Out of Cryo | A Horizon: Zero Dawn Fanfiction

Chapter 24: Epilogue

A knock on the door sounded. "Come in," I called.

The door to my bedroom opened slowly. Dennis poked his head in. He looks so much like Dad, now. Same eyes, same cheekbones, hell they even had similar haircuts. "What are you doing?" He flashed me a sly grin.

I gave my brother an unamused look and gestured to my Focus and datapad from the desk I sat at. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

"Still with the homework, huh?" he said and strode into the room before making a dramatic leap onto my bed. Half my pillows and the lone stuffed animal I kept there - a sea otter I'd had since I was very young - fell to the floor.

I huffed and shut off my Focus. "What the hell, Dennis?! I just cleaned up in here today!"

He obviously didn't care because the next thing he did was laugh and throw one of the remaining pillows at me. I stood up and caught it before swinging it at him, catching him in the shoulder.

"You're such a wimp." He grabbed the pillow from me and proceeded to hit me with it multiple times, ignoring my yells of protest.

Finally, I pushed him away and stormed back to my desk. "Did you just come here to annoy me or did you actually need something?" I demanded, trying to smooth the mess my hair had become from Dennis' pillow attack.

My brother laughed again and sat down on the bed. "What? I can't come say 'hi'?"

I sighed. "Yeah, well, I was trying to get some studying done. I have an exam in two days and I haven't gotten any of the assignments done."

To my surprise, Dennis actually seemed concerned. "I don't think your professor will mind if you ask for more time, Becks, especially since things have been kind of shit lately."

I turned my Focus back on. "It's fine – I'll figure it out."

My brother looked around my room before directing his attention to the floor. He picked up the sea otter and moved it around in the air in front of me. "Mr. Otter doesn't want you to be grumpy, Becks!" he said in a high-pitched voice.

I tried (and failed) not to smile. "I'm fine, Dennis. What were you doing?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. As usual. Waiting for the world to end, I guess. Like everyone else."

Fuck. "Maybe...maybe the new one won't be so bad."

"Guess we'll know when we wake up, assuming it works." His face lit up. "Oh! I didn't show you yet!"

"Show me what?"

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the finished tattoo he'd been getting done over the last few months. It was a beautiful collage of designs – all of them recognizable as I knew he had made them himself – that covered most of his arm and ended at his wrist. "Finally got that last part done. Maria's been really busy, but she had some time the other day and I figured I wanted to go out in style, you know?"

"It looks awesome, Dennis." I grinned. "Did you show Mom?"

He laughed. "Hell, no. She's going to kill me when she finds out." He placed the sea otter back on the bed. "I'll let you get back to it, then."

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. See you later."

He paused before leaving. "Oh, uh...did you ever end up talking to Jenna?"

Ah, shit. "Oh...um, no. No, I didn't. I was going to last week when we hung out, but it just didn't happen." I sighed. "Not that it really matters, though, right?"

Dennis frowned. "I would just tell her, Becks. Better to know now than wonder what she would have said." He stretched his arms. "Anyway...I'll let you get back to it. See ya."

"Later," I said before turning back to my schoolwork.

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"This feels...weird."

"It does. But I've found it helps, at least for me."

I sighed. A soft breeze blew, sending a cluster of fallen petals from some nearby flowering trees swirling around us. It was a clear day – nicer and warmer than it had been for months.

Aloy stood next to me, her arm around my waist. "Do you want me to wait inside?"

No. Never leave me. "No, no. I...I think you should be here. I mean..." I took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. "Please stay?"

She gave a solemn nod and pulled me closer to her for a moment before releasing me. "Of course."

I exhaled and took a few steps forward. I can do this. "All right. Um...hi, guys. I was just um...saying hi and..." I stopped and had to swallow to keep my composure. I felt Aloy's hand rest gently on my back. I took it as encouragement and pushed myself to continue.

"So, yeah...Mom, I met someone. Her name is-her name is Aloy. She um, she saved me and took care of me-she's still taking care of me. And I...well, I did some crazy stuff..." I laughed quietly. "You'd ah, probably be pissed at me. But I'm okay, now. Aloy's been helping me get back on my feet and um...well, I love her. And I..." I gave Aloy a quick glance – a faint smile. "I'm going to stay with her and...I guess I just wish you could have met her. But I'm all right – I promise." I sniffed as the tears began coming, but I simply wiped them and continued. Aloy leaned in – wrapped her arms around me from behind and kissed the back of my neck.

"I'm good," I reassured her, though my voice came out so broken that I'm not sure she was convinced. I probably wouldn't be either. I turned a bit and continued.

"Dad...you know, I was really pissed that you didn't tell me about Ted and APOLLO but...I mean, I guess I can understand why you did what you did. I fixed it, though. APOLLO. It works again and I think it's going to take a while before it does what it's supposed to do but...these people have a better chance at not screwing up like-like we did. I t-think you'd be proud. At least, I hope you would."

Turned. "Dennis, um...you'd probably be happy to know that this new world doesn't suck as much as we thought it was going to." I heard Aloy laugh behind me. "You would have had so much fun with all the weird shit that goes on here – the people I've met...most of them have been pretty cool. You would have liked them. Also, the girls I've met have all been ridiculously good looking." I wiped my eyes again, the blurriness temporarily put on hold. "I miss you. I miss you a lot."

Finally. "J-Jenna. I wasn't-I wasn't going to do this, since things ended kind of badly with us but...but I think you...the real you, has been gone for a lot longer. I thought maybe we could have been s-something more and I wish I could have been brave enough to tell you before it all went to shit. And uh..." More tears. More shakiness. Aloy held me tightly – my anchor. "Thank you for being there with me all these years. I'm...I'm sorry things didn't go the way we planned and...I hope you're better and that you're-that you're at peace."

Silence. Aloy released me. "Becks?"

I blinked and wiped my eyes again. "Yeah. I'm all right." I turned away from the four graves to face her. "Thank you for bringing back their...their ashes. All of them...even though-,"

She stopped me. Kissed the top of my head. "You don't need to thank me."

Right. "I, um...I'm kind of hungry," I admitted. Not a huge step, but a next step. "Could we...?"

Aloy nodded and took my arm in hers. I could, for the most part, walk without her help but I don't think I was quite ready to do things on my own just yet. I was fine with small steps – fine with waiting. We were in no hurry.

"Let's go."