Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The Shadow Carja imperial hall was where Bahavas had once delivered his speeches before citizens who had come to behold the Sun-King.

But now there were no citizens waiting for an audience.
No priest addressing the crowd, his robes sweeping back and forth over the polished terracotta.
No young sovereign clinging to his mother, his face buried in the folds of her dress.

No.
There was only Helis.
And with him, a group of armed Kestrels, waiting for orders.

When Aloy and Tian entered the hall, every head turned toward them.
The air was taut, charged with the wordless anticipation that came before important missions. Even Helis, dressed in Kestrel gear, seemed less still than usual. Not restless. Not uncertain. Only a fraction more rigid within his customary, glacial composure.

He was not wearing his usual uniform — the one Aloy had glimpsed at the Eclipse base during the attack, hanging from a mannequin — but a stripped-down version of it, without the feathered war mask. That did nothing to make him any less imposing.

Wrapped in red and black cloth, darkened leather, and shadowy plates that stiffened his frame without concealing its strength, he looked almost like some inhuman creature descended into the world to mete out justice.
Or at least, what he believed justice to be.

Aloy's chest was still tight from what had happened in the sanctuary, but her heart lurched at the sight of what Helis held in his hand.

Her spear.

Even though she was not close enough to make out every detail, it looked like hers.
Whole. Undamaged.

For one moment, that was enough to shut out every other thought: Rost, the wife and child in the niche, the Alpha Register waiting below.
Aloy found herself moving toward the group almost without realizing it, ignoring the soldiers' watchful stares as they tracked her every step. Then she noticed Helis was not paying attention to her at all. His focus was fixed somewhere behind her.

She turned on instinct and saw Tian standing in the doorway, in the middle of a small parting bow.
The gesture was cut short by Helis's voice.
"Tian."
A single word, echoing heavily through the now-silent hall.
From Helis's mouth, it was enough to make the air feel close to snapping.

Aloy stopped short. Even the Kestrels seemed to stiffen all at once. But nothing moved behind Helis's grey eyes.
"Come here," he ordered.
His tone was so cold that even Aloy felt a shiver crawl down her spine.

Tian took a few seconds to react, as though the sudden attention had caught her off guard. Then she seemed to gather her courage.
She took one step. Then another, with that slight limp of hers. She passed beside Aloy without seeing her, too focused on the man who had summoned her, her long blond hair gleaming in the sunlight.

When she reached Helis, she stopped.
Her back was straight, like someone determined to stand firm. But her hands, clenched in the fabric of her robes, said otherwise. 

After a long, silent appraisal, Helis asked, sharply, "Where have you been?"
An innocent enough question, on the surface. But from his mouth, it sounded far too much like a threat.
Tian's hands tightened even further in the fabric of her robes.
"In the... sanctuary, Champion," she answered, a little unsteadily.

It should have been an almost harmless reply.
Judging by Helis's reaction, it was anything but.

His eyes narrowed by a fraction, his jaw setting hard. Then he lifted his head, and met Aloy's gaze.
His features sharpened, but he did not speak at once. His attention shifted from Aloy to Tian, then back to Aloy. As though he were thinking it through. Picking it apart.
Assessing.

When he spoke again, anger was just beginning to surface beneath his voice.
"Who told you to take her there?"

A sharp twist went through Aloy's stomach.
How many times had she stood before that iron hardness, the kind that could pierce straight through anyone in its path?
Enough to understand exactly how Tian must have felt.

The girl shifted her weight slightly from one foot to the other.
"I thought..." she began, choosing each word with care. "That it was the right thing to do... before a mission."
"Your task was not to think. It was to obey," he said, with finality.

Aloy was almost startled to realize that none of the Kestrels seemed disturbed. They all stood motionless, silent, as though they were taking in some distant view rather than witnessing a girl being called to account.

"What did you do in the sanctuary?"
Aloy could not hold herself back any longer.
"We only..." she began, but Helis cut her off before she could go on.
"I asked her," he said, casting Aloy a glance so cold that every word died in her throat.

"We... prayed," Tian continued, her voice sinking lower and lower.
"You prayed?"
Helis repeated the word as though he found it absurd.
"Yes... my lord."

At that confirmation, Helis lifted his eyes and fixed them on Aloy.
For a moment, her breath caught.
The way he was staring at her... it felt as though he were trying to dig beneath her skin.
As if he were searching for something. Trying to measure something she could not see.

Her mind flew back to the sanctuary, to what she had seen there.

Is that what this is really about? 

Helis turned back to Tian.
"We are at war, Tian," he said after a long silence. "Do you understand that?"
"Yes..." she murmured, her head sinking lower.
"Never take initiative again without informing me first," he said, dismissing her with a gesture.

Tian obeyed at once. She turned sharply and hurried away as fast as she could.
As fast as her bad foot would allow, at least.
As she left the hall, she threw Aloy a quick glance. Long enough for Aloy to notice her reddened eyes, bright with unshed tears.

When Aloy turned back to Helis, she realized he was staring at her again, his expression dark.
"Check the cargo lift again," he ordered the soldiers, without even looking at them. "We'll follow."

The way Helis was assessing her was anything but reassuring, but Aloy forced herself to stay calm. She headed toward him just as the Kestrels began filing out toward the terrace.
When she came to stand before him, she could not keep the disapproval from her voice.
"There was no need to treat her like that," she said, irritated. "Tian only wanted to show me the rituals of your religion."
"I decide what is necessary," he replied, his face hard.
Then he added, "You cannot vanish from my sight on the morning of a mission."
"I didn't vanish. I'm in your palace," she shot back, deliberately loading the word.

As if being confined under his roof isn't enough. Now I have to account for every step I take?

"If there had been even one informant in this palace," Helis said, "they could have taken advantage of the moment you were beyond my protection."
"Then I would have defended myself," she shot back.
Helis gave her a skeptical look. "We both know the odds are against you in your current condition."
"Against me, maybe," she countered, determined not to let him have the last word. "That doesn't mean I'd be helpless." 

Helis let out a slow breath. It was not a reaction Aloy had often seen from him.
"Aloy..." he said, lowering his voice. "We cannot afford for anything to happen to you."
He took a step closer.
"I need to know where you are. At every moment."
Then, even quieter, he added, "Even if you don't like it."

Aloy was left speechless by what she read on his face. Because, for one instant, it had almost felt like he was asking. Not ordering.
As though it truly mattered to him. For tactical reasons, of course.

In any case, pushing the point was useless.
It was not as though there were many places in that palace she could go. Or many places they would let her go.
If it mattered that much to him to know where she was at every moment, then so be it.

"Fine..." she murmured, lowering her eyes.
Helis studied her for another moment, as if making sure the matter was settled. Then he held out the spear with a gesture that was almost careless.
"Here."
Aloy had been so caught up in what had just happened that she had almost forgotten it was there.

She stared at it as though it were a mirage. Then she took it with the same care she might have given a sacred object.
Now that she had it in her hands — now that she could test its weight, its texture, the familiar balance of it — there was no doubt left.
It really was her spear.
Not an imitation, however perfect it might have been.

Hers.

Metal and wood. The exact place where her fingers were meant to close. The right resistance beneath her palm. That weight her body recognized before thought could catch up.

She began to move it slowly, turning it, letting it slide through her fingers.
The motion came back on its own. And for one single instant, she felt happy. With a sudden, almost painful happiness that tightened in her chest before she could defend herself against it.
Like coming home after a long, forced absence.

Her body still remembered.

"We built a cargo lift," Helis said, cutting through her brief moment of contemplation. "We won't need to perform any... acrobatics to get down."
Then, taking something from his belt, he added, "And from now on, don't forget to wear this."
In his palm lay the Focus.

Aloy's hand went instinctively to her temple, finding only bare skin.
How could she have forgotten something so crucial?
Going into the ruins without a Focus?
It wasn't like her to overlook a detail that important. 

Has captivity damaged my judgment beyond repair?

Helis merely gave her a reproachful look, and she made no comment. She simply snatched it from him and fixed it to her ear, her face burning at having been caught out over something so basic.

"Let's go," he said, giving her one last look before turning away.
Aloy followed him through the arches of the hall.
The light on the terrace struck them almost at once, white and harsh, opening onto the empty drop of the Sun-Ring.

The place where Helis had watched her. Judged her.
The place where he had waited for her death.

The memory sent a sharp twist through her stomach, but Aloy forced it back down at once.
This was not the time to drag the past back up.
She had to recover the Alpha Register file. That was the only thing that mattered.

The Kestrels had just finished locking the cargo lift into position, exactly as Helis had said. The sight steadied her: the thought of lowering herself down that sheer wall had been worrying her ever since Helis first laid out the plan.
But he had assured her they would find a way, whether she could climb down on her own or not. And only then, as she watched the soldiers securing straps and turning cranks, did she realize how much she had relied on his word without even knowing it. On Helis's resolve, which until now had seemed stronger than any obstacle.

Then her gaze drifted over the landscape ahead.
Not the Sun-Ring. Not that. She had seen enough of it to last a lifetime.
But the valley surrounding the city.
Bare. Untouched. Orange beneath the sunlight.
And scattered across the land, dozens of small, pale points flashed with every movement. Machines roaming undisturbed, far from everything stirring on that terrace.

For a moment, the sight caught her off guard. Until a sharper glint drew her attention. Close enough to be noticed, near the outer edge of the arena.
Too clean to be stone. Too still to be a machine.
Some kind of device, perhaps — though Aloy struggled to make sense of it.

What is a lone device doing out in the middle of the canyons?

The answer came without warning.
A sound split the air.
Metallic. Shrill. So violent that, for an instant, the world seemed to tilt.

The soldiers in front of her dropped to their knees, clapping their hands over their ears. Someone screamed. Someone else collapsed sideways, writhing on the stone floor of the terrace.
Even Helis staggered.
For one single instant he stayed on his feet, every muscle pulled taut to the point of spasm, as though sheer force of will alone could keep him rooted to the ground. Then the sound erupted again from the devices at their ears, and even he gave way.
He went down with a strangled growl, landing on hands and knees against the stone, his body racked by a violent tremor.

Aloy touched her own Focus, ready to tear it off, but no sound came from hers.
The noise was coming from the soldiers.

One by one, the Kestrels began ripping the devices from their ears. Helis did the same, but a second too late, his movements stiff, almost dazed.
The noise was so loud that even Aloy felt herself sway.

"Aloy."
An unmistakable voice sounded in her ear.
A voice she had not heard in so long that she had almost forgotten just how irritating that tone could be.

Sylens.

"I planted a beacon off to your right," he explained, without wasting time on any preamble. Annoyingly typical of him.
"Take the cargo lift now, and you'll be halfway down before they recover."
Aloy followed his indication and caught the glint of what, only moments earlier, she had mistaken for some kind of metal device. That had to be the beacon he meant.
Then she lowered her eyes.
She was still gripping the spear in both hands.

She looked up at Helis, collapsed against the stone.
The thoughts came fast, one after another.
She could drive the spear into his back before he had any chance to react.
Or maybe not.
She could simply take the cargo lift and leave him there, helpless and in pain.
Perhaps she would never see him again.
She would certainly try never to cross his path.

Every possibility that had been denied her until that moment was suddenly there, within reach.
All she had to do was move. Step past the fallen bodies of the soldiers. Take the freedom she had been aching for, for weeks.

It was there.
One step away.

Simple, wasn't it?

"Aloy, what are you waiting for?" Sylens pressed. "They won't stay down for long."

Aloy swallowed.
Freedom.
That was what Sylens was offering her.
The way out she had searched for, imagined, longed for, for weeks.
And yet, the moment she tried to grasp it in her mind, something gave way.

The Alpha Register file was still down there. And beyond these walls, the threat kept growing while the world remained blind to it.

And Helis.

Her attention returned to him almost against her will.
He was trying to get back to his feet, and failing. Each attempt wrenched a violent tremor from him, and each time his body dropped back against the stone.

His words echoed in her mind.
You'll walk again. Stronger than before.
That was what he had told her, the day he had brought her to the war room.
I'll see to it myself.

Aloy felt her throat tighten.
She hated that memory.
Hated that it was true. Hated him, for making it true.
But there was no denying it.

Helis was getting her back on her feet.
Stronger than before.

"Aloy...?"
"I can't," she answered, curtly.
Helis lifted his head with visible effort.
Their eyes met.

"I can't leave, Sylens," Aloy repeated, as the silence on the other end of the Focus became almost tangible.
"Have you lost your mind?" he snapped. "I've spent weeks planning this extraction. If you don't take this chance now, I may not get another one."
"I don't need rescuing," she said, without taking her eyes off Helis.
Her grip tightened around the spear.
"Not by you."

Before Sylens could launch into the inevitable protest, she shut the Focus off with a flick of her finger.
The metallic noise vanished, too. In its place, there was only the wind, threaded with the groans of the Kestrels on the ground.

For a moment, Aloy stood motionless, her finger still near her ear, as though some part of her had not truly understood what she had just done.
Ahead of her, the cargo lift was still there.
The beacon still glittered among the rocks.
Helis was still on the ground.

Everything remained exactly as it had been.
Except her.

She had made her choice.
Now she had to stand by it.

Aloy crossed the few steps between them, her legs heavy as lead. Then she offered him her hand.
He remained where he was, his mouth twisted with pain and anger held tightly in check. His breathing shook through him, heavy and ragged.

For a moment, neither of them moved.
Helis lowered his eyes to the hand she was offering him. Then lifted them back to her face. And absurdly, Aloy found herself noticing the orange and amber glinting in them.

Slowly, his arm still trembling, he reached for it.
He took Aloy's hand. Gripped it.
Then, with an effort she had never seen on him before, he pulled himself to his feet.

Still unsteady, for one moment he seemed forced to lean on her more than he ever would have tolerated under normal circumstances. But he straightened at once, brushing the dust from his uniform with an irritated flick.

He scanned the soldiers, who were trying to get back to their feet as well. Only after checking them one by one did he pick up the Focus from the ground and fix it back at his ear with a sharp motion.
"Find the intruder," he ordered, his voice still rough with effort. "I want him alive."
It was clear he was speaking to other men, not to those present on the terrace, still busy pulling themselves together. But there was nothing reassuring in that "alive".

Alive did not mean safe.
Not with Helis.

"You're not going to kill him," she said at once, tightening her grip on the spear.
Helis turned to her slowly.
"... What?" he asked, in the tone of someone who had understood perfectly well and was merely giving her a chance to take it back.
Aloy did not take it.
"You heard me."
"He attacked me and my men," he said, the words edged with contempt.
"And you're all still in one piece," she shot back. "And I... I'm still here."

By then, the Kestrels had more or less recovered. They moved closer and, though some of them still looked shaken by the attack, waited for orders.

Helis checked them one by one, as though gauging their condition. Then he turned back to Aloy, his jaw clenched.
"We will discuss this later."
"No." Aloy took a step forward. "We discuss it now."

Something flickered across his face. Rage, perhaps. Or disbelief.
"Do you truly believe I would let an affront like this go unpunished?"
"Sylens is on my side, which means now... he's on yours too."
It cost her to say it. Not because it wasn't true, but because admitting it aloud made the choice feel even more real.
"He just... doesn't know it yet," she added.
Helis did not answer.
"His knowledge of technology is unmatched," Aloy continued, appealing to his tactical mind. "We need him."

For a moment, he stood perfectly still. He studied her in silence, as though weighing her words. Then he touched a finger to his Focus.
"I want him alive," he repeated, lower this time. "And whole."
That brief victory almost pulled a sigh of relief from her. But Aloy smothered it at once, afraid that if Helis noticed, he would take it back on the spot.

"Start the descent," he ordered the men around them.
As they turned toward the cargo lift, Aloy noticed the way some of them regarded her. Not with simple indifference anymore.
There was something else now. A hesitant, almost disbelieving kind of respect.

She wondered how many of them had ever questioned an order from Helis. Probably none. But she was not one of his soldiers. She never would be.
If this alliance was going to work, it would work on her terms.

Aloy lifted her head toward the sky, toward the sun that continued its cycle, untroubled.
Would she be able to keep moving forward like that blazing star, even under the weight of compromises growing harder and harder to bear?

Or would she fall, crushed beneath the cost of the choice she had made?