"That is truly unusual." The doctor said as he read the results of Samus's blood test. His face was stoic. He had clearly been working for years, giving bad news to unfortunate people. He had detached himself from his work.
"How very cryptic, Doc." Samus rolled her eyes. She was wearing here Zero Suit, the only thing she could wear and still get her blood taken. She had already rolled down her sleeve, even though the doctor insisted that he clean the wound from the needle first. She didn't care. She knew she was dying, and the doctor was simply sent to confirm her theory.
"Well, I'm not sure how, but you're dying. Technically, nothing is wrong, but your cells are deteriorating." He said, still reading the results, "It's as if all of your cells have reached the end of their life span. And no new cells are being produced. My guess is, you'll be dead by the end of the month."
Any other person would be scared out of their minds, go into shock. The fear would nearly kill them before the disease did. But death was nothing new to Samus Aran. She had seen things that nobody else could dream of, she had cheated Death multiple times, and beaten him fair and square many more times. Now her luck had run out. And she didn't care.
"Thanks for confirming my suspicions Doc." Samus said, and left through the door of his office. She had already known she was dying since the end of the Phazon Crisis. When she was infected with Phazon, she realized she had an addiction. The longer she went without a fix, the more unpredictable she became.
Violent mood swings weren't out of character for her, but they became more frequent, and lasted longer. After her system was purged, she felt something eating away at her, killing her. She had worked for the Galactic Federation for years, taking impossible missions, destroying worlds, driving entire species into extinction, and become a legend in the process. People who met her acted as if they had just met a god. Some people even denied her existence.
There were more than a few GF Troopers who thought that Samus Aran was simply a fictional character, created by the GF as some sort of model soldier, somebody to look up to, an expectation to meet. It was alright, either way, she still did the thing she enjoyed most, killing Space Pirates, the things that murdered her parents when she was a child. Space Pirates were marauding, thieving, murdering crustacean-like humanoids. The only permanent home they had was on Utragia, and after Samus was through with it, they had gone into hiding.
When they were in their prime, they raided ships for supplies, and stole everything. Medicine, weapons, tools, files, no prisoners. Problem was, they were smart enough to know the value of the goods they stole, but not smart enough to know when it wasn't worth stealing.
The GF had fought them for as long as it's existed. The Pirates were one of the few races that refused to join the Alliance when it was first proposed. It made no difference to Samus. The Pirates were largely gone, Ridley was finally dead, Dark Samus gone, Kraid dead. Everything was finally at peace. Of course, it never lasted.
Samus walked from the Doctor's office back to her ship. Normally, the G.F.S. Olympus was packed with busy people, and today was no different, but she barely took noticed. There was nothing left to do, and no time left. When she went back to her ship, she stepped onto the lift that brought her into it, and sat down at the captain's chair. Her ship was highly customized, and the same color as her famed Power Suit, even down to the green One-Way glass of the cockpit. She started up her ship, and exited the Airdock. She was dying, and she had no responsibilities. She set a course for Talon IV, and the ship took off, back to one of her favorite places in the galaxy.