Tracking Aloy

Aloy stood in front of the stranger, frozen in shock. Her mind raced. How could this be? Who was this weird looking girl, who knew about Elisabet Sobeck? And why would she call Aloy by Sobeck’s name and title?

A million questions raced through Aloy’s mind as she stared at this weird girl, but all she could bring herself to say was:

“I’m not Elisabet Sobeck.”

The girl blinked.

“I’m sorry. You look so much like her! Just…quite a bit younger.”

Aloy raised her spear. “Who are you? What do you want from me? Are you Eclipse?”

The girl took a few steps back and raised her hands. “Wow, slowly. I’m not here to hurt you. If I were Eclipse, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of helping you. I’d just watch that stalker tare you to shreds.”

“Depends on what they want with me.”

“If the stories I heard in Meridian are true, they want you dead. You killed their god.”

The girl had a point. After the fall of HADES the Eclipse had been in disarray. The network between the foci had crumbled, and without a powerful leader, they were just a group of rogues. Dangerous when you encountered them, yes. But also always on the run, as the forces of Avad, the Carja sun-king, where tracking them down one after the other. So their most elaborate plan, when it came to Aloy was most likely “Kill her on sight!”

And Sylens? He was still out there somewhere, but he was not in league with the Elcipse. They wanted him dead even more than her. A traitor is worse than an arch-enemy, after all.

“Still doesn’t answer my question.” Aloy said.

“It answers one of them.” The girl said defensively, and lowered her gaze in a dramatical gesture.

Aloy could hardly suppress a smile. Point taken.

“My name is Paige.” The girl said.

Aloy relaxed a little, and lowered her spear. “Aloy.” She said.

“Yes, I know. It practically impossible to walk through the streets of Meridian these days without hearing people say your name.”

“That’s exactly why I am elsewhere. I don’t like it, when people make a big deal because of me. I’m will only return when this madness has stopped.”

The girl frowned. “Well, you’re going to have to wait a long while. After what you did, they’re going to give you your own page in the history books.”

“I hope not. I just want to be left alone.”

“You saved the city. I doubt the good people of Meridian know that you also saved the world.”

“I didn’t. This isn’t over. There’s still much to do. And I don’t need some girl from Meridian following me around. How did you find me?”

“I’m good at following a trail. And I am so not fangirling here.”

Aloy looked at her bewildered. “You’re not what?”

“I’ve spent the better part of the last twenty-odd years to find you. And no, I am not here, because you’re an admired war hero -or the anointed one if you’re Nora. I am here to help bring Zero Dawn back to it’s full capacity.”

Aloy looked at the stranger suspiciously. “What do you know about Zero Dawn?”

“That is was created to save the world from the destruction by the machines. And that it’s broken.”

“No one knows about this. Well, except me and Sylens. Did he send you?”

“I don’t even know who that is!”

Aloy raised her eyebrows. Should she believe that? The girl was not wearing a focus, so she would not be in contact with Sylens, given he still had a focus that could link to another one. But the girl knew things, that only Aloy knew. And Sylens.

“If Sylens didn’t send you, how would you know about Zero Dawn?”

“I grew up in the ruins. If you spend half your life in there, you learn a thing or two. If this Sylens guy is so interested in you, don’t you think he would come in himself, instead of sending me?”

“Sylens is not the kind of man who likes to gets his hands dirty. Believe me, I know him.”

“Seems you have a history.”

“You’re avoiding me. If you’re not from Meridian, why are you following me?”

The girl sighed. “I found this in one of the ruins in the west.”

She showed a small data pad to Aloy. Aloy had found a lot of them herself, the ancients had used them to store written texts, recordings of spoken voices or even moving pictures, so they could conserve their voices for eternity. Most of what she knew about the ancient world came from these magical devices.

She scanned it, using her focus. The focus activated the device and between them, the picture of a woman appeared. Aloy had seen her once before, and recognised her immediately as GAIA. OF course it was only a representation of something, that was normally unseen, for the actual GAIA had been a machine. But Aloy could not imagine her as anything other than a woman.

Now the image of GAIA began to speak.

“Searching…Restore unit from hibernation…Connecting.” After a few unintelligible noises, the voice continued.

“I am sorry for the emergency activation of this unit. I know it comes a surprise, and I don’t even know if you can understand this message, or its urgency. I have received a signal of unknown origin, that has caused my subsystems to detach from my core. This caused the Hades subsystem to act due to it’s programming and activate. This must be stopped by any means necessary. I have initiated a self destruct for the GAIA-Prime facility, but I am afraid it’s to late. I have initiated the gestation of a genetically identical clone of Doctor Sobeck, in the hopes that she will find the means to restore the core functions and reboot the systems. But it I have to fear that the self destruct sequence will not destroy HADES. I need you to find the girl and protect her, until she is old enough to fulfill her destiny. I have a detailed report on the events of the last 11.4 seconds attached to this documents. You will find…”

There was a loud shrieking noise, and then the words “Data corrupted.” Then the message ended.

Aloy felt dizzy. It was the same story, GAIA’s image had told her inside the Sacred Mountain.

“Where did you find this?” She finally managed to ask the girl.

“I was salvaging one of the ruins. And all of a sudden, all the lights went on on this thing. I knew this was worth investigating. I mean, this stuff has been lying around, dormant and silent for over a thousand years, and suddenly it comes to life and replays a message like that? Would you have ignored it?”

Aloy needed some time to digest this. “No, likely not.”

Paige gave Aloy a moment, before she continued.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere. And then, all of a sudden, there are stories about this Nora girl, who rides machines and clears the corruption. Who is smart enough to defend Meridian and does all sorts of super-hero stuff. I knew you had to be the girl from the message. The rest was just tracing your footsteps.”

Aloy wasn’t sure what to make of it. This message made the girls story somehow believable, but she didn’t know, if she should trust her. But for now, there was little use in risking a fight by sending her away. Also, Aloy was way too curious about the girls story and the message she just saw. Of GAIA sent this out to someone in the west, she must have known, that there was someone there, who knew about the ancient world. Someone who could have helped. Maybe someone, who could tell her about the origins of that mysterious signal that had been the cause of all this.

Until she found answers to these questions, it was certainly wise to keep an eye on that girl.

“Alright.” She said. “Let’s assume I believe your story. What now?”

Paige smiled. “I will accompany you into the cauldron up there, and help you raid it for information. Then we’ll see.”

“Caudrons are no playground.” Aloy answered. “If it gets tough in there, I may not be able to bust you out.”

“I’ve been inside these things a lot. Most likely more often than you.”

Aloy sighed. “I cannot stop you from following anyway, can I? Very well.” She shouldered her weapons and turned towards her destination. Paige followed.

Then, suddenly, Aloy turned to the girl. “You said, you looked for me for twenty years. No offence, but you look like a Nora kid on her way to the proving. You cannot have been around for that long”

Paige laughed. “Thank you, I am flattered. I wish that were true. If you look closely, you will find, that I am by far not as young as I seem. I am easily twice your age.”

Aloy had a hard time believing that, but she decided to let the topic go, before she said something embarrassing. For a while the two women walked in silence.

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