Out of Cryo - Season 2 | A Horizon: Zero Dawn Fanfiction

Chapter 2: Morning Hunt

Still cold. Why is it still cold?

Shivering, I reached down to pull the furs back over me only to find that they were stuck. No, not stuck. I looked over and sighed. Aloy slept peacefully next to me, and by peacefully, I mean that she was wrapped up in the blankets while doing her best impression of whatever the hell sound a Thunderjaw makes when it's upset.

After a few futile tugs, I gave up and glanced at the window. The faint rays of dawn peeked in through the covering, indicating that it was probably almost time to get up anyway. So much for sleeping in.

I leaned over and placed a light kiss on her bare shoulder before getting out of bed to look for my clothes. I found my tunic hanging over a chair and my pants on the wood floor, where I'd tossed them the night before after Aloy's birthday "celebration". As I grasped the tunic in my hands, I took a moment to inspect the implants on my left arm, the carefully placed array of metal parts and bright blue lights that had been woven into the olive skin, making up a good chunk of the limb – a remnant of the battle at the Bitter Climb.

It'd been a little over a year since that day, and it had taken me every single day since to get used to my "upgrades". Now, I could move my arm - even throw a spear (pretty well, I might add) and fire a bow without sucking horrendously (I was still pretty bad and preferred the spear). I could walk, run, jump – on occasion, better than even Aloy could. But I was still no match for her endurance or her consistency when it came to strength and combat. I had a reconstructed arm, leg, and back and a year of improvised physical therapy. She had a lifetime of experience and training.

The memories never went away. I'd still get nightmares from time to time...relive that terrible moment at the GAIA Prime control panel – watching in horror as my best friend, Jenna, broken beyond repair, dropped the bomb that would kill her and change my life forever.

Not that it was the first time my life had been altered in a very, very permanent way. It was only a few months before the battle that Aloy and our friend, Erend, had found me in a cryo tank – the vessel my parents put me into in 2066 at the end of an apocalypse, with the hope that I might survive to see the world reborn a thousand years later. And I had.

But they hadn't.

I found them along with my brother, murdered by my best friend at the order of the man who was responsible for ending the world – Ted Faro. Aloy had killed him, but his death would not bring back my family. Nothing ever could.

We had accomplished the impossible, though. GAIA had been rebuilt, restored, and the last copy of APOLLO, once presumed gone forever, had been found and reintegrated. The future of this world was still up in the air, however. Cultures had been formed. Nations had been established. We wanted to share APOLLO with the world, but we were lost as to how we'd do it exactly. The only learning facility we knew of was in the cradle in Mother's Watch – the structure the Nora tribe worshipped as a goddess. The matriarchs had allowed Aloy and myself to enter it, but refused entry themselves.

I had suggested we find another cradle location, but to do that we'd have to ask GAIA herself. And she was at GAIA Prime, a location that up to this point, I was not in any physical or mental state to travel to.

Aloy was in no rush, though. After the battle, she'd spent every day for the next year helping me relearn how to move again. It had been a grueling process – my implants made me stronger and my movements smoother, but there was a severe mental disconnect between my body and the implants themselves. The emotional fallout was pretty shitty as well. Waking up in this new world, seeing my family's bodies, and watching as a girl I once cared for more than anyone end her life before me – it all eventually got to me and after I woke up from surgery I think something inside me snapped. Some days were better than others – I might spend a day walking around the cabin and going outside while spending another day in bed and refusing to eat or speak. Aloy had been supportive and caring, but there was only so much she could do. It took a while, but I realized that if I truly wanted to get better that the repairs would also have to come from me.