Chapter Text
Aloy woke alone, the chill air in her room at the Base feeling stark and desolate. Loneliness was not a symptom of life she typically allowed herself to feel, but after defeating the Zeniths the feeling kept returning, unbidden as it was. She hadn’t felt the need for a partner in her life before. What had changed? Maybe it was the gnawing question of, “what now?” spinning through her mind. She had worked so hard on saving the world and now that all was finally calm Aloy felt a restlessness that couldn't be denied. Something was missing. She buried the responding vision of a certain Sky Clan warrior as her Focus pinged with a notification.
Aloy accepted the transmission with a sigh. “Good morning GAIA.”
GAIA’s cool voice came to her seconds later. “Aloy, there's a signal coming from Ninmah Research Laboratory. A beacon of some sort is transmitting the signal worldwide, but no accompanying data.”
A shiver ran down Aloy’s back as she remembered the last time she traced a mystery signal to that location, “More Zeniths? Just what we needed.”
“The signal appears to be Old World in design, but I am unaware of any more than that.”
Aloy sighed, packing up her equipment as the inevitability of a swift departure became apparent. “Ugh, I'm gonna have to check it out aren't I?”
“I believe it would be prudent,” GAIA replied, “Although, if I may say so, bringing along an ally as backup may also be wise.”
Aloy rolled her eyes before replying, “I've been there before, GAIA, I don't need backup.”
Despite the feeling she had when she awoke, her instinct to go alone was driving her hard. It would be faster. Simpler.
“I am merely considering the specters that were crawling all over the facility the last time you were there. If some remained, an ally would aid you to make swift work of them,” GAIA soothed in a cajoling tone.
“I guess… you have a point. But I don't think anyone at the Base is available. I'll check, but I'm not waiting around on this. If it's another distress signal of some kind or some of the Zeniths somehow managed to survive…” she trailed off, not even wanting to consider those implications, “In any case, the sooner I shut down the signal, the better.”
“Understood.”
Aloy notified Beta she was leaving for Ninmah, not bothering to ask her sister if she wanted to go with her. The answer would likely have been a polite no, or possibly a bout of panic at the thought of leaving Base. Beta was finding her own there, but she wasn’t ready to start exploring the world yet. She might never be. Still, the surprising high-five Beta gave Aloy on her way out told Aloy that she was doing just fine.
Aloy’s first stop to ask for a companion was Zo. Unfortunately she approached to find Zo bent over, heaving into a basket in the process of emptying out her breakfast.
“I’ll… come back later,” Aloy hurriedly said, attempting to give the pregnant woman some privacy.
Zo held up her hand, halting Aloy’s retreat. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before taking a hefty swig from her canteen and spitting it into the poor basket.
“Apologies. I believe the worst of it is over now, and could do with the distraction of a conversation, if I’m being honest.”
Aloy tucked her hands across her chest as she leaned against the wall, averting her eyes slightly just in case the child sickness wasn’t quite through with Zo. “Well, I’d be happy to help with that, but I’m actually headed out. GAIA wants me to bring someone if I can so I thought I’d ask you if you were up for a trip to the Ninmah Research Lab. Guess I’m outta luck since Erend and Kotallo still aren’t back yet. I’ll be fine–”
“Kotallo just arrived back this morning. He was the reason I awoke so early, I’m a light sleeper nowadays,” Zo gestured lovingly to her barely-there bump. “And Kotallo is no Stalker.”
Aloy laughed, even as her stomach dropped. “He’s more of a Behemoth all right. But he can move quietly when he wants to. You should let him know to tread lightly in Base after lights out, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Zo pursed her lips, a small “hmm” sounding before she stood. “Don’t try to leave before asking him to go with you. If GAIA thinks you may need assistance for this journey, it would be wise to listen to her. Her knowledge spans as wide and deep as the earth itself.”
Aloy took a breath, trying not to bristle at her friend’s words. “I’ll go ask him now. I think I have some spiceroot tea in the main cache if you need some.”
She smiled warmly at Aloy as she left. “A kind thought, which might be just what I need. Thank you, Aloy.”
Aloy ran off to find Kotallo’s room before she lost her nerve, wondering why this simple act was making her feel so vulnerable. She knew he wouldn’t hinder her, yet she had a feeling that he would be distracting somehow. Completely irrational of course, but it was there all the same. Arriving at the door to Kotallo’s shared room, Aloy stopped short, almost running into the partially ajar door. It was closed, but not entirely, a sliver of white painted skin showing through the opening. His back was turned to the door, the paint over the topography of his finely honed back a barely there smear of white beside tanned skin and stark tattoos winking back at her, as if she’d learned a secret. She pulled her eyes away from the sight and spun around, her entire body heating with embarrassment. She fled, intending to land somewhere on the far side of the continent before he could even guess she’d accidentally seen him changing.
“Aloy?” Kotallo’s rumbling voice called to her before she could quite escape from his view.
She turned slowly, only to find him without his armor from the waist up. She tried not to stare, she really did, but his paint had been rubbed off in places where his armor had worn against his muscles, and she was transfixed by the unexpected sight.
“Did you need something?” he asked, snapping Aloy’s gaze back to his face in an instant.
“Yes!” Aloy said, hoping to distract him from the flush of her cheeks with her words. “GAIA said there’s a new signal coming from the Ninmah Research Lab. We don’t know what it is, but she suggested I not go alone, in case some remaining specters are hiding out there.”
Kotallo nodded. “I understand. I can be ready within the hour. I need to resupply and change.”
Aloy backed away, giving into her impulse to flee the base for a moment at least. “Sounds good. I’ll check on the Sunwing, make sure we’re good to fly the distance.”
He froze in place at her words, as if he had been frozen still by the sonic blast from a Longleg. “You wish to fly… with me?”
“That is the easiest way to get there, so… yes. Is that a problem?”
A shocked exuberance that Aloy had not seen on Kotallo’s face since the Bulwark crumbled graced his usually stoic features. “On the Wings of the Ten?”
She nodded, a mirroring smile on her lips as Kotallo literally ran into his room shouting that he would be out in five minutes.
The flight to the Ninmah Research Lab was nothing short of transformative. On the Wings of the Ten with the wind in his hair and his arm wrapped comfortably around Aloy, Kotallo felt his life had reached its peak. He could die a happy Tenakth.
After hours of travel he had seen so much of the Tenakth lands from the sky. The sky! How much smaller the world seemed from above, as if it was not so important as it appeared to be on the land. The Sunwing landed in the soft powdered snow with a muffled thump before Kotallo and Aloy dismounted. The soreness from the hours in the air was uncomfortable, but a worthy price to pay for such a gift. There was a freedom to be found amongst the clouds that rivaled that of even the longest machine hunt. He could not wait to climb aboard the Sunwing once more.
Aloy stretched her arms and legs languorously before him and Kotallo averted his gaze to keep from staring at the elegant lines of her body in motion.
“Ready to head in?” Aloy asked, jerking a thumb towards the entrance to the Lab.
“I’m right behind you.”
They descended into the eerily perfect circular tunnel. Blue sparks illuminated the scarred landscape within before they truly entered the lab. Aloy tapped her Focus, sharing the location of the beacon they sought with Kotallo. A moment later a steady blinking dot appeared on his map of the facility.
“I've never seen that part of the lab,” Aloy said, “It must be either hidden or blocked off.”
Kotallo studied the area around the beacon. “We will uncover it in due time.”
Aloy nodded. “Looks like it might be accessible through the Data Center. Let's go.”
“I will follow.”
They made their way through the Old Ones’ strange doorways, scanning for threats as they descended the clanging metal steps. The signal appeared to be coming from outside of the Data Center room, as if accessible from a door. Kotallo and Aloy approached the location indicated by their Focuses. The wall was covered in natural minerals, nature reclaiming the space.
“Stalactites and stalagmites,” Aloy muttered under her breath as she scanned the wall with her Focus, touching the damp stone with her delicate fingertips. “But I still don't see an entrance.”
Kotallo initiated his own scan, turning in a circle as he caught a glimmer of purple light out of the corner of his eye. “Aloy, the floor over here.”
She turned and smirked, the half smile sending Kotallo’s heart thundering like the gallop of a Charger. “Nice catch, Marshal!”
Kotallo bit his fingernails into his palm to keep from reaching for her as Aloy chipped the mineral deposits off from around the hatch door. After that it was short work between the two of them to heave open the creaking thing and climb down the ladder into darkness. Kotallo slid his hand along the side of the ladder as his legs made quick work of the rungs. Blue lights flicked on with a low humming whir as their feet hit the ground, illuminating a small orderly Old World ruin. To Kotallo it appeared to be like any other ruin, though less damaged by the elements than most that he had seen. Aloy took in the unremarkable room, the breathtaking wonder and curiosity shining from her face never dimming.
“We're close to the beacon, but I'm going to do a sweep of this room for anything useful before we move on.”
“Understood.”
She strode right up to a desk and scanned a datapoint, and shared it to Kotallo’s Focus so they could read it together. The title of the datafile read as “Project Omega”.
TO: Dr. Brochard-Klein
FROM: Dr. Barlowe
SUBJECT: Project Omega Discovery
We made a breakthrough today. It seems the mutated canid DNA does increase the libido and fertility of the subjects. I advise continuing with these trials for six months at least before moving on to human subjects.
TO: Dr. Barlowe
FROM: Dr. Brochard-Klein
SUBJECT: Re: Project Omega Discovery
Negative. Human trials will start immediately. We don’t have the time to waste. Neither does humanity.
“Project Omega? What was it with the Old Ones and this Omega Gamma Alpha nonsense?” Aloy muttered to herself.
Kotallo wondered if this was what Aloy was like when she explored alone. Her utter focus was a glorious sight to behold.
“Brochard-Klein was the leading geneticist in charge of ELEUTHIA,” she told Kotallo, “It sounds like cloning and exogenic technology weren't enough for him. Maybe this part of the facility was tossed in with the Zenith’s deal. But what does the beacon have to do with anything?”
“We should find it. Our answers lie with the signal.”
Aloy nodded, briefly completing her scan of the room before using her spear to unlock the only door. The next room was similar to the first, save for two large square chambers, each with a transparent wall facing the center of the room. Desks across from the rooms were manned with skeletons of the Old Ones, a grim reminder that humanity survived only because of the sacrifices of many.
Aloy approached one of the glass partition walls, noting two more skeletons inside. “They died holding each other."
As decayed as they were, indeed their intertwined posture was undeniable. “Perhaps they were lovers?” Kotallo suggested.
Aloy hummed noncommittally, scanning the room thoroughly before approaching the next door. “Nothing in here but death. Looks like the beacon is one room over.”
The door in question proved to be a harder obstacle than the last, but Aloy managed to pry it open a crack with her spear before they each took a side and parted the metal slabs with their strength alone.
The next room was smaller than the last, with a strange stall-like area reminiscent of the Base’s “shower pods”. The beacon was coming from within it. Aloy and Kotallo stepped closer to examine the blinking light on the cylindrical shape. Abruptly, the light ceased and the door to the stall slammed shut.
“A trap!” Kotallo cried as he tried unsuccessfully to break open the door. It held firm.
A cool automated voice sounded around them.
“Subjects detected. Scanning total earth human population. Population remains nominal. Intervention deemed necessary. Initiating Project Omega. Genetic sequencing complete. Please hold still.”
Aloy and Kotallo barely had time to share a panicked look before a fine mist began to fill the air. The mist smelled metallic and unnatural, though it wound around them the same as the morning fog.
Aloy's hand darted out to Kotallo’s with a quick squeeze before she said, “Cover your mouth! Try not to breathe!” She clapped both of her hands over her mouth as Kotallo did the same with his single hand.
The mist settled heavily over their skin, darkening Kotallo’s white paint into a light gray. He watched as Aloy’s eyes grew wide in panic, helplessness overwhelming him. A crawling sensation crept over his skin and his flesh became warm as if freshly burned by the sun. Kotallo glanced back and forth from his skin to Aloy’s, noticing no physical changes other than the slight dampness. Slowly the mist abated and they lowered their useless hands from their mouths, taking the gasping full breath their lungs demanded of them.
They stared at each other in confusion and panic while the voice of a woman of the Old World began to fill their ears.
“Project Omega is a success and yet a failure. Our food store is empty, and Zero Day is long gone. There is no restock coming. There is no time to create a widespread dissemination system. I have programmed a failsafe into our system here, but that requires humans finding our little lab centuries in the future. If humanity even makes it that far. If you did and you're hearing this now I can't imagine you're exactly happy with some scientists from the past altering your biology. You didn't volunteer for this and we had such little time we had to maintain the heterosexual binary, females will become Omegas and males Alphas. If you're unhappy with your partner, or stumbled on our lab by yourself there should be enough serum for fifty total subjects. I hope that's enough to begin to repopulate the world. If not, I'm so, so sorry. Actually, regardless, I'm sorry. The data within this beacon includes our notes and the diaries of our subjects. I hope it helps you to learn about what Omegas and Alphas are, but the truth is we didn't have enough time to learn it all. Our subjects learned to be happy in their new biology. Maybe even care for one another. I hope you can too.”
“They changed our biology?” Kotallo asked.
Aloy's mouth had settled into an angry line. “It appears so. So we can 'repopulate the earth’? What exactly did they change?”
“I imagine they made us more… fertile,” he suggested, “If the concern was a low population.”
“But what did they mean by ‘partner’?”
Kotallo shrugged, noting the near-vibrating tension radiating off of Aloy. He was drawn to her as a Scrapper to a downed machine, wrapping his arm around her before he could think better of it.
“Whatever they have done to us, we will get through it. Together.”
Aloy took a steeling breath as she wrapped her arms around Kotallo in a secure embrace. The moment passed and Kotallo found himself reluctant to release her as she tugged away, his hand drawn to her hip as if by Aloy’s pullcaster. Aloy appeared to ignore his hand as she approached the beacon, scanning the data with her Focus.
“Fire and spit!” she cursed, “This data is corrupted beyond recognition. We’ll have to take the beacon back to Base and see if Beta can help me salvage at least some of it.”
Kotallo’s hand reached for hers once more, yet he managed to halt it before their skin met, withdrawing it to his side. He felt as though he was physically depriving himself of something vital. Could the mist have lowered his inhibitions? He would never touch Aloy as much as this, save for in his dreams. He needed to tighten his control.
“Let's head back now, then. It may be difficult, but as I have seen many times you are capable of miracles, Aloy.”
The half smile that Aloy gave him set alight the blaze fire in his stomach that only she could spark. His hand trembled with the willpower it took to maintain a distance between them. Perhaps whatever had been done to them could not be overcome by will alone.