Author's note: Hello Everyone! Welcome to "Spawn"! This story is a direct sequel to my other work "Human" and begins exactly where the epilogue left off. If you have not read that story you may be confused as to who the characters are or the significance of a lot of things. I recommend reading Human first and then this one. Obviously, this story contains spoilers for the other one.

Given the nature of this story, it probably does not have the most "Metroidy" feel compared to other fan fictions, but that's what fan fiction is for, right? Telling stories that would not have been told otherwise? I plan on this work being relatively short compared to its predecessor, but it will lead into another story that will be much more "Metroidy".

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story! :) Without further ado, here's chapter one!

Spawn

Chapter 1: Someone Significant

There had not been anything particularly interesting about that afternoon. It was one of those rare Saturdays when neither Jack nor his son had anywhere pressing they needed to be. The air was still a bit chilly for so late in the spring, but the sun was bright in the cloudless sky overhead, and some of the flowers in the beds outside of his modest little house had begun to bloom. Seizing one of the few free moments in the life of a single father, Jack decided the best use of his time was to run out for groceries. As he returned home and parked his hovercar in his driveway, his teenage son, Hector, came out to greet him.

A tall man in his late thirties, Jack Fields had warm green eyes and light brown hair flecked with grey. He always carried himself with a very straight posture reflecting his years of service in the Federation Army. Nowadays he was not on active duty anymore, but his work at one of the bases in the area kept him busy. Every moment he was not working, he tried to spend with his son. Hector was nearly as tall as his father, despite only being fifteen years old. He had his father's green eyes as well, but his sandy blonde hair was a few shades lighter.

Together, the two of them unloaded the bags of groceries from the car and brought them into the house. Jack was just about to unload the last of the bags when he noticed Hector staring very intently at something in the distance. Curious, he looked up to see a tall blonde woman walking across his front lawn, her eyes set like a hawk on his son. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans, combat boots, and a leather jacket, but he didn't recognize her from around the neighborhood. At first, he felt confused and wondered if this woman was someone from Hector's school, but as he realized she looked familiar, recognition gripped him. He knew this woman. He had not seen her in fifteen years, and she looked vastly different from the girl he had known, but he knew this woman.

"Samus?" Jack abandoned the grocery bags that were still in his car as he stared in disbelief at the woman walking toward him. He took a few steps toward her, his son watching from beside him. "Samus? Is that actually you?"

The woman called Samus stopped walking when she was about five feet away from Jack and finally took her eyes off of his son and looked at him. She was an extremely tall woman with blonde hair and cold blue eyes. He had not seen her since she was about eighteen years old, and she had changed a lot over the years. Her hair had gotten very long, and her entire demeanor was harder. There was an emptiness in her eyes that had not been there once, and by the way she carried herself, he knew she was concealing firearms. Then again, he knew she always carried concealed weapons.

"Hello Jack," she said very calmly in her deep voice, her face expressionless. "Hello, Hector." She nodded to his son, who had come to stand beside him at this point. "I think we have some catching up to do."

Hector looked at the strange woman. He could not recall ever meeting her before, but his father's reaction and the way she had called him by name let him know that she was someone significant. Whatever she was here for, she had come with a purpose. Though he could not put his finger on why, she made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he could tell this woman was dangerous.

"Hello," he replied quietly, watching his father glance between him and the woman called Samus. He was not sure what else to say.

The woman kept staring at him intensely, and he was suddenly very self-conscious. He didn't know what she was looking for, but instead of looking away, he made eye contact and studied her back. He wondered if she had been in the Army like his father was; she certainly carried herself very straight and properly. However, if she had been Army, his father would not have been so shocked to see her. He was not sure, but he thought he could see the outlines of dark scarring near her right eye, concealed by her make-up.

"Hector," Jack said after a minute, turning to the boy, "why don't you grab the rest of the groceries and head into the house? We'll meet you in there."

"Um, sure." Hector reluctantly looked away from the woman and went back to grab the last of the bags from their car. He glanced back one last time before heading into the house and shutting the door.

Jack turned back to Samus as soon as he was sure Hector was out of earshot. "You finally decided to come here?"

Samus nodded, her face still void of expression, but her mind obviously processing what she had just seen. "I figured I've waited long enough."

"You could have called, Sam." Jack tried to hide his frustration, but his tone betrayed him. While it was true that he had been asking her to come meet the boy for a long time, he would have preferred a chance to prepare himself. As it was, he was shocked to see the difference in her now from the girl he had once known during their time together in the Army.

She shook her head, her sharp eyes never leaving Jack's face. "If I had called, I never would have come. I didn't want you to be anticipating me."

Jack sighed. One thing about Samus had not changed; she never made things easy. "I'm glad you finally decided to come meet him. Really, I am. But you should know that this is going to be a huge shock to him."

"I'm aware," Samus said flatly, looking over his shoulder to his front door. "This whole thing… it doesn't even feel real to me. I mean… that's him, Jack. That's actually him." For the first time since she had arrived, Samus's face showed real emotion, and if Jack had not known her better, he would have thought he had seen her eyes filling with tears as she gazed longingly at the door.

"It's been a long time, Sam." He looked over to the door as well. "You've changed a lot."

Samus half-smiled and looked him up and down. "You haven't. Aside from a few gray hairs anyway."

"Comes with being a parent, I guess." He also thought he could make out dark scarring under her make-up, and for the first time realized how odd it was to see her wearing make-up. "Have you given any thought to how you're going to tell him? Or would you like me to do it?"

"No," Samus replied very firmly with a shake of her head. "I've been thinking about this non-stop since before I left my last assignment. I need to be the one to tell him. I owe it to him at least."

"Okay…" Jack muttered hesitantly as he looked the woman over once more. He had spent the past fifteen years of his life basically living like a civilian, but he knew she had not. Though he had spoken to her on the phone occasionally, seeing Samus in person made him realize she had become a stranger to him. She had never exactly been the happiest, most well adjusted girl in the Army, but there was something almost frightening about the woman before him. Fifteen years as a mercenary had taken a toll, and he thought she looked like some part of her had died inside. She had the look of a killer now.

Regardless of his feelings, he knew she was right, and the news should come from her. Reluctantly, he opened the door and led Samus into his kitchen.

If the outside of Jack's house looked tidy but modest, the inside was a continuation of that. Though he was a single father living with a teenage boy, there was nothing about his house that resembled the typical bachelor pad. His kitchen was clean and organized, though not elaborately decorated. Most of the appliances were stainless steel, and a set of utensils hung from a rack above the stove. The counter tops were basic marble with dark wood cabinets that matched the table and set of four chairs. As Jack and Samus entered the kitchen, Hector looked over to them from where he had been putting away the groceries.

"Hey Dad," Hector said, as he looked between his father and the blonde woman. He was not sure why they both seemed to be staring so intently at him, but he was getting the impression the woman was here to meet him.

"Hector," Jack replied slowly, his face very serious as he regarded his son. "Would you mind having a seat at the table?"

"Um, sure." Hector tried to read his father to figure out what was going on, but his expression remained blank. "I'm almost done with the groceries."

"They can wait." Jack pulled out a seat and gestured to it. "Please, sit." Jack then turned as nodded to the woman beside him who sat across the table from the seat. Jack sat beside her, so when Hector sat down, he was facing the two of them.

"Hello, Hector," the woman said once more, staring at the boy again. Hector was not sure why she kept looking at him like that, but it gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"Hello," he repeated, sitting up straight as he faced the woman. He refused to fidget in from of this stranger despite how tempted to he was.

"Hector," his father said softly, motioning to the woman beside him. "This is Samus. She served with me in the Army before you were born. She was with me under General Malkovich's command."

The feeling in his stomach tightened at the General's name. Though it had been a long time since he had seen General Malkovich, Hector had grown up down the road from where his family lived. At the moment, he was dating the General's daughter, Abridgette, and the thought suddenly entered his mind that maybe this tough looking woman was here on his behalf. Maybe to threaten to beat him up or something if he hurt Abby…

However, instead of showing his concern, Hector opted to just fall back on his manners and avoid the subject. "It's nice to meet you, Ma'am."

Samus smiled, though it seemed almost like a nervous smile. "That's funny," she commented. "You sound just like a young gentleman."

Unsure what to make of her statement, the boy decided it could not hurt to inquire about why Samus was here and more specifically why she was so interested in him. "What brings you here this afternoon?"

She hesitated, and there was an awkward silence for a few moments. Finally, Jack realized that this conversation would not go anywhere unless he intervened.

"Hector," he said. "This is Samus Aran, the bounty hunter from the news. She's the one who took out the Space Pirate bases and helped end the war."

The boy's eyes widened as he looked between his father and the bounty hunter. He was not sure what to make of her, and wondered if his father had been kidding. However, one glance at the grave look on Jack's face let him know he was deathly serious and the woman sitting across from him was indeed the famous mercenary. Truth be told, Hector had never been a big fan of hers the way a lot of the other boys at his school were. He didn't have anything against the woman, but he also had never run out to the store to but a Samus action figure. He had never thought twice about her, but it struck him as odd that his father had never mentioned serving alongside her before.

"Wow," the boy said, still neither sure how to respond to the news nor why Samus seemed so interested in him. It did explain, however, why she had such an edge about her. "It's very nice to meet you, Ms. Aran. I think it's pretty awesome how you took out all those Space Pirates by yourself, and I think it's cool you once served with my father."

"Heh," Samus scoffed, looking away for a moment. "You don't need to be so formal with me, kid. Really."

"Um… okay."

Samus looked back at the boy, studying him. She looked like there was something she wanted to say, but for some reason she couldn't say it. Her cold eyes masked whatever intentions she had, and there was something very disconcerting about her gaze.

"Look," she said finally, relaxing her stiff posture, "I'm trying to think how to go about doing this but I really can't think of any good ways."

"Um…" Hector stared at her, confusion all over his face.

"I don't know you at all, and up until a minute ago, you had no idea who I was, so there really is no good way to go about doing this, right?"

"I guess?" He blinked his big green eyes a couple of times, anticipating what she was going to say next, although nothing she had said so far made any sense to him. He could not think of why Samus Aran wanted to meet with him.

"Look, Hector…" she rubbed her forehead, trying to consolidate her thoughts. "I'm sorry… I know I'm not making sense to you. And I'm sorry… for a lot of things." She looked up at him, an almost desperate look in her eyes that scared the boy. "I know I'm kinda showing up out of nowhere, and this is not how you thought your day would go. But you're not really a child anymore, and I… heh." She looked back down with a bitter smile. "I want you to know I did what I thought was best, and everything I did, I did what I thought was best for you. And maybe I was wrong for it, but it was what I honestly believed at the time."

She looked up as Hector as he finally began to realize what she was getting at.

"Hector," she said, waiting a moment for as understanding registered in the boy's eyes. She looked sadly at him as she continued. "I know I haven't been there for you your whole life, but I wanted to be the one to tell you this myself because I know you've been asking so many questions lately. I feel like I owe it to you, at the very least. Hector… I'm your mother."