General Pov

Aloy and Allam were riding the Strider up the mountain. The road to the top was not as smooth as one expected, not because there were machines on the road or anything like that, but because the only voice that could be heard was Aloy's, reproaching Allam.

The ancient soldier did not sleep at all the night before, due to his mental debate, trying to convince himself that he did not feel any loving feelings for the Nora huntress, nothing more than pure admiration and friendship towards her.

Aloy was berating him for letting her sleep all night and not waking her up so he could rest. The soldier wasn't paying attention to the redhead, which he thought she looked cute when upset.

He was falling asleep at the sound of her voice, as if it were a lullaby. He blinked rapidly to try to stay awake but failed miserably. The soldier simply succumbed to exhaustion and began to sleep.

The girl was so focused on her annoyance with him that she didn't notice that he had fallen asleep. While the young redhead let out a sigh and began to think about the events of this morning.

Aloy POV

When I woke up this morning and saw that the sun was already up, I was worried about the Old One at first, I thought something had happened to him while I was asleep, but when I got out of my sleeping bag, I saw him awake. With all his gear on, looking out at the sunrise with his weapon in his hands, he looked intimidating.

But that relief, changed to being upset. The fool decided to stand guard all night and didn't wake me up. Doesn't he know that it is essential to sleep in order to survive? If you are tired, your instincts become slower, if your instincts are slower, you become slower and more careless, if you are more careless it can cost you your life.

I went out of my bag, and I was going to have a chat with him.

Was I too harsh on him? Rost taught me to think things with a cool head and not let my feelings guide my actions... even though it happens to me from time to time, like a while ago.

Maybe he couldn't sleep because he had things on his mind? Waking up in another time and knowing that everyone you know is dead can be...overwhelming, if you ask me. Or maybe he did it as a thank you for defrosting him? I know he was very grateful to me for getting him off the ice... but still...

As I was deep in thought, I felt something heavy fall against my back and before I knew it, I began to hear light snoring. When I could turn around, I saw the Old One, Allam Blake, asleep and using my back as a pillow.

What's done is done, there's no reason to keep thinking about it, besides, the man needs to sleep, the poor thing stayed up all night doing who knows what, he really needed to rest. I turned and continued to lead the Strider through the mountain.

Me: We are almost reaching the top of the mountain, I'll ask him why he didn't sleep when we got to Daytower -I said in a low voice so as not to wake Allam, while I felt how the cold wind hit my face, making it difficult for me to open my eyes, causing to rest my eyes on the soldier again, who was hooded from head to foot with my blanket.

I liked the company he provided me, although he was sometimes a little weird and talked about things I don't understand, that made him someone even more unique, like no one I had ever met before. He is a good man. Never in my life have I had a friend, and nobody liked me, the benefits of being an Outcast and motherless, the only people who liked me were Rost and Mother Teersa, the company of the ancient man was more than welcome.

I returned my gaze to the road, and I noticed that a snowstorm had just started, and it seemed to be quite strong, you could hardly see anything several steps away.

After a while, in the distance I could see the silhouette of the fort, it was imposing and gigantic, a marvel of Carja architecture. As we got closer, I started to hear explosions and human war cries, I rushed my Strider.

As we were arriving, I heard more screaming and explosions, which woke Allam up, but he gave a scream and fell off the back of the machine. I stopped my Strider, got off his back and walked over to Allam to make sure he was okay.

General Pov

Aloy walked over to his partner and saw how he was doing and found him in a state of panic. Allam was trembling, his breathing was very fast, he was holding his gun in a tight grip and muttering things like 'Not again', 'When are they going to stop coming?' or 'We are going to die'.

Aloy: Allam, calm down, what's going on? -She asked the man, but he didn't seem to answer her being summed up in his own world.

Aloy took off the man's helmet and when she saw him, she realized that he was not well. His eyes were wide as saucers, his pupils were dilated, and his movements were erratic, his expression showed complete terror on his face. Her heart clenched a little, seeing him in such a state.

Aloy: You're not going to die, calm down, I'm here with you, nothing is going to happen to you - she said to try to calm the soldier and she noticed that when he heard her voice, his breathing began to control little by little.

Aloy put her hand on the man's left cheek and made him look at her. Aloy was good at reading people, especially their body language, and looking into his deep brown eyes, she found a man broken and scared, as if he was living a living nightmare. Allam put his hand over Aloy's, afraid that if he were to let go of her, she would disappear.

Aloy: Calm down... breathe with me, inhale for four, exhale for four- the hunter Nora explained, calming the soldier little by little.

Another explosion was heard again and made Allam go back to how he was at the beginning. He got scared, grabbed his pistol and started pointing at nothing.

Allam: Where are you fuckers?! Do you think we're going to die so easily!?- He shouted as he pointed to various sides, he heard another explosion again and pointed to the place where the explosion came from.

Allam: Do you think you sons of bitches scare me? -the man shouted while he kept pointing with trembling hands.

Another explosion was heard, and the soldier holstered his pistol and grabbed his assault rifle, he began to run in the direction of the explosion.

Aloy ran after the soldier trying to stop him, but he was like a brick wall, she couldn't stop him, and he wasn't listening to her, he was like he was in a trance. He stopped when he saw what it was, a corrupter with several corrupted machines attacking the gates of the Daytower, the Carja soldiers battling the machines guarding the gate.

Allam Pov

A Beetle?! Those bastards are still active!? But?... How?... How the hell!?

My whole body was shaking, and I was tense, my heart was beating a thousand per second and I was sweating cold... I felt like I was going to pass out just to see one of these things again.

The whole environment changed, and it was no longer a frozen mountain and now it was in a city, the main street was a war zone. The destruction in the area was very evident, ashes from nearby fires and explosions made the air feel heavier and made it difficult for her to see. More explosions could be heard on the horizon.

I could see that on the sidewalk there was a star with the name of an actor...it was on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles California. I felt like I couldn't breathe, I grabbed my head and noticed I wasn't wearing my helmet.

Someone stood next to me, and it was my old sergeant, John Doe.

SGT Doe: Blake, what the hell are you doing? Put on your fucking ACH before you die of suffocation! We have a beetle in front of us and we need to protect civilians, are you ready soldier? -My sergeant told me as he threw my helmet to the ground and he put his hand on my back, something a bit uncharacteristic of him.

Me: Yes Sergeant! I yelled, grabbing my assault rifle in the process. I ran out to battle the mechanical beast.

While I was running, I saw the destruction next to me, everything looked so real... could it be that everything that happened did not exist? No Sawtooths, no Striders or anything like that...was my whole experience with Aloy...a bad dream?

The sound of the beetle's grenade launcher snapped me out of my thoughts, and I narrowly dodged and ducked into cover, taking occasional shots at the metallic monster, which had my squad pinned in cover.

Some sort of incendiary bullet was fired into the side of the robot, causing it to take damage and focus on the person who shot it.

Me: Ramírez, Jackson and Sam, take down the Beetle's grenade launchers, the rest, shoot that son of a bitch- I ordered my compatriots through the spotlights and that's what we did.

Whoever that person is that is shooting incendiary bullets at the robot just became my best friend.

He fired at the bursting beetle, it tried to hit me with its tail, but I double jumped and dodged it. I kept peppering him as I ran over him, when I landed on the ground he jumped and tried to smash me, but I barrel rolled and got out of the way, another incendiary bullet and this time it went to his core which was exposed which It did a lot of damage to the machine.

I ran towards the machine and slipped under his legs and started shooting at him from below damaging him even more.

The beetle grabbed a chunk of stone from the ground and hurled it at me, but I wasn't quick enough to dodge it completely and it landed a good blow, breaking the left arm of my armor and slashing part of my breastplate.

I fell to the ground with cloudy vision and a strong migraine, in addition to the fact that my mouth tasted like iron. The whole environment went from being the streets of Los Angeles to a snowy temple.

I looked around and saw soldiers fighting the machine and its minions' using bows, spears, and axes. All I had was a hallucination. Remembering my old unit, I glared at the ancient war machine.

With annoyance and rage, I reloaded my rifle with a new magazine, and launched myself against the machine. I emptied almost the entire magazine into his body and watched as each piece of armor fell to the ground in pieces, shell casings flying from my rifle.

One last shot to the core and the robot fell lifeless to the frozen ground. I started to feel very cold and felt weak in my legs. I fell to my knees in front of the machine and saw how Aloy came quickly approaching me with a worried look and shouting something I didn't understand.

I looked around me and saw that the soldiers were looking at me with amazement and confusion, some with their weapons pointed at me. Aloy grabbed me by the shoulders, and she pulled me onto her lap, taking off my helmet mask in the process. She started yelling at someone, checking me out worriedly, massaging my face to try to calm me down.

Some men came, one of them brought some kind of drink and forced me to drink it. The drink was bitter as hell, but I didn't put up any resistance. The other men put me on what appears to be a stretcher and began to move me. Aloy was coming up behind us as she talked to the man who gave me the drink.

My eyelids felt heavy, but I had no strength to fight the inhuman sleep that was beginning to dominate me and, in the end, I fell asleep, exhausted to the core, the last thing I saw before falling asleep was the worried face of the Nora huntress as she followed the men carrying me on a stretcher.