Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She was chopping some vegetables while listening to music and humming to the sounds of her favourite band from her youth, Heideroosjes. It was always a bit nostalgic to listen to that kind of music. Through her kitchen window, Tilda could see the sun rising and even though it was six in the morning on a Sunday, she was wide awake and prepared breakfast for her beloved one and herself. 

While the bread rolls were baking in the oven, she fried the vegetables, added some herbs and spices to them - only some marjoram, salt, black pepper and a pinch of chilli - before she added the beaten eggs she had kept in a bowl. She knew that her love preferred omelettes, so she tried her best to flip the eggs without breaking the surface. Luckily, she didn’t care much for herself, if the eggs on her plate were omelettes or scrambled eggs, so the second try of omelettes with fried vegetables were the one for her beloved one, who still slept in their bed. Tilda thought of bringing the breakfast to their bed, when a sleepy voice interrupted her thoughts.

“You are listening to Heideroosjes, Tilly?“ Elisabet asked with a soft yawn in her voice and Tilda looked at the sleepy woman with slightly messy hair. When Elisabet woke up, she often had the so-called bed-hair and she used to comb it after breakfast or when she got ready for work. “Yes, I kind of felt a bit nostalgic and wanted to listen to music from my youth… You know, when I found my chosen family back in Amsterdam… I sometimes wonder how the others are doing…“ When her foster parents had sent Tilda to a boarding school, she hated it back then and ran away. Soon she found some friends she could depend on, her new found family. Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances, Tilda couldn’t stay in touch with them forever, even though she wished to. She started the coffee machine after she finished the sentence. 

Coffee was an essential part of their ritual in the morning, so of course they would need it for their breakfast. Sometimes it even was the only thing they had before they headed out. Tilda often got something on the go from a bakery, but she was never sure if Elisabet did that, too, which is why she never liked it when Lis headed out without eating anything. Which happened quite too often, when someone asked Tilda about that.

Elisabet smiled and probably thought of the pictures Tilda had shown her when she had first talked about her friends from Amsterdam. “Did you reach out to them? Maybe you could reunite with them?” she asked and took her own coffee, added some sweetener and oat milk to it. “I have been a bit busy the last couple of weeks, so not really… Maybe when it‘s not that busy… Next week or so…” the younger woman said and prepared her own coffee with sweetener, not as sweet as Lis though and some regular milk.

As soon as everything was prepared, Tilda put their mugs and plates on the kitchen table. After Elisabet had sat down on her seat, Tilda gave her a good-morning-kiss on the cheek before she also sat down. "Smakelijk eten…" Elisabet said and smiled lovingly at her girlfriend. The younger woman looked surprised, she didn’t know that Lis had caught some words in Dutch she sometimes casually spoke. "Ik hou van jou… and I hope the omelette is to your liking…", Tilda lovingly said before she dug in, just like Elisabet did, mumbling "I love you too" between two bites.

When they were done, Tilda put their dishes into the dishwasher, fed her cats Vincent and Jan, named after the Dutch painters Vincent van Gogh and Jan Vermeer, before Elisabet and Tilda went to the living room. 

Lis was about to get ready for work, when Tilda stopped her and convinced her that, for one Sunday, it wouldn’t hurt if she didn’t work. It wasn’t easy to convince Elisabet not to work and to relax instead, but sometimes Tilda was successful. 

So they spent their day together, relaxing and just binge watching their favourite show until it was time for dinner and Tilda cooked them both something she had learned in her homeland and Elisabet helped her with that. While they were cooking, they laughed and talked about all sorts of things. What they wanted to do, how they would see them in the future, casually talking about having children one day, even though they were a couple only for a year now. However, Tilda didn’t mind planning their future that much ahead. She was so much in love with Lis that she almost deified her. With every touch, with every kiss they shared, she fell more and more in love with her…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tilda van der Meer opened her eyes and looked at the empty space next to her in her bed. It was only a dream. Again. A dream of something she had lost decades ago. Since she had boarded the Odyssey and reached the Sirius colony with her fellow Far Zenith colleagues, she had this dream every damn night. Every night her mind reminded her what terrible mistake she had made by leaving Lis back on earth. Elisabet Sobeck, the love of her life and the only person she ever felt whole with and she could have imagined a future with.

Slowly, Tilda pulled her knees to herself, resting her head on them and letting the tears flow. She had thought that time would heal all wounds, that eternity would heal all wounds. Oh, she didn’t know back then how wrong and naive she was. And her mind reminded her every day.

Tilda lived only day by day, year by year, without really realising how long she had lived, how long she hadn’t a purpose in her life anymore.

When she lost Lis, she lost her love, her future, her purpose. She only felt emptiness where her heart once was and if she hadn’t been so afraid of dying, she would have given herself into this emptiness…

Why do we keep chasing ghosts

Believing in one thing utmost

Tell me why do we still wait for something to return

I can't deny I am lost

Chapter Text

Nine months. That's the average time a foetus needs to develop in a woman’s womb, in a mother’s womb until it’s born and welcomed by the people that would love the newborn. But, unfortunately, it's a different matter for clones. They usually only need to develop a couple of hours without any love or passion for the newborn.

However, when the Zenith planned to clone Elisabet Sobeck, the saviour of earth, Tilda had other plans in mind. When Elisabet and Tilda were still a couple, they had always talked about having children on their own. They had even talked to physicians to combine their DNA and get a legitimate child with their characteristics. Unfortunately, it never came that far that they would be able to raise a child as their own. And as much as Tilda knew her former lover, she was damn sure that Lis didn't have the opportunity to raise one after she had broken up with Tilda. Elisabet was too occupied with working on Zero Dawn and couldn’t have the time to raise a child.

So Tilda decided she would take action in those matters and fulfil Elisabet’s and her dream of a child, even though their child would never be able to meet their other mother. She ‘volunteered’ to involve herself with the cloning process, when Gerard asked them who would do this task and Tilda used this opportunity to manipulate the cloning process and add a sample of her own DNA to the sample of Elisabet. Only 21,48% of her DNA would be part of the child. Enough to make it their child, without losing the characteristics Elisabet’s sample would provide, to make the child able to pass as a clone of Elisabet Sobeck.

But because she manipulated the process and the little one wasn’t therefore a clone, like it was supposed to be, the child was in danger. Tilda knew that Gerard and Erik would see it as too much hassle to raise it and to test if it was able to open the Zero Dawn facilities, if they found out about their connection and Gerard would probably order Erik to kill the child. So, to protect her child, Tilda had to keep quiet about her motherhood and the only thing left to do was waiting for a couple of hours until little Beta was born.  

Tilda could convince the other Zeniths that the name Beta was appropriate for a clone, being a copy, a second version of the original. But only she knew the true meaning behind it. Beta, short for Elisabeta, was named after her mother, just like she had named her company Miriam Technologies after her own mother.

Tilda got excited, almost nervous, while she watched how the foetus developed in the incubator. She couldn’t wait to hold that little baby in her arms, her child in her arms. She wished it would be able to develop a bit faster, but she didn’t dare to manipulate the process more than needed. She had to be patient.

When the process was finished, Tilda opened the incubator and saw a beautiful little girl with red hair and cute freckles on her cheeks. “Beta…“, she whispered as she took the baby out. Tilda had prepared a blanket and tucked the little one into it after she had carefully cleaned the little one. “Ssshh…“ Beta whined a bit and the immortal tried to calm her down. “I‘m with you, little one…“ she whispered and smiled upon her daughter, losing some tears of joy. Finally she had a purpose in her life again. 

Some of her friends, Zaniah and Jonah, two other Zenith she got to know after she had boarded the Odyssey, were standing a bit further away. They had entered the room a couple of minutes before the process was finished and for some reason they felt that Tilda needed that little moment with the baby for herself, that she needed this moment of bonding with the newborn.

But this precious moment between little Beta and Tilda got interrupted when a strong and dominant voice broke the silence and Tilda looked to the door. “Ah, I see that the process is finally finished…“.

Erik Visser had entered the room with the first in command at his side, Gerard Bieri. “Huh, I thought it would be an adult… Well, I don't care.“ He forcefully took the child out of Tilda’s arms. “Hey, what are you doing?“ she tried to get her child back but Erik gave it to Gerard instead. 

“What do you care about? It’s not like you are its mother! Or did you give birth to it?“ Tilda went silent for a moment, trying to collect herself. She shouldn't show how much that girl meant to her, otherwise they would question her origin. “I thought so. Besides… we can’t let you groom our tool into your little plaything… otherwise it would only want to fuck you instead of working like it is supposed to.“ Tilda’s eyes got big when he said those words. She couldn’t believe what he just said. “My what?! Are you crazy?!“ “Oh, come on! We all know that Sobeck was your lover on earth. Did you really think we wouldn’t find out why you volunteered to make the clone?“

Tilda looked at him, flabbergasted. She couldn’t find the right words, how crazy that sounded in her ears. “Your silence proves my statement…“ he chuckled and Tilda was enraged by it. She wanted her daughter back, wanted to take care of her and not give her in the hands of those assholes. “Give her back to me!“ she screamed, but Erik only laughed and pushed her back. “You are pathetic, Tilda.“ he said and left the room. “No… Beta…”, Tilda broke down, crying out of desperation, holding her face in her hands. She knew she had no chance against Erik, he was way stronger than her.

Zaniah and Jonah looked at each other, sighing because they really couldn’t do anything for Tilda. They had to follow the orders of Erik, even though they really didn’t want to. And Tilda hadn’t any choice to do anything either. So, they helped her up and brought her to her own space, slowly and carefully. Tilda needed time.

The 4th April of the year 3023 was the best and the worst day for Tilda van der Meer. She became the mother of a beautiful little girl and lost her within minutes of her innocent life. “My little Beta…“ she cried. She felt helpless, defeated, overrun by her fellow Zenith, only because she couldn’t tell anyone that Beta was her daughter. Would she ever see her daughter again…?

Chapter Text

Ever since Erik had taken little Beta away from Tilda, living on the Odyssey was even worse than before her daughter was born. The only thing Tilda knew about her child was that mostly servitors would be in charge of taking care of her and only Erik and Gerard would be allowed to see her girl.

“Short notice for the following weeks:

Since I am occupied with other important stuff and Gerard is occupied, too, you will take care of Beta.

You will find instructions on how to handle her and her antics attached to this message.“ 

Tilda was kind of surprised and confused at the same time. For over fifteen years they kept Beta away from her, so she wasn’t even able to talk to her daughter since. Now she should take care of her? For a couple of weeks? This didn’t make any sense to her, but Tilda decided not to question it. She gulped and was happy to finally meet her daughter again, got even excited about that, but also afraid. She knew how Erik was and maybe Beta comes after his way of raising her? Would they get along with each other? 

She opened the manual that Erik had attached to the message and read it thoroughly. Her eyes were wide open and tears built up in her eyes. It was an instruction on how she should be handled, what clothes Beta should wear, what she should eat and how she should be punished. Screamed at, beaten up or even mentally tortured when she wouldn’t behave how Erik has seen it as suitable. Tilda felt terrible by the thought alone of what he was doing to her daughter. 

She gulped and took a deep breath. Slowly, steady, inhaling, exhaling. It wouldn’t be good if she lost her temper, even though she really desired to rip him up to tiny pieces right now. Tilda read the rest of the manual and the rest of the message. Erik ordered her to fetch Beta from her training and to keep a close eye on her. 

Tilda decided that it was best when Beta would sleep at her place. Besides 'following' Erik’s orders she would be able to finally take care of her daughter. Tilda had a small two-room space with a separate kitchen, so she was able to cook for herself and Beta later. Tilda preferred to eat in her little flat anyway and rarely ate with other Zeniths. Most of the other Zeniths would eat printed or highly processed food anyway. She had no other options to get printed ingredients, but at least she could make it somehow tasty by preparing and cooking her dinner herself.

In her bedroom she had a queen-sized bed. Ever since she had lost her parents in the flood in Rotterdam, Tilda feared small spaces or if she was locked up in a space and wasn't able to get out on her own. To relax fully, she needed a large bed. Next to her bed was a small nightstand and lamp on top of it. Opposite of her bed was a closet, where she kept her clothes. Even though it was almost unnecessary, since she didn’t possess many clothes. They were made out of nanites anyway.

After she had closed Erik’s message, she began to prepare her place for Beta’s stay. She moved some of her clothes, so her daughter could put some of hers in her closet and put some fresh blankets on the bed. Tilda decided that Beta should take the bed and she would sleep on the couch in her living room.

After she prepared everything, she looked at the clock and noticed that Beta’s training was almost done by now. She would be hungry now, since it was already late and Tilde could only imagine that little Beta hadn't eaten yet and if, only leftovers or in the worst case ill or burnt food, like it was mentioned in the manual. She sighed and decided she would cook for her daughter as soon as they got to their place.

She went into her kitchen and looked through her groceries. She had enough for a couple of weeks and so it would definitely be enough for two. She prepared the dinner for later, but when the time came to collect Beta, Tilda left her place and went to the training rooms. She became kind of nervous again, since she hadn’t seen her own daughter for more than thirteen years by now. 

Would she even know who she was? When Tilda thought of the actual date, it would be almost sixteen years by now, since Beta’s birthday was in a couple of months. Tilda had developed an unhealthy habit of baking a cake every year and eating the whole thing while mourning for not being able to see her own child on her birthday. Maybe this year will be different…

She took a deep breath and opened the door of the training room, seeing Beta sitting on the only chair in the room and working with her Simulacrum. Tilda wasn’t in such a training room for quite a while and was kind of disappointed with the… furniture. 

“You… are Beta, aren‘t you?“, she calmly spoke and the young girl looked at her anxiously, nodding slowly. She really looked a lot like Elisabet when she was younger, at least that is what Tilda remembered when she had seen photos in the photo album. “Yes… you… are Tilda van der Meer… what can I do for you? Did I do something wrong?“

It kind of hurted Tilda that Beta expected that she did something wrong and already questioned herself. The older woman went slowly to her daughter and laid a hand on her shoulder, only to cause her to flinch under the touch. Tilda asked herself how often her daughter had to endure physical pain, when she even flinches under a soft touch.

 “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, little one. I am here to fetch you.“, she softly spoke and caressed her shoulder a bit, to signify that everything is alright. “Fetch me?“ “Yes, Erik doesn’t have time for you and asked me to look after you. So, you will come with me to my place. Do you have anything in your room that you may need?“ Beta stood up and shook her head. “No… I… don’t have any personal belongings…“ The Zenith only nodded. “I see. Then let’s go.“, she said and slowly went with Beta to her own room. 

“I can imagine you may have many questions. If you want to, we could talk a bit at my place later. Are you hungry?“, Tilda asked but didn’t get an answer from Beta. The young girl was shy and anxious around her, she really must be scared that she would do something wrong when she would speak to her. The Zenith figured that it must have something to do with how she had always been treated by Erik and Gerard. Something she would never do with that poor young girl, with her daughter.

When they reached her place, Tilda opened the door and went inside. “Come, little one… This will be your home for the next couple of weeks”, she explained and waited until Beta was inside to close the door. Tilda looked at Beta, who still was very anxious and seemingly scared around her. She sighed softly, she would need to work a lot to help her daughter relax around her. “Listen, Beta… I know how Erik and Gerard treat you, when you… don’t behave… but I’m not a friend of their methods. I won’t scream at you, I won’t hit you and most importantly… I won’t torture you virtually and force you into isolation.”, the pure thought of doing anything like that despised her and made her feel sick. “Actually, I would rather want to take care of you instead of being a smeerlap like they are”, the Zenith explained and Beta was obviously confused about the word she had said, which made Tilda chuckle a bit. 

“Oh, I know that look…“, Tilda chuckled. Lis has always been confused when I spoke Dutch too… she thought. „You know, Smeerlap is a swear word. It basically means scumbag. So, the first word in Dutch you learned today was a swear word. I would guess that's a good start!” Beta smiled a little about that and seemed to understand a bit better. “I see… so Smeerlap… Do you come from the Netherlands?”, she curiously asked, but instantly put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry!”, she apologised, slightly panicking, it seemed she was used to getting scolded for talking unasked or when she was asking personal questions. “It’s fine… come sit down. I make tea for both of us and then we can talk. You can ask me anything you want… if it’s getting too private I will just tell you then.”

They had a lot to talk about and even though Tilda feared that little Beta wasn’t able to develop a healthy mentality and character, she still wanted to get to know her daughter, catch up for the lost time.

Chapter Text

Tilda planned this day for the last couple of weeks and got more excited every day. Erik had put Beta once again under Tilda's care. He seemed to have less and less interest in interacting with the teen and Tilda didn’t mind that. On the contrary, she was very happy that she could spend time with her daughter and take care of her, like she deserved it. She took her time to show her all kinds of things, art, music, books or how to cook. Tilda loved to cook with her daughter and show her recipes.

She hummed a little tune, while she was finishing the last bits of the cream gateau she had baked and put it into her fridge, so it would stay nice and cool. She seriously hoped that it would be to Beta’s liking since today was her birthday and they finally could celebrate it together. The first time in sixteen years. Tilda was excited, she hoped that her daughter would like the present she had prepared for her. A little white coloured neckbone pillow with a stitched cat-face on it for when Beta would read a book at her place. 

Unfortunately Tilda couldn’t get any decorations to make her living room a bit more festive, but she hoped that Beta would still be happy about the little surprises she had planned for her daughter. 

Even though Tilda wished that she could have spent the whole day with her, Beta had to fulfil some of her training and so they would only have the evening with each other. So, as soon as the time arrived to fetch her daughter, Tilda went to the training room.

When Tilda opened the door to the training room, Beta looked up and smiled at her instantly. She seemingly got happier, opened up to her since Tilda took care of her and the older woman wished she could take care of her on a regular, daily basis. “Hey, little one… Are you done with your work?“, she asked and Beta nodded. “Yes!“, she stood up and went to Tilda. Beta loved to spend time with the older woman, one of the few people who didn’t treat her like a simple tool. “Good. I prepared something for you!“ "You did?" Tilda smiled and they went to her space. “Yes, sit down, little one. You worked hard today. I’m proud of you…”, she softly spoke and went to her kitchen to fetch the gateau from the fridge. She heard how Beta giggled, seemingly happy that Tilda was proud of her.

“Do you know what day we have today?”, she asked as soon as she put down the cake on the table in the living room. “Thursday? April the 4th?”, was Beta’s answer while Tilda fetched some plates and cutlery from the kitchen. “Why did you get a cake, Tilda? Don’t tell me, you have something to celebrate? As far as I know, your birthday is in January…”, Beta wondered and watched how Tilda put two slices on the plates, handing her one. “I do have something to celebrate, but it’s not my birthday…”, she softly spoke and Tilda realised the Beta did not know that it was her own birthday.

After she had handed Beta her plate she reached out for the present she had prepared for her daughter. “I assume that neither Erik nor Gerard ever told you that… but Happy Birthday, Beta!” She gave Beta her present and her daughter looked in surprise at it and then to Tilda. “I… have a birthday? Today?” Tilda nodded and watched how small tears built up her daughter’s eyes. “Oh, sweety, I didn’t mean to make you cry…”, she tried to calm her down and wiped her tears softly away. “Those are happy tears… don’t worry…”, she whispered and leaned into the touch.

After a couple of moments, Beta calmed down and looked up to Tilda. “How… How do you know that? Erik told me that he doesn’t know and that it doesn’t matter anyway…” “Well, you see…“ Tilda explained to her how she was with her when Beta was born, how she had tucked her into a blanket and how Erik had taken her away from her forcefully. Something she didn’t like to remember, but Beta deserved to know it.

“I would have loved to take care of you from the beginning… But Erik and Gerard were against that and… uh… just the thought of what they accused me of is disgusting…“, Tilda shuddered a bit and looked at Beta, who seemed to be confused. “They said that I would groom you to be my lover when you are old enough, but I would never get the idea in that matter… you’re more a daughter to me…“, she looked at Beta and wished she could tell her that she is her daughter, but Tilda knew that their implants were constantly connected to their subnet and that the data Beta received and saw would be controlled on a regular basis. So it could become dangerous for the young woman, since she probably would be killed when Erik or Gerard would learn about that. Beta got a small tear in her eye and hugged Tilda tightly. “I wish you would be my mother… thanks for caring for me…“, she whispered and looked up to Tilda, who held her in her arms, returning the hug.

“I love you dearly, little one… and I promise that I will do everything to keep you safe…“, she softly spoke and gently caressed Beta’s back. “But let’s celebrate your birthday today and let’s not think of bad memories… You have a present to unpack!”, she smiled and kissed Beta on her cheek, before she let go of her daughter. Beta giggled softly and began to unpack her present. “What… is that?”, she asked and looked at the neckbone pillow. “That’s a neckbone pillow. It will support your hands when you read some of my books…”, she explained and Beta beamed up. “Thank you, Tilda! I really really like it!” 

Beta hugged the pillow and Tilda took the ripped wrapping paper away. “I’m glad that you like it. I hope you will like your cake as well… I took great care in baking it for you…” “You baked it? You didn’t have to make so much hassle! I’m hardly worth the effort…” Beta didn’t really think that she would be worth so much effort, so much love from another human being, especially because most of the Zenith treated her as she was only a simple tool and not a feeling and living human being. “Oh, sweetheart. As long as you like it, it was worth the effort…” Tilda tussled through Beta’s hair and smiled lovingly at her. “Come on, little one. Give it a try…”

When they began to eat their cake, Beta looked at Tilda. “Tilda, you said that they accused you of grooming me to become your lover… why would they think such a thing?”, she asked and hoped that she wouldn’t overstep any boundaries. Tilda gulped at her question and took a deep breath. The older one didn’t think of the possibility that Beta would ask her that. 

„When I was still living on earth… I had a girlfriend. Actually Elisabet Sobeck, Lis was my lover…“, she looked at her cake and put the plate down. „I wanted her to come with me to Sirius, but she insisted on staying on earth.. To save the earth and humanity… I honestly regret not staying with her… That’s why Erik accused me that I would groom you to be my lover. They thought I would want you as some sort of substitute for Lis“, Tilda sighed and thought of the last conversation they had. Their parting didn’t end well and Tilda wished that things would have gone differently. „I see… Well, I am glad that you didn’t stay on earth. Otherwise I would never have met you, Tilda. Still, I am sorry for your loss…“, Beta softly spoke and leaned onto the older woman. Tilda looked at her and smiled crookedly. „You know, you are the only good part, why I don’t regret being here on the Odyssey…“

Again, Tilda thought of the moment, when Beta got robbed from her hands and she thought of telling the little one that she was her mother. But it wouldn’t be a good idea and Tilda had to endure that she would only be able to tell her that she felt like being her mother…

Chapter Text

Beta wasn’t able to visit her the last couple of months, since Erik wanted to ‘take care’ of her again and he forbade her any contact with her daughter again. But since he was above Tilda in the structure of command, she had to obey him in that matter. However, Tilda was always a bit rebellious and so she created a hidden data channel for Beta and herself. She knew Beta would be threatened and hurt by Erik on a regular basis and she asked some friends of hers to help protect her little one. 

She could keep an eye on Beta in the data channel and in the time they spent there together, Tilda loved to take Beta a bit around in that channel and show her new things she had missed to show her when Beta was visiting her at her place. All sorts of paintings, music she used to listen to and bring her a bit closer to a bit of culture. Culture, which was already dead on earth, but still dear to Tilda van der Meer. Since it was so dear to her, to speak with her daughter in that data channel, Tilda had builded it after her previous home on earth. That home, where she used to live with her beloved Lis back then.

It was a precious time for both of them, but one day, Beta seemed to be distracted, to be more fearful again. “Little one, what happened? You’re not like yourself today…”, Tilda worriedly asked and looked at the hologram of her daughter. “Well… you see… Erik…”, Beta took a deep breath. “He asked me today, if my period would have started already, I should be old enough…”, Beta fidgeted with her hands, looking in distress at Tilda. “Why would he…?”, the Zenith was confused at first, but then Beta showed her the ‘educational’ simulations she had to endure for a year by now.

Erik was shown in that simulation and he showed Beta how she would be taken by him, how he would handle her, when he would forcefully take her virginity. Beta didn’t show Tilda the full simulation, she was embarrassed and full of anxiety. What would the older woman think of that? Would she tell her that this is how it should be or would she stand with her and tell her that he is wrong? Beta gulped and looked up to Tilda, hoping for protection.

Tilda didn’t speak a word. She was just so… shocked about what Beta had shown her right now. Erik planned to take her daughter by force. As soon as she would be old enough to have her period. Her head didn’t wrap around fully why he would want to do that, but nonetheless forced a reaction, letting tears drop from her eyes, down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, little one… give me a second…”, Tilda gulped and tried to get back her composure. She had to be strong for her. “I’m so sorry that you had to endure this… Did he… did he force you to do that with him…? Or… did he only show you those simulations?” “Only the simulations until now… but… I fear he will force me to do that… with him…”

Tilda took a really deep breath. “Don’t worry about that, little one… I will take care of that… He won’t touch you…”, she spoke and caressed softly the hair of her hologram. The Zenith wished she would be able to be with Beta right now, hugging her and spending some comfort. “But I would need to go now. I need to handle a bit of stuff and then he won’t be able to touch you ever… I promise you that, little one…” Beta nodded, as the data channel, Tilda’s house, faded away. 

The Zenith thought for a moment, why Erik would want to force Beta to something like that and wait patiently for her to be old enough to get her period. Then the realisation hit her like a brick. The other Zenith already had experimented in the past with some genetics and tried to create some sort of superhuman, with his strength and the intellect of another genius being. It always had failed and Tilda feared now that he got the mad idea, if it won’t work out in a manipulated cloning process, he would have to force the other part to birth his offspring. She couldn’t let that happen to little Beta. She needed to make sure of that.

Tilda contacted her closest friends, Jona and Zaniah, and explained the situation to them. Thankfully they offered her to look out for little Beta, to protect her from Erik if needed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

Erik had enough. As if it hadn’t been that obvious that Tilda and her little group tried to keep him away from Beta. Why would they try to protect that little tool? He always liked when something fulfilled more than one purpose and since her whole purpose was to open the Zero Dawn facilities as soon as they would land on earth in a couple of months, why not add another purpose to her list then?

When he noticed that Beta seemed distracted by something, he looked through her data and found a hidden channel with heavy protection. He tried to hack into it, so he would know who distracted Beta from her work, but when he was about to breach through the security, the channel was deleted or relocated. But that didn’t matter, he already knew that Tilda was behind all that, it was just so damn obvious and so he went straight to her place.

He opened her door silently, he already knew how to corrupt her door, it didn't matter if he wanted to open it without the personal key or closing it so no one else would be able to open it. Tilda was in her bedroom as he entered her space, apparently changing into something comfortable. Erik closed the door silently and sealed it, so Tilda wouldn’t be able to open it.

He opened her door silently, he already knew how to corrupt her door, it didn't matter if he wanted to open it without the personal key or closing it so no one else would be able to open it. Tilda was in her bedroom as he entered her space, apparently changing into something comfortable. Erik closed the door silently and sealed it, so Tilda wouldn’t be able to open it.

“Hello Tilda…”, he spoke, calmly, almost deadly, when he entered her bedroom, while she didn’t wear anything on her upper body besides a binder. “What the…!? Erik, what are you doing here?!” “You know exactly why I’m here…” Tilda seemed confused and made a bit more space between her and Erik. He knew why he was here with her. She would need to pay him some compensation for the time he couldn’t lay his hands on Beta.

“Your little squad needs to keep their profile low. I know that you are trying to keep little Beta away from me…“, Tilda gulped as he came closer to her. She knew that he was physically way stronger than her and she would need to be cautious of what he was doing. “So what? Are you going to take that out onto me and beat me up, like you do with her?”, even though she shouldn’t, she couldn’t withstand the urge to provoke him, indirectly telling him what an asshole he is. He laughed at her. “You will see…”, he growled and jumped onto her, throwing her onto her own bed. 

Tilda was lucky that she got relatively good reflexes and rolled from her bed, trying to escape from this man. “Don’t touch me!” She screamed at him in anger and retreated to her main room, leading outside of her little space. She needed to escape, otherwise she couldn’t even think about what he would do to her and she didn’t want to think about it. “What…?”, she whispered in shock as she realised that the front door of her space wouldn’t react to her command and kept being closed. “Open up, you damn door!”, she growled and tried to open the door again. But nothing worked.

“Getting anxious?” Erik asked, half laughing, and approached Tilda almost calmly, who slowly became panicky. He knew that she suffered from claustrophobia, especially when she wasn’t able to open up the spaces herself again. 

“Oh, don’t worry… I open up the door for you… when I’m done with you…”, he growled and reduced the space between them. But Tilda tried again to make more space between Erik and herself, going backwards, fixing her gaze upon this man, not really watching where she was going. Unfortunately, she soon reached a wall and with that, she was trapped. 

Fear reflected in her eyes. She knew Erik was heartless, brutal and did whatever he wanted, not caring what impact it had on others. He towered in front of her. His big body seemed now taller, mightier than ever. Tilda felt her heartbeat rushing from adrenaline. She gulped. And then she felt the first punch hitting her face.

She cried out, broke down under his punches, he continuously hit her. She should feel the same pain as he had brought upon the child she so desperately tried to protect. He didn’t care for Tilda’s sobs and her cries. In his mind, she deserved his punishment. He even didn’t care that she passed out in the process.

When Tilda came back to her senses, she saw that Erik had already left her alone and also had opened the door again, so she would be able to leave her space again. The Zenith walked slowly, unsteady to her shower, started the water and winced slightly as the hot water hit her skin, hitting the bruises, scratches and bite marks Erik had left on her. She sat down and let the water clean her body, even though it hurted, she needed to get clean.

Chapter Text

When the Zenith finally reached earth, they had a lot to do. To their demise they learned that Nemesis had sent out an extinction signal to earth, which destroyed the operating AI of the terraforming system. So, to get what they wanted, they had to recollect the subfunctions of GAIA and to retrieve a functioning copy of the AI Elisabet created all those centuries ago.

It was kind of frustrating for Tilda, the time they had wasn’t in their favour and they had already spent half a year searching for everything. With every day they couldn’t find the desperately needed copy of GAIA and thus a possible solution for their problems, Nemesis would be closer to kill them all and destroy everything she had built up. Back on Sirius, she didn’t really care what she had lost, but now she would lose her daughter.

They had a hint that maybe a copy would be in a HADES proving lab, so Tilda accompanied Erik and Gerard who took Beta along with them to check out that hint. It didn’t go unnoticed for the Dutch that there someone had fought with the machines in this lab, but the others didn’t really care about that and before Tilda could mention anything, they went straight to the server room where the copy should be.

But instead of only finding a copy of GAIA they found someone else lurking around in this room. Tilda’s eyes got wide, as she recognized that face of the young woman in front of them. It was a clone of her beloved Lis. What in the world was a clone of her doing here?

She wanted to talk to the young woman and tried to convince her comrades that she would be a benefit to their mission, but Gerard ordered Erik to kill her. Godverdomme. It would be the perfect opportunity for them to reach their goal to complete the GAIA copy with the subductions they already found. Gerard ordered the Specters to take Beta and get back to the ship, he ordered her as well to retreat to the ship and accompanied them while Erik was still occupied with that girl.

When he joined them at the Odyssey, Beta was already occupied with her studies. They had a meeting with Gerard to discuss the situation. „What happened? Did you kill that girl?“ Tilda asked and looked sceptical at Erik. „No, she could escape. I had sent some Specters after her. She should be dead by now…“

A couple of hours later Tilda snuck out  of the base and travelled back to the proving lab. She had to know if that girl really was dead like Erik claimed. She found a broken focus on the floor and picked it up, took it with her back to the base. It took a bit to repair that little gadget, but after she could finally see what it had recorded, Tilda knew it, felt that that girl called Aloy was still alive. Even if the chances are slim, she must be alive. She had to be. She was the only chance she would get to get her daughter into safety.

She opened the data channel once more and contacted Beta. It was almost a year ago that they spoke over the channel since she had to cut the contact off. „Beta? Little one?“, she asked and looked at a sleeping hologram of her daughter. „Tilda?“, the girl murmured and looked at her. „What…? What do you… want?“ Beta sounded so hurt  and distant. Tilda gulped, it hurt her to almost feel the distance between them, almost like when they got to know each other. The Zenith took a deep breath, she had to control her own feelings when she wanted to know Beta in safety. „I will send you a plan to escape. I will distract Verbena. You will escape and stick to the plan. That other girl from the lab, she must be alive and can help you. I am sure you will be safe with her…“ 

Beta looked in surprise at Tilda who smiled crookedly. „Please stay safe, little one…“ The girl wanted to ask Tilda what would happen with her, but the Zenith ended the channel once again and she got the plan only a couple of seconds after that. It described what she had to do when she would be on her mission with Verbena. Her opportunity to escape came soon and Beta was able to escape. Hopefully, Tilda was right and Beta would be safe with that girl called Aloy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

Tilda van der Meer was sitting in her office and working on some data she had found about the subfunctions they already possessed as Erik stormed into her room. „How dare you!“ she growled at him, as he slammed her door shut. „Don’t play innocent, Tilda!“, he growled and got closer to her. „Verbena's implant told me that you distracted her so that little Beta could escape! You are interfering with our whole mission and much more!“

Tilda stood up and scoffed. „Any proof?“, she asked and looked with confidence at the other Zenith. „Don’t mock me. I know that you manipulated the footage…“, he growled out of anger. „Even so. You probably let the other clone escape… so... We're even.“

„Oh, we aren’t even… not yet…“, he growled and pressed her against the wall behind her, holding her by her neck, strangling her a bit. „Erik… don’t do that…“, she couldn’t speak much, but at least  she tried to fight him off. But Erik was too strong and Tilda couldn’t free herself.

Erik pressed his hand against her neck, his grip getting tighter. Suddenly, he got a message from Gerard, he got ordered to come to his office. He growled, he wasn’t done yet. “On my way…”, he growled and answered Gerard. “Tche… I guess you're lucky today Tilda… But don’t think that it’s over… I’ll come back…”, he growled and left her office.

Tilda van der Meer sobbed, cried and coughed from the pressure she still felt on her neck. Tilda tried to calm down, almost hiding behind her desk. It was the best decision to send her daughter away, she wouldn’t want to know what he would have done to little Beta. She needed to escape herself. Even if she wouldn’t make it to her daughter.

Chapter Text

After the events at the GEMINI cauldron Tilda had taken Varl and Aloy back to her mansion and nursed them back to health. Originally she wanted to save her daughter Beta, but unfortunately Gerard had already escaped with her and so it was Tilda’s only option to save the two in hope that they would help her save her daughter.

While Varl was resting in his room, Tilda’s implant noticed a movement in Aloy’s room. The girl seemed to get awake. Good. They had a lot to discuss with each other. Tilda prepared a couple of fruits and some tea until Aloy arrived at the balcony. She didn’t look amused and seemed very cautious about her surroundings.

„Hello Aloy… It seems your wounds are almost healed. How are you?“, the Zenith calmly asked and looked at the clone. „Where am I and how do you know my name?“ Tilda sighed and put Aloy’s old focus on the table. „You are at my old mansion, this place belonged to me when I was still living here on earth. Actually, you both are at my old mansion.“ „Both? Is Beta here too?“

Tilda shook her head. „I wished she would’ve been here. But unfortunately Gerard could escape with her before I could interfere… So I rescued you and your friend Varl. He is resting downstairs, he got severely wounded by Erik and needed a lot of medical care… But he will live.“ „Varl is alive?“ Aloy seemed relieved at that message, he must mean a lot to her and Tilda nodded. „Yes. But he has to rest. I think he will be able to travel to your base in a couple of days. Until then he will be safe here.“, she explained and nodded to the table. „I figured you must be hungry, sit down and eat something…“

Even though she didn’t seem to trust her, Aloy sat down and ate an apple. „You must be Tilda… Beta told me about you, how you abandoned her…“ The Zenith got big eyes when Aloy said those words. Was that how Beta felt about that? „I… always tried to take care of Beta… unlike the others I never hit or screamed at her… instead I protected her from Erik‘s antics…“ She remembered what she had already sacrificed for her daughter and took a deep breath, looking at the ocean. „I had to cut off our contact, because they found out about the data channel… it had hurted me deeply, but I only tried to protect her…“ After a couple of minutes, Tilda looked at Aloy. „I only want to see her again… and for that I really need your help… Please, help me rescue her…“

Aloy fell into deep thought while she looked at Tilda. “How did you rescue Varl? He was impaled by Erik…” “I used nanites to restore his body. He won’t have… the usual type of body now, unfortunately. His body will be partly nanites, tiny robots. They will keep him alive and maintain most of his body functions until he’s strong enough to survive on its own. But the wound probably will never heal under normal circumstances…” Tilda took a sip of the tea in front of her. 

„I know that you don’t trust me… But I think we can help each other out. I know you are trying to stop a rebellion… I can help you with that and after that we will meet again at your base… In return I just want to see Beta again…“ Tilda began to explain to the clone in front of her what she would need to do to stop the rebellion. But before they separated, she fulfilled Aloy‘s wish and opened the data channel once more, so she could speak with her little sister. Soon after that, Aloy set out to finish the task at hand: stopping a rebellion.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

It took Aloy a couple of days to return to the base after she had stopped Regalla's rebels striking on Sacred Grove and with that Regalla almost killing Hekarro.

In the meantime, Varl was well enough to travel and Tilda reached the base with him. Since the others didn’t know what to make out of her, she was shown a room where she could wait for Aloy to return. The comrades of the clone were tense, almost shy around Tilda and she didn’t mind much of that in the first couple of hours.

But after a while, she had enough of that and began to socialise with the others and got to know them. The first of them was a young woman called Zo. Tilda learned that she was the partner of Varl and Zo was very grateful that Tilda brought her partner back, even though he was injured at GEMINI.

After a couple of days, Tilda got to know everyone who lived in the base, some a bit better, some… not so much. She preferred the company of Zo and Alva, Zo because she was calm and collected and Alva, even though she was bubbly and kind of hyperactive, was still very polite and wanted to learn from her, which flattered Tilda quite a lot.

She was in the room the others had shown her, where she could sleep or do other things to get her mind occupied. She looked at an artwork, a painting she cherished and thought back to the moments when she had shown Beta that painting the first time. The little one didn’t make much out of art, but still showed interest in learning from the Dutch woman.

„Tilda?“, the immortal looked at the origin of the voice and Aloy came into her room. „The others told me you would be here…“, the young huntress explained and Tilda nodded. „Yes. Since I rescued you and your friend, I couldn’t go back to my… let’s say comrades at the Zenith base…“, she looked at Aloy, who still seemed very cautious around her. „Why do you want to rescue my sister?“, Aloy asked and looked thoroughly at the older woman. „I have found the data points about you and Elisabet… you were a couple, weren’t you?“

Tilda was surprised when she got confronted by the younger woman and still smiled at her. „Yes, we were. But unfortunately… our wishes and our plans didn’t align back then…“, she explained. „I see… But that doesn’t answer my question about rescuing my sister.“

Tilda sighed. Of course she would want to know more about her motivation in that matter. „When I left earth, I had many regrets. One of them was going in the first place. I always wished to have stayed with Lis… and now I have a second chance. I can stay, I can fulfil Lis‘ wishes and dreams… and for that, I want to save Beta.“ Aloy looked at her and seemed to think about something. „So… you want her to become your lover then?“

Tilda looked at the young clone in front of her. Why does anybody, who knew that Elisabet was her lover, assume that she wanted Beta to fill in the void Lis had left? The immortal shook her head. „No. I was with her when she got born. I held her in my arms and calmed down that cute little baby she had been…“, she sighed and remembered the moment her daughter was born. „She… I feel love for Beta like a mother loves her child…“

Tilda could have explained that Beta was her and Elisabet‘s daughter and that the girl had given her a reason to live again, but she didn’t know how much she could trust Aloy, even though she didn’t doubt that the clone cared for Beta. „Listen, my reasons don’t really matter at the moment. Coming up with a plan and rescuing Beta is of higher priority right now…“, she said and looked at Aloy. „Well, that’s right, but your reasons why you would rescue her are the reasons if I can trust you… or not.“ Again Tilda had to sigh. “I understand that. But I assure you that I only want her in a safe place. I thought she would be safe with you and your friends and that was true for some time… until the events at GEMINI happened…”

Tilda frowned a bit and looked at the wall. “You see, Aloy, Beta is delicate, sensitive and needs to be taken care of. And yet, she is so strong for what she had to endure all those years… She doesn’t know her own strength and how capable she is…” The Zenith sounded proud, thinking and speaking of Beta. “I want her to grow even more, to see how she can unfold her own potential… as a person, not as a tool like the other Zenith saw her…”

Aloy listened to her explanation and sighed. “Fine. Then let’s work together for now. But… I tell you, when you betray me like you betrayed your friends, I’m going to kill you…”, she dared her and looked seriously at Tilda. “Fair enough.” With that, their conversation about Tilda’s reasons why she wanted to rescue Beta were cut off and Aloy brought Tilda to Sylens, so they could come up with a plan together.

Chapter Text

The whole fight Tilda van der Meer feared that their plan to rescue little Beta wouldn’t work out and that they may have been too late to rescue her daughter. So it was difficult for her to remain concentrated when she fought Gerard. But when Tilda finally could kill him and reached the top of the tower, she saw her daughter was freed by Aloy and sighed in relief.

For a moment, she hesitated, but as soon as Beta was able to stand up, Tilda couldn’t help herself anymore and rushed to her daughter, pulling her into her arms and hugging her tightly. “I’m so glad that you are alive!”, she sobbed, releasing tears of relief, while holding Beta close. The young woman on the other hand was exhausted from the treatment of Erik and Gerard, coming along with being overtaxed from the events and that Tilda pulled her into a hug, that her body gave in and she lost her consciousness. 

“Beta!”Aloy cried out, as soon as she saw that her sister’s body got limb in Tilda’s arms and watched how the immortal laid down the younger woman. “What happened?”, she asked with worry in her voice and kneeled next to them, watching how Tilda caressed Beta’s cheek softly, almost lovingly. “She fainted. I guess everything was just too much…“, Tilda stood up and looked at the young clone. 

She hesitated again for a moment, before she cleared her throat. „We have to talk about something urgent. Another threat is approaching earth and we have to deal with it…“

It took the immortal a bit of time to explain to Aloy what they would have to deal with. What Nemesis was and how it was created. While she was still explaining, the others from the base joined them and soon everyone was gathered and briefed about the upcoming threat.

„Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Why did you keep quiet about it?“, Aloy asked, almost furious and couldn’t understand the reasons for the immortal in front of her had. „Because I needed you with a full focus on rescuing your sister. Nemesis is probably years away and rescuing Beta was more urgent…“ It made sense what Tilda said to Aloy, still the young clone was mad at the immortal.

Tilda looked at her daughter and smiled crookedly. „We should bring her back to your base. It’s not safe here and she needs to rest… and we need to work out a solution regarding Nemesis…“ 

Aloy sighed, but she and the rest nodded in agreement and Erend lifted Beta up, carrying her back to the tunnel they had used to reach the Zenith base. Even though there weren’t any Zenith anymore, there were still machines and Specters, which could be a threat, so Aloy and Tilda went ahead, clearing the way, while the others stayed close to Erend to help him protect the younger woman.

After they reached the mainland again, Aloy called some mounts. It would be faster travelling back on a charger, but Aloy also called her Sunwing Nugget. She would take her sister with him to the base and as soon as Beta was secured on his back, Aloy took off with him, flying ahead and only Tilda accompanied her through the air.

As soon as they reached the base, Tilda helped Aloy bring her sister down into her room down in the basement. For a moment, the immortal only could look with worried eyes to her daughter, who was slowly breathing, resting from the exhaustion and events at the Zenith Base. 

„We should let her rest," the huntress said to Tilda, who only nodded. She wished she could stay with her child but they had a lot to discuss. She would look after her, when she was awake yet again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

The first couple of weeks Tilda and Beta didn’t speak with each other. Not because Tilda didn’t try, but Beta didn’t want to. She didn’t want to speak with anyone besides her sister in those weeks. She needed to rest and overcome the past weeks before her rescue. Besides that, she still was hurt that Tilda had cut off the data channel, the contact they had with each other. She always had seen Tilda as some sort of a mother to her and losing that, left deep scars on her heart and now she only felt tossed aside by her. 

Beta was in her room down in the basement, when she got a message from the older woman. 

„Hello Beta, I know you don’t want to see anyone besides your sister right now, but when you are ready I would like to talk to you.

I need to explain some things that happened back at the Odyssey and want to apologise to you. - Tilda“ 

For a moment, Beta frowned and weighed her choices against each other. Should she give her the opportunity to talk to her? 

Beta sighed heavily. She couldn’t run away from Tilda her whole life, especially not since the immortal now lived in the Base like herself. So, she decided to get over with that unpleasant conversation and told Tilda that she could come down. Now that she had sent her the message, Beta became nervous again and fiddled on her fingers. 

Tilda probably wanted to tell her that she never considered her close and that she hated her for being a failure. Beta’s thoughts roamed around the sole idea that the Dutch woman hated her, despised her and wanted to completely cut off things. She didn’t have in mind that Tilda wrote to her that she wanted to apologise.

A couple of minutes later, Tilda arrived and the door to Beta’s room opened to the immortal. The older one stepped into her daughter’s room and watched, as the young woman stood up, leaning onto a canister which was used as some sort of storage. Beta held her arms now around her waist, as if she was shielding herself from any harm that may come. “You… you wanted to explain things?”, she asked with a hoarse voice and Tilda heard how hurt her daughter still was.

“Yes…”, Tilda gulped and took a breather, still looking at Beta. “When I told you that I always wanted to take care of you back on the Odyssey, I meant it. I could never do it because of Erik and Gerard. But I couldn’t bear the thought of not being with you, which is why I opened the data channel.” “And why did you toss me aside then?!” Beta now almost screamed. She had listened to Tilda, but when what she told her was true, why did she cut off the connection? 

“I… I am so sorry, Beta… I never wanted to cut off the data channel, the connection we had. Erik… he found the channel. He tried to hack into it, I only could relocate it in time, so that he wouldn’t have any proof for it and might hurt you…” She remembered how the stronger man lashed out onto herself instead of her daughter, when Erik appeared in her space at the Odyssey. She gulped, shoving those memories aside. Tilda got closer to Beta, took her hands carefully.  “It was shortly after you mentioned those… educational simulations… I only feared for your safety, little one… I tried to protect you from him…”, she whispered and some tears came from her eyes.

Suddenly Beta hugged her, held her close and began to cry. „I thought, you didn’t want to take care of me anymore. I thought you hated me…“, she sobbed against Tilda’s chest. The immortal was stunned at first, but soon she wrapped her arms around her daughter, holding her close.

„I could never hate you, little one…“, she whispered and began to cry. „I always loved you… I hope you can forgive me one day… I never meant to hurt you…“ Beta looked up to her, still with tears in her eyes. „You don’t hate me?“ Tilda shook her head. „No…“ „I always saw you as… my mother… I always wished you would be my mother…“

Tilda kissed Beta’s forehead, softly drying her tears after that. „Little one, I always wished I would have given birth to you… But there’s something I need to tell you…”

"Something else? Did I do something wrong?" Beta always had feared to disappoint Tilda, feared that she would be hated by the older woman, but to her surprise, Tilda only shook her head to her question. 

„No… you didn’t do anything… I… I did something… horrible… I kept quiet about the truth of your existence…“ confusion was written over Beta’s face, not understanding what the immortal meant. „What… What are you talking about? Am I a lesser clone than expected?“ Again Tilda shook her head.

„You see…“, Tilda took a deep breath, „When I was living on earth, living with Lis, she always wanted a child to take care of and raise it, to have a daughter like you… Back then we had the possibility to combine the genetics between two women, so that they could have a child together…“ Tilda remembered how often they spoke about raising children, how often she had wished that their shared dream would have come true. „And… we had decided that we would raise one when everything would be better… well… you know things didn’t end well between her and me.“ 

Tilda took another breather before she continued: „When the Zenith’s decided that they would make a clone of Lis, I saw that as an opportunity to fulfil her wish, even though she would never be able to meet her own daughter… and… well…“ Tilda went silent. She wanted to tell her child the truth but was afraid of her reaction. Would Beta accept that she is her mother? Would she hate her for being quiet about that for all those years? „I… I told you that I always loved you like my own. That I always loved you like you were my daughter… When you were born… Erik and Gerard robbed me from my child, from my daughter… from you. I always regretted that I couldn’t take care of you the way you had deserved it and that I had hurt you… I… I couldn’t muster up the courage to tell you that you are my and Lis‘ child… I am sorry, Beta…“

Beta looked at Tilda, silent as a stone. „You… are my mother…? And Elisabet too…?“ she asked, when she finally found her voice again and tears built up in her eyes, running slowly down her cheeks. „Oh no, Beta… I am so sorry… I…“ Tilda was kind of helpless, seeing her child cry. She gently pulled her into her arms again, caressing her back, trying to console her. „I never understood why you would want to care for me… I always thought you only took pity on my situation… I always wished… oh Tilda!“ she cried and cuddled up to Tilda, hugging her tightly. Silent tears went down Tilda‘s cheeks.

„I am sorry that I never told you before… I was so afraid of them finding out that they would kill you and afraid of… being hated by you for keeping quiet about that, even though it was for your own safety…“ Back with the Zeniths Beta would have been killed by Gerard or Erik if they had known that she wouldn’t be a clone and more a child of Sobeck. „It’s… it’s okay…“ Beta swiped off the tears and smiled at her mother. „I… always wished for someone who would love me like a parent did… I thought that I wouldn’t have anyone in that matter… I am… happy that you are my mother, Tilda…“, she sighed and took a breather. „But… I don’t know if I can call you mother… yet… it may need time… is that okay?“ The Zenith nodded and smiled crookedly at her child. „Of course…“, she whispered and hugged her again.

They stayed like this for a couple of minutes, only hugging each other until Beta got tired and wanted to lay down a bit. She still got easily exhausted from anything that took energy from her body or her mind. The immortal tucked her in and kissed her forehead softly. „Would you… wake me up later?“, Beta asked and looked up to Tilda, who nodded. „Yes… now rest a bit, little one…“

Chapter Text

Tilda was preparing a dish from home, a simple dish called stamppot. Stamppot is a traditional Dutch dish made from a combination of potatoes mashed with one or several vegetables and typically garnished with sausages. They were lucky that they could gather the ingredients for that or hunt for meat on the side. 

Tilda hummed a little melody, a little song that had catched her when she had listened to Zo singing it to the plants in the garden, when suddenly her daughter contacted everyone through the focus network.

„Hey, uh, guys… could you all gather up in the main room?“ 

Tilda got a bit confused about that. Surely they lived for over a year with the others in their little Base and searched for a solution against Nemesis, but it never occurred that Beta asked for their attendance, if she had found a lead or something she always shared it via focus network.

So, the immortal got curious and went like everyone else to the main room. In the middle of it stood Beta, highly nervous and Aloy behind her, patting softly on her back. „Hey, thanks that you all gathered here… I… uh… okay. I thought a long time about it and… I decided to change my name. I want to leave the past on the Odyssey and how I was threatened by most of the Zenith there behind me… and I want to be called Belana from now on. I mean, a new name a new me, so to say”

Tilda’s eyes widened as her daughter opened this to everyone. She had no idea that Belana felt like this, probably because she didn’t want to hurt her. Tilda had told her daughter that she named her after Elisabet. Still, it hurt her somehow that her daughter wanted to change her name, even though she could understand her reasons. However, Tilda took a deep breath and went to Belana, who looked at her, nervously. „I am very proud of you, little one…“, she softly spoke. She would gulp down her feelings and would support her child instead of being hurt. „You chose a beautiful name, Belana… It suits you very well.“

Belana smiled brightly and everyone else congratulated her for her bravery and her new name. Belana then explained that she had chosen that new name with the help of her sister and Erend. The name had its origin in the Oseram tribe and was the name of amber coloured gemstones. She explained that - regarding the colour of her hair - Erend thought it would be fitting.

Tilda rustled through Belana’s hair and kissed her on the forehead. „You are really a brave one, Belana…“ After everyone had hugged her and called her by her new name, Tilda let everyone know that she was almost done with the dinner.

A new name meant a new life for her little one. Even if she wanted to cut off her past, it wouldn’t change anything what a brave and strong woman Belana had become and Tilda as her mother was very proud of her.

Chapter Text

Belana and Tilda lived for over two years now in the base with the others and Tilda even brought her old piano from her mansion to the base, so she could start to reconstruct it, when she had a bit of time on hand. Aloy wasn‘t so sure, if the immortal even had the knowledge to do such a thing, but definitely the determination for it. She could often witness that Belana tried to help Tilda or bring her some refreshments.

It always was a lovely sight to watch them interact with each other and somehow, a sight that reminded Aloy why she started her journey, why she started to do all of this. Because she wanted to know who her mother was. Only to end up being a clone of someone she will never meet, not having a mother at all. At least no human mother.

She still wanted, desired to have such a person in her life, a mother who would listen to her worries, to her feelings and give her advice. Someone who embraced her, hugged her, when she felt lonely. Even though she couldn’t hug her, in the last two years Gaia became such a person for Aloy, at least in her mind and she often catched herself that she wanted to call the AI ‘mother‘, but never did. How could she not? She shared with Gaia almost every thought she had, even when she noticed that she had fallen in love with Alva, she shared her thoughts and fears with the AI but never called her mother. Even though Aloy saw her as her mother, she didn‘t know if the empathic AI felt the same about her. And she was too afraid to ask. Too afraid of rejection.

Aloy returned from Gaia‘s room to her own room. She was a bit exhausted; she had updated Gaia about the last missions she had done for villagers in the nearby area and completed some drone maps she had found. It was a rough day for her and she almost only wanted to sleep, but got again occupied with her own thoughts. While she was on those missions, she missed her sister, missed Gaia and her friends. 

Aloy was still laying awake on her bed, when Belana entered her room. „Hey, sis!“, she smiled and looked at her older sister. „How did those missions go? Did you get injured or are you fine?“, she asked and sat down next to Aloy, who looked up to her sister. „Everything went fine, I‘m not injured or anything…“, Aloy said while she sat up again and looked at Belana. „Can… can we cuddle a bit?“, she asked almost shyly. Aloy was never good in expressing her wishes and feelings, especially not when it came to a bit of intimacy like cuddling or hugging. She tried to learn how to be more open, but it needed time.

„Sure!“ Belana was a bit surprised that her sister wanted to cuddle, but crawled onto Aloy’s bed and cuddled up to her big sister, wrapping her arms around her body. „Is everything okay? You rarely ask for cuddles…“, she asked and looked up to the older woman. „Honestly… not really. I never talked about it… but I wish I would have a mother like you have…in some way, you know?“ „Because Tilda is my mother?“ Aloy nodded and sighed heavily. „Yeah, I just… I wished I could sometimes hug Gaia… you know, I kind of see her as my mother, but… well…“ 

Belana watched how her sister closed her eyes and gulped. Apparently she had to restrain some tears, something that Belana never had seen since she lived with her sister in the base. „Awww.. Aloy… Do you want me to sleep here tonight? We could cuddle and talk a bit?“, she asked and Aloy only nodded. „Alright, I will fetch some of my sleeping stuff and come back to you, alright?“ „Yeah, I will change in the meantime…“ 

Belana separated them from another and stood up. She went straight to her room and sent a message via focus to Tilda. She had an idea and hoped her mother would be able to help her with that. 

„Hey Tilda! Do you think we could make Gaia a body? Like a humanoid machine so to say?

Give it a thought and let’s talk about that tomorrow. I will sleep in Aloy’s room tonight! Good night - Belana“ 

After Belana had changed into her sleeping clothes, she went back to her sister. They would share a comfy sister-night and Belana would cheer up her older sister. Aloy deserved so much love.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

For over a half year after Aloy confessed her wish for a mother to Belana, she and Tilda had worked on a body for the AI that keeps watch about their life, environment and earth. It wasn’t easy and both women had a lot of materials to gather, mostly from the Zenith base.

But after Belana had finished the eye colour of Gaia’s new body, they could finally try to upload her data into this new android body of hers and with the body she would still be connected with the focus network. Before they had finished the process in making the robotic body for Gaia, Tilda and Belana told her and Aloy that they would need to repair something in Gaia’s room and that they would load her into a kernel for that.

Belana held that kernel in her hands, shaking a bit. She looked up to her mother Tilda, seeking comfort. She was nervous that something may have gone wrong in constructing the body. Her mother, though, was very confident that everything would be alright and nodded as a sign that everything will go smoothly.

Belana slowly loaded the data of Gaia into the body and after a couple minutes, the AI opened her eyes and the body moved smoothly on her commands.

„Belana? Tilda? What is going on?“, Gaia was confused and looked at Tilda, hoping for answers since Belana began to cry, seemingly out of joy. She was just so happy that their effort worked out.

„We built you your own body, Gaia…“, Tilda softly spoke and smiled at her. „We wanted to give it to you as a gift and… well to Aloy. So that you both would be finally able to share a hug… like mother and daughter should…“ Being able to hug Aloy was the greatest gift Gaia could ever imagine, since she saw the young woman as her own daughter, even though she didn’t give birth to her. 

"I can hug her…", she whispered and smiled at the thought of that. Even though Gaia was an AI, she felt like any other human being, emotions and connections to other people, especially to Aloy.

„Thank you… both of you…“, she lovingly spoke, got up and hugged Belana and Tilda tightly, holding them close for a moment. After a couple of minutes, Belana separated them and looked up to Gaia, smiling at the AI. „I am happy that you like our gift. Do you want to meet Aloy and the others? I can imagine that you would want to hug my sister too!” Tilda chuckled and rustled through the hair of her own child. She was so damn proud of her achievements.

„I would love to…“, for some reason, Gaia became very nervous about meeting Aloy in her new body. Would she be happy to see her like this? Or would she despise what she would see? Gaia noticed something beating fast within her chest. 

“Tilda… there’s something beating really fast in my chest… Do I have a malfunction?”, she worriedly asked and looked at the immortal, who only chuckled. “No, we built you a synthetic heart, which reacts to the emotions you’re feeling. I guess that you are nervous about meeting Aloy…”

Gaia nodded and smiled, as Tilda softly patted her shoulder. “That’s normal. But I’m sure that everything will be alright. She will love to see and hug you…” “Then… let’s not wait too long…”, Gaia whispered and they went upstairs.

Luckily, Aloy was sitting in the main room and working through some data with her focus. For once she had decided to stay in the base and do some ‘office work’ as Tilda called it once in a joking manner. „Aloy?“, the AI spoke and slowly went to her child. Gaia always kind of saw the people living in the base as her children, but Aloy had a special place in her heart. She was the only one Gaia would call her ‘own‘ even though she didn’t have given birth to her. 

Aloy looked up and couldn’t believe what she saw. „Gaia…?“ she whispered under her breath and stood up. She walked slowly to the one she called mother in her mind and after she realised that she really stood before her, Aloy couldn’t help herself and hugged her tightly. 

„Yes, it‘s me, my child…“, Gaia whispered and held Aloy close to herself, hugging her tightly. When Aloy got hugged by Gaia, she felt overwhelmed by her own emotions and began suddenly to sob and cry out of joy. Gaia couldn’t help herself to caress Aloy’s back softly, comforting her lovingly. „Mother…“, she sobbed against Gaia’s shoulder, just so happy to finally hug the woman, the AI that had become her mother over the years.

Everyone around them slowly left the main room, so that Aloy and Gaia had their little moment for themselves, even though it was a beautiful sight to see mother and daughter finally united.

Chapter Text

The sun began to set, when they arrived at the ranch of Elisabet Sobeck, her last resting place. Aloy had told Tilda about the place and that she had found Elisabet there. Tilda wanted to bid farewell to her former lover for her final rest and was accompanied by Aloy and Belana. She looked at the sisters and gulped. 

It wasn’t the first time that she had been at the ranch, but the first time since she had returned to earth. She became nervous to visit Elisabet’s grave. It meant to end things, even though she somehow wanted to end things, to move forward, Tilda didn’t know if she was ready for that.

“I… When I discovered Elisabet first, I couldn’t bring up the courage to bury her… Only a few weeks later I was able to do that… so… well… here she rests…” The grave Aloy had dug was now a bed for a couple of flowers, very suitable for Sobeck’s last resting place. As soon as they reached the grave, Aloy skidded a bit away, wanting to give her sister and Tilda some privacy. She had herself some moments with Elisabet, when she had found her years ago.

The immortal gulped hard. The emptiness in her heart cried up, telling her that this is wrong, that she can’t just forget her feelings for Elisabet. Somehow her heart was right and somehow she couldn’t mourn all her life. At least her head tried to tell her that. Not very convincing though.

“Hey Lis… I know, you probably can’t hear me, but if you do… I returned to earth… I’m an immortal now… and well, we are trying to save the earth… how ironic that I was so afraid to stay with you and now… I’m here! Sorry for everything… really…”, Tilda spoke with the grave, with Lis’ body beneath the soil. “And… Well, I’m not alone anymore… I brought someone with me. You don’t know her yet and I’m sorry that I’m only able to introduce her to you now… but… This is our daughter… her name is Belana…”, she kind of crookedly smiled and skidded a bit away, so Belana could come closer to the grave. “Hey… uh… mother…? Sorry… it’s just… You know, I thought my whole life that I’m a clone of you, Elisabet, but… well… Tilda only told me about two years ago that I’m your daughter… so… yeah. Hi!”, she nervously spoke and fidgety played a bit with her hands. “I hope that we can save earth, like you wanted to… and hey, we built Gaia her own body…!”

The immortal and Belana talked for a couple of moments with the grave, before they returned to Aloy, who had returned to the campfire in the meantime. She smiled at them, only nodding and implying that she didn’t need an explanation of what had happened. 

They had an intimate mother-daughter moment and that was all she needed to know. The rest was up to the three of them. “Let’s eat something, get some sleep and then return home…”, Aloy spoke and handed both a skewer, one with meat and vegetables for Tilda and the other one with vegetables for her sister, since Belana preferred a meatless diet. Both nodded and took their dinner, only to head to bed soon after. Their way home would take a toll on them, but the moment with Elisabet was important for both, mother like daughter.

Chapter Text

Aloy was outside in the wilds, sneaking through the higher, reddish grass, lurking within the leaves. Tilda had requested from her to fill up their stock on meat, since they were running a bit short on that. She took her hunters bow from her back, held it firmly in her hand, when she saw a boar close to a small river. She aimed at it and just the moment, when her arrow hit the animal, a familiar voice called her through her focus.

„Aloy, I registered a faint distress signal from an unknown facility in the south west. On an Island close to Legacy's Landfall…“

„What do you think it could be? Another Zenith, who snuck away from us, maybe?“, Aloy asked Gaia, who was talking to her at that moment. „Honestly, I am not sure. Maybe, it would be the only reasonable conclusion. The only thing that confuses me is that it sends a distress signal. Be careful, my child, I‘ve sent you the coordinates.“ „I will, mother, I will.“ The huntress answered while walking over to the carcass, only to pull out her arrow and strip the boar from the hide and bones she needed. Unfortunately, the boar wasn’t muscled enough to be a good resource for meat, but the hide and the bones would be good for upgrading her pouches.

While she sent Tilda a message that said that her mother would send her to a mission in the southwest and that she wouldn’t be able to retrieve the needed meat, she got the coordinates for her destination from Gaia. 

Aloy looked up the coordinates on her map and sighed. She could either ride to the west coast, close to Thormarsh and take a boat from there or she could call her Sunwing and fly to the destination. Since it was a distress signal, Aloy decided that she would call her Sunwing and it only took him a few minutes to land in front of her. 

„Hey, Nugget!“, she greeted him and grinned at her big, goofy Sunwing. Even though he had some… weird tendencies, like crashing into mountains on a regular basis, she liked this big bird very much and refused to get rid of him. „Let‘s set out for a little journey…“, she spoke and climbed onto his back, only to set off soon after.

The flight didn‘t take too long, only a couple of hours and Aloy was very grateful that her sister had given her the override for Sunwings, otherwise the same route would have taken days or even weeks. When Nugget landed on the island Aloy climbed down from his back and looked around. The island was pretty isolated and she couldn’t see any machines nearby, besides her own. Since it was a small island, she found the entry to the facility rather fast and frowned a bit in confusion.

„Huh… doesn‘t seem to be a cauldron or any usual Zenith facility... What should anyone do here?“, Aloy murmured to herself and activated her focus with a tap on it so she could scan her surroundings. „No machines in it? That‘s weird…“, she spoke to herself and went into the facility. Even if there weren't any machines on the surface of the island, she was prepared that there would be some waiting for her in the facility. 

She wondered what kind of facility it was, but she soon learned that the facility belonged to Ted Faro, since there was a big banner with the initials FAS written all over it. „Faro again, huh?“, she sighed and went deeper inside. 

It was an old facility, still running some systems, which she couldn’t identify at first, but nothing that seemed to be any kind of danger to her. „Gaia? I doubt that anyone is here, but I will look for that signal…“, she said to her mother, so that she wouldn’t worry too much. „Alright. Be careful, Aloy…“ „Of course…“, she smiled a bit. Ever since Gaia had her own body, she became even more empathic to the people around her and loved to take care of Aloy or the others living in the base. And Aloy loved it to be mothered by the AI, to finally have a mother.

The facility wasn’t that big, not like Thebes, so after a couple of minutes, she entered a room that resembled a laboratory. „Huh… the signal comes from here…“, she murmured and scanned the room. The signal radiated from a pod, which resembled those cryogenic pods she had seen at the Far Zenith base. Aloy decided to inspect that said pod and saw a human being sleeping in it, even though the visor was dusty and she couldn’t see who was lying there. But she could see that a computer was attached to the pod and Aloy went to the said console, to investigate further. „Mhm… let‘s see…“, she whispered, as she activated the computer and scrolled through the data.

Subject: 001-20200311-ES

Process: immortalising - completed 2068

Cryogenic Status: alive 

Awake the subject? [Y] [N]

„Immortalising process finished…?“, someone was immortalised like the Zenith? Like Ted Faro tried it for himself? She decided that she would read more data before she would awaken the subject. „Test subject 001 successful… Process finished 2068… damn that‘s a long time ago…“, Aloy mumbled as she read the partly corrupted data.

„Continuing process with test subject 002-20132412-TF… that was… Ted Faro… huh, that didn‘t go well for you Ted…“, she shook her head. Of course he tested that mad idea onto someone else until he tried it with himself. She returned to the first screen of data.

„Let‘s see… awaken subject? That sounds good. Maybe they know a bit more about what is going on here…“ Maybe they would know something about AIs and how to fight a rogue AI too. Aloy‘s hope wasn‘t that high, as much as she knew about Faro that the person in this pod could be literally anyone, even his secretary or someone else who may not know anything at all. She wouldn’t be surprised if the person in the pod would be a total stranger that got roped into his mischievous doings, just because Ted was an asshole. 

After Aloy had started the awakening process a little timer appeared on the screen. The test subject should wake up in about five minutes. Aloy hummed a bit and updated her mother that she had found someone who was used by Ted Faro for the said process. Gaia asked her to be cautious, they wouldn’t know who it would be. A loud hissing sound chimed, when the pod opened slowly and an artificial voice sounded from some speakers in the pod.

„Awakening process activated. Good morning Dr. Elisabet Sobeck. Welcome to the year 3044.“

Aloy’s eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips. Dr. Elisabet Sobeck? That was impossible! She looked through the data in the computer, if she had overread something, but she couldn’t find more about the subject itself. Then she noticed a little symbol in the corner of the screen and when she opened the data behind the symbol, she could read how the subject was gathered by Ted.

TF-J-001: Found Elisabet almost dead on her ranch. Luckily I had some oxygen with me to rescue that mind of hers. 

TF-J-003: I swapped her body with Amanda’s. It wasn’t easy to bring Lis back to this facility, but it will be worth it.

TF-J-010: The process seems to run smoothly. It should be finished in a couple of weeks.

TF-J-053: Finally. Process is finished. According to the data, she’s immortal now. Hah. The irony. I won’t wake her up, though. Too dangerous. I have other plans.

TF-J-060: Hmpf. The program to digitalise her mind doesn’t function well. Heck, I don’t have the time for this…

After that, the journal ends.

It was her. According to the data Aloy found, Faro found her almost dead at her ranch and swapped her with someone called Amanda. Left this woman to die, while he rescued Elisabet to let her undergo this immortalising process and tried to digitalise her mind. Aloy couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that he did such a thing and why he did it in the first place.

When the clone looked at the open pod, her heart sank. She had buried a woman and mourned her death in belief that it would have been Elisabet, the only other woman on earth she had seen as some sort of a mother, even though she had never met her in person. She gulped. What would she think of her? She would know that Aloy is her clone and as much as Aloy knew, Elisabet disliked the thought of clones, which is why she dispatched the lightkeeper protocol…

Elisabet mumbled something. „Mhm…?“, she opened her eyes and had trouble getting a clear vision the first few moments. When her eyes adjusted to the dim light around her, she got even more confused about her surroundings.

Where was she? The last thing she remembered was that she went to die at her ranch… back home in Nevada. But she wasn‘t there and was… alive? How was that possible? She sat up, took off a respirator mask and looked around, it seemed like a laboratory where she was, what didn’t make any sense to her. And damn, she felt like she was kicked by a fucking donkey.

„Elisabet…?“, she heard a voice from the side, which sounded familiar and strange to her at the same time and Elisabet looked to the origin, only to look into a mirror image. Well almost. The woman in front of her was younger, had longer and lighter coloured hair than herself. „Who…? What is going on??“, she asked and looked at the young woman in front of her. „Well… that’s a long story to tell… My name is Aloy…“, the clone said and Elisabet sighed. 

„Aloy? Is everything alright?“, Gaia‘s voice came from her focus and Aloy sighed in relief. „Hey mother, it’s complicated… I… by the All-Mother… I can’t  believe that… I… I found Elisabet…" "What? Elisabet is alive?" "Yes, I will update you later… it’s a long story…“ Elisabet watched how her clone talked to someone, her mother apparently, via focus and they both seem to know about her.

„Okay, what is going on? I mean, you are clearly a clone of me. But why?“, Elisabet asked and was standing now in front of Aloy. „Yes, I am. Gaia activated the lightkeeper protocol and created me. It’s a long story… and maybe we should get out first, I can imagine that you want to breathe some fresh air…“ Elisabet looked confused at Aloy, but nodded at her suggestion. Fresh air. How long hadn’t she breathed fresh air? The younger woman rustled in one of her pouches and gave her a focus then. Elisabet noticed what kind of clothes she wore. What happened in the last millennium?

"I can explain everything as soon as we reach the base. Or I can just send you the data I found, when I found out that… that I am a clone of you…", Aloy spoke and felt the need to gulp. She had never imagined after she had buried Elisabet that it was someone else and that she would meet her. "Next to me, I think, my mother… I mean, Gaia could also explain a lot to you… besides she would love to see you again…“ „Gaia is your mother…?“, Elisabet asked and looked a bit confused at Aloy. „Well… yeah. I call her mother and she sees me as her daughter…“

Elisabet sensed that Aloy didn’t want to elaborate why she called an AI mother instead of a human being, even though she noticed herself how motherly Gaia was when she was still working on her. After Elisabet had put on the focus, she tapped on it and scanned the area. 

„Which year is it…?“, she asked, she hadn’t heard what the mechanical voice said when she was waking up. „3044. You slept a lot of time in that pod…“, Aloy smiled crookedly, gulped before she led Elisabet outside of the facility and explained to her on the way what she had found out why Lis was still alive. 

„So, basically, you are saying that Ted was just a dick again?“ „Yeah…“, when they reached the sunlight, Elisabet took a deep breather. It was just such a good feeling to breathe fresh air again. Better than she had ever imagined. “Feeling better?”, Aloy asked her and Elisabet nodded. “Yes. It feels so good to breathe fresh air again…” “Yeah, I can imagine…”

After that, Aloy called for her Sunwing and only a couple of minutes later Nugget landed in front of her. „What is that?!“, Elisabet flinched as the Sunwing suddenly landed in front of them. „That’s my Sunwing Nugget. We are going to fly back to the base.“ „Absolutely not.“ „What?“ „I won’t fly on that thing!“ „Ugh… fine.“ Aloy grumbled and sent her Sunwing away.

Then she nodded to a palm tree, implying that Elisabet should follow her. As soon as they reached the palm tree, she sat down and opened a map with her focus. Aloy activated her focus in a way, so that Elisabet could see the map with her focus too.

“Alright, we’re here at the moment. Our base is here…”, she explained and showed her how far away their base to the island was. “Are you still not in the mood for flying?” “Sorry, but I don’t trust that thing to carry me safely to your base… besides, I don’t think that I can fully guarantee that I will be able to hold onto it, since I woke up only a short time ago…” Aloy looked at her, and sighed. She had a point. Even though flying would be the fastest way, it could also be the more dangerous one. At least for Elisabet.

“Alright… in that case, we should travel to Legacy’s Landfall, resupply there and ask the Quen there for a bigger boat. I have seen one around here, but it’s rather small and I doubt that it will be sturdy enough to reach the mainland…”, she explained and showed the way from the island to the settlement. 

“Depending on how long we will take, we could spend the night in Legacy’s Landfall…”, she explained and looked at the sky. It was midday right now and they probably would take about two or three hours to reach the settlement. “As soon as we reach the mainland, we can head towards Thornmarsh. It's safest for us to travel from settlement to settlement until we reach the base. I don’t think that you can defend yourself against machines and that way we would have at least a safe place for the nights then…” She showed on the map the next locations and settlements they would travel to. The Memorial Grove, Scalding Spear and the last one was their base. Aloy explained that it was a former regional control centre.

She looked at Elisabet and tapped on her focus and connected to Gaia again. „Mother?” “Yes, Aloy?” “It will take a bit longer to come back… Elisabet refuses to fly with Nugget…” “I see… I… am overwhelmed that she is still alive… shall I tell Belana and Tilda?” “No, I… I want to bring her back to the base, let’s tell them then… I don‘t want them to freak out in the meantime… we will probably take a week or so… depending how fast we can reach the mainland and get other mounts… but something else… Are you alone right now?” “Yes, I am indeed alone. I am in my room right now. Why do you ask?”

Instead of answering Gaia’s question, Aloy tapped again on her focus and switched to a holocall. Gaia’s upper body visualised in front of them and Aloy heard how Elisabet gasped next to her. “Gaia?” the Old One whispered and looked at the gorgeous image of Gaia in front of her. “Elisabet… It’s so wonderful to see you again…” “Oh god… I’m so happy to see you…” “Likewise… I am overwhelmed that you are still alive… I can’t wait to see you in person…” “Same as me…” “Yeah, it’s really an overwhelming situation… But we will return as fast as possible…”, Aloy now spoke and nudged into the direction that they should get going. Gaia nodded understanding. "Alright. Travel safe my child…"

After Aloy had ended the holocall with her mother, she looked at Elisabet, who wiped away some tears. “So… then… let’s go. It will take a bit to travel back to our base… But don’t worry, IF we should run into some rogue machines, I can defend you…” Even though Elisabet didn’t seem to be convinced by that, they set out to travel back to Legacy's Landfall.

Chapter Text

As soon as Elisabet was sitting in the boat, Aloy shoved it into the water and boarded it also. “So… Aloy, right?” Elisabet asked her and the young huntress only nodded. “Since we will probably travel a bit, do you want to update me?” Aloy gulped. There were a lot of things that she would need to tell Elisabet and she wasn't sure how she would react to that. The purge of APOLLO, the murder of the Alphas, that Tilda lives, her very own existence, her sister… 

She took a deep breath. “Okay. But it's a lot to take in…” She looked at Elisabet, who waited for further explanations. “You see… About 25 years ago an extinction signal from space reached Gaia, or rather HADES and activated him. Because of the signal, the subfunctions became self-aware entities, true AIs like Gaia herself and HADES threatened to destroy everything… To prevent that, she blew up herself and just before that happened, she used the ELEUTHIA-9 cradle facility to reactivate the lightkeeper protocol…” 

“I… I see… so, that's how you were born?” Aloy nodded and took a moment to breathe. Talking and rowing wasn't an easy task. “Yes. About four years ago, a lot happened. But we were able to collect most of her subfunctions and integrate them back to Gaia…” Elisabet nodded and looked around, stunned by the beauty of nature.

“It’s beautiful, isn't it? Zero Dawn worked… Gaia worked like you wanted her to… well until the signal reached her…” "Zero Dawn was a success?" she whispered and was overwhelmed how nature had developed. "Yes, unfortunately Ted was a dick and deleted the APOLLO database…" Aloy got mad just by the thought of that.

“He did what?” Elisabet looked in a weird mixture of shock and anger at Aloy. “Yeah… unfortunately, it wasn't his only crime back at your time…” “What did he do?” Aloy went silent. She wasn't sure, if she should tell her, how he murdered the Alphas. “Aloy, what did he do?”, Elisabet demanded. Aloy sighed. “After he had purged APOLLO, he killed your team… he killed the Alphas…” Elisabet went deadly calm, when she heard what Aloy had to tell her. It was a calmness, Aloy was yet familiar with. Elisabet shifted and looked away from the young huntress, watching the fishes beneath the surface of the sea instead. The young clone decided that she should give Elisabet a bit of time to process this information and began to row again. Aloy wasn't sure, but she thought she would see a couple of tears leaving Elisabet’s eyes.

It was an awkward silence between the women, only the waves and some birds were able to be heard. Aloy sighed deeply. “When APOLLO was purged by Ted, how do you know about the project then? I mean, you can't be raised to be an Alpha…" Elisabet broke the silence and looked over to Aloy, who only shook her head.

“No, I haven't learned about the project until I found out that I am a clone of you…”, she said and sighed. “Close to the ELEUTHIA-9 cradle facility lives a tribe. The Nora. They are a matriarchal tribe and worship a goddess called the All-Mother. They live in the sacred lands at the bottom of the All-Mother-Mountain, the cradle facility…” Aloy pressed back some tears, thinking of how much she had to endure her whole life and how much she missed Rost…

“Since I was born in a cradle facility and an inactive Horus was sitting on top of the mountain… they believed that I, a motherless child, was a bad omen and they outcasted me at birth…” She stopped rowing for a moment and took a breather. She was always so damn bad at such things and was a bit overwhelmed now to think of her past again.

"One of the High-Matriarchs, though, gave me to another outcast called Rost… he raised me, trained me, so that I could prove myself worthy enough to be part of the tribe… He prepared me to run the proving…" the young woman gripped harder on the paddle, sighed heavily. Suddenly, Aloy felt a hand on her shoulder. "He means a lot to you, doesn't he?" "We never said it out loud, but he was my father… Unfortunately I lost him a couple of years ago…”

Aloy told Elisabet how she found her first focus, how Rost had trained her for the proving. How proud he was, even though he never said it, she knew that he was. "The proving is a ritual for young Nora to become braves, warriors. It was the only opportunity for me to prove that I am worthy of the tribe. And when someone wins the proving against the other competitors, they would be granted a boon." "Did you win it?" Elisabet asked and for a moment, Aloy believed to hear a slight hint of pride in her voice.

“Yes, I did. I was granted a boon and was brought into All-Mother-Mountain… I was brought in front of the door the Nora worshipped as their goddess and when it scanned me… that was the moment when I saw your face for the first time…” Somehow, the urge to tell Elisabet that she believed that she was her mother back then tingled at her mind, but she suppressed it. She wasn't ready to talk to her about that, yet, besides she didn't believe that Elisabet wanted to fill in that void her heart had been, when she found out about her origin. Even though she had Gaia, she still had the wish to have a similar connection to Elisabet like she had with Gaia.

“After I saw that face of a woman, which looked like me, I…”

I assumed back then that she was my mother.

Words of desperation unspoken, even though she wanted to express her feelings, fear of rejection held Aloy back. 

“I questioned myself… about my origin…” 

Why would my mother have left me, and despised me. 

“Next to that, I wanted to know why the proving was attacked-…” When Aloy explained to her what she had thought at first, Elisabet could understand the confusion for the young woman in front of her. She wouldn’t be surprised, when she would think that they were mother and daughter, when she didn't know of her origin until then. “The proving was attacked?”, Elisabet asked, surprised that someone tried to kill young adults. “Yes. Someone saw me through a focus and because of that HADES could recognise me… ordered the Eclipse, a cult who worshipped HADES as their god, to kill me… only a couple of young Braves were able to survive the attack…”

Elisabet looked with shock at Aloy. How much that young woman had to go through, being outcast since birth, fighting for her life, just because she was her clone and hadn't a mother to take care of her. She felt horrible for that and wished she could have somehow prevented that. “I am sorry…”, she mumbled and Aloy smiled crookedly at her. “Thank you for your sentiment,  but it’s not your fault…”

“What about your father? I am sure that he didn't like it that you went on such a dangerous journey…” Elisabet didn’t know how sensitive that topic was, not until she had seen Aloy’s slightly shimmering eyes. Was she on the brink of crying? “Rost… He… He never learned about that. He rescued me at the proving and was killed by the attackers… Because I wanted to get those questions answered, I became a seeker…” Elisabet didn’t know what to say. She somehow wanted to hug the young woman in front of her, but since they were on a boat, it wasn't possible for her.

“Aloy, is everything alright? Your vitals show an unusual heartbeat…” Aloy jolted, when suddenly the voice of Gaia sounded through her focus and she blinked, smiling softly. “Yes, I am alright. Don't worry, mother…”, she lovingly answered. It always did her some good, when Gaia could get her out her negative thoughts. She took a deep breather, then Aloy noticed that they were close to the shore and they soon reached Legacy’s Landfall. 

With a tap on her focus, she called Alva, who was staying at Legacy’s Landfall for the moment. “Aloy! It‘s so good to hear from you! How are you?” Aloy chuckled a bit. She missed Alva deeply and was glad when she could see her soon again. “Hey Alva… I am close to Legacy's Landfall with… a guest. Could you prepare a room for us? We need to resupply and maybe we could lend a bigger boat, a skiff maybe? I am on my way to the base with her…” “Sure, should I ask the cook to prepare something to eat for you?” “That would be wonderful…” “Alright. Then I will let everything be done until you are here. Oh, Bohai wants my assistance. I will greet you, when you are there. I love you!” “I love you too…” With that, the call with Alva ended and Aloy blushed deeply, when she noticed that Elisabet had raised a brow. 

“I… uh… that was my mate,  Alva. She is from the Quen tribe. She will greet us and make sure that we get a room and food for staying in their settlement…” Elisabet smirked a bit. The way Aloy got a bit shy about her relationship with that girl called Alva reminded her of herself, when she was younger. “I see. Mhm… What can you tell me about the Quen?” “Oh boy… well… the Quen is the only tribe that I encountered which got focuses and uses them to learn from the past. But their focuses are outdated and only read data until 2050. Besides that, they worship certain Old Ones… uh… people from your generation, as so-called ancestors. Alva recognised me as an ancestor reborn and because of that… You will be worshipped by them. Like me…” 

Elisabet grimaced. She never liked it to be put on a pedestal. “You are kidding, right?” “No. Because of their… Legacy, Alva needs to call me the Living Ancestor… She will probably call you the Real Ancestor or something.” Elisabet watched how Aloy shrugged with her shoulders and Elisabet could only groan by the thought of being worshipped, which caused the younger woman to grin. 

“You know, I always hated it when others put me on a pedestal or even worshipped me in some way… I always thought that it had something to do with me growing up as an outcast, but it's good to see that it comes from somewhere…” “Oh? Does that happen often to you?” I shouldn't have brought it up, Aloy thought and sighed. “Let's say, I got a couple of titles in the different tribes. For the Nora I am their Anointed now… For the Carja I am the Savior of Meridian, the Tenakth call me either Wall-Breaker, Champion or Champion-Killer… the Quen call me Living Ancestor… I think the Oseram and the Utaru are the only tribes that don't have any fancy titles for me…”

Before Elisabet could ask how Aloy had earned those titles, the younger woman jumped out of the boat into the water, which reached to her waist and began to shove the boat onto the shore. “Aloy!”, an energetic voice called from a short distance and Aloy could see Alva running towards them. She reached them just in the moment, when the boat was safe and sound resting in the sand. “Alva!”, she grinned and hugged her mate. “I've missed you…”, the redhead whispered and pressed her softly onto herself. 

“I missed you too… Who is our guest…?”, Alva asked and looked at Elisabet, who climbed out of the boat. “Dr. Sobeck?! The real ancestor??”, she almost shrieked and Aloy heard in her voice that she couldn’t believe to see her. “Pfff”, Aloy chuckled and looked at Alva. “Calm down, Alva. Yes, that's Elisabet… I found her on an island in a cryogenic pod…” “Please… just call me Elisabet, alright?” Elisabet smiled a bit at the younger woman and walked towards them. 

“Yeah… About that… I will do so, but I need to address you correctly when we enter the settlement. Otherwise I would get problems with my superiors. I am very sorry for that. Aloy hates it too, when I have to announce the living ancestor…” Alva looked apologetic at Elisabet, who only frowned for a moment. „It‘s fine, Alva…“, she sighed and as soon as they entered the settlement, Elisabet really knew what Alva meant by announcing them…

Luckily, Bohai wasn‘t in the settlement for the moment and Alva could guide Aloy and Elisabet to one of the more secluded huts, where they had a bit more privacy and they could rest a bit. Elisabet was exhausted, which is why she wanted to lay down and nap a bit. Aloy was fine with that and used the opportunity to resupply. When they were prepared for the rest of the trip, Aloy wanted to spend a bit of time with Alva, so she took her for a little stroll.

When they returned, Elisabet was already awake and was working through some data in her focus. “Hey Elisabet…” Aloy greeted her and they sat down next to Elisabet, who sat on a small cushion. “Did you rest well?” The older woman nodded to the question and looked at her clone. “Yes, but I wanted to ask you for some more information… Can you tell me more about the tribes living here?”

“Yes. Let's start with the tribes in the far east… As I already had mentioned,  the Nora live around the ELEUTHIA-9 cradle facility and worships the goddess All-Mother. Well, practically Gaia is this goddess. But luckily only one other Nora knows who Gaia really is and he doesn't worship her that way…”, she smiled a bit when she thought of how Varl had addressed Gaia when he saw her the first time. “The Nora are very… secluded. They don’t like outsiders and it's forbidden for them to leave the Sacred Lands, the valley they have settled in. Only a few exceptions are allowed to go without any further consequences.” “Isn't that a bit harsh? What if something would happen? A catastrophe like a flood for example?” Elisabet was a bit surprised by the ways of the Nora, it felt almost underdeveloped to her. “Then it would be the will of the goddess for them.” Aloy shrugged. “Do you want to return to them? I mean, when everything is settled? I mean, does Gaia work regularly again?” “Unfortunately, even when Gaia would work perfectly again, our mission isn't over. The signal I mentioned that brought Gaia to destroy herself? Well, it came from a source from outer space, an AI called Nemesis. It's on its way to earth, probably to destroy everything. We are searching for a way to prevent that and destroy Nemesis… But even when we have accomplished that, I won't return to the Sacred Lands to live there. I am not a Nora anymore…” “An AI? From outer space? How?”

Aloy looked at Alva, both women sighed. They knew that Elisabet and Tilda had a difficult past with each other. „Well… It was created by people of Far Zenith. Unlike the reports said, the Odyssey reached its destination. Nemesis destroyed their planet and they came back to earth about four years ago…“ Aloy looked at Elisabet, who didn't respond for a moment. “One of them was Tilda. She… uh… She lives with us. Actually, she tries to help us with Nemesis… She is the only one left of the Far Zenith. We… had to kill the others. They tried to kidnap Gaia and my sister, and tried to escape into space again…” Aloy explained and sighed a bit. “I am sorry that I didn't tell you sooner, but I wasn't sure how you would react about Tilda being alive… I mean… You know…”

“It’s fine, Aloy. You only tried to be considerate. Thank you for that…” Elisabet fidgeted with her fingers, something that Aloy had often noticed when her sister became insecure or nervous about something. Aloy always had thought that it was because of Belana‘s upbringing, but maybe it was a Sobeck-trait? “That‘s the least I can do.” Aloy gulped a bit. She knew that it would probably become a bit awkward between Tilda and Elisabet as soon as the scientist reached the base, but she couldn’t leave Elisabet alone.

“I guess, I have a lot to think about and a lot to learn… Can you tell me more about the other tribes? I don't want to start a war by accident just because I don't know their customs…” The young huntress nodded and thought about with which tribe she should start. Since she already had explained the basics about the Nora, she decided to continue with the Banuk.

“A bit further north to the Nora Sacred Lands is the Cut. In the Cut lives the Banuk, they are a nomadic folk, which believes in pure survival and shamanism. Their shamans worship spirits and machines. There lived an AI called Cyan who is worshipped by most of the Banuk as one of the spirits…” She remembered how HEPHAESTUS tried to kill her, tried to kill Ourea, who only survived at the brink of death. “You have met Cyan?”

“Yeah, actually they couldn't endure it to be worshipped and the last time I visited the Cut, they asked me to come with them. They are living in our base now, next to Gaia, even though Cyan was first afraid of her.” Thinking of how afraid Cyan had been, it was kind of understandable regarding their experiences with HEPHAESTUS.

“They were afraid of Gaia?” Elisabet couldn’t believe what Aloy had just told her. How could someone be afraid of her Gaia? One of the most compassionate souls she ever had met? 

“Yeah. HEPHAESTUS tried to force them into obedience. I could save them, but since then they've been afraid of other AIs.” Well, that explains a lot, Elisabet thought and nodded. “I see… poor thing…” Hopefully, they will come along some time in the future. Elisabet decided she would try to help them with that.

“They and Gaia are getting along now, so they will be fine.” Aloy thought of Cyan and how they began to address her as her sister. Besides Belana Aloy‘s family were mostly AIs in robotic bodies, but she didn’t mind that. Not anymore at least.

“Next to the Nora and the Banuk, we have the Oseram. They're a bunch of loud, mostly buff people, who are either good smiths and tinkerers, or good at brewing ale…” Aloy explained, when Alva fell into her words. “And drinking ale!” The Quen blushed a bit and mumbled a soft sorry! at Aloy, who only chuckled, alongside Elisabet. “...and drinking ale… Some of them work in Meridian, the Carja capital, as part of the Vanguard, some sort of guard for the citizens and the Sunking. I am very much sure, as soon as you arrive at the base, Erend will offer you some of his ale…”

It wasn’t easy to explain all the tribes, but Aloy gave her best. “The Carja live in the Sundom at least they call their territory like that. They worship the Sun as their god. Their leader is Sun-King Avad. He is a good man, who tries to do anything to protect his people. The relationships between the Carja and other tribes are fragile, though, because Avad’s father had raided them a couple of years ago, until he was overthrown and killed by Avad. But like I said, Avad is trying to make things better. Meridian prospers and if you need something, you can probably find it there. In Meridian is also the Hunter’s Lodge. A group of skilled machine hunters who help out people who can't fight on their own.” Aloy had to think of Talanah as soon as she mentioned the Lodge. 

“Sounds dangerous.” The young huntress thought of how she had befriended the Sun-Hawk. She wondered how she was doing right now. She should give her a call as soon as she had returned to the base and things would have calmed down. “Yeah, hunting machines can be dangerous.” Aloy tried to avoid her own reputation within the Lodge, but Alva had other plans. “But Aloy is the most capable hunter out there! Even the leader of the Lodge, Talanah, respects her greatly”

“I see. Are there any other tribes that held hunting in that high regard?” Elisabet smiled a bit about how Aloy blushed a bit more after Alva revealed that the young woman was one of the most capable hunters. She could imagine that hunting needed a lot of training, even though she wondered how the young woman was able to hunt such big ass machines, nonetheless if Aloy had been brought up in her time back in the 21th millennium, she probably would have been an athlete or something. Now she imagined that she also could have been that athletic,  when she would have put some energy in sports besides her academic expertise.

“Besides the Carja? Probably the Tenakth. They are a tribe of strong and fierce warriors and strength is their most valued ability. If you are not strong enough, you die and they keep it like that. Other tribes had the prejudice in mind that Tenakth drinks blood, but don't worry, they don't. The Tenakth are divided into three clans. The Lowland, Sky and Desert clan. When we arrive in Thornmarsh and later in Scalding Spear, we actually cross the territory of the Lowland and the Desert clan.” The young clone explained and took out her water bottle, taking a sip of the water in it. “Pfff…” Elisabet chuckled. Somehow it sounded so natural and yet barbaric at the same time. “I guess all tribes have a tendency to violence in a way…”

“Not all. The Nora try to avoid machines and old world ruins as much as possible, the Banuk only hunt if needed and the Oseram fight mostly only to protect themselves or others. Then we have the Utaru are a rather docile tribe. I had to rustle some feathers to get into repair bay Tau to actually reboot Gaia. Their leaders wanted to sit out everything rather than fight. Besides that they express almost everything in some songs and love to sing. Oh and somehow, they are plant based” That sounded a lot better for Elisabet and somehow she hoped that at least one of them would be living in the base. She didn't know if the tactics she had used to get her mindset through would work with tribes people like Tenakth. She doubted it. 

“What do you mean they are plant based? The people, their homes, their diet?” Aloy shook her head, now that she noticed how dumb her description of the Utaru had sounded and even Alva had to chuckle. “Uh… Their homes and clothes are mostly made out of grass and flexible sticks. Besides that, most Utaru prefer a meatless diet. Only a few stuck with eating meat, when their crops weren't edible because of a blight that ravaged their lands years ago…”

“Okay… Is there a tribe you would recommend me to learn their customs first? Like politics, culture, what they eat, anything?” Elisabet asked, she wouldn't want to start a war and wanted to know to avoid that at any cost. “Actually, in our base lives at least one person of each tribe. The Carja are the only ones of the tribes that don't come close to the area, since their relationship with the Tenakth and Utaru are still very fragile. So, Talanah is the only Carja who comes around casually to visit, but she never stays for too long.”

Elisabet nodded, when the three women heard a knocking at the door of the hut. “Diviner Alva?” The sound of a young woman reached their ears and Alva got up to answer the door. “Yes?”, she asked as soon as she saw the Quen in front of her. “We brought meals as requested. We hope it will be to the liking of the ancestors…” Alva got to the side of the door and showed with her hand that the food may be placed next to Elisabet and Aloy. It didn't take the Quen long and as soon the plates with freshly prepared food were put down in front of them, the Quen retreated soon after.

Alva returned to Aloy and Elisabet and sat down across from them. “Please feel free to help yourself. As long as you both stay, we will provide you with anything you need…”, she softly spoke and offered them the food. “Thanks, Alva…” Elisaber looked at the food provided by the Quen and frowned a bit. Of course the main resource for food would be fish and meat. Elisabet doubted that there would be any vegan alternatives besides vegetables. She took some of the displayed vegetables and began to eat. 

Aloy noticed that Elisabet only ate vegetables and fell into thoughts. Her sister didn't like to eat meat and Zo simply refused to eat any animal product, it didn't matter if it was meat, milk or eggs. “Do you prefer to eat vegetarian or vegan?” The huntress asked and looked at her genetic donor, who looked in surprise at her. “You know those terms?” Aloy nodded. “Yes, Zo, one of my friends living with us, prefers to eat vegan… She learned the term from Gaia…”, she explained and noticed that Alva slowly began to eat. “I see. Yes, actually I prefer to eat vegan food myself.”

She nodded understandingly. “I see. Then I will send Zo a message via focus that we will have another one. We have vegan alternatives like tofu, but they are rare and we need to ration that. When she knows that we have another one who prefers vegan food, she can prepare for when we arrive at the base.” Alva looked at Aloy and she seemed a bit confused. 

“Talking about the base, why have you come by boat and didn't take Nugget?” The Quen herself was afraid of heights, which is why she really rarely flew with Aloy. Maybe that was the case with Elisabet too? “Because I refused to fly. Since I have only been awake from cryogenic status for a couple of hours and I have never seen a Sunwing before, I didn’t trust that machine to transport me safely.”

Alva chuckled and nodded at Elisabet, who kept quiet the rest of their meal. Aloy went quiet herself and only looked casually to Alva, who had rested her head onto her shoulder. It was getting late and the Quen became tired, obviously. 

“Maybe we should head to bed soon…”, Aloy suggested and looked at her tired mate. “Yes. You both are welcome to stay as long as you need, of course…” Alva stood up and shortly after she brushed off some dust from her clothes, some of the other Quen knocked at the door. After she had opened it, they collected the empty plates and left the diviner alone with the ancestors.

The Quen turned to Elisabet and Aloy. “Even though I would like it, if you would accompany me to my hut, I guess it would be for the better, if you stay with Elisabet…” Aloy nodded, understanding. If Elisabet happened to wake up in the night and wouldn’t recognise her surroundings, she would be able to help her settle down again and not fall into a panic attack. 

Aloy went up to her mate and kissed her on her cheek. “Good night Alva… rest well”, she whispered and hugged her before the Quen left. Aloy sighed and turned to Elisabet. “We should sleep. We have a long way ahead of us and we will need the rest.” Elisabet nodded and looked at Aloy. “I am sorry that you can't sleep next to Alva…” “It’s fine. We can make up for that as soon as you are safe in our base. Your safety has a higher priority right now.” 

With that said, both of them got ready for bed and went to sleep soon after. While Elisabet took the bedroll from earlier, Aloy took one across the room. The huntress looked at Elisabet's back for a couple of minutes, before she turned around and tried to sleep. 

Elisabet‘s dreams were filled with memories of her time with Tilda, good times, loving times before they had broken up. Those times she had missed after she had left Tilda.

Chapter Text

When Elisabet woke up the next morning, Aloy was already awake and was carving on some sticks. The scientist yawned and asked herself if the tribe's people happen to have something like coffee, but she couldn’t imagine that to be the case.

“Good morning. You are carving?”, she asked and looked at Aloy, who flinched a bit. The younger woman seemingly hadn't noticed that Elisabet was awake and was startled by her voice, obviously. “Good morning. Yes, preparing some arrows in case we run into some machines on our way. I prefer to be prepared before heading into a battle.” Elisabet blinked and looked at the younger woman. Heading into battle? With only bow and arrows? 

“What are you gonna fight with that? I mean, you can't be prepared with only that when we run into machines!” Aloy grinned and chuckled. “Oh, my arrows strike through any machine I've hunted. Let me show you something…”, she said and put the arrows away, only to open a video footage with her focus which she shared with Elisabet. It was a video where Aloy fought against a Tideripper, when she retrieved POSEIDON back in Las Vegas. Elisabet gasped, when she saw how the young woman fought against the machine and even was able to beat it.

“You took that thing down?!” She couldn’t believe what she just saw. How was that possible? “Yeah. And a Tideripper wasn't even the biggest one. I even fought Deathbringer… uh… a Kopesh and a Horus machine with that. I would say, I am well prepared with a bow and arrows to fight those machines…” Aloy grinned and for once, she was very much proud of her hunting skills. She didn’t know why, maybe because it was Elisabet, but she kind of wanted to be seen as capable by the older woman.

“But I must admit that sometimes other people are a bigger threat than any machine. Bandits and rebels are often roaming around and are not predictable In their fighting behaviour like a programmed machine.” Elisabet nodded at Aloy‘s explanation. It made sense. Human beings never really were predictable, in her own time and obviously almost thousand years later, too.

“However, you don't need to worry about fighting. I can protect you…” Aloy then said and somehow, Elisabet felt more relieved now, after she had seen the footage of the younger woman fighting against that Tideripper. But before Elisabet could say anything, someone knocked at their door and Aloy stood up, answering the door, only to see her mate with a couple of plates, probably their breakfast.

After they ate their breakfast and Alva catched up with Aloy about her next plans, Alva offered them to take a skiff, with which they would be reaching the mainland faster. Aloy thanked her and hugged her, it was a bit unfortunate that they had to separate, but Alva needed to stay at Legacy’s Landfall for a couple of days more until she could return to the base.

Elisabet and Aloy were travelling a couple of hours with the skiff until they finally reached the mainland again.

"Finally!“, Aloy exclaimed and was more than glad to have solid ground back under her feet. She exhaled loudly and helped Elisabet unboarding from the boat. She tapped onto her focus and checked the map, looking where they were and what machine sites would be around them. Unfortunately there were only a few burrower and clamberjaw sites, nothing they could use as mounts. But luckily a shelter was nearby.

"According to the map, there is a shelter a few miles from here. We need to walk a bit, but we can set a camp up there and rest for the night…“, she explained and Elisabet nodded. 

Since they were travelling by foot, they needed to be cautious about their surroundings and Aloy preferred to travel within daylight with Elisabet, so she could be sure that she would reach the base safely. Elisabet looked around and was stunned by the beautiful nature around her. 

Aloy observed how Elisabet was just so fascinated by nature and how the world had developed even though a lot went wrong because of Ted. She wanted to say something, but Aloy stood still, as she had heard something and showed Elisabet to stay still. She used her focus to scan the area and soon she noticed a familiar silhouette. A Watcher came from one of the bushes around them and trotted to them, bunking his head at Aloy‘s hand. "Bolt, what are you doing here?", she smirked and patted the head of the tame Watcher. "Shouldn't you be at the base?"

"Is that a tame machine?", Lis asked curiously and looked at the machine that hopped around Aloy. "Yes, that little guy is Bolt. He is my watcher, like Nugget is my sunwing…" "Do you have more machines…?" "Yes!" Aloy got very enthusiastic when someone asked her about her machines and she was very proud of speaking about the machines their little group had already tamed. Thanks to the efforts of her sister they could make the overrides a permanent thing, even for machines like Bolt or Nugget. Elisabet noticed how similar Aloy and herself were when they seemed to be proud or excited, giving off the same tone and vibe when exclaiming the Yes! earlier.

"At the base, or more in the area around our base, we got a couple of machines who support us as mounts or in a battle. Like Nugget, Bolt or my Waterwing Kibbeling." For a moment, Elisabet looked surprised, recognising the word kibbeling from the Dutch language which was a word for a dutch dish of fish nuggets. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Or maybe not, when she thought about it that Tilda was still alive.

“Did you name the machines?”, she asked and watched how Bolt jumped around Aloy and seemingly tried to get her attention. For a machine, he was rather clingy. It was kind of cute. “Yeah, but the name for Kibbeling was suggested by Tilda. I thought of naming him something like Fishnugget, because he is a Waterwing… I liked her suggestion though.” Aloy patted Bolt's head again and they continued their way. “If you want to, I can show you our other machines. Don't worry, they are all completely tame and listen to our commands…”

Bolt looked at Elisabet, his eye turned orange, and scanned her, beeped a few times, before his eye turned blue again and he bumped his head against her hand, too. Aloy chuckled and patted his head again. “It seems that he likes you. He is quite attached to those with the Sobeck genetics. He likes my sister as well…” Elisabet noticed it yesterday already, but now she got more interested in what Aloy said. She mentioned a sister again. But now, she even implied that she also has their genetics? “What do you mean, when you talk about a sister…?” 

“If you want to, I can tell you more about the people I live with, as soon as we reach the shelter. It's quite dangerous to talk outside of settlements, since you never know when a machine or bandits are nearby…” “Okay that makes sense…”, Elisabet mumbled and kept quiet after that. She observed how Aloy went ahead to secure the area and even send out Bolt, to scan the areas she didn’t check out. Having a Watcher seemed to have some benefits. 

After a couple of hours of walking, they reached the shelter and Aloy kept them a bit away from it. A Clamberjaw was close to the shelter and Aloy grumbled. Of all machines she hated those the most, since they were a pain in the ass to fight. But she may had a plan. She had gotten a new weapon recently and she was willing to try out on the machine. “Hide in the tall grass, I will take care of it…”, she whispered to Elisabet and waited until the older woman was in the tall red grass. 

As soon as Elisabet was hidden, Aloy crouched closer to the machine and scanned it. She marked the weak points with her focus and prepared her purgewater blastlings, pulled on the sling and hit the machine fast and hard. She was a bit surprised, how much damage the blastling made on the machine, but it was a happy accident. After the Clamberjaw was drenched, Aloy took her hunter bow and shot off the resource containers quickly.

After she landed a final hit in the eye of the machine, it went down and Aloy was  relieved that she could take down the Clamberjaw fast and without risking Elisabet’s safety.

Aloy scanned the area to make sure that no other machines were in the area, since she knew that Clamberjaws normally to be seen in packs. But they had luck and it was the only machine close to the shelter. "Elisabet, you can come over. It's safe to come out!”, she called and put away her bow. As soon as Elisabet reached her, Aloy ordered Bolt to watch out for anything else. He was a reliable companion when Aloy wanted a little break from observing everything around her. “Come here, Elisabet. I will show you something…”

Aloy went closer to the carcass of the Clamberjaw. “When we take down a machine, we salvage it for metal shards and parts. Most parts are important for upgrading and strengthening our weapons and armour. Other parts can be sold to merchants and get some shards for that.” “Why would you get shards for parts? I mean if they are valuable…” “Well, unlike the Old Ones, we don't have money. We use metal shards as currency.” “Oh, I see…” Aloy showed Elisabet what parts are valuable and stored them in her pouch. 

Aloy set up a fire and a small tent, so they wouldn‘t be vulnerable to rain or wind in the night. They were still pretty far away from Thornmarsh and it was already late in the day so it would be best to stay for the night.

„So… Aloy… you said that you have a sister? Care to tell me about her?” Elisabet asked, while Aloy fetched some dried meat and vegetables from her provisions pouch and began to prepare some meal for them both. „Sure…“, Aloy thought of where to start and decided that it was the easiest to connect her focus with her own and show her picture of Belana and maybe of the others, who mattered to her.

„This… well… that‘s Belana, my little sister. She is two years younger than me and… she grew up on the Odyssey within the people of Far Zenith. Belana and I only met about four years ago… but I love her dearly…”, she admitted and showed her a hologram of Belana.

„When she grew up on the Odyssey… Does she even get along with other people here? I mean the tribes you described seemed rough…“ „Yes, she lives among us and even found a mate recently… wait, I'll show you a picture of him…“ she looked through the data and soon found a picture of Erend. „That‘s Erend. He‘s my best friend and for a couple of weeks Belana‘s mate. Honestly, I was very surprised when they came together…“ „He… looks rough. Is he taking good care of her?“ „Yeah, he is a hammer swinging metalhead with a soft heart… He is Oseram and most people of that tribe are bulky and rough looking like him. He was one of the first people I ever became friends with…“, she chuckled a bit. She was happy for both of them. In some way Belana needed Erend, just like he needed her. 

„I guess, you call each other sisters, because you are clones of me?“, Elisabet asked and looked at Aloy, who only nodded. Aloy could tell her that Belana wasn‘t a clone like she was, but she decided that it wasn‘t her place to tell Elisabet that Belana was her and Tilda‘s daughter. „Does she see Gaia as her mother, too, even though she grew up on the Odyssey?“ Elisabet was quite curious how the clones lived with each other. Even though she discontinued the lightkeeper protocol, it wasn‘t per se because it was unnatural, but more because she despised the thought of a human being born and raised for a sole purpose, for a living as a tool at the end. 

Aloy shook her head. „No, she has Tilda for that. She takes really good care of Belana, even though they had some obstacles to overcome…“, she said and poked the meat onto a stick, just like the vegetables. Making a skewer was the easiest way to prepare a meal. After she had finished the skewers, she stuck them into the ground, so that she wouldn‘t need to hold onto them. „You know, since I already have the data files open… I will show you the remaining people of… our little tribe…“, she chuckled and opened a hologram of Zo, Varl and their son Rost. Aloy still couldn‘t believe that they named their son after her father out of respect for him.

„The guy with the beard is Varl. He is the only Nora who followed me from the Sacred Lands, just because he was a stubborn idiot who swore an oath to help me…“ „He seems like a reliable guy to me…“ Aloy smiled a bit. 

„Yeah. He‘s another very close friend to me. Next to him is Zo, an Utaru and his mate. He rescued me once and brought me to her, so that I could heal from some broken ribs. During our mission to restore Gaia they fell in love with each other, eventually married and the little guy on her arms? That‘s their son Rost…“ Aloy liked them very much and was more than happy that they were happy. Rost made the base of them a little more livelier. „Yes, they named the little guy after my father. As a way to honour him.” Without Rost, Aloy would've never survived after all.

Aloy thought for a moment and switched to a picture of Kotallo. “That guy is Kotallo, he is very serious and probably the most mature guy in the base… Don’t be mad when he won’t talk to you on the spot. He isn't a guy of many words and even I often get treated with silence…", she chuckled and thought of the calm Tenakth. “He is a member of the Sky clan of the Tenakth.” Elisaber looked at the image of Kotallo and gulped a bit. “He looks intimidating…  And he is really okay?”

Aloy nodded. “Yes. He vowed to help us with our mission. I believe he doesn't intend to return to his tribe at that point anymore…”

The huntress turned the skewers around so that they got grilled equally. “We sometimes have a couple of visitors, but they usually don't stay too long… So in the end, those people I showed you, were the most important…” Aloy shrugged and didn't know what to talk about right now.

At least nothing came to her mind, what would be appropriate to talk about. Talking to Elisabet about her feelings regarding the older woman was not in any way appropriate for Aloy. She knew that Elisabet didn't like clones and Aloy didn’t want to burden her genetic donor with being her mother, just because she was desperate to have her as such. Even though she already had Gaia.

“Aloy, may I ask you something?” Elisabet broke the awkward silence between them. “You told me already that you have been outcasted… Is that why you see Gaia as your mother?” Aloy gulped and looked for a moment insecure to Elisabet. The strong and fierce huntress suddenly became insecure and shy. She never could handle her own feelings very well. “Well… Yes and no? I… I never had a mother. Not by birth at least…” She thought back to the moment, when she discovered that she was a clone. “When I first saw a picture of you… it wasn't stated that I was a clone of you… I…”

Aloy fell into silence. “I… thought for a long time… that you were my mother. I asked myself countless times why my mother would abandon me... You see, when a child is left by its mother, the Nora believe that it is cursed, an abomination to the goddess…” She looked at Elisabet, who had fallen silent since Aloy was talking about her feelings. “When… I discovered my true origin, I got closure that my mother didn't abandon me, but since then I knew that I was indeed an abomination… like the Nora always said… Ironically, when I left the facility where I was born, the Nora began to believe that I was created by the goddess and now they worship me as their Anointed Daughter of the All-Mother… which is even worse than being outcast…”

Aloy had to think about what Sylence told her that day. That she even had two mothers, a dead woman and a machine. Aloy shook her head and  took out the skewers and handed Elisabet hers. “I am sorry. I shouldn‘t have burdened you with that. I mean… I love Gaia as my mother. She… She was there for me, you know? We somehow connected with each other. I just know that I can trust her with anything… And she sees me as her own… Maybe because she gave the order to create me…”

Aloy looked into the flames. She felt bad because she already had Gaia as her mother, she saw her as such and called her even mother. But her heart still craved for the same connection with Elisabet. It wasn’t fair towards Gaia.

“It’s fine, kiddo…”, Elisabet spoke and Aloy felt a hand on her shoulder, which is why she looked to Elisabet. “I do understand why you would think like that and that's somehow normal regarding your upbringing…” For some reason, Elisabet thought of how it would have been to actually raise the young woman next to her. Even though she didn’t like the original purpose of clones, she had noticed that this young woman developed to be her own person.

The scientist sighed. She hated to talk about feelings. She wasn't good with talking about such stuff either and she somehow felt that Aloy was the same. “Do you still see yourself as an abomination?” Elisabet had to gulp, when she had heard that harsh word from Aloy and was relieved, when the younger woman shook her head. “Good. If it had been otherwise, I would have needed to tell you that every living human on earth has started as a clone of someone. They just repopulated the earth for I don't know how long and you are just the most recent one. So, in the end, even if the process is carried out by a machine, it's not that unnatural like the Nora believe. And honestly, I am glad that you don't want to return to them. You are better off without them anyway…”

Aloy smiled a bit and sighed in relief. “Thank you Elisabet.” The huntress somehow wanted to tell her so much more, but she didn’t want to overburden Elisabet. The older woman had enough to think about and to cope with. Her own selfish wishes and feelings shouldn't burden her even more.

“I hope you like the skewer?”, she asked and took a bite of her own. Aloy never was really good at preparing meals, unlike her sister or her mother, but she tried and mostly it was somehow edible. “It’s… well okay? At least it's better than anything I could have made!” Elisabet laughed and implied that she couldn’t cook herself either, which made Aloy laugh heartily.

Aloy had feared that it would be really awkward between her and Elisabet, but now, it seemed that it would be way less awkward than anticipated.