AN: This is going to be my 'serious' version of this story. It was originally intended to be adult only, smut story, but writing this chapter made me want to write a different version as well. If you want to find the adult version, go to adultfanfiction and look for my username. The first chapters will be identical, the main difference come with a plot point in chapter two, from there they will differ greatly. Hope you enjoy!
Melissa Bergman was laying down on her bed in a nondescript Federation prison cell, once again counting the ceiling tiles in a desperate attempt to alleviate her boredom. It was all she could think to do anymore since she had no way to entertain herself other than fantasizing new methods of revenge on her enemies, which she had probably already done an unhealthy amount of already.
Her fingers were buried in her disheveled hair, idly running through the chaotic mess to unravel the many knots contained within. Her once short, well maintained golden hair had grown longer and become much duller since her capture by the Federation. Melissa could have easily fixed her hair during the shower time allotted to her, but she didn't want to, she didn't care about her appearance anymore. She just needed something, anything, to do so she didn't go insane.
"That's odd" Melissa spoke to herself "why are there only seventy-three tiles on the ceiling but eighty-one on the floor? You think they would make it the same so it's easier to build."After taking a second pull a particularly stubborn clump of hair, Melissa once again started to think aloud. "Well maybe the light tiles aren't supposed to be counted as just one, I mean they are somewhat bigger than the regular tiles. Hmmm...I'd guess about one and a half times bigger, and since there are -"
Melissa's train of thought was broken by the high pitched screech of a thick block of bulletproof glass which served as the wall to her cell being lifted into the ceiling. She leisurely sat up and covered her ears to muffle the annoying sound and looked around, expecting to find a group of guards to once again escort her down to the lab. Melissa was surprised and somewhat relieved to instead see the subject of more than a few of her revenge fantasies walking into her cell.
"Sorry to interrupt your unraveling of one of the universe's greater mysteries, but we have more important things to discuss." A bald man wearing an unmarked Federation officer uniform announced in a stern voice while walking into the cell with long, confident strides. Once inside, he made a quick gesture to the two guards who were escorting him and they stationed themselves on both sides of the cell, ice pistols already primed.
After attempting to blow a stray clump of hair away from her face, which immediately fell back to its previous position, Melissa chose to ignore the guard's presence and made a quick retort. "O really? And why would I want to discuss anything with you, ..." It took a second for her to realize that she didn't even know his name. "Actually, for all the impact you've had on my life so far, I don't even know what to call you. Seems common courtesy to at least tell someone you tried to kill your name." Melissa spat, glaring at the man, secretly hoping that her pure, concentrated hate would cause him to spontaneously combust.
Alas, the only noticeable change to the man was that the air of arrogance surrounding him seemed to grow somewhat denser. His face adopted an infuriating smirk, which Melissa literally wanted to punch right off his face, before he answered in a measured voice "And I plan to keep it that way, for our purposes you can call me Colonel." Melissa seemed irritated at being kept in the dark, and was about to say as much, but the Colonel cut her off. "But enough about that, on to the reason for me bothering to come all the way down here to talk to a glorified lab rat."
Melissa's eyebrow twitched in anger at the comment, but her curiosity won out, so she remained quiet for the time being and allowed him to continue. "I'm here to offer you a deal that I believe will be to both of our benefits. I am prepared to give you your freedom provided you do exactly as I say and you're able to help eliminate an enemy I'm sure you despise just as much as I do."
After taking a second to consider what the Colonel had said so far, Melissa said in an exasperated tone, "You're being annoyingly vague, get to the point. Just tell me what you want me to do and who this common enemy is and I'll consider not strangling you where you stand."
This of course was an empty threat, the guards would be able to stop her well before she would be able to reach him, but she was still resentful about his role on the Bottle Ship and sincerely wished she could.
Both guards tensed at the threat and leveled their weapons at Melissa, who merely rolled her eyes at their behavior. The Colonel briefly held up his hand and the guards relaxed somewhat, then he continued. "Fair enough, I need you to take care of Samus Aran -"
"Woah! Hang on a second here. Lets back up." Melissa interrupted the Colonel in a rushed tone, moving her hands around rapidly to accentuate her panic. "You expect me, to fight fucking Samus Aran. The one who almost drove metroids to extinction, single-handily killed every creature I controlled on the Bottle Ship, while handicapping herself for some reason."
She paused for a second to consider the possible explanations, 'Was she doing it for a challenge? No that's just stupid. Was she mocking me... She was! She didn't even consider me a threat! That bitch!' Then she remembered what she was doing and continued her rant. "She's blown up several planets, and has by far the most advanced power armor in the galaxy. Well you can just turn your ass right around with that bullshit, I'm perfectly fine with the way my head is right now, unexploded."
Despite her resentment toward Samus, Melissa made no delusions of grandeur, she knew even if she was free she would never be able to defeat the bounty hunter, the last of the legendary Chozo warriors. Her revenge fantasies were doomed to stay just that, fantasies. She allowed herself a sad sigh at that thought.
When the Colonel was sure Melissa was done with her outburst he continued "Yes, that would the one. Normally when someone gets in my way the way she has, it's a simple matter of taking them out quietly, but unfortunately I can't do that with this bounty hunter. She has a great deal of public support, they even call her 'protector of the galaxy'"
A momentary flash of...something flashed in his eyes for a second, annoyance maybe? His eyes returned to their normal cold stare before Melissa could tell. He continued without missing a beat, his voice betraying no emotion. "More importantly a majority of the senate supports her. If she were to die there would certainly be multiple investigations. Being connected in any way to her death would be disastrous, which is where you come in."
Melissa was still wholly unconvinced and had no desire to throw her life away just to help some egomaniac cover his ass. But, she could tell he liked to hear himself talk so she decided to let him talk for the time being while she half listened, half theorized about reasons for the ceiling tile numbers. 'Alright, there were how many? Seventy-one? Sixty-nine? Heh, sixty-nine. Gah! Focus!...Dammit I forgot, now I have to start over again! Hmmm, I could just recount now, but that would just be rude. I may want to kill him with my bare hands, but that's no reason to forget manners. O right he's still talking, should probably pay attention now.'
If the Colonel noticed her momentary lapse in concentration, he did not show it. "- at which you will be given a ship and be free to go anywhere outside of Federation territory, since you will not only be a fugitive, but also a murderer. Any questions?"
Melissa cursed her short attention span, but suddenly saw the silver lining in this. Forcing him to repeat himself wastes more of his time, which could potentially throw off his schedule and ruin his whole day! It was a small, petty revenge, but she delighted in the thought. "What exactly would be my role in this again?" Melissa asked with her best innocent voice, her mouth spliting into a huge grin.
The Colonel gave her a cold stare, which caused her smile to quickly wither away, and said with a hint of exasperation "As I said earlier, I need my affiliation to this is be as minimal as possible. I need someone that people will quickly believe as a culprit. Someone with past experience with her, someone with a grudge, someone with a motive...someone like you."
He gave her a pointed look, one that dared her to disagree. Melissa matched his glare, but did not speak up, she could not deny the burning desire for revenge deep within her. Putting an end to the staring match, the Colonel continued "My men discovered a Chozo outpost on HL-259 by chance- "
Melissa did interrupt him this time, the look on her face one of someone who had just been told something incredibly stupid and expected to believe it. "Do you think I'm stupid? HL is a dead sector, none of the planets there can even support life and there are no resources of any significance, the Chozo would have no reason to build an outpost there, ergo, you're lying." She finished with a tone of finality, reveling in what she perceived to be her victory.
The Colonel decided to explain, since she seemed convinced of her theory of him lying to her. "That is true, but do you know why HL is dead? It's not widely known, the Federation likes to pretend nothing is known of history until humans rose to power, makes them seem more important. Helps that a lot of that history was lost with the Chozo. However, we do know this: they fought a long, bloody war of attrition with a race that was never described and the HL sector was the main battle field. The once resource rich planets were stripped bare and the stars used to power devastatingly powerful weapons able to destroy planets in a single shot until finally even the stars were extinguished. Their war continued for centuries until both armies were crippled beyond repair, the Chozo eventually emerged victorious, able to eradicate their enemy from the face of the universe, and from history, but were too few in numbers to continue on. Leaving behind only ruins of their more minor settlements around the galaxy and an utterly decimated galaxy that took centuries to recover."
Melissa was intrigued by his tale, it was true that little was known of the Chozo, she resolved to research this on her own later. In the mean time, his explanation satisfied her for the time being. If he wanted to kill her, he wouldn't need some convoluted plan to do so.
The Colonel, upon seeing that she was convinced enough to listen, he continued with his explanation. "However, I did not come here to give you a history lesson. As I was saying, my men stumbled upon a Chozo outpost on HL-259 that the rest of the Federation is unaware of. I sent a few scientists and marines to explore and they found what appeared to be a Chozo weapon. However, from what they tell me, it is not designed to be used on its own, but rather in conjunction with another. From what they could gather, they theorize it acts as an 'upgrade' to Chozo armor, but they have no idea how it works or what it is supposed to do. I know you became the new 'Mother Brain', the organic supercomputer the Chozo built on Zebes, so you must have some knowledge of how Chozo technology works. -"
Melissa once again interrupted him, the wheels in her head spinning at top speed. Everything was falling into place and suddenly everything made sense to her. She jumped up, startling the guards, and spoke while looking the Colonel right in the eyes. "I get it now! That's why you bothered to keep me alive. That's why you've had those pet scientists of yours experimenting on me. You're trying to pry the information out my head!"
Melissa looked crazed, her hair now hanging free around her, sticking up in random places. She ignored the strands in her face and continued her rant. "But it didn't work, did it? And now you have to come to me to ask me to go there and do it myself like I'm one of your obedient dogs." She gave a quick glare to the guard adjacent to her before continuing.
"Let me guess, you want me to examine this upgrade you found and find some weakness in Chozo armor your men can exploit? What? Are you hoping that I'm stupid enough to go along with your plan, where you will probably betray me, just for a chance at revenge? Well guess what!" She paused for a second, loving the look that very briefly passed through his eyes as he considered his only real shot at getting rid of the bounty hunter gone. Melissa then calmed down considerably, her voice returning to normal. "...I'll do it, but on my terms."
The Colonel seemed to relax somewhat at this, then said "And what would those terms be?"
Melissa adopted a smirk of her own at his question, then said in a superior tone. "After you release me, I will get a ship of my choosing and go to HL-259. You can keep your scientists there if you like, though they will be useless to me, I only need the soldiers. Once I discover a way of defeating Samus' armor, your men will help in eliminating her and then we will head our separate ways. Maybe the Kirken Empire will find need for my services." Of course Melissa had no intentions of actually going through with this scenario, she still had one ability the Colonel wasn't aware of, and she planned to make full use of it.
The Colonel seemed pleased, his smirk widening slightly, and said "I only need to make a small adjustment to that deal. You see I can't actually just release you, you are a Federation prisoner after all. Contrary to popular belief, I do not have infinite influence, so you will need to escape on your own, though I can smooth the path for you. At exactly 7:23 PM there will be a power outage that will cause an error and all the cell doors will open. The path from here to the hanger will be clear, all the ships will be ready to fly and the guards at the hanger will be elsewhere. Pick a ship and set the auto-pilot to HL-259, no one will know where you are heading with the sensors out. Once there, begin your research."
Melissa was somewhat worried at the plan, but nodded her head in compliance anyway. There was one thing that occurred to her though, so she asked the Colonel one last question. "How do we know Samus will come to the outpost? It would be a little suspicious to just tell her to go there."
The Colonel answered quickly and in a dismissive tone said "Don't worry about that, my men have found a way to do that discreetly. Just tell them when you are ready and she will come shortly." His seemingly perpetual smirk widened slightly at that and concluded with "So, do we have a deal?"
The menacing smile slowly spreading across her face and the cruel glint in her eye that promised unimaginable pain for a certain bounty hunter was all the answer the Colonel needed.