Beta Horizon - Blog Posts

Horizon AU: Twin Flames

Zero Dawn Act - Chapter 1: "A gift from the stars"

"What if Beta grew up with Aloy as an outcast?"

AU by @mariana-souza and proofreading by @beanswithbones

Chapter's word count: 3030

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Earth is ours no more.

Metallic beasts ruled the world; the skies, water, and land were their dominion. They had various sizes and shapes, but their bright armor and artificial lights showed they were not nature's creations. They peacefully coexist with organic life unless provoked. 

Many ruins from a long-lost civilization were taken by nature, and only their metal and stone skeletons still stand as a reminder to humankind of the missteps of the Old Ones.

Surrounded by mountains and isolated from the rest of the world lay the Nora Sacred Lands; people lived by the extensive base of the region's highest peak.

Away from the tribe's settlements lived a little girl called Aloy. Her orange-fire hair made her very distinguishable from the rest of the tribe members.

Even though when she was a newborn, her name was blessed by one of the high matriarchs of the Nora, she was made an outcast like her guardian, a man called Rost.

One day, Aloy was watching a group of kids taught by a Nora Mother how to collect berries. Wanting to join the group, she went on her way to pick some good berries as well.

Carefully, Aloy approached the Nora Mother and tried to hand her the berries. But the moment the woman saw her right there, she froze, scared; it was like a monster was before her.

The woman quickly stepped away and took the other kids with her. "She's an outcast, to be shunned," she told the other kids, apprehension noticeable in her tone. 

Some kids looked at Aloy with fear, others with a judgemental look. 

That made Aloy's blood boil; that wasn't a new behavior of other tribe members towards her. What did she do wrong? Why do they treat her as if she is a bad omen or a ferocious machine? Was it all because she didn't have a mother?

She bolted away from that place, crying in anger and despair. Through many bushes, she ran and many rocks she stumbled. But she didn't stop; the pain of being shunned was too much for such a little kid like her to bear.

With her eyes blurred from tears, she didn't see a massive hole in the ground. When she realized she was already free-falling.

She rolled down a high stony hill until she fell into a deep water poll. She had difficulty leaving the cold water because of the pain but could stand up nonetheless.

She called for Rost as loud as she could, but the place was too deep for her voice to reach the surface; she had to find a way out alone.

The place was a labyrinth of tunnels dug by the erosion of the elements. Even if some sunlight was coming in, the area was cold as ice. The cold air was cutting through Aloy's skin like needles. A few places were tight, but Aloy could pass through.

After some walking and a jump scare of a few bats, Aloy reached an odd and prominent place; the air got even colder once she stepped on the metal floor. The perfect geometrical structures of the area left her with no doubt, "Could this be… Ruins of the metal world? One of the old places!" she whispered, baffled.

As she looked at the place, she noticed that a portion of it was covered with rocks, and it wasn't any rock formation that looked like a landslide. There were just small holes at the top through where air and light were coming in.

"Rost said those places are forbidden… But I have to find a way out…" she commented as she slowly descended the small metal stairs from the platform she was on.

Observing the place, she felt the dread of the cold. The place was lifeless, even if some cavern animals and small plants were inside it. The atmosphere there was heavy as if she was inside an underground cemetery. The metal constructions were plain and precisely geometrical, a visual only found in ruins of the Old World.

Aloy retook a look from a new angle at the landslide in hopes of finding a way out, but instead, she spotted a kid, around her age, near the rocks; To her surprise, the kid was alive; she could see their chest going up and down with their breath. 

With careful steps, she approached the kid. When she got closer, she noticed their hair was orange, just like hers. But their clothes were oddly plain white, made of a material she had never seen before.

"Hey!" She shook the kid's shoulder. 

The little girl began to mumble some words but didn't wake up. Aloy shook her again, and the girl started to speak louder, "No… No… red stars… Falling… No… The blood moon. Ne-Nemes…"

"HEY! Wake up!" Aloy shouted, worried, while she slapped the girl's shoulder, as she thought the girl was having a heavy nightmare.

Suddenly, the girl woke up in a blast and screamed, "GAIA!" her voice echoed through that vast empty place, and an intense headache immediately overcame her.

That froze Aloy, scared, but seeing the other kid in distress snapped her back. "Hey, hey, it's okay now," she tried to comfort her.

The girl was breathing in panic; some tears streamed down her cheeks. As the headache subsided, she began to look around, scared, as if looking for someone.

"Hey, my name is Aloy… What's yours?" Aloy asked curiously but also worried; she hadn't seen someone in such distress before.

The girl took a moment to process what Aloy asked while they stared into each other's eyes.

"Beta… I think…" she responded, slightly uncertain.

"You think?!" Aloy blurted, confused.

"Where are we?!" Beta asked as she was getting up.

"In some ruins of the Old World."

"I got that. I meant territory," Beta asked again, sounding anxious.

"The… Nora sacred lands," Aloy responded, visibly confused.

Beta stared at her incredulously; she didn’t know what she was talking about. She became thoughtful and began to look around, looking for something… or someone, until she saw a person's hand on the cliffside; the body was undoubtedly buried.

Aloy noticed where Beta was looking and saw the same thing, "Was… That person with you?" worry evident in her tone.

"I guess…?" Beta responded with uncertainty.

She then started to walk around in circles, trying to dig up her memories. She was shivering as the cold air current of the place was slowly affecting her. She was stroking her hands in her arms in an attempt to warm up.

Aloy couldn't understand what was happening with Beta, but she noticed her shivering. She took off her blue scarf and handed it to her. "Here, let me wrap this around your neck and shoulders. I'm not a stitcher, but your clothes don't look warm."

Beta genuinely was caught off guard by Aloy's kindness, "Th-thank you…."

"Let's find a way out of this place," Aloy said, calm, as she adjusted the scarf on Beta. She nodded in response and decided to follow Aloy.

While they were trying to find a way out, Beta was trying to recall how she got there. Unfortunately, she only had vague images in her head that mostly looked like they were from a dream. 

Who was she? Where did she come from? Who was that person that died on the cliffside? Why are her clothes so different from Aloy's?

The more she tried to remember facts about herself, the more she realized how amnesiac she was. She wasn't even sure if "Beta" was her name.

"What it's that?!" Aloy's voice broke through Beta's thoughts.

Aloy was observing a corpse being bathed by sunlight; some grass was growing by the body already. But she was looking at a shiny thing at the corpse's head, a little triangle-shaped item.

She carefully took it off to take a better look. It was made of metal and had a blue light string, and it was oddly similar to machines.

Beta looked around and found another corpse in the shadows with the same device in its head. Like Aloy, she took it too.

"hehe, it's like a tiny little machine," Aloy commented, amused by how cute the device was.

"This is a Focus. You put it in your temple like this," Beta said while demonstrating what she meant. When she got the device near her skin, it attached to her left temple like a magnet.

Aloy did the same right after. When the device was attached to her right temple, many images made out of light appeared all around the place. It was such a change of scenario that she fell off, surprised, mesmerized by the light pictures.

On the other hand, Beta wasn't surprised at all; she seemed pretty used to it.

"Are you seeing the lights too?" Aloy asked as she got up.

"Uhh…Yeah?" 

"Why are you not surprised?" 

Beta stopped, looking wide-eyed at Aloy and thinking about that question. She couldn't recall where she had seen such lights before, but she was sure that wasn't something new to her.

"I don't know…." Beta responded, sounding concerned. "Let's keep going, okay?"

They continued their way into the ruins. Aloy was mesmerized by the lights that surrounded and took the shape of devices and details on walls. Some were glyphs, which Beta could comprehend with no problem. 

Beta also showed Aloy how to interact with and analyze devices they found around. The focus would reveal interactable mechanisms they could use to open doors, activate more significant devices, and so on.

They stopped by the entrance of a small room, there was a corpse by the door, and it had an active focus in its head. 

When Aloy analyzed the focus, an image of a man on his knees appeared, Aloy got jump scared, but Beta stood on her feet.

"A holo message," Beta commented under her breath.

The man looked happy and playful, with a little cone-shaped hat on his head. "Happy Birthday, Isaac! Daddy sure does love his little big man."

The man's enthusiasm was contagious, and the girls giggled happily, listening to the message.

"Look, Daddy can’t be there with you and Mom, but… We can still have a party, right? Sure we can.” He blew up a small thing that made a loud honk sound making the girls laugh.

"Haha, Can it repeat?" Aloy asked Beta.

Beta swung her right hand in the air, and the message started over.

"Wow! How do you know so well how all these work?" Aloy asked, astonished.

Beta's smile then vanished. "I… I don't know… I can't remember." She stood in place, rubbing her hands nervously and sweating apprehensively. 

"You alright there?" Aloy asked. But Beta didn't hear her; she was lost in her thoughts.

"Hey!" Aloy put her face in front of Beta. Beta looked at her but didn't stop her from fidgeting.

"Are you okay?" Aloy repeated the question.

Beta's eyes got teary; she didn't make eye contact with Aloy and fell to her knees. "I-I-I don't know! I can't remember a thing about how I got here! How and why I know how all these work! It's… Everything's so blurry! Nothing makes sense!" She began crying desperately, scared of her situation.

Aloy felt a pressure in her chest; she didn't want her new and first friend her age to be like that… But she didn't know what to do; that was a new situation, and Rost wasn't there to guide her.

"All… All I can think of is about a horrible feeling…." Beta continued between sobbing and sniffing.

Aloy knelt by her side to listen closely. "What feeling?" 

Beta swallowed her tears to catch a breath, "I know that… some people are looking for me, but like… They are bad people! I'm very sure of that! But I don't even remember their faces or names!"

While Beta's sobbing echoed in that large metal room, Aloy was thoughtful. Rost wasn't there to tell her what it was right to do, so she had to decide alone. 

"Don't worry, Beta! I will protect you from those evil people!" Aloy said confidently and with a wide smile.

Beta slowly moved her head to look at Aloy, her eyes red and swollen from crying. "What?" she said almost in a whisper, incredulous at Aloy's attitude.

"YEAH! I'm an outcast with my mentor, Rost. We live isolated from everyone else!" Aloy responded enthusiastically. "You can hide with us while we learn how to fight and survive in the wilds!"

Even though she didn't know the real reason behind that feeling, Beta's eyes began to shine with the glimpse of hope she had found someone to trust. 

She leaped towards Aloy and hugged her tightly. "Thank you!" She cried again.

That got Aloy off guard, as Rost wasn’t a warm and loving person, and that was the first time she ever got hugged. She carefully wrapped her arms around Beta's frame; she had no idea how much strength she could do.

'That's how a hug feels like?' Aloy thought. The comfort, the heart warmth; that was something new for both of them, as Beta somehow knew that was her first hug.

As they let go of the hug, Aloy reinforced, "I will protect you, okay? I promise."

Beta nodded happily. "I trust you. Thank you," She said as she cleaned her tears.

They continued their way into the ruins, almost feeling like they were walking in circles; hence every room nearly looked the same. 

After some issues to make some doors get to work again, Aloy commented, "How could people live in places like this? All this metal is so… cold…."

"This is a bunker people used as a shelter. For like… hide from deadly weather," Beta responded quickly.

"So where did they live then?" 

"By… the surface, at towers tall as mountains." 

Aloy got even more curious. "Oooh! Like, in the sky?"

"I guess…? Not literally, tho," Beta responded, a bit uncertain.

Interrupting their conversation, they heard someone calling for Aloy deep in the ruins.

"That's Rost!" Aloy said eagerly. "Let's go!"

They bolted their way following Rost's voice; they left the ruins and returned to the cave system. They kept following his calling until they reached a large hole.

When Aloy called for Rost, he responded in relief when he spotted her. But his concern grew even more when Beta got in his sight.

"Come on! Get out of there!" Rost called as he waved his hands.

Aloy and Beta had to do some climbing to reach the top. Beta had a lot of difficulties doing so, which made Aloy come back to help her a few times.

They jumped to grab Rost's hands when both were near the top. He pulled them out of the hole the fastest he could.

While the girls were catching their breath, Rost began to say, "Aloy, such places are forb-" but he was interrupted when Aloy and Beta looked at him.

He was utterly shocked at that sight; even with different clothes and haircuts, he could see that the two girls were visually the same, a detail they hadn't noticed yet.

"What's your name?" Rost asked Beta, but he was still processing that vision.

"Be-Beta… Sir," she answered, slightly scared of him.

"What both of you were doing down there?" Rost asked worriedly, 

"I feel in…" Aloy said, a bit embarrassed.

"I… I don't remember, I'm sorry…." Beta responded awkwardly.

"You should not be in those places. The ruins of the Metal World are forbidden and dangerous!" Rost said calmly but firmly in his tone.

"I know…" Aloy responded with little eye contact.

"Let's go home, Aloy, and you should go back to your parents, Beta," Rost said as he got up.

"Rost! Wait! Can Beta come with us?!" Aloy said in a hurry.

Rost gave Aloy a confused stare, hardly believing in such a request.

"Rost, please! She has nowhere else to go! The person that was with her died!" Aloy begged.

Beta swallowed her nervousness and tried to help Aloy, "Sir, please. I may not remember anything before meeting Aloy, but I feel that... There are people after me... and I mean bad people."

"Yeah! And I will protect her!" Aloy said confidently.

Rost didn't say a word, but he was thoughtful; it was a lot of information at once.

Rost's silence made Beta uneasy, "Aloy said you are outcasts, right? That you're isolated from everyone, right? Please, let me stay with you."

The more Rost thought about it, the more confusing the situation became; Aloy found a kid looking the same as her inside one of the ruins of the Metal World, but she had clothes he'd never seen before… Was she from the Metal World? It could not be. That was impossible.

The fear of being left alone snowballed inside Beta. "I-I can be helpful too!" She said loudly.

Aloy was close to panic about losing her friend, "Rost, please! I will take care of her, I promise!"

Rost had to think better, so he turned away for a moment. That little kid couldn't be from the Metal World, and he couldn't leave an amnesiac kid to the wilds. 

When he looked again at the girls, he saw Aloy trying to comfort Beta as she was on the verge of crying.

Aloy could use a friend, too, he thought. Someone to teach and show her about love and kindness, a thing he knew he wouldn't be able to teach her.

He sighed loudly, calling the girls' attention, "Okay... You'll have to learn to survive in the wild and defend yourself if those people ever show up. As for you, Aloy, If you're going to help her, you'll have to learn the same. Starting tomorrow, for both of you."

Aloy got a smiling cheek-to-cheek, while Beta got utterly surprised. 

"Thank you!" They yelled at the same time.

"Let's go home now," Rost called them.

As they went to Rost's shack, Aloy giggled, "I guess… that makes us sisters now, right?!" 

Beta then smiled back, "Yeah… we are sisters."

To be continued…