ti greet the guards, before racing along the roads, up and over guard towers...
Whizzing past a Thunderjaw's head, and watching it whip around so fast it fell over.
When I passed Meridian again, I hovered over the palace and waved down at Marad and Avad, grinning as I saw Talanah crossing the bridge to the palace and her jaw drop.
"Weren't you just over Nora lands what, an hour ago?!" She yells into her Focus, making my head ring.
"Yep!" I grin and fly off, "And now I'm over the Jewel... Bye!"
"Y/n!"
I cackle, hanging up and watching Meridian fade out of sight behind me, humming as I race along, following roads from above and carefully navigating out over the mountains again, wrapping up in furs and wincing at the cold, wishing I had a heating system on the bike.
By the time I blew out over the Daunt, I was half frozen, and dived down into the canyon to enjoy the rising heat from the forges, groaning.
"How's the weather up there?" Petra calls, clearly laughing as some workers around her clamor upon noticing her.
"Gggguuuugh, I just got out if the mountains, I'm not thawed yet..." I groan, circling over Chainscrape and enjoying the sight of the fires.
"You wanna come down for a brew?"
"And risk having them tear my bike apart to see how it works? Nah. Besides, flying tipsy isn't smart." I laugh, waving down at her as she smirks and tosses something up in the air, "Oh?" I dive and grab it, squealing when I realize what it is- Food!
"Enjoy! Milduf's best." Petra grins, waving at me.
I grin, flipping the bike and dropping a satchel of Focuses into her hand, "Found some while passing through the tunnels! I would have left them with the Nora, but I figure it'll be hard enough for Teersa ti convince the other Nora. She doesn't need even more of these around. But I know some forgeworkers who've been very good girls and boys, so Christmas came early this year!"
"Oh?" Petra asks.
"A winter holiday in the old world," I laugh, flipping the bike back upright again and taking off.
"Well thanks then!" Petra laughs, "Hope everything goes okay out west... Come back alive. Everybody needs you, and you know Drakka does..."
I take a breath, and let it out, "Yeah... I know..."
"Fly safe, try not to eat any bugs," Petra laughs.
"You know, there used to be regulations allowing for a certain number of bug pieces in foods from factories? Including candy bars," I laugh.
"Gross." Petra laughs as I hang up.
Across the Daunt, out over Barren Light, waving to Lawan and the sentries, out across the border into No Man's Land...
Another couple hours and I'm passing all the dead Horus Titans. Metal tentacles forever frozen and rusting... They'll eventually be gone too. We can probably tear them all down for materials for building...
Even as I bear down on the mountain, I'm still daydreaming of times to come...
Nightmares of loss.
Glowing dreams of winning, our eventual progress... The uniting of a new Earth, built to sustain ourselves, learn from the past and ensure a lasting future that outshines anything that Liz dreamed of, proving NEMESIS and HADES wrong...
But the idea of losing... Working so hard for so long only to watch everyone die, and that's even assuming I won't be the first to die... God, how would that affect Drakka, what would he do?... I hope no one ever has to find out.
In a perfect world, we'll escape this unscathed.
We'll conquer our past and build our world up into a veritable paradise for plants, animals, people and the machines. Gaia, Aloy and Beta will help build a world Liz and everyone past and present can be proud of.
The creeping anxiety still digs at my thoughts, conjuring pictures of Drakka full of holes from Zenith weapons, Beta in a box and Aloy dead on the ground, the mountain burning, darkness closing in as we all try to run...
I shake my head and bear onwards, gritting my teeth.
I have spent every moment since I woke up in one form of fear or another, hiding it behind the mask I got good at keeping up when I was homeless.
I can pretend I'm happy and okay until I'm blue in the face, but that will get us nowhere.
We need progress, and the others do need me, no matter how many times I tell myself otherwise or kick myself for not just dying in the tube.
They've told me repeatedly...
I sigh, leaning on the handlebars as I swerve to a stop at the Base doors, "Hey, I'm back. How's the plans?"
"Ah, Y/n. We're preparing to transport Gaia nos. We thought it best to go ahead with the plan while we've all got 'the steam for it', as Stanley puts it," Silens responds, the shifting of metal in the background.
"Carefully, we can't damage the rig!"
"I know, I'm ugh working on it! Aloy, gimme a hand..."
"On it. Grab the rear leg. Kotallo, you got that side?"
"Yes. Stay back, you three."
"Of course! I'm far too weak ti help with that..." cam Alva's voice.
"I'll hop the mountaintop and meet you at the west door," I say, jolting back into the air.
"Please do. We have a Tremortusk coming to help carry Gaia, but getting her down Gemini will be a pain. I took the initiative to scout it out..." Silence deadpans.
I land at the opposite doors just as a ar party of desert Tenakths comes up the mountainside leading the biggest damn Tremortusk I've ever seen, Stemmur and Drakka leading the way.
"Y/n...!" He runs and grabs me, checking for i juries and frowning, "Wow, you're cold..."
"Guess I didn't ever fully thaw back out," I laugh, hugging him and feeling him go from tensed up and ready for anything, to a more relaxed stance I'd gotten used to seeing him in.
"This fight is gonna be one for the Ten to remember..." he says quietly.
I nod, taking a breath and ruffling his hair. "Y'all fighting with everyone to defend Gaia for twenty minutes while I divebomb some space freaks..."
He pulls back enough ti kiss me, keeping me from pulling away as the worry melts for a moment, reality taking back over as the door opens and the rig is marched out, Drakka pulling back to look at it as everybody gets set up to lift the rig onto the Tremortusk's back.
"And the great army of friends prepares for a two pronged war- one in the air to destroy the first of threats from the stars, the other, waging a war against a fractured artificial soul, hoping to rejoin the pieces to their former glory," Stemmur says, taking a deep breath as everyone stares up at the rig.
"Here's hoping Ghost's takeover was successful..." I sigh, rubbing my face, "I'll pace you guys to Gemini and then I'll go play FAAFO with the Zeniths."
"FAAFO?" Stemmur raises an eyebrow.
I grin, letting my mouth split my face open in the toothiest, nastiest, more evil grin my fscial features were capable of rubber-facing to, "Fuck Around And Find Out." I hop on the bike, "They fucked around for a thousand years. Now they're finding out," I stretch and wIt for them to finish getting everything ready, following them all the way to Gemini and watching as the Nora, Carja guards, Tenakth Warriors, and even some Quen guards set up stake at the entrance, still others descending ti defend the penetration team.
"Comms open, full call," I say, opening an all-way channel, and dropping into the most dead calm, deadpan voice in my arsenal, "I'm trusting everyone not currently involved to listen for any cues from anyone in the battle lines and help them fight. Power of command, in order, falls from those present to Hekarro and from Hekarro to Petra, Petra to Teersa, Teersa to Avad. That is in order of likelihood to be able ti do something about it- no offense to Avad," I revv my bike, "I'm going to be cursing a blue streak if I run into Nisha- Yes, I cuss more than an Oseram Forgemaster, no, I will not apologize, yes I will be appropriating insults from any culture I see fit. If I end up giving more commentary than necessary- feel free to record, I have no shame. I will also have no filter while I'm trying to kill and cause kills." i grin, taking off, "Aloy, Beta, feel free to hang up on me if you need to to concentrate, I know I'm annoying. Beat the bitch into submission and drag him home kicking and screaming, you two, I hear an old arch-nemesis calling." I take off toward the confirmed location of the Zenith base, "Ghost, command Unleash, authorization Zeta Prime. Give 'em hell."

Affirmative. Operation underway.

I smirked, rocketing onwards until I saw flashes and was dodging lasers and nano-bullets,  looping over and around beams as the sound of angry screaming gets ever louder. "NIIIIIIIIIISHHAAAAAAA~ COME ON LITTLE GIRL YOU GONNA HIDE YOUR TWIG ASS FROM ME FOREVER?! WHAT ABOUT AAAAALL THE FUN WE USED TO HAVE!" I yell, diving straight last her and managing ti grab her by the hair as a Specter tears down her shield mechanisms, dragging her through the air by her hair and watching her dissolve into screams of pain and torment.
"YOU BITCH! Get off me you filthy street rat bitch!"
"Aw but who's fault is ot that I ended up on the streets, hm? Hey fun fact- If your twiggy fuckwit ass hadn't gotten me kicked out, I wouldn't be here!" I laugh, spinning the bike so that she was being swung in wide rings around me as I hold her by her hair, giving her something to cry about as she screams in pain, "You wouldn't have to worry about me finding you! Were you scared, Nisha? I know I was when my body started shutting down. Have you ever been trapped in the fucking dark while your body slowly collapsed on itself from the inside out? Have you ever been so cold you wished you'd just freeze and die? So hot you prayed you'd just fucking burn and be done? No? Let me show you real quick!" I jam a fire arrow into her shoulder, letting go as she screams and falls, Ghost's third squadmate shredding whatever the hell it was that was allowing her to fly, "Oh look! You're gonna be splatter art!"
I can hear laughter from the ends of the lines, probably everyone being amused by my mix of rage and outpouring stress. I do get so bitchy when I'm stressed and tired.
Nisha fell, cussing and fuming, ponytail whipping in the wind as I raced her toward the ground, "Wow, your dad's not coming to save you? Fat load of good that's doing you... Ha!" I slam the bike against her, changing her direction and lobbing her into the side of a cliff, watching her arms and legs bend at awkward angles, "I could be nicer to you about this. But I was cold and in hell for three years because of you... Sure, I got to meet my brother, and come to this era, and now I've got a boyfriend that better not end up dead because of your psycho deadbeat shitstain of a father, but I still want to make you regret ever being born... I want to make you regret choosing to run and hide in space while trillions of lives were erased. While you got to get meds and live forever," I snarl, grabbing her again and throwing her with a strength I never would have had before, watching her fall until I grab her by her broke legs and fly higher, up high enough fir us to cjoke for air, "Goodbye. Hope you like seeing anyone you've ever killed in the afterlife..." I grin as I let go, watching her drop, tensing as a familiar shape rockets toward me, his teeth showing in the creepy ass smile he had while chasing Aloy around Latopolis.
"Erik Visser! What, not gonna save your baby?" I say, dodging as he strikes out at me.
"She wasn't strong enough to survive a fight with someone this weak? This idiotic?" Erik snarls, striking out again.
"Let's dance, little boy."

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It took forever and its 2:30 in the morning! But here's the next part!