Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Progress was a beautiful thing – observable, quantifiable, and (relatively) predictable. Work a muscle and it became stronger. Raise the heartrate and the body’s endurance increased. Simple biology. A marriage of mechanics and biochemistry.

Sure, the first time she tried to do a pull-up was nothing short of embarrassing, even if nobody was around to watch her flail and kick and slam down on her back with a curse. The second time was just as pathetic. And the third. But she had more than enough knowledge about anatomy on her side, and eventually it came through for her. When she finally managed to support her own weight and haul herself up over the bar just once, it felt like she’d scaled a mountain.

Slowly, it became a ritual, a comforting routine. She could hop on a treadmill and shut out the world while combing through data or pouring over code, or she could drown out her anxieties with music while she focused on counting push-ups and biceps curls. If the end of the world was coming for them (again), she didn’t intend to wait around hiding in the basement. Sure, she couldn’t fire a bow with the same terrifying accuracy as Aloy or even hope to lift Erend’s hammer, but she was sick of being weak. Sick of being frail.

Even if she couldn’t do much of anything else, she could run if it came down to it. She had evolutionary biology on her side. Fight or flight instincts seared into her amygdala. She’d never be able to fight, so dammit all, she’d learn to fly.

Her eyes were fixed on the screens in front of her as the treadmill hummed underfoot. On one screen, her vitals – respiration, heartrate, blood oxygen, stride pace – and on the other, a tangled web of data from a messy corner of APOLLO’s memory banks. Her muscles were burning, but she was only half a kilometer from done. She could make that.

“Beta.”

She squinted at the screen, sorting through a hundred or so files that had been half-corrupted by the tendrils of HEPHAESTUS’s malicious code. It had spread further through the archived data than they’d thought at first. A massive pain. But not a death blow. It would add a handful of days to their expected timeline, but they could afford that. For now. Just as long as nothing went horrifically wrong.

“Beta.”

She stumbled, the treadmill auto-adjusting to a lower speed. So much for her pace. “Aloy.”

Her sister blinked at her. “You’re…running.” When Beta didn’t answer her, she shrugged. “Inside.”

“As opposed to?”

“There’s lots of hunting out around the mountains.” Like she hadn’t offered that more than once already. “Peccaries and lizards. And a few machines too. Chargers.” Aloy’s eyes darted down at the treadmill. “And lots of trail if you just…felt like running.”

“This makes it easier for me to track my heart rate, my speed…” She wiped the sweat from her face as the machine came to a slow stop. With a flick of her wrist, the holo-display in front of her flashed as the newest data packet was transferred to Aloy’s Focus. “And I can get through more data like this if I multitask. A few more weeks and I should have more of the medical data from APOLLO restored.”

Aloy’s eyes gleamed as she combed through it, a thoughtful furrow in her brow. “GAIA said the corrupted data was unsalvageable.”

“We’ve been testing out some new code based on the data we recovered from the Zenith mainframe. It’s not a perfect fix, but it’s better than nothing.” Beta shrugged, sitting down on the edge of the treadmill. “You know, part of me thought I’d just shut down again, trying to figure out the next part of our plan. Going up against something like NEMESIS…”

“You’ve done the opposite of shut down,” Aloy said with a smile. "This is good, Beta. Really good." She banished the holo-display in front of her. “Actually, there’s something else I need to talk to you about. Out in the common room.”

Beta stood, curiosity piqued, but she grimaced as she glanced down at her shirt. Damp as it was, it was clinging to her, and as her sweat cooled she was suddenly all too aware of the feeling of it against her skin. “I should…probably shower first.”

Aloy muffled a laugh. “Fine,” she said. “Just meet us out there when you’re done.”

“Us?”

“Kotallo’s here.” Was that a flush spreading across Aloy’s cheeks? The pink tint in her skin was pretty damn unmistakable. “Just arrived this morning. I’ll explain everything once you join us.”

Well, if nothing else, Beta was intrigued. And not just because of that blush on her sister’s face.

Once she was cleaned, dried, and dressed, Beta padded out into the common room and paused by the tall, reaching plant in the corner to observe her sister. Kotallo’s hand was mere inches from Aloy’s arm, twitching like he was holding back the urge to touch her, though Aloy barely seemed to notice as she spoke to him in low, hushed tones that Beta could barely make out:

“…just hope she’ll go along with it. We could do it without her, but I’d feel much better having her with us.”

“I’ve little doubt she’ll agree,” Kotallo rumbled. “She is as resilient a person as I’ve ever met.”

“Resilient,” Aloy mused with a smile. “Can’t argue that.”

Resilient, sure. She was also a damn good Strike player and surprisingly skilled at tapping a keg even if she’d never developed a taste for ale. “I’m ready to listen to whatever it is you two are planning,” she finally said, and Aloy spun on her heel to face her. “I…hope it doesn’t involve taking down any machines.”

Even one of those chargers her sister had mentioned. Aloy insisted they were easy. They were the size of four men and equipped with a pair of massive horns. That was the opposite of easy.

“Not if we’re lucky,” Aloy sighed. “I…we…need your help.”

“Building something? Or running some new code?”

“Explaining our situation,” Kotallo said. “To the commanders of the clans. And briefing Hekarro in greater detail. They must know the truth about NEMESIS and the threat it poses.”

Beta blinked at them. “Explaining…about NEMESIS.” Aloy nodded. “Wait, you want me to—”

Aloy was already stepping closer, her hands raised in a way that was as close as she could get to placating. “I know you don’t like traveling, but Kotallo and I will both be with you.”

She couldn’t be serious. This had to be a joke. A prank. Some kind of odd hazing ritual. “You want me to go all the way to the Memorial Grove—”

“And all the Tenakth clan capitals,” Aloy added with a grimace.

“To explain the threat from NEMESIS—”

“And what will be needed from the tribe to defeat it,” Kotallo insisted. “Hekarro has already pledged all the support he can give, but it’s the clan commanders who will enforce that decree in each of the territories. Drakka and Atekka will be easy to convince…”

“We’ll…deal with Tekotteh when the time comes,” Aloy sighed, and she turned toward Beta again. It was only when Aloy pressed a hand to her arm that Beta realized she’d been standing there with her mouth open for what felt like an embarrassingly long time. “I know this sounds like we’re asking a lot, but there’s nobody better to explain what we’re facing. And…”

She seemed to cut herself off. Like she’d thought better of what she was about to say. Beta frowned. “What?”

“It’s nothing—”

“What, Aloy?” It came out sharper than she’d meant it to, and she shrank back the second it left her mouth. Aloy bristled, only for a moment, but then sighed.

“I know you’re trying to get stronger. And you are…in some ways. But there’s a lot to learn from traveling in the wilds. Just like I learned from Rost.” She shrugged. “You may not need all of it, but it can’t hurt. And it'll be better than running in place down in the basement all day.”

As if she had even the slightest chance of becoming proficient with a bow and spear. She could barely nock an arrow, let alone skewer a rabbit. Did Aloy expect her to start taking down thunderjaws by the time NEMESIS arrived? Maybe she could get some good experience practicing her foraging and plant identification skills, but she could learn just as much from the APOLLO database and the samples in cold storage.

“Scalding Spear,” Kotallo said, pulling her out of her thoughts again. “It’s not even a day’s ride. Come with us to Scalding Spear, speak to Commander Drakka, and if you cannot make it any farther, we’ll turn back and return to the base.”

It was odd, Kotallo – of all people – giving her an out. But she thought it over anyway, chewing on her lip. “Just…to Scalding Spear,” she mused. A day’s ride. She could handle that. Explaining all this to the Desert Clan commander was another story, but she was sure she could boil down the necessary information into something easy to digest even without extensive background knowledge in heuristic matrix programming.

Scalding Spear…She could make it to Scalding Spear.

Beta nodded. “Okay,” she breathed. “Okay. When do we need to leave?”

Aloy shot Kotallo a look, and Beta suddenly got the feeling that she wasn’t going to be sleeping in her own bed that night.

They took a few hours to pack and prepare. Aloy and Kotallo were already half-packed to begin with, but it was rare that they weren’t, so that was hardly a surprise. She’d just gotten done throwing her water skin and a few clean sets of underwear into her travel pack when Aloy all but dragged her upstairs again.

“You’ll need something more than those clothes to travel in,” Aloy mused as she rummaged through her storage chest. She pulled out a set of Nora armor, the leather well-worn and the light machine metal plating dented and scuffed. “This should fit you well enough. Might be a little big, but I can adjust the straps easily. And you’ll need something warm for when we make it up north. I think I have some furs you can wear…” She clicked her tongue as she dug through the chest. “I wish I still had my old Banuk gear. Now that could keep off the cold like nothing else.”

Beta stared down at the armor in her hands, fingers tracing over the edge of a dent in the metal. She wondered what kind of machine did this. Not to mention how many arrows Aloy put in it after. If Beta put any more dents in it, it would probably be from tripping against a sharp rock.

“You say all that like we’ll make it north,” she sighed.

Aloy stopped her rummaging to look back at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You heard Kotallo. If I can’t continue on past Scalding Spear, we can turn back.” She shrugged. “And I’m damn sure not going to manage to get any further than Scalding Spear.”

Aloy turned back toward the chest again without a word, a deep furrow in her brow. With a sharp huff she pulled out the dark furs and dropped them next to Beta’s knee. “You’ve already shown me you can do what needs to be done,” she said. “I’m going to hold you to that now.”

“So what, you’re not going to let me come back?”

“Sure, I will,” Aloy sighed. “If you insist you can’t handle it, I’m not going to waste the time or energy to drag you all the way to the Grove.”

“But you don’t think I will?”

Aloy shot her a smile. “A hundred shards says you make it all the way to the Bulwark.”

“Seriously?” Beta huffed. “You don’t even need the shards. I’ve seen the machines you haul in. You could buy out every weapon merchant west of the mountains and still have plenty to spare.”

“That’s not the point. A hundred shards.” She was already holding out a hand, and Beta stared at her palm. “You’ll need those furs when we get north of the Sentinels.”

Sighing, Beta gathered the furs in one arm and clasped Aloy’s hand in her free one. “Fine. A hundred shards.” She managed a little half-smile to match Aloy’s, though it faded again as she tucked the furs into her travel pack. “Really, though…why do you need me to explain what NEMESIS is? You understand it just as well as I do.”

“Maybe, but…” Aloy carefully closed the chest, letting her hands rest in her lap and staring down at her cuticles. “I guess you seem to…see it from a different angle than I do. You did spend a lot more time in the belly of the beast.”

The belly of the beast. That was one way to describe the environment where she’d been born and raised. She still went back there every damn night when she slept, yet another obstacle weighing her down when her focus had to be on moving forward. She shook her head, just to clear out the lingering memory of her stark white holo-pod and the constant stinging zap of her restraints. Her thumb traced across her wrists.

“How much of that will I need to explain to the clan commanders?” she asked, quietly.

For a moment, Aloy just stared at her, her fingers curling against her thighs. “About your…time with the Zeniths, you mean?” Beta nodded. “None. Not…not any more than you need to, to explain what we’re facing.”

None was fine with her.

“Beta…” Aloy pushed herself to her feet, offering a hand. “Thank you. For agreeing to come with us.” A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Just to Scalding Spear.”

Scalding Spear. She could handle Scalding Spear.

It took longer than Beta wanted to admit to fit the armor to her and adjust the straps so that it wouldn’t slip. It fit her well enough, although she had to cinch it a frankly surprising amount tighter around the chest. Finally, though, they made their way out of the western entrance and descended down into the valley.

“Flintbeak can’t carry three,” Aloy said as she led them around a bend and paused by a rock outcropping jutting from an overgrown patch of grass. “And my last charger was taken out by a bellowback on my way back in, so we’ll need to override a couple more.” She turned to meet Beta’s eye and nodded toward the grass. “Come on.”

“Me?”

“I’ll show you how to handle a stealth override.” She was already urging her around the rocks, toward the unassuming herd of chargers grazing not far off. A pair of them had wandered away from the rest of the group, and Aloy wordlessly nodded toward them.

Beta shook her head.

Aloy nudged her forward.

Relenting, Beta kept low and stayed close, following Aloy’s lead as they slunk toward the machines. Silently, Aloy drew out her spear.

The technique was…crude. But it worked well enough. From up close, Beta could make out the data connections establishing themselves between the override module and the machine’s processing unit, blue light gleaming around the metal as they stabilized.

The spear was being shoved into her hands. “The other one,” Aloy whispered urgently. “Now – before we draw any more attention.”

Beta swallowed, thrusting the butt of the spear forward. Aloy had upgraded the charge time between overrides, Beta realized, and she caught the edge of Aloy’s grin in her periphery as the device whirred to life again. Connection stabilizing…

She tried to lean forward to try and get a better angle, and the mud beneath Beta’s boot gave way and sent her collapsing forward. She caught herself before she went face-first into the dirt, but the machine in front of them reared and huffed, yellow light blazing into red.

“Shit,” Aloy hissed, and Beta barely had time to register the grip on her arm tugging her back before the charger’s hooves slammed into the ground where her legs had been not two seconds before. “On your feet, come on!”

Already, Aloy was drawing her bow, nocking an arrow and shooting off one of the charger’s horns, then the other. The machine stumbled and fell, but a sea of red lights shone at them from across the clearing. The shuddering beat of charger hooves on the dirt kicked up dust in their wake, and sparks poured out of the overridden charter’s flank when a watcher screeched and rammed it.

As another of them started to charge, Aloy drew back on her bowstring again, another arrow gleaming in the sunlight, but Kotallo whipped past them before she could loose it. His blade connected with the charger’s blaze cannister, fire spitting from where the casing cracked. It very nearly caught the edge of Kotallo’s armor, but he ducked out of the way and barked at them to get down.

Aloy hauled Beta down against the rock just as a blaze explosion singed the hairs on the back of her neck. Disoriented by the fire and distracted by the overridden machine, the rest of the herd didn’t give chase as the three of them made it up a nearby hill to catch their breath.

As her heartbeat slowed and the threat of an early death started to wane, guilt took its place in the pit of Beta’s stomach. She only realized then that she was still holding Aloy’s spear, and she stared at the dirt under her boots as she handed it back. “I’m sorry.”

“We’ll hike to Arrowhand instead,” Aloy sighed as she took it, her voice strained. The furrow between her brows was so deep it looked like it would crease her skin. “It’s not far. We’ll stay the night there and then move on to Scalding Spear.”

This was off to a fantastic start.

As they made their way up the path, Beta wiped a sheen of sweat off her brow and grimaced when she realized she’d just smeared machine oil across her cheek. Kotallo glanced over his shoulder and met her eye as she tried to rub it off with her sleeve. He reached up and swiped his thumb across the bridge of his nose and nodded at her.

Missed a spot, his glance seemed to say. Beta wiped the back of her hand across her nose and her knuckles came away smudged.

Arrowhand was on the horizon, between them and the setting sun. Then Scalding Spear. Then back to the base, because there was no way in hell that she was making it to the Memorial Grove, let alone the Bulwark up north.

Chapter Text

They made it to Arrowhand just barely before nightfall, at least. Though Beta almost wished they hadn't so she wouldn’t need to get quite as clear a view of the looks on the faces of the guards when they saw her.

She couldn’t blame them. Probably not a lot of clones around these parts. But it didn’t make it any less uncomfortable, even as Kotallo pressed his hand against her shoulder and urged her forward. “You’ll be welcomed without issue,” he told her, his gaze fixed forward even as the guards leaned away from them and whispered to one another. “If my authority as a Marshal weren’t enough, Aloy’s as Hekarro’s Champion would ensure you won’t have any problems.”

“Don’t suppose it’ll do much about the staring,” Beta muttered.

“No.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’ll see about getting us some food,” Aloy said, wiping her brow with the back of her hand. She was pressing a water skin into Beta’s hand a moment later. “Drink. You’ve been sweating.”

Oh, really? She wanted to say it. She resisted the urge, taking a long drink from the water skin instead and wishing the water was cool. Aloy was striding across the path, toward a cooking fire that was throwing off unwelcome heat and smoke.

The thought of food was very welcome though. She could smell blackened meat and roasting vegetables, and her mouth watered. Or it would have if she’d had any hydration to spare. She took another long sip to soothe her parched throat.

She could feel all those eyes on her, and the low, inquisitive murmurs sounded as loud as an impulse engine even if she couldn’t make out a single word. Her fingers gripped the water skin so hard that it dribbled over her knuckles.

“Is this how it’s going to be in Scalding Spear too?” she muttered.

After a beat, Kotallo shrugged. “No.” He urged her under the shade of a nearby overhang. “Scalding Spear is a capital settlement. Larger by no small margin. It will be much worse.”

Fan-fucking-tastic.

But Kotallo was edging a bit closer, stepping under the cover of shade too. “You’ll be far better off if you endeavor to ignore it, starting now.” He sighed as he wiped his brow. It was only then that Beta realized how desperately his paint was clinging to his sweaty skin.

“You…don’t really do heat, do you?” Beta hazarded.

“A Tenakth Marshal must be prepared for any terrain.” He tipped his own water skin to his lips as he watched Aloy gingerly pick a few slices of peccary meat off the coals with her bare fingers. “But I’ve always preferred a colder climate.”

Beta snorted. At least the guards by the entrance had turned their attention elsewhere for now. She wondered if Kotallo had given them a stern look to frighten them off. “Explains why you like bathing out in that frigid waterfall instead of the showers.”

Kotallo did little more than huff in response. Fair enough. She wasn’t much for talking at the moment either, and Aloy was back with their food.

They ate mostly in silence, and as the sun set, the unrelenting heat gave way to a biting chill. At least they had four walls and a roof to keep it off, and her padded bed roll was every bit as comfortable as her bed back at the base. Nothing left to do except lie down and try to get some sleep before their early start the next morning.

But something was still scratching at the back of her skull, and it wouldn’t stop even as she tried to tune out Aloy and Kotallo muttering to each other in hushed tones near the doorway. Beta pulled in a steadying breath. “Aloy?” Aloy turned to face her. “I’m…sorry about the Charger earlier.”

Aloy blinked at her, then sighed. “You don’t need to apologize for that, Beta.”

What the hell else was she supposed to do, then? She almost said it aloud, but instead, she just swallowed. “I just figured…you’ve barely said a word to me since we got here. I thought you were—”

“What, angry with you?” Aloy pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m not angry at anyone. It was an honest mistake. I’m…I’m tired, alright? And you must be too. You should get some sleep.”

Kotallo was frowning, a crease cutting between his brows. The moment Aloy turned and saw it, she paused, and her shoulders slumped. The next thing Beta knew, her sister was making her way over to her and sitting on the bed roll beside hers. “Chargers are skittish,” Aloy said. “It was one of the first lessons Rost taught me, so sneaking up on them is practically second nature by now. But they can be unpredictable if you haven’t spent much time around them, and with an entire herd it can get out of control fast.”

“You learned as much today,” Kotallo said easily. “A lesson you’ll remember next time.”

Next time. Beta wouldn’t be getting near another Charger as long as she lived, if she had her way. And even if that was impossible, she’d hold out until absolutely necessary.

“At least it was just a Charger,” Aloy snorted. “I tried to override a Bellowback once and got blindsided by a damn Scrounger. I almost got drenched in acid. The smell wouldn’t come out of my armor for days.”

Beta appreciated Aloy trying to get a laugh out of her. It didn’t work, but still. It was the thought that counted.

Aloy shook her head. “Anyway…you don’t need to apologize for an honest mistake. You learn fast. I know you do. We…we both do.” Beta glanced up at her just as Aloy pressed a slightly tentative hand against her shoulder. “You’ll get there. First you’ll learn to override a few machines, and then you’ll learn to ride them yourself.”

“If you think I’m getting on that Sunwing anytime soon, you’re out of your mind.”

“We’ll…get there,” Aloy relented, and she pushed to her feet and strode over to her own mat.

“Are you…sure you don’t want to move your bed roll any closer?” Beta asked, nodding at Aloy’s and Kotallo’s tucked up against the wall. Considering how much space Beta had around her own, it seemed odd for them to be pushed so close together.

A flash of pink spread over Aloy’s cheeks. “Ah…no, it’s fine.” She sat back on her own bed roll, her eyes fixed on the thatched ceiling above. “I’m already situated. I don’t mind.”

Kotallo said nothing. That said enough all on its own.

They had only just left Arrowhand when they hit their next roadblock – a literal one this time. “A damn rockslide,” Aloy muttered as she surveyed the pile of stone blocking the way. “Looks like it happened a while ago.”

“A runner from the desert did bring news to the Grove of a blockage in this pass, just before I last left. There are alternate routes west from Arrowhand, so Hekarro wasn’t overly concerned.” He frowned. “I had hoped it would have been cleared by now.”

“It seems steady enough.” Aloy got a foothold in the side of the stone. “Focus agrees. I can get up, cast a line down for you two.”

Beta swallowed. “You want us to climb over this thing?”

“It’s that or go around, and that’ll add a few hours to our trip at least.” Aloy grunted with the effort of hoisting herself up onto a solid lip of stone. “There’s a herd of Chargers in the valley on the other side. We climb over, I’ll override a couple of them, and we’ll ride straight for Scalding Spear.”

The sooner they made it to Scalding Spear, the sooner she could make her way back to the base. The sooner this mess would be over with. She stared at the rope when Aloy cast it down for them, tying it off tightly and bracing against the rock. “Alright,” she called. “Beta, you pull yourself up first. Kotallo will come up behind you. Just take your time.”

Over the rocks and on to Scalding Spear. One obstacle at a time. She gripped the rope tight and hauled herself up.

Fuck, this was a fair bit harder than the pull-ups in her usual routine, but with her feet braced against the rocks, she could manage a few slow inches of progress at a time. Just don’t look down. Don’t overthink it. Don’t focus on the burn in her shoulders as she pulled—

Another breath, and a rock underfoot gave way. She was pitching backwards, and her scrabbling hands met nothing but air. Her spine slammed against something solid, hard enough to knock the wind out of her, but with more give than stone.

“Beta!” Aloy was yelling as she skidded down toward her. Beta tried to answer, but no words came. No air at all. She couldn’t breathe. “What broke her fall?”

“I did.” Kotallo’s face edged into her field of vision. Her shoulder blades dug into his chest plate. “She’s winded.”

“Beta—” Aloy was close now, kneeling down next to her. Breathe dammit. Breathe. Breathe! “Hey, it’s okay. It’s alright, Beta. You’re just winded. It’ll pass.”

Her ribs and back ached, and her lungs burned as she managed to force out a rough groan. She coughed as Kotallo sat her up against the rock face. “She lost her grip,” he said, glancing up at Aloy as his palm rested firmly against Beta’s spine.

“I was hoping the line would help enough…Beta, are you—”

“A…burden,” Beta coughed. She felt like she was breathing through a narrow reed.

“What?”

“I don’t—” She pulled in a ragged breath. They were getting easier, at least. Still burned though. “I don’t want…to be…a burden…anymore.”

Aloy let out a long, heavy sigh. “Beta, you’re not…” She paused. Couldn’t even get the words out. That said a lot, none of it good. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have pushed you that much. I thought it would be a…an easy victory.”

The second she said that, Aloy regretted it. Beta could practically see the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“I…I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay,” Beta insisted, leaning hard against the rocks. “I know it’s frustrating, having to slow down for me…”

“A squad is only as strong as its weakest member,” Kotallo mused, and somehow that made Beta’s chest ache even more than the look on Aloy’s face. She swallowed and nodded, pushing herself to her feet.

She wrapped her fingers around the rope again, her heart thumping in her chest. Her lungs still ached and her palms burned, and the idea of trying to haul herself all the way up the rocks face made her stomach clench hard against her diaphragm.

“We’ll have to go around then,” Aloy said as she straightened up again. Her tone was flat, but her frown made a deep crease cut its way between her brows. “I don’t want to split up if we can help it. The Charger herd will probably have moved on by the time we make it around the long way, but if we have to hike to Scalding Spear, we have more than enough water to get there on foot.”

“No,” Beta insisted, before she thought better of it. She grasped the rope tight. She could hold her own weight – she knew that at least. She’d lost her footing before, but she could be more careful this time. “No, I…I can do it. I can make it over.”

“Beta, you don’t—”

“It’s worth one more try,” Kotallo insisted, shooting Aloy a look. Exactly what it meant, she couldn’t say. She had a few educated guesses, though. He nodded at Beta. “Should you lose your footing again, I should be able to break your fall.”

It was all she could ask for, all things considered. Beta swallowed hard as she watched Aloy effortlessly scale the rock face again, her head peaking down at her from above, framed by bright red braids. “Alright,” Aloy called. “Come on up. Watch your footing.”

As if Beta needed to be told twice. The ache in her ribs was reminder enough.

Okay, this was simple physics. And physics, she knew. Physics was easy. She just had to press her feet hard enough against the rock to get good friction. For that, she needed leverage, and that meant a strong grip on the rope.

Don’t look down.

Aloy’s eyes were saying something very close to that, though she didn’t quite say it out loud. Good choice. If she had, Beta was all but certain she would have turned and looked before she could help it. And that wouldn’t have ended well.

One hand over the other, holding tight and pulling hard. Her shoulders burned and her thighs were quivering, but she was almost there. Quite a bit longer to fall than last time. She tried not to think about that.

Her arms were on fire when she reached for the next span of rope and her palm clapped against Aloy’s instead. Next thing she knew, Aloy was hauling her up over the edge of rock, and Beta leaned hard against her as she caught her breath.

Aloy was cackling as she brough a hand down against Beta’s shoulder. “Excellent work,” she said with a grin.

At least the way down was quite a bit less steep. It made going with gravity quite a bit less treacherous than going against it, but she still stumbled when her feet hit level soil again. And right there on the horizon in the valley beyond, a herd of Chargers stood unawares.

“I’ll take care of them this time,” Aloy said, already striding off toward the machines. “You two wait here and I’ll be back with our mounts.”

Beta was not about to argue.

Aloy brought back two Chargers, and Beta stared at them as they huffed and stamped on the ground. Aloy patted one of them on its flank. “I’ll take this guy. You and Kotallo can take that one.” She shot them an apologetic little smile. “I ah…knocked off one of its horns by mistake. But it’ll carry you two just fine.”

Beta glanced up at Kotallo, then at the Charger as it wandered over to them. She swallowed.

You’ve ridden one of these before, you coward. She pressed her lips together, as if that would silence the scathing voice in her head. But Kotallo was already swinging a leg over the machine’s back and holding his hand out toward her.

“Come,” he said.

She’d scaled a damn rock wall. She could manage to get up on a Charger.

She took Kotallo’s hand and let out a yelp as he pulled her up like she weighed nothing. Before she knew it, she was straddling the machine behind him. She grabbed the machine’s cables for stability when it started to canter down the trail, easily falling in step behind Aloy’s Charger.

They rode in silence, and Beta focused on the passing horizon as the sun rose higher overhead. “It’s a good thing you managed that climb,” Kotallo said. Beta offered an absent, questioning hum. “The day will only get hotter, and riding will get us there before the worst of it.”

Well thank her deity of choice for that. She couldn’t imagine it getting much hotter and she didn’t care to spend any more time in this oven than she needed to. Speaking of which, Kotallo was handing a water skin back to her and telling her to drink.

She did, gratefully. “You said a squad is only as strong as its weakest member,” she sighed as she handed it back. “I know I’m slowing things down. I don’t blame you for being fed up with that.”

Kotallo arched a brow. “That is what you drew from those words? That I resent you for being weak?”

“Isn’t that what you meant? The Tenakth value strength above all else. Anyone who can’t manage that…”

“No.” He craned his neck to meet her eye over his shoulder. “The Tenakth value strength, it’s true. You are comparatively weak, and you lack many of the skills needed to travel efficiently through the wilds. Having you with us slows our pace. But I hardly resent you for any of that.” He shrugged as he looked ahead again. “A squad is only as strong as its weakest member, so as members of your squad, it is our duty to help you grow stronger. And we will all be stronger together for it.”

Beta stared at him, an odd tightness cinching in her chest. “As…members of my squad?”

“You are as much a part of this squad as anyone else,” Kotallo said plainly. As if it was a simple truth. As if it didn’t make Beta feel like she’d been turned onto her head. But before she could say another word, he was nodding ahead at the towering shadow of Scalding Spear cut against the horizon.

Barely giving it a second thought, Beta brought her fingers to her Focus and snapped an image of Aloy as she rode ahead of them, her Charger’s bionic interface cables glowing blue against a backdrop of orange and rust. She was turning to face them, wiping some sweat from her brow.

“Scalding Spear,” Aloy sighed. “Drakka should be happy to see us.”

“You, maybe,” Kotallo said with a smile. “He owes me shards.”

Beta was expecting more stares when they reached the gates of the settlement. She hardly cared, happy as she was to get out of the sun, but she was bracing herself for it nonetheless. She expected prying eyes and low whispers as people kept their distance.

She was not expecting Erend. But here he was anyway.

“Hey, ya made it!” he called, tugging Aloy into a tight hug as she dismounted her Charger. “And Beta too. Hey, good on ya. I know the trek out here ain’t easy.”

He could say that again. Her face was already burning from the sun, and she stumbled as Erend clapped a hand against her shoulder.

“Welcome to Scalding Spear,” he laughed. “Aloy told me about this meeting with the Desert Clan Commander. Guessing the Marshal over here already told ya what to expect?”

“As it happens, we haven’t discussed Commander Drakka,” Kotallo said, guiding their charger over to the side of the gates. “I’m hardly worried about his willingness to hear us out, though this looming threat is a hard thing to face as an inexperienced leader.”

“He seems to be doing a bang-up job from what I hear. These Desert Clan folks don’t mince words. I get the feeling if they didn’t like what he was doing, they’d say so.”

“They’d speak with their blades,” Kotallo insisted. He shot Erend a questioning glance. “How long have you been here?”

“A few nights now. I was heading to Chainscrape, but Aloy asked if I could take a quick detour to bring you this.”

Erend reached into his satchel and pulled out…something. It looked like a hunk of metal, but when the sunlight caught against the edge of it, Beta could make out a flash of holo-projection lenses embedded inside. Kotallo was the one to ask the question she wanted answered too: “What is that?”

“You’ll see when we get to the Grove,” was all Aloy said, with an enigmatic little smile. Kotallo’s brow arched, but Erend just shrugged. Seemed if he knew anything more, he was sworn to silence. “Come on – we should find Drakka.”

“I heard him cursing at an ugly old bird near the tallest spire not too long ago,” Erend said.

Kotallo snorted. “Meat.”

Erend stared at him. “Ah…what?”

“Meat. It’s the name of the ugly old bird.” They made their way into the settlement, an Beta fell in step close beside him. Somehow, it made it easier for her to ignore the imminent stares. “An old companion of Yarra’s. Seems Drakka inherited more than just the title of Commander from her.”

“But the shards he owes are all his, I’m guessing,” Aloy quipped, and Kotallo barked out a laugh.

“Exactly. Yarra may have been paranoid, but she kept her debts paid up at least.”

As he spoke, he nudged Beta with the water skin again, and she took it without a word and tipped it against her lips. Her poor parched throat thanked her, and it cleared her head enough to really think about what lay ahead.

A meeting with the Desert Clan Commander.

Her heart hammered against her sternum, her hand trembling as she handed the water skin back to Kotallo. Next thing she knew, an arm came down over her shoulders as Erend fell in step beside her. “Hey, don’t worry, kiddo. Commander Drakka’s a good guy. I had a drink with him my first night here.” He patted her between the shoulder blades, making Beta cough. “You’ll do just fine.”

Yeah. She could only hope.

Chapter Text

Commander Drakka, leader of the Desert Clan. Challenged the previous Commander, Yarra, for the title and won. With Aloy’s help, of course. All Beta knew about the man, she knew from the recordings Aloy had backed up from her Focus. He was stubborn and loud and seemed to think of himself as charming.

At the moment, he was cursing at a vulture.

“Just how long are you gonna hang around, ya feathery bastard?” The vulture – Meat, according to Kotallo – nipped at him. He glared. “Yeah, keep that attitude and I’ll roast you on a spit. Just you wait—”

“Drakka.” One word from Aloy, and he was turning on his heel and shooting her a grin.

“Desert flame,” he said, sunlight flashing against his teeth. “Your Oseram friend here told me to expect you. Nice to know you keep company with people who can hold their liquor and tell a good story or two around the fire.”

Erend looked a little like he was preening. But a second later, Drakka’s eyes locked with Beta’s and they both froze.

She waved a hand in a downright feeble greeting, then quickly tucked it against her body again.

“By the Ten,” Drakka mused, eyebrows arching. “Erend told me there was a family resemblance between you two, but I wasn’t quite expecting this.”

Family resemblance. That was certainly one thing to call it. It wasn’t…entirely inaccurate. Probably close enough to get the point across without having to explain cryogenic embryo preservation and ectogenic reanimation and gestation. It saved them some effort.

“It’s…a little complicated,” Aloy admitted with a sigh. “But this is Beta.”

Drakka’s sandals crunched against the layer of sand on the metal underfoot as he approached. He stopped just in front of her. “Beta, huh? Have to admit, you don’t look all that fierce. Then again, I underestimated my dear brushfire over there when I first met her. I try not to make the same mistake twice where I can help it.”

It would hardly be a mistake. She didn’t think it was possible to underestimate her when she could barely haul herself over a pile of rocks.

“She made it all the way west from Arrowhand,” Kotallo said. “The desert east of here is no easy ride, even on the back of a machine.”

“It’s not,” Drakka relented. He passed her and strode into the shade, urging them to follow him with a curt nod in Beta’s direction. Meat clicked its beak at them before flying off toward the horizon. “You aren’t dead, at least. When it comes to traveling the desert, that counts as a victory.”

Not dead. Hip-hip-hooray.

Aloy was already lowering herself onto a firm cushion in the shade. “We’re here on official business, actually.” She glanced up at Kotallo. “Technically, I guess it’s Marshal business.”

“There’s a new threat facing the tribe,” Kotallo said, rolling his shoulders. “Something unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Chief Hekarro will need to count on the Desert Clan’s support more than ever.”

“And he has it,” Drakka told him. “Even if hadn’t pushed for it when I took command, word of our dear Champion here swooping in on a Sunwing and wiping out Regalla’s entire army is already inspiring drinking songs.” He shot her a smirk and nudged her shoulder. “Point your blade, desert flame, and any Tenakth worth their ink will follow in a heartbeat.”

“That’s…ah…appreciated,” Aloy forced out. “But for now, I really just need you to listen.”

“You have my attention.”

“Not to me. Not for the moment.” Oh shit – Aloy was looking back at her, nodding at Beta and urging her forward until Drakka’s gaze flicked over to her too. Beta swallowed. “The threat Kotallo mentioned…Beta can describe it better than anyone.”

Drakka sat back against the sand-stained metal with an expectant nod. “Alright then,” he said as he settled back on one of the cushions in the shaded alcove. “Go on. Tell me what we’re up against.”

Showtime.

Beta cleared her throat, though it did little to help. “I guess…we could start with Far Zenith.”

“The immortals from beyond the stars,” Drakka huffed. “Well, not so immortal anymore.”

“Right,” Beta coughed. “But that was their ultimate goal. Immortality. They managed to get close with genetic treatments and biomechanical augmentation, but even that could only do so much.”

Drakka nodded slowly, looking…intrigued, albeit a bit confused. “They tried more than once, though,” Beta continued. “Eventually, they considered giving up on their bodies altogether.” She scratched at her neck, still sweltering despite the shade. “Before they left the Sirius star system, Far Zenith attempted to upload the entirety of their collective neurological dataprints to an advanced artificial intelligence platform that would be able to preserve their consciousness indefinitely. It’s hard to tell exactly what caused it to happen, but from what I can glean from their records the degradation of failsafe measures caused that collective consciousness to spontaneously gain a level of sentience that was…decidedly unsustainable.”

Oh, she’d lost him. Where, exactly, she couldn’t say, but that hardly mattered. She glanced at Aloy, who just urged her on. Beta stared down at her own cuticles.

Attempt number two.

“Um…the Zeniths tried to copy their minds into a machine. A swarm of machines. Out in deep space, ostensibly in orbit at one time around the new planet they’d colonized. But that consciousness…”

“Went rogue,” Drakka said carefully.

“Exactly.”

He chewed on that for a moment or two. “A swarm of machines, you said. In deep space.”

“Yes.”

“And I’m assuming the swarm’s not exactly happy.”

Beta allowed herself a shrug. “Insofar as an artificial hivemind wholly fixated on the destruction of its creators can be described as having any capacity for emotion…no. It’s not.”

“It’s called NEMESIS,” Aloy finally said. “And it’s on a path headed straight for us.”

“A swarm of angry machines…” Drakka breathed.

“The size of a small moon, yes,” Beta muttered.

“On a warpath from beyond the stars, with us as its target.”

“And the rest of humanity.”

Drakka sighed. “I’ll admit, that makes contending with Regalla’s rebellion sound like a training exercise by comparison.” He pushed himself to his feet, flashing her a grin before nodding at Kotallo. “Still, the Tenakth have carved machine hunting into our bones by now. If this thing is made of metal and spark, we’ll find a way to take it down just like a Thunderjaw.” He arched a brow as his gaze turned toward Aloy. “Isn’t that right, desert flame?”

Beta felt a knot in her stomach. Whether it was anxiety or the heat, she couldn’t quite tell. Either way, it left her nauseated. She barely realized she was speaking at all until the words were already coming out, and they made her stagger on her feet as they did: “This…this isn’t anything made by HEPHAESTUS. It’s not meant to have any effect on the biosphere or defend against hunters.” Her fingers curled against the edge of her borrowed armor, heart thundering in her ears. “This isn’t just a battle. It’s an extermination. The Zeniths viewed you as vermin, but NEMESIS views you as a disease. Something to be cured. Eradicated.”

Her mouth was dry, her head swimming, lungs seizing like she was still lying on the dusty stone halfway between Arrowhand and Scalding Spear. Like she’d just slammed against the ground again. She stumbled, palm pressed hard against the yawning doorway. Another found her shoulder blade, and Beta shuddered.

“Breathe,” Kotallo told her. It was a simple enough command. He was even using what Aloy had lovingly dubbed his Marshal Voice.

Beta forced herself to obey, swallowing past the lump in her throat and shuddering as she did. “NEMESIS is…powerful,” she finally forced out. “Probably more powerful than you can imagine.”

“More powerful than any one tribe can handle alone,” Aloy added. She wrapped one of her braids around her finger. “Or any one person.”

“So how do we bring it down?” Drakka asked, and when Beta looked up again and found him staring straight at her, she realized it was her question to answer.

It was a question worth a million shards. She swallowed. “With all due respect, Commander Drakka…if we knew the answer to that question we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.” His brow arched, and Beta met Aloy’s eye for just a moment and catching her nod. Go on. “We don’t know how to stop it yet. The answers might be out there somewhere, but while we’re trying to find them…”

Her voice failed her, her chest tightening. Her choice of words got its claws into her imagination and suddenly all she could picture was a wide black void, like the expanse of deep space but without a single star to speak of. Deep black nothingness, and the cold and nauseating realization that the answers they needed were floating somewhere just beyond her reach and destruction was approaching faster and faster every second.

Maybe it really was impossible, and they were just flailing in the dark for nothing. Or maybe not. Maybe they really had a snowball’s chance in a furnace (as Erend had said once), or maybe they were doomed.

“We’ll need all the help we can get,” Aloy was saying, but her voice sounded far away. “Right, Beta?” Her ribs felt like they were caught in a vise. “Beta…Beta.”

“Huh?”

When she snapped back again, Aloy was pressing a hand to her shoulder. “Drakka was just about to promise his help,” she said, and she turned to shoot the Commander a pointed look. “Right, Commander?”

“I would have agreed without the unspoken threat,” Drakka quipped. “I can’t claim to completely understand just what we’re up against, but I know enough. Strong, intelligent, and intent on our destruction…those are things this NEMESIS character has in common with plenty of enemies the Tenakth have faced before, at least.”

He still didn’t grasp it. Not fully. If he understood NEMESIS at all, he wouldn’t have that kind of hope that they could win. Any rational person would look at the odds and proclaim it impossible, and they were probably right.

But Aloy wasn’t giving up. None of them were giving up. And even as irrational and unexpected as it was, Beta didn’t want to give up either.

Stupidly, recklessly, she didn’t want to give in. But it felt all too much like an inevitability.

The sun was starting to dip as Beta sat near the entrance of the settlement and watched their overridden Chargers paw at the sand. The resemblance to the true grazing behaviors of Old World herbivores was uncanny. It almost made her imagine them as living, breathing animals rather than the tools they’d been designed as.

The ride back to the base would be quicker with them. That was something, at least.

She didn’t realize she’d been wringing her hands until Aloy’s touch against her shoulder snapped her out of it. “Hey,” Aloy greeted with a good-natured smile. “You did well, talking to Drakka today. I never exactly doubted he’d lend his support, but I’m sure it helped, explaining all this to him.”

“You didn’t need me for that,” Beta insisted. Hell, Aloy probably understood NEMESIS as well as any of them did. Even the Zeniths themselves had never fully figured out the intricacies of its hive mind system. The data they’d salvaged from the uplink to their orbiting ship was sparse at best.

Beta pushed herself to her feet and finally forced out, “I think it’s best if I go back to the base.”

Aloy was silent for a moment. A long moment. A long and uncomfortable moment, and when she spoke again, she sounded far from happy. “What makes you say that all of a sudden?”

“That was always the plan,” Beta insisted. “I made it to Scalding Spear. It should be a quick trip back and it’ll save you time moving forward. I won’t be slowing you down, and—” She tapped her fingers against her Focus, opening up the data packet she’d finished organizing the night before. She uploaded it to Aloy’s Focus with a simple swipe of her wrist. “That’s everything on NEMESIS and HEPHAESTUS that you should need to talk to the others.”

She finally met Aloy’s eye, waiting for an answer. Waiting for something. But Aloy just stared at her.

Beta swallowed. “I know you wanted me to keep going. I wanted to…I still…I still want to. But it’s obvious it would be faster for you two to travel without me. It’s for the best. For everyone.”

Before she could get another word out, Aloy was shoving something into her hand. When Beta uncurled her fingers and looked down at her palm, she saw fading sunlight glinting on a pile of shards.

“One hundred shards,” Aloy said in a clipped tone. “Per our wager.”

Beta swallowed as she closed her hand around them again. “Right…”

Aloy turned her attention to the Chargers, as if they needed it. “We’ll head back to the base in the morning,” she insisted. “On these mounts, we should get there by sundown and then Kotallo and I can make our way to the Grove alone.”

“Right,” Beta repeated. It seemed like the only word that would come. She bit her lip to keep from muttering it a third time, blinking back tears as she pushed to her feet.

Aloy stared at the machine’s broken horn and didn’t look up once until Beta rounded the corner.

Beta found a nice shaded spot near the central pillar and stayed there, listening to Drakka cursing the vulture that was still stubbornly perched nearby.

On the other side of the fighting pit, Aloy and Kotallo had ducked under a metal overhang, leaning in close as they spoke. What they were saying, Beta had no hope of knowing for sure – the words couldn’t hope to carry that far and she couldn’t make out their faces well enough to try and read lips. She didn’t quite want to anyway.

When their conversation had run its course, Aloy slipped past him and headed toward the entrance of the settlement with bow in hand. Hunting, maybe. Or looking for a machine to work out her frustrations. Beta almost wished she had the combat skills to do the same. It seemed like it would be effective.

Kotallo, meanwhile, strode across the entrance of the fighting pit and took another man by the arm. He was older, with darker skin and paint similar to Drakka’s, all crimson and yellow accented with charcoal black. Kotallo nodded toward her, and Beta felt a sinkhole open in her stomach when the other man approached her.

She supposed it was useless to pretend she hadn’t noticed him, but she tried anyway. At least until he stopped and addressed her. “I’m told you call yourself Beta,” he said, palm pressed against his chest. “I am Chaplain Jetakka. Has Marshal Kotallo told you anything about the meaning of the title?”

“I know enough,” she sighed. “Did he send you over here to…counsel me?”

“Do you feel you need counseling?”

“No,” she insisted, then squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes, but…maybe. I’m not sure.”

He sat beside her, gingerly. “You wouldn’t be the first to be unsettled by a long journey.”

"It's not even that long..."

Jetakka shrugged. "Distance is relative."

“Unsettled, though,” she snorted before she could help it. “That’s one word for it.” She leaned her forehead against her open palm with a grimace. “I’m sorry…I guess I’m just having trouble understanding why you…care?” Jetakka quirked a brow, and Beta fiddled with the hem of her borrowed armor. “I’ve read that Tenakth Chaplains counsel the tribe, but I’m not Tenakth. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Jetakka agreed with a bob of his head. “But I counsel any who need it. I’ve lent my support to two clan Commanders in my time, and more young warriors than I can count. Old warriors too.”

Beta let out a dry laugh. “Well I’m no warrior either.”

“Obviously,” he repeated.

He didn’t seem keen to speak again right away. In fact, he let the silence stretch on for far longer than should have been comfortable. He was waiting for her to talk. It was painfully obvious. But even if she didn’t exactly want to, it was feeling more and more preferable to the quiet.

She stared at her cuticles. “Aloy has a lot more faith in me than I thought she ever could when I first met her.”

“Not un-earned, I’m sure.”

Maybe. She couldn’t quite tell. She’d done things she never thought she could – defied the Zeniths, faced her worst nightmare, the end of the damn world.

And that was still looming. But it hadn’t killed her yet.

“It feels…good, in a way,” she said with a shrug. “But I’m also terrified of…of not earning it. Or messing it up somehow. Or not being strong enough.”

“Fear of letting others down is a sign of a good heart,” Jetakka offered. “And a heavy burden to bear.”

As if it could ever measure up to what Aloy had on her shoulders. It was insignificant by comparison. Infinitesimally small. If she couldn’t even manage to carry that on her own, what did that make her besides dead weight?

Jetakka was speaking, but the words didn’t quite come through. When he looked at her, expectant, she realized he’d asked her a question. She squeezed her eyes shut, pressing down hard on her thigh to stop it bouncing.

Jetakka pressed a water skin into her hands. “Drink,” he said. “It will settle you, if only for a moment.”

Worth a shot.

The water was surprisingly cool, soothing her scratchy throat as she swallowed. She handed the water skin back to him a moment later and sighed, “Aloy wanted me to go all the way to the Memorial Grove. All the way to the Bulwark.”

“That’s quite the journey for anyone,” Jetakka offered sagely.

“I can’t imagine making it all the way to the Grove, let alone the Bulwark. I didn’t even think I could make it here.”

“True, yet you did.”

She sighed. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Do you?”

“I made it here when I didn’t think I could, so who’s to say I can’t make it to the Memorial Grove?” she relented with a shrug. “Trust me, I thought of that too.”

Jetakka chuckled. “You’re as full of fire as the Champion.”

“I’m nothing like Aloy,” Beta insisted, almost like a reflex. “We share a gene print, but that’s about where the similarities stop.”

“I’m not convinced of that.” She expected him to keep talking, to explain just what he was getting at or what other similarities he saw between her and Aloy. But instead, he let the conversation lapse into silence again, and Beta was left to fidget.

She wouldn’t break it this time. She had no reason to.

“What’s the Memorial Grove like?” she blurted. The question seemed to surprise him. Fair enough. It had surprised her too.

“You could always see for yourself,” he said. Beta huffed, and Jetakka chuckled. “As I said, you have a spirit not unlike a young warrior. With all the stubbornness of one too.” Her face burned. “Believe it or not, I mean it as a compliment.”

She drew her knees up to her chest, letting a passing breeze wick the sweat off her temples. “You never answered my question,” she said quietly. “The Memorial Grove…I’m curious.”

“Mm. I’ve been there more than once. The Chaplains meet at the turning of the year or as needed to offer counsel to Chief Hekarro.” When Beta looked at him, impressed as she was surprised, he shot her a kind smile. “I did say we are charged with the duty of counseling all who need it. No matter their rank.”

“I guess you know him pretty well. Chief Hekarro.”

Jetakka nodded. “The Chief and Grove itself are alike in many ways. Imposing and firm, unyielding stone and solid steel. But like the Chief, the Memorial Grove has…a steadying presence. The trek itself is hardly a simple afternoon walk, but I think you would find it rewarding to meet him and see the visions of the Ten for yourself.”

“You make it sound like some kind of pilgrimage,” Beta muttered.

“For some, it is. You may not heed the wisdom of the Ten as we do, but the visions still may have something to offer you all the same.” He caught her eye. “And so might the Bulwark, though I admit I’ve never set foot north of Sheerside Climb myself.”

Beta shoved her hand into the pack at her hip, fishing out the handful of shards that Aloy had shoved into her palms not an hour before. Her stomach soured, her teeth stabbing into her lower lip as she curled her fingers around the metal.

“I already told Aloy I couldn’t do it,” she sighed. “She and Kotallo are planning on taking me back to our base tomorrow morning and then heading back out without me.”

“And I’d imagine those plans could be changed, as they were before,” Jetakka offered. “If need be.”

“I just don’t think I’m strong enough to make it that far.”

“Alone, no.”

Alone. She had been that way for so damn long that she couldn’t quite adjust to being any other way. She didn’t think she knew how. But before they’d set out on this trip, she hadn’t known how to sneak up on a Charger or how to climb an unsteady rock face either.

How the hell was she supposed to learn how to be part of a squad? That was how Kotallo had put it at least. She glanced up at Jetakka again as she shoved the shards back into her pack.

“I need to find Aloy.”

Jetakka was happy to point her in the right direction.  

“Lookin’ for Aloy?” Erend asked. She hadn’t even spotted him, and the question made Beta jump. But Erend smiled at her when she finally faced him, nodding at her across the Machine Strike board he’d perched at with Kotallo. “Seemed like you were looking for someone, and I figured it wasn’t either of us.”

“No,” Beta sighed, then she shook her head. “I mean yes. I am. Looking for Aloy.”

Kotallo thrust his jaw across the fire, toward a patch of shadows half-obscured by an overflowing bin of scrap metal. Beta made out a flash of red hair. “She needed some space,” was all Kotallo said, and when she caught his eye again, his expression seemed surprisingly soft. Not quite concerned, but somehow patient. It put her oddly at ease as she set off down the path.

Hopefully, stepping into her space wouldn’t do more harm than good. She fetched a bowl of steaming hot something from a cook who asked no questions, just for good measure.

Aloy glanced at her as Beta sat beside the scrap bin, heart pounding and making her fidget. Beta let out a shuddering laugh. “Sitting alone in the dark is usually my thing.”

That got Aloy to smile, though she seemed to try and fight it. It was something, at least. “We have it in common, actually. I’m pretty used to traveling alone.”

Silence stretched on between them, broken only by the sounds of crackling fire and muted conversation down near the fighting pit. Beta swallowed as she quietly offered the bowl of stewed and salted meat. “It’s gone a little cold,” she admitted as Aloy took it and ate without complaint. “I wanted to get some bread for you too, but…”

“No, I appreciate this,” Aloy insisted. She put it down after a few bites, drawing a steadying breath. “Beta, I…”

“I want to go to the Memorial Grove.”

Beta forced the words out before she could second guess it, and Aloy…stared at her. Her mouth hanging open an everything. It would have been almost comical if Beta’s heart weren’t pounding so hard in her ears.

“You…” Aloy swallowed and put the bowl down beside her. “You want to keep going?”

Beta nodded. “I still…don’t know about the Bulwark, but…I can make it one more stop, at least.”

“We’ll talk about the Bulwark later,” Aloy sighed. “What changed your mind?”

“I talked to Chaplain Jetakka,” Beta admitted. “But it was more than that…I don’t quite know for sure, but I…trust you. You and Kotallo. I trust both of you. And I want you to be able to trust me too.” She curled her fingers against her knees. “I just want to know…did you really need me to explain NEMESIS to all the clan commanders?”

Aloy hung her head, relenting, “Yes and no.” She let out a sigh. “I meant it when I said you had a…unique perspective on the Zeniths that could help get across what we need to. But it also seemed like a good opportunity to get you out of the base.”

“A training exercise,” Beta mused.

“Kotallo called it that once or twice.” Aloy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and it almost seemed like it left a flash of pink on her cheek, though that may have been a trick of the low light. “And he wasn’t wrong. I thought it would be good for you. And I thought…” She blew a heavy breath out between her lips, resting her chin against her palm. “I guess I’m not quite as much of a teacher as Rost was.”

Beta blinked at her, searching for the right words and coming up with nothing. But Aloy was straightening up a moment later, rolling her shoulders like she was shaking off whatever emotion had just bubbled up. “We’ll set out for the Grove tomorrow morning.”

Beta glanced down at Aloy’s travel pack where it rested by her feet. “And you’ll finally tell us what kind of data is on that holo-caster Erend brought you?”

Instead of resisting, Aloy reached down and fished it out, resting it in her palm as she studied it. “I have an Oseram friend down near the ruins of Las Vegas who’s a surprisingly skilled tinker. When he’s not working with things that can explode, at least.” She gestured at one of the holographic projector lenses nestled in a patchwork metal casing. It was hard to tell at first glance, but the glass was tinted a slightly different hue than its neighbors. “I found this in an old ruin near the coast. Morlund had the replacement lens it needed and insisted it was a repair job he could do blindfolded. I think he just wanted the chance to mess with it. He didn't want to take no for an answer, and I didn’t feel much like arguing with him.”

She said it fondly, chuckling as she handed it over so Beta could get another look. The seam around the lens was expertly welded, and she was willing to bet the work on the inside was just as well-done. Considering the rudimentary tools the Oseram had their disposal to work with such sensitive equipment, Beta couldn’t deny that she was impressed.

She handed it back, and Aloy tucked it into her pack again. As she sat up, Beta shoved a closed fist toward her and dropped a handful of shards into her palm after she urged it open. Aloy blinked down at them.

“One hundred shards,” Beta said. “You bet that much that I could make it all the way to the Bulwark. And I’m not paying out until we make it all the way there, but I’m returning what you paid me, before.” Her chest pinched remembering the look on Aloy’s face when she’d shoved the shards into her hand, but her expression was much warmer now. It set Beta at ease as Aloy tucked the shards into her purse.

“You said until,” Aloy pointed out a moment later.

“What?”

“Until we make it all the way to the Bulwark.” Aloy grinned at her. “Guess there’s part of you that thinks you can manage it.”

Maybe there was. Beta wondered just how willing she was to listen to it.

They set out at first light, and there was already sweat springing to the back of Beta’s neck as they retrieved their Chargers from the south gates. Aloy caught Beta’s eye and nodded toward her machine. “You can ride with me for this leg if you want.”

“I promise I won’t take it personally,” Kotallo quipped as he hauled himself up onto the back of his mount.

Aloy’s armor did have fewer spikes to look out for at least. She took Aloy’s hand and made it up onto the Charger’s back on her second try.

Scalding Spear gradually disappeared behind them as they made their way toward the mountain pass. The wind was kicking up, which would have been a welcome reprieve from the heat if it wasn’t for all the sand stuck in her hair.

Seemed she wasn’t alone in that, Beta noticed, as she watched Aloy mutter a curse under her breath and fruitlessly try to pat the dust from her braids. “I’ve always managed the heat well enough, but the sand…” She huffed. “I’d take a blizzard any day.”

“Agreed,” Kotallo said. Their Chargers trotted along at a steady but smooth pace, and he glanced across the path at them as Aloy pulled a face.

“Of course you’d prefer a blizzard,” she fired back. She flashed her teeth and dropped her voice to (poorly) mimic his. “Sky Clan blood does not feel the cold.”

Beta muffled a snort as Kotallo arched a brow. “You mocking me hardly makes it any less true.”

Aloy shot Beta a smile. “When we make it up north, we’ll have Beta be the judge if she prefers a blizzard or a sandstorm.”  

She preferred a quiet room and a clean bed, but she was hardly going to whine about the lack of either now. Kotallo was already catching her eye over his shoulder again, nodding in her direction. “I’m glad to see you found your conviction to continue on.”

“Yeah,” she relented. “I surprised myself there, honestly.”

“You were surprised?” he asked, and when she nodded, he let out a thoughtful hum. “I wasn’t. I assumed you’d muster the strength in time, and when I saw you speaking with Chaplain Jetakka I was all but certain.”

He didn't acknowledge the hand he'd had in that, but it hardly mattered. Beta blinked at him. “You…didn’t actually think I’d want to turn back?”

Kotallo glanced over at her with what she swore was an almost playful glint in his eye. “If I had,” he said with a downright smug lilt, “I never would have offered turning back as an option.”

Well.

That was oddly…comforting.

Chapter Text

The road to the Memorial Grove was surprisingly familiar, bringing back memories of their trip to Gemini. The route was the same. She thought it was, at least. It was hard to tell when every rock looked so much like every other rock.

Maybe it was inevitable that they eventually found something to talk about, but Beta never would have imagined that it would be the deeply divisive season four finale of Second Time Around.

“Wait,” Aloy huffed. “So Gracie was lying about being caught in that typhoon?”

“Not exactly,” Beta said with a shrug. “She really was trapped in the cellar of the brewery, but she never actually lost her memory.”

Kotallo slowed his Charger to an unhurried trot to fall in step beside them. “An attempt to distract Amy from her…affair with…” He squinted. “What was the name of her sister’s mate?”

“Matias,” Beta and Aloy said at once. Aloy went on to add, “But technically, the affair was with his twin, Miles. Justin just threatened to use the pictures to convince the family it was Matias.” When Beta stared at her, Aloy’s cheeks went pink. “What? I was invested. I couldn’t help it.”

Kotallo was smiling as he turned his gaze ahead again. “I still believe Gracie was a coward not to simply face things head-on,” he mused.

“She didn’t want to lose Amy,” Beta insisted. She took the water skin that Aloy passed back to her, splashing some on the back of her neck after she’d taken a gulp. “They were sisters. That…has to count for something. I don’t think she could stand to lose that, even if she didn’t quite know how to say it.”

For a generous few moments, the only sound was from the Chargers’ hooves on the dirt. But then Kotallo made a thoughtful noise. “Honesty would have served her better,” he said. “Though I suppose in a way, her motives were…honorable.”

“I just don’t understand why Gracie would even go for Miles," Aloy muttered. "Rocco was right there.”

Beta’s breath caught, a grin stretching across her face as she leaned forward against the Charger’s flanks. “Thank you!”

Kotallo huffed. “Personally, I think I would have found Miles far more enticing.”

“So maybe he’s your type,” Aloy fired back. “Doesn’t mean he’s Gracie’s.”

When the conversation lapsed into silence, Beta was left with a heavy weight settling in her gut. It had less to do with Gracie’s taste in men and more related to her suddenly being left alone with her own thoughts. Even with Aloy a solid presence on the Charger in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel her mind wander.

And wandering was dangerous. Especially in the desert. Especially in the desert this close to Cauldron Gemini, where Varl—

Where the Zeniths—

“We should stop,” Kotallo said suddenly.

Aloy tugged her Charger to a slow stop before asking, “Why?”

Just as Beta had finished exhaling on a count of seven, Kotallo’s eyes snapped to her. “She looks queasy.”

Aloy glanced back at her. “Beta?”

“I’m fine,” Beta forced out. It was more of a reflex than anything else. “Really, I’m okay.” The air was starting to cool, almost imperceptibly, but there was still an ever-present sheen of sweat on her brow. She sighed as she reached for her water skin again. “I’m just ready to be out of this heat.”

“She says she’s fine,” Aloy said simply, and her Charger trotted along down the path again. Kotallo followed behind with a thoughtful hum and little else.

A moment later, Aloy turned back toward her. “You remember to lean over the side if you’re going to be sick, right?” There was something in her voice, an almost playful lilt that put Beta’s mind at ease, at least enough for her pulse to slow a bit.

“Yeah,” Beta said with a nod. “But I’m not going to be sick. Promise.”

As the sun made its sluggish way through the sky overhead, Beta watched it dip behind the jagged line of mountains on the horizon. The air wasn’t quite as oppressively hot, but the growing dampness was starting to make her sweat cling to her. She had a suspicion that would only get worse by the time they made it to the other side of the mountain pass.

“We’ll camp for the night before we head on to the Grove tomorrow,” Aloy said, coming to a stop just off the rocky path. She pointed up the pass, to the west, directing Beta’s gaze to what looked like a messy stone outcropping about twenty feet off the level ground. “Over there. I remember there being a cavern down the path. There’s good cover and room for a fire.”

“A night on the trail may be a good thing,” Kotallo mused as he hopped off his Charger and led it by the horn down the path. “It will be a quiet reprieve from the Desert Clan capital before we return to the heart of the tribe.”

Oh hell, he was right. The Memorial Grove was the capital settlement of the entire tribe, seat of the Chief himself. So heavily guarded that she imagined she could get a spear at her throat for looking at someone wrong. Beta gripped the Charger’s wiring just for something to do with her hands.

“We can take it one thing at a time,” Aloy said, though the words sounded more than a little forced. More weren’t exactly forthcoming.

That was fine. Beta didn’t particularly want to talk about meeting with Chief Hekarro either. She preferred not to think about it for good measure.

They secured their Chargers in an alcove tucked off the path and Beta was faced with a pockmarked wall of stone, extending up far above her head where a lip of stone curved inward toward a deep cavern in the rock. It looked cozy enough. It also looked about two stories up.

That outweighed the “cozy” factor quite a bit.

Beta watched Aloy’s face fall as the wheels turned in her head. Her gaze went from Beta to the wall and back again at least twice before she bit her lip. “Ah…I’ll send down a line. Like before.” She was already thrusting herself toward the wall, grabbing two handholds without a moment’s hesitation and climbing up to the ledge above with no trouble at all. “Here—” She sent the rope down.

Beta stared at it. There was a bit of a slope, though it was so close to vertical that a few degrees hardly made a difference. She grasped it, feeling the woven texture under her fingertips and swallowing.

She could do this. Her upper body strength was nothing compared to Aloy’s, but she was stronger than she’d ever been in her life. And she’d made it the first time. She’d conquered one pile of rocks. She could managed a second.

Holding the rope tight, she pressed her foot against the stone and hauled herself up. Fuck, her own weight felt heavier than she’d been expecting. She wondered what her borrowed armor weighed. How Aloy did this kind of thing wearing stuff that had to be twice has heavy, Beta would never be able to wrap her head around.

Her arms were burning, her fingers slipping, and when she reached up to advance up the rope, she stumbled and fell with a curse.

This time, at least, she fell on her rear end instead of her spine. It ached as she pushed to her feet, but at least she could still breathe.

Aloy was doing a valiant job of restraining her impatience as she threw her legs over the edge again. “I’ll come down and help. Kotallo, can you come up and keep an eye on the rope? I’ll toss our things up.”

With just a grunt – that sounded like an affirmative – Kotallo grasped the a handhold in the wall and pushed himself up toward the ledge. Inexplicably, a stab of anger shot between Beta’s ribs. Aloy dropped down on solid ground again and strode closer to her, but Beta was already choking back a frustrated curse as she scratched at her scalp.

“Hey,” Aloy insisted, and it was only then that Beta realized she’d been muttering to herself. “We’ll help you up, alright? Trust us.”

“This is ridiculous,” Beta snapped before she could help it. “This is nothing to you, and I can’t even manage it.”

“It’s not nothing. This…this kind of thing takes time to learn. Time you haven’t had—”

Beta thrust her chin up at Kotallo as he got himself up onto the ledge. “It’s pathetic! Kotallo can make it with one arm, and I can’t even—”

The look in Aloy’s eye made Beta stop dead in her tracks. It was a flash of heat so intense that it made her entire spine tense and her throat seize. And up on the ledge, Kotallo was watching her like a hawk.

Neither said a word.

Beta swallowed, just to try and shake off the tension building in the silence. It didn’t work. Inevitably, next to come was a hot wash of shame that trickled down the back of her neck. Her jaw worked around words that just wouldn’t come.

The thing that finally broke the silence wasn’t her voice, but Kotallo’s. He climbed down the ledge so quickly and silently that Beta barely noticed until he stepped right into her field of vision.

“You’re relying too heavily on your upper body,” he told her, his tone steady and calm. His finger jabbed firmly against her shoulder. “The rope should help you hold steady, but the power should come from your legs. Do not pull yourself up – push. Proper technique will serve you better than sheer strength.” He leaned closer, his tone never wavering. “That is how I manage with one arm.”

Beta watched him turn and scale the wall again, and Aloy finally cleared her throat.

“I’ll climb halfway up and help you get better leverage,” she said as she found a good handhold. “Once you’re up, Kotallo and I will take care of our stuff.”

“No,” Beta insisted, and Aloy blinked at her, confused. “I mean…I want to at least…try and learn the right technique.” She could feel Kotallo watching her from above even if she couldn’t bear to look up at him, and she grasped the rope again. She glanced over her shoulder to shoot Aloy a smile. “Push, not pull.”

She’d done this before. The burn in her shoulders was familiar, as was the scrape of the rope against her palms. The incline was far steeper this time around, but the stone under her feet was riddled with wide footholds. She tensed her core and pushed against the rock with her legs, using the rope to hold her steady, and—

Before she knew it, a firm hand clamped down against her upper arm and pulled her the rest of the way onto the cool lip of stone. She leaned backwards, her arms throbbing and unsteady underneath her. “Oh,” she breathed. “I made it.”

Kotallo answered with little more than a single, quiet grunt before he got to work unloading their travel packs as Aloy tossed them up. It was only then that it started to replay in her mind – the frustration, the shame, the hot spike of anger.

Pathetic.

Oh no. Oh fuck, had she really called him that? No, of course not. She hadn’t meant anything close to that. It was about her, not Kotallo. And yet when she poured over the words in her head, again and again and again, there wasn’t a single thing she could do to make it sound any better.

Kotallo didn’t seem angry. He didn’t seem…much of anything, really. He was stone-faced as he caught the bags that Aloy tossed up onto the ledge, carrying them without complaint as Beta tucked herself back against the cool stone and quietly watched.

But still, Beta’s stomach twisted. She tried to speak. Tried to say something. But nothing came.

Kotallo set up the bed rolls as Aloy tended a modest fire, and they roasted scorpions over the coals as the sun set and the wind settled. Beta picked at hers, forcing herself to choke down a few bites if only because she knew it was what she was supposed to do.

“I should get some sleep,” Aloy said as she finally hauled herself to her feet, and she ducked under the low-hanging lip of stone obscuring their bed rolls from the outside world. “You too, Beta. It can be hard to get used to sleeping on the trail if you’re not used to it.”

“I will keep watch a few hours longer,” Kotallo said, never moving from his spot on the ledge. “A patrol comes through here near sunrise most days, and machines are rarely spotted. But I’m used to sleeping in shifts.”

For a moment – fleeing as a comet – Aloy almost looked disappointed. But she relented a moment later. “Fair enough.” She nodded to Beta. “Come on. Try and get some rest. We’ll talk about the plan for tomorrow in the morning.”

Sleep didn’t come, and it wasn’t just thanks to her anxiety about speaking with Chief Hekarro. No, anxiety was the last thing taking up space in her mind at the moment, in a twist of sheer, cruel irony. She would have preferred that.

Shame, though. That was so hot and sharp in her gut that she couldn’t get comfortable no matter how she turned under her fur blanket. Finally, she gave up and silently pushed herself to her feet.

Kotallo was still sitting on the ledge, leaning back and watching the stars overhead. He didn’t say a word, even if he had to know she was there. It almost seemed like he was waiting for her to speak first.

“I didn’t mean that you were pathetic,” was all she could think to say, and when he finally turned to face her, Beta grimaced. Seriously? That was all she could come up with? She would have been better off keeping her mouth shut.

Kotallo seemed to take pity on her. “Excuse me?”

“Earlier,” she forced out. “Before you helped me up the wall. What I said…I didn’t mean like that.”

He studied her, his expression unreadable. “Do you think I’m angry?”

“I…wasn’t sure,” she admitted. Lying didn’t seem quite worth the effort at the moment.

He reached down to his right, and Beta finally noticed a handful of roasted nuts and a few discarded shells. He brought one to his teeth, cracked it, and popped the seed inside into his mouth before tossing the shell off the ledge. He didn’t say anything more, and Beta stepped a little closer.

“I was never very good at opening those,” she mused, unsure of what the hell else to say. He just looked at her, not saying a word. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was trying to make her squirm.

“Is there a reason you’re not sleeping?” he finally asked.

She scuffed her bare foot against the smooth stone, staring down at it. “It’s…it’s like Aloy said, I guess. Just having trouble adjusting to sleeping on the trail.”

He let out a hum as he tossed another shell down near the Chargers penned below. One of the machines ground it into the dirt beneath its hoof. “Sleep or do not,” he said simply. “It’s your choice, but you will regret it if you need to travel tomorrow without enough rest.”

“You’re not sleeping either,” Beta reminded him.

“I’m used to it.”

She sighed, curling her arms around herself despite the fact that the air was still warm. “You have any techniques for that too?”

“Yes,” he said. “Go to bed.”

Har har. There was no force behind that command. It sounded more like a suggestion. Part of Beta wanted to listen to it, exhausted as she was, but she lingered anyway. Standing there, quietly mulling things over in her head as she leaned against a damp rock.

Kotallo didn’t face her, still staring out at the horizon instead when he spoke again. “It’s not an easy position to be in,” he mused, finally turning to glance at her. “The weakest member of the squad. The one responsible for slowing everyone else down.”

A lump pressed against Beta’s throat. She swallowed against it. But Kotallo wasn’t done.

“It had been so many years since I was a novice warrior that I almost forgot that feeling.” He nodded down toward the remains of his left arm. “After this, I felt it again. And it was just as cruelly unyielding as I remembered.” He met her eye again. “You said you didn’t want to be a burden. I understand. I know what it is to be furious with yourself. To know that you should be able to do the most simple things, while failing time and time again.”

He tossed her a nut, still tucked in its shell, and Beta caught it, a little clumsily. “I told you earlier that technique is more important than sheer strength,” he reminded her.

“You were right,” Beta said, bringing the shell up to her teeth and cracking it open like she'd seen him do. It was far easier than trying to use her nails. “I should know…I don’t have a lot of strength to offer. But your technique got me up that ledge anyway.”

Kotallo let out a quiet hum. It sounded like an affirmation. “More important than that is determination. Which you’ve already demonstrated with every step closer we take toward the Memorial Grove.”

Beta paused and looked at him as she pulled the shell off the nut inside. She didn’t eat it, though. Her stomach was still too twisted into knots to even think of it. She swallowed against that tightness in her throat and finally forced herself to hold his gaze.

“I’m ah…sorry. I shouldn’t have said that earlier. About your arm. It wasn’t…”

She trailed off, reaching for the right words and finding nothing, her stomach twisting in on itself over and over as her fingers curled around the nut and its shell.

“I accept your apology,” Kotallo said, rather than letting the silence drag on. His expression was neutral, but his tone seemed…warm, somehow. “Though I already considered the slight settled when you heeded the advice I gave you.”

Beta blinked at him. “Wait…what?”

He shrugged. “When there is a choice between words and actions, Tenakth usually prefer the latter.” His eyebrow arched, making him look almost playful. “Remembering that will serve you well as we make our way deeper into the clanlands. Particularly when you speak to Chief Hekarro.”

“What’s Chief Hekarro like, anyway?” she blurted before she could help it. Her curiosity had a habit of getting the best of her at the worst times.

“The children up north often claim that he’s eight feet tall and that he can breathe fire.”

Beta finally popped the shelled nut into her mouth, wiping her hands on the edge of her loose tunic. “I’m guessing that’s an exaggeration.”

“A bit,” Kotallo quipped. “I’ll tell you more after we set out tomorrow. For now, you should rest.”

She almost ducked back into the alcove again. But she hesitated. She squinted as she studied Kotallo from the other side of the cold fire pit. “Just how tall is he?”

“The childrens’ stories are overblown, obviously.” He shrugged. “He’s only seven and a half feet tall at most.”

That got a laugh out of her. It surprised Beta as much as it did Kotallo, and she quietly bid him goodnight before slipping back into her bed roll to sleep until dawn.

Chapter Text

They arrived at the Memorial Grove by mid-morning, and it was a sticky and unforgiving one. Beta wiped a sheen of sweat from her brow and caught herself yearning for the cold bite of the mountain air back at their base.

“The answer is yes,” Kotallo said after they’d passed the main entrance, and she looked up at him if only to let him distract her from the guards staring holes into her back. “If you’re wondering whether it’s always this humid. For the most part, the answer is yes.”

He sounded almost like he was mourning it himself as he said it. The desert had been hotter, but at least it had been dry.

Just ahead of them, Aloy was greeting an elder Tenakth woman in front of a large holographic projection. Beta’s gaze was fixed on it as Kotallo guided her over. The console below it was battered but surprisingly well-maintained. Unsurprising, considering the reverence the Tenakth seemed to have for these old historical records. She doubted she’d have the chance to get a look at its inner workings.

“Marshal Kotallo and our Champion have brought a guest to the Grove,” the older woman mused as she pulled Beta’s attention away from the hologram. The flickering light of it reflected off of her face paint. Aqua, white and red. Lowland Clan colors. Her age meant she was probably a Chaplain, and that plus the paint meant the woman must be Dekka.

She’d heard plenty already about Dekka.

“Let me get a look at you, young blood,” she commanded, and before she’d even finished speaking, she grasped Beta’s wrist and turned her around. Beta stumbled, and Dekka let out a warm laugh as she released her. “You’re a lithe little thing. Not unlike a cunning stalker. Get some ink in your skin and replace some of that softness with muscle and you’d be the spitting image of a Lowland trapper.”

“Thank…you?” Beta muttered.

Instead of answering, Dekka turned to Aloy. “The Chief is expecting the three of you. He’s eager to hear about your meeting with Commander Drakka and your plans for the rest of the tribe.” She arched a brow as she turned her gaze on Kotallo. “And you did keep him waiting a day longer than your latest report, Marshal.”

Beta’s face went red. Apparently she’d slowed them down more than either of them had let on. But Dekka didn’t seem angry. She could only hope Chief Hekarro was as forgiving.

Kotallo hardly seemed worried, nudging Beta down the corridor as they fell in step beside Dekka and Aloy. “A few minor delays. Nothing I won’t address with him myself.”

“That was never in question,” Dekka said fondly. “And the Chief shares in that sentiment, as long as you don’t keep him waiting any longer.”

With a pat on Kotallo’s pauldron, Dekka strode ahead of them. Beta craned her neck to get a look at what certainly seemed like the throne room, judging from the guard posted in the doorway. Anxiety swooped in her belly.

“Relax,” Aloy insisted. She must have noticed her fidgeting. “Hekarro’s not going to bite your head off. He’s just a man, not a Scorcher.”

“A man who ostensibly breathes fire,” Beta quipped.

Aloy snorted and shot Kotallo a glance. “What have you been telling her?”

“Nothing but a few harmless rumors,” Kotallo said coolly. “Fire or no, he’ll be more than ready to listen to what you have to say.”

Beta picked at her cuticles. “I just want to make a decent first impression…”

Aloy’s face flushed red. “The first time I met him, I threatened to kill him,” she said with a grimace.

“You made an impression,” Kotallo insisted as he barked out a laugh.

“A good one or a bad one?”

“A memorable one.”

Aloy squinted at him. “I’m not sure how I feel about you not answering my question.”

Instead of saying another word about it, Kotallo turned to Beta instead. “When you address the Chief, square your shoulders and speak with purpose. He will listen.”

Don’t slouch or mumble. She could remember that, at least. She might even be able to manage it.

She could certainly manage to avoid threatening his life. That was a given.

They followed Dekka into the throne room, and Beta let her eyes wander across the breadth of the chamber. It was open to the canopy above, huge jagged ribs of stone reaching up toward the sky on all sides. And ahead of them, a massive platform decorated with vibrant paint and bathed in gold firelight spilling from the dark metal braziers. At the top of the steps, a man who she could only guess was Hekarro himself stood up from the throne – an old digital interface node? – and studied them.

He was not seven and a half feet tall. She had yet to determine whether he could breathe fire, but she doubted it.

“Marshal Kotallo,” he greeted. “And my Champion. You have company with you.” His eyes flashed over to Beta, and she fought the urge to squirm or flinch. No fire yet. “Kotallo has mentioned you. Beta.”

The Chief of the Tenakth knew her name. She almost felt flattered. Maybe if the threat of the imminent destruction of all life on earth weren’t breathing down their throats, she’d have time to indulge in it. Instead, she just nodded.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Sir.” She glanced over at Kotallo. “I…don’t need to salute, do I?”

“No,” he insisted.

Good. She allowed herself a slow, steady breath.

“From what I understand, you share blood with my Champion,” Hekarro mused.

Beta looked over at Kotallo again. “You told him?”

“My Marshal’s explained it’s complicated.” He nodded. “His words. And I am addressing you directly. I would expect the same courtesy.”

She gulped.

She felt Kotallo’s knuckle press against her spine, just for a fleeting moment. Barely long enough for her to notice. Square your shoulders.

“It is,” Beta forced out as she straightened her back. “Complicated.”

Hekarro’s brow arched as silence stretched between them. He finally broke it. “Is that all the explanation you intend to give me?”

“Really complicated,” she offered.

“I hope you don’t presume I’m incapable of understanding anything more than that.”

“N-no!” Oh, please don’t let today end with her being thrown into the arena with a damn Thunderjaw for insulting the Chief of the Tenakth. “No, that’s not…I’m not…”

“At ease,” Hekarro insisted. He looked…contemplative for a moment, a finger stroking across his chin. “I’m seeking understanding, nothing more. Explain it to me, as best you can. If I have questions, I’ll say so.”

Speak with purpose. He will listen.

Beta spoke. Hekarro listened. She explained GAIA, and Project Zero Dawn and the demise of the Old Ones. HADES and the Extinction Signal and Far Zenith’s escape. She stammered around as basic as an explanation as she could about ELEUTHIA and the cradle facilities – something that intrigued Hekarro so much that he began pacing back and forth along the dais as she answered his surprisingly insightful questions.

There was an odd asymmetry to his gait. He was favoring his right leg, just slightly. Interesting.

She barely paid it any mind. Beta was mirroring him before she realized she was doing it at all, striding between the braziers with her gaze locked on the canopy above.

She only stopped when she began to describe NEMESIS, and Hekarro went quiet again and lowered himself back onto the edge of his throne. And when she was finally done, she cleared her throat and realized just how parched it was.

“Well,” Hekarro mused on the edge of a sigh, “I admit you were right when you described this as complicated.”

“Really complicated,” Beta muttered before she could help it. Just for good measure.

Hekarro let out a huff that may have been the beginnings of a laugh, but any levity that might have cropped up was gone from his voice a moment later. “I’ve pledged my own blade to face this looming threat from beyond the stars. Every warrior within these walls will not hesitate to follow.” His tone was measured and calm.

“I don’t…know if that will be enough,” Beta blurted, and his eyes turned toward her again. She struggled to wet her chapped lips, studying the look on his face. He hardly seemed surprised by her outburst, as if he’d already known what she would say. “You…know that, don’t you?”

“Our odds are grim, judging from what counsel I’ve heard,” he relented. “That’s hardly a reason not to face what comes.”

Her next question surprised even her. “Aren’t you afraid?”

He paused and considered it. “Do you think I am afraid?” Hekarro asked her in a low voice, one that rumbled through the throne room like thunder on the horizon.

Beta clenched her fists. “I think if you aren’t, you’re a—” She snapped her lips shut, and Kotallo made a noise next to her. It made her regret opening her mouth even more.

But Hekarro leaned forward on his throne. “Say what you intend to say, outlander.” His fingers curled against his palm. “Go on.”

Well, no running now. If she was headed for a death in the Memorial Grove Arena, there was nothing she could do to stop it. “NEMESIS…” She swallowed, just to try and loosen her vocal cords enough to get the words out. “NEMESIS is unlike any weapon or machine you’ve ever seen. The Zeniths and that rebellion…the storms and biosphere disruptions before…they’re nothing compared to NEMESIS. If you really understood what I’ve been trying to tell you, you’d be terrified.”

Her voice was echoing back to her from the back of the chamber by the time she finished, panting and trembling. Hekarro stared at her, his thumb brushing against the first knuckle of his index finger in a slow, deliberate pattern.

Finally, he arched a brow and broke the silence. “You presume I do not truly understand then.”

“You wouldn’t be this calm if you—”

“I am terrified,” he finally said, and the words hung in the silence that followed. His tone was steady, never wavering even for a moment as he studied Beta intently. “I understand the gravity of the threat you’ve described. I understand what is at stake, and I assure you that I am as terrified as any sane man would be.” He nodded at her, sagely. “But I am Tenakth. And Tenakth see fear as cause to fight, not to run. So whatever you need from me in the battles to come, you will have.”

Well, that was a victory at least. A small one, but significant anyway.

“Marshal.” Hekarro’s attention was focused over her shoulder now, his gaze fixed on Kotallo. “I expect a detailed briefing of our strategy moving forward. And as much forewarning as you can give me of when we will see the whites of our enemy’s eyes.”

“You’ll have as much, my Chief,” Kotallo promised him.

“You’ve spoken to Commander Drakka already.” It was a statement, not a question, and his eyes had settled on Beta again. “I understand you intend to meet with Atekka and Tekotteh in due course.”

“We'll talk to Atekka as soon as we make it to Thornmarsh,” Aloy said, and she let out a sigh. “And we’ll be heading straight to the Bulwark after that.”

“Tekotteh came to the Grove’s aid when times were at their most dire, even if it was as much to keep up appearances to the other clans as anything else. And if he does not rise to that expectation this time, do whatever is necessary to bend the will of the Sky Clan in our favor.”

“I can think of at least three things that might do that,” Aloy quipped, just barely audible under her breath. Kotallo’s brow twitched, but his expression never wavered.

Hekarro was eying her from atop the dais. “Consider that permission to get creative, should the need arise. I doubt that will be a problem for you.”

Whether he’d heard her or not, Aloy’s cheeks went pink as she answered. “Got it.”

They were dismissed just a breath later, but there was something else. Something lighting up in the back of Beta’s mind that just wouldn’t let her ignore it. He’d been favoring his right.

“Could I—” Beta’s voice caught in her throat, but she forced herself to meet Hekarro’s eye and pulled in a deep and steadying breath. She squared her shoulders, just like Kotallo had suggested. “Could I speak to you alone, Chief Hekarro?”

The request seemed to surprise him just as much as it surprised Aloy and Kotallo. He looked past her, no doubt shooting them a look over her shoulder. “Very well,” Hekarro said with a nod. “Marshal, Champion. The room, please.”

Kotallo started to speak, but nothing quite made it out of his throat before he fixed his eyes on Beta. “Of course, Chief.”

Beta felt Aloy’s hand brush her shoulder before the two of them exited. And here she was, staring up at the Chief of the Tenakth at the top of the steps. He was looking at her now. Expectantly.

It made something twist in her stomach. She hadn’t quite thought she’d even get this far.

“I…” She swallowed, unable to force the words out any further. She cast a glance back at the guards posted near the entry of the throne room. It felt like they were watching her just as intently. 

As if she could ever hope to lay a scratch on Hekarro. Even if she wanted to. The man looked like he was built out of steel and ate bricks for every meal. Fire-breathing wasn’t all that far-fetched when she really thought about.

He nodded at her. “Go on.”

Square your shoulders and speak with purpose.

Kotallo’s voice rang in her head, and Beta followed the order. “I wanted to ask…how long has your knee been causing you pain?”

Hekarro…stared at her. No longer waiting expectantly for her to force out a complete sentence, but instead damn near befuddled. The expression only lasted a moment before he quietly descended a few steps to close the distance between them. “Pardon?” His tone was perfectly neutral. Almost monotone.

Beta gulped.

“I only ask because your age—” Hekarro paused just three steps away and she fumbled, fixing her gaze on the stone underfoot. “Um…osteoarthritis isn’t uncommon after several years of demanding physical activity. I…I don’t really think anyone else noticed the limp, for what it’s worth. I almost didn’t. But you were favoring your right…”

Stop talking. Stop fucking talking.

Anything else she could possibly think of to say got thoroughly lost. Hekarro barely even blinked, staring at her like he was trying to bore right into her soul. She fought the urge to fidget and lost.

“I might be able to help,” she blurted a moment later, just to fill the silence before it crushed her. Hekarro looked…surprised, just for a breath. Then he let out a quiet huff. “Not that…you need it. I just meant…I have some basic training in medical botany, and…”

She trailed off into silence. Agonizing silence. Finally, Hekarro smiled.

Smiled.

Oh fuck, was she about to die?

“An old wound rearing its ugly head decades later,” he said as Beta wobbled on her feet. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he sounded almost impressed. “As it happens, the medics here in the Memorial Grove have somewhat of a vested interest in my health. And their expertise relieves my pain immensely.” He nodded down at his left knee, and now that he was closer Beta could make out the faint line of a scar running along its side.

Before she had the chance to ask what kind of man or machine left him with that, he was leaning into her field of vision again.

“Any stubborn pain that remains, I can handle just as any seasoned Tenakth warrior would.”

Beta nodded, a little frantically. She was itching to scurry out the door, but she forced her feet to stay planted where they were. She wouldn’t embarrass herself any more by making a break for it. “Right…right, of course. I didn’t mean—”

His hand whipped through her periphery before it landed firm against her shoulder. “I find your candor admirable,” he told her. “And your concern…appreciated.”

“I could always threaten to kill you if you prefer that.”

She blurted it out before she could second-guess it and felt herself go scarlet a second later.

Hekarro leveled her with a sharp look. “A threat against the Chief’s life could very well end with you staring down a Behemoth in the arena,” he growled.

Beta felt a little like she was about to faint. Only for a second or two, though. Hekarro snapped her out of it when he leaned a bit closer.

“A joke,” he told her.

She blinked at him. “Wha…”

Hekarro let out a warm chuckle. “At ease, young blood,” he said as he strode up the dais and lowered himself onto his throne. “You are welcome within the walls of the Grove. I recommend you reconvene with my Marshal and Champion, before they begin to suspect you’ve wandered off.”

Giving her an out. An escape route from this trainwreck of an interaction. It was generous. She didn’t intend to turn it down. Instead, she offered a quick and contrite nod and turned to scurry out into the corridor.

Aloy was on her a moment after she rounded the corner, arching a brow and studying her. “Don’t suppose you care to share what that was about.”

“Nothing important,” Beta forced out.

Kotallo arched a brow at her. “Did you threaten to kill him too?”

“Not…directly.”

“Hm. An indirect threat is not the Tenakth way. You training will cover that in time.”

“Will I regret asking exactly what that means?” Aloy sighed.

“I didn’t threaten to kill him,” Beta insisted, and she turned on her heel with a loud scrape against the sand, facing Aloy with her shoulder pressed hard against an ancient stone pillar. “It’s not important, really. I think what’s more important is knowing when you’re going to tell us what you want to do with that holo-caster you hauled here from Scalding Spear.”

“I must admit I’m curious too,” Kotallo added with a slight grin. “And if I recall, you did intend to explain it when we arrived here.”

Aloy brushed past them both, heading for the front gates. “Tonight. I have to wait until tonight, after sundown.” She glanced back over her shoulder to look at them and wave. “It’ll be worth it.”

“She offered to hunt a few peccaries for the cook,” Kotallo said, answering an unspoken question he must have seen coming from a mile away. “I was impressed. It usually takes her at least a few hours before she starts offering aid to any who mention needing it.”

There was no malice at all in those words. Quite the opposite. There was a fond little lilt to his voice as he said it, and the look in his eyes was decidedly warm.

He turned to her, nodding down the corridor. “We’ll be sleeping in the guards’ barracks tonight. Normally, the Marshals’ quarters would offer a bit more privacy, but the storms last week led to a flood that cut through the bunkhouse.”

“You don’t sound too shaken up by that,” Beta noted.

Kotallo shrugged. “Anything I value is back at the Base for the foreseeable future. Or I carry it with me.”

She didn’t miss the way his eyes wandered toward the gates when he said that. Aloy was long gone, but his gaze lingered there anyway.

“The barracks is more crowded, but it will be more comfortable than a bedroll laid over stone.” He nodded down the path. “Come. Help me unload our things before Aloy returns.”

Simple enough. She followed close behind him as he led her down the path.

It wasn’t long after dark when Aloy pulled Beta away from her dinner and all but dragged her toward the arena. Beta had just enough time to shove her last few bites of bread into her mouth as she stumbled to her feet, and she managed it without choking, so she considered it a win. She tried to get the inevitable question out, to ask Aloy what in the world had her grinning like that, but she had a suspicion she wouldn’t be getting an answer until Aloy was good and ready.

“You’ll see,” was all Aloy said, with an enigmatic little grin. She said the same to Kotallo three times over, and even Hekarro when he met them on the balcony overlooking the ring below.

“The evening’s fights are done,” said Dekka. “Champion, the ring is yours.”

“Give me two minutes,” Aloy told them, and a second later she was rappelling down onto the sand with the makeshift holo-caster resting comfortably under her arm.

As Beta watched her go, she felt a nudge against her elbow. She glanced over just in time to come face to face with Dekka, and the woman was beaming at her. “I was told there was a striking resemblance, but still, it’s almost uncanny.” She nodded over at Kotallo with a playful glint in her eye. “Have the Marshal and Champion been behaving themselves, young blood?”

Kotallo made a choked noise next to him, which he turned into a subtle cough a moment later. Hekarro spared a look in his direction, but Kotallo’s eyes stayed fixed on the arena below as Aloy knelt to place the holo-caster on the sand.

Beta studied Dekka with a placating – albeit slightly forced – smile. “Behaving themselves?”

Dekka’s expression was unreadable, a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth making the wrinkles there deepen as she turned her attention to the ring. Suddenly, Beta found herself inexplicably conjuring the mental image of Aloy’s bedroll tucked up close to Kotallo’s back in Arrowhand.

She watched Hekarro offer Kotallo a water skin, muttering something she couldn’t make out. Whatever it was, Kotallo barely reacted beyond taking the water skin and tipping it toward his lips. She could have sworn she saw Hekarro crack a smile before he turned away from her and his hair obscured his face again.

Aloy was climbing back up to meet them again a minute later, and she wiped her hands against her armor and tapped her Focus. “Now I just need to set this up…”

“Blazing skies, Aloy,” Dekka laughed. “Just how long do you intend to keep us in suspense?” She gestured across the arena, drawing their attention to the crowd that had gathered in the stands. “In case you haven’t noticed, word of this mysterious spectacle of yours has spread since you arrived earlier.”

Dekka was right – the stands around the arena were dotted with curious Tenakth onlookers. They leaned against the railings and columns and stared down at the tiny holo-caster perched in the sand below. It looked almost comically tiny.

“I found this data not too long ago, buried in an old ruin,” Aloy said, an edge of excitement in her voice and intrigue flashing in her eyes. “Most of the information was too corrupted to make out, but I managed to restore a small piece of it. A few images and a reference to the Mojave Battlefield Memorial Museum.” She waved a hand out over the arena proper. “The Memorial Grove.”

Dekka let out a breath. “A new vision.”

“Something like that.” She tapped her fingers to her Focus, brow furrowing in concentration. “This place…this part of the museum used to be something called a planetarium.”

“The Chaplains have heard the word before,” Dekka said. “It’s scattered amongst a few fragments of visions pieced together over the years. We never managed to learn what it meant.”

“You might be a little disappointed,” Aloy relented with an understanding smile. “It’s really just a name for a building. One made to project images of the night sky.” Her eyes flicked up toward the expanse of dark clouds above, starlight peeking through breaks in the cover. “Which I realize might seem a bit…redundant at first. But I thought you’d be interested anyway.”

Dekka’s eyes were wide and shining, fixed on the sky above as Aloy activated the holo-caster. Suddenly the cloud cover overhead lit up with hundreds upon hundreds of pinpricks of light. Stars. Planets. A comet curved across the surface of the half-globe extending from one edge of the ring to the other.

“A sky full of stars on a cloud-covered night,” the Chaplain mused. “Incredible.”

It was, but Beta was intrigued for reasons that had nothing to do with JTF-10 or any other pseudo-deity. She leaned over the edge of the balcony, running a quick scan on the holo-caster and squinting at the readout from her Focus. There was something there, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

If she could just get a little closer, she could get a better scan. Maybe clean up just enough of that data to untangle the rest. Or at least make the light show shine just a little brighter.

“Beta?” Aloy was studying her, looking equal parts confused and intrigued.

“Give me a minute,” was all Beta bothered to mutter before she carefully made her way down the sloping pathway toward the bottom level. She was getting her fair share of odd looks from the Tenakth she gingerly elbowed her way past to press herself up against the painted wooden barrier.

Ah, the gate was unlocked, swinging outward under her palm when she leaned her weight against it. She slipped through the gap under a slackened length of chain and scurried over to the holo-caster.

The puzzle was a simpler one that she’d been expecting. Just a few corrupted lines of code getting in the way of the program executing some of its more advanced functions. But that was easy enough to fix. In fact, she could probably do it right in the arena—

The knot untangled itself before her very eyes, the program flashing to life and brightening the sky overhead even more. Aloy’s voice rang in her ear over her Focus a moment later.

“Beta, what – fire and spit, what did you manage to figure out?”

Beta grinned as she craned her head upwards to study her handiwork. Lines connected the stars above in neat, geometrical patterns neatly tagged with sharp script: Aquarius, Taurus, Pisces…

She tapped her Focus as she turned to smile up at the balcony. “There are more layers to this star map in the data. I just cleaned up an extra function that had been obscured by data corruption. This version looks like it shows Old World constellations. These names were part of a cycle called the Zodiac.”

It was only when Beta let her gaze start to wander that she realized every eye was on her, and her heart pounded until the crowd’s attention shifted heavenward again. Kotallo had made his way down from the balcony and was urging her over to the edge of the ring, and she scurried over to meet him as he studied the patterns above.

“The Chaplains will be speaking of this for years to come,” he mused. He sounded…not impressed. It was something beyond that. Reverent seemed like a better description, and it made Beta’s stomach flip. “A glimpse of the night sky, just as the Ten saw it centuries ago.”

“It…probably doesn’t look all that different,” Beta muttered. “The stars are the same…just the way you view them that changes.”

He hummed. “The constellations are strange to me. They’re nothing like the ones I learned as a boy, up north.” Kotallo nodded up the path. “Come – Dekka will have questions for you, I’m sure. It’s wise not to stand between a Chaplain and what could lead them to a deeper understanding of the Ten.”

Dekka did have questions. More than Beta could keep up with. It was surprising, just how deep she drove the meaning behind a personal log and a basic star map. Though from what Beta had been told, that was the job of a Chaplain, and Dekka hardly took it lightly.

They left the holo-caster where it was in the middle of the arena, a gentle light gleaming against the cloud cover. Beta could still make out its gentle glow over the thatched roof of the barracks, and it spilled in through the windows as they made their way inside. It was almost comforting, like a distant flash of lightning on the horizon.

“There are only two free pallets,” one of the guards told Kotallo as they made their way inside. “We have plenty of spare bedrolls, though.”

“I’ll take the floor,” Aloy sighed, more tired than disappointed. “I can sleep anywhere.”

“Then you’ll have little trouble sleeping on this pallet,” Kotallo said as he dropped her bag on the padded frame. He arched a brow at her when she pouted.

“Kotallo, I really don’t—”

“Beta,” he barked, and he gestured at the pallet next to him. She scurried over to drop her things on top of it, and Aloy groaned.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’m too tired to argue.” Her tone was sharp, but there was a warmth there that wasn’t unlike what she’d heard from Kotallo earlier, when he’d watched Aloy run off to spend the afternoon hunting peccaries.

They settled in quickly with little else spoken. Exhaustion seemed to hit them all at once, and by the time Kotallo had spread out his bedroll between the pallets, Aloy was already curled up under a fur-lined blanket and fading quickly.  

As Beta snuggled under her own blanket and turned onto her side, her eye was drawn toward the low firelight still flickering by Aloy’s bed. Cast in the gentle golden glow, Kotallo reached up from his bedroll on the floor to curl his fingers against hers. Beta couldn’t see Aloy’s face, obscured as it was by the blanket, but the way her hand reached toward Kotallo’s when he brushed her skin told her plenty all on its own.

Behaving themselves.  

Beta let out a breath, and Kotallo’s eyes flashed over toward her. They met hers for just a breath or two, and then he quietly turned away and let his hand drop to the furs without a word.

“Goodnight,” Beta murmured. She was asleep before she had time to hear any reply.

Chapter Text

Beta woke to a hand on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes just in time to watch Aloy adjusting the fastenings on her armor.

“We’re going to head out before long,” Aloy said.

“Right,” Beta muttered, still half asleep and feeling sluggish. Her legs were sore. Her arms were worse. But she hauled herself up anyway. The sun had already risen past the treetops, and Beta wondered if Aloy and Kotallo had made a point to allow her to sleep in.

They met Dekka near the entrance, and she shot Beta a warm smile as Aloy made her way down the steps to ready their mounts. “Off to Fall’s Edge,” the Chaplain mused. “And soon the Lowland capital of Thornmarsh beyond. The ride is a long one, but at least the desert is behind you now.”

“Uh…yeah. I’m glad about that.”

Dekka chuckled, reaching into a pack at her hip and drawing out a small jar. She pressed into Beta’s hands. “You’ll need this,” she said. When Beta opened the lid and took a cursory sniff, her eyes watered from the overpoweringly dry, herbaceous scent that drifted out. Dekka chuckled. “Just a dab or two behind the ears. It will keep the biting flies at bay as you cut your way deeper into the Raintrace. Thank me later, young blood.”

Beta preferred to thank her now and be done with it. Dekka seemed to appreciate that. With a firm pat to her shoulder and a few parting words to Kotallo, she sent them on their way.

The ride toward Fall’s Edge was unhurried and humid, clouds looming overhead and threatening rain. They rode in comfortable silence, Beta pressed against Kotallo’s back as his Charger trundled through the underbrush until Aloy’s paused ahead of them and she held up a hand.

“Hear that?” she hissed. Kotallo seemed to, from the way he’d stiffened. Beta had to strain her ears, but not for long – suddenly the low rumble in the distance grew to a roar, and in the clearing below, a Rollerback charged out past the treeline. Kotallo was already getting off his machine, urging Beta down too.

A Tenakth squad flanked the machine, expertly dodging a swipe of its tail and advancing with the sunlight glinting off their blades.

“Stay behind me,” Aloy barked. Her grip on Beta’s arm was almost painful as Aloy tugged her close and thrust her toward the Charger. The machine huffed and stamped at the damp ground, its metal hoof etching deep grooves into the mud, and Beta flinched away from it just as Aloy readied her bow.

But Kotallo was quick to reach out and urge her to lower her weapon. It only took another moment or two for Beta to recognize why, in the same second that Aloy did – the Rollerback below lumbered into the brush, crashing through branches and mud until it went rigid, electricity sparking up its armor plating. The remains of a hidden tripwire curled around its feet as it dropped to the ground.

The Tenakth squad was on it, letting out chorus of rattling battle cries as they sent arrow after arrow stabbing through the metal plating. An explosive spike buried itself in the exposed gravity generator and detonated with a deafening roar that had Beta stumbling backwards and covering her ears. When she looked back again, the machine was down, and the squad converged on the salvage as Aloy put away her bow.

“Well,” Aloy breathed, “guess they didn’t need our help after all.”

Kotallo was smiling, almost proudly. "Lowland Tenakth warriors are as deadly as any machine in the Raintrace,” he mused. “Even a Rollerback is no match for a seasoned squad.”

But Beta’s eye was drawn elsewhere, farther back from where the Tenakth were already starting the work of salvaging the machine’s carcass. “What’s that?” she asked.

Aloy followed her line of sight toward the looming rock face, just east of the downed Rollerback. “What?”

“There,” Beta said. She pointed toward the rock face, at the crack blown into its side. It yawned like a wide-open mouth, jagged stone framing the opening to a cavern cast in shadow. “It looks like some kind of cave.”

Aloy was already stepping closer and pressing her fingers to her Focus. “Kotallo, can you go check on those Tenakth down there? Make sure they’re not hurt?” She cast a thoughtful glance upwards, grimacing a little as the heavy clouds began to let loose the first few drops of rain. “It looks like there’s something in there, but I need to get closer to tell for sure…”

Curiosity got the better of her, and Beta couldn’t deny it was doing the same to her too. She followed close behind Aloy as they descended the hill, making their way over to the jagged rock face.

“There’s a signal coming from inside,” Aloy mused. Far behind them, the distant voices of the Tenakth squad mixed with the sound of metal groaning and wires tearing. That Rollerback would probably be stripped to its frame before the rain set in.

“It seems weak,” Beta said. Her own Focus could barely pick it up, but it was there alright. “But it’s not too deep inside. The cavern is structurally sound enough.”

They exchanged a glance. Aloy nodded toward the opening, and Beta followed behind as she made her way in.

The cavern didn’t open up much, the walls looming on either side of them like long-suffering guards. Beta brushed her hand against the cool stone, fixing her eyes ahead at the glow from Aloy’s Focus. They ducked under a low-hanging edge of ancient metal, and Beta nearly rammed right into her sister’s shoulder.

“This place has been sealed off a long time,” Aloy murmured. There was something in her voice – some tension that Beta couldn’t place. It almost sounded sad. “The Rollerback must have blown it open.”

It was only after she’d gone quiet that Beta understood why. Just over Aloy’s shoulder, she could make out a figure resting against the far wall, tucked into an alcove of dark stone. A body, long since reduced to nothing but bones and a few scraps of cloth. An ancient recording device was tucked under their boney fingers.

Aloy shot her a look and said something that Beta couldn’t make out, but Beta paid it no mind. She pushed past Aloy, wincing as her shoulder scraped the rock wall, and she knelt beside the body to scan the device.

A weak signal was still a signal, and she had to know. She had to.

A man’s voice broke the somber silence, tinged with static and heavy with emotion that still carried over centuries:

“Well…I guess this is where it ends.” A somber laugh echoed over the recording. “Holed up under an overturned school bus, just waiting for those damn fuckers to find me and…do what? So weird…all this time I’ve had nightmares about those things. Years and years, night after night, having the same dreams…hiding out in bunkers, in hospitals, sometimes under my own damn bed, and it always ends the same. Ends with them finding me. They always do. But I always wake up before they finish the job. Never did waste any time imagining just what would happen when they caught me.”

His voice began to quiver, and he drew a shuddering breath. Beta could almost imagine him clutching the recording device tighter, and when he spoke again his voice sounded muffled. Like he’d pressed it to his shirt.

“I’m kind of jealous, you know. I’d rather not have to find out. But I…I just can’t do it, Jules. I can’t end things myself. No matter how much I wish I could.” A long silence seemed to echo through the chamber, broken only by a rhythmic gasping sound. Beta realized all too quickly that it was the sound of someone crying. “I guess this is it…I’ll finally find out how all those nightmares ended. Least I got to put you to rest first. I’ll…I’ll keep you company until then, at least. Maybe it’ll help, knowing you’re here next to me.”

A long, rattling sigh.

“Who am I kidding? When those damn machines find me, it won’t make all that much difference to them either way…”

Aloy pursed her lips as the recording ended and the cavern went silent again. She spared Beta a glance. “We should probably – hey, what are you—”

Beta was already kneeling before she knew what she was doing, reaching toward what looked almost like a sealed chamber just beside the body. Before Aloy could stop her, her fingers brushed the rusted hinges, and they crumbled and gave way. Dust flew up and obscured her vision, a heavy shadow tumbling out of the cracked metal overhead.

A second body, now lying sprawled across the first in a twisted, long-dead embrace.

Beta felt bile rise up in her throat, her heart hammering against her chest as she thrust herself backwards and stumbled back toward the entrance. Her vision swam, her eyes watering from the dust.

“Beta—”

Beta barely heard her, stumbling out of the cavern and tugging in ragged, heaving breaths as she leaned on the damp stone. Rain pricked at her shoulders and neck, seeping into the fur lining her borrowed armor, and she blindly tugged and pawed at the fastenings over her chest.

A solid heat pressed against her shoulder, and a low voice rumbled in her ear. “Breathe.”

Somehow, she did, slumped against the rock. Aloy was catching up with her now, stepping out into the rain with a muted curse. “Beta,” she panted. “Hey, Beta.”

“She’s shaken,” Kotallo said. “What did you find?”

Beta didn’t see the look that Aloy shot him. It seemed to be all the answer she gave. All the answer Kotallo needed too, from the way his expression became solemn. She managed to unclasp the armor over her chest and tug it away from her throat. For a moment that brought relief, but her lungs were still burning.

Suddenly, she glimpsed something up on the ledge above – a precarious rock jutting above the entrance to the cave. It was solid enough, but a good push with just the right amount of leverage could send it tumbling down…

She hauled herself up onto the ledge and pressed her spine against the stone, feet digging into the dirt as she pushed with all her might. It wasn’t much. She didn’t care. She tried again, straining and cursing, until Aloy took her by the arm.

“Beta, what—”

“I need to do this,” Beta snapped. It surprised her twice as much as it surprised Aloy. She pressed against the rock again, teeth bared.

“Beta…”

“I need to. Just let me do this.”

Aloy looked helplessly at the rock, then back at her, then over at Kotallo as he pushed himself up onto the ledge too without a word.

Beta groaned, slumping against the stone. “It’s not going to matter to them. They’re dead. But…but I can’t…I can’t just leave them like this.” Another huff, another moment or two to catch her breath, and she pressed her shoulder into the smooth edge. “I need to do this,” she said again. “I need to…”

As Aloy stared at her, Kotallo silently brushed past. He braced himself against the stone, heels digging in firmly as he flattened his palm next to Beta’s.

“This should seal the entrance,” he said simply. “It may be for the best that no one else disturbs it.”

Beta stayed limp against the stone for a moment or two, gaze locked on Kotallo as he pressed his shoulder to the rock and pushed. It groaned and shifted, and she felt it giving way when she laid her palms against it again, until finally it tipped over the ledge and settled in front of the crack in the cliffside.

For a long, aching breath, all three of them simply stared at it. Finally, Aloy broke the silence.

“That’s probably for the best,” she quietly said. Beta took her hand when Aloy offered it, lowering herself back on solid ground again and letting out a shuddering sigh. “This storm isn’t going to let up anytime soon. We could press on to Fall’s Edge, but it may be easier to divert to Fenrise for the evening. Head further west once the weather clears.”

“We’ll have to brave the rain either way,” Kotallo mused. He glanced back at the rock with an unreadable expression before he nodded. “Fenrise is the wiser option. I agree.”

In the distance, thunder bellowed, and Beta steeled herself for a ride through the coming deluge.

They made it to Fenrise just as the rain tapered off. Of course they did. An hour of riding through a deluge that made her feel like she was going to be washed away any second, and the moment they got some cover over their heads the clouds parted and the stars came out. She bit back any complaint she had and tried to focus on the warmth of the fire in the bunkhouse as they stripped out of their waterlogged armor.

Through the window she could make out a towering Tenakth monument up the curling steps, painted wood and machine metal lit by firelight and stretching up toward the night sky. She was staring at it still, even as Kotallo strode closer.

“You’re standing in one of the most hallowed places to the Tenakth,” he mused, and when Beta turned to face him, she froze. His paint was gone, his armor put aside to dry and replaced with a loose linen tunic and pants. He’d even taken his hair down, and he was busying himself toweling it off before it could drip onto his shoulders. “For the Lowland Clan, at least. This is where they begin their training, and where they come to be marked as fully fledged warriors once they’ve completed it.”

He handed her a dry towel, and she got to work following his example by getting to work drying her own hair too. And the rest of her. “The Lowland Clan,” she mused. “Does that include any more fire-breathers like Hekarro?”

That made Kotallo snort out a laugh. “Chief Hekarro, Dekka, Commander Atekka in Thornmarsh…more than one of the Marshals and plenty more fierce soldiers besides. The settlement was occupied by Regalla’s rebels for a time. Many in the tribe thought it was lost.”

“Let me guess,” Beta quipped. “Aloy.”

He sat beside the window next to her, glancing back to watch Aloy’s brow pinch and her lips purse as she worked on untangling her hopelessly waterlogged braids. He looked fond. “Aloy.”

Beta managed a smile. It faded a moment later, and she folded the towel in her lap and stared down at it. “I…wanted to thank you. For helping me earlier. To seal up that cave…”

“It was admirable,” he said with a nod.

“You think so?”

“I do. The dead should be allowed to rest undisturbed. Particularly those that met their end at the hands of such an unrelenting enemy.”

Beta sat and curled her arms around her shins, pulling her legs in close to her chest and watching the cooking fires blaze to life outside. “It isn’t just that,” she admitted. “The dead are just dead. I don’t think they really care much. It was what he said before he died.”

“The recording you found,” Kotallo mused.

She managed a nod. “I learned plenty about human society before the Faro plague. History, anthropology, scientific advances, psychology. There was so much to learn from them, but I never thought much about…what it was really like for them. How terrifying it must have been. People facing something like that would be scared, and angry, and confused…and they were people.” She leaned her chin against her knees, gaze fixed on the window as she picked at her cuticles. “I never…never really considered that much before.”

“It’s an honorable thing to consider.”

“Not according to the Zeniths,” she replied before she could think better of it. Her gut clenched, her heart pounding against her sternum. “They didn’t like me asking about things like that. Frivolous things. Irrelevant things.”

Kotallo was quiet for a long moment or two, but she didn’t dare try to meet his eye. Not when her lungs were burning and her pulse was racing, her sinuses flooding with the cold scent of sanitizer and recirculated air. She could almost feel the crackle of electricity across her skin when she ran her fingers along her wrist.

A breath later, he was standing without a word. “Come,” he said. “There’s something I’d like to show you.”

Beta shook her head, scraping her nails against the grain of the wood under her palms, if only for something to ground her. “I don’t know…”

“Come,” he said again.

Well, it didn’t seem she had much choice. And now that the rain had ebbed, she didn’t mind the idea of venturing back out into the humid night air. She waited for him to reapply his face paint, then followed him out of the bunkhouse, carefully making her way across a few hanging wooden bridges (without looking down) until they stopped in front of the firelit monument she’d been studying through the window. They weren’t alone.

“Gattak,” Kotallo greeted. He offered the woman near the monument a firm salute.

“Marshal Kotallo,” she answered, eyes flicking between him and Beta. She was painfully used to it by now – the stares and odd looks. All things considered, it was one of the easiest trials to overcome. “I hope you and Hekarro’s Champion are settling into the bunkhouse well enough. And…”

Her gaze settled firmly on Beta now, and Beta couldn’t help but shrink back.

Maybe not the easiest trial after all. Easier than sneaking up on a damn Charger at least.

Kotallo’s hand rested on her shoulder, just for a moment. Long enough to steady her. “Beta,” he said.

“Ah, the Champion’s sister, from what I’m told,” Gattak mused. “The resemblance is there, I admit. Though she isn’t Tenakth… It’s rare we welcome outlanders here in Fenrise at all. Let alone this close to the Marking Stone.”

Her expression was cautious, though not hostile. She was studying Beta intently, looking her up and down like she was sizing her up for a fight. Luckily it didn’t go that far.

“Peace, Gattak,” Kotallo said. “She wishes to learn.”

Gattak nodded toward the monument, catching Beta’s eye again a moment later. “Fenrise used to be nothing but an encampment at the edge of the Raintrace. A place for trainees to stop and rest.” She rested a palm on the base of the monument, where the wood met smooth, paint-stained stone. “This marker has stood since then. Some say it’s even older than Thornmarsh itself. Regalla and her traitors may have defaced it, but thank the Ten it still remains here.”

Kotallo urged Beta closer, letting her get a better look at the streaks of aqua and red standing out against the stone’s face. “This is where the inkers work their pigments, for a soldier’s training mark and their war paint once they’ve come of age.”

Gattak shot him a smile. “Acting as a Chaplain now, are you Marshal?” She studied the monument, a wistful expression crossing her face. “I remember the night I stood here under the moonlight and became a true Tenakth warrior. Commander Atekka marked me herself, when she named me the leader of Fox Squad.”

“Those pigments,” Kotallo said a moment later, nodding toward the pots on a nearby table. “Gattak, would you hand them to me?”

For a breath, she stared at him, blinking away a fog of disbelief. “Marshal Kotallo, you can’t…you aren’t seriously considering marking this outlander, are you?”

Beta’s breath caught. “W-what?”

“She isn’t Tenakth. She isn’t even a trainee. She can’t bear our marks as an outlander—”

“Would you deny Aloy the same privilege?” Kotallo countered. “She’s no more Tenakth than Beta is.”

Gattak gaped at him, reaching for words that just didn’t seem to want to come. “I…with all due respect, Marshal, Chief Hekarro would never allow—”

“I act on Chief Hekarro’s authority,” Kotallo said, taking one step toward her with his shoulders straight and his head held high. “And for the record, I happen to think he would agree.” He glanced back at Beta, making her throat go dry even as he shot her a reassuring smile and reached for the pigments himself. “She has much to learn, as we all did when we began our training. In that way, she’s no different than anyone else who’s stood here for generations before.”

Gattak’s gaze turned toward her, and the next time Beta looked up to face her, the Tenakth warrior was stepping closer and studying her intently. “The Marshal thinks highly of you,” she rumbled. “I’d like to hear from you directly, outlander.” Her eyes flicked up toward Kotallo. “With respect, Marshal, you are not a Lowlander. I don’t have the authority to deny you, but I want to size this one up myself before she bears any paint of ours.”

Beta gulped, holding her gaze when Gattak looked at her again, moving in until they were almost chest to chest. Beta forced herself not to flinch away. “I…I’m not even sure what kind of mark I’m supposed to have,” she admitted.

“A training mark,” Kotallo said. “Showing the tribe that you are dedicated to seeking strength and serving your squad.”

“It’s a pledge to the clan and the tribe,” Gattak said. “And a pledge to yourself. A reminder to find the limit of your strength and push past it, no matter the pain or the cost. Even if that cost is your life.” She leaned down to come eye to eye with Beta, until Beta felt her breath against her forehead. “Would you lay down your life for your squad, outlander? Would you spill your blood to serve your tribe?”

“I…don’t exactly have a tribe,” Beta relented. When Gattak huffed, seeming less than convinced, Beta clenched her fist. “But I do have a squad.”

Gattak looked surprised. Kotallo did too, only for a moment, before his expression shifted to something closer to pride. It set determination burning in her gut.

“And I can’t exactly fight. Or hunt. Or ride a machine or use a bow or a spear.”

“Well Marshal Kotallo was right,” Gattak laughed. “You do have a lot to learn.”

“I want to get stronger,” Beta insisted. “I don’t know how, but I do. I…I want to get stronger. For my squad.” She forced herself to meet Kotallo’s eye again as he waited patiently with the pot of pigments resting in his hand. “Mark or no mark.”

Gattak’s eyes narrowed. “You have some fire in you, I admit.” Her gaze shifted toward Kotallo again, and she turned on her heel. “As I said, I don’t have the authority to deny one of Hekarro’s Marshals. And I’ve been surprised by outlanders more than once before… Go on, Marshal.”

Once Gattak had left them, Beta glanced at Kotallo, watching as he carefully set the pot down on a nearby wooden table and dipped his fingers into the pigment. She swallowed.

“You’re…sure this is alright?” she asked him, studying the monument once more and marveling at just how weathered and worn the wood looked beneath its carefully maintained paint.

Kotallo hummed in affirmation, deep aqua paints staining his skin and lingering under his nails. “This is not a formal marking ceremony. Such things are only meant for Lowland Tenakth soldiers, just as Gattak insisted. But you may bear a training mark, just as any young blood intent on committing themselves to growing their strength.” He nodded at her. “Remain still. Face me.”

She did, closing her eyes before she could give it a second thought. “How old are the people who get a mark like this, anyway?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Usually children, when they first begin their formal training. For some, it’s as early as seven or eight. Others begin by their tenth year. I received mine at the Bulwark, just after my ninth winter.”

“Guess I’m more behind than I thought,” Beta huffed.

“Your eyes should remain open,” Kotallo told her. She forced herself to obey, watching him as he reached closer and pressed two paint-stained fingers just above her left eyebrow. Beta bit the inside of her cheek, praying the paint wouldn’t drip down into her eye, and Kotallo dragged it across her brow and down the bridge of her nose. The aromatic scent of it hit her nostrils as he pulled away with a nod.

“There,” he said. “By Chief Hekarro’s authority granted to me as a Marshal to the united Tenakth, I deem you a trainee worthy of this paint.”

“As worthy as an eight-year-old,” Beta muttered to herself. She regretted it the moment it left her lips, and she looked sheepishly up at Kotallo to find him staring at her, unwavering.

“Just the same,” he insisted. “For many, this is seen as the first step in their journey, but you have taken many more already besides.” He sealed the pot of pigments and thrust it into her hands. “You’ll remove the paint every night before you sleep, and reapply it first thing when you wake.”

She stared down at the pot in her palms. “For how long?”

Kotallo shot her a smile. “Formally, until your training is done. But for now, perhaps we can come to a compromise.” He laid a hand on her shoulder, guiding her back toward the bunkhouse. “You will bear that mark until we reach the Bulwark.”

The humidity gave way to a cool, refreshing breeze as Beta made her way back to the bunkhouse later that evening, food in hand and stomach growling. The cook had eyed her silently as she’d handed over a handful of shards and he’d handed over a couple of bowls filled with smoked fish and charred vegetables, and she’d scurried back down the path before anyone could say a word about the mark adorning her brow.

She stepped through the door of the bunkhouse and froze – there, on the opposite end of the room, Aloy sat with her legs tucked beneath her and her hands pressed against what remained of Kotallo’s uncovered left arm. The two of them locked eyes with her for a long, quiet moment, and Beta turned on her heel and choked out a quick apology before she scurried out the door again.

She was sitting on the edge of the wooden ledge overlooking the entrance to the settlement when she heard steps scuffing against the planks, and Aloy sat down beside her.

“I’m so—”

Aloy was already holding out a hand when Beta started to stammer over the words. “It’s fine,” she insisted. “Really. I was just…” She stared down at her hands, picking at her cuticles as she drew a slow breath. “The rain can…make old wounds sore. I learned a bit from a healer back in the Embrace about ways to help, and…”

There was a flush high on her cheeks, and Beta finally shook her head and confronted this damn Tremortusk in the room head-on. “You don’t need to hide it, you know,” Beta told her.

“What?” Aloy choked. “I’m not…we aren’t hiding—”

“You don’t need to hide it,” Beta said again, reaching out to press a hand to Aloy’s arm before she could think better of it. Beta shot her a little smile. “You and Kotallo…”

Slowly, thankfully, Aloy finally let out a sigh. Her shoulders rounded. “We were…trying to be subtle.”

“Trying,” Beta chuckled. It got a quiet laugh out of Aloy too. “How, um…how long?”

Aloy shrugged. “A month or so, now. It’s hard to say exactly when it started. It just…” That flush of hers had migrated all the way up to her ears, but the smile that had edged its way onto Aloy’s face never quite wavered. “He’s—”

“He really adores you, you know.”

Instead of answering, Aloy just stared. Beta swallowed, folding her hands in her own lap and fixing her eyes on the firelit gate below.

“I see the way he looks at you,” she continued. “It…it kind of reminds me of how Rocco looks at Amy in the later seasons of Second Time Around.”

“Rocco and Amy?” Aloy scoffed. “I thought you were invested in him and Gracie.”

“For the first few seasons, sure, but they really built up some chemistry after they got trapped in that elevator together in—” Beta’s eyes went wide. “Shit, we never got that far. Forget I said anything.”

But Aloy was already laughing, bright and delighted. “Alright,” she chuckled. “Alright, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear a word.” She was still grinning as she gestured at Beta’s face. “Kotallo mentioned this…a training mark?”

“Oh—” Truth be told, Beta had damn near forgotten about it. She resisted the urge to bring a hand to her face. Last thing she wanted to do was smudge it, though since I had dried to her skin, she barely noticed it anymore. “Yeah, he thought it would help. I think it’s just making people stare at me even more, though.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to stop anytime soon, no matter what paint you wear,” Aloy relented. She nodded down at the bowls sitting by Beta’s leg. “Come on, we should eat before that goes cold.”

It had gone cold anyway, but neither Aloy nor Kotallo voiced a single complaint. They ate in comfortable silence, out under the stars, and Beta swore she noticed Aloy's free hand layering itself over Kotallo's knuckles once he'd finished. 

Chapter Text

Fall’s Edge was like nothing that Beta had ever seen, a fine mist of water spraying up from the basin far below the falls and making the cliff face look like it was covered by a raging blizzard. Beta leaned over the side of her and Aloy’s Charger, stomach flipping when she noticed that all that separated her from an untimely demise at the base of the falls was a braided length of rope and a few flattened stones.

“Don’t look down,” Aloy chided. Beta obeyed without question.

Kotallo bit out a muted curse on the Charger next to them, slapping his palm against the back of his neck. “Damn flies,” he huffed.

Beta was already reaching into her pack, and she fished out the container that Dekka had thrust into her hands on their way out of the Grove. She tossed it to him. “Would that help?” she asked when he caught it. The nod she got in return looked appreciative, as did the little smile that accompanied it.

Their Chargers came to a stop just beside the guards near the settlement entrance, and predictably, they stared at Beta as she hopped down off the machine. No sooner had she tried to shrink back behind its flank than Kotallo stepped between her and their curious eyes, greeting them with a salute and a brusque exchange of titles.

“We’ll stay the night here before we press on farther west to Thornmarsh,” Aloy told her. She nodded Beta over to help her unload their packs. “I’d like to see the weapons trader here – I think they have a tripcaster I’ve been wanting to trade for.”

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to use one,” Beta mused before she thought better of it, and Aloy whipped around to look at her. Surprise melted into pride quick enough to keep Beta’s stomach from clenching.

“I could show you.” Aloy nodded toward the settlement. “Come on – let’s get settled first. Then I’ll introduce you to my favorite person in the settlement.”

Beta’s growling stomach had hoped – maybe naively – that person was the cook. Instead, it was a lithe man with dark skin stained aqua and red by his paint, charging toward Beta like a Thunderjaw when she dared to lay a hand on the bow he’d propped against his table.

“I know inexperienced hands when I see them, trainee,” he huffed. The last word had a sharp edge to it. “I’m repairing that for one of our Marshals. Won’t have you widening the crack in its arm.”

“Easy Vikarra,” Aloy insisted. “She’s with me. I came to see about that tripcaster.”

“You have those force loaders I was asking for?” In less than a blink, it seemed he’d forgotten about Beta entirely. His focus was firmly on Aloy now, and he crossed his arms as he studied her.

Her sister was grinning as she produced a pair of carefully extracted electrical components, their wiring neatly clipped and their coils pristine. “I still think it’s a big ask for a tripcaster.”

“My work is well worth it, you know.” He took the components from her, turning to gather the weapon. “I’ll put these to good use. Should be just what I need to finally get this boltblaster design of mine working like a dream.”

Beta felt like someone had pinged her Focus from an unknown network, and she was glancing at the weapons trader again and stopping him short before he could hand Aloy the tripcaster. “You said those were force loaders? The components used in some heavyweight transport machines to manipulate gravitational fields?”

Vikarra blinked at her. “Behemoths, you mean?”

The name didn’t really matter. Beta ignored it. “You’re using those to design a weapon?”

His gaze shifted over to Aloy again. “This trainee is with you, you said? What is she on about, Champion?”

Beta shrank back, hot shame pooling under her ribs when she realized just what the hell she was doing. This wasn’t the time for her questions or curiosity. Not when she had a huffy Tenakth merchant staring her down.

But Aloy pressed a hand against her shoulder before she could say another word. She shot Vikarra a smile and simply told him, “I think she’s curious about that boltblaster you mentioned. I am too, actually.”

“Right,” he huffed. The knot in Beta’s chest uncinched, if only slightly. “Behemoth force loaders don’t overheat like the coils I usually get from Longlegs or Scroungers. More heat, more fire, more bolts per clip.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Aloy mused, a thoughtful furrow between her brows.

Beta shook her head. “But if it’s just a matter of heatsink capacity, there are plenty of machines that integrate plasma generators into their weapons systems.”

Aloy snapped her fingers before she curled them against her chin. “I’ve seen hardware like that inside a Ravager canon, but they would be too bulky for anything portable.”

“Those would probably be designed for a quick-firing weapon anyway. They wouldn’t have the durability you’re looking for. You’d need something made for charging plasma energy. Store-and-release coils. They could handle anything a weapon that size could put out.”

“Slaughterspine canons,” Aloy breathed, eyes going wide. She smiled brightly a moment later. “Now that’s an idea.”

Someone coughed. Both of them glanced over at the weapons trader a moment later. He was staring at them, tripcaster still in his hand.

“Am I understanding right that you claim I’ll need Slaughterspine scrap to finish my design?” he asked.

“If you want to make the best,” Aloy answered. “I’ll be taking that tripcaster.”

“What am I supposed to do with these force loaders?” he huffed. “Sounds to me that they’re all but worthless.”

“Our deal was one tripcaster for two Behemoth force loaders. I delivered my end.”

An expectant arch of her brow was all it took for Vikarra to push the weapon into her waiting hands. He dropped the force loaders on his table next to the damaged bow as Aloy pulled Beta away. Her sister was laughing warmly, something that felt awfully infectious as they made their way toward the falls. They’d just rounded the corner when Beta had the tripcaster shoved against her chest. She stared at it.

“Um…what am I supposed to do with this?” she asked after a beat.

Aloy chuckled, tugging her further down the path. “There’s a training area on the other side of the falls. Perfect place to learn how to use that weapon yourself.”

“S-seriously?” Beta stared at her, not moving an inch even as Aloy made her way across a suspended bridge, spray from the falls riding on the wind and catching in her hair. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Aloy told her with a smile. “Come on, trainee.”  

They left Fall’s Edge just after daybreak the following day, and Beta was still half asleep. She leaned against Kotallo’s shoulder from behind as his Charger trotted along the path, taking the chance to rest her eyes, just for a moment…

“I would recommend against sleeping on a mount,” he told her. Her eyes flew open, her face going pink when he turned to glance back at her. “Falling from a machine’s back into the mud wouldn’t be fitting for trainee dedicated to their martial studies.”

“My studies don’t feel all that martial to me,” she sighed.

Kotallo let out a huff. It sounded close to a laugh. “You managed that tripcaster well enough.”

“I got tangled in the line.”

“As has almost every hot-blooded young warrior trying to wield one for the first time.” He arched a brow. “You did manage not to electrocute yourself. That puts you ahead of the curve more than you may realize.”

“Have you ever electrocuted yourself with a tripcaster?”

“No,” he answered plainly.

Beta’s eyes narrowed. “No training injuries at all? That doesn’t sound very Tenakth of you.”

He barked out an actual laugh at that. “I never said that.” He shifted until she could make out a thin scar running along the side of his jaw, just under the line of his paint. “A squadmate of mine nearly skewered me with an arrow before I’d even completed my training and earned my paint. I nearly met my end before my fourteenth winter.”

Beta gulped. “That…must have shaken you up.”

“For a moment or two,” Kotallo mused. “He did apologize later.”

“What does a Tenakth apology look like?”

“The same as any other, I’d imagine. It’s not uncommon for them to follow an exchange of blows or blades, but it never became necessary. Our squad leader sorted him out better than any threats I could have made.”

“And you forgave him? You know, for almost taking your head off.”

“I did.” A little smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “He wasn’t the first person to draw my blood, though at the time he was the one who came the closest to spilling more of it than I would have liked. He was also the first to kiss me, though that came some time later.”

Beta’s breath caught. “Wait, he kissed you?”

“After we’d sorted out everything else, yes.” He glanced back at her over her shoulder. “Does that surprise you?”

“I guess not,” she said, a little sheepishly. “Just…”

She glanced at Aloy, who was a few paces ahead of them and seemingly lost in her own thoughts. She had a Focus holo-display up in front of her, engrossed in whatever text was displayed on it and letting her Charger follow the path all on its own.

Kotallo followed her gaze, letting the silence stretch on for a moment or two before he shrugged. “I had partners before Aloy,” he said, an answer to a question that Beta hadn’t figured out how to bring up. “Some more…serious than others.”

“Let me guess – Aloy is different,” Beta offered. Kotallo met her eye, an enigmatic expression stretching across his features.

“Yes,” he told her warmly. “She is.”

Beta didn’t know the paths that wound through the trees west of the Memorial Grove, but she knew enough that when they stopped near a wide clearing, she caught Aloy’s eye. “We’re nowhere close to Thornmarsh are we?”

“Nope,” was all Aloy said as she hopped off her Charger. She reached up to stop Beta from dismounting behind her just yet. “Kotallo, mind if I borrow your mount?”

“To give you the opportunity for another lesson?” he asked, already hopping off and guiding his own Charger over to them.

“Lesson?” Beta asked. The Charger huffed under her, lurching forward and making her fight to keep her balance.

“I don’t mind you riding with us,” Aloy said, “but it’ll help in the long run if you can ride alone.”

Beta’s first instinct was to spit out a quick hell no and hop off this damn grunting machine before it bucked her off. Instead, she slid up along its spine and gripped the cables by its neck when Aloy guided her hands there.

“A kick to the flank will speed it up,” Aloy said, her grip firm on one of the machine’s horns. Beta swallowed, but did as instructed, and the Charger began to trundle forward. “There you go!” Aloy was already swinging herself up onto the other machine’s back, shooting her a grin.

Beta’s heart pounded as the Charger sped up to an easy cantor, her knuckles white against the pulsating machine cables along its neck. She cast a glance back at Aloy, who was easily maneuvering her own machine alongside as she shot Beta a grin.

“See?” Aloy said. “And a tug on the cables will slow it down. Easy enough. You can go a little faster when you’re ready.”

“F-faster?”

Aloy nodded. “Chargers are pretty quick once they get going, so go easy. Just press your heels to its flanks like before—”

Beta did. She regretted it about a heartbeat later, when the machine took off like a shot across the clearing. Aloy’s voice was still ringing in her ears, her vision blurring as she let out a clipped curse and fumbled with the reins. She tugged, and the Charger stopped.

She didn’t though.

The entire world seemed to flip end over end as Beta went careening over the Charger’s horns and landed hard on her back in the mud.

“Beta!”

She was coughing as she pushed herself up, thankful that her lungs hadn’t seized up like they had the last time she’d taken a hard fall. That cough turned into something lighter and more stubborn, catching in her chest and making her lips stretch back across her teeth. Suddenly she was laughing. Even as she took Aloy’s hand and staggered to her feet, she leaned against the Charger’s huffing frame and cackled until she could barely breathe.

“Beta?” Aloy asked. The concern on her face was starting to change into nothing but genuine bemusement. “Ah…you okay?”

“I’m great,” Beta snorted. “But you have to promise me you won’t get jealous.”

“Jealous?” Seemed her laughter was infectious and not even Aloy was immune.

Beta shot her a smirk even as their laughter faded. “Yeah…turns out I don’t need a Sunwing to fly.”

Aloy threw an arm around her shoulders, rolling her eyes with a fond little smile. “Come on – you should get the hang of slowing down before you come to a dead stop. Don’t want you going flying off a cliff or something when we make our way up to the Bulwark.”

They stopped to camp before they lost the light, barely within sight of Raintrace Rise stretching overhead. Aloy made short work of a few pigeons while Kotallo tended the fire, and they roasted the birds on a spit while they watched the evening clouds give way to a clear, breezy starlit evening.

“First you’ll master the tripcaster, then you’ll learn to get that Charger up to a gallop without flying off of it.” Aloy sucked the last of the meat off a blackened wishbone and pointed the end of it at Beta. “You’ll be a full-fledged warrior before you know it.”

Beta doubted that. Still, the progress felt…good. Even she could admit that much, though it brought a hot spike of anxiety along with it when it begged the question, was it really enough?

She shook that off, for once. Just for tonight. She forced herself to finish the last of her food and blurted, “Maybe I’ll have some of my own training accident scars to match Kotallo’s by the time we get back.”

“Did you tell her about almost getting an arrow to the eye when you were still a trainee?” Aloy asked, nudging Kotallo in the leg with a look on her face that suggested she’d heard the story at least once before. She snorted. “From the one who seduced you after?”

“It was hardly a seduction,” he countered. “A single kiss is not the same.”

“Well our first kiss sure felt like a seduction,” Aloy muttered, and a second later her face blazed red when she noticed Beta staring at her from across the fire. She cleared her throat fixed her gaze on the coals. “Ah…anyway…”

Beta was giggling before she could stop herself, and she brought her water skin to her lips and whispered, “Subtle.”

Kotallo bit back a laugh.

“Anyway,” Aloy insisted again, doing a damn good job of pretending she could ignore the hot flush in her cheeks, “we’ll set out for Thornmarsh tomorrow, but we’ll need to head south to cut a longer path around the marshlands. Apparently now that the bloodchoke is cleared out, there are more than a few rogue machines causing trouble, and I’d rather you not go up against a Fireclaw just yet.”

Beta paled. “F-fireclaw?”

“That brute has killed plenty of Lowlanders already,” Kotallo huffed. “More likely than not, either Commander Atekka or Chief Hekarro will need to dispatch another squad to take it down, but after Regalla’s rebellion and with NEMESIS bearing down on us, neither have the numbers to comfortably spare.”

“We won’t run into it,” Aloy insisted. “Not if we take the long way around. It’ll mean we probably won’t make it to the capital settlement before nightfall, but it’s better than the alternative.”

If that alternative was being burned alive, Beta was inclined to agree.

Aloy flashed her a smile. “And it’ll give us more time for Beta to tell me about the next season of Second Time Around. I think I recall something about Rocco and Amy and an elevator…”

“It’s…a lot more romantic than it sounds,” Beta muttered. “Pretty unrealistic maybe, but that’s primetime drama for you.”

“Unrealistic, huh?”

Beta stared at her cuticles, barely resting the urge to bite at them. “I never really thought about it. It’s not like I had any frame of reference when I was first watching.”

Aloy was staring at her. She could feel it. It only made the silence that much heavier besides the crackling fire before Aloy quietly leaned closer. “But you…have a frame of reference now?”

Oh, bringing it up at all was a mistake. She shuffled closer to the fire, like that would give her a way to shrug off the way her face was heating up. But Aloy was already scooting up next to her.

“Beta?”

“It was back in Plainsong,” Beta blurted. “During the last Land-God festival. She was an apprentice birthsinger. She kissed me and she—” She felt a little like she was going to burst into flames herself, and she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and forced herself not to bite down on her lip or she would more than likely draw blood. “She…she said I had eyes that reminded her of a spring harvest.”

Aloy’s mouth was hanging open for what felt like a solid minute before she finally shook off the shock and choked out a wavering, “Wow.” She blinked, then…

Then smiled.

“Beta, that’s…that’s great.”

Beta finally managed to turn and face her again. “It…didn’t turn into anything. I ah…I ran away.” She drew her knees up close and pressed her forehead against them with a quiet groan.

The memory alone was enough to make her grimace. Not the kiss – no, the kiss had been downright magical. Something straight out of the holo-vid series she’d gone to for comfort in deep space. Talla had been warm and gentle, soft-spoken and kind, with dark hair dotted by vibrant painted beads that had caught the moonlight. She’d told Beta about all of her favorite parts of the settlement, about all the things she wanted to do once she finally reached the age that would allow her to become a full-fledged birthsinger.

And the second Beta had opened her eyes again after Talla’s lips had tenderly brushed hers that night, she’d run off. She’d been back at the Base the next day.

“For what it’s worth,” Kotallo said, his voice breaking her out of her thoughts before the ache in her throat had the chance to get the better of her, “I did the same after my first.”

Beta managed a snort. “To be fair, he did almost kill you before that.”

“True.”

“It’s okay,” she insisted, and she met Aloy’s eye again. It felt easier this time. “Really, it’s…it’s probably better that way anyway.”

Aloy caught her lip between her teeth. “I…felt the same way for a while, honestly. Like it wasn’t worth the effort.” After a moment’s hesitation, she reached out to press her hand to Beta’s forearm. “Maybe for now, but…if you ever change your mind…” She shot Beta a careful little smile. “Maybe you could make some Utaru birthsinger really happy one day.”

A matching smile tugged at Beta’s lips, in spite of herself. “Maybe…” She drew a long breath. “For now I think I’m content with fiction. You’ll love the holiday specials too. There’s an entire subplot about Amy trying to plan a surprise birthday party.”

“The Old Ones seemed to find any excuse to celebrate,” Kotallo mused. “I find it odd, marking something as simple as the date of one’s birth.”

“The Carja do it,” Aloy said with a shrug.

“Not the Tenakth. Though some do celebrate the different phases of our training as a squad.”

“Like getting your training mark,” Beta said before she could give it a second thought, and Kotallo shot her a smile and an encouraging nod when her fingers brushed the paint on her own forehead.

“Just so,” he said.

“Erend told me once the Oseram celebrate the birth of a child with feasting,” Aloy hummed. She squinted into the fire as she thoughtfully picked at the remains of her roasted pigeon. “And I think I remember something about…pouring ale over someone’s head?”

Kotallo let out a chuckle. “I recall him telling me the same. When a child is born in the Oseram homeland, the babe’s father has ale poured down his back.” His smile faded, his expression suddenly turning thoughtful. “Although it’s very possible he may have been lying.”

“Why would he do that?” Aloy asked.

“Revenge for my telling him the Tenakth drink machine oil for added vigor in battle.”

“I met a Banuk shaman who did that, actually.” Aloy looked pensive. “Though I doubt it gave him any edge in a fight. I think it was more a uniquely…him thing than anything else. He insisted he could taste the difference between a Thunderjaw and a Rockbreaker…” She grimaced around her next bite of roasted meat.  

Beta doubted such a thing would offer any vigor to speak of. Or anything besides possible brain damage. But she shook her head and glanced back at Aloy, who had taken to using a pigeon bone to dig between her teeth.

“Do the Nora celebrate birthdays?” she asked, making Aloy pause with the bone still stuck between her incisors. “I…couldn’t find much about it in the Focus files.”

An image flashed in her mind of lanterns drifting up into the night sky – a ritual that would have seemed like quite the beautiful one, if it weren’t for the sour looks and disparaging comments leveled at Aloy throughout the recording. It made Beta regret opening her mouth to ask at all, watching the memory flick across Aloy’s eyes at the same time.

But a moment later, Aloy dropped the pigeon bone into the fire and watched it crack from the heat as she shrugged. “I remember hearing bits and pieces when I was little. Apparently, the Nora mark the anniversary of their birth by…giving gifts to their mother. Rost—” She cleared her throat, shifting her legs from underneath her so she could wrap her arms around her knees. “Rost only told me because I wanted to do the same.” A surprisingly warm little smile twitched at the corners of her lips, the fire glinting on her teeth. “I insisted on it, if I remember right. As much as a five-year-old can insist on anything.”

Beta kept her eyes locked on her food as she mused, “It would probably be pretty tough to figure out what kind of gift to get for an ectogenic chamber, but we could think of something.”

Kotallo damn near choked next to her, setting down the last few bites of his dinner as he coughed. And Aloy was staring at her, frozen and wide-eyed, and horror slowly sank in Beta’s gut as she tried to think of something – anything – to say to break the agonizing silence. But before she could, Aloy shifted and—

Snorted.

Then…laughed. Loud and bright and uncontrollable, until tears were streaking down her face and the pigeon carcass in her lap had tumbled into the smoldering embers at the edge of the fire. “An ecto—” Aloy tried and failed to catch her breath before dissolving into a fresh round of giggles. “What the hell kind of gift would you get for an AI made to gestate humans?”

Beta shrugged. “Maybe we could code it a nice digital scarf?”

Aloy leaned against Kotallo’s shoulder and howled, and it was only then that Beta noticed the grin that had worked its way onto Kotallo’s face as he held Aloy upright. 

Chapter Text

They cut south around the marshlands just like Aloy had suggested, following the river toward the coast. Beta’s stomach clenched, imagining the Zenith base just a few miles past the trees, but she swallowed back the wave of fear that clutched her. They were gone, dead and in the ground. For the first time in her life, she was out of their reach.

Now if she could just avoid that damn Fireclaw, she’d be golden.

“Ugh, Kotallo,” Beta groaned, wrinkling her nose. “You could have warned me.”

“Warned you?”

“I’m right behind you, you know. Doesn’t really matter whether I’m upwind or not.”

The confused furrow in his brow just got deeper. “I’m still not sure what I stand accused of.”

Beta sighed. “Forget it. We’ll just blame it on the machine and call it done—”

But before she could get out another word, Aloy was tugging her Charger to a sudden stop beside them and hissing out a warning to be quiet. “That’s sulfur,” she said lowly, and Beta felt Kotallo stiffen.

“S-sulfur?” she whispered.

Kotallo glanced back at her. “Something you’d expect from a Fire—"

“Don’t say it,” Aloy hissed. She urged her Charger around and in front of them, turning sharply toward the southern coast. “I’m not superstitious but I’m not about to press my luck now. Just stay quiet and follow me close.”

Kotallo didn’t say a word, and Beta forced her breaths in through her nose to try and calm her racing heart. It wasn’t working well. But she was able to hold tight to Kotallo in front of her and it kept her steady as they hurried down the path.

The Charger shuddered beneath them.

“Oh, please tell me I imagined that,” Beta groaned.

“You didn’t.” Kotallo’s tone was tense and clipped, his eyes fixed ahead of them. “Aloy—”

“I don’t see it,” Aloy sighed. Her fingers were hovering by her Focus as she scanned the treeline. “Wait – shit!” She nodded down the path. “Go! Now, Kotallo!”

A single hard kick to the machine’s flanks, and the Charger broke into a full sprint. Beta’s arms locked tight around him, enough to keep her upright even if she left her stomach all the way back in the clearing.

Aloy was close behind them, and out of the corner of her eye Beta spotted her reaching for her bow. A breath later, heat licked at the nape of her neck.

“Get Beta the fuck out of here!”

Those were the last words Beta could make out before Aloy’s voice was drowned out by a thunderous crash through the trees and a roar that made her ears ring. She looked back—

Oh fuck, that thing was big.

And it was staring right at her, red eyes blazing.

“Hold on,” Kotallo barked, and he banked right between the trees.

“Aloy—”

“Will be fine,” he insisted. If they were talking about anyone else, Beta would have thought he was trying to convince himself of it as much as her. But she believed it without a moment’s hesitation.

Them, on the other hand.

Crack and bang went the branches behind them, entire trees snapping like the pigeon wishbone Aloy had used to pick her teeth the night before. Beta’s lungs burned from the woodsmoke and burning blaze.

A deafening explosion and hulking fireball went sailing just overhead. The searing heat barely missed the Charger’s horn. “Down,” Kotallo roared, and she burned her face against his spine.

“Kotallo!”

Aloy’s voice. Beta forced one eye open, vision blurring from the smoke. She could make out a broken silhouette on the other side of the river. Aloy’s Charger reared and leaped over a downed tree before she banked left and veered away from them again, drawing the machine’s fire.

“Don't let go,” Kotallo roared. He didn’t need to tell her twice. Her arms were locked around his middle so tightly that it was a wonder he could breathe at all. He cut across a bridge over the water, turning toward a clearing just past the trees.

Suddenly Aloy was beside them, her machine huffing and shuddering under her with sparks flying from its flank. Its armor plating sizzled just beside Aloy’s right thigh. A near miss. Beta looked back and her chest seized – the Fireclaw reared, eyes blazing and jaws dripping with molten fire, a hulking slab of stone in its claws. It pulled back, ready to launch it—

Aloy pushed herself up on the Charger’s back, reaching for her weapon. An explosive spike buried itself in the machine’s shoulder joint, detonating and making it stagger. The burning rock went sailing in a clumsy arc and barely missed Aloy’s Charger, but it buried itself in the mud and caught the machine’s hoof. When it stumbled, Aloy barely caught herself, hanging off its flank.

“Aloy!” Kotallo barked. She was falling behind, and the Fireclaw was righting itself. Its eyes were on her. Kotallo was turning, tugging his Charger around, but Aloy waved them on.

“Go!” she insisted. “Go now!”

The Fireclaw was seconds away, fury burning in its eyes even hotter than its bared jaws. The ground shook and cracked under its claws. Aloy was getting her Charger up to speed again, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough—

Beta’s fingers brushed the hilt of a familiar weapon clipped to the Charger’s hip. Before she realized she was doing it at all, she was grabbing it and raising it into her line of sight. Kotallo barely seemed to notice, cutting a wide path around the edge of the clearing, but she had a shot.

Holy shit, she had a shot.

Aloy was nocking an arrow with barely enough time to draw, and the Fireclaw snapped at the burning air like it was rabid.

Beta saw the trip-line extend across the Fireclaw’s path before she’d realized she’d pulled the trigger at all, and it lit up with crackling electricity that flooded her nostrils with the scent of ozone not a heartbeat before the Fireclaw broke it. Lightning jumped up along its armor, drawing a chilling metallic groan from its throat as it seized and collapsed.

She made the shot.

Huh.

Aloy was panting, sweating and clutching her arm as she galloped past. “Come on,” was all she said. It was all she needed to urge Kotallo to follow down the ravine and away from the treeline.

They rode until they made it to the coast, the dead remains of the Zenith base reaching up from the horizon across the water. Beta barely paid it any mind, focused as she was on the burning in her chest as she stumbled and fell from the Charger’s back. She barely held herself up. Luckily for her, she didn’t need to – Kotallo was already reaching for her, steadying her. He only pulled away when Aloy hopped off of her own machine into the sand.

“Beta—”

“Is fine,” Kotallo insisted. He glanced down at her and paused. “Aside from a scratch or two.”

It was only then that she started to feel the sting, biting into the side of her hand where she’d gripped the tripcaster so tightly that she’d forgotten she was holding it. It fell to her feet. Beta swayed when she noticed the trail of deep red running along her arm. Oh, that was a lot of blood. So much blood…

“Steady,” Kotallo said, holding her opposite arm as Aloy inspected her hand.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Aloy said. She was already taking a cloth to her unbroken skin, wiping away the blood until Beta could make out the cut along the edge of her hand, by her pinky. “Looks like the wire caught you when you pulled the trigger on that tripcaster. Remember what I said about your grip?”

If Beta remembered right, Aloy’s words back in Fall’s Edge had been “hold it right or you’ll slice the shit out of your hand.”

Point taken.

“It’ll need stitches, I think,” Aloy sighed, and Beta’s chest seized.

“You’re not…going to do those here, are you?”

“No. No, I’ll get some bandages on it and we’ll head on to Thornmarsh. The medic there can take care of it.”

“As well as giving you a salve for those burns,” Kotallo added sagely. It was the first time Beta noticed the red, angry skin along Aloy’s forearm. Aloy had either forgotten about it, or she’d been ignoring it. Beta was willing to bet on the second.

“I’ll be fine,” she sighed. “I’ll survive until we get to Thornmarsh. This’ll sting.”

Beta didn’t realize Aloy had been speaking to her until a white-hot pain burned the side of her hand. It faded quickly, and Aloy shot her a halfway apologetic glance as she secured the bandage over Beta’s hand.

“Burns like metalbite, but then it helps.” Her fingers curled over the bandage. “Beta, I…I’m…I’m going to hug you, okay?”

Beta blinked at her. “O…okay.”

Aloy threw her arms around her and squeezed tight. Beta’s hands hovered uselessly over Aloy’s spine for a long, agonizing moment before she finally let out a breath and held her. Her hair smelled like blaze smoke and a few of her braids were stained with mud, but Beta couldn’t quite find it in her to care as she pressed her nose to Aloy’s shoulder and breathed in deep.

“Okay,” Aloy sighed when she pulled away. “Thornmarsh. We need to get going if we want to get there before we lose the light.”

Kotallo nudged Beta’s arm. “Ride with her.”

“Huh?”

He nodded at Aloy as she mounted her Charger. “She wants you to, but I doubt she’ll ask. Go on.”

Aloy didn’t say a word as Beta hauled herself up behind her. “You’ll like Atekka,” she said, shooting Beta a smile over her shoulder once they’d set off down the path.

Beta snorted. “Does she breathe fire too?”

“Did Kotallo feed you that line about Hekarro breathing fire?” Aloy asked with a muted half laugh. “No, she doesn’t breathe fire.” A beat. “At least I’ve never seen it.”

They did lose the light, about a half hour before they reached Thornmarsh. Luckily, the path was clear, save for a passing herd of Grazers that gave them a wide berth, and soon the torches marking the edges of the settlement blazed into view. They stood out against the night sky like stars.

“The Commander’s delayed, Champion,” one of the guards said as Kotallo tied up their mounts. “She’s on her way back from Tide’s Reach, but she left instructions that you be given food and somewhere to rest your heads.”

“We’ll need a medic first,” Aloy said with a grimace. She nodded toward the bloodied bandage wrapped around Beta’s hand, wincing when the singed edge of her armor brushed her arm.

The guard nodded. “I’ll find Azorreh.”

Azorreh was barely as tall as Aloy was, but twice as wide, with arms almost as thick as Beta’s torso and a jaw so square it looked like it was made of metal. He tugged Beta’s hand close without a word before she’d barely had the chance to sit down just inside the medic’s tent.

“What did this, a Burrower claw?” he huffed.

“A tripwire,” Aloy said, lingering in the doorway. She looked tired, but she didn’t give the bench near the entrance a second glance, leaning on the cot next to Beta instead. “You should have seen the Fireclaw. It looked a lot worse.”

Pride welled up in Beta’s chest. It took her a moment to recognize it, but when she did it made her smile despite the sting as Azorreh roughly applied a thick layer of vegetal-smelling gel. “Fireclaw, hm? Fucking beast. Well, I don’t know what kind of damage you did to it, but this needs stitching. I’ll get to it once the numbing salve has the chance to work.”

The pride was washed away by a rush of cold sinking into her stomach. “Are…are you sure it needs stitches?”

“I could tell you that with my eyes closed, girl.” He barely looked at her, instead turning to gather his supplies. A needle glinted in the firelight, and Beta’s chest seized. She barely realized she’d pressed herself all the way up against the far edge of the cot, barely an inch away from tipping over.

“I-I…I don’t want any needles. I…I really don’t—”

A flash of white. The hot stinging scent of sanitizer. The air was cold, pricking against every inch of exposed skin and drying the insides of her nostrils until they burned.

Aloy reached out to steady her. “Hey, it’s okay. You won’t feel a thing.”

Her voice echoed, far away and distorted. Beta's throat burned. Her lungs screamed. Someone clamped a hand around her wrist and a sharp point pressed against her skin. She ripped it away so forcefully that it sent her tumbling off the cot and onto the floor. Voices rang in her ear, cursing and calling her name, drowned out by hurried footsteps. Beta clawed at the wall of the medic’s tent, struggling to find something to ground her, to tell her which way was up.

Someone knelt beside her. A blurry silhouette and little else.

“Easy, trainee.”

The voice was low and soothing, accompanied by a gentle hand against her arm. The touch was light, barely there at all, but somehow it felt like a tether. She leaned against it before she realized she was doing it at all, seeking out the warmth and pressure just to give her something else to focus on besides the burning in her chest.

“Breathe,” the voice told her. The command was firm, but patient. Beta managed to obey, dragging in a long, ragged breath that scratched more than it eased the buzzing in her skull.

Slowly – painfully slowly – the pounding in her ears started to quiet. Her hands shook as she pried her eyes open, expecting to see Aloy sitting in front of her, but the face looking back at her was an unfamiliar one painted in red and aqua.

The Tenakth woman offered her a patient smile. “You should try and drink,” she said, pressing a water skin into Beta’s trembling hands. “You don’t need to speak just yet. Not until you feel more steady.”

It took a moment for Beta to finally find Aloy, locking eyes with her over the woman’s shoulder. Her sister’s brow was pinched in confusion and concern, her arms crossed over her chest and her fingers curling against her elbows. The Tenakth woman was dressed in vibrant armor over her chest and a thick hide belt, a bow slung across her shoulders. Still, despite looking like she’d just come from a battle, she was patient as she gingerly nudged Beta’s knuckles to urge her to sip from the water skin.

“Azorreh,” the woman said, nodding over her shoulder at the medic, “hand me that cloth.” She took it and pressed it firmly to the side of Beta’s hand. When Beta winced, the woman offered her a momentary apologetic glance, but didn’t pull away. “You opened the wound again, but the bleeding is already slowing from the looks of it.”

She’d barely even noticed before the sting from the woman’s grip had reminded her. “You’re…”

“Atekka.”

Beta swallowed. “Commander Atekka?”

“Yes.” She pulled the cloth away and nodded over to Azorreh. “We have no shortage of numbing salve. You could stand to use a fair bit more for her.”

“I used as much as I would for any wounded trainee,” Azorreh insisted. “She shouldn’t feel a thing.”

Atekka turned to Beta again, glancing down at her hand. The bleeding had already stopped. “Is there still pain?”

“N…no,” she lied.

Atekka studied her. “I didn’t ask as a test of your pride, trainee. Suffering is necessary at times, but not simply for the sake of it.” She leveled Beta with an firm stare. “Are you still in pain?”

Wordlessly, Beta nodded, feeling shame coiling in her gut. It was just pain. Everyone around her had endured ten times as much without a single complaint and they had the scars to prove it. Yet here she was, shying away from the sting of a single cut and breaking at the sight of something as simple and innocuous as a needle.

A flash of silver and the smell of antiseptic flooded her nostrils again when she closed her eyes, and she felt bile rise in her throat.

But Aloy was speaking a moment later, drawing her attention: “I’ve needed twice that much before.” When Beta met her eye, she shrugged and shot her an almost apologetic little smile. “I never thought much of it but…maybe it’s something genetic.”

“I’ll fetch more,” Azorreh said.

Atekka nodded. “Simple enough.” She waited for Beta to look at her. “You must be Beta. The family resemblance is more striking than I was expecting, I have to admit.”

“It’s complicated,” Beta muttered for what felt like the thousandth time in a week.

“I’m sure. I’m told we’ll have much to discuss in the morning. Not the least of which involves that blasted Fireclaw that nearly burned you to cinders, if not for the quick thinking of a sharp trainee.” She turned to smile at Aloy before she headed for the door. “Azorreh’s bedside manner leaves quite a bit to be desired, but he can stitch a wound so cleanly that a scar barely shows through ink.”

Azorreh let out a huff of a laugh. “Usually, people ask me to leave them. Young soldiers wear them like badges of honor.” He nudged Beta’s wrist. “You won’t have much choice, I’m afraid. But without any ink, maybe you could use a few scars, hah?”

A single nudge from Atekka and Aloy was striding across the room to catch Beta’s free hand between hers. “Azorreh’s good,” she said. “You won’t feel a thing, okay? Promise.”

Beta fought off a wave of nausea, squeezing her eyes shut before she could so much as glimpse that damn needle again. “Are you sure it needs it?”

“Yes,” Azorreh said simply. To his credit, he was more gentle as he took her arm again. “Remain still.”

“Look at me,” Aloy insisted, and Beta forced her eyes open and obeyed. “Tell me about that holiday special of Second Time Around you mentioned. The…birthday party.”

It was a decent idea for a distraction. Beta could admit that even if she could see right through it. She indulged herself anyway, stammering around a nervous re-telling of the plot. The ruined birthday cake, the surprise party set up in the wrong apartment, the blackout that led to an entire city block sitting out on the roof of the local factory warehouse to stargaze in the dark. She even caught herself laughing a bit toward the end, something that surprised her as much as it did Aloy.

“Done,” the medic huffed.

Beta whipped her head around to look at him before she thought better of it. Her stomach lurched, as if expecting some unimaginable carnage, but all she could make out was a neatly stitched line along the side of her hand. “Oh,” she breathed. “You…already finished? I didn’t even feel—”

“I told you I’m good,” Azorreh insisted. “It’ll heal well, as long as you don’t go ripping it open. And learn to hold a tripcaster properly.”

“Right…”

She was studying the bandage he fastened on her skin, running her fingers gently along its edge, when Azorreh slapped her hand away. “Ruin my work and I’ll toss you back to that Fireclaw.” He shifted his gaze to Aloy next, nodding her over with a sharp look. “You – I’ll get some salve on those burns.”

Aloy didn’t argue, and didn’t flinch as Azorreh applied a thick layer of fresh-smelling gel. The only thing Beta noticed on her face was relief when it started to cool. “Thank you, Azorreh,” she sighed. He grunted in response, turning his back in what seemed like an unspoken request for them to leave.

“Kotallo went to get our things off the Chargers,” Aloy sighed as they made their way down the path toward the cook fires. “Atekka gave us strict orders to get food and sleep. I think I agree with her.”

Now that the adrenaline was truly wearing off, exhaustion was seeping into her body more than hunger, but she knew better than to try and argue when dinner was being thrust into her hands. She could hear it weighing on Aloy too, making her shoulders slump as she leaned against the railing overlooking the marsh.

“Hey.” She nodded for Beta to come closer, offering a tired, patient smile. “That was a good shot earlier. A really good shot, not just for a trainee.”

“I had to do something,” Beta muttered. A single bite of food was all it took to whet her appetite. The fruit was tart and fragrant, and the cured sausage was so juicy she barely even cared what it was made of.

Aloy chuckled. “Seems like that’s your reasoning for a lot of the things you do.” She took a generous bite of her own food and contemplated it as she chewed. “Blocking off that cave…coming on this trip…training in the basement…”

“Better than nothing,” Beta shrugged.

“You say that like you’re trying to minimize it, but I think that’s the point.” Aloy set down her bowl, turning to face her fully. Beta resisted the urge to shrink back. “I didn’t understand you at first…how you could just sit down and accept defeat like it was inevitable. I just wanted you to do something. Anything. I thought…” She closed her eyes with a haggard sigh. “I thought you were weak.”

Beta could hardly blame her.

But Aloy was looking at her again, drawing a long, slow breath. “I was wrong though. Obviously. And I’m not just saying that because you saved my life today.”

Beta stared at her, jaw slack and food forgotten despite her growling stomach. Surely, Aloy was over-exaggerating. She had made it out of worse. She would have made it out of this too. Hell, she probably could have taken that Fireclaw out with a single well-placed shot to its frontal processor between the eyes.

She was reaching out to squeeze Beta’s arm. “I mean it,” Aloy said, more quietly this time. “You saved my life, Beta.” Her fingers brushed the bandage covering the tender wound. “I owe you.”

Beta shot her a somewhat shaky smile. “More than one hundred shards?”

Aloy laughed. She tilted her head back with a grin before she returned to her food and urged Beta to do the same. They sat on the edge of the path, legs dangling over the moonlit water, and by the time they’d finished and set their bowls aside, they’d lapsed into a comfortable silence.

Aloy was the one to break it. “So…what happened back at the medic’s…”

Ah, the elephant in the room. Or the Tremortusk, as it were. It had to come up eventually. Beta curled her nails against the well-worn wood, keeping her gaze locked on the water. “It’s…it’s nothing important.”

“It had to do with the Zeniths.” Aloy was probing gently, not rushing ahead but not holding back either. She studied Beta’s expression, watching her fidget. “You don’t have to tell me everything, but—”

“It wasn’t when they captured me with GAIA,” Beta blurted before she could help it. Maybe it was the restlessness in her gut, or maybe it was the pang of guilt she could almost picture flashing in Aloy’s eyes. She couldn’t stand either. “That wasn’t pleasant, sure, but it wasn’t…it wasn’t the worst. When we were still in deep-space there were times when projected training timelines necessitated the use of intravenous stimulants to…to expedite certain modules.” She gripped her own forearm, fighting back a wave of nausea that threatened to give her second chance at tasting her dinner. She could practically feel the cold kiss of the needle against her veins. "It's fuzzy...but I remember how it burned when it went in."

Aloy’s hand squeezed her knee, and before she knew what she was doing, Beta grabbed it and squeezed right back. She drew a deep, shuddering breath, leaning her forehead against a chunk of damp wood and letting the passing breeze wick away the stale scent of ozone and recycled air.

“They’re gone,” Aloy breathed. “They aren’t coming back, Beta. Not now and not ever.”

Amazingly, Beta believed her.

For a moment, she nearly forgot about NEMESIS altogether. For a moment, when she drew her next breath, it felt like a weight had lifted off of her rib cage. Suddenly she pictured the darkened spires of the Zenith base reaching up from the water, their walls cracked and stained with plasma burns. With Aloy beside her, for the first time in recent memory, she felt…calm. Steady. Safe.

It was a nice feeling. One she hoped would last.

Chapter Text

They spent the night in the Commander’s quarters, overlooking the marshlands far below. There was a pleasant cross-breeze that kept Beta from waking to her sleep clothes sticking to her skin, and she blinked against the pink sunlight streaming through the windows.

The bedroll next to her was empty, and on the one beside that, Aloy and Kotallo were tangled up so tightly that it looked like they were clinging to one another to keep from falling off the edge. Her nose was buried against his chest, his chin brushing her hair and his arm slung across her ribs. They were all but dead to the world.

Beta didn’t intend to change that. She was silent as she got to her feet and stepped out into the humid morning air. She listened to the sharp ringing of metal on metal from the fighting ring below. From the looks of it they’d been at it well before sunrise.

“Trainee,” came a familiar voice from up the path. Beta whipped around to face it, and Atekka shot her a pleasant smile. “Mended and rested, are you? I hope the same can be said for the Champion and her Marshal.”

The Champion and her Marshal were doing just fine as far as Beta was concerned. She answered with little more than a nod, and Atekka stepped closer. Beta opened her mouth and forced herself to speak. “I’m so—”

But Atekka was already holding up a hand. “If the next words out of your mouth are about to be part of an apology, I insist you keep them to yourself.” Beta shut her mouth. “An apology should only be given when it’s owed, young blood. You owe that to no one here.”

Beta brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, feeling her face heat up as she watched the match down in the fighting pit end with one warrior pinning the other under the point of her spear.

Atekka shot her a smile. “Does the fighting pit intrigue you?”

“N-no,” Beta stammered. “Well…yes, but…I’m not—”

“Not one for hand-to-hand combat, are you?” Atekka laughed. “That could change. You’ve already proven you have a steady hand and sound judgment. Traits fitting for a Lowland warrior.” She leaned against the railing beside Beta, just enough distance to keep from making her uneasy. Still, Beta could make out more details in the tattoos on her arms now that her mind was calmer.

If Atekka minded her staring, she hardly showed it. She studied Beta with a quiet kind of intrigue, arching a brow and weaving her fingers together on the wood. “Marshal Kotallo tells me you won the respect of Chief Hekarro. I can’t say I’m surprised, considering that you share blood with our Champion who won him over so handily, but still – it’s no small feat.”

Beta shrugged. “Once I figured out he couldn’t actually breathe fire, he wasn’t so intimidating.”

Atekka’s delighted laughter echoed clear across the settlement, drawing the gaze of the pitmaster below. She waved him off. “That old story…it’s always been one of his favorites. He’ll never admit to it, of course. The first time he heard it, I thought he’d never stop grinning.”

“You’ve…known him a while.”

“Yes,” Atekka mused, looking fond. “He was the leader of this clan before I was. He served almost a decade as its Commander.” She chuckled, low in her chest. “Of course I’ve had the title twice that long now. Never once in that time has the Lowland clan’s loyalty to the throne ever wavered.”

Beta stared at her cuticles for a long, quiet moment. Finally, she pulled in a breath. “I’m…supposed to tell you about something that’s coming. A new threat.”

“NEMESIS.”

Beta blinked at her. “H-how did you—”

“I’ve heard murmurs from farther east. Desert clan territory and from the Grove. Word travels fast in the clanlands. As far as the Raintrace is concerned, I make sure of it.” She studied Beta intently, though she still kept her distance. “Though there’s still much I don’t know. I assume I will by the time the day’s through.”

Beta nodded. Atekka looked deep in thought for a breath, tapping her nails against the wood.

“We’ll speak formally over a meal, I think,” she said, holding Beta’s gaze. She offered a smile. “Find me once the Champion and Marshal are awake. I’ll listen to all you have to tell me.” Atekka turned on her heel and started down the path, but she paused a moment later. “And trainee?”

“Y-yes?”

“Your paint.” She tapped a finger against her temple. “It should be the first thing you tend to when you wake. Remember that.”

Beta felt her face flush, her fingers instinctively reaching up to brush her bare cheek. “Oh…right.”

Atekka shot her a smile, and Beta scurried inside. She fished the pot of pigments that Kotallo had given her out of her bag, and she finished the pattern on her forehead just as Aloy stirred. Her sister hummed, burying her face against Kotallo’s chest.

“Mm…morning…”

Beta giggled. “Morning.”

Aloy was wide awake a second later, shooting to her feet so quickly that Kotallo startled awake with a snort. “Morning,” she huffed. Holy shit, her face was as red as Beta had ever seen it. “I was…we were just…”

“Aloy, it’s fine,” Beta insisted. She brushed past her to tuck the pigments back into her bag.

“Ah…I should find Atekka.” Aloy was already hastily pulling on her tassets and chest plate and heading for the door, fiddling with one of the beads resting by her neck. She turned it and turned it, over and over until Beta half expected the braid to pop off in her fingers. “I’ll be back.”

She was gone a breath later. Kotallo, meanwhile, still seemed to be processing the recent trauma of waking up.

Beta glanced up at him as he propped himself up on his elbow. “I thought it was kinda sweet,” she admitted. He answered with little more than a quiet grunt, but he was smiling as he hauled himself to his feet and stretched.

She elected not to mention that she’d snapped a picture. It was probably for the best.

They sat down to breakfast with Atekka up on the northern watchtower, and she listened intently to every word of Beta’s meticulous explanation. Atekka silently watched a herd of Fanghorns trundling through the marsh below as she took it in, a thoughtful crease cutting deep between her brows. Finally, she set down her cup and steepled her fingers.

“Hekarro was shaken by news of this beast,” she breathed, nodding toward Kotallo. “That was your phrasing, Marshal. I don’t imagine you chose it lightly.” She drew a careful breath, squaring her shoulders. “And I know he pledged every blade at his command. I won’t offer anything less.”

Aloy looked grateful. “Thank you, Atekka.”

“This battle’s weighing on you, Champion.” She reached out a squeezed Aloy’s shoulder. Surprisingly, Aloy didn’t pull away. She almost seemed to lean into it. “I can hardly blame you. But you have the Lowland Clan at your back, you have my word.”

“Our next trial will be to see that the Sky Clan follows suit,” Kotallo sighed. “Somehow I’m not certain that will be an easy task.”

“Without his wall to hide behind, Tekotteh may not put up quite as much of a fight,” Atekka offered.

Kotallo let out a humorless laugh. “With all due respect, Commander, we see the man from very different perspectives if that’s your view.”

“Your perspective is quite a bit closer, I’ll admit.” Atekka did not sound envious. “In either case, I agree it won’t be easy.”

“Tekotteh doesn’t actually breathe fire or something, right?” Beta coughed.

Atekka shook her head. “Not quite, but he has a skull as thick as a Thunderjaw’s armor.”

“That almost sounded like it could be a compliment,” Aloy said.

“It wasn’t.”

Kotallo let out a snort before he could help it. “I admit a part of me wishes we could afford to forego his support, but we may need to…how did Chief Hekarro put it?”

“Get creative?” Aloy offered.

“Yes.” Kotallo speared a morsel of fish. “Creative.”

Beta gulped.

The air was getting warmer and thicker by the time they got ready to head north. Beta lingered by their mounts, happy to get a break from the insistent chatter of the settlement. The marshlands were actually pretty beautiful, without a Fireclaw trying to burn her to a crisp.

“We’ll be heading out in about an hour,” Aloy said as she strode past, gaze fixed on the Charger just behind the settlement gates. She watched as Beta fiddled with her own hair. “You want help with that?”

Beta paused and blinked at her. “Huh?”

Aloy was already coming over, offering a smile as she ushered Beta closer. “Your hair. It’s getting long lately. Today’s going to be hot so it might help to get it off the back of your neck.”

Truth be told, that sounded glorious. She’d been getting sick of feeling it trap the sweat against the nape of her neck, making it flush and itch. Half of her was tempted to find a way to shave it off completely and be done with it, but Aloy seemed to have something else in mind. She sat Beta down on a stump by the treeline, across the path from where the Chargers were grazing.

Aloy reached into a pouch at her hip, sticking a band of cloth between her teeth and holding it there while she counted out a few beads. “Hold these,” she said, and she thrust them into Beta’s hand before getting to work. She was shockingly quick with her fingers, weaving Beta’s hair into a simple twist that rested firmly against her scalp.

“Bead,” Aloy said. Beta handed her one. Then another when she held out her hand again a few moments later. They fell into an easy rhythm until Aloy shot her a grin and stood up. “There…that should do the trick.”

Beta reached up to feel, marveling at the way the smooth edges of the beads brushed against her fingertips. She was smiling before she could help it. “You’re really good at that.”

“I hope so. Been doing it longer than I’ve been able to hold a bow.” She gestured at the single bead still resting in Beta’s hand. “Keep that one. And the rest of them too. I’ll teach you how to do it yourself if you want.”

“I’d like that.”

Kotallo brushed past, his Charger’s reins clutched in his hand. “I managed to repair the blaze burn to its armor plating,” he said, nodding at the machine’s flank. “This came off a Ravager that the weapon crafters finished scrapping this morning, but it will do well enough.”

“Big guy’s all patched up,” Aloy crooned with a smile and a fond little pat to the Charger’s neck. “Thanks.”

“Perhaps you could consider it a matching battle scar.” He glanced at Beta. “How is your hand faring?”

“Decent,” Beta said.

“Hm. Make sure that bandage is secure. We’ll be traveling along the coast to make our way to Tide’s Reach, and ocean spray on a fresh wound is the last thing you’ll want to endure.”

She was happy to take his word for it.

Beta was content to focus on helping Kotallo load their things back onto the newly-repaired Charger, and she listened intently as he instructed her on how to adjust the straps securing their travel packs to its haunches. He was just hauling himself up onto the machine’s back when Beta paused and cast a glance back at the settlement.

“Wait a second,” she said, already heading up the path with her eyes fixed firmly on the fighting pit at the settlement’s heart. She called out for Comamnder Atekka, and the woman turned to face her when she was just a few steps away.

Beta thrust a hand out toward her and stood there, still as stone, as Atekka stared at it. The Commander’s eyes flicked back up to meet hers. A breath later, she chuckled.

“You offer your hand like you’re pledging loyalty,” Atekka mused.

Beta’s heart seized. “Wh-what?” She tugged her hand back, fingers curling against her elbows. “No, no – I mean, I’m not—We’re on the same side for sure. But it wasn’t a pledge. Just a handshake. A—” She steadied herself with a slow and careful breath, extending her hand again. A little shakily, but she managed. “A goodbye. And a thank-you.”

Atekka closed the gap with a single stride forward and a firm grip on Beta’s good hand. “Safe travels, trainee,” she said, and she patted Beta on the arm and urged her toward the entrance with a smile and a nod.

Beta couldn’t help but recall Kotallo’s warning about ocean air on a fresh wound when they made it further north. The day was warm, but the wind was relentless. Luckily, Azorreh’s handiwork was good, and the bandage kept off the salty air as their machine’s followed the curve of the shoreline. Slowly but surely, Thornmarsh vanished from view, and they turned their attention north toward Tide’s Reach.

“Kotallo’s excited to get there,” Aloy quipped, shooting Beta a smile over her shoulder. “He won’t admit to it, but I know he is.”

“What’s so special about Tide’s Reach?” Beta mused.

Kotallo trotted up next to them. “The ocean breeze keeps the biting flies away.”

Aloy let out a snort. “And it’s the only place in the clanlands where you can get your hands on fresh marine oysters.”

“Oysters?”

“They’re his favorite.”

“They’re many peoples’ favorite,” Kotallo insisted. “Marshal Ivvira could tear through an entire day’s catch if she put her mind to it.”

“You could manage twice that,” Aloy chuckled.

“I’ve never actually eaten an oyster.” Beta grimaced. “I’m not sure I like the idea of something that slimy…”

Aloy looked pensive. “It’s not that bad when you get past that. Good with chili oil.”

“You think anything is good with chili oil,” Kotallo told her.

“And more often than not, I’m right.”

A passing shower blew in just as Tide’s Reach came into view, and Aloy reached up to shield her eyes from the spitting rain. “We should stay the night in the settlement,” she said. “It’ll be a long ride to Cliffwatch, and I’d rather not have to camp in the Stand of the Sentinels if we can help it.”

Kotallo caught Beta’s eye. “It creeps her out,” he said, and the lilt in his voice made it sound like the words weren’t originally his.

Aloy pouted. “That’s not the only reason. There are plenty of Stalkers around the abandoned village. It’s safer traveling during the day.” A beat. “And it creeps me out.”

They made it to the gates of Tide’s Reach not long after the storm shifted and blew out to sea. Beta was starving – so much so that she was halfway tempted to brave one of those oysters. She’d watched a couple of Tenakth hauling in nets full of the things as they’d tied up their mounts, and now Kotallo was shoving one of them into her hands.

She stared at it.

“It won’t bite you,” he told her with a smirk. Beta fought the urge to pout. “Try it or don’t. If you don’t plan to eat it, I will.”

She didn’t doubt that. And she had a feeling she didn’t have more than a few seconds to decide, judging from the way Kotallo was staring. She took a breath and opened the loosened shell. “Uh…Aloy mentioned chili oil.”

Without a word, Aloy appeared beside her and handed her a bottle. She was already busy tipping another oyster back to her lips. Beta took the bottle and added a few drops to the slimy thing…alright, one more for good measure.

She tipped it back and swallowed. The first thing to hit her was a not-unpleasant brininess that reminded her of the fresh ocean breeze earlier that morning. The second thing to hit her was the chili oil.

That was what did her in. She coughed, sputtered, and frantically pawed around in the sand for a water skin until Kotallo shoved it into her hands with a good-natured bark of laughter. “You have the bravery of a promising young Tenakth warrior,” he told her, and Aloy cackled in agreement.

The fires burned late into the evening, and by nightfall they settled in a fishing hut near the edge of the settlement, overlooking the waves.

“You came on a good night,” a passing merchant told them as he gathered up his wares. He nodded out toward the rolling tide. “Season’s right for blaze nettles.”

“Blaze nettles?” Aloy mused. She glanced over at Kotallo, apparently itching to ask the very same question Beta had in the back of her throat. “What are—”

But Beta got her answer first, when her gaze shifted out toward the waves again, and she gasped. She rushed right past Aloy to lean over a nearby railing. There, stretching out across the water, were hundreds and hundreds of ethereal floating lights, gleaming blue and aqua against the dark swell of the tide. They almost looked like-

"Jellyfish," Beta said.

“I’ve only ever seen this once,” Kotallo breathed as he leaned in closer beside her. His eyes gleamed in the firelight, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “The first time I came this far west, not long after my Kulrut. I thought I’d drunk too much Lowland wine.”

“Some kind of bioluminescence,” Aloy murmured. She had a furrow in her brow as she knelt over the edge of the path, just a moment’s lost balance away from plunging headfirst into the water. “I’ve never seen something so bright like this. It almost looks like machine light.”

“It’s like a night sky,” Beta sighed, a smile slipping onto her face and staying there. She carefully lowered herself down and leaned forward on her knees, chin resting against her forearms. “It’s beautiful.” She only pried her eyes away to glance over at Aloy, finding her sister with her head pressed comfortably against Kotallo’s bare shoulder.

Kotallo pressed a gentle kiss to Aloy’s hair, and Beta turned to gaze out across the ocean again, her line of sight following the rolling tide of twinkling bioluminescence all the way to the horizon.

Chapter Text

The ocean breeze gave way to a bracing, chilly wind through the trees as they made their way east from the coastline. Beta kept her gaze locked on the path ahead of their mount, her fingers curling over Aloy’s armor as another wave of pain cinched in her stomach. She grimaced.

Aloy noticed, frowning as she turned to glance back at her. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Beta forced out. It almost felt like a habit.

They lapsed into silence again, until Aloy nodded up the path at an old shelter tucked up against a hollowed out tree trunk. “Let’s stop here for a bit,” she said as she tugged her Charger to a stop near the firepit. “We should eat something and change into warmer gear before we head on to Cliffwatch.”

“I’ll be fine as I am,” Kotallo mused with an easy smirk. “Sky Clan blood—”

“Does not feel the cold,” Beta and Aloy finished at once. He bit back a snort.

Aloy was shoving a set of fur-lined armor into her arms the moment Beta got back on solid ground. “Take these,” she insisted. “They might be a bit warm at the moment, but the chill will come on quick when we get closer to Cliffwatch, so you’ll be more comfortable if you change now.”

“Got it,” Beta muttered. It was an easy enough task. She could manage a few sets of buckles and straps well enough, and she was eager to change into something warm before the wind got any more bite. The cold was only going to make her headache worse, she bet. She ducked behind a line of trees near the shelter to change, but as she got herself undressed, her heart dropped.

Shit.

Oh, shit.

There was no way this was happening. She had to be seeing things. She’d been expecting it for a while now, since she’d come off the cocktail of hormonal regulators the Zenith’s had kept her on. According to GAIA, it could take months to years for her body to truly balance itself out.

And yet it just had to be happening now of all times. Right here in the middle of the goddamn woods. She swallowed her pride and did the only thing she could think of. She called for her sister.

A moment or two later, she heard the crunch of leaves under Aloy’s boots. “Everything okay?” she quietly asked.

Beta swallowed. “Yeah. I…I’m fine. I just…”

“Something wrong with the armor I gave you?” Aloy offered when she lapsed into silence again. “It might be a little big on you, but we can adjust—”

“N-no. No, it’s not the armor. It’s…” Beta groaned. Better just to say it. Get it over with. “I…I’m bleeding…”

Aloy was quiet for just a second too long for it to be comfortable. “Did you rip your stitches? You really need to be careful with—”

“It’s not my hand,” Beta snapped. “It’s my…ah…my cycle. It…”

Her words finally failed her, but they had done the trick. She heard the faint sound of Aloy’s nails tapping on the other side of the wall. “Oh…okay. It’s alright. I’m low on better supplies, but have some spare bandages in my pack. They’ll do in a pinch, and we can take care of it when we get to Cliffwatch.”

Take care of it. Whatever that meant. Beta just nodded. “R-right. Okay.”

Aloy lingered. Beta could practically sense it, even as quiet as she was. Instead of leaving, she let out a breath. “You, ah…you know how to…deal with this, right?”

Beta shrugged. “In theory, yes.”

It wasn’t a big deal. It was really not a big deal. She desperately did not want it to be anything resembling a big deal. She thought she heard Aloy take a steadying breath.

“In theory,” Aloy muttered. “So you’ve never…”

“I know what it is. I can deal with it. I’ve been expecting it for a while now. I just didn’t…” She sank back on her haunches, muffling a groan against her palms. “I didn’t think it would be now of all times.”

“It’s okay! It’s okay. Just wait here a second. I’ll be back.”

Like she had any choice. Beta listened to the sound of her sister’s footsteps retreating toward the path. She thought she caught a few words when Aloy muttered something to Kotallo, but it was nothing she could make out. Suddenly a hand stuck out between the wood slats to her right, a damp rag and some clean strips of fabric clutched in the fingers.

“I have some fiberzest root too,” Aloy said after Beta had taken the rest. “Tastes awful, but it helps with the cramps.”

“Thanks,” Beta muttered. “Um…I can handle this. I’m okay. Really.”

“Alright. Ah…” Aloy crouched a bit closer – Beta heard her leaning against the wood on the other side of the wall. “I won’t say anything to Kotallo, but…you could trust him. If you needed to.” She sounded like she was smiling. “Let me know if you need any help with those furs, okay? The straps on the left thigh can be a little tricky.”

She managed them well enough, all things considered. The furs were already doing wonders for keeping off the wind, though the belt would take some getting used to. Aloy shot her a smile when she stepped out from behind the shelter, and her sister barely waited a single breath before she got to work adjusting the fasteners.

“They fit pretty well, actually,” Aloy mused. “Comfortable?”

Beta nodded, holding out the other armor that had served her well for the first leg of the trip. She’d folded it as well has she could, though a few of the buckles stuck out awkwardly from under the leather. “I um…I don’t think I got any…blood…anywhere…but…”

Aloy took them without a moment’s hesitation. “Please. I’ve cleaned blood out of my armor more times than I can count. What else is new?” She reached into the pouch at her hip and produced a neatly sliced chunk of fibrous root. “Chew it until the flavor wears off and then tuck it behind your molars. It’ll help.”

“Right.” Beta followed her instructions, trying not to grimace at the overwhelmingly bitter flavor from the fiberzest, but it wore of quickly and helped just as much as Aloy had promised. The cramps were already waning by the time they sat down to eat.

“Beta,” Kotallo barked, and Beta whipped around to face him just in time for him to shove a pouch of dried meat into her hands. “Eat. The ride the rest of the way to Cliffwatch will be long.”

She didn’t exactly have the energy to argue, so she answered with little more than a nod.

They continued deeper into the forest, the trees growing taller and wider until Beta could barely make out the canopy far above. Kotallo took his hand off the Charger’s reins for long enough to gesture up at a few painted slats jutting out from the lowest branches.

“We’ve nearly reached the abandoned Lowland village,” he said, loud enough for Aloy to hear a few strides ahead of them. Kotallo shot her a knowing little smile. “We’re making good time, if you wanted to take a brief detour.”

Something flashed in Aloy’s eyes, and she yanked her Charger’s reins to the left, down a fork in the path. “Alright, just a quick one.”

“What kind of detour is this?” Beta asked, leaning around Kotallo to try and get a look at Aloy as she spurred her Charger on to a gallop.

Kotallo nodded ahead of them. “Tallneck.” Just as he said the word, the machine trundled into view, the ground shaking with the force of its unhurried footsteps. Beta craned her neck to get a look at its head towering above them, sunlight glinting off he disk. “It’s patrolled this abandoned Lowland outpost for nearly a year now.”

“It’s huge,” Beta breathed. Kotallo’s Charger crossed the machine’s well-worn footpath, and she turned to watch it continue its meandering.  

A few paces ahead, Aloy brought her Charger to a stop and hopped off its back. “Time me,” she barked, grinning at them over her shoulder. “I’ll tell you when to start.”

“Let’s get up to the central platform,” Kotallo said. He urged Beta off the Charger’s back, near a rope ladder leading up to a solid-looking wooden structure far above them in the trees. Kotallo’s hand landed solidly against her shoulder, steadying her. “Go on. I’ll come up behind you.”

No room to argue. Fair enough. Beta got a good grip on the rungs and hauled herself up, one push at a time. Before she knew it, her fingers met rough, damp wood. She sat back against the railing at the edge of the platform to catch her breath as Kotallo hoisted himself onto the wooden ledge.

He cracked a smile and gestured down toward the base of a towering tree off the right side of the platform. His fingers hovered next to his Focus. Aloy raised a hand, and he tapped them to his temple.

“Go,” he said, and Aloy was off like a shot, clambering up a couple of handholds in the side of the tree, swinging up onto the ledge and making her way across a tension line strung between the branches.

Kotallo watched, leaning against the railing as Aloy easily cleared a gap between two platforms and started the next leg of her climb. “You’ve been keeping up with your paint,” he mused, his gaze flicking over to Beta for a moment before finding Aloy again. She was slowing her descent onto a lower platform with her shieldwing. “That’s good. How has it made you feel?”

Beta shrugged. “I don’t really feel it so much anymore. Still getting used to people calling me trainee, though.”

“They wouldn’t use the term if they didn’t believe you were worthy of that mark.”

“How could they know that?”

“A skilled soldier can tell, from the look in your eye or the way you carry yourself.” He turned to look at her again. “That’s changed, you know.”

“What has?” Beta muttered. As the Tallneck came around the corner again, Aloy leaped onto its neck. Beta’s stomach seized when her sister hung on by just one hand, but she steadied herself quickly and swung around to another solid platform without a moment’s hesitation.

“You have,” Kotallo told her. Beta tore her gaze away from Aloy to blink up at him. He held her gaze. “It was clear before you took that paint. Hekarro was able to see it too, but even before that…” He looked pensive, fingers drumming against the wood between them. “Something changed in you when you made the decision to push on the Memorial Grove. That evening back in Scalding Spear.”

Beta managed a shrug, picking at her cuticles. She didn’t particularly enjoy thinking about their time in Scalding Spear, that fight with Aloy, the shame she’d felt that she’d viewed turning back as the only possible option. “Maybe,” she relented. “I…think I was curious more than anything else. I wanted to see what the Grove was like. And Thornmarsh. And—”

The Bulwark. Something that had seemed for so long like a monument to all she would never be able to achieve. And yet now it was their next goal. And it lay on the other side of a damn near impregnable, sub-freezing mountain range. Easy.

“Time!” Aloy huffed over the Focus. Kotallo had already tapped his fingers to his temple to stop the timer at the same moment she spoke.

He smiled. “Four seconds shy of your record.”

“Dammit.”

The Tallneck was wandering past them, and as Beta glanced up, she could make out Aloy with her head canted toward the sky. She slowly lowered herself down, leaning back on her elbows.

“I’ll meet you on the central platform in a few minutes,” she mused. There was a smile in her voice. “Just want to enjoy the view a little longer.”

“We’ll be here when you’re ready,” Kotallo answered, and he met Beta’s eye again. “So it’s decided then. We’re bound for the Bulwark.”

“There’s not much choice at this point,” Beta said.

“There’s always a choice. You’ve made many choices to bring you here, and there are many choices left for you before we set foot within sight of the Bulwark at all.” He studied her, getting to his feet again and striding to the other side of the platform to keep the Tallneck in his line of sight. “You’ve made good choices so far. I have no reason to expect anything less from you.”

That made something…quiver in the pit of her stomach. She wasn’t used to it – this feeling of trust, not just hers in Kotallo, but the other way around too. He’d earned her trust a hundred times over with his strength and patience and unwavering determination, and yet here he was putting that same trust in her like it was nothing.

Beta swallowed. “Hey…Kotallo?”

He hummed.

“Are you…nervous to go back to the Bulwark and…and see Tekotteh again?” He looked at her, not answering quite yet. He looked like he expected she had more to say, and it made her fidget awkwardly. “I-I saw some of the Focus recordings about what he did to you…the way he treated you. I wouldn’t blame you if you were anxious about having to see him again.” She toyed with one of the beads in her hair. “I can only imagine what it would be like to have to see Tilda…”

A wave of nausea gripped her, but she closed her eyes and forced herself to recall Aloy’s words from that night back in Thornmarsh.

They aren’t coming back, Beta. Not now and not ever.

“In the grand scheme,” Kotallo mused, pulling her back to the present, “I think that what Tilda and the Zeniths did to you is far more reprehensible than what Tekotteh put me through.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think there’s a need to try and quantify it. Reprehensible is reprehensible enough.” She kept her gaze locked on her fingernails, but she forced herself not to mumble. “You know…I started calling Aloy my sister at first just for the sake of simplicity. But now…now it’s more than that. It fits. She’s my family. She’s my blood. And that comes with certain responsibilities…”

She pushed herself to her feet, squaring her shoulders and tightening her fists. By the time Kotallo glanced over to look at her again, a little bemused, she was staring him down with all the determination that she could muster.

“If you hurt my sister, I’ll make sure you regret it, Marshal.”

Kotallo blinked at her, staring, unmoving until the sunlight flashed against his teeth. “A direct threat. Now that is the Tenakth way. Your training is going well.” His gaze softened as he leaned in a bit closer, dropping his tone as they both watched Aloy leap from the Tallneck and glide toward the platform.

“For what it’s worth,” he murmured, “I would never hurt the woman I love.”

Aloy stumbled to a stop near the edge of the platform and shot them a toothy, breathless grin. “Well, no records today. Good exercise though. You two find something to talk about?”

“It was a good conversation,” Kotallo hummed. “She threatened to kill me.”

“I never said kill,” Beta huffed.

“You intended it.” He leveled her with a firm stare. “If you’re going back on your threats now, perhaps you need more training in this area after all.”

“I’m not going back on anything! I’ll run you through if that’ll make you happy.”

Kotallo grinned as Aloy merely stared at them. “That’s the way, trainee,” he chuckled. “Come, we should press on to Cliffwatch, yes?”

“Yes,” Aloy sighed. She studied them fondly as she nodded down at their waiting mounts. “We should get there before the weather shifts.”

They made it to Cliffwatch well before nightfall, dropping their things off in their lodgings for the night just as the fires were lit around the settlement to keep off the chill. It felt like the mountains were locking it in, sapping every bit of warmth off the wind and drying the air until it made Beta’s nostrils sting.

Aloy made quick work of getting her some better supplies – fabric pads held in place by a few discrete, sturdy belts that fastened over her hips. It was more comfortable than the bandages she’d had to shove into her undergarments before, at least. Those were a lost cause and all they’d done was made her chafe.

“Better?” Aloy asked her as she sheepishly emerged again. Beta offered her a quiet nod and took comfort in the fact that Aloy didn’t say another word about it.

She shrugged off offers of dinner and found herself a quiet corner near the cook fires, sheltered from the wind and far enough from any curious, prying eyes that she could almost imagine the murmured conversation on the other side of the wall wasn’t about her. She pressed her knees close and tried to keep her mind off the ache in her stomach. Now that the fiberzest was wearing off, she was just hoping the remaining cramps would be gone by morning.  

A moment later, someone thrust a hide pouch into her field of vision. She looked up and studied it, and Kotallo pressed it closer. “There are stones inside from the fire,” he told her. “It holds the heat well. It will help.”

She took it, marveling at how warm it was in her palms. She pressed it to her stomach without complaint. “Did Aloy tell you?”

“Don’t blame her,” Kotallo said. “She wanted to make sure you were comfortable. She didn’t tell me anything outright, but I…inferred.”

“I don’t mind.”

She didn’t. Not really. After all, it wasn’t a big deal. It needed to not be a big deal.

“You should eat,” he urged her, as she heard him turn to go. “You’ll need your strength for these next several days of travel. The Bonewhite Tear is not a forgiving place.”

Great.

She forced down a few bites of food and retired early, tucking herself into her bedroll and missing the warmth of the pouch Kotallo had given her earlier. The concept was simple enough, but for now, she was intent on grinning and bearing it until she drifted off to sleep. It wasn’t going well – the ever-present throb of pain in her abdomen made it next to impossible to focus on anything else.

She barely heard the footsteps padding up behind her until a hand pressed against her shoulder.

“Hey,” Aloy whispered. “You still awake?”

“Yeah,” Beta sighed.

“Still in pain?”

“It’s not too bad.”

“I have more fiberzest, but it would probably keep you up.” Aloy sat down on her own bedroll and started rifling through her pack. “Zo made a leaf infusion for me once that worked wonders, but I can’t remember what it’s called…I wonder if there’s an herbalist around here who would know.”

Somehow, inexplicably, Beta felt tears springing to her eyes. It was so sudden that she couldn’t hope to hold them back, and Aloy was all but certain to notice her sniffling even if she didn’t catch Beta reaching up to wipe them away. “Shit,” Beta coughed, jamming the heel of her hand against her eye. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

Aloy went quiet, leaning in closer and pressing a hesitant hand against her shoulder. “I hate to say it, but this is pretty…ah…normal, all things considered. Just part of being a woman, I guess.”

Beta stared down at her hands, gaze tracing the edge of the bandage there, studying her jagged fingernails and bony knuckles. “Is that…what it’s supposed to feel like?”

“What…what is supposed to feel like?”

“Being a woman,” Beta asked with a shrug. Truth be told, it didn’t mean much of anything to her. She viewed it with a kind of indifference that she’d always thought was universal. “I guess…biologically, sure. Beyond that…I don’t know.”

Aloy stretched out on her bedroll beside her, her brows furrowed, making her look deeply contemplative as she chewed on her lip. “I guess I never thought about it much,” she finally said. “I don’t know if I would have been much of a woman by Nora standards. I’m not sure if I’d make much of a mother. I definitely wouldn’t be considered a very good woman as far as the Carja are concerned, or the Oseram Ealdermen, I bet.” She layered her hands over her stomach. “But my own definition fits me anyway, well enough at least. Never found anything that fit any better.”

Beta let the silence stretch on for just a few beats longer than was comfortable. Finally, she broke it. “I don’t know if it fits me that well.”

Aloy was studying her. Beta could tell even without looking. She didn’t look – she couldn’t quite bear to as she wiped the last of her tears from her face.

“Maybe it doesn’t have to,” Aloy finally muttered, “I met someone back east. A prison warden named Janeva. Everyone saw them as a woman. Including me, at first. But they insisted they weren’t. I guess that mattered more than what anyone else thought.”

Something thumped in Beta’s chest. It urged her to glance over at Aloy again. Her sister was smiling at her.

“You should try and get some sleep,” Aloy told her, pushing herself to her feet.

“Yeah.” Beta slid back down into her bedroll again, and by the time she shut her eyes and tried to find sleep again, the ache in her belly had eased.

Chapter Text

Beta woke out of a dead sleep to Aloy’s hand on her shoulder, shaking her insistently. She blinked her eyes open, staring blearily up at her sister as Kotallo busied himself packing away their bedrolls just behind her.

“Sorry to have to wake you early,” Aloy said with a slightly apologetic smile. “We’re heading out sooner than planned.”

“Is something wrong?” Beta asked. She forced herself up onto her elbows, wiping the stubborn sleep from her eyes.

“There’s a snowstorm getting ready to blow in from up north later today. We need to get going if we don’t want it to strand us here for a day or more.” Aloy pushed herself to her feet, shooting her an inquisitive glance when the first thing Beta reached for was the pot of pigments Kotallo had given her.

Beta shrugged. “It’s supposed to be the first thing I do when I wake up every morning. It won’t take long.”

True to her word, she was dressed and meeting them outside before Kotallo had even gotten to work fastening their travel packs to their mounts. He thrust them into her hands instead.

“Your timing is good,” he told her. “You remember how to do this, yes?”

“You want me to get the machines ready?”

He nodded. “Each squadmate takes on what they can handle. You can handle this.”

Well, it was just a few straps and buckles after all. All things considered, she’d faced more daunting tasks. She gulped as she stepped up to the first machine, pressing her hand against its one remaining horn. “Easy, buddy,” she breathed when it huffed. “Um…this won’t take long. Promise.”

They packed and prepared quickly, and Beta was still staving off a yawn as she climbed onto the back of Kotallo’s Charger. The sky was wide and gray, and the air smelled somehow…bitter. It was probably the cold, biting as it was, and she rubbed her gloved hands together to try and warm her lips. By the time Cliffwatch was out of sight behind them, they were already hopelessly chapped.

As Aloy’s Charger slowly trekked ahead through the pass, Kotallo reached into his travel pack and drew out a thick, fur-lined blanket. He handed it back to her. Beta blinked at it.

“Take it,” Kotallo told her, nudging her wrist with it until she obeyed and slung it over her shoulders. “Those furs will serve you well in the snow, but you aren’t used to this climate. This will keep you plenty warm even beyond Sky’s Sentry.”

He was right. It was impressive, how well it kept off the fearsome chill. Kotallo seemed plenty comfortable even without it, like that paint of his was somehow keeping him warm. Though it was probably that Sky Clan blood he was so fond of praising. Suddenly she remembered the way he’d mourned the sweat on his brow during their time in Scalding Spear and grimaced when the Raintrace humidity had descended on them in full force.

Before she could help it, she was laughing. “The Sky Clan warrior in his natural habitat.”

“Are you trying to make me sound like some kind of snow owl?” Kotallo huffed.

Beta shrugged. “Scary eyes, sharp talons, and really good at staying really quiet? It kinda fits.”

“Aloy, Kotallo, Beta.” GAIA’s familiar voice spoke on an open Focus channel, making Aloy’s head whip up as if she were right in front of her. Her mount stopped abruptly, making Kotallo’s follow suit. “The blizzard you intended to avoid has shifted course. At your present rate of travel, it will overtake you well before you reach your destination.”

“That’s not good,” Aloy said with a frown. She looked back at Kotallo. “Should we turn back to Cliffwatch?”

“It would take us longer than it would to press on to the east.” He grimaced as a harsh gust of wind made his Charger stumble. Somehow it seemed to make the cold feel even sharper, dragging the temperature down at least a few degrees in the space of a couple of breaths. “From the wind, I’d say the storm is probably already bearing down on Cliffwatch besides. We would run right into it.”

“Forward it is then,” Aloy nodded. She urged her Charger toward the east with the click of her tongue. “Pick up the pace.”

They pushed ahead through an ocean of frost and stone, and all the while the temperature steadily dropped and the wind howled louder. Beta let out a yelp as a ferocious gust nearly tore the fur-lined blanket from her shoulders. By the time she’d gripped it tight around her body again, the world had faded to a deep gray-white.

“Uh…I can’t see much through this,” Beta murmured. Kotallo was tense, his eyes fixed ahead.

Aloy groaned. “Damn storm came on fast.” She was barely a few paces ahead of them now and Beta could barely make out the gentle glow of her Charger’s blaze cannister on its rear end. “We need to find somewhere to—”

“Aloy!”

Kotallo’s cry echoed for just a half second before it was drowned out by a terrifying roar from above. Not a machine, but the silhouette of a massive tree, long dead and bristling with sharp branches, groaning and breaking away from the ledge above. It sent a massive spray of snow in all directions as it crashed to the ground.

Aloy had disappeared from view a moment later, like the snow had swallowed her up completely, but her voice lingered when she let out a curse and urged her Charger forward through a snowdrift. Kotallo’s reared back, nearly dropping them into the ice before he pulled tight on the reins and brought the machine down again. Beta trembled against him. She held tight thanks to nothing but force of habit as his mount struggled to right itself.

“Kotallo?” Aloy’s voice, this time over Beta’s Focus. “Beta – shit, are you—”

“We’re fine,” Kotallo barked. “Beta, hold—”

A sharp thud echoed above the howling winds as the Charger stumbled and its flank rammed into the side of the tree’s decaying trunk. Its hooves tangled against the mangled roots that stuck up from the snow like dead fingers. The crack that echoed through the pass was all the warning they got before a branch twice as thick as Kotallo’s torso broke away above them under the oppressive wind. He tried to bark out a warning, but it came too late – Beta’s back hit cold snow, knocking the breath from her lungs and making her cough when she struggled to catch her breath.

She hauled herself up, her head still spinning. She could make out the Charger a few strides away, a still mound of metal against a blanket of white. But Kotallo—

She called out for him. No response came. She raised a shaking hand to her Focus.

“Aloy? Where—”

“Where are you, Beta?” Aloy’s voice was marred by static and dead air, her words barely getting through. “I got thrown off my damn Charger into a snowdrift. I don’t see you.”

“We’re…” Shit, where were they? Where was Kotallo? Her heart pounded as she stumbled over toward the downed tree, ankle scraping against its bark under a layer of snow. There, just under a tangle of old branches – an edge of sharp metal that she recognized from Kotallo’s chest plate. “Kotallo!”

“Just stay there…just…Beta…stay—”

Her voice cut off, the signal lost. Beta barely paid it any mind, focused as she was on hauling some of the smaller branches aside. “Kotallo,” she panted. “Kotallo, are you—”

He groaned. Conscious, at least. That was something. He cast a look back at his leg the same moment that Beta did, and her stomach dropped to her feet. It was pinned firmly under the thickest part of the splintered wood, far too heavy for her to ever hope to lift on her own. That didn’t stop her from trying.

“My leg,” he grunted. “It’s pinned.”

“It’s too heavy – I can’t lift it.”

“My machine arm. I may be able to—”

“I’ll get it.” Beta was already stumbling through the snow toward the Charger. Its light was flickering back to life again – a hard-reset of its central processor brought on by the shock and cold. Sluggish, but its power cells seemed to be cycling in spite of the ice around their casings. She reached for the travel pack on its flank and—

Her heart froze. Even with Kotallo calling out for her over her shoulder, she couldn’t move. She could barely breathe. She could hardly even think beyond going over and over her memory in her head from when she had packed up their mounts back in Cliffwatch. When she had taken special care to load up the case holding Kotallo’s neuro-prosthetic arm.

On the other machine.

“Beta,” Kotallo barked. Finally, she turned, feeling like she was going to be sick. No – her stomach had all but frozen up.

“Your arm isn’t here,” she breathed, kneeling beside him. “It…the case…I packed it on the other machine…I…I…”

He was squeezing elbow a second later. “Go,” he said.

“I’m not leaving you—”

Kotallo stared up at her, his eyes blazing. “Go, find Aloy.”

The Charger was hauling itself to its feet, sparks jumping from its horn, but Beta hesitated just long enough for Kotallo to notice.

“Go,” he said again.

Beta stood straight. She tugged the blanket from her shoulders and wrapped it around Kotallo’s. “You need this more than I do right now,” she insisted.

He leveled her with a piercing stare. “Beta—”

“The ground saps body heat faster than air. I don’t care what kind of blood you have. You’re taking it.” She fastened it over his chest and stumbled through the snow over to the Charger, swinging herself up and spurring it to a gallop.

Unsure of what else to do, less sure that there was anything she could, Beta found herself tapping her fingers to her Focus again before they froze over completely. “GAIA,” she gasped, “I need help. Can you locate Aloy’s Focus?”

Static across the channel. She cursed. But then GAIA’s familiar, soothing voice bloomed in her ear over the howling wind.

“The signal strength is weakening rapidly due to the storm. However—” Her voice cut out, nothing but silence, though Beta wondered if it was thanks to the dwindling signal strength or her own body struggling to manage in this cold. Her own bones felt like they were trembling. “Continue…on your present course…do not give…Beta…”

Do not give up.

And don’t fucking die. She had managed that so far.

There was nothing in front of her but white. The cold had long since left her face numb, but her throat was burning and her chest was aching with every hurried breath. Fuck, she could barely make out the horizon in all this white. How the hell was she supposed to find Aloy?

How long did she have before hypothermia inevitably sank its claws into her? How long until it did the same to Kotallo? Beta’s chest seized, her pulse pounding in her ears and drowning out the howling wind. Kotallo. He was counting on her. He was trapped and in danger and he was counting on her.

She choked back a frantic swell of tears. She couldn’t afford them now. “Come on,” she groaned, urging the Charger ahead against the driving blizzard. “Keep going. I know it’s cold. Just keep going.”

Blue light. There, on the horizon. And as she got closer, the familiar glow of machine cables. A flash of red.

“Aloy!”

No, no, the light was turning away. The wind was too much, the snow stifling her voice no matter how hard she tried to fight it. Beta cursed and slammed her heels against her mount’s flanks, driving it forward through the snowdrift.

“Aloy! Help! Kotallo needs help!”

The light shifted, moving toward her, and Beta’s heart soared against the storm. Aloy held her hand up to her face to keep off the snow as she pulled the Charger alongside Beta’s. “Where’s Kotallo?” she asked.

There was a waver in her voice that was unlike her. A fear she wore closer to the surface than most. Beta didn’t waste any time trying to fixate on it, turning her Charger around instead. “He’s back this way! He’s—” She shook her head. “Just come on!”

Aloy didn’t wait more than a single heartbeat before she took off behind Beta at a sprint. “Show me,” she barked, eyes fixed on the whited out horizon. “Beta, show me.”

“GAIA—”

“I have the signal,” GAIA confirmed, her voice almost drowned out by static. “I can point you in the correct direction, but the inter…the storm…in…nearly gone—”

Beta groaned. The signal was too weak to break through he storm, but she had the last bit of guidance GAIA had offered, and she fixed her eyes on that marker and pushed through the snow as fast as she could manage.

Her eyes stung, her lungs seizing, every inch of her skin burning like she’d been dropped right on top of that damn Fireclaw back in the marshlands. But she pressed ahead. Every step, every inch, every shuddering thump of the Charger’s hoof in the snow was closer to Kotallo. Closer to getting out of this fucking blizzard.

If she never saw snow again in her life, she’d be content.

But there, cutting through the endless expanse of blinding white, she made out the dark edge of the downed tree. “There!” she cried, and Aloy charged ahead of her, jumping off her machine into the snow. Beta followed close behind.

“Kotallo, look at me,” Aloy insisted. “Look at me—” She turned back toward Beta. “I’ll use my spear to get some leverage. Beta, when I say so, you need to pull him out, got it?”

She nodded, ignoring the numbness in her hands and the insistent sting across every inch of her skin despite the furs. Kotallo shifted under the branches, prying his eyes open and shattering the delicate bits of ice that had formed on his lashes. When Beta grasped his hand, he squeezed it right back.

The wood groaned as Aloy got her spear beneath it and pushed. The branches cracked and bent, splintering across the metal, but the wood was lifting off his leg just enough—

“Pull!” Aloy cried, and Beta did. With every ounce of strength, no matter how much her muscles protested, she pulled with all her might. Kotallo’s body slid across the snow, leaving a crumbling trail behind him that collapsed when Aloy flung herself backwards and rushed over. “Kotallo. Kotallo—”

“I’m alright,” he rasped. His voice was rough, but steady. “Sky Clan blood—”

“Shut your mouth right now,” Aloy huffed. Oh, but her eyes were blazing with more emotion than Beta had ever seen, her fingers trailing across his jaw before she helped him to his feet and urged his arm across her shoulders. “Your leg—”

“Is not broken.” He grimaced. “It can bear weight. We must get out of this storm.”

“There’s a shelter about a half a mile ahead.”

Kotallo shook his head. “Too far.” He turned to his right, gesturing through the trees. It was the first time that Beta noticed he was shivering. “There’s an old cabin that way. Once a training outpost for Sky Clan soldiers. It’s been abandoned for years, but it’s close.”

“It’ll do,” Aloy sighed. She reached for Beta, tugging her toward the Chargers. “Come on.”  

It was easy enough to say – harder to do. Every step felt like Beta was forcing her leg through solid ice, her face so numb that she didn’t even feel it as she reached up to brush her snow-covered hair from her eyes. A hand clamped down around her arm a moment later, tugging her over to the mount.

Aloy’s. Her teeth were bared, her face covered in frost. “Get up,” she commanded, gaze laser-focused ahead. She watched Kotallo haul himself up onto his own groaning machine, mounting her own in front of Beta and urging it through the snow.

She reached back to pull Beta’s arms around her waist. “Stay awake back there,” Aloy commanded. “Stay with me, Beta.”

Beta managed little more than a nod. That, at least, was an easy enough order to follow.

She’d gone so numb that her body barely felt like hers anymore. All she could do was trust that her arms would hold tight and her lungs would keep dragging in breath after breath of freezing air, no matter how much it stung. She only looked up again when Aloy rammed her heels against the Charger’s flanks and hurried farther ahead.

“There!” she cried. “Kotallo, is that—”

“That’s it.” His voice was barely audible above the howling wind.

Slowly, the structure came into view – an old thatched roof hanging like a half-loosened blanket over a few bowing planks of wood. But its stone foundation was solid, and even the paint over its doorway seemed to cling stubbornly against the storm.

“It’s half collapsed,” Aloy said, frowning. She was already un-latching their travel packs from the machines and hauling them inside.

Kotallo grunted as he urged her across the dilapidated threshold. “It’s four walls and enough of a roof to keep off the wind and ice. That’s as much of a chance at survival as we can ask for.” He grabbed Beta’s arm, pushing her deeper inside the crumbling structure. There, against the far wall, was a nearly frozen hearth sheltered by walls more intact than the rest. “We need flint.”

“I have blaze,” Aloy insisted. She was already kneeling near the hearth. She rifled through her pack as Beta brushed ice out of the hearth and helped Kotallo seal off the doorway of their makeshift shelter.

She could have cried when a fire bloomed to life in the hearth, lighting up the long-frozen stone gold and orange. Beta glanced out through a crack in the wood. “The Chargers,” she mused. “I don’t see them.”

“Our mounts will either wind up buried in a snowdrift or they’ll wander off on their own,” Aloy sighed. She sounded almost mournful. “Either way, we’ll be making it the rest of the way to Sky’s Sentry on foot.”

Kotallo warmed his hand by the fire. “With any luck this will die down well before nightfall.”

“Just a matter of waiting.” Aloy’s voice was steady, but quiet. She leaned against Kotallo’s side, drawing Beta close and curling the thick fur blanket around her when Kotallo draped it over her shoulders. “We can manage.”

Silence.

Well, inside their makeshift shelter, at least. Beyond the fire crackling and the walls groaning, none of them said a word. Outside, though – outside, it sounded like the end of the world.

Fitting.

It made a shiver run down Beta’s spine, pooling in her gut and making her entire body tremble from something other than the oppressive cold. That, at least, was starting to recede, even though it left a sharp sting in its wake that seemed to go all the way down to her bones.

Beside her, Aloy finally broke the silence, her gaze fixed on Kotallo as he carefully prodded another bit of half-frozen wood into the fire. “How’s your leg?” she asked.

“It aches,” Kotallo huffed. “But that’s better than numbness. Pain, I can handle.”

“Still with me?”

It took Beta a moment to realize that her sister had turned to speak to her. Beta fought off a fresh round of shivers and nodded. “Just peachy.”

“Shivering is good,” Aloy promised her. “Means your body’s warming up. We have enough wood for that fire?”

Kotallo let out a quiet hum of affirmation. That was a comfort, but it didn’t last long. Too quickly, Beta’s eyes wandered to the frost-nipped skin just above where he’d covered the remains of his left arm, then down at the case that held his prosthetic, propped up against Aloy’s feet. Guilt gripped at her chest, flooding her rib cage until she felt like she was breathing in ice all over again.

It ached. Fuck, she couldn’t stand this oppressive silence.

Aloy’s knee nudged hers. “Hey Beta,” she murmured, “what do you call a Widemaw in a fish barrel?”

Kotallo groaned. “This? Now?”

“I’m asking Beta – go on. What do you call a Widemaw in a fish barrel?”

Beta curled her fingers against her knees. “I…I don’t know.”

After a long, lingering moment, Aloy shrugged and said, “Stuck.”

Even the storm seemed to groan more loudly at that one. But Beta found herself chuckling before she could help it, despite the squeezing ache in her ribs. “That’s horrible.”

“We have to pass the time somehow,” Aloy insisted. “And trust me, I’ve heard worse.”

“I doubt that,” Kotallo sighed. His first mistake. From the way Aloy huffed, it seemed she took it as a challenge.

“Fine,” she insisted. “What do sprinters eat before a race?”

“What?” Kotallo asked, sounding resigned.

“Nothing. They fast.”

“By the Ten…”

He sounded fond.

“What’s red and bad for your teeth?” Beta blurted. She bit her lip as soon as she did, but before she could worry that it was a mistake, Kotallo shot her a questioning glance and she met his eye. “A brick.”

Aloy cackled so loudly that for a moment, it drowned out the howling wind.

Aloy was right about the Chargers – they were gone by the time the winds died down and they emerged from the dilapidated old shelter. The clouds were still a blanket of stubborn gray, but the air was so calm and clear that it was hard to believe it had been trying to kill them not all that long before.

Sky’s Sentry was a hard, but surprisingly short hike east. Even with their strength waning, by the time it appeared on the horizon, all three of them managed a second wind. Kotallo exchanged a few brief words with the guards by the settlement entrance before a figure rushed toward them from down the path.

“Aloy,” he called. “And Marshal Kotallo.”

“Ikkotah,” Aloy said with a tired smile. “I thought you were back in Cliffwatch. I was hoping to find you there. Figured we’d missed you.”

“Transferred here a few weeks back,” Ikkotah shrugged. “The change seemed…good. I still hunt in the Stand of the Sentinels when I can, to honor Chekkatah’s memory, Ten rest his soul. But he would have tanned my hide if he every figured I was languishing in grief.” Horror spread across his face as he studied them. “By the Ten…you weren’t caught in that storm, were you?”

Beta could practically feel Aloy tense, her expression pinching as she seemed to resist looking over at her or Kotallo. Because it would be too painful? Or because she wouldn’t be able to hide it?

“We were,” Kotallo said instead. “We found shelter a few miles outside the settlement and waited it out.”

“That old training barracks…the Hands of the Mountain must have been close behind you,” Ikkotah mused. What that meant, Beta had no idea, but he was already urging them around the corner toward a firelit shelter that looked warm and inviting. “I know better than to try and order around Hekarro’s Champion and one of his Marshals, but I’ll take that risk today. Come get out of the cold, all of you.”

They ate in silence, pressed close together around a warm hearth, steaming meat and charred vegetables defrosting them from the inside out. Aloy was pressed close to Kotallo’s side, her cheek nearly brushing his pauldron.

Slowly, she put her half-eaten food down on the lip of stone near the hearth and wrapped her arms around his instead. She didn’t say a word as she did it, and Kotallo was just as quiet as he let her. A moment later, Aloy reached for Beta.

“Come here,” was all she said. Her tone was so level that she may as well have been asking Beta to throw another log on the fire, but her eyes were swimming with emotion, stained gold by the light from the hearth.

Beta obeyed, leaning in closer, and Aloy swung her arm around her shoulders and drew her close. Aloy let out a shuddering breath that said more than words could possibly get across.

None of them rushed to leave the warmth of their shelter, even after the sun had broken through the cloud cover above and the wind had died down. Aloy busied herself tending to one of her bows, despite the fact that even Beta could see the weapon didn’t need it. Before long, though, her sister wound up nestled by the fire, asleep with her bow still loosely grasped in her hand.

Kotallo brushed past Beta without a sound, draping his thick fur blanket across Aloy’s shoulders and taking the bow from her to prop it against the stone.

Beta’s mind was buzzing like the wind was still howling inside her skull, even if it had calmed outside. Despite the cold, she pulled herself away from the hearth and stepped outside into the frigid sunlight. She kept the furs clutched tight around her as she made her way out to the overlook above the cliffs. It was a long way down, the mountainside as jagged and cold as a frozen blade. The wind whipped through her hair and made her shiver, but Kotallo seemed as content as a man could be out in the frigid air. He nodded her over, and she stopped short of the ledge to spare herself the vertigo.

“You can see across all of the Bonewhite Tear from this spot,” Kotallo mused. “I remember coming here as a young trainee myself, seeing it stretching out before me, so much more regal than I could ever appreciate from atop the Bulwark.” He glanced over at her, holding her gaze despite how tired he still looked.

“Seems like we still have a long way to go,” Beta sighed.

Kotallo nodded and ran his fingers along the smooth edge of painted wood beneath his palm, his eyes fixed on the horizon beyond them. “There was a Sky Clan warrior once, many years before my birth, who perished in a blizzard not unlike the one we faced. She was separated from her squad and buried beneath the snow. Even her tags were lost to the storm.”

“That’s…a pretty morbid story,” Beta said when he went quiet again, her nose wrinkling.

“If it ended there, it would hardly be more than a cautionary tale to ward children away from wandering off alone in the snow.” Kotallo shot her a knowing little smile, sunlight glinting off his eyes. “It’s said that the warrior was so furious with the storm for taking her when she still had so much skin left to mark, that she refused to leave this life entirely. She perished, but her spirit used that anger and determination to tether itself to the mountains. Some of the more superstitious among the Sky Clan might say she still wanders the mountain pass, guiding and warming lost souls to help them survive the most biting winds and frigid storms.”

Beta glanced down at a pot of vibrant magenta pigment set on a flattened panel of wood near his hand. He took it and brushed an errant droplet of paint from its edge, but didn’t speak.

“Do you believe that?” she asked him.

He looked up to meet her eye again. “Not particularly. I did when I was young. But I’ve given up any belief in stories of spirits now. Still, that’s not the reason I mentioned it to you.”

“Why, then?”

Kotallo held out the jar to her, and Beta held it carefully. “Even among those who don’t believe the warrior’s spirit haunts the Bonewhite Tear,” he mused, “many still find themselves…inspired by the story. The most resolved of them have braved worse blizzards to rescue lost soldiers. We’ve come to call them the Hands of the Mountain after the spirit that moves them, and they bear a rare and hallowed mark to show their strength and bravery.” Kotallo studied her, his expression solemn. “You acted with honor in that storm, Beta. And with great courage.”

“I couldn’t just leave you there.” Beta clenched her fists, forcing herself to hold his gaze despite the thumping of her heart in her chest. She could still smell the sharp bite of the chilled wind, hear the groaning of the storm drowning even her own thoughts. And fear…it still reared back and coiled in her chest at the mere thought of pushing through that blizzard on the Charger’s back. She shook it off. “A…a soldier should never abandon their squad.”

Something in Kotallo’s face…shifted. His expression wavered for a moment before it broke into a warm smile. “Indeed,” he hummed. He reached out to dip his fingers into the magenta pigments, not unlike he’d done with the paint back in Fenrise, when he had marked her as a trainee. “And an act of valor should never go unnoticed. Normally, a mark like this would be etched into the skin by one of our inkers, but for now, this will do well enough.”

Instead of reaching for her face, he nudged her hand up toward his chest and dragged a line of paint along her skin, across her knuckles and stopping midway down her index finger. He was silent and contemplative as he added a pattern that resembled spreading wings with the tips of their feathers brushing her wrist.

“The Hands of the Mountain,” he quietly mused when he was done. “These hands saved my life, and I will always be in their debt.” Gently, he took the jar from her again, sealed it and set it to the side as Beta studied her hands. She extended her fingers, bending them as if she just needed the reminder that she still could in this cold.

Before she drew another breath, Beta felt tears cutting their way down her cheeks. Kotallo stared at her. His expression was like stone, but his eyes looked equal parts concerned and curious. It almost made it worse, that burning in her chest, and when she tried to steady herself all she could manage was a quiet sob.

“I don’t deserve this,” she forced out. The words came before she could even think about them. They felt sharp and cold, like the wind in that damn blizzard. “I don’t, Kotallo. You…you almost died because I couldn’t even do something as simple as packing up a few bags on the right mounts. If GAIA hadn’t managed to point me in the right direction to find Aloy, you would have—”

He was kneeling in front of her a second later, his hand pressed hard against her arm and urging her arms to unwrap themselves from around her shuddering chest.

“If you allow yourself to start down that path, it will be agony to try and claw your way back,” he said, his tone firm and steady. “A thousand things could have led us to the same moment, and we would never know it from where we stand.” He nodded behind him, out across the overlook. “You’re looking down from above, with a view of the entire valley below, and chastising yourself for not seeing as much from amidst the trees.”

She sniffed, her nostrils burning. Kotallo was pushing himself to his feet again, but she didn’t look up at him just yet. Instead, she looked out over the very valley he’d just mentioned. She kept her eyes fixed there until her pulse stopped pounding in her ears and her breathing evened out.

“What matters,” Kotallo said, “is that you faced what came at you. Regardless of what brought us there, you did not back down. That is what makes you worthy to bear this mark.” Kotallo said little else, pressing his palm against her arm as he brushed past her, away from the overlook. “Thank you, trainee.”

With a nod, he was gone.

Beta lingered, studying her hand and the mark that spread across the back of it, flexing over her bones when she curled her fingers into a loose fist. She pulled the warm furs closer around her shoulders and sat on the ledge to gaze out across the expansive horizon.

The Bonewhite Tear. She wondered just what it had in store.

Chapter Text

Beta slept better than she ever could have expected, waking the next morning to the sound of laughter from just outside their night’s shelter. She was still buried under a pile of furs and it was harder than she cared to admit to tug them off and brave the cold again.

She was almost starting to miss the biting flies. Almost.

She took her time pulling on the fur-lined armor she’d borrowed from Aloy, adjusting each of the straps and buckles until it fit as snuggly to her frame as she could manage. It still felt odd, donning armor every day like she was preparing to cut her way across the wilds or hunt down a few machines for spare weapon parts.

The bleeding had slowed, from what she could tell. That was something, at least. The sooner it was one less thing to have to tend to, the better. For a few weeks anyway.

She shrugged off the thought, focusing on her reflection as she sat down to apply her familiar face paint. But when she caught a glimpse of her own face she paused, her fingers hovering just an inch or so away from her skin.

With a wisp of pigment across her brow and her hair tied back and adorned with painted beads…she looked more strikingly like Aloy than she ever had before. Beta stared, mouth stuck halfway open, her brows furrowed as she curled her fingers against her palm and smeared the residual paint there along her nails.

Of course she looked like Aloy. She didn’t need an advanced education in human genetics to understand that. But it had never extended past the physical – bone structure, eye color, skin pigmentation, height. When she stared at her own reflection, it was like she could see the similarities under the surface, spreading like an intricate root system, changing the sharpness of her gaze and the way she held her shoulders.

She looked…braver, somehow. Like the person reflected back was challenging her.

Beta finished her paint and hauled herself up, stepping out into the cold, bright morning and quickly finding Aloy and Kotallo lingering near the herbalist’s station. Beside them, the Sky Clan man who had urged them into the settlement the day before was grinning and laughing.

“I swear it on the Ten themselves,” Ikkotah insisted. “Chekkatah picked me up with one hand by the back of my chest plate and threw me out of the way before that Behemoth could trample me into the dirt. Didn’t save me the busted ear drum when he blew off its force loaders, but I’ve survived worse.”

Kotallo’s smile looked almost wistful. “Chekkatah always kept a sharp eye on his squadmates. There was a time when every one of the other Marshals could probably tell a similar story of how they owed their lives to his quick thinking.”

“Did he make a habit out of throwing people?” Aloy asked.

“Only when it was called for.”

“Like when a Behemoth was coming at you.”

“Precisely.”

Ikkotah tipped a cup of something steaming to his lips, sipping it thoughtfully. “He used to insist that he could beat Chief Hekarro in an arm-wrestling match. To this day, I choose to believe it – even if I never saw it for myself.”

“I admit I never witnessed such a thing,” Kotallo mused. “Although…I think I’d believe it too. He had the resolve, and the Chief has never been one to back down from a challenge. Particularly from an honorable man who had already bested him in combat once before.”

Aloy had a playful look in her eye, a smirk tugging at her lips as she studied Kotallo. “What about you?”

“Me?”

She shrugged. “You took on Hekarro, didn’t you? Guess Erend was just a warm-up.”

“By the Ten, you did?” Ikkotah cackled.

“It was a demonstration,” Kotallo insisted. “He was intrigued by my machine arm. After I’d showed its effectiveness in the arena, he wanted to see it up close.”

“And you pinned his hand in ten seconds flat,” Aloy said breezily. She looked strikingly proud, though that may have just been from the cold adding more rosiness to her cheeks.

Kotallo’s brow arched. “Ivvira told you that, did she?”

“Nope – Dekka.”

Instead of saying a word about that, Kotallo turned to face Beta instead and urged her over. He was handing her a cup that warmed her hands as the steam rising from it turned her face pink. “Spiced cider,” he told her. “Just the thing to help you acclimate to the mountain air.”

“Keep you from freezing at least,” Ikkotah said. He was right – the spices were fragrant and bold, the apples tart and bright, and it was warm enough that it felt like she was defrosting from the inside out. Her gratitude must have shown, because Ikkotah was chuckling as she took another long sip. “I hear you’re the trainee raising the alarm across the clanlands about some new enemy. The Sheerside Mountains gave you a memorable welcome.”

Beta coughed. “Oh. I’m just here to help explain a few things to Commander Tekotteh.”

"Tekotteh," he huffed. "Best of luck with that endeavor. You'd have better luck talking to the wall itself, such as it is nowadays."

"Still...worth a shot." 

"Indeed." Ikkotah’s eye was drawn to her arm. Beta watched his gaze lock onto her wrist, his smile fading and his expression becoming somber and thoughtful. “Marshal Kotallo told me you’re dedicated to your training. That’s good.”

“I’m doing my best,” she shrugged. “You mentioned someone named…Chekkatah.” She glanced up at Kotallo. “Another Marshal?”

Kotallo nodded, looking solemn. “One of those that fell at Barren Light, during the Embassy.”

Ikkotah flexed his jaw, clenching a fist as if it pained him. “As good a Marshal as he was a man. He braved these mountains during his own training, just as I did. We spent more than one night around the fire with our fellow trainees in the very training barracks you took shelter in. Someone more superstitious might say he had a hand in guiding you through that storm.” He glanced at her, nodding down at her pigment-stained wrist. “Though I hear yours had more to do it, trainee. Superstition or no.”

“I-I just went to get help,” she said, almost out of instinct. “But I did what I could.”

Aloy’s fingers twitched at her side before she pressed a hand to Kotallo’s arm. “You should hear about how she took on a Fireclaw.”

Beta’s face blazed, but Ikkotah was cackling. “By the Ten! A Fireclaw, this early in your training? You’ve earned every inch of that paint, haven’t you?”

“I need to go before those machines move on. They'll be harder to track later in the day.” Aloy clasped her fingers with Kotallo’s, just for a moment. Long enough to draw his gaze down to their hands before she pulled away again to reach for her bow. “I won’t be long,” she insisted. “You two stay here.”

“Are you finding us new Chargers?” Beta asked. It was odd, finding herself excited by the prospect – she’d grown oddly fond of their mounts, despite being so petrified of them when they’d first set out. She’d been halfway tempted to name them, though it was probably for the best she never had.

Aloy’s answering smile was an enigmatic little thing. “You’ll see. Stay here. Ikkotah, look after her and Kotallo for me.”

Ikkotah blinked at her, glancing over at Kotallo as she disappeared from view. Kotallo offered a deferential nod. “I don’t plan on causing you any trouble,” he said.

“Appreciated, Marshal,” Ikkotah chuckled. He nodded them down the path, the opposite direction from where Aloy had wandered off. “I’m eager to hear more of your exploits, trainee. Particularly that Fireclaw the Champion mentioned.”

“Now that is a story,” Kotallo insisted, his hand clapping against Beta’s shoulder and urging her on toward the cook fires where she found the warmth lingered a little longer. “One worthy of ink one day.”

She didn’t know about that. But she wasn’t ruling anything out. After all, she’d been surprising herself quite a bit lately. What was one more?

It was late in the afternoon when Aloy finally returned, a smile on her face and her palm resting on the beak of a blue-eyed Sunwing. Beta stopped short of the ledge, staring at the machine as it nudged Aloy’s elbow.

“Uh…what is that thing for?” she hazarded. She had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer.

Aloy pushed the machine to one side and it wandered off toward an outcropping of rock reaching out over the valley below. She brought a feather-adorned metal vessel to her lips and whistled, and a second of them landed beside her.

“That thing is going to be Kotallo’s mount for the next leg of this trip,” Aloy said, nodding toward the first Sunwing. She drew the other one closer. “This one is mine. He’ll be flying the two of us to Stone Crest.”

Beta gaped at the Sunwing until it turned and snapped its imposing metal beak at her, sunlight glinting off its razor-sharp edges. She stumbled backwards.

“No.”

“Beta—”

“Hell no.”

Aloy grasped her arm. “Beta. It’s okay. Really. Trust me.” She nudged Beta closer with an encouraging half-cocked grin. “His name is Flintbeak. Flintbeak, this is Beta.”

The Sunwing ignored her, stretching out its wings to catch the light. The other one was following suit, looking oddly content for a piece of hardware as it settled on a nearby ledge. She didn’t pay it much mind as long as it stayed very far away from her. Aloy, however, seemed to have other plans.

“Let me help you up.”

Beta stared at her. “Hell—”

A cold length of metal pressed against her spine, and Beta screeched as she stumbled away. She looked back just in time to see Aloy’s Sunwing – Flintbeak – staring at her through a pair of gleaming blue eyes even brighter than the cables running along its neck. It cocked its head to the side, looking almost curious as it let out a quiet trill.

“What are you looking at?”

“Trust me,” Aloy said again, on the edge of a lighthearted laugh. She curled her fingers around Beta’s wrist, and Beta let her. “I won’t let you fall.”

“You won’t let it bite my finger off either, right?”

Aloy pretended to hesitate, looking thoughtful. Just until Beta leveled her with a sharp glare, and she snorted. “Just start by getting up on his back. It’s not all that different from a Charger. You’ll see.”

Just to Scalding Spear. Just to the Memorial Grove. Just onto the Sunwing’s back.

This whole damn journey seemed like it was made up of compromises meant to urge her one step further. One inch closer. One day longer. And here she was, swinging her legs up onto the back of the machine as it flexed its polished metal wings in the sunlight.

“Kotallo,” Aloy called as she pushed herself up and gripped the cables along the Sunwing’s neck. Kotallo glanced up from where he’d dutifully taken to fastening their bags to the other machine’s flanks. “How’s it looking?”

“All secure,” he said with a nod. There was an almost wistful smile on his face as he mounted his own machine.

“He’s flying on his own?” Beta breathed.

“Not my first time,” he told her. “A fond memory of mine. Aloy remembers it just as well, I hope.”

A blush spread high on Aloy’s cheeks. “Yeah,” she muttered.

“It felt like a seduction, you said.” Kotallo shot her a grin. “Am I remembering your phrasing correctly?”

Beta laughed, despite the knot in her stomach. “Your first kiss was on a Sunwing?”

“After,” Aloy groaned. “After the Sunwing. I took him up, let him fly…and one thing led to another.”

“The seduction was yours, I assure you,” Kotallo said, and he urged his Sunwing to the ledge and held tight as it dove through the air and leveled out above the tree-line.

Beta drew a shuddering breath, arms tightening around Aloy’s middle. No going back now. Her sister glanced back at her. “Ready?”

“No,” Beta huffed. “Go on.”

A quiet huff of a laugh, and the machine shuddered under them a second before the ground gave way entirely. Beta’s stomach leaped into her throat, knocking the air from her lungs and clenching a vice around her ribs. The wind whipping through her hair was harsh and biting, making her cheeks go red and her lips numb.

But the view. Oh, the view was incredible.

Trees and snow stretching out as far as she could see. Blue machine light filtering up through the finger-like branches. A Thunderjaw trundling along a long-worn path in the stone not far to the northeast as Aloy put the setting sun behind them. Off Flintbeak’s left flank, Kotallo’s Sunwing was dipping further down toward the trees, banking north to give the Thunderjaw a wide berth.

Beta felt Aloy stiffen, her sister’s eyes fixed on Kotallo’s mount. She shook it off. “That’s Salt Bite far to the east,” she said. “I’ll take you there sometime. Pentalla would probably cook up something special for us.”

She could hardly imagine thinking of food at a time like this, but at the very least it was getting easier to breathe. As her heart rate leveled out and her head stopped spinning, Beta was able to marvel at the way the sun caught on the machine’s wings and muscle. It hummed beneath them as Aloy patted the side of its neck.

It was almost…cute.

Almost.

“Just ahead – that’s Sheerside Climb.” Aloy nodded north, the sunlight glinting against the beads in her hair. “They guard the mountain pass.”

“I spent several months stationed in the pass with my first squad,” Kotallo piped up over their Focuses. He sounded almost…nostalgic. At least as close as Beta had ever heard from him. “My first assignment as a Marshal brought me through here as well. Although it hardly felt the same.”

They lapsed into silence, Flintbeak dipping slightly and disturbing the wispy edge of a cloud with its wingtip. Beta watched, transfixed as the vapor swirled and dissipated in the pink and golden sunlight, but Aloy’s attention was elsewhere. Her jaw was set, her grip on the Sunwing’s cables unrelenting.

It wasn’t hard to recognize that glint in Aloy’s eye as her gaze flitted again and again over to Kotallo’s Sunwing. The machine dipped and soared over the treetops, its shadow stretching across the expanse of white below them when it shifted from underbrush to snow. The cold wind in her hair and the frozen ground stretching out before them sent Beta’s mind drifting back to that blizzard, to Kotallo shivering beside her as he staggered to his feet, to the clear and unmistakable panic rising in Aloy’s eyes in the moments before it faded into relief.

A note of that panic lingered somehow. A memory of it, maybe.

Beta squeezed Aloy’s arm. “Hey Aloy, can you settle something for me?”

“Huh? Settle something?”

“Something I was talking about with Ikkotah while you were gone. He said he helped you take down a Scorcher.”

“More than helped – he pushed me out of the way of a mine blast that could have knocked me out cold.”

Beta could believe that. She had never seen a Scorcher in action up close, and she didn’t care to change that anytime soon. The recordings she’d studied from Aloy’s Focus had been more than enough to sate her curiosity. For a moment or two at least, but it got a second wind. “He was also telling me about a Thunderjaw he took down with that Marshal you mentioned. Chekkatah?” She studied Aloy’s face before it was obscured again by her hair. “They seemed close.”

“They were,” Aloy said, her voice oddly tight.

“Ikkotah said that Scorcher fight was tougher, but I just can’t imagine anything tougher than one of those things.” She nodded back toward the Thunderjaw, at least the last place she remembered seeing it before it disappeared from view.

A twitch at the corner of Aloy’s mouth caught Beta’s eye. “Thunderjaws are tough, sure,” she mused. “But a couple of tearblast arrows to the joint casings that stabilize their disk launchers will rip them right off, and then the strategy is pretty straightforward.”

“What strategy is that?”

“Aim for the face.”

Beta snorted, but Aloy was still grinning when she turned to look back at her again.

“I’m serious! All of a Thunderjaw’s machinery aside from its disk launchers is concentrated along the cranial plates. Take off its tail to throw off its balance and stay out of its direct line of sight until you can expose the heart.” She flashed Beta her teeth. “Easy.”

“Easy,” Beta huffed. “Only you would call taking down a Thunderjaw easy.”

“Scorchers are tricky,” Aloy continued, seemingly undeterred. “They’re smaller, but quicker. Lose sight of it and it’ll tear you to pieces.”

“Or blow you apart with mines?”

“Exactly. Still, every machine has a weakness. If you can get one in a purgewater trap—”

“Then aim for the face?” Beta offered.

Aloy tossed her head back and barked out a laugh. “I was going to say hit it with shock ammo in its central processor and then aim for the face.” She banked her Sunwing easily to the west, following Kotallo’s lead. “Stone Crest isn’t far. We’ll stay the night there and then hike to the Bulwark in the morning.”

Beta’s stomach seized. Aloy must have felt it, because her fingers brushed Beta’s wrist before she drew another breath.

“Tekotteh doesn’t take kindly to machine mounts,” Aloy sighed as they started a slow descent. “Not all that surprised. Stubborn ass.” She shook her head. “Anyway, the hike isn’t too long. And it’ll give us some time to come up with a plan.”

“Do you really think Tekotteh will listen to us at all?” Beta wasn’t convinced. She’d never met the man, but nothing she had seen painted a favorable picture. He had fought against Regalla with the rest of the Tenakth – Hekarro had confirmed as much – but it hardly felt like enough to outweigh the rest.

“He’ll listen.” Aloy’s eyes were blazing with determination, her expression suddenly serious. “Whether he’ll do anything about it is the next question, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. And if we have to, we can always—”

“Get creative?” Beta finished.

Flintbeak dipped down past the snowcapped tree-line and landed with a heavy shudder that had Beta fighting to keep her balance. Aloy shot her a knowing smile. “Exactly,” she said, and she dismounted into the snow.

They ate a meal of salted fish and charred root vegetables, and now that her appetite had returned in force, Beta ate two portions and sheepishly asked Kotallo if he could get her a third. He did without complaint, handing her another full, steaming bowl with what looked like an approving nod. They retired not long after sunset, if only to escape the biting chill.

It was late in the night when Beta woke again, bitter cold nipping at her fingers where they poked out from under her thick fur-lined blanket. She pushed herself up anyway, glancing over at Kotallo where he slept on the pallet near the hearth. He was alone.

It didn’t take her long to find Aloy outside, her legs swung over the stone ledge overlooking the valley. She didn’t turn to look as Beta approached, but she must have heard her coming because she scooted over to give her more room, looking resigned as she did it. Beta knelt down to carefully let her legs dangle over the ledge, pretending not to mind how freezing cold the rock was on her backside.

“I didn’t wake you up, did I?” Aloy muttered a moment later, interlocking her fingers over her knees.

Beta shook her head. “No. I didn’t even notice you were gone right away. Why would you have woken me up?”

Aloy chewed her lip, staring out at the treeline below like she was trying to memorize it from end to end. Finally, she glanced down at her picked-over cuticles and shrugged. “I had some odd dreams. Thought I might have been…talking in my sleep. And when I woke up I—” Her brows pinched, and she frowned. “It doesn’t matter. Are you not able to sleep? We’ll be heading up to the Bulwark tomorrow. You should—”

“I have nightmares too sometimes, you know.” Beta blurted it out before she could give it a second thought, her face warming when Aloy just stared at her, looking bemused. “I…I have them most nights, actually. Even woke up screaming once or twice. Or crying. They aren’t as bad lately. I’ve gotten pretty used to it, but sometimes one…sticks.”  

Aloy’s fingers were curling against the stone, her nails digging into the layer of frost there. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her gaze was fixed on the horizon.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Beta quietly told her. “But I’d listen if you wanted to. I mean…if anyone can understand why NEMESIS is the stuff of nightmares, I could.”

“It’s not about NEMESIS,” Aloy murmured, so softly that Beta almost didn’t catch it over the breeze cutting through the valley. Aloy stared down at her hands, folded in her lap. “It is and it isn’t.” She squeezed her eyes shut, drawing a steadying breath that still left her shaken. “It’s okay. Just a dream. You should go back to sleep, Beta.”

Beta barely caught it – the way Aloy’s eyes darted past her to peek inside the crack in the doorway. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was looking at. Who she was looking at.

Suddenly it all made perfect, painful sense. The way Aloy had pulled them close during that snowstorm, the way she’d clung to Beta’s wrist back at Sky’s Sentry, the frantic glint in her eye as she’d kept her gaze locked on Kotallo’s Sunwing during the ride to Stonecrest. Ever since that blizzard, she’d seemed just slightly off-balance, barely enough for anyone to notice from the outside.

But Beta was a special case. Genetic copy and all. Not long ago she would have said they had nothing in common, but now she could see she’d been dead wrong. She knew fear. She knew dread. She was intimately familiar with how they sat in her stomach and on her own face.

And it was clear as day, staring right back at her. It only lingered for a moment, but it was more than enough.

Before she could second-guess herself, Beta reached for Aloy’s hand, cupping it between both of hers and waiting for her sister to look her in the eye. “Aloy, I…I know you must be scared of losing him.” Aloy stiffened, her fingers curling against Beta’s palm, but she pressed on. “I know it’s probably the hardest part of not being alone anymore.”

Aloy looked a little bemused, staring at Beta’s hands wrapped around hers. Their fingertips were stained red from the cold. “Kotallo is…he’s…”

“He loves you.”

Aloy’s face blazed redder than Beta had ever seen it, the tint spreading all the way to the tips of her ears. “He…I…I know he cares about me. I care about him. But we haven’t—”

“Aloy,” Beta said, more intently this time. “He loves you.” A smile stretched across her face, widening even more when she saw her sister’s blush creeping down her neck. “And you love him too. I can tell.”  

“I…” Her words failed, refusing to leave her mouth no matter how hard she tried. She swallowed, biting the inside of her cheek.

Another awful habit they shared. Seemed Aloy had been about at successful at trying to break it as Beta was.

Beta glanced over her shoulder, something drawing her eye through the crack in the doorway. She caught Kotallo’s in the dim firelight, shooting him a quiet smile as he silently studied her. “Aloy…you should talk to Kotallo.”

“I will in the morning.”

“No, you should talk to him. Tonight. Now. Look at you – you’re…you’re beating yourself up because you can’t see as far through the forest as you can from the top of the mountain.”

Aloy blinked at her. “What?”

“Kotallo put it better,” Beta sighed. “All the more reason you should talk to him instead.” Aloy’s eyes had flicked from Beta’s face to their hands, still clasped together. She’d almost forgotten. “Aloy…I know you’re scared. Of losing him. Of losing everybody. But you can’t fix that by being alone. I don’t…I don’t think people like us should be alone.”

“People like us?” Aloy’s voice was quiet and thoughtful, a fond little lilt edging its way into the last word and turning into a curious half-laugh.

Beta shrugged. “People who want to heal the world.” When Aloy drew a sharp breath, Beta fixed her gaze on her own nails and forced herself to keep going. “I always liked the way she put that. Dr. Sobeck. I…I always thought she’d be proud of you, you know. I’d like to believe she’d—”

“She’d be proud of you too.”

Aloy’s words felt like they were carved to razor-sharp points, the way they stuck in Beta’s chest and made her lungs seize. She felt tears well in her eyes, but she forced them back, biting her lip and curling her fingers against Aloy’s knuckles. It took everything in her to try and meet Aloy’s gaze again, but when she did—

“Oh shit,” Beta rasped when she saw Aloy’s eyes glistening. “Shit, I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” Aloy insisted, and the way she said it made her sound almost surprised that it was true at all. “Really, it’s…” She reached up to wipe her eyes, but the tears were already gone by the time her knuckles brushed her lashes. “Thanks, Beta. And I…”

Aloy sucked her lips between her teeth, a deep furrow carving its way between her brows. Behind them, a shadow shifted against the firelight, but it moved no closer and neither of them paid it much mind. Aloy seemed to concentrate on the clouds drifting across the horizon on the wind, keeping her gaze locked there as she found her words. Finally, she managed to pin them down.

“I wasn’t just scared for him in that blizzard, you know.” Her jaw was set, her eyes gleaming as she curled her hands into tight fists in her lap. “The thought of losing him was…” She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, drawing a steadying breath. “But I couldn’t lose you either, Beta. Not again.”

Beta stared at her, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. She glanced down at her own hands, at the lingering hint of paint that still clung to her skin. The Hands of the Mountain. She ran the pad of her thumb across the rough edge of pigment and shifted to nudge Aloy’s knee with her own.

“I’m tougher than I look, you know.”

That seemed to lift a weight off Aloy’s shoulders. It was a relief to see her sister laugh. Twice as much so to feel the same anxious knot untying itself in her own chest.

Finally, the shuffle of soles against stone drew their eyes back to the doorway. Kotallo shot Beta a nod – a wordless question that had her getting to her feet to offer him an equally silent answer. She brushed past him as he quietly strode toward Aloy, giving his arm a squeeze as she did.

The last glimpse she got before she made her way back inside and nestled down into her nest of blankets was of Kotallo sitting beside Aloy and pulling her in close. It took less than a breath for Aloy to lean her weight against him, wrapping her arms around his and holding tight.

Chapter Text

Beta woke second the next morning, turning over and meeting Kotallo’s eye as he paused halfway through applying his face paint. He nodded at her before dipping his fingers back into the jar of deep charcoal gray that adorned his jaw.

“Whatever you two spoke of last night, I’m grateful,” he mused. He canted his head down toward the bed to his right, where Aloy was still sleeping soundly. “She seems better for it.”

Beta sat herself up, blankets still draped over her shoulders. “And she’s…okay?”

Kotallo hummed in affirmation, his gaze wandering back to Aloy and staying there this time as his fingers hovered just an inch or two away from his own skin. “She was able to sleep. That’s more than enough.” He looked thoughtful as he went back to finishing up the sharp pattern along his jaw and temples. By the time he’d finished and cleaned off his hand, Aloy had somehow burrowed her way even deeper under her own blankets.

Kotallo didn’t seem keen to wake her, and Beta felt the same. She was quiet as she pulled her own paints out from her travel pack and unscrewed the top.

“Would you like help?”

Beta turned to face him, still cross-legged on her bed roll and holding the jar and its lid uselessly in mid-air as she stared. “What?” she asked.

Kotallo gestured at the jar of paint, moving no closer. “You’ve done well tending to it yourself, but it’s something of a tradition for squadmates to help each other with their paint before setting out to face a fearsome enemy.” He shot her a smile. “Tekotteh will not break us if we stand as a united squad. I’m certain of that much.”

She thought on it for a moment or two before carefully holding the jar out to him, just enough for him to notice and approach. He sat across from her, dipping his fingers into the paint and reaching for her temple. She fought to keep her nose from wrinkling.

“Tekotteh…he’s a real piece of work, huh?”

Kotallo huffed out a quiet breath – almost a laugh, but tinged with something bitter. “That’s one way to put it. He’s as stubborn as the mountain itself and convinced he’s just as indestructible. Perhaps that’s why it stung him so much when Aloy blew a hole in the Bulwark.”

Beta narrowed her eyes. “And you’re sure he doesn’t breathe fire?”

Kotallo really did bark out a laugh this time. “Certain.”

The jury was still out on Hekarro.

“There,” Kotallo said, sitting back and inspecting his handiwork before capping the jar where it still rested in her palm. “You wear it well. You’ve earned this paint, no matter what Tekotteh may say.”

She wasn’t sure that boded well, but the sentiment was comforting nonetheless.  

The hike wasn’t a long one, from what Kotallo promised. And the weather was on their side this time – blue skies and gentle whisps of cloud as far as the eye could see, stretching out over the distant mountaintops.

Beta dropped her gaze down toward her boots, concentrating on the crunch of snow underfoot and trying to keep her heart from racing too fast at the thought of speaking to Tekotteh. She didn’t have long to focus on that, though. Aloy was nudging her elbow a moment later as she fell in step alongside her.

“Hey,” Aloy breathed.

“Hey,” Beta replied.

They lapsed into silence. Just the crunch of snow and the screech of a snow owl somewhere beyond the trees. Beta watched Aloy reach for one of her braids and then seem to think better of it, wrapping her arms around herself instead.

“I wanted to say thank you.” She shrugged, her eyes fixed on the path ahead. “And if…if you ever needed someone to talk to about those dreams of yours, you could…I mean, I wouldn’t mind—”

“Aloy.” Beta paused, just for a moment. Long enough to reach out and brush a hand against Aloy’s arm and shoot her a smile. “Thanks.”

They walked at an almost leisurely pace, leaving messy tracks in the ankle-deep snow. Aloy nodded down at the ground with a casual smile, kneeling down to gather a fistful of tight-packed snow. “Rost taught me the perfect type of snow for packing together like this. He said he taught me because it was useful for scattering machines when snow cover made it hard to find rocks, but…”

Beta had wandered a few steps ahead, only looking back when Aloy went strangely quiet. All it got her was a blast of ice to her shoulder, and Aloy cackled.

No way in hell was she getting away with that. Beta reached down to pack another handful of snow into a tight ball and lobbed it across the clearing—

It sailed past Aloy, leaving little more than a dusting of frost on her braids before it smashed against the back of Kotallo’s head. He turned, leveling her with a cutting look. Beta gulped.

“Oops.”

Kotallo held her gaze for one long, aching moment before he leaned down to cup a handful of snow in his palm. “You will regret that, trainee.”

He was right. Her sopping wet hair and sore arm were more than enough to remind her of it as they made their way northwest. At least it gave her something else to think about besides what was waiting for them at the end of this hike. A cold, unforgiving wall and an even colder commander glaring at them from atop the stone.

“He’s been expecting us,” Kotallo huffed.

“That a good sign or bad?” Aloy asked him. He shrugged, urging Beta forward toward the lift that came down to meet them. It seemed like all the answer he was comfortable giving for the moment.

There was one figure already on the lift, her face painted in magenta, cyan and snowy white. Beta braced herself for a harsh sneer and a slight at her physique, but instead the Sky Clan woman shot them a wide smile.

“Marshal Kotallo,” she mused as she stepped off the lift into the snow.

“Kivva,” Kotallo answered. When Beta glanced back at him she was surprised to find him smiling, warm and genuine. “Just who convinced Tekotteh to send you as the welcoming party?”

His tone was almost fond, and it made Kivva throw her head back and laugh. “He did no such thing. I just happened to be heading out meet the rest of Ram Squad up the river to run some drills. And Tekotteh hasn’t forbidden us from exchanging pleasantries with Hekarro’s Marshals yet.”

“You scab!” rang a voice from above, and Kivva shot an unbothered glance upward at the man who was leaning over the raining at the top of the wall. “I told you, I’m the one who runs the lift. How many times do I have to tell you—”

“Sorry, Irakkeh. Can’t hear you from down here.” Kivva leveled Beta with a curious grin as Irakkeh cursed. “So, I heard the Champion here was travelling with a trainee who shared her blood. The resemblance sure is there, but the paint seems new.”

She glanced back at Kotallo again, one eyebrow arching.

“Marshal, are you taking outlander trainees under your wing now?”

“She’s earned her paint in her own right,” he said.

“Any trainee under your watchful eye would have to.” Suddenly she turned on her heel, studying Aloy instead. “And you, Champion—” Her arm was latched around Aloy’s shoulders a moment later. It threw off her balance so badly that it almost sent her toppling into the snow, but Kivva didn’t skip a single breath. “I hear congratulations are in order. I owe you a drink, and you owe me details.”

She shot a very meaningful glance over her shoulder at Kotallo before she finally let Aloy free. It seemed like Kotallo was doing his best to pretend he hadn’t noticed. Aloy certainly was. But Kivva was laughing as she waved them on.

“Go on,” she said. “Watch your six, Marshal.”

Beta very nearly missed it, intent as she was on getting their travel packs onto the lift. But she spared another glance at Kivva, catching her eye one final time. Suddenly her expression grew serious, almost fierce, and she shot Beta a firm – understanding – nod.

It felt like she was wishing them well before a battle.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

As the lift made its slow, determined trek up the mountain face, Beta leaned over the railing to get a better look at the massive crack in the stone. The video data alone had been impressive, but seeing the evidence right here in front of her of what her own sister had managed made her fingers curl against the wood.  

“Tekotteh’s upgraded,” Aloy mused, nodding at the electrified wiring lining the edges of the wound in the stone.

“Best not mention it to his face,” Kotallo said. He glanced over to meet Beta’s eye, pressing his hand against her shoulder to hold her steady when her legs wobbled. “You could call it a bit of a sore spot.”

The elevator up the towering wall shook as it stopped at the top, and Kotallo urged Beta out onto the frozen stone to face what felt like hundreds of eyes trained right on her. Maybe on all three of them.

“The Bulwark does not yield,” Kotallo muttered. His gaze was fixed straight ahead when Beta glanced up at him. “Those were the words I had rammed into my head again and again as a boy growing up on the wall. My clan has reared some of the most resolved and stubborn soldiers the tribe has ever seen, and most of them come from the clan’s stone heart.”

Beta lingered near the elevator, gaze tracking up and up and up a seemingly endless staircase that gouged its way into the side of the mountain. Wood and hide and machine metal adorned every inch of the frozen rock, streaks of blue and magenta cutting through the blinding white snow. The cold burned the insides of her nostrils and made her shudder no matter how she tried to hold herself steady.

Aloy’s hand pressed against her arm. “Let us do the talking with Tekotteh,” she insisted, her expression intense. Almost antsy. “He won’t be easy to convince. And he’s running out of walls for us to blow up.” She raised a brow in Kotallo’s direction, and Beta heard him snort.

Beta fiddled with her own fingers. “And if he wants to ask me questions? Or wants to know who I am?”

“Short answers,” Kotallo said. “Simple and to the point.” He grasped Beta’s shoulder when they reached the base of the stairs, stepping between her and the path ahead. “Tekotteh is hard-headed, but perceptive. His own paranoia has given him a keen eye for the slightest weakness in everyone’s armor but his own.” He jabbed two fingers firmly against Beta’s collarbone. “Do not let him hone in on yours. Do not give him the chance.”

Her hands shook, but Beta nodded anyway. They began their trek up the steps, and she forced herself to focus on taking each of them one at a time. She didn’t allow herself to look up until they stopped at the entrance of a firelit shelter.

“Marshal,” a gruff voice greeted them. Beta looked up just as the guard near the doorway glanced down at her, and her heart jumped into her throat when their gazes locked. He smirked at her. “A trainee’s paint on this soft outlander? Is that your doing?”

“It’s none of your concern,” Kotallo quietly told him, leveling him with a hard stare. “We bear a message from Chief Hekarro. Commander Tekotteh should be expecting our audience.”

“We received word a few days ahead of you. Commander’s expecting the Champion and Marshal Kotallo. And the runner said something about the outlander’s sister.” He nodded over at her, not sparing her another look. “The one wearing a child’s paint?”

“Will Tekotteh see us or not?” Aloy huffed. It was only then that Beta noticed her stance – Aloy was holding her weight just in front of Beta’s left shoulder. On her other side, Kotallo was doing the same.

“You and the Marshal, yes.” He shot Beta a glance then, finally. It wasn’t a friendly one. “He isn’t interested in wasting time with nameless children parading as Tenakth trainees.”

“My name is Beta.” The words shot out of her like that damn tripwire charge firing with enough force to leave her shoulder sore. She clenched a fist and forced herself not to shy away when three pairs of eyes turned toward her at once. “I don’t have a title, but I’m not nameless.”

The guard huffed, a smirk sliding onto his face. “Go on, march to your own funeral pyre for all I care, outlander.” He stepped back, nodding them through the doorway without another word. Beta’s legs shook as Kotallo urged her forward over the threshold.

“Well done,” he muttered.

“Let us handle him,” Aloy reminded her, holding Beta’s gaze for a moment more before she turned to stride across the chamber to face down the man who could only be Tekotteh. Black and white paint and thick linework tattoos etched across every inch of calloused skin between heavy plates of fur-lined armor. He was broad in the shoulders and in the jaw, and his brows furrowed when he looked up to watch them approach.

He was a few inches shorter than Hekarro, Beta noted when he stood. He didn’t look like much of a firebreather either.

He rolled his shoulders, firelight glinting off his pauldrons. “Hekarro’s Champion and his best Marshal honor us with their presence.”

“Commander,” Kotallo greeted with a curt nod, his hand hanging loose at his side. He flexed his knuckles, just barely enough for Beta to notice.

“I heard some saying they felt the Bulwark trembling when it saw you approach,” Tekotteh sneered. “I admit you left an impression the stone itself will not soon forget, let alone any living Tenakth. I suppose you’re proud of that show of prowess, Champion.”

“I’ve got more important things to focus on besides pride,” Aloy said with a shrug. “It does make a pretty damn good story on the brewery floor, I’ll admit.”

Tekotteh huffed. Beta glanced back at the doorway, unable to resist when she felt the eyes of the guards boring into the back of her neck. When she turned around again, Tekotteh was staring right at her.

Oh fuck.

Unsure of what else to do, she forced herself to hold his gaze, fingers curling against her own sternum. She swore she could almost feel her heartbeat through the fur-lined chest plate.

“Well,” Tekotteh mused, firelight glinting off his teeth as he drew his lips back, “I heard the rumors about the Champion traveling with her whelp of a sister in tow.” He leaned closer, and Beta tried to stop herself from flinching and failed. “It’s uncanny – even standing between a maimed soldier and what passes for a machine hunter back east, you still look as pitiful as an abandoned pup.”

Beta shrank back, heat curling in her chest and making her stomach sour. Tekotteh’s eye snapped back to Kotallo again.

“Just what do you intend to waste my time with, Marshal?” The way Tekotteh said it made it sound like the last word tasted foul. “Some looming threat from beyond the stars?” He waved them off. “Is that why you’ve dragged this limp-armed whelp up to my doorstep? To stammer out some fanciful story about rogue machines with a hatred of humans and plead with me to pledge the Sky Clan’s soldiers to fight an enemy we can’t even see?”

“Tekotteh,” Kotallo growled, “whatever you’ve heard about NEMESIS from the rumors spreading through the clan, it’s—”

“I’ve heard enough to understand why Hekarro’s pledged his arm to your cause,” Tekotteh sneered. “Atekka too, and that mutt down in Scalding Spear who hasn’t even dried off behind the ears enough to command the respect of a real leader. But I will not be so easily moved.”

“The other commanders have—”

“Drakka has barely cut his teeth as a Commander, and the only command Atekka has ever known has been in lock-step with Hekarro. She may as well be a machine herself.” He took a deep swig from the hide flask resting by the fire, wiping his mouth before he turned to address them again. “I have sat at the head of this clan since you were suckling at your mother’s teat, Marshal. Since before Hekarro’s Champion here and her pathetic pup of a sister were even born.”

Aloy bit back a curse and surged forward to glare at him. “You don’t have the slightest idea what it is we’re up against. This isn’t some machine or even anything like the Zeniths.”

Tekotteh huffed. “The Zeniths…those terrifying immortals from beyond the stars. And you managed to run them through just as you did Regalla, so I guess they weren’t quite the immortals so many claimed them to be.”

“NEMESIS is—”

“The Bulwark does not yield,” Tekotteh spat. “Whatever threats we face, the Sky Clan will weather them as it always has. We will fight for our own survival, just as you will for yours. That’s the way generations of Tenakth survived the mountainside, and it will serve us just as it always has.”

“You’d really just pretend not to care about the survival of anyone beyond your damn wall?” Aloy barked. “You came to help defend the Grove when Regalla attacked—”

“Regalla spat in the face of the very soul of what it means to be Tenakth. She was a coward and a traitor and she threatened my clan. It was her machine’s canon that blew a hole in the Bulwark that had stood unbroken for centuries!”

“For once, see reason,” Kotallo growled. He stepped forward and pressed a hand against Tekotteh’s armor, sending Tekotteh’s eyes blazing. “This threat will not discriminate one clan from another, nor any one tribe.”

“The Sky Clan survived for generations without the aid of anyone beyond these mountains. What threat this monster of yours poses to Hekarro or the other clans is no concern of mine.”

Beta’s teeth were stabbing so hard into her lower lip that she was almost sure she’d draw blood, but the next time she managed what was supposed to be a steadying breath, she couldn’t help but mumble, “Fucking coward.”

He wasn’t supposed to hear it. Hell, nobody was supposed to hear it. It was like she’d spoken it the same moment she’d thought it, without enough time in between to stop it.

But Tekotteh froze, slowly turning on his heel. The sole of his boot scraped against the stone, a sound so deafening that it made Beta’s entire body tremble all on its own. His eyes looked like they’d caught fire when he looked at her, boring straight into her damn soul.

“Repeat that, whelp,” he hissed.

Fuck.

He shoved himself so close that Beta could smell the aromatic clay of his face paint, dried sweat and the lingering smell of meat on his breath. His body heat hit her like a sonic wave a second before Aloy shoved herself between them.

“You won’t help,” she barked. “Got it. No need to waste anymore of each other’s time.”

He growled, but didn’t say another word as Aloy grabbed Beta’s arm and tugged her toward the door with Kotallo close in tow.

“That went about as well as it could have,” she breathed, though the words were still tinged with an edge of bitterness. “Arrogant shit.”

Tekotteh glared and spat on the stone. “The less I see of that useless cripple, the better.”

Beta didn’t realize she’d stopped until Aloy staggered a couple steps ahead of her, staring at her from the doorway. She was turning before she could stop herself, ignoring Aloy calling her name. Staring at Tekotteh standing halfway up the steps to his pitiful attempt at a makeshift throne.

“You’re scared!” Her throat burned as those words echoed on the stone. “You’re terrified, and you’re hiding behind a pile of rubble like that will help you.”

Tekotteh’s eyes blazed. “You insolent little child—"

“Aren’t Tenakth supposed to view fear as cause to fight instead of running?” she spat, her legs pushing her forward without bothering to ask her first. She let them. “If you run and hide from the greatest threat you’ve ever faced, what does that make you? Not Tenakth, I bet. More like a coward.”

The Commander stormed toward her, huffing like an angry Tremortusk, and she felt Aloy slotting herself at her side again. He paused, seething. “You wear some clumsy attempt at a trainee’s paint like you know anything of Tenakth honor, and you dare insult the man who has stood the head of the Sky Clan for nearly twenty-five winters. I should wring your neck for all the boarshit you’re spewing.”

“You could try!”

There was no way she’d just said that. There was no way in fresh hell she had the courage to say a word more.

“But you won’t,” she forced out, trembling. “Because the two people you fear more than anything are standing right behind me, and there’s no way you have the stones to face up to that.”

It was so plainly obvious that she wondered just how many in the settlement had seen it too. The way his gaze tracked them from the moment they stepped across the threshold, the way he bristled at the memory of the Bulwark being split open, how he’d balked when Aloy had stepped forward between them.

Tekotteh was at least twice as stubborn as that damn wall, but just like the hulking pile of painted stone, he couldn’t hope to stand up to Aloy. Maybe all those rumors about the Bulwark trembling when they’d approached had gotten it wrong. Maybe it had been him all along.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Beta said, fists clenched hard at her side. “Twenty-five years as commander, and the only thing anyone will remember about you is how damn scared you are.”

It felt good. Oh, it felt damn good. For all of three seconds or so before Tekotteh surged forward. “The melee pit,” he spat, and the blood drained from Beta’s face. “I cast a formal challenge. To first blood in the ring, with this insolent pup.” His lips curled over his teeth in a terrifying smile that made Beta’s stomach twist and her hands tremble as he stabbed two fingers against her sternum and made her stagger backwards.

Somehow, she managed to find her voice. “You…he…he can’t actually…do that, right?”

“Of course not,” Aloy snapped. Her eyes whipped over to Kotallo. He was frowning.

“Tell her, Marshal,” Tekotteh droned.

“He can,” Kotallo relented. “He has the right, as Commander.”

Aloy’s eyes went wide. “What?”

Beta’s knees trembled, her entire body lurching and spinning to face Tekotteh again when he threw his head back and cackled. “Where’s all your fire and bluster, whelp? Bring it with you into the ring.”

“She wont be facing you,” Kotallo insisted.

Tekotteh huffed. “Going back on the pledge of honor you made to Hekarro’s service, are you? You already said it yourself – the challenge stands. Or do you need a Chaplain to—”

“You will have your challenge in the pit.” He tugged Beta beside him, holding her close. Keeping her steady. “You will not be facing her.”

“You think you have the right to shove your nose into this?” Tekotteh spat.

Kotallo barely blinked, let alone backed down. He held Tekotteh’s gaze, unflinching as he squared his shoulders. “On Chief Hekarro’s authority as a Marshal, I do have the right.” His expression only shifted when his lips twitched into the slightest edge of a smirk. “Would you care to call that into question, Commander? I’m sure the Chief would be interested to hear your reasons himself.”

“You intend to challenge me?”

“I’ll meet the challenge you’ve already brought. Unless you wish to back down, Commander.”

The words were nearly monotone, and yet they were dripping with ire. Tekotteh seemed to recognize it. If it bothered him, he hardly let it show – instead, he smiled as he clapped his hand against Kotallo’s left shoulder.

“Far be it from me to question Hekarro’s best Marshal.” He rammed against Kotallo’s left side as he passed, barely making him flinch.

Aloy was pulling Beta close, guiding her out the door and back into the cold afternoon air. Beta couldn’t make out a single word from the low hum of conversation rising up around them – she could barely managed to stand upright, lightheaded as she was.

“You okay?” Aloy asked. It didn’t seem like the first time she’d asked.

“Yeah,” Beta forced out. “Yeah, one second.”

She managed to stagger her way over to a nearby barrel before leaning over and vomiting into it. It was empty, thank goodness. She counted that as a win.

Chapter Text

Beta had heard of Chaplain Gerrah – according to Kotallo, she was as warm as the frozen mountainside, but a strong guiding hand. She lived up to the description, both in her demeanor and her grip strength as she tugged Beta over toward the melee pit.

“I would have counseled him against this,” Gerrah muttered. She turned to watch the crowds gathering.

“Kotallo was just doing what he knew was right,” Aloy insisted. Her hand brushed Beta’s elbow, untwisting the knot in Beta’s chest just enough for her to catch her breath.

Gerrah huffed out a laugh. “I was talking about Commander Tekotteh. Of course, the man rarely turns his ear in my direction on a good day regardless.”

Beta leaned against the edge of the fighting pit, nails cutting into the frozen wood when Tekotteh strode into the ring. He was sneering as he pulled on a fierce-looking helmet, broad and thick with glowing machine cables embedded into the face plate over the temples and nose.

Kotallo brushed past her before Beta had even noticed him approaching. He’d re-touched his paint, but beyond that he stepped into the ring just as he always was – a staunch, unyielding Tenakth Marshal.

Beta’s heart thumped. When her gaze flicked over to Kotallo’s left side, it leaped into her throat.

“He’s not wearing his prosthetic,” she hissed, pressing close to Aloy as she spoke.

Aloy’s breath caught, but beyond that she hardly seemed surprised. In fact, a smile slid onto her face, pride sparking in her eyes. “No,” she breathed. “He said he didn’t need it.”

On Beta’s other side, Gerrah nodded in what looked like agreement.

The noise in the crowd dropped to nothing but a murmur as Tekotteh strode out to the middle of the ring and stretched his arms wide. “Hekarro’s favored Marshal has returned to the Bulwark yet again,” he growled, torchlight glinting off his teeth beneath the edge of his helmet. “Stepping into the ring in the place of a soft, petulant outlander who can’t even manage to grow into a child’s paint.”

Aloy’s fingers squeezed around Beta’s arm, only for a moment. Gerrah pushed past them both and raised a hand toward the ring.

“The challenge stands,” she called, “as does Marshal Kotallo’s right to meet it on the trainee’s behalf.”

“So you say, Chaplain,” Tekotteh sneered.

“You brought the challenge, Commander. You set the terms.”

He snorted, a sound that reminded Beta of an angry Bristleback. “I’d intended to teach that whelp you call a trainee a lesson in blood,” he spat, his gaze finding Beta far more quickly than she would have liked. She forced herself to stay standing as she breathed through a wave of vertigo.

“Easy,” Aloy murmured beside her. 

Thankfully, Tekotteh shifted his gaze to Kotallo before she lost her lunch for the second time that day. She steadied herself against the wood.

“Are you trying to insult me, Marshal?” Tekotteh hissed, narrowing his eyes as he glowered at Kotallo across the ring. “First you get between me and that sniveling kit, and now you step into the melee pit without this incredible machine arm I’ve heard so many stories about?”

“It’s a tool to be used when needed.” Kotallo curled his fingers into a tight fist, but his expression stayed steady. “Nothing more.”

“When needed.” He was glowering from beneath his helmet.

“The terms,” Gerrah barked. Tekotteh waved her off.

“I don’t intend to waste a body bag on you,” he droned. He held out his hand, and a moment later another soldier pressed worn, heavy hammer into his waiting palm. “Though I may break that one remaining arm of yours. What would that make you then?”

Gerrah swallowed a long-suffering groan. “Commander—”

“To yield,” Tekotteh roared. “Failing that…well, I’ll make it plain, Marshal. You will yield.”

“I accept,” Kotallo said with a nod, “but I have no plans to yield.”

Beta gulped, thankful for the railing so she didn’t have to hang all of her body weight off of Aloy. Her own legs certainly weren’t enough to keep her upright as Kotallo readied his blade.

Next to her, Aloy stiffened. “They’re not using training weapons?”

“It is a formal challenge, not a friendly spar,” Gerrah reminded her, sagely. “Though by the terms they’ve set, they are not fighting to the death.”

“By the terms they’ve set,” Aloy huffed. “Doesn’t seem like much of a comfort.”

“At ease, Champion.” Gerrah pressed a surprisingly gentle hand against Aloy’s arm, offering her a quiet smile. “Kotallo would be the last person to underestimate Tekotteh. Or to yield to him.”

Fire glinted off of Kotallo’s blade as he moved in first, meeting Tekotteh’s opening blow in the middle of the ring and glancing off the hilt of his hammer to dodge a deadly follow-up swing. The head of his hammer barely skimmed the edge of Kotallo’s chest plate, metal scraping against metal.

“Deny it all you want,” Tekotteh hissed, bringing his hammer back for another blow. “You’ll regret stepping into the ring as half a warrior.”  

Kotallo parried one blow and staggered from the punishing momentum of it. When Tekotteh followed through with the second, he caught the hilt of the hammer under his blade and sent Tekotteh stumbling toward the wall. The Commander’s shoulder caught the stone and he grunted, but righted himself terrifyingly quick – quick enough to catch Kotallo off-guard and hit him in the ribs with the butt of his weapon.

Aloy grimaced and Beta choked on a curse. Gerrah was still as stone.

Kotallo’s lip curled back over his teeth, his grip tightening around the hilt of his blade. He narrowly dodged another swipe, and a second, before he took the chance to go on the offensive and swung his weapon in a wide and deadly arch. It nicked Tekotteh’s arm, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from countering with a rough kick to Kotallo’s solar plexus.

The move sent Kotallo staggering backwards, coughing and ducking with just barely enough time to avoid a terrifying blow from Tekotteh’s hammer. It was close enough to knock free one of the pins in his hair, and it disappeared in the mud under their feet.

Tekotteh cackled, harsh and edged with venom. “I have fond memories of our last time in this ring,” he huffed. He dragged the edge of his hammer against the stone wall, the scrape of metal drowning out the sound of his footsteps. “Don’t you remember, Kotallo? When the rest of your squad gathered and watched you spar with me right here, for the honor of representing our clan in the Kulrut.”

Aloy let out a clipped breath, her fingers tightening into fists where her hands rested next to Beta’s on the railing. Her gaze was fixed on Kotallo as his jaw flexed and he slowly rolled his shoulders.

He leveled Tekotteh with a harsh glare. “A Marshal is what I was made to be.”

“A maimed Marshal,” Tekotteh insisted. “A maimed Marshal in such denial about his own uselessness that he decided to face me with only one arm!”

He was fast for his size – terrifyingly so. His hammer swung through the air in a high arch and glanced off Kotallo’s pauldron as he dodged. The impact sent his own weapon dropping into the mud as he rolled out of the way of Tekotteh’s low sweep.

“Disarmed twice over.” Tekotteh shot him a poison-laced grin. “Do you yield, Marshal?”

Kotallo’s answer didn’t come with a single word. Instead he side-stepped just in time to grab the neck of Tekotteh’s hammer when he went to pull it back. It only gave him a second, but it was more than he needed – a harsh tug and an elbow to the ribs gave Kotallo an opening to rip the weapon from Tekotteh’s grip. Dazed as he was, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge as the butt of the weapon bashed against the side of his head, putting a crack in machine metal shielding his skull.

Tekotteh was snarling as he pushed himself to his feet again, tugging off his helmet with a flurry of curses. A stream of blood ran down his temple, caking in his brow. “You ice-blooded bastard.”

“No more weapons,” Kotallo growled, holding Tekotteh’s burning gaze.

“Fine.” The Commander dropped his helmet into the mud, kicking it away. “I bested you then when you were still whole. This will be nothing.”

He roared as he surged forward, and Kotallo caught him with a grunt just before his spine slammed against the painted stone. Tekotteh slammed him down hard enough to knock the wind out of him from the looks of it, but Kotallo held firm.

For a moment, his gaze flicked over to Aloy. “Come on,” her sister breathed. “Come on, Kotallo—”

Even if he couldn’t hear her, it seemed he got the message loud and clear. A second wind blazed through him, quick and hot, and it gave him the opening he needed to break Tekotteh’s grip.

“Aim for the face!” Beta screeched. It scratched in her throat and burned in her chest and made it all the more beautifully satisfying when Kotallo reared back and caught Tekotteh’s jaw with a vicious right hook. The entire settlement seemed to quiver before the crowd roared its approval.

Kotallo ducked around Tekotteh like they were locked in a frantic waltz, dodging one blow and grimacing when another caught him in the ear. He staggered, but only for a moment – instead of pulling back to regain his footing, he charged ahead with all the thundering momentum of a Behemoth and slammed into Tekotteh’s chest to send him tripping backwards.

Aloy hollered in Beta’s ear, her fist pumping into the air as Kotallo gripped the edge of Tekotteh’s chest plate. It happened in the span of a second or two – if that – but it seemed to drag itself out until Beta could study every detail: Tekotteh’s eyes going wide in sheer disbelief, his lips curling in a sneer as he reached up to try and break Kotallo’s hold, his glare burning into Kotallo’s skull when he realized it was too late.

And Kotallo – it seemed like a fire had roared to life inside of him, fueling him like blaze at the heart of a cauldron. His knuckles were white as the ice underfoot, his expression as unyielding as stone and fierce as a blizzard.

Every inch a seasoned, stalwart, fearsome Tenakth Marshal.

His skull connected with Tekotteh’s with a sickening crack, blood pouring from the Commander’s nose and lips as he crumpled to the ground. He barely stopped himself from slamming face-first into the icy mud, but one flailing hand caught the edge of the ring as his other pressed hard over his bloodied face.

“Yield,” Kotallo roared, panting and glaring down at Tekotteh with blood dripping from his knuckles.

“You scab,” Tekotteh choked, staggering to his feet and grunting when Kotallo grabbed him and rammed his spine against the wall of the ring. Tekotteh’s nose was a dark mess of purple and red, blood streaming down over his lips and spraying onto Kotallo’s armor when he coughed.

“Yield,” Kotallo barked again. His brow was glistening with sweat that sprung up from under his paint, his jaw tensed and teeth bared. “End this, Tekotteh!”

Swallowing a curse, Tekotteh reached up and tapped Kotallo’s vambrace, twice in quick succession. That was all it took before Kotallo sent him sprawling into the mud again. Tekotteh waved off the one or two offers of help from the soldiers who’d strode out into the arena behind Chaplain Gerrah.

“The challenge is done,” she hailed. “The Ten have judged Marshal Kotallo worthy of victory.”

A cheer rose up around them, ringing in Beta’s ears and reminding her of the sheer size of the crowd that had gathered. Sky Clan soldiers leaned over every level of the settlement, perched on stone and market overhangs as Kotallo stood at the center of the ring and caught his breath.

Reveling in his victory, just for a moment.

Beta’s legs were moving before she could stop them. There was more to this, a job she had to see through to the end even if she felt crazy for trying. She stood between Gerrah and Kotallo, fighting back a grimace at the overpowering scent of blood and sweat that hit her when she planted herself in the middle of the damn arena.

“Tekotteh!” she called, and he turned to look at her with all the venom and ire he could muster. “You still haven’t answered the question we asked you. NEMESIS is still coming. Are you going to fight with us? Or are you going to keep hiding?”

Kotallo was downright gaping at her, mouth hanging open as he watched her take a step forward through the icy mud.

She refused to back down. Not now. Not after all Kotallo had done for her. Everyone did what they could handle, he’d told her once. And she could handle this.

Tekotteh let out a low, pained growl. “The Bulwark does not yield,” was all he said. For a moment at least. Beta was just about to turn and leave it as a lost cause when he spoke again. “We do not yield to traitors or machines. And we will not yield to this…abomination from beyond the stars.” He spat on the ground before he turned and collected the cracked and bloodstained remains of his helmet. “Get the hell out of my sight, you sniveling trainee.”

Aloy slowly leaned into Beta’s field of vision, holding her steady when her knees threatened to give out. “Did he just…agree to help?” her sister mused.

“By the Ten,” Gerrah marveled. She patted Beta firmly on the shoulder, threatening to send her knees buckling right then and there. “You’ve earned every inch of that paint, young blood. Though I imagine Marshal Kotallo’s stubbornness is rubbing off on you as much as his courage.”  

Beta wasn’t quite sure how to argue that. She wasn’t certain she could at all. Hell, maybe there were worse things.

Beta spent the next two hours under the watchful eye of Chaplain Gerrah, following her from one end of the settlement to the next as she spoke at length about the Sky Clan’s long and bloody history. She was exhausted, but enthralled. Every time Gerrah turned to study her, convinced she’d had enough, Beta nodded for her to continue and the Chaplain seemed to approve.

At the very least, it was the perfect way to pass the time while Kotallo and Aloy were mysteriously absent. She’d glimpsed Aloy tugging Kotallo up the steps toward their lodgings for the evening, looking decided eager even if she didn’t say a word about what she was planning.

Beta could guess.

That was more than enough for her.

She focused instead on her impromptu history lesson, clearing the snow off one corner of the steps and sitting down to listen as Gerrah gazed up at the mountain high above and spoke of the March of the Ten. The most demanding, punishing climb in the Tenakth clanlands. She would have to be crazy to hope she could ever manage something like that. But she hoped anyway.

The cold was biting at Beta’s cheeks, but she almost felt like she was starting to get used to it. That or she was just finally going completely numb. The sun was setting by the time she finally spotted Kotallo near the armor merchant.

“That boy’s up to something,” Gerrah mused with a huff. “Come, trainee.”

“There you are,” he greeted with a nod and a smile. He had an excitable glint in his eye. Beta was almost tempted to call it gleeful. “Chaplain, thank you for looking after our squadmate.”

“Someone had to ensure she didn’t go wandering off while the Champion tended to your wounds. Such as they were.” Gerrah shot him a smile as she patted Beta on the shoulder and nudged her forward. “Go on, trainee. If you’re serving on Marshal Kotallo’s squad, you’ll need some proper Tenakth armor.”

“Tenakth armor?” Beta breathed.

“I seem to remember Villena received word from the Chief himself a day or two before you arrived.” Gerrah nodded toward the armor merchant. “I don’t know what you did to earn Hekarro’s respect. Still, while I prefer to make up my own mind about the measure of a warrior, I happen to agree with the man in his judgment of you.” She thumped Beta between the shoulder blades before leaving her with Kotallo again.

“Well done,” Kotallo told her. “Earning Chaplain Gerrah’s favor.”

“She told me about the clan. I mostly just listened.”

“That explains it.” He urged her over toward the merchant’s table. “Villena, this is the one.”

The Tenakth merchant strode into Beta’s field of view, looking her down with a gleam in her emerald eyes. “Shorter than I was expecting,” Villena mused. “And scrawnier up close. I could have sworn you damn near stood shoulder to shoulder with the Marshal here when you stood up to Tekotteh in the ring.”

Beta blinked at her, barely getting a moment to breathe, let alone answer, before Villena grabbed her by the shoulders and swept her into her shop.

“Go on,” the armor merchant insisted. “Chief Hekarro’s orders – you should be outfitted with genuine Tenakth armor worthy of a proper trainee.”

“Sky Clan armor is built for resilience,” Kotallo told her. “Something you’ve shown you possess in no small measure. Go on – whatever armor you believe suits you best, it will be yours.”

She stared at the sight in front of her, studying every inch of expertly crafted hide and machine metal spread across Villena’s shop. Vambraces and helmets painted in bright magenta and cool cyan. Chest plates that resembled screeching dragon heads baring their teeth. She even spotted a pair of boots with what looked like the serrated edge of a Clawstrider jaw protruding from each heel.

But one caught her eye and held it. Back near the corner, half-lit by the golden torch light, was a set of armor made from a deep, rich charcoal-grey hide. It was lined with silver metal and snow-white cables, sky-blue reaching all the way up the spine where it met a collar of braided fur. She ran her finger along the fasteners of one of the vambraces, marveling at just how light it seemed despite its bulk.

“That’s one of my newer ones,” Villena said. “You like something that favors mobility? Not a bad thing by any stretch.”

“I like this one,” Beta said.

Villena shook her head. “That armor’s cut for a man, trainee. But I’ve got plenty over here that’s—”

Beta spun on her heel. “I like this one,” she insisted, biting her lip when she realized just how loudly it had burst out of her. “I…I don’t care if it’s a man’s armor. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Villena studied her for a moment or two, at the same time Kotallo did. Beta fought against the urge to fidget, biting down on her thumb nail until Villena finally smiled.

“Fair enough,” she sighed. “I’ll need some time to adjust the fastenings, but it shouldn’t take me long. Come on—”

Beta yelped as Villena grabbed her by the arm and hauled her across the room. “Hey!”

“Easy, trainee – I need your measurements. You think I’ll send one of Marshal Kotallo’s squadmates to battle with ill-fitting armor?”

“Never,” Kotallo said with a grin.

“Stay still.”

That, Beta could manage well enough.

Beta was dreading nightfall and the biting cold she knew would come with it, but instead it brought a blaze of fires and songs that rose up into the mountains. Tekotteh was nowhere to be seen, but Gerrah ushered them into the mess hall without room for argument and insisted on serving them a bracing meal of smoked goat and spiced root vegetables, and some kind of cheese sharp enough to make Beta’s eyes water.

Beside her, Aloy’s threw her head back and cackled as Kotallo regaled them with the story of his first time in Chainscrape – arm-wrestling with a drunken Oseram tinkerer who threw a chair when he lost and started an all-out bar brawl. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes half-lidded, her arm loosely curled around Kotallo’s. Aloy drained her cup and let out a sigh.

“Alright, I think that’s enough ale for me.” She belched. “Yeah…definitely enough ale.”

“It’s been some time since you celebrated,” Kotallo said.

“Today’s worth celebrating.” Aloy wrapped her free arm around Beta’s shoulders, tugging her closer while she did the same to Kotallo. “My Marshal beat the Commander of the Sky Clan Tenakth in single hand-to-hand combat, and my sister twisted his arm until he agreed to help us fight NEMESIS.”

“Hear hear!” chimed Kivva from across the cook fire. “To the Champion’s Marshal!”

“To Beta,” Kotallo insisted, his eyes flashing toward her. His expression softened when she met his gaze. “A trainee worth their paint.”

Kivva shoved a cup into Beta’s waiting palms. “You should have a drink in your hand, trainee!”

Beta leaned in close to smell it and recoiled in the same instant. Holy hell, it smelled like it was going to burn her nose right off her face. “What…is this?”

“Bulwark Blaze,” Kivva said with a decidedly mischievous grin.

“Absolutely not.” Aloy was snatching it out of her hands a second later, replacing it with a mug of warm mulled ale that warmed her cheeks with a waft of fragrant steam. She much preferred that to the sharp burn of whatever Kivva had foisted onto her. “Like hell are you drinking this. I’d never forgive myself.”

Beta raised the mug in her hand, offering a placating smile. “What were we saying? To the Champion’s Marshal?”

“And the trainee,” Gerrah added with a nod. “Resilient as a mountainside itself.”

Fantastic as it sounded, she like the sound of that.

Chapter Text

Beta woke up around dawn. It surprised her, but she was wide awake in time to watch a hint of pink peak over the edge of the horizon.

“The sunrise over the snow-capped mountains,” Kotallo mused from the opposite side of the room, near the smoldering fire keeping off the worst of the chill. “The inspiration for this clan’s paint. It’s meant to evoke memories of what the Ten saw when they survived that first night on the unforgiving mountain face.”

Speaking of paint, he was reaching for his not a moment after he’d pulled back his hair. He didn’t even seem to be fully awake yet, operating on a kind of auto-pilot that only came from years of familiar routine.

“Hey…Kotallo?”

He nodded in acknowledgment, though his gaze was still fixed on his paints. She drew a steadying breath and shoved herself to her feet.

“I…I wanted to thank you.”

Now he turned to face her, his brows arching as he gestured for her to continue. She tried to, opening her mouth and reaching for a hundred different ways to say what she wanted, but none of them came. So instead of standing there making herself look like a dying fish, she pushed herself forward and wrapped her arms around him instead.

“Thank you, Kotallo.”

For a moment, it seemed like he’d frozen solid, but he shook himself back to life again with a quiet chuckle. His palm pressed against her spine. “You’re welcome, trainee.”

They finished up their own paint in silence, and by the time they’d both finished, a flurry of snow had started to fall. It obscured the view from the doorway with a blanket of gentle white, but it carried the sounds of fighting in the pit below so well that Beta swore she could pick out what weapons they were using.

Behind them, Aloy finally stirred. She sat up from her sea of blankets and glanced over at them. Or at least Beta thought she did – it was hard to tell when her face was nothing but a mess of frizzy red hair. She frowned as she glanced out the window.

“Did I oversleep?”

“No, I was up early,” Beta said, at the very same time that Kotallo plainly answered, “Yes.”

He was smiling a moment later, though, in answer to Aloy’s pout. “You needed the rest," he said, sounding fond. "Yesterday was anything but uneventful.”

“You can say that again,” she grumbled. She was hugging the blanket close to her shoulders as she hauled herself up, shuffling over to the fireplace and dropping another few logs on the embers. Beta though she heard her quietly lamenting that last mug of ale she’d knocked back the night before, but she didn’t lean in close enough to be sure.

“I’m still getting used to having a sister you know,” Beta mused as she stared out at the lightly falling snow. “But it’s been kind of nice…having a brother too.”

That seemed to be enough to make Kotallo speechless this time. For the first time since Beta had known him, if she remembered right. His expression was warm as he nodded a moment later, his throat bobbing when he swallowed. He cleared his throat.

“It’s an honor to have you as a squadmate,” he quietly said, and then he straightened up with a smile. “Come, you’ll need to make sure you’re dressed for the cold today. It will be bitter.”

From the other side of the room, Aloy groaned.

“The trainee who fought off Commander Tekotteh,” said a Sky Clan squad leader as Beta and Aloy approached. Aloy nudged her forward with an amiable nod. “This is the sister you mentioned.”

“Sure is,” Aloy said. “Beta, Wekatta.”

Wekatta shot her a patient smile. “You’ve proven you have more than enough resolve to have earned that paint of yours. Though, a bit more muscle would serve you well.”

“I get that a lot,” Beta relented.

“Is that the outlander?” called another voice from down the path. Its owner came jogging up toward them. “Jekkah! I was right – she does look just like the Champion.”

A woman stopped next to him and slapped him across the side of the head. “Penttoh! Have some manners, blazing skies.”

“I…get that a lot too,” Beta said when she caught his eye.

Aloy nudged her in the shoulder. “You said you wanted to know more about the March of the Ten,” she said.

Beta barely remembered it – she’d gotten tipsy enough off a single mug of ale that she’d spent a good half hour asking questions of everyone who would answer, from Kotallo to Kivva and even a few people whose names she’d never bothered to get. And somewhere among it all, she’d gone starry-eyed at the stories of the climb to the unforgiving mountain cliff.

She glanced down the snowy path at the looming cliffside before them and frowned. “Yeah, my curiosity was mostly…academic.”

“Well Wekatta knows more than most. And Penttoh could probably give you some pretty good stories.”

“Scab here almost got himself killed on that mountain,” Jekkah huffed. “Our flame-haired Champion here saved his hide.”

“I held my own,” Penttoh huffed.

“I never said you didn’t.”

“Back to your post, soldier,” Wekatta said, firm but fond. “Beta, is it?”

“Y-yes.”

They studied her, a glint in their eye. “That armor – I’m assuming you got it from Villena.”

“Yeah,” Beta breathed. It fit her well, thanks to a few minor adjustments, according to the merchant. The thick hide across her chest and midsection had been Aloy’s idea, keeping her plenty warm even when the biting winds caught against her fur-lined vambraces.

Wekatta’s smile was almost playful. “I heard she took inspiration from a certain Nora’s garb when she blew a hole in the Bulwark. Combine that with a Tenakth Marshal born in the Sky Clan, and…” They chuckled. “It suits you, trainee. Though you’ll still need a fair bit more training before you take on the March yourself.”

“Oh, I’m – I’m just admiring…thanks.”

“Fair enough.” They turned down the path. “Penttoh! Rokko is waiting for you down in the pit.”

She and Aloy lingered near the mountains, Beta studying the gray clouds swirling overhead. It didn’t look like snow. In fact, the sun was trying to peek through, even if it was still struggling. She closed her eyes and hoped for a bit more warmth, even if it was a longshot.

“The climb might still be a little advanced for you,” Aloy said, looking thoughtful. Beta couldn’t argue with that – it was painfully true. Climbing an icy mountainside was a bit more daunting than hauling herself over a pile of rocks in their path, even with Aloy to help her.

But Aloy was smiling as Beta glanced from the perilous trail back to her. She reached into her pack and pulled out a familiar-looking whistle.

“Still,” she mused, bringing it to her lips, “there’s more than one way to the peak.”

Beta blinked up at the Sunwing as it landed near Aloy’s side. The machine left deep indentations in the snow, shattering the thin crust of ice with its wings and clicking its beak as it fixed its gleaming blue eyes on her. Aloy tapped the side of its neck with a fond little smile and nodded Beta over.

“What do you say? Interested in some flying lessons?”

Beta was grinning before she knew what to do with herself. “Really?”

“Really.”

Beta took a few tentative steps toward the machine as it surveyed the snowy horizon. She even managed to layer a hand over the cables lining its neck and marveled at how warm they were.

Like the Chargers before, the Sunwing seemed so much more…alive than a simple tool in the terraforming system’s arsenal. She found herself thinking back to the Thunderjaw stretching its neck as it trundled through the desert, or Fanghorns far west near the coast that seem to huff stubbornly at one another as they shoved their way through the forest.

Her smile turned into something softer, warmer – so much so that Aloy seemed to notice. “What’s on your mind?” she asked, sounding a little bemused as she stepped in closer.

Beta shrugged. “It’s funny, that’s all. This machine, it’s…” Her fingers curled against the metal, her lip caught between her teeth as she turned the words over and over in her head. “The Zeniths thought of everything as tools. Everything besides them. The machines, GAIA, Earth, me…”

The Sunwing clicked its beak, nudging her shoulder like it was reminding her to not to slouch. She straightened up and turned around to glance back at Aloy, finding her lips pressed together in a hard line and her brows furrowed.

But Beta was still smiling as she reached up to scratch the machine behind its ocular processor. It seemed to appreciate that.

“I can see why you named it,” Beta mused. “These guys are…actually kind of cute up close.”

Aloy reached out to squeeze Beta’s shoulder. “I think so too.”

That was enough talking, Beta thought to herself, and she took a breath and swung her leg up and over the Sunwing’s neck, cackling when it shifted beneath her and flexed its wings. Aloy was already following, and she slotted herself against Beta’s spine.

“Alright,” she breathed as Beta’s heart pounded. “Commands are pretty straightforward, not too different from the Charger.”

“Yeah, except I’ve never worried about falling to my death from a Charger.”

Aloy snorted. “Nobody’s falling to their death. Come on – two kicks to the flanks when you’re ready to lift off.”

Ready. As if she could ever be. Well, she was close enough anyway. Two kicks to the flanks—

They were in the air. They were in the air and Beta’s head was spinning so fast that she couldn’t think of anything except the feeling of leaving her stomach back in the snow. The Sunwing arched as it pierced through the low-hanging clouds, sunlight glinting off its pulsing blue cables as fog dripped from its wingtips.

“Fuck!” Beta shrieked, and Aloy cackled as she wrapped her arms around Beta’s middle. “Holy shit – fuck, how do I steer this thing?”

“Let Flintbeak do all the work,” Aloy said over the rushing wind. She leaned forward to guide Beta’s grip to a lower portion of the cables lining its neck, pushing downward to help it level out to an easy glide. “There ya go.” She let go, easily holding herself steady against the machine’s spine, even when it shuddered with every flap of its metal wings. “You’re flying!”

She was flying.

Holy mother of God, she was flying.

She was grinning before she realized it, laughing a breath later as the wind whipped through her hair and made her cheeks sting. Flintbeak was banking easily to the left, around a broad lip of painted stone that marked the start of one leg of the trail.

“You made this climb, right?” Beta mused. She pulled back on the Sunwing’s neck, urging it upward and turning west toward the signal on her Focus. “The actual climb. Under your own power, not a Sunwing.”

“It wasn’t by choice,” Aloy sighed. “One of Wekatta’s soldier’s was young and stupid—”

Beta laughed. “Penttoh, right?”

“His heart was in the right place.” A beat, as Aloy took in the view. “Still young and stupid. Everyone is at some point. You’ll want to bank north up here – there’s a bend in the ravine ahead.”

Beta did, biting back a curse at how steep the bend seemed up close. But she managed it handily, turning the machine toward the final ascent to the peak. The snow had tapered off, along with the fog, and the sun was just starting to dip.

Landing was…not her best work. She managed it, albeit roughly enough to nearly send Aloy tipping off the machine’s back and into the snow. She caught herself on the edge of one solar panel, shooting Beta a toothy grin.

“Not bad for your first shot.”

Beta’s legs were trembling as she lowered herself off the Sunwing. Her hand lingered against its neck. “I can’t believe I flew this thing,” she mused, staring up at its gleaming blue eyes. “When I was first studying GAIA’s sub-functions, ARTEMIS was always my favorite. It’s so incredible to be able to see its work up close like this.”

It was something beyond science and cutting edge biotech. Something closer to art.

Art that was nudging her with its beak and tipping her back on her ass into a snowdrift. Aloy’s laugh echoed through the valley even as she reached down to help her up.

“Don’t forget why we came up here in the first place,” Aloy told her, nodding toward the cliff’s edge. There, just a few paces back from the frozen ledge, was a flower.

Beta blinked at it. “I…didn’t exactly make the climb.”

“Beta, you’ve earned it,” Aloy insisted. She urged her closer, nodding down at the deep red flower standing out against the snow. “Look where we are right now. We’re standing above the Bulwark. You convinced Tekotteh to help in the fight against NEMESIS. A few months ago you could barely leave the basement back home, and you made it all the way here.” She was still smiling as she gestured at the bandage that still held firm over the side of her hand. “You even brought down a Fireclaw. Not bad for a trainee.”

Beta’s eyes stung, her fingers curling against the fur lining her forearms. “I can’t,” she insisted.

“Beta—”

“I have one more thing I have to do first.” She reached for her hip, opening the pack that she’d fixed firmly to her belt and drawing out a neat handful of metal shards. “One hundred shards,” she said as she dropped them into Aloy’s palm. “Per our wager.”

Aloy’s arms were around her a second later, before she’d even put the shards away in her own purse. Beta doubted she cared if they went scattering into the snow. Beta was squeezing her right back without a second thought, and she smiled.

“I noticed something just now,” Beta mused.

“What?”

“Home,” she said, plainly. Aloy just stared at her. “You called it home. The base. I’ve…I’ve never heard you call it that before.”

Aloy looked…befuddled, if Beta could call it that. It made her chuckle all the same as she watched Aloy search for the right words. Finally, she seemed to find them.

“I…I guess it is. It is and it isn’t. It’s…it’s home when my friends are there. When my family is there.” Her cheeks were a deep, healthy pink as she nodded down at the bloom. “Go on, Beta.”

Slowly, reverently, Beta knelt down into the snow and plucked the flower from the base of its stem. It was a hardy little plant, one of just a few species that bloomed in such low temperatures and high elevations. She couldn’t name the species. It seemed like something new. A natural cross-breed maybe? She almost expected thorns, but its stem was smooth as glass, and its petals were lush and leathery against her thumb. It left a blood-red stain on her skin.

She lowered herself onto a nearby flat rock, the bloom pinched in her fingers as she looked out at the valley below.

“Hey, Aloy?” she said.

Aloy answered with a quiet hum as she sat down beside her.

“I need to tell you something. Well…show you something.”

“Yeah?” There was intrigue seeping into her voice, her eyes sparking with it as Beta called up her Focus display and shared the folder. “What is…Beta, these are—”

“I’ve been taking them since we left Arrowhand. It started as a way for me to try and get my bearings when we first set out, but…”

Aloy already had her gaze fixed on the holo-screen in front of her as she scrolled through the images. The back of her Charger as they trekked through the Stillsands. An image snapped (with Dekka’s permission and without Hekarro’s knowledge) of the dais and throne at the Memorial Grove, lit by thorch light and the moon above. A Glinthawk perched on top of the stripped Rollerback carcass in the rain, just west of Fenrise.

Aloy’s cheeks went red when she finally got to the images from Thornmarsh – her and Kotallo tangled on a single bedroll in the early morning. Beta laughed, stopping her when she tried to scroll past it far too quickly.

“Aloy, wait,” Beta insisted. She grasped Aloy’s wrist. When her sister groaned in protest, she found it more endearing than intimidating. “Kotallo is…he’s…” She melted into a quiet smile. “I’m just…really happy for you, that’s all. Both of you.”

It felt like a small victory when Aloy relented and dropped her hand from the holo-screen, her gaze lingering on the image of her curled against Kotallo’s chest with him nuzzling her hair. Her expression in the picture was almost perfectly serene, a light flush spreading across her cheeks just as it did on Aloy’s flesh-and-blood face right next to her.

She chewed her lip for a long, quiet moment, and then finally spoke.

“I love him.”

Beta turned and studied her, watching Aloy’s fingers curl against her own lips as she quietly reached out and downloaded that picture to her own private files.

“I don’t…like to say it out loud. It almost feels like if I do, I’m just asking for a challenge. And with NEMESIS coming straight for us, I never thought I could, but—”

She was quiet as she scrolled through the rest of the images, pausing on each one and letting her eyes linger. A glowing sea of jellyfish in the dark water off the coast. Sunlight through the trees in the Stand of the Sentinels, framing the silhouette of a Tallneck meandering through the trees. Aloy with her head canted up toward the sun, grinning as she caught a snowflake on her palm.

Aloy’s fingers curled against her sternum. “These are…Beta, these are really impressive.” Her voice was wavering, only slightly. Barely enough for Beta to notice.

She shrugged. “I just took them whenever I remembered.”

Another: Kotallo with his face half-lit by fire as he lingered near the edge of the settlement. The fire stained his white paint orange and his tattoos a deep ochre. Aloy blushed as she saved that one to her personal files too.

There were more – a few a bit too blurry for Beta’s liking and a couple others she’d forgotten she’d taken at all. She barely bit back a laugh when Aloy came across a picture of Tekotteh scowling as he lumbered away from the melee pit, beaten and bloody.

“Tekotteh would go up in flames if he knew you had this,” Aloy said with a low whistle.

“Probably,” Beta shrugged. That made Aloy throw her head back and laugh before she kept scrolling through. A painting on a towering stone wall near the settlement entrance. A snow owl perched by the inker’s station. A sunrise over the distant horizon.

Beta nudged Aloy with her knee. “We could take one more,” she offered. “If you wanted.”

“Of what?”

“Us, maybe. The Old Ones had a word for it—”

Aloy squinted in thought, then broke into a wide grin. “A selfie?” she giggled. “I can’t believe people had a word for that.”

“Just come here.”

Truth be told, she’d always wanted to do this. She tugged Aloy in close, laughing as she did it. The image capture program on these Focuses wasn’t the best for this kind of thing, but she could manage well enough, even if it felt a little ridiculous.

The image came out blurry and Beta’s eyes were half closed, but Aloy saved it to her personal files without a moment’s hesitation.

Chapter Text

Beta’s fingers tensed against the string of their bow, thumb brushing the fletching of a single arrow as they silently nocked it.

“Easy,” Aloy breathed, knelt beside them. Just ten paces ahead, a rabbit was sitting up on a downed tree, sunlight glinting off its whiskers. “Aim carefully, just like we talked about earlier.”

Beta nodded. Nock. Draw. They had practiced it hundreds of times now, until their fingers were calloused over and covered in faded marks from nicks and cuts they couldn’t even remember getting anymore. All that was left was for them to loose—

They did, their fingers releasing before they gave it a second thought, pure reflex. The arrow hit its mark, and Aloy popped out of the brush with a cheer that sent a flock of crows tearing out from the branches above.

“Great shot,” Aloy laughed. She strode over to the log and retrieved their quarry. “Really great shot. This was a clean kill, Beta. Your aim was perfect.”

It made them smile, fingers tightening around the bow. Their opposite thumb traced along the long-healed scar from their first bought with a tripcaster. “How many did the cook say they needed again?” they asked.

Aloy shot them a playful smile and tapped them on the shoulder. “At least twenty,” she said. “Don’t worry, I already got a head start. Come on.”

At least they’d started early. They had plenty of time before the ceremonies started in earnest.

Sweaty as they were from the morning’s hunt, Beta went straight from delivering the rabbit meat to the cooks, to meeting Dukkah out in the arena training grounds. She was hard at work stripping a Bristleback for its coils, and watching her work made Beta’s hands itch with the need to tinker with something. If only to pass the time and keep their mind busy.

“Careful with those acid cannisters!” Beta called. “That stuff’s corrosive to more than just metal, you know. It’ll eat right through your skin like it’s nothing.”

“Easy, trainee,” Dukkah snorted.

“I can help. There’s an easier way to do this. Look—” Beta nudged Dukkah out of the way and stepped up close to the Bristleback carcass. “The wiring here runs parallel to the processor node cables inside the casing. If you cut between them instead of across, you can separate them out from the surrounding muscle fiber without having to cut through the fiber-optics.”

“Less wear on the tools,” Dukkah mused. “Not a bad eye, ya know. It’s been a while since I was on machine-stripping duty.”

Beta shot her a smile and straightened up. “I’ll take these to the arena. Just give me one—”

They spun on their heel and nearly rammed straight into Chief Hekarro. Literally. They stumbled, reeling back and nearly dropping the pair of acid cannisters in their hands before Hekarro caught their arm and steadied them.

“S-sorry,” they offered. Hekarro hardly seemed bothered. He chuckled as he shot them a nod.

“I’ve been sent to fetch you,” he said. “Dekka’s orders.”

“It’s starting already?” They were already shoving the acid cannisters back into Dukkah’s hands and scurrying toward the throne room. They didn’t bother waiting for Hekarro, but he caught up with them as they rounded the corner toward the arena gates. “I’m not behind, am I? I was trying not to lose track of time—”

“No. Most are still gathering in the arena, but he’s asking for you.”

He followed a few paces behind them from the gates and all the way back to the heart of the Grove, not trying to catch up but keeping them in his sights. He only picked up the pace after they turned the last corner. Hekarro swung around them and stopped them short just before they reached the throne room, pressing his hand against their shoulder. “Young blood, wait a moment.”

Beta blinked up at him. “Right, sorry. Ah…sorry, Chief. Sir.”

“At ease,” he breathed. “I just wished to explain. You’re not expected to take part formally in the ceremony. Marshal Kotallo was asking for you because…” He let out a low, fond chuckle. “Well, between you and me, I think he may be nervous.”

Beta leaned around him and the stone wall to his right, glimpsing Kotallo where he lingered near the dais. Aloy was a few paces away, saying something Beta couldn’t quite make out. Kotallo was listening intently, and he reached for her to give her hand a squeeze.

“Another pair of steady hands is always welcome,” Hekarro said, urging them forward.

Kotallo looked up when he heard the scuff of boots on stone. It was odd, seeing him bare-faced there in the middle of the throne room, but he seemed happy to see them none the less. Beta thought so anyway. His expression was as stiff as his posture, his nod when they reached him sharp as a blade.

He was nervous.

“It’s supposed to start soon,” Aloy said. “Dekka’s making the final preparations now.”

Kotallo let out a noise that sounded half like a sigh. Half like a groan.

Very nervous.

Aloy nodded toward the arena. “Zo and Erend arrived this morning, you know.” She offered Kotallo an encouraging smile as she curled her fingers against his. “Alva’s been showing them around. Saved Dekka the time, I guess.”

Suddenly, Beta was moving – they stood chest to chest with Kotallo, lips pressed together in a hard, determined line. “You’re gonna do great,” they insisted. “I know it. You’ve earned this, and everyone here knows that – especially…” They melted into an easy smile. “Especially your squad. Okay?”

His eyes flicked from Beta, to Aloy, and back again, and by then he was nodding and stepping toward the throne. “Appreciated, trainee.”

The light slowly died and the flames from the braziers blazed anew as murmurs and voices drifted in from the arena beyond. Dekka stepped in from the corridor and shot Kotallo a grin. Beta had managed to peek out around the end of the corridor, and the sight of the crowds in the stands had made nerves quiver in their stomach.

And they weren’t even the star of the show. Beta rejoined Aloy just as the Chaplain pressed a steadying hand to Kotallo’s arm.

“The Marshals are gathered, along with as many witnesses as the Grove could offer,” Dekka said. “It’s time.”

She was urging Beta and Aloy back toward the base of the steps, giving Aloy’s shoulder a firm squeeze. A shudder rushed through their sister at that, something that drew Beta’s attention more than Hekarro and Kotallo lingering between the massive stone columns framing the throne. They reached for Aloy’s hand, brushing it just enough to remind her that they were there.

She shot them a quiet, grateful-looking smile.

“Time indeed,” Hekarro mused as Dekks handed him a pot of icy-white paint. “Your squadmates and fellow Tenakth are waiting for you, Marshal. Best not to make them wait long.”

Dekka stepped up next to Beta, nudging them with one elbow and nodding toward the dais. “It’s been some time since I witnessed this hallowed ceremony,” she whispered. “You should count yourself lucky, trainee. Not many besides the Chief and his Chaplains have the privilege. Though I doubt we could have kept the Champion away if we tried.”

Hekarro paused and settled into a subtle smile. He glanced down at the paint as he dipped his brush into it. “Marshal Kotallo.” His voice was firm and unyielding, commanding attention so intently that it seemed even the murmurs from the arena quieted.

Kotallo drew a steady breath, standing straight. “Sir.”

“The weight of the title High Marshal is a heavy burden to bear. Your fellow Marshals will look to you for guidance, and your fellow Tenakth will trust their lives to your judgment. And I will seek your counsel in any matters that concern the tribe and its people.” He studied Kotello intently, thumb lingering on the edge of the brush tucked against his palm. “You have already proven yourself worthy in the eyes of your Chief and your squad.”

“He took down a Tremortusk in the arena just last week,” Aloy muttered with an excitable grin and a gleam in her eye. Beta swore they saw Dekka smirk at that.

“Marshal,” Hekarro insisted, holding Kotallo’s gaze, “do you accept this title and all it will demand of you?”

“I do, Chief.”

Hekarro’s lips twitched, just enough for Beta to notice as he dipped the brush once more into the paint and brought it to Kotallo’s skin. From his jaw to his brow, he carefully brushed on a neat layer of white pigment. Dekka leaned in to take the first pot from him and handed him another of deep charcoal gray.

Kotallo stood still as the stone framing them on the steps. His arm tucked neatly behind his back and his shoulders straight, he watched as Hekarro intently etched dark lines over the dried white pigment. The pattern was reminiscent of his old paint, though the deep gray followed the line of Kotallo’s cheek bone and cut in toward his nose before coming to a pair of sharp points near the corners of his mouth. A pair of fierce fangs, if studied from the right angle, making his eyes gleam even more brightly in the firelight.

A deep blue was last, sitting just below his temples. All at once Beta realized just what image the pattern called to mind, and it made them stifle a snort. After all those times they’d jokingly compared him to a fierce, stern snow owl, the paint seemed to suit him.

When he was finally satisfied with his work, Hekarro put down his paint and brush and clapped his palm against Kotallo’s right shoulder.

“As Chief of the United Tenakth, I name you High Marshal Kotallo.” He nodded toward the arena with a fond little arch in his brow. “Only the final test remains.”

“Final test?” Aloy blurted, seemingly before she could think better of it. Hekarro hardly seemed bothered, turning to face her as Aloy stepped closer to Dekka. “I thought he’d already proven—”

“Peace, Champion,” Hekarro told her. “The title is not mine alone to grant. His fellow Tenakth will judge his worthiness as well.” He glanced back at Kotallo, urging him toward the corridor that led out to the arena. It almost seemed that the crowd beyond could sense his readiness, the sound of their excited voices rising to a fever pitch on the other side of the stone.

“Whenever you’re ready, High Marshal,” Dekka counseled him.

Beta wasn’t entirely sure if they were breaking decorum by rushing up to meet him, but they did it anyway. Hekarro didn’t stop them, and neither did Dekka. Aloy was right behind them.

“Square your shoulders,” Beta told him, smiling when Kotallo met their eye. “And speak with purpose.”

He nodded. “Sound advice.”

Another breath, a careful step forward, and Kotallo strode out toward the arena.

“A Tremortusk!” Erend howled, wrapping his arm around Kotallo’s shoulders and nearly up-ending a cup of Lowland wine into his lap. “How many people can say they’ve taken down a Tremortusk single-handed, huh? How many Tenakth can even say that?”

“I don’t count, huh?” Aloy quipped.

“Hey, to be fair, I think anyone who can take down two Tremortusks single-handed is in a class of their own.”

“I tried to watch back the video of that fight,” Alva offered. She took a long sip of her own drink and grimaced when she realized its strength. She coughed and set the cup down. “I have to admit, I couldn’t quite manage to get to the end. When you pierced its blaze container with a drill spike?” She shivered. “I could barely watch!”

“The drill spike was an inspired move,” Aloy mused, looking almost wistful.

Erend slammed his hand down on the table just as Zo neatly picked up her bowl to dodge it. “Did you miss when he tore off its canons and shot off its tusks? All of its tusks?”

“Was that before or after the explosion?” Alva asked.

“After,” said Zo and Erend, one much more loudly but both equally brimming with pride.

“Ah…then no – I think I had already decided my heart couldn’t take it by then.”

“Oh, you have to see it, Alva!” Erend was already reaching for his Focus. “Here, I’ll play it back—”

“M-maybe later! When I’ve had time to…re-center a bit.”

Kotallo, meanwhile, was watching and preening. He brought his own cup to his lips and drank deep, pressing a kiss to Aloy’s temple when she leaned against his side.

“Oh, you can do better than that High Marshal!” Ivvira chimed from across the mess hall, her shadow cutting across their table from the smoldering fire pits behind her. She leaned against Kotallo’s shoulder, grinning and laughing. “Go on – give the Champion a proper seeing-to.”

The sound of delighted cackling and cups slamming against wood rose up from throughout the hall. Kotallo looked like he was about to shrug her off, but Aloy was already getting to her feet, tugging Kotallo up in the same moment that she swallowed back the last of her wine.

Aloy pressed the pad of her thumb to his chin. “Kiss me, High Marshal.”

Kotallo’s smile was wide and bright as he obeyed to a deafening echo of cheers.

Beta made their way out to the clearing outside the mess hall, leaning against a cool stone wall and canting their head toward the skies.

It was out there somewhere. That damn beast. Hurtling straight toward them intent on ending their feeble existence. Their fingers curled against the wall, nails digging into the moss that was growing between the stones.

“Trainee.”

They turned, blinking. “High Marshal.”

“I’m not particularly surprised you share Aloy’s penchant for leaving a celebration early,” he quipped, with no edge to his voice. He leaned against the wall right next to them, glancing back up the path toward the mess hall where Aloy was engrossed in a game of Strike with Natikka. Erend was perched between them, staring intently at the board and cheering when Aloy took Natikka’s Glinthawk.

Beta shrugged. “I’m going back. Just wanted some air.” They shot him a smile. “Hey. Congratulations.”

He answered with a quiet, pensive nod. “It represents a great responsibility to my tribe and my fellow Marshals.” He clenched his fingers into a fist, studying the healing scrapes across his knuckles with a quiet hum. “In a way, I’m almost reminded of when I first completed my Kulrut, staring down a future that I’d never imagined before.”

His eye wandered back over to Aloy. She and Erend were groaning as Natikka collected her winnings. Seemed like the Glinthawk had been the bait of a trap. Decent strategy. Beta had taught it to her.

Kotallo smiled. “I have something for you,” he said, pressing a hand to Beta’s shoulder and drawing their eye again. “It took some time, unorthodox as our squad may be by Tenakth standards. But it was well worth the effort, and you should share in it just the same as all the others.”

He was holding out his hand, and when Beta held out theirs, he dropped a neatly crafted piece of engraved metal into their waiting palms. It was connected to a woven chord of braided leather and machine wire that stood out against the neat border of icy white surrounding what looked like the silhouette of a Fireclaw’s skull in profile etched into its surface.

They stared at it, and Kotallo nudged their shoulder. “Whether you wear them or not is your choice. You are not Tenakth – you do not need to carry them the same way we do. But they are yours none the less. From one squadmate to another.”

When Beta glanced up at him again, he had his fist pressed against his chest plate. They carefully draped the chord around their neck, studying the metal where it rested against their sternum. “Hey…Kotallo? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“And you’ll promise to tell me the truth?”

“On my honor.”

“Even if it’s not something I want to hear?”

He paused, only for a moment, before nodding. “Even so.”

Beta worried at their bottom lip. “This fight…against NEMESIS. Do you think it’s really one we can win?”

Kotallo pondered the question for a breath or two. He shrugged. “Do you?”

“Oh come on – you can’t answer my question with a question.”

“My answer depends on yours.”

Beta stared at him. “I…I don’t know,” they admitted, pacing quietly across the path and back again, fingers toying with the chord around their neck as they went. “I’ve run the numbers a thousand times in a thousand different hypothetical scenarios, with all the data we have from the Zeniths and GAIA and Zero Dawn. Every single angle either ends with us failing horrifically or…or it doesn’t compute. The algorithms can’t get a clear enough picture to make a call either way.”

“I didn’t ask about any algorithms of yours. I asked what you thought.” He held their gaze when they stopped their pacing. “Do you think we can win?”

They chewed on their bottom lip, forcing themselves to stop when they nearly broke the skin and winced. “I want to,” they finally admitted, quietly. “I mean…predictive simulations are only so helpful. Philosophically I suppose you could make the argument that any eventuality must exist in some reality, so if it’s even remotely possible there’s always a chance—”

They froze when Kotallo clapped a hand against their shoulder. “Beta,” he rumbled.

“There’s…always a chance,” Beta muttered. “Yes. Yes, I think we can win.”

He nodded. “Then I agree.”

“Wait, just like that?”

“You know more about this threat than anyone. Your counsel has merit. Hekarro and the clan commanders have recognized the value in heeding it already.” He smirked. “One way or another.”

“What would you have said if I didn’t think it was possible?” they asked. The curiosity was too insistent to ignore.

Kotallo answered plainly. “If one squadmate is already resigned to defeat, hope is lost for the rest in that same breath.”

They bristled. “So you would have just given up?”

“A Tenakth never gives up while there is breath in their lungs,” he insisted, “but your resolve is as strong as I expected. And so, victory is still within our grasp.”

He nodded up the path as Beta rounded their shoulders and tucked the metal tag under their collar. Close to their heart. It sat well there.

“Come,” Kotallo said. “The rest of our squad is expecting us back.”

“Your mate is expecting you back,” Beta countered with a good-natured snort, and Kotallo froze. Beta turned on their heel to glance back at him. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” he finally muttered with a thoughtful shake of his head. “It’s just the first time I’ve heard the term used for…us.”

“What?” Beta blinked. “Your ma—” They snapped their mouth shut, face blazing hot. “I-I just kind of assumed—”

He was smiling when they met his eye again, his gaze far away. It was almost wistful, only for a moment before he brought himself back. “In time,” he said. “If the Ten are kind, I hope to make it so.”

“You’re—” They rushed over to him, nearly tripping over their own feet as they did. “Wait, are you – are you saying you plan on proposing to my sister?”

His brows furrowed. “Proposing?”

“You know, like…like Debra and Pete in the season seven premier of Second Time Around? When he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him? And then that water main burst and flooded their apartment—” They shook their head. “You…you want that with Aloy. For her to be your…your mate.”

It was a statement. Not a question. They would have been an idiot to think it had to be a question. He was already looking over their shoulder, ostensibly finding Aloy from the way his expression softened and the corners of his mouth twitched.

“Would you approve if I did?” he asked.

Beta huffed. “Answering my question with another damn question again.” They thumped him in the ribs. “Of course I approve, you big dumb tree.”

He scoffed. “Big dumb—”

“Come on already.” They grabbed him and dragged him up the path. Not exactly proper decorum for a man of his rank, but Beta hardly cared. “Help me find Dekka. She owes me a round of Strike.”

Who knew how many days they had between them and the end of the world? At least they weren’t facing it alone.