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Everything about Talanah’s body ached, the kind of pain that came with fighting too hard, shooting too long, and with far too little sleep and food. Her fingers burned, arms on fire, blood making the bowstring slick in her hands, her arm guard torn to shreds, by her own tired firing or the battle that raged around her, she didn’t know. Everything was ringing, flames dancing in front of her face, a laughing glow that made her sight blur.
Smoke was choking the air, the mesa a swirl of black, darkened war. She couldn’t tell if the fire was coming from the smoking ruins around her, or the swirling darkness that was Meridian Village below, the destruction she’d torn through a haze in her mind. She’d followed Aloy from the ridge, the remnants having crashed down around them in a swirl of stone and dust, choking her lungs. She’d been to the Alight many times, from its desecration at the hands of the Mad-Sun King to scoping out the defenses needed to stop this…HADES from reaching the Spire.
Everything had gone to the darkest of hells now, so choked with death not even the Sun could break through. Sun and shadow be damned.
The Deathbringer just beyond them around them, fire spitting from its throne, HADES sequestered just past it. She’d never seen such a machine, one built so wholly for death, no ounce of life in it. Even the machines like thunderjaws, outfitted to the Sun and back with weapons of destruction, moved as every other creature did. Hummed with machine oil and quirks of being. This was none of that, none of Aloy’s drawings had done it justice.
A missile came over the collapsed stone that blocked them from the main yard. The ground shuddered under her feet, stone blasting in front of her, the force of the explosion sending her crashing into the stone behind her. Everything sang a bright, shocking pain, her breath stolen from her lungs. Her bow was clattered somewhere to her right, arrows spilling out of her quiver, the taste of soil between her teeth. Her mind rumbled equally as the ground, the world swimming in front of her between the sordid smoke and wavy haze of pain.
“Talanah!” someone’s voice cried, the Nora boy, Varl. He grasped at her arm, hauling her up, shoving her bow into her hands. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, the world swimming around her, dust and smoke choking her vision, clogging her breathing. “I’m fine,” she wheezed, clutching at her ribs. “We need to get over that ridge.”
A flash of red shot past her, a flame in the darkness.
Aloy.
Talanah had never fully ascribed to the worship of Aloy. She was handed, by virtue of her own strength, near godhood with every tribe she’d come across, her bow and spear the prowess in which she inflicted her judgement. Aloy was despite the Nora, despite it all, but Talanah understood now what everyone saw in her: someone greater than themselves.
Light glimmered through the haze, striking off her hair, a captivating shine Talanah would admit she’d stared at far longer than she’d want to be caught looking. This was Aloy in her element, confidence and strength, a striking beam of light through the smoke-clad air, hope and future built into a person. Talanah knew what so few others did not, of Aloy’s conception, her purpose behind her making, made of machine and a mother a thousand years before them. That like the person she’d been crafted after, she was tasked with saving their world from utter destruction that threatened the very life of all things.
She did not pretend to understand all of it, but she’d always known her Thrush was special from the very moment she burst into the Hunter’s Lodge, flame and fury and confidence in her skill, so rare in the sea of pompous men, and she’d been drawn like a moth to a flame. Talanah could have never envisioned how special she’d be to her, how Aloy would be the very Sun in which she sought to walk in light.
Talanah would follow her girl till the end of the Sundom and beyond.
A scrapper, corrupted and sparking an angry red, came flying past her, straight towards the red flame in the darkness, and she acted, leaping over the wreckage that had crumbled around her, ignoring the protest of her ribs. The arrow was flying through the air and shattering the lens of the scrapper before she could take her next breath, the machine careening to the side, its momentum stopped as it instead slid across the ground.
Aloy whipped towards her, eyes widening for a split second before she released an arrow over Talanah’s shoulder and exploded a fire bellowback, its flames licking at her arms and back. She scrambled towards Aloy, who while breathing heavily and was covered in soot, didn’t look too worse for wear.
“You okay?” she asked, one hand coming up to brush at Aloy’s jaw, smearing soot and blood, a tender touch they’d had so little time to explore. Aloy leaned into it, a hairbreadth second of comfort in the chaos of the end, nodding once.
“Are you?” Aloy asked, soft in a way she was not. In a way she’d only ever shown around Talanah.
“Of course my Thush.” Aloy blushed a fierce red under the soot. “I’ve got your back. Where do we need to hunt?”
Another explosion rocked the mesa and sent shivers up Talanah’s legs, chattering her teeth. The power these machines had were world-ending, and she could understand now how the Old Ones had died out before them. There was no life here, not in the way even their machines existed. The Deathbringers were aptly named, hulking masses of metal that couldn’t even grace their victims with the concept of life beneath their frames.
By the Sun, she was turning into a Banuk.
“That Deathbringer is guarding HADES,” Aloy rushed out, the mesa shaking again with another boom. Talanah wasn’t fully sure how the sphere could be HADES, but she knew not to ask now. “We need to take it out before it's too late.”
“Any plans?” Talanah already knew she had one. All she had to do was ask.
Aloy’s eyes narrowed, serious and focused. “Overheat it with fire arrows or bombs, it’ll expose its weak spots and stop moving for a second. That’s when we strike.”
“Perfect,” Talanah breathed out. “Ready?”
Aloy notched up an arrow, nodding at her. Before Talanah could move though, a warm hand grabbed at her jaw and yanked her into a fiery, passionate kiss, pouring all that they had into each other. It was scrappy and rough, and yet she never wanted to leave, this passion flaming her very core.
“Make it out alive Aloy Despite the Nora,” she breathed out, inches from Aloy’s face. “You have so much more to give than your life.”
Her girl nodded before turning back to the fight ahead, and Talanah had a moment to wonder if that would be the last kiss she would ever get.
And then she threw herself over the wall.
If she’d thought the destruction from before was bad, this was something else. The Deathbringer was closer than ever, not distantly across the river along the ridge. This was more than Redmaw, its cannons and guns and bombs concocting a fiery assault that left her ears ringing.
“Talanah look out!” Aloy cried, and she ducked just as a missile went flying overhead and exploded the stone behind her. Fragments tore at her skin, but she couldn’t feel them, adrenaline sky high, breathing labored, body in full fight or flight. She was constantly on the backfoot, running and weaving without a moment's rest, trying desperately to avoid that thing’s aim behind the rapidly dwindling hiding spots atop the Alight.
“Oh come on!” Erend groaned from somewhere to her right, and she heard the unmistakable grinding sound of scrappers bursting into the field.
“Aloy, you focus on the big guy!” she cried, ripping out her tripcaster and setting up blast wires, hoping to take at least a few down. “We got the little ones!”
They needed to end this and fast. She launched a double arrow, splitting off the scrapper’s scanner and radar, the thing’s light dying out as it came to a stop as a twitching, metal lump. A boom sounded from behind her, and she turned just as the flamingo body of another scrapper came sliding up next to her.
“Ravagers!” Varl called, and she was pulling out tearblast arrows before she could blink, fingers launching them through the air and onto the big one’s back. With a deafening boom, the cannon popped loose, and Sona was already on it, scooping it up and laying into the machine, the thing pushed back by its own firepower.
Talanah decided she loved the Nora War Chief, she’d make an excellent Hawk.
Something moved from behind her, and it was only her training and skills that saved her from getting absolutely obliterated by a hefty Ravager paw, its claws screeching on the stone as it slid past her. Talanah fumbled for her bow, sending two arrows into its face before rolling out of the way in thinly veiled panic as it pounced. The machine hummed above her as she scrambled, metal claws closing in, the chasm between life and death closing into one.
Something exploded along its side, giving her enough time to scramble farther away, backing into stone, the massive paw slamming into the ground where she’d just been. Her chest heaved, ribs screaming, blood rolling down her arm. Erend came in swinging as another bomb exploded by its head, and the combination sent the machine into the earth to lie still forever.
The last time Talanah had come so close to death was when she fled Meridian. The smoke stung her throat, acidic, and for a moment she could barely hold in her panic, breathing harsh. The world seemed to tunnel as she gasped, clutching at herself as she sat pressed against the cold stone behind her.
“You’re all right, warrior,” a sharp voice said, hauling her up by one arm. “You’ve survived this long.” It was Sona, serious and sharp, patting her arm with something akin to affection. Talanah nodded, grounded just enough to reorient her brain to where the fighting had moved too. She needed to get to Aloy.
She’d promised she’d have her back.
With one last look at Sona she was off, racing into the thick, black smoke that curled around her legs. There, crouched behind a rapidly crumbling stone block was Aloy, reloading her bow with fire arrows. Without speaking, hours of hunts at their backs, she joined her, muscle memory and trust pushing them up at the same time, sending a fiery volley of arrows into the darkness.
They held their breath, and for a moment, nothing moved. As if the world had gone still around them.
Talanah felt the rush of heat first, arm coming up to protect her face, pulling Aloy into her before she could think. The world exploded into orange flames, the Deathbringer beeping erroneously, frozen in place, orange glowing weak points popped out of its flaming hulk.
“Now!” Aloy cried, and like mice scurrying out of the woodworks, they burst out of the smoke, arrows and bombs and spears striking the machine, a dozen hands raging anger and pain onto its hull. It groaned, attempting to pull away, but two of its orange canisters exploded on the left foot closest to Talanah, sending it crumbling sideways.
It was only seconds, but it was the longest seconds of Talanah’s life, the thing sending two more missiles towards her and Aloy, before finally shuddering down, one last explosive bomb blowing a hole in its top, a satisfied look on Aloy’s face as she lowered her sling.
“Go,” she whispered, and though she never needed Talanah’s direction, Aloy was off towards that glowing sphere at the base of the Spire. She followed as quickly as she could, the pain of the fight slowly starting to register,
everywhere
. She’d never been so exhausted.
It wasn’t over yet.
The thing, HADES, swirled in an angry maelstrom, but Aloy gave it nearly no time to speak, to corrupt anything any longer. She dug her spear into the face of the sphere, shattering the glass, the swirling red collapsing into nothing.
It was only then Talanah saw the sparking.
Fuck her pain, fuck the Sun, she pushed herself forward faster than she’d ever gone, red and raw hands grasping at Aloy’s shoulders as she collapsed, lightening arcing over her skin. The moment she made contact, saving her girl from hitting the floor, the shock singed through her skin, tiny, white-hot fires across her body. It was a wonder she didn’t drop Aloy, a miracle Aloy herself still held onto her spear, digging it deeper even as consciousness was fading from her body.
Talanah’s knees slammed into the earth, stinging and crying, but she couldn’t care. Not when Aloy laid motionless in front of her, not when she hadn’t said the words that only Aloy could say. Not when they were so close.
Aloy wasn’t breathing.
She didn’t think twice before giving her lungs to her Thrush, forcing air into Aloy’s chest, lips on lips. Nothing changed, and she did it again, the fragile remnants of first aid Aloy had taught her from holos she couldn’t see scattered somewhere deep in her mind. She would give Aloy everything,
anything
, and so she pressed hard, a messy kiss of desperation for life, forcing all the air she could give into her lover’s lungs.
Aloy gasped underneath her, and she pulled back, her green eyes blinking up at her hazily. For a moment, no one moved, until Aloy saw the sphere next to them, attempting to sit up in desperation. Talanah scrambled, hand at her back as she supported her girl into a kneeling position, every part of her screaming she shouldn’t be up this fast after lying on the earth not breathing. But she could never say no to Aloy. And she knew she would never stop, not until this was over, for good.
“Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime,” Aloy commanded, not even a crack in her voice, stronger than anyone Talanah had ever known. She could not see what happened fully, only that the world seemed to shimmer around them, and that Aloy was suddenly sagging against her, the fight disappearing as quickly as it came.
“It’s over,” she whispered as Talanah lowered them into each other, searching Aloy’s form desperately. “HADES is gone.”
“You did it,” Talanah said softly, one hand coming up to brush hair behind Aloy’s ear. Her girl chuckled softly before grimacing, one hand coming up to her ribs.
“I thought I lost you,” she added, hand covering Aloy’s where she clutched at her side. She could feel Aloy’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look up. “For a second, I thought you were dead.”
“Hey,” Aloy’s hand came under her jaw, tilting her head to look her in the eyes. “I’m alive because of you.” Her thumb wiped a tear Talanah didn’t even know she’d shed. “Kiss me for real this time? We saved the fucking world after all.”
Talanah didn’t need to be told twice, pulling Aloy close, hot breath consuming her. It was messy, both of them smeared with soot, desperation clinging to them having escaped death. She clutched Aloy’s face between her hands, nearly rough with how tightly she held her, as if she’d disappear if she let go. Aloy held her just the same, fingers digging into her hips, gentleness long gone as the crashing reality came down around them.
“We won,” Aloy finally gasped against her lips, not even separating. “We won!”
It was then they could hear the cheers from the others around them, sound coming crashing back into her ears next to her pounding heart. Talanah pulled back just enough to rest her forehead against Aloy’s, never wanting to be far, the slowly dying threads of panic still simmering like the shock had under her skin. They needed to get checked out, but for now, she would take this.
“You’re world changing,” Talanah whispered, eyes finding Aloy’s. “My Aloy, Despite the Nora.”