Thunderjaw Heart - Horizon Zero Dawn Fanfiction

Just breathe

"Alright, alright, ladies. Now where do we go ?", Kïma asked, her fists on her hips, staring at the numerous corridors forming an amazing and mesmerizing maze in front of them.

"Let's split. I feel like the floor is small enough so we just have to shout to communicate", Bast proposed.

"Nah, it will probably be better to do each room as a group. I mean, I would be so pissed off if you missed something allowing us to open the door in the mountain", Kïma admitted, shrugging.

"Wow, is it distrust that I smell ?", laughed the Nora.

"Hopefully not", she answered, following Aloy in the first room.

As they were expecting, everything had been ruined years ago. Just like they saw in other ruins, no machine was operational and the dirt on the ground was muffling the sound of their steps. The wind was carrying the coldness inside, passing through some slits in the wall and howling weirdly.

"What if the thing we're supposed to find doesn't work as well ? You know, if it's as dead as these machines there..."

"Then we'll only have to find something else", Aloy answered.

There was no way she could walk out of here with empty hands. No way.

"Check in every shelf, even behind it and also on the floor, between the slabs. If it's something like a focus, it could be off and ours wouldn't detect it. Make sure you also check for any other hacking component", Aloy advised, cracking her fingers.

They started searching the room, looking in every corner, behind every furniture, as our redhead protagonist had said... But it turned out, the first room was just empty of any useful thing. Sighing, they went on to the next one.

Kïma cheered when she found an Ancient Chime, under Aloy's amused gaze. Bast cursed when he banged his head against the table after looking under it. Luckily, none of the girls noticed, but I feel like it was worth mentioning. After thirty minutes spent in the second room, they decided to leave and to check the next...

...Well, it ended up empty as well. 

Now checking the sixth room, hope slowly drifting away.
Aloy decided to check the furniture against the wall, thus walking away from the other Seekers.
She gritted her teeth, frustrated to lose her time like this. 

Walking to the next desk, she heard Bast speaking really low, probably not wanting her to listen : 

"Uh, Kïma ?"

"Hm ?"

There was a short break during which she could pick up a nervous sigh, followed by : 

"I... Uh... Really wanted to... Uh... I mean..."

"Come on, spit it out, boy."

"Uh, alright... I... I wanted to apologize for... You know, back in the Nora camp and in Meridian... I was really annoying and way too flirty even though it was clear that you did not want anything... And I sincerely want to say that I'm sorry... It's like... I feel just like Deyer and Liho for being so insistant and I... I know I was a bit  drunk but that's not an excuse, I should've stopped... That's really not who I want to be and..."

He spoke faster and faster, hardly breathing in. Aloy almost turned to look at him. Was he going to cry or was it just nervousness ? Hearing his fist hitting his leg as always, she noticed the rhythm was way faster than usual. It was not nervousness, it was pure panic. She wanted to turn around so badly but he sounded like he wanted to speak to Kïma alone. Worrying about him still, she stopped searching and only focused on what they were saying.

"Wow, wow, Bast", Kïma intervened. 

She heard her move and get closer to him. 

"Calm down. Look. Look at me. Alright ? You're nothing like them. Look. Just breathe in... and out... Good. Again. In... and out."

"It's just... I... I really never thought they would...", he tried to say, his voice dying in his throat until he forced himself to breathe more slowly again.

"Sit down, here. Keep breathing like that, okay ? Now let me tell you. You are nothing like these assholes. Hell, you even stopped them from hurting Aloy ! Okay, you might have kissed my neck once, but you stopped when you noticed I wasn't into it and you made sure I got to bed safely."

"I should've never told them about Aloy and wanting any revenge... She's... And I..."

"Stop talking, just listen to me and breathe. I'll be honest, you were a bit of a prick with Aloy at the beginning but I noticed how much you changed. You even watch out for her, now. I'm sure she noticed it herself."

"I did", Aloy confirmed, unable to stay quiet. 

Bast jumped and stared at her, stunned that she heard their conversation. He was so pale. Tears were indeed rolling down his cheeks and he tried to wipe them away before they could notice. 

"Aloy, I... I'm so sorry, I...."

"Shh, breathe", she told him, approaching. When she was close enough, she crouched in front of him and added "We really were far from friends when we met, I'll give you that. But it's so different now. As Kïma said, even though you planned something a bit crappy in the Nora camp, you kept me safe from the assholes, as she called them. Now, I consider you my friend, really. You're not that pretentious kid anymore. Everything changed and I think you did enough good so I can forgive the bad your older self did."

He just stared at her, like he did not believe her while Kïma patted his shoulder, nodding at Aloy. His eyes filled with tears once again and he confessed, now rubbing his thighs :

"I... I knew someone... I tried everything to help her but she... She never smiled again and she... She... I want to tell her that I... I miss her..."

He shut his eyes and tried to breathe again. Aloy intercepted Kïma's worried gaze and placed her hand on Bast's.

"You did everything you could. I'm sure she knew it and was so, so grateful. And you have to stay that way, for her. And to keep helping other people. There is nothing we can do for her now and I know how much it hurts, everyone has lost someone they cared about, but we have to keep going and help every other people needing help like her, okay ?"

He nodded and eventually looked at her, a spark of hope in his eyes.

"Promise me."

"I promise", he whispered, squeezing her wrist and wiping his last tears. 

"You can stay here if you want", Kïma said softly after a few seconds, rubbing his back. "Aloy and I are going to find what we came here for. Just breathe and gather your thoughts again if you need it. We understand."

"No", he immediately blurted out. "I'll help."

He got up in a jump and walked in the next room, scratching his short beard with a hand. Aloy and Kïma followed him after a glance at each other.

Bast was already rummaging through dusty papers and items. They did not even  have the time to pick an area to search that he asked slowly : 

"Could it be a focus ? There's a file..."

"What ? Let me see ?"

Aloy walked up to him and grabbed the focus he found. Analyzing it with her own, she could not believe her eyes when she read Elizabeth's second focus over it. And it contained a Super Override file, with a short description saying it had to be used to open some reluctant doors if there was a glitch in the facilities. 

"Bast, you're a champion", Kïma stated, smiling at him. 

He smiled back as Aloy gave him the focus back, a weird calming happiness settling in his heart.