Chapter Text
Wind sliced through her bandana, cutting into the tender flesh of her neck and freezing her earlobes. Her goggles kept her from suffering snow-blindness, and the edge of her bandana tucked into her goggle’s nose ridge to cover the lower half of her face. Even with gloves, the tips of…everything on her was cold and numb.
Beta crouched into the tall grass that stubbornly clung to the top of the mountain. A charger was a scant few meters away, eyes blue and placid as it chewed away at the mulch and growth beneath the thick snow.
The group numbered seven; Aloy, Zo, Erend, Morlund, Joruf, Aldur, and herself. They had five chargers, only two more to go until everyone could trek with the speed they wanted to go.
“Cutting down two weeks to two days…at least to get to Bryce. Doable. Necessary,” Bee mumbled to herself as she snuck slowly to the machine.
A day in this cold, white, endless void of a biome, and she felt like an eternity had passed since they peered over Zion park, since they got the transmission from the Zenith Implant, since Tilda—
Her foot caught on a stone under the white. She stumbled forward. Beta went scrabbling face first into calf-deep powder. Her wild hair popped directly out of the grass.
Placid blue flared to violent red.
The charger reared up, the saws on its jowls and around its horns whirred, and with a dreadful thump its fore hooves thudded into the snow. A high-pitched whine of metal sealed her fate.
It charged.
Beta tossed herself to the side. The charger’s hooves missed her by inches. Frozen dust pelted at her, rocks tossed up by impacted steel. She scampered away on hands and knees, trying to break line of sight, but the charger zeroed in on her with deadly efficiency.
It reared again with a flash of bright red, coming at her with horns bared to gore. Beta desperately leapt to the side, but a horn slammed against her machine plate shin guard, knocking her leg back like a jackhammer and spinning her in place. Agony ricocheted from the contact point to her hip. The shin guard shattered off her calf, she hit the snow harshly, spun toward the machine.
As the charger huffed, kicked it’s hoof to find its footing, Beta grabbed blindly for a bomb at her belt. Fire, shock, anything!
The charger’s eye exploded into fractal shards. The force impact of the sharp shot arrow sailed its horns in different directions. The machine looked almost shocked, if it didn’t immediately crash to the ground.
A beat of snow flurry and an ache in her hip.
Beta yelped in surprise as her world spun, she was yanked up by her shoulders and twirled face-to-face with her own.
Aloy looked very, very close to the edge of fury. “What. Happened.” Her sister’s hands clenched the armor at her shoulders, and Beta wriggled against her hold uselessly.
“Nothing!” She exclaimed, pulling the bandana down stubbornly. “I tripped on a rock, it was up to my knees and I didn’t see—”
Aloy curled her lip and shoved her bandana up to tuck into her nose ridge again. “Every machine is a threat. Even a charger,” Aloy released her shoulders to grab her wrists. “One hand on the override,” She shook Beta’s right bracer, where her override module was equipped. “One hand has a weapon.” She shook her left bracer, and Beta thrashed her arms to get her to let go. She didn’t.
“Yeah, I got it—”
“Do you? Cause that didn’t look like it, Bee! That thing could have killed you. That’s why our overrides are on our spears—”
Beta fumed and thrashed some more. “I’m not you, Aloy! Let go!” She growled, and Aloy did.
Beta went tumbling into the bank, fell right back onto her rear. Aloy loomed over her, face taught and hands on her hips.
“You need more training before doing this again. So stupid, I shouldn’t have let you talk me into this,” Aloy grumbled to herself, running a hand down her face in agitation. Beta was sure her fury could melt the snow she fell into. She scrambled up to her feet, slapping away one of Aloy’s hands as her sister moved to help her up.
“It was one slip-up,” Beta rebutted, and Aloy glared at her with flashing green eyes.
“One slip-up and you’re dead. Survival—”
“Requires perfection, yeah. So you’ve said.” Bee finished. Aloy raised her brows at her, anger curling on her face.
“Hey! Fight about it later!” Came the booming voice of Erend over the din. They both whipped their heads toward him, and the Oseram pointed at the sky, hammer at the ready. Joruf and Aldur gripped their weapons steadily. Morlund hung back with Zo behind an overridden charger.
Beta looked at his pointed direction, only to see eight yellow flashing machine eyes steadily climbing toward them.
She pulsed her Focus as Aloy did.
Glinthawks. Eight Glinthawks.
“Get down!” Aloy roared to everyone, purposefully shoving Beta into the tall grass again as globs of swirling nitroglycerin lobbed at them from screaming machine maws.
Chaos erupted on the mountain.
Shocks flew from Erend’s hammer. Frost colder than the snow rained on them with a well-placed arrow from Aloy to the chest of a glinthawk. A machine dived at the vanguard, talons shining and deadly, and Joruf swung his glaive through the machine’s wing. It crashed, and Aldur smashed it’s head with his maul.
Lobs and lobs of freezing chemical splash tore through the snow banks. Beta rolled through the grass to dodge a splatter, watching in horrid fascination as the snow began to freeze into ice at impact. The grass withered and shattered, and a mist of chill evaporated into the single-digit air temperature.
That could slough off flesh on a touch, she was sure of it.
Zo and Morlund stayed hidden behind a charger, but Beta caught the Gravesinger’s eyes as she rolled away from another shot of chillwater. Zo steeled her gaze, glanced up at the divebombing glinthawk targeted at Beta, and shot out of cover.
“No! Go back!” Beta shouted at her, pulling the Wings of the Ten from her belt. Rolling to her back, she brought up the sling, blast bomb tucked into the pouch, cocked it back—
The glinthawk’s wings fanned out, claws up, about to gouge her guts out if she didn’t do something first, no time to dodge now—She released the bomb, and immediately rolled to the side, away from Zo.
The explosion sent the glinthawk back, stilted and struggling to keep in flight. Zo had skidded to a halt in the snow, looking up at the thing spark and twitch.
“Move!” Aloy tackled Zo away, and Beta wasn’t sure why—
A booming burst of chemical spray as the chest cavity of the glinthawk exploded from pressure build up. Chillwater practically poured over the spot where Zo and Aloy were, and Beta screamed somewhere in the metal-screeching, shock hammering, steel slicing fray.
She struggled to her feet, galloped over the snow to the chillwater fog around her sister and friend. Zo was pulling Aloy up when she got there, the Utaru shivering uncontrollably and her sister worryingly still and covered in steaming nitro.
“Aloy! Aloy, hey!” Beta cried, dipping down to cup the huntress’s face, pull her chin up from her chest. Her skin was freezing, cracking where it wasn’t covered, her eyes glazed over in pain…or hypothermia.
“Out of the chill, now,” Zo’s teeth chattered, and Beta took one of Aloy’s sides to get the three of them away from the chemicals searing into the ice.
The vanguard made quick work of the remaining machines, and Erend quickly barked orders to set up the group tent. The Oseram had it up before Beta had the chance to examine anyone thoroughly.
Zo was partially affected by the blast, her winterized Utaru wear still woefully inefficient in this weather. “We won’t be in the snow for long,” She had reasoned. Well, they were caked in it, now!
Aloy was smothered in chemical ice, and her lips and fingers were blue. Beta gripped her hands in the interim, before Erend came by and hauled the two frost-bitten women into the tent. Beta skittered after him, trying to keep an eye on Aloy and Zo at the same time, hands itching to do something, anything!
The tent was large enough for the four of them, better to travel in the cold with, and Erend set down his friends gently on the covered ground.
Zo, still alert, patted the Oseram’s arm in thanks. “We have it from here. Thank you, see to your men.”
Erend looked like he wanted to argue, but Beta didn’t pay much attention after that and went immediately to pulling the Valiant armor off of her sister. The fact that Aloy never wore a hood or gloves was something Beta would have to rectify, but yelling at her right now was pointless—so she just grumbled and undid clasps and ties to pull the freezing armor off Aloy.
Erend unwittingly let a chill in when he left, and Zo hastily clasped the flap closed to prevent further heat loss. She lit a lantern, set it away from their flailing, and carefully removed her reedwork and borrowed leathers.
Beta started cataloguing the pale splotches on both Aloy and Zo, telltale signs of frost damage, and in the time it took to unclothe Aloy, Zo’s shivering made it impossible for the Gravesinger to continue. Beta did the only thing she could, and helped Zo to remove the rest of her armor.
Zo gave her a shaking smile, and curled up beside Aloy.
“Hey, hey!” Beta jostled both of them, getting a hazy stare from Zo and a bleary blink from Aloy. “What do I do? Aloy! What can I…” Beta fought against a whole different chill in her chest.
Zo jutted her chin towards the tent flap. “A blanket f-from our gear. A f-fire. Heat.” With that, her head fell back and a violent shiver erupted over her.
Aloy wasn’t shivering when she pulled up her arm like it weighed a ton and sent Beta a file. Bee immediately opened it.
Freeze Rime Salve -
- 2 Freeze Rime Roots
- 4 Salvebrush berries (skybush, hintergold, ember)
Beta bit her lip, nodded, and scurried outside. The Oseram had already set up their tent, and Erend was out by their kits pulling what they would need for a meal, or a fire, or something—Beta didn’t really care—she rounded in on him like a Scrounger to scrap.
“I need blankets, freeze rime root, and some berries,” She announced. Erend jumped as if she hadn’t crunched wrathfully through the snow, but pulled Aloy’s pack down and into her arms dutifully. Beta grabbed it and turned to the tent, marching back—
“Ah,” She paused, looked back at a bright-eyed and worried Erend. “Thank you. They’ll be okay.”
He deflated out of his worry, and she smirked joylessly as she trekked back inside.
Zo had pulled Aloy into her chest, arms about her shoulders, and the both of them shivered in time with their breathing. Shivering was good!
Beta tore open Aloy’s kit with the subtlety of a Scrapper, and pulled the woolen blanket from the bottom and spilling the rest of the contents haphazardly. She tossed the blanket over the two, making sure to cover them from chin to toes, then she whirled on the rest of Aloy’s supplies, finding berries, paints, shrapnel, canisters—no roots though.
“A-Aloy, where’s your flowers? Rime root, what does it look like?” Beta brought up a bundle of dried herbs, all of them topical but none medicinal. Aloy blinked up at her, scrunched her nose, and her teeth chattered in her reply.
“N-none in-n-n the we-west. Colorado. Blue,” She pointed at her Focus. “It’s-s-s logged-ogged.”
Beta pulled back and shot out of the tent, scrawling through her Focus as she stomped her way into snow again. Erend was at her elbow wordlessly, and she gave him a curt nod.
“Colorado Blue…” She mumbled and searched her foraging logs. Lines and lines of fauna listed, but then, there! Colorado Blue Columbine. The State flower. Also known as—
“Freeze Rime.” She smiled in victory. Beta spun on Erend, about to send the file, but the Oseram already pointed to a bundle of foliage down the mountain trail where the snow started to melt off. Beta laughed in a haze of mania, trudging through down the slopes as Erend followed dutifully behind, hammer ready and wary of anything.
When they finally collapsed to their knees around a bundle of the wild blue flowers, Beta paused, unsure of how to…how was she supposed to—
Erend pulled a knife, stabbing it into the frozen ground about an inch from the main stem, in an angle toward the plant. He carefully chopped the solid earth in a circle around the stem, tugging at the main plant until a solid plug of soil came up in his hand at the base of the stem. He showed it to Beta, and then whacked it against the ground forcefully, sending broken soil scattering like clay off the roots. Erend brought it up again, smiling through the snow collecting in his chops. He showed Beta the ends of the roots, thick and short, deep brown and withered. He pressed it into her hands as he pulled another flower from the earth, leaving a small duo of the Freeze Rime there as they head back to the makeshift camp.
“You—you always picked on Zo about her plants!” Beta exclaimed over the wind, looking down at the flowers in bewilderment.
Erend sniffed, all smiles and fake smugness. “Yeah, well, I’m from the Claim, kid! We were weaned on Rimeroot beer not too long after milk. It’s cold up there, you know!” He slapped her back, right between her shoulder blades, and she coughed and stumbled from the force. She smiled at him all the same, and he gave her a playful wink before she crawled back into the tent.
Aloy was, to absolutely no one’s surprise and Zo’s consternation, up and about pulling supplies into her lap. Zo stayed clamped to her side, the blanket struggling to keep around them as Aloy jostled.
Beta clenched her jaw and grabbed Aloy’s hands working around some sort of dish. Green met green. Flaring and petulant, both of them.
“What are you doing?” Beta asked, knowing the answer. Aloy curled her hands away from Bee’s, holding up the stone bowl and a oiled stick.
“Making a salve. Need these,” Aloy sounded out of breath, and she shivered, and her hands and parts of her arms were still white and pallid.
“You know Aloy. I tried. Got nowhere,” Zo admitted with both guilt and annoyance, tugging the blanket forward and wrapping it around them again. Beta wrestled the mortar and pestle from her sister’s weakened hands.
“I can do it,” Aloy argued, all spark and no fire, like she was fighting on automatic. Beta didn’t know what scared her more. That Aloy defaulted to this, or that she had trained herself so much to do so that she probably could, indeed, do it herself. Even half dazed and hypothermic.
How often had she had to…?
Beta had been alone in a silver box, like a curiosity on display, always seen, never touched, but never in any real danger.
Aloy was alone, all the time, hunted by men and machines. Like the Proving, like the HADES lab, like GEM—having to take care of herself or her wounds or else she would die.
How—
A cold hand clamped on her own, Zo’s brown skin in stark contrast with her pale hue. She looked up and the Gravesinger smiled, warily, and tapped the mortar. “You’re here, Beta. Be here,” She admonished, gentler than maybe Beta deserved.
Bee shook the thoughts of loneliness and danger away as Aloy’s empty expression and shivering brought her back to the present. She brought up the directions for a freeze rime salve, and got to work.
It was easy enough. Add berries and washed roots to a mortar, crush and stir till you have a paste. Thin it out with oil or alcohol, and apply to an affected area.
The roots she brushed through the snow as much as she could, and the hard part was then pulverizing them in the mortar. She got a drop of alcohol from their Oseram neighbors, Joruf generously handing her his small boot flask (“Don’t fret, I’ve got five more!”), and she made the salve as good as she could make it.
It was tingly and smelled horrible, but she dutifully helped the two apply it to skin they were afraid of losing to frostbite. She brewed the flowers in a small pot of water over the fire that the Oseram had going outside, when the wind and snow flurry finally settled. She gave the two their mugs, another blanket, and clasped their tent tightly to break the chill.
As for herself, she wrapped a boar pelt around her shoulders, sat down next to Erend by the fire, and existed in misery while Joruf and Aldur laughed about near-death experiences.
…this pelt had been a gift from Aloy, when they had gotten her back from the Zenith Base. She didn’t recall much of the journey back, only a flight, a haze of exhaustion and disassociation, and the hintergold scent of the boar skin as Aloy clasped it around her thin shoulders. It felt smaller then it was then, or maybe she was gaining muscle. Though it was probably the leathers in the way, too.
Joruf waved a hand at her face from across the fire, broke her gaze with the flame, and brought up an identical flask to the one she borrowed. He lifted it, a twinkle in his eye, and took a small sip. Erend did the same with a much larger flask, and Aldur dug in his plethora of pockets for another. Bee pulled up the small leather bound flask, opened the lid, and grimaced at the acrid smell that assaulted her nose. She coughed.
The three men laughed heartily in response.
“You don’t have to, Bee. Just an old Oseram thing, take a drink after a good fight, you know how it is,” Erend said jovially, and Aldur let loose a cry of triumph as he pulled another flagon from his armor.
Beta grimaced, bringing up the flask to sniff at dubiously again. It was like battery acid. “You take a drink after you win, lose, happy or sad, Erend, so I don’t see what’s so special now,” She remarked dryly. Erend chuckled anyway and took a long draught of his own flagon, humming in contentment when he swallowed. His throat bobbed with the motion, and Beta eyed her little flask like it would bite her.
“It’s rough at first,” Joruf warned, a sparkle in his hazel eyes, “But it goes down smoother than Carja silk.”
“I hate silk,” Beta sighed dejectedly, and Aldur laughed through clenched lips and a mouthful of spirits.
“Ha!” He started, wiping his chin and whiskers free from snow and dribbling alcohol. “She’s a keeper, Cap! Should get her some arrow breaker armor if she manages to get through that!” Aldur gushed, and Joruf punched him soundly in the arm.
Erend laughed, nonetheless, and shook his head at her. “Hey, don’t do nothing you don’t want to. Aloy would have my head if I turned her sister into a lush like the rest of us.” He capped his flagon, however, and set it aside.
Beta glared at the flask.
Three. Two. One. Go!
She tipped it back into her lips, fought the sheer burning fire that raced across her tongue and teeth, and gulped it down desperately all while her free hand waved and slapped at Erend helplessly as it occurred.
Beta gasped when it was over. A full body shiver erupted from her throat to her toes, and in its wake a furious warmth bloomed from her stomach and into her veins. She saw stars, hazy images, and then, three wide eyed Oseram still as statues.
Beta full-body twitched. Every muscle tensed, and she released a painful wheeze. She could taste the sparks on her breath.
Joruf, bright eyes still sparkling, broke into a great grin as Erend started to chuckle beside her, clenching her shoulder and nodding in pride.
“There ya go! Haven’t been able to get Aloy to take a swig of anything stronger than sap! Look at you!” He gushed, and Aldur clapped in approval like she had just performed a musical number from Morlund. (Who was probably sleeping, now that she noticed his absence.)
Beta smiled warily, her cheeks warm from embarrassment or the alcohol, and she peered the flask again. “This is distilled. From what?” She asked, looking up at the three.
Joruf tilted his chin at her when he answered. “That was smoked maize. The mash has to be at least half maize to make it work, and the barrels that make it can only be used to make that type of firewater.”
Beta flicked through her Focus, scanning the flask and bringing up any relevant data. It pinged on a search result.
Bourbon: A type of whiskey made up of a mash of grains that is at least 51% corn, aged in a new, charred oak barrel, and is at least 80 proof.
She knit her brows. Searched what ‘proofs’ translated to.
Proof: Twice the alcohol (ethanol) content by volume.
Well that didn’t help.
80 Proof: Typically 40% Alcohol volume.
Beta nodded. Compared it to other drinks, and paled. Typical beers were 5% alcohol, typical wines were anywhere between 10%-15%.
“Is this flammable?” She asked warily, and Aldur nodded with way, way too much enthusiasm.
“Huh,” She mumbled, wet her lips and took another drink of the burning stuff. It still lit a path of fire down her throat, and she still shivered from head to toe. She didn’t hit or scrape at Erend like a drowning woman though, this time. When everything came back into view, Erend was looking at her like Aloy looked at him sometimes—wary, like maybe he should put the tankard down—and Beta shoved the flask into his hand.
“I’m not turning to drink,” She rebuked, and Erend nodded in acquiescence and handed Joruf back his flask. Beta made to stand, felt everything in her being…float around and settle again, and she turned to go back to the tent. Check on Aloy, Zo—
“And you know what,” Bee spun, finger pointing at Erend. “If I did, it wouldn’t be anyone’s business anyway!” She said defensively, and Erend held up his hands in surrender, but his eyes were placating and sympathetic.
“Be smarter than us, Beta. Well, smarter than Aldur,” Erend cocked his head at his friend whose jaw dropped in offense.
“Same goes for you, then,” She bit back quickly, and Erend kept his smile, warm and kind, but resigned.
“Don’t count on it yet, kid,” He flashed that same friendly wink, and Beta sighed through her nose.
“Yeah. After Nemesis?”
Erend looked out across the mountains, passed Joruf’s questioning gaze. He sniffed. “You know what, we beat that thing,” He pointed to the sky, “I’ll go dry for a year. Five years! Make it a real thing.” Erend announced dutifully, and Aldur looked like he was about to faint from shock.
Beta nodded, vaguely, looking out over the endless banks of snow and black rock. “Okay. It’s a deal. I like it,” She smiled, walking back to gingerly pull the flask back from Joruf. She screwed the cap on and tucked it away. Erend knit his brows in question, a smirk of his own growing in the light of the fire. Beta tilted her head to Joruf. “I still…kinda liked it. And I could use it for medicinal purposes.” She shrugged up a shoulder.
Aldur scoffed a laugh. “Medicinal! Yeah, that’s how it starts, girl!” He guffawed and took another long drink.
Beta shook her head and marched back into their darkened tent, being careful to be quiet and not knock over anything. When she clasped it closed, a flutter of red hair caught her attention.
Aloy, to no one’s surprise, was sat up and rubbing the salve into her fingers again, no longer pale and blue and shivering at least. Beta kicked off her boots (she had to get her shin guard back at some point), and shuffled over to Aloy to take the salve from her shaking hands.
“I’ve got it,” Aloy hissed in the dark. Beta clicked on her Focus light, shifted the settings to a soft orange, and sat in front of Aloy. The huntress was pale but not pallid, deep circles under her eyes but not deathly, and Beta figured that would have to do. She pulled her sisters hands closer, inspecting her thin digits and nail beds. Nothing black, nothing necrotic. She shifted back to grab Aloy’s ankles, and the huntress curled tighter on herself.
“Dammit, Aloy, I’m helping you, now knock it off!” She growled, hands clamped on her sister’s calf and glared up at her. “I know you’ve got it, I know you’re capable, I know—I know—I know, okay?! Just let me do this and you can go back into solitary hunter mode all you want!” She had to keep from shouting, her voice a hoarse whisper to not wake a slightly snoring Zo.
Aloy shook her head, and Beta was about to absolutely scream, but she said, “It’s not that. I’m…” She started, looking up at Beta almost…sheepishly. Bee tried very hard to be patient. Deep inhale. Slow exhale.
Aloy rolled her eyes, uncoiled herself but grabbed her own feet. (They looked fine, but still!) “I’m a little…”
“What, Aloy, a little, what?!” Beta ground her teeth and glared harder.
“Ticklish.” An explosion of flush across Aloy’s face.
Eyes widened. Wheels ground to a halt.
- She did not know this. No one did!
- This was excellent ammunition.
- Patience. Patience is victory.
Bee coughed into her shoulder. Pulled her lips between her teeth to stop from giggling.
Aloy huffed impatiently. “Shut up.”
A spurt of a chortle escaped through her nose, culminating in an inelegant snort she tried to hide in her hand. “Sorry, I’m sorry,” She hushed, waving her hands and patting Aloy’s knees. “Okay, okay, just let me see,” Beta compromised, and Aloy pulled her knees up to her chest to splay her toes out for inspection.
“I’ll kick you if you touch them,” Aloy warned, grumbling at her over her knees, and Bee held up her hands in show of faith.
Her toes weren’t pale or blue, no necrotic tissue around her ankles or arch. Aloy’s freckles danced down her shins and over the tops of her feet, just like hers of course, but it was always interesting to note. She nodded in satisfaction and brought her eyes up to her sister’s bare shoulders and elbows, and pressed her palms gently against the huntress’ ears.
Aloy slapped her hands away like Beta always seemed to be doing to her. The blush hadn’t abated, and Beta carefully filed away the intel of Aloy’s super-secret weakness for later use.
A heartbeat of silence. Aloy shifted to sit cross-legged, fiddled with her fingers in her lap.
“You lost focus with the charger, didn’t you? Went somewhere else?” Aloy asked, non-accusatory and solemnly curious. Beta sighed, turned off the light, sat mirrored to Aloy. She could cross her legs now. What an improvement.
“I think so. I wasn’t where I should have been. Sorry,” Beta replied, too tired to fight about it or try to deny it.
“Good thing I was there. Might not always be,” Aloy said with a twinge of warning, and Bee scoffed at her in the dark.
“And what would you have done without me here? Without Zo? Lost a few fingers, kept going anyway?”
Aloy hushed for a moment. Only a moment. “I would have had to. I’ve always been on my own for things like this.”
Beta exhaled, like a hiss from a Fireclaw, all over again.
“You are always there for me, Aloy,” She whispered, her voice like a prayer. “And I need you to know that I’m here for you, too.” She reached out blindly and caught Aloy’s forearms anyway, the both of them soundly grasping each other. Bee leaned forward, pulled Aloy’s forehead to her own, and took in the scent of rime root, Salvebrush, hintergold, and new world bourbon.
“Promise me. Promise me you won’t forget that you aren’t alone. That I will never leave you alone.”
Aloy sighed. Beta felt her head nod.
No.
“Say it, Aloy.”
“…okay. I won’t…I won’t forget.”
“Not this time, say it. I mean it, Aloy.”
A hiss, perhaps a sigh, and Beta’s fingers dug into Aloy’s forearms as sure as the huntress’ did into hers.
“I promise.”
“Good. Now go to sleep.”
“Wait,” A sniff. “Did Erend let you drink?”
“Go to bed, Aloy.”
“Oh, I’m gonna kill him.”
“Both of you, be still and go to sleep before I strangle you into it.”
…
“Night, Zo.” Came from the both of them.