Prologue : Reflections of the Past
Still shaking, the woman slowly lowered the mug of hot chocolate onto the cold, lifeless surface of the steel table. For a few long moments she stayed exactly as she was, thoughtful blue eyes watching the seconds tick past on the digital clock, and with the slender fingers of her hand still wrapped tightly around the mug.
As if noticing for the first time the heat of the mug, she withdrew her fingers, gently rubbing them in her other hand. The skin was red and puffy, the lack of burns a testament to her altered physiology. From beneath an errant lock of her ash blonde, her eyes had shifted from the clock, gazing instead out into the vast emptiness of space just beyond the window.
How she loved it in space, the darkness all around her, the deep, limitless black broken only by the intermittent twinkle of distant stars. It was so like the night, and lost in its vast embrace she felt safe from the memories that haunted her like so many ghosts.
Oh, she'd almost gotten used to them by now. The shadowy images of a family lost so long ago she could barely remember them. Yet still, each time she thought of her family, her first family, she felt happiness bubble up inside her, accompanied by contentment. But they were fleeting emotions, and always mingled with bitterness, for she knew that they were gone now, little more than dust on a planet almost everyone had forgotten about.
There were other memories as well, ones that were every bit as precious, and every bit as sad as those of her family. Her mentor, no, she corrected herself silently, her Chozo father who had raised her, not as an outsider, but as his own. Imbuing her with his rich Chozo blood he had trained her in the arts of war, forging her raw hatred of the space pirates into a finely honed rage, one that did not control her but lived at her beck and call. But he was gone too, along with Zebes, the planet he had called home. She had destroyed it, crashing a doomed space station into it and reducing it into a vast asteroid field.
Yet these were not the memories that haunted her now, no, sorrow she had dealt with before, had even come to enjoy in a twisted sense, for it was easier to cope with than the few encounters she had had with love. No, it was the temptation, the sickening thrill of battle that called to her in her sleep, wooing her with blood and fear and with images of two foes, each so different, but each so much like her.
In her hands the mug had cooled to a drinkable level. Raising the mug to her lips she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, losing herself to the memories and the sweet, almost seductive feel of the chocolate gliding down her throat...
====
She hurt, not just in her chest where the phazon suit had been melted almost through by her adversary's lethal energies, but in her soul. Before her the flailing, battered form of Metroid Prime looked up at her. Its eyes were a vivid yellow, the colour of false gold, and they seemed to see into her very soul.
Strangely enough they did not hold malice, but instead an almost smug contentment, the look of a gambling man who has staked his claim and won. Almost immediately she raised her arm cannon to finish the task when she felt its mind brush against hers. Too late she realised that it was not the instinctive, prey finding telepathy of other metroids, but the last act of a being every bit her equal.
We are not so different you and I, it spoke in her mind, its voice deep and eloquent, we live to kill. A mental chuckle at that as the golden eyes began to dim. You might hate me, and my kind, but in your heart you know we are the same. Perhaps that is why you could kill me and the Chozo could not... a Hunter to hunt the supreme hunter... ironic.
She strove to reply, her own mind flashing back a series of images before she could stop it. With a gasp she fell to one knee as Metroid Prime deepened the connection.
So that is why you hate them so much... the Space Pirates... Caught in the intensity of its gaze she could do little more than listen. Hate... so much hate inside... just like myself... you exist to avenge yourself... to show that you are the strongest... Unnoticed its tentacles had begun to inch their way towards her. We would have made quite a pair if we had become allies... a human and a metroid, it made the mental equivalent mental of a wry smile.
It was then that Metroid Prime made its final move, a dying gesture perhaps as futile as those made by her parents before the pirates. Swiftly it lashed out, one tentacle finding its mark, boring deep into her midsection, yanking, tearing, pulling at her.
Torn from the mental link she screamed, pulling at the shimmering blue limb until at last she was free. But yet her freedom was dearly bought, the viral corruption of her suit torn free leaving behind only her gravity suit. Without the phazon suit she could feel the air around her humming, filling her with dangerous amounts of radiation.
Run, little Hunter, run, Metroid Prime challenged, Live to fight another day.
That done, it said one last thing to her before she turned and ran, the impact crater collapsing as Metroid Prime went into its death throes, its amorphous blue body expanding until it burst in a flare of blue phazon and radiance unseen except at the heart of a star.
Looking back down at her hot chocolate she sighed, and remembered the last words that Metroid Prime had spoken to her. We are the same, Samus Aran, we are the same. At the time she had not believed it, but now, after all that had happened, perhaps there was some truth in his words.
====
They had filled her with metroid DNA. In order to save her, they had made her into a monstrosity, a human/chozo/metroid thing caught in a biomechanical shell. Then they had asked her to fight for them. And with little in her heart save hate, she had agreed and fuelled by this hate she had destroyed all in her path until at last she came face to face with the SA-X one last time.
It was odd, she thought, how similar it looked to her. The suit it wore was her own, the familiar orange with the green visor. Even the details of the arm cannon, the small scratch on the left shin, were the same. She wondered what lay behind the visor. Was her suit merely a machine given life by the X-virus or were there blue eyes, as cold as her own behind the green face shield?
Wordlessly they stood there, even as the station trembled, its interior damaged beyond repair. In a frightening parody of human emotion the SA-X touched its arm cannon to its visor, saluting her. Smiling grimly inside her own suit, she returned the gesture and began the battle.
Later still, watching in horrified fascination as the Omega Metroid and SA- X duelled, she found herself drawn to the SA-X's movement. So like herself, it moved with a warrior's grace, never losing its footing as it darted from platform to platform, peppering the far larger form of the metroid with ice and missile fire. Clinically she assessed the SA-X, noting with some worry the ineffectiveness of its attacks. And even when she saw it die, crushed beneath the bulk of the Omega Metroid she did not let her composure slip, instead considering the best tactic as she picked up the ice beam dropped by the SA-X and engaged the Omega Metroid herself.
When she had slain it and ensured the space station would deorbit she began to run, making her way over to the door that led to her ship but something stopped her. It was the SA-X, grasping her with an armoured arm that was surely broken. Stunned she stopped, and knelt by its side. Grasping her arm, the SA-X reached one hand up to its visor and tore the face shield away. Immediately she gasped and would have pulled away had not the virally infested suit restrained her.
For it was her face behind the cracked visor, her face, her body that occupied her infected suit. Slowly the SA-X opened its mouth, the broken lips struggling to form words it could not possibly know but somehow did.
'You... were... always... better...'
'What?' She asked, afraid of what reply she might receive. 'What do you mean?'
'Even... when you had... nothing... you were better... now... take back... what is yours...'
Suddenly the SA-X's armour melted, the orange forming a puddle of shimmering liquid metal. Just as quickly it began to flow onto her, remoulding itself swiftly before settling into its old, familiar form upon her.
'Go... now... sister...'
And then she went, leaving the SA-X behind to die in the space station, but she did not see where she was going or how she got there, instead she saw the look in the SA-X's eyes. Contentment. It had found someone just like it, and having done so, was content to die, knowing its mission, its purpose would not go unfulfilled.
====
Lazily, she came back to herself, only dimly aware that her mug had gone cold, the chocolate in it coagulating into a dark, bitter lump. She stood then, walking to the small cleaning unit on the wall and placed the mug in it as she wiped her mouth with the back of one hand.
They had been so alike, those two she had fought and killed but that was not what frightened her most, no, what frightened her most was how right they had been. All she could hope for, all that she prayed for as she wandered space, was that she would not share their fate.
====
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).
So, just answer a couple of questions you, the reader might have. This is set after both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion have occurred. In keeping with both of the atmospheres of those games it is not going to be a waffy fic where Samus magically wins the day with nary a scratch. She's in it for the long haul, and so am I.
And finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.
Still shaking, the woman slowly lowered the mug of hot chocolate onto the cold, lifeless surface of the steel table. For a few long moments she stayed exactly as she was, thoughtful blue eyes watching the seconds tick past on the digital clock, and with the slender fingers of her hand still wrapped tightly around the mug.
As if noticing for the first time the heat of the mug, she withdrew her fingers, gently rubbing them in her other hand. The skin was red and puffy, the lack of burns a testament to her altered physiology. From beneath an errant lock of her ash blonde, her eyes had shifted from the clock, gazing instead out into the vast emptiness of space just beyond the window.
How she loved it in space, the darkness all around her, the deep, limitless black broken only by the intermittent twinkle of distant stars. It was so like the night, and lost in its vast embrace she felt safe from the memories that haunted her like so many ghosts.
Oh, she'd almost gotten used to them by now. The shadowy images of a family lost so long ago she could barely remember them. Yet still, each time she thought of her family, her first family, she felt happiness bubble up inside her, accompanied by contentment. But they were fleeting emotions, and always mingled with bitterness, for she knew that they were gone now, little more than dust on a planet almost everyone had forgotten about.
There were other memories as well, ones that were every bit as precious, and every bit as sad as those of her family. Her mentor, no, she corrected herself silently, her Chozo father who had raised her, not as an outsider, but as his own. Imbuing her with his rich Chozo blood he had trained her in the arts of war, forging her raw hatred of the space pirates into a finely honed rage, one that did not control her but lived at her beck and call. But he was gone too, along with Zebes, the planet he had called home. She had destroyed it, crashing a doomed space station into it and reducing it into a vast asteroid field.
Yet these were not the memories that haunted her now, no, sorrow she had dealt with before, had even come to enjoy in a twisted sense, for it was easier to cope with than the few encounters she had had with love. No, it was the temptation, the sickening thrill of battle that called to her in her sleep, wooing her with blood and fear and with images of two foes, each so different, but each so much like her.
In her hands the mug had cooled to a drinkable level. Raising the mug to her lips she tilted her head back and closed her eyes, losing herself to the memories and the sweet, almost seductive feel of the chocolate gliding down her throat...
====
She hurt, not just in her chest where the phazon suit had been melted almost through by her adversary's lethal energies, but in her soul. Before her the flailing, battered form of Metroid Prime looked up at her. Its eyes were a vivid yellow, the colour of false gold, and they seemed to see into her very soul.
Strangely enough they did not hold malice, but instead an almost smug contentment, the look of a gambling man who has staked his claim and won. Almost immediately she raised her arm cannon to finish the task when she felt its mind brush against hers. Too late she realised that it was not the instinctive, prey finding telepathy of other metroids, but the last act of a being every bit her equal.
We are not so different you and I, it spoke in her mind, its voice deep and eloquent, we live to kill. A mental chuckle at that as the golden eyes began to dim. You might hate me, and my kind, but in your heart you know we are the same. Perhaps that is why you could kill me and the Chozo could not... a Hunter to hunt the supreme hunter... ironic.
She strove to reply, her own mind flashing back a series of images before she could stop it. With a gasp she fell to one knee as Metroid Prime deepened the connection.
So that is why you hate them so much... the Space Pirates... Caught in the intensity of its gaze she could do little more than listen. Hate... so much hate inside... just like myself... you exist to avenge yourself... to show that you are the strongest... Unnoticed its tentacles had begun to inch their way towards her. We would have made quite a pair if we had become allies... a human and a metroid, it made the mental equivalent mental of a wry smile.
It was then that Metroid Prime made its final move, a dying gesture perhaps as futile as those made by her parents before the pirates. Swiftly it lashed out, one tentacle finding its mark, boring deep into her midsection, yanking, tearing, pulling at her.
Torn from the mental link she screamed, pulling at the shimmering blue limb until at last she was free. But yet her freedom was dearly bought, the viral corruption of her suit torn free leaving behind only her gravity suit. Without the phazon suit she could feel the air around her humming, filling her with dangerous amounts of radiation.
Run, little Hunter, run, Metroid Prime challenged, Live to fight another day.
That done, it said one last thing to her before she turned and ran, the impact crater collapsing as Metroid Prime went into its death throes, its amorphous blue body expanding until it burst in a flare of blue phazon and radiance unseen except at the heart of a star.
Looking back down at her hot chocolate she sighed, and remembered the last words that Metroid Prime had spoken to her. We are the same, Samus Aran, we are the same. At the time she had not believed it, but now, after all that had happened, perhaps there was some truth in his words.
====
They had filled her with metroid DNA. In order to save her, they had made her into a monstrosity, a human/chozo/metroid thing caught in a biomechanical shell. Then they had asked her to fight for them. And with little in her heart save hate, she had agreed and fuelled by this hate she had destroyed all in her path until at last she came face to face with the SA-X one last time.
It was odd, she thought, how similar it looked to her. The suit it wore was her own, the familiar orange with the green visor. Even the details of the arm cannon, the small scratch on the left shin, were the same. She wondered what lay behind the visor. Was her suit merely a machine given life by the X-virus or were there blue eyes, as cold as her own behind the green face shield?
Wordlessly they stood there, even as the station trembled, its interior damaged beyond repair. In a frightening parody of human emotion the SA-X touched its arm cannon to its visor, saluting her. Smiling grimly inside her own suit, she returned the gesture and began the battle.
Later still, watching in horrified fascination as the Omega Metroid and SA- X duelled, she found herself drawn to the SA-X's movement. So like herself, it moved with a warrior's grace, never losing its footing as it darted from platform to platform, peppering the far larger form of the metroid with ice and missile fire. Clinically she assessed the SA-X, noting with some worry the ineffectiveness of its attacks. And even when she saw it die, crushed beneath the bulk of the Omega Metroid she did not let her composure slip, instead considering the best tactic as she picked up the ice beam dropped by the SA-X and engaged the Omega Metroid herself.
When she had slain it and ensured the space station would deorbit she began to run, making her way over to the door that led to her ship but something stopped her. It was the SA-X, grasping her with an armoured arm that was surely broken. Stunned she stopped, and knelt by its side. Grasping her arm, the SA-X reached one hand up to its visor and tore the face shield away. Immediately she gasped and would have pulled away had not the virally infested suit restrained her.
For it was her face behind the cracked visor, her face, her body that occupied her infected suit. Slowly the SA-X opened its mouth, the broken lips struggling to form words it could not possibly know but somehow did.
'You... were... always... better...'
'What?' She asked, afraid of what reply she might receive. 'What do you mean?'
'Even... when you had... nothing... you were better... now... take back... what is yours...'
Suddenly the SA-X's armour melted, the orange forming a puddle of shimmering liquid metal. Just as quickly it began to flow onto her, remoulding itself swiftly before settling into its old, familiar form upon her.
'Go... now... sister...'
And then she went, leaving the SA-X behind to die in the space station, but she did not see where she was going or how she got there, instead she saw the look in the SA-X's eyes. Contentment. It had found someone just like it, and having done so, was content to die, knowing its mission, its purpose would not go unfulfilled.
====
Lazily, she came back to herself, only dimly aware that her mug had gone cold, the chocolate in it coagulating into a dark, bitter lump. She stood then, walking to the small cleaning unit on the wall and placed the mug in it as she wiped her mouth with the back of one hand.
They had been so alike, those two she had fought and killed but that was not what frightened her most, no, what frightened her most was how right they had been. All she could hope for, all that she prayed for as she wandered space, was that she would not share their fate.
====
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).
So, just answer a couple of questions you, the reader might have. This is set after both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion have occurred. In keeping with both of the atmospheres of those games it is not going to be a waffy fic where Samus magically wins the day with nary a scratch. She's in it for the long haul, and so am I.
And finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.