Samus never really did have to do much to land her gunship.
Between the onboard guidance systems, the state-of-the-art sensor relays, and the exceptionally expensive autopilots, (all custom-made specifically for her by the Galactic Federation's finest) Samus sometimes felt that if she let it, her gunship could land flawlessly on any planet in existence all by itself. She could probably even be asleep as it landed, and she wouldn't even notice it until the computers automatically notified her.
But she never let it. Whether touching down softly on friendly soil, or weaving through a hailstorm of burning lasers in order to punch through the defenses of the newest Space Pirate headquarters, she always had at least one hand on the controls. Her trust in computers only went so far, while her trust in flesh was near limitless.
And so it was as she sailed through the atmosphere of the planet below, guiding her gunship steadily down, closer and closer to the surface. The planet was a new sight to Samus' eyes, though she was intimately familiar with the star system it occupied; Oormine II, a small, unassuming rock that just so happened to share a star with both Tallon IV and Zebes. The later formerly.
Despite having come so close to this world so many times, give or take a few hundred million miles, she'd never given it a second thought, or really even a first thought. Her mind was usually on other things back then, and the existence of this rocky, brown ball never really mattered to her.
However, now it was far from the last thing on her mind. In fact, it was the destination of her next mission. Not long ago, a Federation research station orbiting the planet had unearthed unusual readings down on the surface; readings that were uncomfortably similar to the energy signature of Phazon, a radioactive, mutagenic substance that possessed borderline supernatural properties, and was the sole cause for what would have been a galaxy-wide apocalypse not long ago, had Samus not put a stop to it.
Despite apparently not being able to confirm that what they were detecting was in fact the vile substance, the Federation (rightfully so, at least according to Samus) decided on the course of caution and immediately sent word to the bounty hunter, asking her to investigate for them.
Samus had agreed without even a moment of hesitation. She was the last person in the galaxy who wanted to see Phazon start spreading into other worlds as it had so many years ago, and if there was indeed any real danger of that happening, she also knew that she was the best person in the galaxy to stop it. That sentiment didn't come of any pride or narcissism. She just knew it.
With a sudden and violent shake, her gunship suddenly lurched to the right, forcing her to pull the controls far to the left to compensate. The atmosphere of Oormine II was turbulent with violent and constant dust storms, powerful enough that they could tear exposed flesh to shreds, and easily rendering the planet uninhabitable by themselves, even if they didn't have deadly radiation laced into every tiny particle. The planet was dead as dead could be, which honestly suited Samus just fine. No life meant no killing.
Though, that didn't make the descent any easier. The hurricane-force winds were still beating her gunship every which way, and the subtle radiation was interfering with a number of her less-important systems. It was all Samus (as well as the one or two navigational computers that she had allowed to operate) could do to keep the ship on course.
Despite the struggle, Samus' face was stern, focused, and completely collected behind the glowing green visor of her legendary Varia Suit. She always activated the armor before every mission, and refused to take it off until it was long over. Her line of thinking was that the exact moment she received her orders was the exact moment she was in constant danger, a danger that wouldn't subside until she received her debriefing and payment at the end of it all. That philosophy had served her well in the past, and almost killed her when she'd strayed from its simple guidelines.
And she was not about to stray today. Though it wasn't clear what the mysterious reading was, the mere possibility of re-emerging Phazon corruption had put her on her most adamant guard, and every muscle in her body was tense, ready to spring into spectacular action at the slightest sign of danger. She knew better than anyone else how devastating Phazon could be.
She often thought that, in certain lights, her veins still appeared to be tainted with an ugly, blue tinge.
A warning alarm suddenly assaulted the bounty hunter's ears, and she blinked as she realized that her gunship was quickly nearing solid ground. Deftly angling the ship back upwards a bit, she skillfully began slowing her descent in an effort to begin the landing sequence, even though the thick dust storm engulfing the gunship was making it impossible to see even a foot out of the viewfinder. All she could do at this point was hope that what the navigation was telling her was correct, and that she was about to land on a relatively flat surface in just three… two… one…
The ship shuddered softly as Samus felt the anti-grav landing gear take hold of the surface below, and without hesitation, she switched off every unnecessary system before standing up out of the captain's chair and making her way to the exit hatch near the middle of the ship. If the information the Federation had provided to her was correct, then she was just over a mile away from the place that they had detected the unusual signature. Even in this blinding storm, Samus knew it wouldn't take long for her to make her way across the barren wasteland and find whatever it was she was looking for.
The moment both of her armored feet touched a small, round platform in the middle of the floor, it sprung to life and began to slowly rise upwards. In time, the exit hatch above her head sprung open, and she soon found herself standing on top of her gunship, completely engulfed by deafening winds and blinding dust. Instinctively, she raised her left hand up to her visor in an attempt to block the swirling dust, only to find that she could barely see her own hand in front of her face.
A part of her was tempted to try cycling through her various visor settings to see if any of them could clear her vision, but she already knew that the thermal visor could do nothing to pierce through the particles flying through the air, and she had a feeling the radiation hanging in the atmosphere would interfere with the X-ray visor. Even still, she at least tried quickly switching to the X-ray visor, only to have her suspicions confirmed as she was met with a solid wall of crackling static filling her vision.
With a silent sigh, she switched back to her default combat visor, deciding that the best way to press onward was to follow both the Federation's coordinates and her instincts. Once again, computers could only do so much.
So, after one last quick check that all her energy tanks were topped off, as well as her missile reserves, she lept forward off of her gunship and into the shifting, ankle-high layer of sand below. As her eyes shot back and forth in an attempt to see anything through the swirling storm, and her ears strained to try to hear anything standing out over the roar of the wind, she placed a cautious hand on the barrel of her arm cannon, fully prepared to unleash a cascade of firepower at the slightest sign of danger.
However, as it stood now, there didn't appear to be any immediate threat. So, with one hand still on her arm cannon, she began to slowly march forward, heading towards the flashing orange waypoint on her HUD marking the Federation's coordinates, and taking large steps so the carpet of dust below wouldn't interfere with her movements too much.
After taking just a few steps towards the waypoint, she stopped suddenly and quickly looked backwards in quiet curiosity. Sure enough, her gunship had already completely vanished in the storm, and the footprints that she should have left had quickly been swept away into nothingness, as though she'd never left them in the first place.
She knew one thing for sure, as she turned back towards the orange waypoint with a sigh. Once this was all over, she would be more than happy to leave this miserable planet.
The trek through the roaring dust storm was taking more out of Samus than she had expected. Though she had certainly trudged her way through less hospitable and far more dangerous environments in the past, something about the isolation of being trapped in a veritable tomb of swirling sand, completely blind to nearly everything except her visor's HUD, was leaving her feeling stiff, drained, and though she didn't want to admit it, just a little bored. Though she was constantly commanding herself to keep on full alert for any sign of her target or any other dangers, having nothing to look at but a swirling wall of drab tan dust was just dull, and the warrior in her was almost wishing for something big and ugly to show up and try taking a swing at her.
However, the logical part of her was simultaneously glad that it had been so uneventful, since she had noticed that the storm had been causing a bit more damage to her energy reserves than she had predicted. In the past hour or so that she'd been journeying, her first energy tank had been depleted by just under a quarter of its capacity, likely due to the low levels of radiation riding on the dust. Though she knew that she'd have to remain in the storm for days for there to be any real danger of her running out of juice, that grass-slow movement in the energy indicator was still instilling a sense of urgency in her movements.
Of course, that wasn't the only thing that was urging her forward. In the one or two moments where she allowed her mind to stray from her next step, she found that her thoughts were consumed by images of Phazon. It was funny, but the first time that she had encountered the evil stuff on Talon IV, she'd almost dismissed it, simply writing it off as yet another weapon the Space Pirates were using in their manic attempts to conquer the galaxy. Dangerous sure, but nothing special.
But then, the mutants began to appear; twisted creatures that were nothing like Samus had seen in all her years of travel. The giant, pirate super-soldiers, almost animalistic in their viciousness, and packing unfeasible strength to boot. Those horrible splitting Metroids, the very idea of which made Samus' skin crawl. Not to mention the twisted parasite thing on the frigate, that gigantic plant monster growing on a lake of acid, and that mass of living rocks. Had Samus not seen it all with her own eyes, she never would have given such insanities even an ounce of credit.
And those ghosts… There wasn't much in the galaxy that could truly shake the hardened bounty hunter. But the first time she'd noticed the light draining from the room as if getting sucked into a black hole, and the temperature dropping until it felt as though she were naked in a snowdrift… to see those things rise up out of the ground and take the shape of her childhood guardians... Well, suffice to say she learned very quickly the kind of things Phazon was really capable of. The horrors it could inflict to everything it touched.
And then, on top of everything else, there was it. The thing that had haunted her every night for far too long. The thing that stole her suit, her name, practically her whole identity, and used them to wreak an unimaginable havoc on everything she knew. The thing that had not only done horrible things, to her and the galaxy, but forced her to do horrible things as well.
For the most part, Samus tried to keep her personal feelings out of her work. Things like that tended to make matters a bit too complicated and generally unpleasant. But, suffice to say, that twisted, evil creature deserved its special little place in her heart: One entirely devoted to a burning and unyielding hatred.
In all her years, Samus had only met one other being in the universe that shared that spot.
A sudden chime in her helmet brought her mind back to solid ground, and she softly chided herself for allowing her thoughts to stray so far from the present. She stopped walking to wordlessly open the prompt flashing on her visor, bringing up a brief, text-based message.
Low-level energy signal detected. Signature identical to past readings of concentrated Phazon. Suggest investigating.
Samus sighed quietly and closed her eyes, feeling her heart sink in her chest. A part of her had been desperately wishing that the Federation's intel was wrong and Phazon hadn't been what they'd detected. But now that her suit's sensors were confirming her fears, she realized that there were no alternatives. Somehow, Phazon had made its way to this planet, and she knew that her only course of action was to track it down and eradicate it once and for all.
So, placing her hand back on her arm cannon, she turned a bit to the left and began pushing through the oppressive dust storm once more, heading towards a new set of coordinates that, though weren't too far away from where she was previously headed, were still a far-cry from the coordinates that the Federation had given her. Frankly, Samus wasn't surprised that the Federation had gotten the location wrong. Though their hearts were… usually in the right place, their methods tended to be crude and imprecise, even with important and dangerous matters like this one.
Well, it was that, or the signature was on the move. Samus was more inclined to hope for the former.
Not long after, Samus had finally found something to break the monotony of the consuming dust storm. Nestled into the side of what she could only assume was a large hill in the landscape was a small cave entrance. The craggy, semi-circular opening seemed to be in just the right position to be shielded from the wind-driven dust, and as Samus carefully managed to squeeze herself and her armor inside the opening, she breathed a sigh of relief as she was met with the comfortable darkness of the cave interior, as opposed to the wall of opaque dust outside. Glancing over to her hazard indicator, she saw that there was still radiation hanging in the unventilated cave air, but it was now not so much as to cause any harm to her reserves. She was safe, for now.
The interior of the cave was just barely large enough that Samus could stand at her full height, and as she switched to a basic Night-Vision visor to light the darkness with various shades of green, she saw that it seemed to be wholly natural. Rough surfaces above and below and craggy cracks snaking along the walls suggested it had formed through a combination of tectonic movements and steady sandblasting, as opposed to flowing water wearing the rock away over time. That didn't surprise Samus at all, as she doubted that there was even a drop of natural water on that wasteland of a planet.
But more importantly, the cave seemed to be housing her objective. The signature that her suit had detected not long earlier appeared to be just mere meters ahead, somewhere deeper in the sterile darkness of the silent cavern. Despite that, Samus knew it might take a bit of spelunking in order to pinpoint the signature, since she had no idea how far the cave stretched, nor how many twists and turns it hid. So without another second of hesitation, she placed a cautious hand on her arm cannon and began to step forward deeper into the cavern.
Even though she was finally away from the roaring rush of the storm outside, Samus didn't find the sudden silence comforting. Perhaps it was just the knowledge that there could be something waiting for her within. But more than that, something about the cave itself didn't feel right to her.
There was… a 'smell' was the only way she could describe it. Not thick, and certainly not oppressive, but Samus could swear it was still there, sitting on the dry air like an angry specter. Even though she desperately tried to get the idea out of her head, Samus could have sworn that the smell was similar to the den of a wild beast, and yet… not quite. More like something was trying to mimic that smell. Mimic life.
As Samus quietly but swiftly turned into a small branching path, raising her cannon to mitigate the possibility of being caught off guard, she suddenly realized that she had been holding her breath. Letting the cannon drop in time with a slow exhale, she began pressing forward again, forcing herself to keep her breath steady and silent.
The signature on her HUD was drawing closer and closer with every footfall, and almost unconsciously, she began to draw up a few basic battle plans in the back of her mind. The cave she was navigating certainly wouldn't leave her much room to dodge any attacks if a fight broke out, so if it did come to that, she knew she only had two options: Flee, or overpower the adversary as quickly as possible. There literally wasn't room for an extended fight, and though she never did like the idea of running away, she was also aware that unleashing her full arsenal in a cavern of questionable stability wasn't the brightest idea. If she was lucky, perhaps she could lead whatever she was looking for back outside where she could eradicate it without fear of being buried alive. But then again, fighting in that dust storm outside would certainly present its own problems...
She let out a quiet sigh. Whatever was ahead, she knew she'd figure something out. She always was best at thinking on her feet.
Without warning, her head suddenly jerked backwards as something impacted the top of her helmet with a clunk. Muscles tensing and eyes quickly darting upwards, she realized that she had simply bumped her head on a small lip hanging above her in the low ceiling of the tunnel. She sighed in irritation, not out of pain, as her helmet had easily absorbed the blow, but more out of annoyance that she'd made a noise. Hopefully that hadn't alerted anything to her presence.
As her eyes fell back to the path, she realized that the tunnel began to steadily shrink just ahead, forming a tight bottleneck that would be difficult to squeeze past. Since she certainly didn't feel like crawling through, she quickly transformed into her armor's Morph Ball mode, rolling forward seamlessly through the narrow opening.
As soon as she was past, and in an area that was large enough for her to stand at her full height once more, she transformed back to her bipedal mode with a silent grunt. However, just as she was raising her hand upwards to activate her Night Vision visor again, she stopped suddenly.
There was something ahead. A pale, ghostly light in the distance, shining out from behind a rocky outcrop, and so faint that she wouldn't have noticed it had she kept her Night Vision visor on. But now, the eerie glow stood out plainly in the otherwise pitch black of the quiet cave, and as Samus' eyes flicked across her visor, she saw that the waypoint she had been following was sitting on the exact spot the light was emanating from. As Samus began to slowly make her way towards the glow, she realized with a sinking heart that she recognized the pale blue hue of the ghostly light. There was no mistaking it; there was Phazon just ahead.
She cursed silently, unsure entirely how to continue. If the Phazon had taken a physical form, or corrupted a host somehow, she knew she could destroy that. But if it was just an amorphous pool, like the kinds that had infested Tallon IV and Aether, she wasn't sure how exactly to deal with it. The stuff was almost impossible to contain or even to touch, and it certainly couldn't be destroyed by conventional weapons. The only method that had worked in the past was destroying it at the source, whether that be a Leviathan Egg, or…
Samus froze in her tracks as she suddenly heard the faintest of noises, like a quiet pitter of pebbles scraping on rock. Someone less experienced might have had trouble discerning where the noise came from among the echoing silence of the cavern, but Samus could instantly tell that it came from ahead, where the light shone. As her muscles tensed and she squinted her eyes, she saw movement. As brief as a flash of lightning, and as subtle as a snake, the light ahead flickered, as though something had silently moved across it to cast a faint shadow. There was something alive near the glowing Phazon, but what it was, she couldn't tell.
With a beating heart and a hand firmly on her arm cannon, Samus began to slowly step forward closer to the Phazon's light, making sure to take her steps as silently as possible. Despite a gritted jaw and focused eyes, she could feel a single bead of sweat slowly drip down her brow, taunting her to wipe it away behind her helmet. Her face twitched, but her eyes didn't move from the light. She was close. A few more steps, and she would see it. But what was it? Was it dangerous? Samus had no doubt it was. She needed to be prepared. If she caught it by surprise, one good blast might just finish it. Just one blast. But she had to be quick. She had to go now!
With a rush of adrenaline, Samus suddenly shot forward, briefly activating her back-mounted boosters for an extra burst of speed while simultaneously charging up her Power Beam. She rolled forward at an inhuman speed, landed flawlessly on her feet, spun around, raised her arm cannon to take aim and… froze in her tracks.
Indeed, there was a pulsing, blue mass of pure Phazon before her, smeared across the cave wall like a splatter of blood. As always, it was impossible to tell if the wicked substance took the form of a solid, liquid, or gas, but needless to say, it was just as unsettling to to the eyes as she had remembered. But that wasn't was had caused her muscles to freeze, her jaw to drop, and her heart to melt into her stomach.
There was something black sitting motionless against the cave wall right in the middle of the glowing pool, as though the Phazon had been slowly seeping and spreading from it, like blood oozing from a corpse. And 'corpse' probably wasn't the worst way to describe it, as Samus instantly recognized the hell-black armor, neither metal nor flesh; the frame that mirrored her Varia Suit in the most insulting of ways; and the T-shaped visor, thinner than her own, and glowing with the same, evil blue as the Phazon surrounding it. She was staring at the body of her twisted, corrupted doppelganger; the one that her computer, so long ago, had dubbed "Dark Samus".
Despite every instinct in her body telling her to shoot without abandon, Samus found that her mind had overridden control, simply shocked at seeing an old nightmare having taken physical form once again. Within a split second, Samus found that both her battle-ready stance and her arm cannon had unconsciously dropped in shock, through her eyes were still rigidly glued to the motionless body. Her mind was overwhelming her with a flood of questions. How did it get here? Why did it come here, of all places? How did it survive, and how was it alive? Was it even still alive?
That last question was the one most firmly on the forefront of her mind, and as she found herself taking a hesitant, almost involuntary step backwards, it was quickly answered.
As though it had suddenly noticed her presence, the head of the dark creature began to slowly, slowly move upwards, with stiff and jerky movements not unlike a zombie. Without so much as a sound, the T-shaped visor steadily lit up a hair brighter as it pointed in Samus' direction. Even though it had no visible eyes, Samus could still feel the creature's cold stare piercing through her like a needle through silk. It wasn't just alive, it was aware. Samus could tell simply by the way it seemed to cock its head at her, as though either confused or amused by her sudden arrival. However, beyond that, it didn't make a move from the spot where it laid, aggressive or otherwise.
Samus' face twisted into an angry glare, positive that the creature was trying to lull her into a false sense of security. With a sudden, renewed burst of resolve, she raised her arm cannon again and pointed it at the creature's head. With a steadily increasing hum, the weapon began to charge energy, preparing to release it in a glowing blast that Samus hoped would eradicate the monster once and for all. A part of her considered launching a Super Missile or two, just to make sure she got the job done. Even though that certainly posed the risk of causing a cave-wide collapse, for some reason, she frankly didn't care at that moment. She just didn't want to see that sorry excuse for a mirror image ever again.
However, a second passed, and nothing had happened. The fully-charged energy in her cannon had yet to be released, and the dark shell hadn't budged an inch, either to dodge or to retaliate. The silence was all but suffocating Samus, and as she stood motionless, she felt yet another bead of sweat sneaking down her face.
What was she doing? She should have known better than to hesitate. It wouldn't take much to end it. She just needed to do it…
Yet nothing still happened. The black creature continued to sit silently, and Samus' eyes unconsciously began to wander over its slumped body. Its appearance seemed to have altered since their last encounter. Its armor was less sleek and more organic-looking, and as Samus studied it a moment longer, she noticed that it seemed to be almost in a state of disrepair, if you could call it that. There were ugly, veiny cracks streaking along the surface of the black alloy, and there were also strange, bloated bulges poking out at random spots across its arms, legs, and torso, much like the deformities of a misborn fetus. Had Samus believed that thing could feel pain, she would have been certain it would be in dire agony.
But now? Now it just looked… tired. Tired like a stray dog who had spent its life scrounging for scraps, and who had finally given up on life after so many years of hardship. Even as Samus stood before it with a charging Power Beam, all it did was to slowly slump its head back down to its chest, as though it were averting its gaze from its impending doom.
However, Samus felt no pity for the thing. After all that dark monster had done to both her and the galaxy, she fully believed that it deserved what it had now. Had she been more of the vengeful type, she would have been intensely satisfied that the evil thing had been brought so low, and if she had any semblance of mercy in her body, she would have blown its head off its body right then and there.
So then, why hadn't she fired yet? What was stopping her? All she needed to do was to blast the creature into dust, and it would be done. She could leave the planet, report back to the Federation, and collect her measly fee. She just needed to…
The orange glow of her Charge Beam suddenly dissipated, and the arm cannon slowly dropped back down to her side. She couldn't will herself to do it. Something at the back of her mind was holding her back, and she had no idea what it was. Even though she so desperately wanted to, she just… couldn't.
Silence washed over the cave like a funeral shroud, and at first, Samus thought that the doppelganger hadn't noticed her drop the weapon. However, suddenly, something broke the silence. A low, steady noise began quietly echoing through the air, and Samus realized it was coming from the creature in front of her. Instinctively, she began raising her arm cannon again, however, she stopped as she noticed that the doppelganger still hadn't moved an inch from where it sat, not even turning its gaze back towards her. At first, Samus raised a quiet eyebrow, wondering what the creature was doing, but she quickly realized.
It was laughing. Laughing with a hoarse, echoing voice that sounded less like one that came from flesh and blood, and more like it came from the throat of a demon. Laughing slowly and unsteadily, as though it were consciously exerting energy to do so, but still laughing nonetheless, as though that was all it could do.
And with a pang of anger that was so sharp that it almost surprised her, Samus realized it was laughing at her. It was mocking her. Treating her like a joke.
Her teeth gritted in her mouth, and she slowly clenched a fist at her side. She was sorely tempted to raise her cannon again and blast the thing's head off, or even to lash out and punch its face in. Anything to shut it up.
But instead, she did something that surprised even her. Without even willing them to do so, her lips suddenly parted to give way for a voice she rarely, if ever, heard.
"You're pathetic."
Though the words were so quiet that Samus herself barely heard them, the creature actually seemed to react. Slowly, the laughter sounding up from somewhere in that dark shell began to cease, and its head slowly turned back up to fix its frozen gaze on the bounty hunter. As it did, the laughter died completely, only to be replaced with a different sound. The creature slowly began to make a low, droning noise, the like of which was one of the most unsettling things Samus had heard in all her lifetime. It was like some kind of incomplete mixture between the white noise of a broken radio, and a man choking to death on his own tongue, and it shook Samus to the bone.
But then, somewhere behind that terrifying, inhuman noise, Samus realized there was something else, and her heart skipped a beat as she realized what it was.
"You… put me here…"
Samus' jaw dropped open in shock, and her mind lit up with a thousand questions. Had she just heard that right? Did that evil, inhuman thing just speak? A part of her was trying to rationalize that she had just misheard, but at the same time…
She had to make sure.
"You… speak?" She asked, quietly and plainly.
The thing began making the same, groaning sound, but this time it was quieter, and less overbearing. And this time, Samus realized that it was almost as though it were gathering 'breath' in order to vocalize, and sure enough, riding behind the terrifying sound, it indeed spoke again with a cold, grating voice.
"It speaks…"
This was followed by a quiet, grinding laugh, as though it had said something funny. Samus however raised an eyebrow, wondering why it would refer to itself in the third person.
"You never spoke before. I assumed you couldn't."
The creature shifted slightly where it lay, it's head dropping down again. "No need… Fear… more powerful…"
Samus understood exactly what it meant. It was a tactic she used herself. If her enemies never heard her voice, they would never hear any weakness, any hesitation, any pain. Silence gave the illusion of invincibility, an illusion that could be broken with just a few, short words.
And the proof of that was laying before her. The creature that had infested her nightmares for so long had suddenly become… more real in a way. Less omnipotent. Less all-powerful. And the fact that it had revealed its voice after so long proved that it really had lost its will.
The thought gave Samus an intense burst of satisfaction, as the hatred that had been burning in her heart had hardly diminished at the creature's compromised position.
"You're not scary anymore." She muttered, a clear hint of resentful enmity in her voice.
However, the thing only laughed softly again, sounding as though it was forcing itself to do so.
"It's still afraid…" It hissed.
Samus momentarily raised an eyebrow in confusion again, until the realization hit her like a sucker punch. It was referring to her. That vile, soulless monster, was implying that she was just a thing. Like it was trying to strip away her humanity.
And if that wasn't enough, it was accusing her of being afraid too. With an uncharacteristic anger rising up in her heart, Samus barely managed to stop herself from blasting the creature into dust right then and there.
"Why would I be?" She growled instead.
"Prey is always afraid…" It laughed again. "of the hunters…"
"In that case, you should be terrified right now."
The creature began laughing once more, though it was softer and almost strained, as though it had already depleted what little strength it had with just a few words. Despite that, Samus could clearly tell that it was still most certainly not frightened.
"How did you survive?" She demanded, thinking back to the last time she had seen the creature at the height of its power. Right before she had blown it, and its whole blasted planet, into cosmic nothingness.
The thing didn't respond at first. Samus waited silently for a moment. Then two. Then, on the third, she raised her arm cannon again, quietly vowing to fire if it didn't feel like talking anymore.
However, to her slight disappointment, it eventually spoke again.
"This world… feeds me…" It paused, shifting its weight a bit almost as though it were trying to get more comfortable on the bare stone. "But… it wounds me too..."
Samus nodded in understanding. She had already guessed that it had sustained itself by the wind-driven radiation outside, but now she also understood where at least some of the jagged injuries marring its chassis came from. It must not have been strong enough to protect itself from the harsh, biting dust storm, sending particles flying through the air like a thousand, tiny knives. So the only way it could feed enough to survive was to go outside and hurt itself further. There was no way it could survive for long like that.
Another burst of satisfaction washed across Samus' heart. A part of her questioned why she was deriving such pleasure from seeing something suffer, but that part of her had all but been silenced just by the hatred she felt by looking at the thing's insulting 'face'.
Her increasingly angry thoughts were interrupted as the creature suddenly spoke again.
"You slaughtered us all…" It said quietly, and slowly raised its head back up, fixing its gaze firmly on Samus. "Why?"
Samus' face fell into an angry glare. Did it really not understand what it had done?
"You were threatening the galaxy. I wasn't going to let you spread Phazon-"
"US!" It snarled suddenly, causing Samus to instinctively take a battle stance again. However, she quickly realized that it still had made no aggressive movements, though its body had suddenly been seized with obvious and virulent anger.
"I am not Blood…" It growled, slumping back as though it had again exhausted itself with the outburst. "It gave me my strength... I grew… But I didn't change…"
Samus' lips were parted in silent confusion. What was it talking about? Blood? What did it mean it didn't change? What had it been-
It hit her. As her eyes passed over its twisted, stolen armor again, she realized that it wasn't always like that. From what she had read in the Space Pirate's research logs, all the way back on Tallon IV, the creature before her was once a simple Metroid, if Metroids could really be called 'simple'. But as far as she could tell, it had escaped containment and somehow found its way into the Impact Crater, where it had fed off of the pure, concentrated Phazon that spewed out of the Leviathan core and, likely due to the unique physiology of Metroids, eventually mutated into one of the most powerful entities that Samus had ever laid eyes on; the Metroid Prime.
But, surely it didn't consider itself to still be a Metroid, did it? As far as Samus was concerned, it had left that identity behind years and years ago, long before she had even encountered the monstrosity and it had stolen the Phazon Suit, twisting the already corrupted Chozo technology into the abomination that lay before her. She honestly had no idea what it was now, but it was certainly no longer a Metroid.
A new question suddenly emerged onto the forefront of her mind, though a part of her was certainly scared of what its answer would be.
"How do you know what happened to the Metroids?"
It didn't answer, instead staring blankly at the ground as if musing on some fleeting thought.
"Did you… enjoy my Blood?" It asked suddenly.
Samus was taken aback at the vile question. Was it asking if she enjoyed killing it?
However, right as she was opening her mouth to give an answer that she hadn't yet decided on, she stopped. Her eyes turned upwards, leaving the creature's form until they settled on the mass of pulsing Phazon, spreading outwards from the dying body. Of course, that must be what it meant by 'Blood'.
"Do you mean did I enjoy being corrupted by your poison?" She questioned with sarcasm as sharp as a razor. "No. Not even a little."
The creature let out a low, droning sound, almost as though it were sighing in disappointment. "Yet… you weren't afraid... to use it…"
"If it meant stopping you, I would have done anything."
"Anything…" It laughed softly. "So you leech off… the strength of others… feeding on them… sucking them dry and lifeless... Just like us..."
Samus' fist clenched tightly. "Don't compare me to you."
"You are me… You were born among kin… and then you became strong… You became something more… than what you were born as… Just like me..."
As though it had seen the shocked expression on her face behind her visor, the evil creature began laughing again. And suddenly, without warning, it began to move. Slowly, it placed one hand on the cave floor and began propping itself up as though to stand.
Immediately, Samus placed a hand on her arm cannon again and took aim, just waiting for it to make the slightest act of aggression. However, though the blue light of fading Phazon was shining just a bit brighter within the dark shell, she saw that the creature's arm cannon had not yet lit up with the same light. It still was not preparing to fight.
And yet, bit by bit, the creature still climbed to its feet, using the wall behind it to support itself while its limbs and back bent in ways that made it clear there was not a solid skeleton beneath that black shell. As soon as it was propped up on its own two feet, though hunched over as though in pain, it turned to Samus with stiff and unsteady movements, and laughed again.
"And yet… you slaughter one species... of parasites… so another can survive… Hypocrite..."
"I… didn't…" Samus' teeth clenched, another surge of anger rising up in her chest.
The thing laughed, knowing it was piercing the right spots in her heart. "Murderer…"
"I didn't murder anything." She growled. "The Metroids were a threat to every living thing in the galaxy. I had to."
"We were surviving… Everything wants to..." It laughed. "But we hunters… are the ones... to decide who does..."
"I didn't want to make that decision… I just had a duty."
"Duty?" It spat, as if scorning the very word.
The thing suddenly began walking forward towards the bounty hunter with slow, uneven steps, causing Samus to tighten her battle stance, though she didn't fire quite yet.
"You love the thrill… You love the death… It sustains you…"
Samus refused to humor it with a response, even though its words were stabbing into her gut with ferocious strokes. "Take another step, and you're losing your head."
It took another step forward. "Dark… Samus…" It chuckled darkly, its voice slowly filling the cave air like a cloud of poison. "You… gave me that name…"
Samus' whole body became rigid, preparing herself to fire.
"You… saved me… birthed me… Gave me my power…"
The hunter took a step back as Dark Samus came a step closer.
"So… I returned the favor… And now… we are bonded by the Blood… we shared..."
It slowly raised its clawed hand and placed it on Samus' arm cannon, pushing the weapon aside and giving it room to step right up to Samus' stunned face, staring past her visor and into her eyes. Staring with the same gaze that had looked into the face of thousands and thousands of living beings, right before their lives had been stuffed out forever.
"You fear me… You shouldn't… our fight is over… you won… you humiliated me… and doomed me..."
"Then why do you keep laughing at me?"
"Because… you're funny… You're so blind… and pathetic..."
"Shut up." Samus whispered.
"You refuse… to see that you… and I…"
"Shut up…"
"Are exactly the same…"
A bright, orange light suddenly lit up the dark cave, flashing like a thunderous bolt of lightning striking across a pitchy night. Samus blinked in surprise, realizing that Dark Samus was no longer standing in front of her. Slowly, her eyes fell down to see that the dark shell had fallen backwards, back into the pulsing mass of Phazon smeared across the cave wall like a splatter of blood. Its head was hanging down, as though dead, and its clawed hand was pressed against its abdomen, only barely concealing a brand new, jagged hole in its armor, revealing a mass of soft, bright blue innards, glowing like the pool it had collapsed in. A thin, grey stream of smoke had slipped through its fingers and was slowly rising upwards to the cave ceiling, and as Samus' eyes fell down, she saw that an identical stream of smoke was rising from the end of her arm cannon.
"Well done…" She heard it hiss, strained as though in pain. "You've proved yourself… a hunter…"
"You deserve it…" Samus whispered to herself.
"That… is up to you…"
Silence washed over the cave, creeping into Samus' armor and choking her with its crushing tendrils. Her breath was short, stilted. Her mouth became dry like a sandy desert, and her vision began to blur at the edges. Fatigue fell on her like a mountain had shifted its weight onto her shoulders, and for the first time in what seemed like ages, she felt extraordinarily alone.
Without so much as a last glance to her old enemy, she turned away from the glowing, blue light of the now slowly fading Phazon and began making her way back where she had come from.
But before she could get far, it spoke one last time.
"Where… are…"
"I'm not going to kill you."
"Why…"
Samus didn't answer at first, afraid of the words on the tip of her tongue.
So, Dark Samus answered for her. "Because… you would enjoy it… Pathetic..."
Samus didn't give it another word. Her throat had already begun hurting from talking so much, so she pressed onward without even a glance backwards.
The journey back to her gunship would be easy. She remembered the way back to the surface, and she knew she could make it back through the dust storm without much problem.
She turned around, her eyes scanning the fragile cave walls engulfing her on all sides. In the distance, a blue light faded to black.
The Federation would want to give her a reward. She would refuse it, of course. She didn't want to collect on a false alarm.
A Super Missile left her weapon, exploding against the bare stone with a deafening blast, and piloting a cascade of falling rocks. With an impressive grace and agility, Samus launched herself backwards and spun around, beginning a blinding sprint to avoid being buried alive under a thousand tons of planet. It would never be found again.
She wondered if she would have time to rest on the journey home.
Author's Note: Wow, 8000 words. I really hope I didn't go off the rails with this one, because it feels like I've been trying to write this story for an eternity, even though it really has only been a few months. Even still, it was a lot of work.
So, backstory. I was never really a big Metroid fan until I got old enough to realize just how amazing the games really were. Metroid Prime was the second Metroid I played through to the end, (Metroid: Other M was the first) and it was one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time, something that I don't think anything else could ever really replicate. Then I was proven wrong when I played through the second and then (to a slightly lesser extent) through the third as well. I don't think I exaggerate when I say I consider the Metroid Prime trilogy to be some of the best games ever produced, and I'm immensely excited for the fourth.
That being said, though I've always very much enjoyed the story in the games, I've never really considered Metroid to be something I could write about myself until very recently, when I started thinking a bit more about the character of Dark Samus, one of the more interesting villains in the series. I've always especially loved how far a deviation Dark Samus is from the typical "Evil Dark Doppelganger" trope that's so prevalent in fiction, since it really is only a clone in name and appearance and not much else. I hope I managed to do both it and Samus herself justice in this story.
Anyway, thank you all so much for viewing and reviewing, and a special thanks to my friend Dravening (Or Roashan or whatever other dumb username you want to call yourself, you nerd) to who this story is a gift for. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it, and I hope you all have a fantastic day, and so forth. Expect a new chapter for another one of my stories within the month.
Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman.