Reminiscence
DISCLAIMER: I would say I owned this, or put an awesome story disclaimer here like a few authors, but sadly, I don't own this and I don't have the guts to write what some other authors do.
BY AAR
WARNING: Clichés, vague ending, many, many odd places of awkward grammar, lots of 'spacers' the list goes on and on, yeah? Oh, lots of italics means a flashback.
/1.0
Samus Aran, famed civil engineer, sat in her and her friend's apartment with a scowl pasted on her delicate features. Her friend, David Snake, was supposedly buying lunch from McDonalds and hopefully not flirting with any women he saw on the way.
At least she hoped he wasn't.
He better not. She thought, grousing over her gnawing stomach.
The apartment she and Snake lived in was sparse, almost Spartan-like in its décor. It had two separate bedrooms, a kitchen stocked with little to no food and empty cigarette boxes, and a big table covered with paper, pencils, and a large penny jar.
The copper coins inside the jar were meticulously stacked and only filled the glass container halfway.
Samus reckoned it would take a couple more years and some justified one dollar coins, to fill the jar all the way. They only put a penny (and the odd nickel, dime, quarter, etc.) every day.
After a peculiar cranking sound came from the door, and after a few moments of fiddling (by the sound of it, Snake was having difficulties opening the door again) the door opened to reveal none other than David Snake himself, carrying two paper bags of McDonalds in the crook of his elbows.
"I do hope you haven't crushed the fries." Samus called out dryly. "That's the best part about McDonalds."
The brown haired male indignantly replied while kicking his shoes off, "Of course I haven't! I'm the most delicate person in the world—"
"When handling pencils and paper. Otherwise you're clumsier then that girl in Twilight."
"I am not, and now you're acting like a snobby character!" protested Snake, casually tossing one of the bags to Samus while clutching the other close to his chest, wary of her eager hands.
"…Now who's exaggerating?" asked Samus, blue eyes pinning him to the wooden seat across from hers.
"Your best buddy." Snake deadpanned, making Samus let off a choked laugh. Her hand dipped into the bag to draw out a French fry, devouring it. Her body slumped on the chair, relaxed and at ease with the friendly atmosphere Snake always seem to create.
He carelessly threw a copper into the jar, disregarding the loud clink that came after it.
"Apparently, there's an apocalypse predicted by the Mayans that says…"
"We're all going to die," said Samus, rolling her eyes. Snake blinked at her with his blue-gray eyes.
"Aren't you morbid today?" He asked rhetorically.
"Shut up, you smart—" Samus almost swore at him.
"Now that's not exactly proper—" chided Snake.
"If you don't shut your mouth, I'll shove your foot in it!" retorted Samus, enjoying the small banter that happened between them.
After a moment of shocked silence, Snake threw a fry at an astonished Samus. It dropped on the wooden tabletop, thankfully missing the spotless white papers that were scattered there. However, it landed on a yellow pencil.
"…My fry." Samus said in awe that Snake would dare mess with her fries. A stifled cough that was to mask his laughter slipped, and Snake, naturally, fell off his chair onto the tiled floor. Some time passed as they continued to finish their lunch.
After they cleaned up the mess they made on the table, Samus started to draw random sketches on the graphed paper she owned. Snake toyed with a cigarette, occasionally sending puffs of smoke towards her direction.
Idle conversation started on their neighbor below them, the widowed Link Kokiri.
"You gotta feel sorry for the guy, I mean, his wife died." Snake pointed out, grabbing his own sketchpad. He listlessly drew an arcing line, then a smaller one below it.
"Zelda wouldn't want him just staying inside their house, never venturing beyond the marketplace though," argued Samus, adding a few stabilizers to a pillar of what seemed like an irregularly built bridge. After a moment of inspiration, she added a few decorations to it.
Snake's voice dropped into a stage-whisper, "They say that he cackles sometimes in the late night, and that screams were heard a few days ago." Samus scoffed at the implied 'You're a scaredy-cat and you won't dare step into his room'.
"Whatever." She peered at his sketch, and observed with a small grin, "If you're going to draw something, can you draw something more than two frowning faces?"
Snake gave a small cough, and reached over to smudge her sketch. Samus gave a cry of mock-outrage, and threw the blunt end of her pencil at him.
The night was spent laughing and cursing at each other good-naturedly.
-0-0-0-
Link Kokiri feverishly tapped on his computer, his haggard face lit by the bright, blue glow emanating from his computer. Lanky strands of blonde hair fell around his pale face, and an angered spark entered his eyes when he heard the faint sobbing sound behind him. The room was hidden by a false panel in his closet; it was meticulously clean—not including the wires and blood.
He turned around, a half snarl forming on his scarred face.
A plump girl writhed in her bonds, crying out as wires ripped into her skin. Blood dripped down one of her pale arms, once pale and smooth, were now wrapped and pricked with wires. They made elaborate designs, and were not insulated with the usual rubber.
And they burned, the pink haired girl thought hazily, limp and exhausted after her initial struggle to be free. The wires seemed to integrate with her skin, tightening every so often. She heard a small noise of smug satisfaction from the man who had lured her in, the man who was her neighbor.
May his soul rot in hell, the phrase ran through her head continuously. Glazed sea green eyes followed Link as he reclined in his chair, admiring his work.
He tapped his chin with a red crusted glove, and said nonchalantly, "Perhaps we should start on the other arm, hm? After all, you've had plenty of time to get used to your new arm. Or maybe your leg, she always wanted to walk…"
A small whimper escaped the girl's mouth as Link approached her with more wires and pliers.
"Why do this?" asked the girl, as an animalistic fear began to grip her mind. He paused only for a second before advancing forward.
"Why do I do this?" Link asked himself softly, his eyes unfocused before becoming hard. "I do this, because if I can do this," he gestured to all the wires on the ground, the rare sparks of electricity coming about, "then I can reanimate my wife—"
"You wife is dead!" shrieked the girl, recoiling from his maddened ideals, "She's gone, why can't you see that? Even if you can move her corpse—"
"Shut up! She's not dead!" Link snarled back at her, moving more quickly in his effort to shut this girl up.
(But she was dead, whether he liked it or not. His beautiful –if handicapped—wife was dead.)
Zelda giggled at his next, dry humored observation focused at the couple who lived above them.
"They're like an old married couple, don't you think love?" She asked him, shifting awkwardly in her wheelchair, smiling at him.
His heart ached seeing her thin form so fragile. Link forced the sympathy down though, knowing she didn't like pity. It was one of her definitive qualities. Above their heads, another argument started between Samus Aran and David Snake, this time, about why they wouldn't get a pet lizard.
He changed the subject swiftly.
"I am almost finished on that project I told you about." Link began. His project was to recreate muscles and nerves, more specifically the ones Zelda had no control of. However, he had no evidence it worked on human beings; it had only been tested on mannequins, and those were paltry test subjects compared to the real thing.
"It would be amazing to move my arms and legs again." Zelda replied wistfully.
"I'll make it happen someday love. I swear."
As it turned out, Zelda died the very next month, victim to a car crash between him and a drunk driver.
The day's headlines had his newly scarred face on it, and Zelda's dead one.
Several agonizingly sweet screams later, Link looked at the girl's corpse, and went to shower before calling a late night.
-0-0-0-
/2.0
Sunshine Plaza, Wario and Mario's Memorial Toystore
10:00 AM
"Why are we in a toy store?" Samus asked, pressing herself against a rack of teddy bears while a giddy child ran by. A small smile came across her face when she saw a girl beg her mother for that one bear, that she would take such special care of it…
Snake observed her wishful expression. He said in reply, "I'm in here because I'm buying a teddy bear for Frank's adopted sister, Naomi. I haven't a clue why you're in here."
Samus gave a soft laugh. "Why isn't Frank buying the doll?"
Snake gave her a pointed glare. "He's buying her ticket to college. The doll's for the kicks, and to show her we do care." Silenced, Samus now had her attention drawn away to the teddy bears.
Quietly, she picked out one from Snake's perspective and asked, "What will she major in later?"
"Supposedly, genetics."
"Genetics; that's a good area," replied Samus; she fiddled with the bear's round spectacles. Its beady black eyes stared back at her, and she handed it to Snake.
Snake looked at the doll with distaste. "Frank thinks that she's considering nanotechnology too."
"Now that's ambitious."
"Isn't it?" said Snake, flipping the price tag. '$10.00. Now if that isn't what they call cheap, I'll buy that new Lego set right there for Naomi…' He thought.
As he paid for the bear, Samus had walked out of the store, and was window-shopping. The next shop, an electronic based one, had multiple televisions showing different news in varying qualities. One particular screen, showing a body that she knew, caught her eye.
'Neveah Puff was found dead in her bed this morning by her neighbor, Link Kokiri. Her body was mutilated and had lacerations covering two of her limbs. Link was questioned and although was originally a suspect…'
Snake came out of the toy store toting a small plastic bag. Samus waved him over, concentrating more on the shocking news. "Who's…oh." He said, standing stark still, gazing at Neveah's ruined body.
"She was so sweet…" whispered Samus, her hands tightening into fists.
"She was." Snake said. His eyes flicked to Link's name, and he mumbled to himself, "I wonder how he's doing down there…"
"What?"
"Nothing. Get away from the TV. How's your new sketch working out?" Snake changed the subject. He pulled Samus away from the haunting image towards her car.
"…It's working out. I'm trying to get rid of the more exotic decorations," replied Samus, leaning on the leather arm rest her car had. She sat in the passenger's seat, and her blue eyes looked out the window to see the busy highway.
Snake gave a sound of acknowledgement. He swiveled the wheel to the left and cursed at the long line of traffic. Glancing sideways, Snake inquired, "Do you have any ideas where a detour is?" Samus snorted at him.
"You've been living here for ten years, and you don't know every street? This isn't even a big town."
"Hey, I only know one way home, and it's being blocked by traffic."
"Jerk." She retorted, reviewing her memory for another way home. The freeway spilt. "Take the left! Now!" Her body crashed to the side of the car as Snake made a hasty turn.
"Sorry!"
Breathless laughter erupted in the car, and Samus couldn't help but hope that in the future, these seemingly weird moments never stopped.
(Then again, she's been wishing that since they were five, so it must be working.)
"Snake! Look what I got off dad!"
"Samus, Samus, Samus, my dad's coming after me because I accidentally misplaced Solidus's camera and I need a place to hide so save me, save me, save me!"
"…When they told me that my future roommate was gorgeous, they weren't kidding."
"Flatterer."
"One friend generally tells the other friend that they'll be gone for four years because they had to go into the army—"
"You're drunk. Give me the bottle, Aran."
"No! You deserted me when, when…"
"…When what?"
"Never mind! What matters is that you betrayed me!"
"I've never betrayed you, as you put it. Can't you accept that I had to go?"
"You always stood up to tradition, to rules. Why couldn't you stand up to your father?"
Snake's gloved hand shook her awake. Samus blearily saw him, and waved off his attempts to pull her out of the car. The parking lot's lights invaded her eyesight, and she squinted.
"…Are you going to get out of the car?"
"Shut up," she mumbled, raising a hand to cover her eyes. Snake rolled his own eyes, and insistently tugged on her arm.
"C'mon. Up you go." He pulled her out of the vehicle, and she stumbled against him. Letting out a small snicker, Snake let her ride him piggyback. He commented on this, keeping an upbeat tone, "I think the last time we did this was when you decided to jump on my back in elementary school."
Samus gave out a grunt. In truth, the last she had piggybacked him was when she had gotten herself drunk. And the entire time she was being carried, she had spouted off curses to him.
He thought she didn't remember.
She thought it prudent not to mention it before him ever again.
"I think I'll soon try to be a writer." Snake said, laboriously climbing the many stairs—in truth, seven—to the elevator.
Samus perked her head a little. "That's…new. Why a writer?" Snake stayed silent, as if he was waiting for her theory.
"Out of a hundred careers offered to you, you chose to be a writer. Not to be so pessimistic, but…writers don't exactly get the best ending for their lives."
Her friend snorted. "I've got a story in the works."
"A story that might get rejected a hundred times over." Samus reminded him, as they finally reached the elevator. She tapped his shoulder to let him know that she could walk on her on.
He didn't let her down, literally.
"I'm not letting you go. Anyways, I've always been lucky. What are you talking about?" Samus buried her face against his shirt, and he swore he felt her smile. He nudged the fifth floor button. The elevator's doors closed, leaving them alone for a few minutes. "You're acting a little strange today, as if you're…lost." Snake slowly said, a little apprehensive of her answer.
"If you're asking if I'm lost, then I'll say the 'memory lane.' As to your first question…We've been talking about a lot of things lately," said Samus, "How am I supposed to remember all of our conversations?"
The elevator opened, and as Snake opened the room, he finally released Samus. She stretched her muscles, and then told him," I'm going to bed." Unsurprised by her sudden curt tone, he nodded.
They both went to their respective rooms. Samus immediately fell asleep, whereas Snake flipped open his laptop, opening a Word document. Slowly he exhaled, and his fingers began to type rapidly, creating and expanding his virtual world.
-0-0-0-
"Zelda, I've done it!"
-0-0-0-
Snake paused in his rapid typing as he heard an exulted, if muffled, cry of triumph. Tilting his head to the left, he strained his ears and heard laughter. He dismissed it as the local drunkards, however, and his fingers flew, again.
-0-0-0-
Link leaned against the wall of his secret lab, laughing softly to himself. His experiment was completed, the final wire adjusted, but he wanted to make sure that it was usable.
-0-0-0-
He needed another test subject.
And he knew just who it would be.
-0-0-0-
Samus turned in her sleep, blissfully unaware of the victorious cry that came below their apartment.
-0-0-0-
/3.0
A shadow slipped through the fifth floor hallway, holding a curved, smooth, wooden stick in his hand; in the other, the key to his next victim's house. The key came from the female manager.
Never mind how he got it; he has it, and that's all that matters.
-0-0-0-
Snake sighed in content, and he saved the document, happy with how close he was to finishing the epilogue. He shut off his laptop, and headed to his bed rubbing his eyes as he headed towards the alarm system near the door. It wouldn't do to have any burglars rob the house while they were in it, would it?
-0-0-0-
A gloved hand grasped the round handle cautiously, and with a deep breath, pushed against it. Link soon was surprised when it gave easily to his slight force. 'Don't they ever lock the door?' He wondered.
And imagine who was equally surprised on the other side of the door?
-0-0-0-
Snake's mind sharpened as the door was opened. He lunged forward, going to slam it shut, but the next powerful kick that was aimed at the door flung him backwards a bit. A darkly clothed man darted closer to him, and the last Snake saw was a curved stick heading towards his head.
However, while the blunt weapon was speeding towards him, he caught a glimpse of who his attacker was.
And it confused and enraged him.
Link's sky blue eyes connected with his, and the last Snake saw was a hint of red bleeding into Link's pupils.
Link dispatched of his neighbor easily, despite the man's larger size and experience he obtained from the war. His quick instincts and faster reflexes though aided him greatly. He lifted Snake's body and dumped it on the couch, noting how slowly his chest rose and fell.
'Enough of your inane observations, go get the girl while she is sleeping.' A sibilant, silky voice whispered in his mind. Link shrugged it off, and slipped into the woman's room.
It was dark obviously, but Link could make out the distinct figure of Samus moving. He acted swiftly, applying the same blunt force he used on Snake.
Samus collapsed, knocked unconscious by his boomerang.
Link picked her up, and hesitated at the door for a second, wondering if he should leave a note just as villains did. 'But I'm not a villain.' He reassured himself, ignoring the negative thoughts that were blaring in his mind. 'I'm doing this for Zelda.'
Samus woke up, her normally excellent vision blurry and curiously blue-tinted. She struggled to shift her head, and after several seconds, she saw a humanoid looking form. "W-Whaz goin' on?" A slow tapping noise reached her, and it stopped.
"Ah, my final project has awakened!" The sound was distorted and incredibly familiar. The figure stood up from his seat, and a loud clap echoed in the small room. "Can you see me clearly yet?"
"Snake?" She croaked.
The voice was masculine, but also unusually high-pitched and raspy, as if he had never used his voice and crazed with disuse. This couldn't be Snake…
"Oh no, not your dear Snake." He leaned closer to Samus's face, and she choked as she smelled dried sweat. "Just a god." Link's scarred face loomed over her face, and she flinched back. He added maliciously, "A very resentful god." His blue eyes had a crazed glaze to it, and Samus couldn't help but blurt out:
"Link?"
The blonde scowled at her, "Yes, Link, the little 'widow' who lives beneath you and your pathetic 'friend.'" Samus leaned back in her chair, and winced as she felt a million bites on her legs and arms. She turned her head a little and felt her mind go numb. Wires were wrapped around her limbs, looking grotesque and eerily beautiful at the same time.
"I've found that sedatives are a wonderful thing," said Link suddenly, stepping back to admire his work. "They cut off all pain; I should've used it with Neveah."
Samus jerked in her seat, and she hissed out in pain and horror, "You were the one? You murdered Neveah? Why?" Link bared his teeth at her in a crazed grin. He pulled out his own seat, and sat on it, the back of the chair facing her.
"Good things have always required sacrifices," said Link solemnly, then his face cracked into a grin. "This just required one sacrifice, much better than the government tests, do you not think?" He asked this rhetorically, and Samus sat still, paralyzed at his words. Link continued, "Of course, as Albus Dumbledore said, 'For the Greater Good', you'll be the final test for humankind to succeed."
"Monster." Samus retorted in return, realizing slowly what he was talking about. "What have you done to me?" she demanded. Her body instinctively surged forward and then shuddered at the intensive wave of pain.
"You are, actually, should be incapable of moving your arms and legs," said Link, "In fact, you are like my personal zombie; unable to do anything but follow my orders.
Of course, you can think for yourself, and you won't have much use for me after I revive Zelda." Link added after a few seconds. It finally sank into Samus's mind that he had gone round the bend, so to speak.
Revive the dead?
'This is insanity. You can make a body's heart beat, the blood run again, but you cannot bring a person's soul back.' She thought, relaxing her body, feeling pathetic in her own body. 'I can get out of this. I can, and if Snake—' Snake's very name brought a plethora of memories and notions to her.
'If he can find me, then…' Samus realized at that very moment, there was no 'then'. If Link was correct in his 'you are my zombie', then she would be like Zelda.
Just like Zelda.
'And that terrifies me.'
Her mind sharper with the additional adrenaline, she cocked her head to the right, feeling a slight breeze emanating from what she perceived to be a hidden wall.
'God help me.' She prayed to any higher being, that someone would find her and pity her enough to take her out of this horrendous state. 'Damsels in distress have never piqued my interest, but maybe one part of their stereotypes can help…but in the right time, I'll use it.
The right time, Samus. There's always the chance that Link could muffle you.'
-0-0-0-
"Damn it!" Snake snarled as he punched a wall. He'd woken up minutes ago, and after feeling a blinding ache on the back of his head, he found out Samus had been abducted.
'Abducted,' he snorted, 'Fancy.'
"Think David, why and where would this kidnapper take her?" He muttered, running a hand through his hair.
Why? Why would someone take her? It confused him. Samus had almost no enemies, and what were the chances that someone truly hated her?
One to two. One of the two was Ike, and Snake was sure that they had made up their differences a while ago. The second one happened a long, long time ago, and although Snake was confident they had made up, he couldn't help but feel the thought that Link Kokiri could hold a grudge. Plus that wooden instrument that had knocked him out…
No one used a blunt wooden weapon, and the slight curvature in the wood signaled 'boomerang' which clearly meant Link had trespassed in their apartment.
"But it happened years ago. There's no reason why he would take her," said Snake to himself in a poor attempt of consolation. He collapsed in a chair. "What's happened in the past few years to have Link lash out now?" He mused, tapping his fingers in a numbing pattern on the table. He jolted out of his seat, a revelation coming into his head.
Zelda.
Samus had always looked uncannily like Zelda. Before Zelda had gotten gray contacts and dyed her hair in a rebellious brownish red, she had blonde hair and blue eyes.
Snake ran out of the apartment, hardly taking anything with him except a SOCOM, a relic from his past service in the U.S Army.
-0-0-0-
"I used to love you, you remember, correct?" Link sang out gaily, his back turned to Samus as he typed out instructions on his laptop. "In high school—"
"College," Samus retorted, twitching at every electrical sensation the wires brought to her bare skin. At least Link had been gentlemanly enough to leave her what felt like a tube top and shorts. Short shorts. "You got yourself drunk, and flung yourself at me while Snake decided to join the Army for his father."
"As I was saying," Link's back twitched as he continued to no one at all, "I was rudely and harshly rejected by you in college as she puts it. Zelda saved me. She's always saved me." He cackled, a grating noise that was filled with an unusual amount of hysteria.
'Mad,' Samus thought disgustedly from her limp position. 'Absolutely, positively mad.'
"Zelda, you've saved me all these years, but now, now I'll save you," Link crooned, giving a tap on his laptop. Samus let out a gasp of pain, as the wires forced her legs up from their seat. "Just give me more time, and then we can be together again…"
'This is the time where I should scream before he actually murders me.'
She screamed as loud as possible.
-0-0-0-
Snake bounded to Link's room down the hallway, a murderous gleam in his eyes. He heard Samus's scream and with an inhuman roar, he kicked down the door.
Inside it was neat, clean, and impeccable in its appearance. Yet Snake felt compelled to drop to a crouch and fall back into his old, stealthy persona.
(He's had that persona for four years. Stealth was practically preached to him as he volunteered for a 'special' part of the Army.)
-0-0-0-
Samus screamed defiantly again as Link turned to backhand her face furiously. He spun back to his laptop adjusting the first command when the room's hidden door came crashing down in a pile of splinters.
/4.0
He aimed the gun at Link immediately, wary of what the maniac would do. Snake's trained eyes took note of the environment, evaluating what would be useful if it came to a full out fight.
Then he saw Samus, her limbs wrapped with wires, and the look of sincere pain, relief, and (fear?) crossing her bruised face.
"Samus?" He whispered.
Link pushed 'enter'.
Samus lunged for Snake, a hopeless look in her eyes. Slapping her first attack away, Snake tried to reason with his oldest friend. "Samus, get a hold of yourself!"
"She won't stop and she will not speak," said Link, eyeing how Snake refrained from shooting her.
Snake snarled back, "What have you done to her?" His hand lashed out to move Samus's deadly strikes away from his face and stomach. His SOCOM laid forgotten on the floor.
Instead of replying to his question, Link asked rhetorically, "Technology is what brought us here, why we can do things no one could have done years, decades ago, yes?" He paused and maintained his cheerful voice, "I have, in a sense, done the impossible.
"Today, you can create fake legs and artificial arms for the limbless. Why can we not take it further, which is to say, rebuild the nerves themselves? Also, what stops us from ruling a world? Is it the fact that people cannot abide slavery except to others?" Link tipped his chair back, and observed the fight happening in front of him.
"But back to your original question. She will not speak because," Link paused as an idea came to him. If Snake couldn't be defeated physically, seeing as he was in the Army, then perhaps a little psychological warfare would harm him? "Because I told her to."
Snake's lips curled. " 'Because I told her to' is not the smartest answer to my question", as he lashed out to hit Link's chair.
-0-0-0-
Samus was struggling to find loopholes in the commands. They were unusually loose in the terms, and theoretically, she thought, if her brain pulled the commands apart to something it wanted to understand, she could get out of the wires' commands.
Be silent and subdue any intruders.
'Being silent has no loopholes', Samus gave up uttering any words, 'But subduing any intruders…
'Link is the intruder.'
Her body surged away from Snake, and flew towards an astonished and angry Link with a bloodthirsty grin.
-0-0-0-
Link stood up from sitting position gracefully, and sidestepped Samus's flying kick with an air of casualness. "You've pushed my tolerance. My commands will be better—next time," said Link softly, pulling an ancient, beautiful sword from behind his desk with the speed no one would have guessed would come from the seemingly emaciated widow.
Until 'next time,' Link would. Unfortunately, have to deal with one homicidal woman and one increasingly savage ex-super soldier.
-0-0-0-
FINIS
Credit goes to Sakarya, who willingly put herself into mental torture to correct my grammar mistakes, and suggesting a few ideas for this oneshot.
Credit also goes to her older brother, 'Drow', for suggesting (reluctantly) a few ideas to help this.