The flight from Los Angeles to the Zenith base lasted until after midday, Aloy clinging to the cables of the Sunwing, her arms unavoidably wrapped around Tomas who shivered and shuddered in her grasp. For the last hour he was alarmingly still and she wondered if he’d died in her arms.

When they reached the tower she landed and slid off, holding onto Tomas’ hands to keep him from tumbling. He raised his arm limply and waved her back.

“I’m not dead yet…” He rasped and dismounted, his legs giving way beneath him. Aloy hauled him to his feet.

“Hey!” She cried, shaking him. “Wake up!”

His eyelids were blue and so were his lips. Colour was draining out of his face, his breathing all but a shallow pant, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he gritted his teeth through the pain.

“The rejuvenation capsule? There’s one here, you said so!” At least she hoped he’d said so. It was a stammered comment he’d made on the flight back.

“In the tower…three down…”

“Tower, three down…come on.” She practically dragged him across the white platform to the doorway and activated the lift. Rather than drop them down to its level, the tower rearranged itself to bring the room up to launch platform height which opened at a touch from Tomas’ hand. There was a capsule inside of it, lying on its side with a clear curved hatch over the top. Aloy flung it open, Tomas sagging onto the thin mattress inside.

“What do I do?” She asked sharply.

“Close the hatch…” He whispered, slumping onto his back. Aloy lifted his feet and got him lying properly in it before closing the hatch. Lights appeared across the glass as the capsule glowed, a scan pulsing back and forth before listing health percentages in diminishing numbers. A timer appeared, increasing as information fed into it. Aloy guessed it was the countdown to complete healing. Judging by the numbers, Tomas would be in the capsule for up to two days.

But it wasn’t beeping or sending out a flat tone indicating death. Perhaps she had managed to save his life after all.

Aloy’s face cringed. One life…when so many others had died…and all because of her.

She stepped back from the capsule, the emotion she’d let the cold winds of flight drive away from her beginning to surge.

“Typical,” she jumped and spun around, seeing Sylens in the doorframe, recognising his voice instantly over his silhouette, “yet another door that refuses to open to anyone but you.”

Aloy trembled, warring between indignation and guilt. “Sorry Sylens,” she said far more sharply than she intended, “but this time it wasn’t me.”

He moved into the small room, eyeing her with his usual disdain and leaned over the capsule. When he turned to her, she got to see, for the first time ever, unguarded surprise on his face.

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“That’s the escaped Zenith?” He exclaimed and she nodded. “Where’s Londra?”

“No Londra. It was all Faro,” Aloy closed her eyes, suddenly overwhelmingly tired, “uh…Tomas I mean…Ted Faro’s clone created in secret by Londra and Gerard.”

“And poorly done, going by his vital signs.” Sylens muttered.

“He’s ten years old.”

Sylens put his fingers on the hatch. “Wait…this is healing him!” He twisted and glared at her. “Are you out of your mind? He’s an insane megalomaniac whose ‘peace keepers’ killed billions, wiped the earth clean of all life and who condemned us all to ignorant oblivion when he deleted the APOLLO database!”

Aloy stared at him, swaying lightly on her feet. “Did I create Gaia?”

Sylens paused. “What? No!”

“Did I put together the team of Alphas to forge her subordinate functions?”

“Of course not.”

“Did I sacrifice myself to close an exterior hatch to keep the Alphas safe?”

“That’s not the point,” Sylens argued, “speaking genetically, you and Sobeck are identical. It’s what gives you your unrelenting drive of justice and hope to the detriment of all good and common sense. He,” he pointed at the capsule, “is genetically identical to the man whose ambition sucked this world dry and who believed himself to be a type of ‘god’ figure to the new generation of humans, hoping to make them in his image. You cannot separate him from Faro anymore than you can separate yourself from Sobeck.” Sylens glared at the vulnerable body in the capsule. “He’s too dangerous to be allowed to live.”

Sylens was about to deactivate the capsule. Aloy didn’t stop him physically but she knew what would stay his hand.

“Tomas knows about Nemesis,” Sylens froze and the smallest smile tweaked on her lips, “while Beta studied Gaia, her subordinate functions and all things pertinent to terraforming, Tomas’ one task was to study Nemesis and come up with a way to defeat it.”

Sylens turned to her. “And did he?”

“No,” Aloy said simply, “but if we’re going to form a plan of attack, let’s not let the one person die who knows the enemy better than anyone else…shall we?”

Sylens’ lips firmed into hard lines. “Very well…you’ve convinced me that his contribution outweighs his potential for disaster…for now.” He spun on his heel and walked away without a backward glance.

Aloy nodded, knowing that the best way to get around Sylens was to know more than he and offer it to him. She looked at the capsule and at Tomas’ restful expression and felt her knees quake. She stumbled out of the room, along the launch tower platform where her Sunwing rested, all the way to the edge and sat next to one of the pylons.

“Alva?” She called, tapping her FOCUS.

“Aloy! It’s good to hear your voice.”

“Yours too,” Aloy smiled weakly, “you’re at Landfall, right?”

“I am.”

“The Quen haven’t left yet?”

“No but they’re getting ready too. Because the storms have lessened so much all over the earth, they didn’t feel the need to rush back immediately with all the data we’d collected. Diviner Bohai wants to make sure his return is as affluent as possible when it comes to data, considering how many Quen have been lost.”

“Yeah, about that,” Aloy swallowed, “I found the other half of the Quen fleet.”

“What? You did!”

“They’re in the ruins of Los Angeles under the command of Admiral Gerrit.”

“He survived?! That’s incredible! And the other Quen!”

“Ah…not all of them.”

“Even a few is enough to buoy the spirits of Landfall Quen! Aloy, this is wonderful news!”

Aloy cringed as Alva thanked her so generously as she considered her role in the events that led to so many deaths.

“I told them I’d let the Landfall Quen know they’re there. Their ships are inoperable so if Bohai can pick them up on the journey home…”

“I’ll let him know at once,” Alva paused, “Aloy…are you alright? You sound…flat.”

That’s exactly how she felt. Flat.

“I’m just tired.” She lied.

“Okay…where are you now? Can you rest?”

Aloy lay back on the platform and looked up at the blue sky streaked with a few delicate white clouds.

“Yeah…for a little while. Aloy out.”