"But the funny part about the whole issue was the fact that I had no weapons and they were still spazzing out because I was standing in the middle of their Frigate, you know what I mean? It was… ironic!"

This was the 20th story the man had told Samus since their journey. He told it from behind walls and columns, he wailed it from between crevices in the wall and in the ground, and he stuttered it as they ran from hordes of Chozo Ghosts. Samus was getting sick of the guy, but he was the only "friendly" company she had. Friendly… yet annoying. He was poking around at the waters of the ruins when he was suddenly snatched away from them by Samus, who snapped at him about how poisonous the water was. The man shook his head and chuckled, declaring that the water was untainted. When Samus scanned the waters, she found that his claim was true. Before she could ask how he figured it out, he had already wandered ahead. "Now you stop that!" she yelled at him as she caught up with him and grabbed hold of his hair. He wailed and gritted his teeth in pain and fell on his backside. "So where do you have to meet your partner?" Samus asked. The man did not reply. Instead, he folded his legs in a pretzel, and stared in silence at something in the sky. It was a flock of birds! Samus shot them for leisure to pass the time by (and vent out her irritation).

Nightfall had blanketed the ruins in darkness, leaving Samus' suit as the only source of illumination. "Honestly, where the hell is your partner?" the hunter asked as she stared into the starlit sky. She looked over at the man, who had built a tent for the two of them to stay in. "Oh no, there's no way we're staying here," Samus stated as she stood up. She was pulled back down to the ground by the man, who looked into her eyes. "There may be Chozo Ghosts popping up here any second! We can't take any chances!" Samus cried. The man pointed ahead to the dark hooded figure that Samus had encountered earlier. When Samus looked at the shady figure, her visor malfunctioned again, and she fell unconscious.

She awakened in a seemingly foreign location, and her head seemed to be throbbing with pain. "Relax, Samus," someone said to her from afar. She looked ahead and noticed who it was—it was Rundas! "Saved you once again, huh?" Rundas said to her as he looked down on her. He placed his hand on her bare forehead. "Your temperature is still a bit high," he said to her.

"Ha right dude, you forgot that you're one of the physically coldest beings in the crew, right?" Samus muttered jokingly.

"Still with that sense of humor," Rundas replied as he sat beside her.

"Yeah, I know. So what happened?" Samus asked. Rundas pondered for a bit.

"Well, I was sent to rendezvous with you at the Overworld, but you were nowhere to be found. This tall, shady man told me that you were back at the ruins, and before I could ask him why he left you, he disappeared. So then I found you lying on the ground. Luckily, there were no Chozo Ghosts around or else we would have been toast."

"Wait, what about that blonde guy?!" Samus asked frantically.

"Oooh, him? I don't know," Rundas said silently. He looked at the door as Ghor entered the infirmary. "The lil missy's awake," he said to Ghor as the cyborg peered down at Samus. "Well hello there!" Ghor exclaimed warmly. "217 said he wanted to see us as soon as you woke up."

"I guess I'll find out what the deal is when I get there, hm?" Samus asked as she sat up. She was ready for some answers. Maybe 217 would have them.

"Samus Aran, we are glad to see that you are okay," 217 said as Samus entered the chamber. 217 was a dedicated Aurora Unit. He was originally assigned to the GF Naval Base Demeter, but he was then later reassigned to Skytown when the Treaty of Elysia was signed. He too felt uneasy about the large reversal and wished to work with Samus and the other hunters to find out exactly what was going on. As the hunters entered the chamber and positioned themselves on the platform, 217 gave them what information he could that was concerning this whole reversal.

"We had detected an imbalance in the stability of time and space. Thanks to several recon drones, we were able to pick up the events. An unknown creature from a different dimension ripped through the rift of time and landed on the wrecked GFS Valhalla, where it found Dark Samus and the pirates attempting to remove AU 313 from the ship. It attacked the pirates with brute force and forced Dark Samus into a dormitory state, sending Dark Samus back to what we think is Phaaze.

"This creature's arrival triggered the reversal of time, making the planets, occurrences, and even our ships and databases travel backwards or reset at an exponential rate that was ceased when it touched the floor of the Aurora chamber, where he so happened to stop the reversal when Dark Samus and her followers were commencing their final phase of attack and stealing what they came for. This is just a speculation, but it is more than likely true due to the absence of the deceased leviathans on both Bryyo and Elysia and the revival of Ghor, Rundas, and Gandrayda. We, however, do not know the fate of the Valhalla. The creature approached 313 seductively and the recon drones transmitted nothing but white noise after that point."

"I know what happened to the Valhalla," Samus declared. "I landed on that ship and… didn't 242 tell you what I told her?"

"Our means of communication have been blocked," 217 replied.

"Pirates?" Gandrayda asked.

"More than likely," Ghor stated with a wave of his hand.

"Sometimes I'd love to strangle those Pirates, seriously," Rundas sighed.

Everyone chattered with agreement. Samus cleared her throat and proceeded to tell of what she saw on the Valhalla. "I landed on the ship and it was just as dead silent as when I went there before after the successful Space Pirate attack—but there were no signs that it had been attacked. Everything was neat and what have you, except for the fact that the ship had taken on a darker grey color and was horribly lit. I walked into the Cargo Bay and suddenly heard 313's voice on the loud speaker. I asked him where he was. But instead of getting a specified location as an answer, a Marine grabbed me by my waist from behind…"

"Oooh, kinky~!" Gandrayda giggled. Rundas elbowed her in a way that told her to grow up.

"…yeah… so… uhm… I elbowed the Marine and proceeded to shoot him, but when I turned around and pulled the trigger, no one was there. Oh yeah and the wall absorbed my shot! I was confused as all hell, and 313 said that he twisted up the ship's properties for his 'master'. He told me that he'd love to see me and I was grabbed by several hands and pulled into the wall. I passed out before I could pull my trigger. Next thing you know, I woke up in the Aurora Chamber, and… there was 313! He looked different, but I couldn't really tell because it was so damn dark in there. I told him that he had a lot of explaining to do, but he just chuckled and told me to go to Tallon IV."

If the others could see Rundas' face, he'd be gaping and blushing. Hard. But they couldn't.

"That was… intriguing… those events might explain why 313 has cut himself off from the network," 217 declared.

"But wouldn't he want to infect all of you or something?" Samus asked.

"We are not certain of 313's intentions, but they can't be good intentions if he now has a connection to that foreign creature," 217 replied.

"We are sending you to the Pirate Homeworld. Here, you each will have different assignments. Samus and Rundas will proceed to destroy the Space Pirates' means of blocking the Aurora Network, and Gandrayda and Ghor will get what data they can on this foreign creature and whatever else they can find. We wish you the best of luck and hope that you all return safely."

The hunters geared up (all of them were equipped with hazard suits due to the constant acidic rainfall), boarded their ships and headed over to the Space Pirate Homeworld.