Aloy arrived at the base the next day, bearing what she had secured from the secret chamber in the Grove. Kotallo was immediately aware that she was in the base, hearing her speak with the others. They chose to work together, assisting each other while Kotallo preferred to work alone. After his initial meltdown, hitting a wall that his physical prowess and stubborn nature could not punch through, Kotallo had allowed Gaia to help him.

It was not easy and he had a long way to go but he did feel like he was gaining ground, even if it wasn’t much. He hoped that, one day, he would look back and see how much progress he had made.

He was bracing himself for her to come and go without checking on him. He knew she had a great deal to accomplish. Kotallo knew his orders, to become accustomed to the FOCUS and to learn about the past and about the enemy.

There was a burst of energy through the base which he attributed to Aloy restoring Gaia’s retrieved component. He observed Varl and Erend heading to the vision’s room, reappearing only minutes later. He recognised, from their urgent tread, that they were on a mission.

He was jealous. He would have liked to have a specific task to deal with but he was more than aware that out of all of them, he had the most catching up to do.

Kotallo refocused on his work, his fingers learning how to direct the lights of the FOCUS, the gentlest touch required. He was concentrating so hard he missed the footsteps entering the room and was surprised to hear a throat clear.

His eyes shifted from the display and blinked, Aloy coming into focus.

“Aloy.” He greeted, calling her by her name for the first time. It felt good, strange but good.

“Kotallo,” she smiled, “it’s good to see you.” She looked around. “I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of questions…”

“I’ve been told of our enemy and their intentions. Your friends showed me to the vision you keep in this place, Gaia, and gave me this FOCUS.” He had to be brutally honest with her. “I don’t pretend to fully understand everything but all I really need to know is where to train and when to fight.”

She wasn’t disappointed in his truthfulness at all.

“Welcome to the team then.” She nodded. “What were you looking at over there?”

He paused, recalling his studies. “The others have been helping me decipher the symbols the FOCUS shows me,” he explained, “and Gaia has told me of the intent to capture Hephaestus, an errant part of Gaia that builds machines.”

“And the Zeniths?”

“I’ll admit I find them hard to grasp.” Kotallo shook his head. “To come from the heavens…and invulnerable…”

“For now.” Aloy said firmly.

She was never daunted at the impossible, only seeing it as something to be made possible.

“I will leave the strategy to you,” Kotallo knew it was in good hands, “I trust you will point my blade to where it will cut the deepest.”

She nodded, accepting his offer. “I should go.” She looked at the door and he sensed she was steeling herself for another mission. “Feel free to check in on Hekarro and your people,” she insisted, “the door is always open here.”

“I will,” he saluted her gently, “may the Ten walk with you.”

With Erend and Varl gone with Aloy, the base was even quieter than before. However, Zo seemed to suffer the same aversion as Kotallo did to the blandness of the base. She brought it woven mats and even asked him to help her bring plants inside. While not Tenakth décor, it did serve to make the base look less sterile. And the mats helped with the chill in the rooms.

“Thank you.” Zo said to him as he helped shift a large plant. “All this metal…it felt like I was living inside of a machine. And it has been so cold…”

“The cold does not bother me,” Kotallo looked around, “the grey of…everything…”

“Tenakth have the most striking colours.” Zo observed. “Utaru…we just paint with the crushed white of powdered stone. Tenakth have red, white, black, red, yellow, blue, an amazing splash of pink…”

“A dark teal and the red of dried blood.” Kotallo added.

“Beautiful.”

Kotallo looked at her sharply. “They are the colours of the clans, the colour of war.”

“Oh…of course…beautifully intimidating, I meant.”

His eyes narrowed. “You are mocking me.”

Zo smiled and shook her head. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Do you require any more help, impertinent Utaru?”

She laughed. “I have more materials with which to weave. I want to make several mats for Aloy’s room. All she has is a bed and a few oddments…”

“A warrior has little need for adornments.”

Zo shook her head and sighed. “I don’t think Aloy has had much of a home since…her guardian was killed.”

“You speak of the Nora warrior?”

“Yes.” Zo and Kotallo walked to the eastern exit where Zo had used an overridden machine to drag large amounts of leaves and fronds with which she wove mats with rapid ease. “After he died, she left everything behind. She only had the clothes on her back and the spear in her hand.”

“And her mind. It is a formidable weapon.”

“Not much of a companion, though.” Zo pointed out. “I wouldn’t want her to feel hemmed in…but I do want her to feel that, should she need somewhere to just be…she can be here.”

Kotallo helped Zo drag some of the grasses in where she started to sort them into colours. He offered to bring the rest and, because he was actually interested in getting back to his studies, he decided to attempt to drag the rest in one trip. As he was heaving it backwards, his blood began to pump and he turned to automatically switch arms. Of course, there was nothing there with which to grab but his shoulder shifted all the same.

He'd been lulled into a false sense of healing at the base, not needing to do anything so physical that it reminded him of the loss…until now.

He cried out, biting back his curse. Zo was immediate in appearing.

“Kotallo?” He thrust his right hand down, away from the stump but she caught sight of his motion. “Let me help…”

“I can manage.” He snapped at her with gritted teeth and dragged the grasses with stubborn, foolish resolve until they were all in the base. He was shaking, the pain and the stupidity of his actions causing him to tremble. Zo said nothing, leaving him alone until he’d moved every last blade of grass into the main room. Then she approached him with a cup in her hand. “I…I am sorry.” He managed to grind out, knowing that his pain was not her fault.

“Here,” she said instead of pandering to his frustration, “it’s a warm brew with a special blend of herbs in it. It’ll help with the pain.”

“I’m not in pain.” He lied.

She eyed him without fear. “I think you’re always in pain, so much so you don’t know what it would be like to be without it.” She pushed the cup into his hands. “Drink…or I’ll weave something pretty into your floor mat…like a butterfly.”

Kotallo huffed and shook his head. She would, he knew, do as she threatened.

He downed the bitter herbs in one gulp and put the cup on the counter.

“If that will be all?” He said, almost taunting her as she sat on the floor and began to weave.

“You may go.” She teased and he rolled his eyes and went back to the room he’d made his own to study in. While the others liked to work together, he preferred to remain solitary. It was hard enough for him to concentrate without other voices breaking into his thoughts.

“Kotallo. Zo. Could I speak with you both urgently?”

He had grown used to Gaia’s voice in his head and responded immediately, joining Zo as they ascended to Gaia’s room.

“Gaia?” Zo asked.

“Erend and Varl went on a mission with Aloy to discover the origin and sender of an encrypted message. They are on their way back with an injured young woman.” Gaia explained.

“What should we do?”

“She will require healing herbs such as you just gave Kotallo to drink and nourishing food.” Gaia turned to Kotallo. “I have also come up with a plan to fix the base’s heating system, allowing the rooms to remain at a pleasant temperature which will aid her recovery.”

“I am not a tinkerer of any sort,” Kotallo confessed, “but with your instruction, I would do all that I could.”

Zo hastened to prepare her medicine while Kotallo found the components Gaia said were necessary to fix the heating. There was a panel in his room which opened. He crawled inside, awkwardly shuffling on three limbs until he emerged in what Gaia called a maintenance room. It wasn’t very big and Kotallo was hardly a small person.

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Fixing the heating was problematic as he had no second arm. He was glad no one was there to watch him use his teeth to hold wires while his right hand attached them. He was relieved when Gaia said he was done and he hunkered down to crawl out again. He banged the stump of his arm and no amount of control could stop the foul words from ripping out of his mouth, echoed loudly throughout the base.

He clambered out of the crawlspace, immediately aware that the fabric that hid the grotesque appearance of the stump was staining with blood. He stormed past Zo towards the western exit, ignoring her as she asked if he was alright, found the closest patch of snow outside and drove the stump into it. He hissed and panted through the agony until the ice numbed him to the pain and he was shaking from the cold…or the shock. It was hard to tell.

Zo said nothing and offered no pity which he was grateful for when he went back inside. She had a length of cloth in her hands and he eyed her warily.

“It is not a pretty sight.” He warned, knowing that the freshly opened wound needed to be redressed and he could not do so himself.

“My aunt was a healer,” Zo insisted, “I’ve seen a great many injuries.”

She peeled the cloth away, rinsed it with salt water that made Kotallo grit his teeth and strike the counter. Apparently the ice hadn’t been enough to fully remove the pain. She didn’t reprimand him for it, waiting until the sting ebbed and very gently applied a salve to the stump before wrapping it, tying the ends deftly.

“Gaia,” Kotallo said when he could manage to speak, “what else needs to be done to fix the heating?”

“There is a panel behind the counter where a faulty circuit is shorting out the system.”

“I’ll have a look.” Zo offered and did so. “Is this it, Gaia?”

“Yes. We lack the components to repair it, however, simply bypassing the circuit will allow the rest of the elements to work together once more.” Kotallo watched Zo work quickly to do as Gaia instructed until she shut the panel. “I have tested the connections. The heating system will now function. It will make the base warmer by several degrees.”

“I hope you will not become uncomfortable.” Zo looked at Kotallo.

“If I am in need of frigid fresh air, I will simply go outside.” He muttered and returned to his training. He was determined to push through the throb as the icy numbness faded and the sting of reopened wounds returned yet in the end he had to admit defeat and repaired to his bed. It was impossible for him to sleep but he could no longer concentrate on his training. The room was warmer and he dozed as best he could.

It was almost evening when Erend and Varl arrived, Erend carrying a young woman in his arms. Kotallo sat up as they brought her into the sleeping quarters. Zo had made a space for her with several mats and blankets. Kotallo stood, catching a glimpse of hair as red as…

He slipped beneath his curtain and stood behind Erend and Varl who stood outside the cubicle while Zo entered and applied a poultice to the woman’s head injury. Kotallo stared at her, her face…

“She is the same…” He breathed. “But how is that…”

The woman grimaced in her unconsciousness. Zo looked at the three of them.

“She needs quiet.”

Taking the hint, the men retreated to the main space, all three of them lost in their thoughts.

“What…happened?” Kotallo asked.

“Oh nothing much,” Erend waved his hand, “we just climbed a cliff to find Tenakth rebels fighting a single Zenith who cut them down like they were nothing…”

“Until Oseram tinkerers fired a weapon at her and it shorted out her shield.” Varl continued.

“Then they tore right through her like she was an ordinary, regular normal human…”

“This weapon,” Kotallo swallowed, “it worked against these Zeniths?”

“Right up until it exploded.” Kotallo’s shoulders sagged. “Varl and Aloy went down below through this tunnel that the Zeniths had dug through solid rock.”

“We found Beta, that’s her name, unconscious in a capsule,” Varl explained, “she’d recorded a message for Aloy and stole the Gaia kernel that the Zenith’s had.”

“Did the Zenith’s injure her while she was escaping?”

“Her head injury happened when she cut the device out that they used to track her with.” Varl shuddered. “She must have been desperate…”

“Then Aloy took out one of those Spectres and came to the surface to help me out cause I was pinned down by another. Then we came back here.” Erend sank onto his favourite chair. “You know, just another ordinary day.”

Kotallo looked between them. “You…don’t see the resemblance?”

“Well of course we see the resemblance!” Erend exploded. “She’s the freaking same! I mean…they just…they’re just…there’s two Aloys!”

“No,” Kotallo refuted, “there is one Aloy…and this woman is Beta?”

“Yes.” Varl shook his head. “I…I think it has something to do with how Aloy was born.”

“You said she was motherless.”

“Yeah,” Varl licked his lips, “Aloy…when Gaia self destructed, she caused the Cradle facility in the mountain to create a baby…that was exactly like the woman who came up with the idea of Zero Dawn saving humanity.”

“Elisabet…something…”

“Sobeck.” Varl nodded. “Aloy is like…an exact descendant, created so that she could gain access to places like this base and cauldrons.”

“Then who the hell is she?” Erend demanded, pointing to the sleeping quarters.

“She’s the same.”

“But…they’re not…but they are…”

“Erend,” Zo said, her voice cutting through the confusion as she approached, “here is a seed,” she held one out in her hand, “and from it, two trees will grow, separate and adapting to the different circumstances in which they bloom…but the same.”

Kotallo blinked, the metaphor taking some time to work on him.

“Oh…I guess that makes…sense.” Erend pressed his hand to his head. “About as much sense as killers descending from the heavens who are invincible…I need a drink.”

Zo opened her mouth to protest but Varl held up his hand and stopped her. She closed her lips and nodded, realising that Erend had to cope in his own way.

“Will she survive?” Kotallo asked. “She seemed…frail.” The young woman’s appearance had struck him immediately of the same scent and coldness of the base when they’d first arrived. Bleak and characterless. Aloy had so much presence, warm in appearance and spirit. It was hard not to notice the differences just as it was the similarities.

“I think so. She just needs rest and a warm, safe place to recover. I’ll watch over her.” Zo looked at them. “No offense…but you’re all a little intimidating to behold.”

“Aw…Kotallo has a lovely smile.” Kotallo looked at Varl who gulped, somewhat surprised that he’d made the joke. “Er…I mean, you know…when he does…”

Kotallo leaned forward. “I am smiling.” He said as seriously as he could. “Where is Aloy? Why did she not return with you?”

“She wanted to take a look at the weapon after it had cooled from the explosion. I doubt she’ll be far behind us.”

They all seemed to be uncertain as to what to do. Kotallo returned to the room he preferred to train in. It was not long later that there was a commotion outside his door. Immediately suspecting an intruder, Kotallo hurried out, a body slamming into his with force.

“Get out of my way!” Unfortunately for her, his right arm reflexes were still good and he was able to grasp her. She fought him but without strength or skill. He only had to hold her away from his body to let her fists swing wildly. “Leave me alone!”

“Kotallo, it’s okay! Let her go.” Varl and Zo dashed forward.

Kotallo released his death grip on the girl and she staggered away, running for stairs that didn’t go anywhere except down into a room beneath the base. Zo continued to run after her while Varl paused by Kotallo.

“She woke up in a bit of a state…” He closed his eyes and groaned. “I hope we can calm her down before Aloy arrives…”

“I do not think she possesses the strength for a prolonged state,” Kotallo mused, “she fought weakly against my grasp.”

“Yeah…but you think Burrowers are pushovers, right?”

“Indeed.” When Aloy did return to the base, naturally she went to the basement where the girl, Beta, had holed up. Kotallo had left her to Varl and Zo’s care. He was not the nurturing kind. However, with Aloy’s arrival and subsequent conversation with Beta, there was an influx of new information as well as some startling revelations about the Zeniths as they sat to eat their evening meal.

“They’re the same old ones…who left earth a thousand years ago?” Erend exclaimed.

“That’s what Beta says.” Varl nodded. “I didn’t mean to but I heard the whole conversation.”

“Does that mean that Beta is the same Elisabet?” Erend asked then scrunched his face up. “No, no…I know I got that wrong. She stayed on earth…so where’d Beta come from?”

“They must have stolen a part of Elisabet and used it to make Beta.” Varl floundered. “At least…that’s how I understood it.”

“And then they put her in a room with no one to talk to…for years.” Zo whispered. “She was alone…her whole life…trained to be a tool.”

“And told that the Zeniths were her ‘benefactors’.” Varl sneered. “She was nothing more than a servant…no, worse…a slave.”

“She’s so…frail. So frightened.” Zo sighed. “She’s hiding down in that basement where it’s cold and dark…”

“You’ve offered her to come up here and you’ve made her choice of location as comfortable as she’ll let you.” Varl insisted. Zo didn’t look comforted.

“I think I’ll try offering her food again. Perhaps I can tempt her with some bread.”

Varl watched her go and sighed. “Zo thinks Beta’s state is her fault…she was by her side the whole time and the moment she took five minutes to have something to eat…”

“It’s not Zo’s fault that the Zeniths turned that young woman into a beaten, subjugated creature.” Erend insisted.

“Careful. That was almost praiseworthy of Zo.”

“Yeah, don’t tell her I said that.”

“To have lived so long…” Kotallo breathed. “How is that possible?” He felt their gaze and looked up. “Because of the way of the Tenakth, few of us live to old age, sixty summers at the most.”

“I suppose for Tenakth it’s better to die gloriously in battle?” Erend chuckled.

“Yes.” Kotallo responded. “But I guess that is not how it is with all tribes?”

“We have great grandmothers as Matriarchs of the Nora,” Varl confirmed, “some of them are eighty years old.”

Kotallo shook his head. “So, still not as old as the Zeniths…I must ask, are we so different to the old ones that we have lost the ability to live for so long?”

“Nah,” Erend refuted immediately, “there was something…I dunno…unnatural about the Zenith I saw. There was no old age about her and she glowed…”

“From the shield?”

“No, from around her neck,” Erend gestured, “like machine glow…”

“From what Beta said and I admit, I struggle to understand some of the words, the Zeniths use technology and pharmaceuticals to stop ageing.” Varl shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were part machine, taking the place of vital organs.”

Kotallo’s head lifted at this. He wanted to ask about it but Zo arrived, looking deflated.

“She wanted nothing that I offered her.” She sighed and sat down. “I left it there in case she changed her mind.”

Kotallo finished his meal and went back to his room.

“Gaia,” he called, “the vision of the Zenith where Beta was found. May I see it?”

“I have copied it to your FOCUS.”

By now, Kotallo was able to recognise a new ‘file’ on his FOCUS when it activated. He tapped it and was able to watch the Tenakth rebels and Oseram fight and kill the Zenith. Erend had been right. There was nothing aged about the young woman…but there was something stale about her…

“Would you care to discuss your observations, Kotallo?”

“I…was looking at the weapon the Oseram used to disarm her shield.” He insisted. “It would be a formidable advantage especially if the Zeniths were not aware of it before battle.” He paused, wondering if Gaia could hear what he felt was an outright lie.

“I thought, perhaps, you were interested in the integration of technological components, possibly manufacturing an artificial arm for yourself.”

She hadn’t called him a liar but she’d basically stated exactly what it was he’d been really looking for. Kotallo sighed.

“I…may have been curious…but I should be applying my time to studying my opponent and not focussing on myself.”

There was a pause.

“There is a possibility, now that I have been made aware of the Ninmah Research Lab, its function and its database, that I could design an artificial arm for you.”

Kotallo froze, wondering if he had heard Gaia correctly.

“You…you could do that?”

“I am already putting together a schematic.”

“But…I thought that part of you was taken when Hephaestus abandoned you.”

“I am capable of learning and adapting my programming. While not on the same level as Hephaestus, the information from the lab that I downloaded from Varl and Aloy’s FOCUSES has expanded my knowledge of cryostasis chambers and artificial components which was Ninmah’s primary focus.”

Kotallo looked at the stump of his arm.

“I…you should not focus on me, Gaia,” he argued, “there are much greater tasks to occupy your time.”

“I can maintain numerous human interactions while performing hundreds of tasks simultaneously. You are not taking my attention away from anything else.”

“Well…if you have the time.” Kotallo said awkwardly. It was sometimes easy, especially when not in the same room as Gaia, to think that she was just another human with the same limitations. He had to remind himself that she could do so much more.

Even so…could she really help him regain what he’d lost?