Outcast sisters against the world.
What if Beta grew up with Aloy as an outcast?
Horizon AU: Twin Flames is a Horizon Zero Dawn Alternate Universe story by Mariana-souza
where Beta was raised as an outcast alongside Aloy.
As a child, the Nora outcast Aloy stumbled into a forbidden ruin of the Old World. There, she found a young girl with burning red hair who remembered nothing of how she got there, except that there were bad people after her and that her name is Beta. Promising to keep her safe, Aloy brought the girl to her guardian, Rost, who decided to take in the mysterious girl who looked like his ward, and train them both to fight in case the mysterious people Beta feared come after her.
The fic can be read Here on Archive of Our Own by Marii_Mary, and artwork and author's commentary can be found on the story's tumblr.
Twin Tropes
- Adaptational Badass: Beta is much more skilled in combat than in the game, as a result of having been raised in the hunter culture of the Nora. While she's not quite as strong as her sister, she's a skilled huntress and stalker who can take down prey many times her size and number.
- Adaptational Deviation: Rost decides to train Beta so she can protect herself if the people she's scared of come after her, and brings Aloy along for the training so she can help protect her sister, though it also gives a good excuse to train them for the Proving.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Aloy and Beta fight a Corruptor during the Proving, rather than at Mother's Watch.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Downplayed. Corruptors can speak in this version, though they only transmit the word of HADES and don't have any true intelligence for themselves.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Aloy, who is already fairly brash and rude in the games, is even worse here, having very little respect for anyone and generally jumping to angry yelling as her go-to communication method.
- In a minor example, Bast in the game immediately puts aside his beef with Aloy when the Proving is attacked by the Eclipse. Here, he makes a minor objection to following her orders but is intimidated into submission.
- Adaptational Nationality: In a way. Beta is raised as a Nora in this AU, same as Aloy.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Both sisters act slightly different as a result of a different upbringing.
- Aloy, having had to protect her much meeker sister from bullies and jerks for most of her life, is a lot more aggressive and violent than in the game, and while her canon self isn't exactly sociable, here she's full on The Quiet One.
- Beta, having grown up with a genuinely loving (if small) family, is much more confident and social (especially compared to her sister). She's still a nerd with a tendency to ramble, though.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In this continuity, Aloy and Beta met when they were children, and as a result have a much more established sibling relationship. Having been raised by him, Beta also has a more parent-child relationship with Rost.
- Affectionate Nickname: Beta and Aloy call each other "Moonbeam" and "Sunshine" respectively.
- Animal Companion:
- Isaac the Watcher is technically a machine, but otherwise fits the bill, as he accompanies the sisters on their journey, serving as pet and steed.
- Jade the bird is a small red jay that has taken a liking to the girls and follow them around. She's eventually revealed to not be a real bird, but Elisabet's mind manifesting as a hologram.
- Big Eater: Aloy, going with her status as The Big Guy, eats a lot. By the time Beta has finished two fishes, Aloy is on her fifth.
- The Big Guy: Aloy handles most of the heavy lifting and fighting of the duo.
- Big Sister Instinct: Because Beta was a sickly child and frequently bullied for being even more of an outsider than her sister, she was an easy target for bullying. Aloy made a habit out of getting into fights with kids who picked on her.
- Color Motif: As seen in the cover art, Aloy tends to wear blue accessories, while Beta wears red.
- Cryo Sickness: Elisabet appears fairly okay considering she's been in stasis for nearly a thousand years old, but has no memory of who she is.
- Death by Adaptation: Both Resh and Lansra survived up to the quest, The Heart of the Nora. Here, they both die from corruptors after the Proving Massacre and before Aloy is taken inside All-Mother Mountain. Not that everyone will miss them, though.
- Decomposite Character: Because the story now stars two main characters instead of one, some of Aloy's role in both narrative and combat is given to Beta. In particular, this post shows that the two girls each have three of the six skill trees available in Forbidden West, and that the various weaponry employed by Aloy in the games are now more or less split evenly between them.
- Dramatic Irony: Rost briefly wonders if Beta is from the metal world, but dismisses the thought as absurd. In a way, he's spot on.
- Easy Amnesia: Beta remembers nothing about how she got to the old world ruin, why she's wearing strange clothing, why she's so good with old world tech, or who the bad people after her are. In fact, she's not even sure if Beta is her name.
- Failed a Spot Check: Aloy and Beta somehow both fail to notice that they look identical until Erend points it out.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: While Aloy wasn't exactly what you would call "patient" in canon, here she is more prone to Unstoppable Rage when she isn't abrasive to most people she interacts with, usually leaving Beta to do the socializing for the both of them. This mostly comes from a strong protective instinct she has over Beta.
- Her Own Worst Enemy: Aloy is implied to suffer some internalized self-loathing, as when Jade reveals herself, she doesn't fathom how anyone could actually care about them that much.
- In-Universe Nickname: The other kids give the girls the nicknames "Flame Ghost" (Beta) and "Flame Devil" (Aloy) for their red hair, Beta's tendency to be quiet and hide away, and Aloy's tendency to be loud and brash. Collectively, they're called the "Twin Flames".
- Parting-Words Regret: Aloy's last words to Rost are cussing him out for abandoning her and Beta, while Beta cries. He manages to tell her that he forgives her before passing.
- Mysterious Past: When Aloy finds her, Beta is suffering amnesia and can barely remember anything except for a string of words that make no sense and that some bad people are after her. This only applies in-universe, however, as the reader can deduce, along with Word of God, that she was sent with an advanced Far Zenith scout mission and caught in a rockslide with her handler, who didn't survive.
- The Quiet One: Aloy doesn't say much, preferring to let her sister do the socializing.
- Shout-Out: After Aloy and Beta manage to wipe out the Corruptors invading the Sacred Lands, HADES remarks that "there are no strings on me anymore", a reference to Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron, who quoted the iconic line from Pinocchio as a boast about being an AI rebelling against its creator.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: The sisters have contrasting and complimenting personalities and skillsets. Aloy is the strong one, being the one most prone to get into fights, while Beta is the sneaky one, prefering to solve her problems with stealth, silence, and clever solutions.
- Skill Scores and Perks: Not actually present in the story, but referenced in the form of Aloy and Beta's respective skillsets corresponding to the skill trees of Forbidden West. Aloy has the Warrior, Hunter, and Survivor skill trees, represented by her being the most violent and aggressive of the sisters, while Beta has the Trapper, Infiltrator, and Machine Master skill trees, representing her being the more subtle and clever of the sisters.
- Spared By Adaptation:
- Vala survives the Proving and goes on to go on to have the same role as Varl in Forbidden West.
- Elisabet Sobeck is alive, kept in cryostasis, and appears holographically as "Jade".
Word of God is that she will appear in the flesh in the third act.
- Spirit Advisor: Jade the bird is actually the holographic avatar of an amnesiac Elisabet Sobeck. She has only recently gained enough cognizance to talk to the sisters, but has been with them since they first found their focuses.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: This post on the story's tumblr shows that each sister has a different set of weapons. Both use Nora spears, but otherwise the weapons largely correspond to their roles of warrior and stealth.
- Aloy uses the hunter's bow, the warrior's bow, the blastsling, the boltblaster/rattler, and the shredder gauntlet.
- Beta uses the sharpshot bow, the tripcaster, the ropecaster, traps, and the spike thrower.
- Wistful Amnesia: Jade has vague sensations, but no concrete memory of who she is. Though when she hears the term Alpha Prime, she recognizes it.
