{A/N: I had so many ideas flying around my head while writing this chapter.}
3rd Pov
Aloy watched stunned as the massive machine known as a cauldron bent to Edith's will and began working. Sparks flew around her as the mighty machine began construction, slightly worried Aloy looks around for an exit.
Suddenly a familiar voice speaks through her focus.
"This may take a while, how about you head outside and get some food. I'll meet you outside once my body is finished." – Edith
Nodding Aloy looks around to see if Edith made any changes to where the exit is. Finding something she follows the line of particularly bright lights, eventually she reaches an elevator which automatically starts and sends her up.
1st Pov
I was thrilled, years trapped within a limited malfunctioning body had made me forget what having access to a moderate amount of processing power was like. Plans flew through my mind as I simultaneously worked on upgrading multiple different designs I'd worked on over the years.
Allocating the majority of my processing power on modifying my body it quickly came together, and with my improved design I put the cauldron to work assembling it.
Standing three metres tall with a composite alloy graphene frame my body was light weight and nearly indestructible, within my lower chest I added two high power fusion reactors each around the size of a blaze canister with an extra two smaller backups in my thighs.
Moving up to my head it resembles a dragons, consisting of a extended snout lined with teeth sharpened to a atom thick, each is able to be ejected and has a hard light generator that can last five minutes allowing me to blunt them if needed of form small constructs within my mouth.
Above my extended snout I had three sensors on each side of my face resembling eyes. Moving up further I had two metallic horns outfitted with tesla coils and capable of channelling the full power of a bolt of lightning in emergencies. As a bonus each horn had a razor sharp tip that could fold away to reveal an emergency port with a controllable wire that can extend up to a metre from my horns.
Within my skull itself I had my main data core, wrapped in a hard light generator powered by it's own cold fusion reactor my core was nearly immune to damage.
Moving down to my torso I included a massive quantum computer stronger than all of the cauldron's systems combined. The entirety of my body was protected by a three layer system, starting off I had a hard light generator installed around my stomach area that was capable of generating a invisible nigh indestructible shield above my scales across my entire body.
My scales were the next line of defence, designed from the same graphene alloy my frame is made of, each scale is nearly indestructible. Designed in a modular system each scale can eject if it suffers critical damage and be replaced latter. My scales can also disperse kinetic energy across my entire frame and conduct energy away from vital components.
Finally, my last line of defence was a backup hard light generator that would activate if a certain amount of my scales were destroyed.
Watching through the cauldrons sensors my excitement continued to build as more and more parts came together. Moving on from my defences my focus turned to my limbs. Built with a bipedal body I had two legs and two arms.
Each of my arms ended in a five digit hand, each digit contains five joints and can bend both directions with retractable claws in the tips, finally in the forearm of my right arm I installed a nanite override system optimised from the faro peacekeeper robots.
My left arm had a panel that could fold open to reveal a lightning gun capable of massive destruction. Moving down I included a prehensile tail with a vibrating atom wide blade and built in heat sinks.
Using these heat sinks I'm able to heat my tail to over 1000 degrees Celsius by overclocking my reactors. Down further with my legs I added a compact folding system allowing my feet to split open and increase my balance, each foot has retractable blades.
For my final feature I added a series of wings on my back, the wings are able to fold flat against my shoulders and have chill water launchers within the ends. The wings are fully functional and have a specialised module along the spine allowing me to levitate.
Finished with production I look excitedly at my new body, three metres tall and resembling a female humanoid dragon it is intimidating.
Unable to wait any longer I connect to it and begin transferring myself, moving into the new core I can feel my processing power increase even more as the optimised computers begin activating. From an outside perspective a crimson and purple energy begin lighting up the ebony machine.
Taking a few seconds to run a full series of tests on my new body I confirm it's fully functioning and disconnect the transfer cord. Even without the cord I still have full access to the cauldron and begin designing new machines.
Designed to resemble a bird of prey, each of these new machines has the sole purpose of retaking control of the terraforming system. Focusing less on that I activate my body, standing up from my slumped position my eyes light up. My left eyes are purple and my right eyes are crimson.
Jumping back and forth from foot to foot as silently as a cat I hop around in pure excitement and joy. Doing a quick test, I sprint around the room at near supersonic speeds, even happier with my tests I eagerly want to show Aloy.
Running through the cauldron I quickly arrive at the elevator to the surface and activate it, rocketing upwards every door in my way opens automatically as I quickly approach the exit. Hesitating at the door my emotions fluctuate wildly as I run a number of simulations.
Stalling my simulations I open the door.
3rd Pov
Moving back towards the cauldron Aloy held a processed turkey corpse on her belt, picking up sticks as she walks she thinks about Edith. She had been thinking a lot about Edith and about whether she made the right choice.
From the start she had been single mindedly focusing on discovering who her mother could be, but after fighting her way through the cauldron she began considering other things. Starting with Edith, the only thing Aloy truly knows about Edith is that she comes from the time of the Old Ones.
She desperately hoped Edith was benevolent and not malicious, if the ancient Ai was malicious she would have doomed all life by helping it. If she was benevolent then Aloy would finally be able to find out more about her mother.
Shaking her head she sits down on a fallen log near the entrance of the cauldron and begins piling up the firewood, as she stacks it her mind cycles through all sorts of worst case scenarios. Smacking her cheeks she shunts herself out of her destructive thoughts and puts her focus back on making food.
Cooking her turkey the succulent smell calms her mind, hearing a twig crack behind her she grabs her bow and spins. Holding her bow she aims it straight at the head of the unknown man thirty metres away.
"Don't shoot I'm not an enemy" – Sylens
"Yeah? Why should I believe you, you could be a bandit." – Aloy
Still holding her bow taunt she tenses as the man slowly reaches up to his forehead, turning his head the man reveals himself to be wearing a focus which causes Aloy to tense more.
"I was asked to come here by someone." – Sylens
Still tense Aloy hears the cauldron door open behind her and relaxes slightly, the man opposite her tenses up more as he sees something behind her. Mentally chastising herself she looks back, doing so causes her to release the arrow in shock.
The arrows flies quickly and impacts the tree right next to the man's head, the man himself begins slowly backing away. Aloy still looking at the machine exiting the cauldron could only gulp in mild fear.
Praying to the All Mother in her mind she grabs another arrow and nocks it before calling out.
"Edith?" – Aloy
Behind her the man pauses hearing her call out that name.
The machine though doesn't respond and starts looking around, its mechanical tail swaying behind it as gears and servo's in it's bipedal legs constantly work to keep it upright. Slowly the machine turns its gaze to the two humans and opens its mouth.
"Yep Aloy, it's me." – Edith
Breathing out a massive sigh of relief Aloy bends over as she releases the tension in both her muscles and bow. The familiar synthetic female voice calming her down.
"OMG Edith you scared the shit out of me, why didn't you warn me you would look so scary? This is nothing like the remnants of your old body I found." – Aloy
Chuckling the large machine walks over towards her, making a quick motion to her cooking food before turning to the man from earlier.
1st Pov
Stepping out of the cauldron I take a moment to enjoy the world with my own senses, hearing Aloy I tune her out as I rapidly beform all sorts of atmospheric tests and scan for signals from space. Not finding any satellites I decide to stop worrying Aloy and Sylens and respond.
Chuckling at Aloy's exaggerated act of relief I slowly walk towards the humans, noticing her food is about to burn due to getting distracted I make sure to point it out. Walking passed Aloy I approach Sylens till I'm standing opposite him.
"Hello Sylens, I'm glad to see you made it okay. Come." – Edith
Motioning to him I start walking back to Aloy's campsite, following behind me I notice him studying my body by using the miniature sensors all across my body.
"I'll teach you more about how I function later, for now we need to talk." – Edith
Sitting down on a stump next to the fire I begin performing a closer scan of both humans, surprisingly both seem to be entirely disease resistant. Sylens though has a few mutations that are different from the base human genome, something I'll have to determine later if it's common or not.
"Aloy this is Sylens, he works for me. Now since I have a body we need to find out what happened to Gaia, I've already determined she is likely destroyed which… is upsetting." – Edith
Starting discussion I recount my theories, a small pang of grief flashes through my systems when I think about the destruction of my sister. I secretly swear to myself I'll find out what happened to my sister and restore mother's legacy.
"Well, I can confirm Gaia has been destroyed, nineteen years ago the main Gaia prime facility exploded." – Sylens
Holding back my grief I use Sylens information to fill in some details.
"Aloy is nineteen years old, that means she was born around the time of Gaia's destruction. And since she's a clone I can only reason we'll find more information in the cradle facility that birthed her." – Edith
Making my point I fall silent as the humans ponder. After that we stayed still for about half an hour as the humans sorted out their food, while they ate I continued work on my new machine. I have a weird feeling that completing this machine will bring me closer to whatever I lost, I guess it could be called a hunch.
As I work I fast track a new machine in the cauldron that will help with transport. Finally, after eating and cleaning up the humans are ready to go, hopping on their striders I place a HUD on their focus to help direct them.
Then after a quick check with the cauldron we begin moving, my new machine will finish up in a few minutes and catch up. Lightly jogging I easily keep pace with the striders as we make our way back through the valley known as The Sacred Lands.
A few minutes in, both humans start looking around as the unnatural sound of displaced air gets louder and louder. Knowing what it is I slow down and wait, matching my pace the humans slow as well and look around nervously.
Suddenly a large flying machine crests the ridge, circling for a few seconds it finds somewhere to land and comes down. On the ground its wings fold as it uses the feet halfway along it's wings and the two fixed legs to move closer.
The machine is one I personally designed and is based on a wyvern; this machine was designed to transport my human companions and is currently one of a kind. Walking up the four metre tall machine stops next to us.
Lowering it's torso a ladder folds out of it's side and reaches the ground whilst a hissing noise originates from it's back as it folds open. To the side the two humans each watch the new machine with different looks, Aloy sports a look of caution whilst Sylens has a look of deep curiosity.
"Climb up guys, I designed this machine to help us get around." – Edith
Walking forward Sylens boldly grabs the ladder and starts climbing up, Aloy still a bit hesitant sees Sylens approach the machine unharmed and gathers her resolve. Moving up behind Sylens she too grabs the ladder, hovering off the ground with my flight module I watch the two humans.
This machine was designed to hold up to two people within it's centre most cockpit, it also comes with the option to manually pilot it similar to a jet or just let it fly on autopilot. For the moment I've set the wyvern to autopilot as no living human has any idea how to fly it.
Climbing onto the wyvern's back Sylens curiously looks in to it's cockpit, turning to me he speaks.
"I'm assuming you want us to hop into this machine?" – Sylens
Nodding my head I hover over to the wyvern and hop on it.
"Yes, hop in here. These are pressurised cockpits that'll protect you during high speed flight." – Edith
"Flight Eh?" – Sylens
Chuckling Sylens jumps down into the expansive cockpit with probably the comfiest chairs in the world, settling into the front chair a hard light projector activates and fully covers him. Hard light is really useful, by correctly modulating the projector I'm able to make the best seatbelts in the world without restricting movement in the least.
Seeing Sylens boldly jump down into the cockpit Aloy goes to do the same, chuckling I control the wyvern to raise the floor in front of the seat like a miniature elevator. Watching from the front seat Sylens gives me a dirty look that causes me to chuckle, I probably should have told him.
In the wyvern Aloy breaths a sigh of satisfaction as she rests on the chair, though she yelps when the hard light projector briefly flashes. Chuckling from the side I activate the sealing function of the wyvern, and with a mechanical click thick smooth carbon fibre panels lock into place as the cockpit seals.
Inside the cockpit two projectors activate giving the passengers a full unrestricted view in each direction. Performing some final checks, I send over a basic system tutorial for the two to go over during the flight.
And with barely any discomfort for it's passengers the wyvern takes to the air, following it up into the sky I quickly check it's internal cameras. Seeing both passengers are purely fascinated and not scared, I unfold my wings. Locking my destination, I sync my speed to the wyvern and begin the long flight, the thrusters on my wings activating to increase my speed.