Beta (Horizon)

Beta is the tritagonist of the 2022 action-RPG video game Horizon Forbidden West and a supporting character in its sequel DLC Burning Shores. She is the genetic twin of the Nora Huntress Aloy and the clone of Elisabet Sobeck.
Created as one of Sobeck's clones by Far Zenith in the extrasolar ship Odyssey, Beta would be later used by the Zeniths including Tilda van der Meer, Gerard Bieri, and Erik Visser to find all of GAIA's subordinate functions (minus HADES), starting in LATOPOLIS, and use GAIA for their rather nefarious ends, once it is completed.
Grown tired of the Zenith's abuse, Beta later betrays the Old World organisation and sides with Aloy and her allies in a place known as The Base, in hopes that she could finally find peace and stop the Far Zenith for good, before their plans would come into fruition.
She is voiced and motion-captured by , and modeled after Hannah Hoekstra. Burch and Hoekstra also played Aloy and Sobeck in the same series, while the former also played other characters including Sasha Braus from Attack on Titan and Chloe Price from Life is Strange.
==Appearance==
Beta is a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobeck, with red hair and green eyes, and is physically similar to both Dr. Sobeck and Aloy. Beta, on the other hand, is thinner and paler than Aloy, owing to a lack of sunlight and activity.
Beta, unlike her own allies, wears her Focus on her left temple rather than her right.
==Personality==
Beta is exceptionally brilliant, exceeding Aloy in technological skill and demonstrating a solid grasp on strategic understanding, thanks to a comprehensive college-level education from APOLLO.
Due to this, Beta is much smarter than Sylens, one of the known polymaths in the new Earth with moderate grasp of ancient knowledge. This is to make up for her lack of physical activity, unlike her genetic twin Aloy, whose main expertise is everything that involves all of it.
Her terrible childhood, on the other hand, is left to be desired. Due to this, it has left her with acute anxiety and a paralyzing fear of the Zeniths, to the point that she had a panic attack when she understood how far Far Zenith had progressed in their acquisition of GAIA. Beta has limited interpersonal experience, and as a result, she is quite introverted and has difficulty opening out to others. This often had the direct result of her clashing with Aloy.
Beta only finds strength and confidence against almost impossible obstacles because to Aloy's support, as well as the others.
==Background==
===Sobeck Clone===
In order to get access to the Zero Dawn terraforming technologies and GAIA, Far Zenith used Elisabet Sobeck's genetic code to construct Beta during their trip to Earth. Beta was given access to the APOLLO training interface run by the Zeniths while they travelled towards Earth, enabling her to learn about a variety of topics as authorised.
Beta was permitted to visit a small hiding place Tilda had built at some point during the journey to Earth. She was able to speak with Tilda, who characterised it as a tiny lake cottage. Tilda withheld any essential information about either herself or the Zeniths.
===LATOPOLIS===
She was made to work with the Zeniths once she arrived on Earth since they thought it was her duty to repair the terraforming system. She started to believe, nevertheless, that the Zeniths had issued the Extinction Signal to cause HADES to purge Earth and start anew. Beta saw the Zeniths annihilate the unsophisticated tribal people they encountered while being transported on missions inside a Specter drone. Beta longed to one day escape, but she was aware that she lacked the necessary survival abilities to do so.
Eventually, she was taken to the HADES Proving Lab, LATOPOLIS, where the Zeniths used her genetic code to unlock the gene-locked door and get access to a copy of the GAIA root kernel, but it was missing sub functions. However, she unintentionally revealed Aloy, another Elisabet clone made by GAIA, when she pulled back the RECLUSE SPIDER arms. While Erik tried to murder Aloy, the Specters immediately withdrew Beta from the situation. However, Beta recognised the chance to flee that she had been looking for after that brief interaction.
===Defection to Aloy's Group===
When Aloy reactivated her own GAIA kernel, the Zeniths apparently had Beta fetch APOLLO, ARTEMIS, and ELEUTHIA. Beta carried out her escape strategy while bringing ELEUTHIA back.
She persuaded the Zeniths that if she had the GAIA data kernel with her, she could get ELEUTHIA more quickly. She beamed a distress signal to GAIA while beaming ELEUTHIA back to the Zeniths' headquarters. Then, after included her pod number in her message, she managed to divert her current handler, Verbena, for long enough to lock herself in one of the facility's ectogenic chambers and change its records so it would record 236 pods rather than 237.
She also ripped out her implant, leaving a note in it for Aloy, in case she died in the effort, telling her what she had done and how far the Zeniths' preparations had progressed. When Aloy and Varl eventually located her, Beta had already been retrieved by two Specters. While Aloy dealt with the Zenith Specters, Varl concealed Beta. She was then brought back to the Base.
She fled to the server room in a panic after awakening to "Simulacrum Withdrawal Syndrome," a side effect of having her implant removed. She so asked Aloy for a Focus to help her symptoms. She explained what she knew about her creation and the Zeniths after getting to her feet, although she was taken aback by Aloy's assertion that her former handlers were descended from the initial colonists.
After completing Aloy's questions, she assumed that her counterpart was preparing to build a machine army to battle the Zeniths, only to discover that GAIA lacked the supporting roles required to fight HEPHAESTUS. She then began to panic and doubt her own actions out of dread that the Zeniths would discover her and take her home. Beta consented to utilise her abilities to aid GAIA when Aloy managed to calm her down.
Varl arrived to see Beta as Aloy returned for the second subordinate function. They were talking about how they may catch HEPHAESTUS before they got to know each other. The conversation eventually turned to Tilda, who she thought was distinct from the other Zeniths. GAIA dispatched Aloy to Beta and Varl once she completed her task and returned.
Beta was viewing her first datapoint as Aloy walked in, and Aloy reminisced about how it got her through some difficult times. She informed Aloy of what she knew about Tilda, but her frustration at being unable to explain why Tilda interrupted her irritated her opponent. Aloy then turned away from her.
Beta had devised a strategy to capture HEPHAESTUS once Aloy returned with the final of the three subordinate functions. Their only choice was to call it to Cauldron GEMINI, where the original GAIA had generated two data cores following a seismic event, however GAIA would need to be physically transferred there. It was too big to be beamcast or contained in Aloy's cartridge. Beta, however, outlined the several problems with the strategy: if GAIA were to start the merger with HEPHAESTUS, MINERVA wouldn't be able to hide the ensuing power spike from the Zeniths; Aloy suggested Erend, Zo, Alva, and Kotallo try a distraction using pulse generators at the other Cauldrons.
In spite of this, Beta continued as she warned that HEPHAESTUS had advanced past Elisabet's Alpha Clearance before Aloy assisted her at realising that they would need to locate Ted Faro's Omega Clearance, but the only issue was that it would be in Thebes, his personal bunker in the Isle of Spires, the ruins of San Francisco. Aloy luckily remembered that the Quen had established a base in the city and indicated that Alva might be able to assist. Beta started constructing GAIA's transport rig and the pulse generators while Aloy was on the journey there.
The transport rig and generators were finished by the time Aloy returned carrying Omega Clearance. The merging would reportedly take 35 hours due to the widespread use of HEPHAESTUS in the Cauldron network; however, if Aloy and Beta were to operate the merge, the total duration would be just 4.5 hours.
Beta's fear of perhaps being taken by the Zeniths once more was too great, and Aloy intervened when Varl's appeals fell on deaf ears. The two got into a violent fight that ended with Aloy criticising Beta for not being able to perform the essential tasks. At this time, Beta sobbed, confessing that she thought she was flawed and questioned why she lacked bravery.
Aloy was inspired by this confession to make her own, claiming that Rost gave her the perseverance to get through impossibilities. After coming to an agreement, Beta consented to go to GEMINI with the proviso that if the Zeniths discovered them, Aloy would murder Beta rather than allow her to live as their slave once more. Aloy completed her preparations as Beta and GAIA created a visual interface for the merging to increase its efficiency.
===Battle Against Far Zenith===
In GEMINI, Beta, GAIA, Varl, and Aloy were able to capture HEPHAESTUS. Having been duped by the team's ploy, Far Zenith arrived just as Beta and Aloy started the process of merging. Within seconds, Aloy was rendered unconscious, Varl was slain, and Beta and GAIA were kidnapped by the Zeniths. Because Aloy could not bring herself to murder Beta, she was once more taken captive. Beta was taken back to their base by Gerard, who insisted she continue the process of uniting HEPHAESTUS and GAIA. When Beta resisted, simulations that would make her feel alone and hopeless were used to torment her.
Aloy asked Tilda van der Meer to activate the Data Channel so they could connect with Beta after she had betrayed the Zeniths during the GEMINI mission and assisted Aloy in escaping. Aloy connects with her "sister" while there and witnesses Beta being tormented. Aloy makes a covert plan and makes good on his promise to find Beta. When they do, Beta will release HEPHAESTUS from confinement and implant it into Far Zenith's computer network, enabling the subfunction to quickly create robots to destroy the Specter army. In order to wait until Aloy was prepared to save her, Beta vowed to hang on as long as she could.
Aloy and her group murdered every Zenith as soon as they entered the base, while Beta carried out her side of the plan and released HEPHAESTUS on the Specters. The sisters were momentarily reunited after Aloy liberated Beta from Far Zenith's torture apparatus, but Tilda cut them off. She informed them about the other subordinate tasks as well as Nemesis, the renegade AI that released the Extinction Signal that awakened HADES. After meeting Aloy, Beta is permanently rejected as an inferior copy. Tilda then insists that Aloy leave Earth with the Zenith's spacecraft in order to escape Nemesis, but Aloy refuses to leave her companions and the planet.
Tilda, in retaliation, responded by summoning the Specter Prime in an effort to capture and abduct Aloy. While Aloy fought and defeated Specter Prime, murdering Tilda in the process, Beta ran and took cover. Aloy was given a victory hug by Beta, and she and her companions then went back to their base to be ready for the impending arrival of Nemesis, who Tilda informed was on her way to wipe off the Earth now that HADES had failed to do it. Beta started making plans for how to catch HEPHAESTUS, observing that it had probably become more powerful since getting away and pledging to be prepared for the renegade AI.
==Abilities==
*Alpha Clearance: Beta, like Aloy, has high-level clearance to Zero Dawn facilities as a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobeck. Beta is gained Ted Faro's Omega Clearance upon Aloy's return from Thebes, granting her some authority over HEPHAESTUS, who removed itself from Alpha Clearance.
*Genius-Level Intellect: Beta is a polymath in a variety of subjects, thanks to Elisabet Sobeck's inherent intellect and education through APOLLO, surpassing Sylens' crude polymath-level intellect, whom he only obtained it through years of wandering from ancient ruins, as well as with his interactions with HADES.
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