Chapter Six: Blackout

Ridley paced on the rusted metal floor. He was wondering what exactly he could do to bring Samus here. Apparently, sending escorts didn't work, and such a result was one expected.

"Weavel," Ridley said.

"Sir?" Weavel replied.

"Might you have any suggestions on how to bring Samus to me?"

"How about trying the direct approach?" Weavel suggested.

"No. We would have to catch her off guard, and likely, she's prepared for anything at the moment. So, we have to make her not expect the unexpected," Ridley responded. "Try again."

"Oh hush it," said a voice, and Phantoon materialized nearby. "You really need to understand your soldiers better, damn it."

"Well…what is your idea?" Ridley asked. Rather than speaking to answer, Phantoon waved a tentacle at Weavel, whom fell over.

"Think about it," Phantoon said.

"Ah…" Ridley replied, knowing what Phantoon was thinking. "Brilliant plan."

--

Trace climbed into a broken passage in the metallic wall, and into an elevator shaft. Outside was dark, as the sun stopped shining a few hours ago. Trace examined the room with his infrared scanner. No recent life signs; if any, the red in his sight was weak and faded. Trace huffed, and left the room.

--

As Samus was admiring the comfortable temperature, she noticed a pathway down a hill, surrounded by large and thick walls of ice. She started walking down the hill.

"Ugh," Samus said.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked.

"The blizzard is still clogging my visor with snow and ice," Samus replied.

"Well, there's no way to fix it now. Perhaps a later upgrade," Adam responded. "Anyway, I looked at your recent scans, and saw these words: Project Dread. Do you have any idea what this might be?"

"Not a clue," Samus said. "Most I know of it is that I have a scan mentioning it somewhere else as well. I think I got the scan from the Pirate Homeworld when I was trying to remove Phazon from the galaxy."

"Very odd…can you, perhaps, identify how old the file is?" Adam wondered.

"Unless you can, just forget about it," Samus said. She walked down the path to find a door, after blindly bumping into walls of thick ice. She opened the door, and swiped her visor with two fingers to rid of the ice. She was back in the base again, only a different section. She saw an elevator ahead, and walked to it. Samus scanned a nearby power conduit, which restored power to the elevator.

"Access to the Ocul Breeding Sector granted. Please step into the elevator," the scanner said. Samus stepped into the elevator, which started moving upward steadily.

"The Pirates seem to take a liking in this 'Ocul' family," Adam spoke. "I wonder what purpose they serve in the midst of their plans?"

"I've seen a branch of their species before," Samus said. "Can't quite place my finger on their name, but I remember that they were on Tallon IV, particularly the Chozo Ruins. They tended to annoy the hell out of me as I tried to Spider Ball up a track to get a Chozo Artifact. I met them again after I got a different Chozo Artifact, and I was distracted enough to get the Wavebuster. Oddly enough, those creatures, which were very small, were resistant to Super Missiles and my other weapons, whereas the Oculbyss died in one missile to the eye, let alone the missile wasn't of the Super brand."

"I'll have to guess, though, that they are the perfect test subjects for Metroid predation. That could be why the Pirates breed them to adapt to the environments: to observe a Metroid's natural limitations. From what I can tell, the Ocul family naturally adapts to their environment faster than almost any living creature in the galaxy. If this were true, it would save the Pirates the search for a creature from every environment possible, and then they could simply take an Ocul creature and force them to adapt to a particular environment, so three or four generations later, the creature has fully adapted," Adam explained.

"That makes sense," Samus replied. Adam almost replied back, but he stopped himself from talking when the elevator stopped moving, and the lights went out.

"Eh?" Adam wondered.

"Aw hell," Samus said. "The station must have blacked out. If I had a penny for how many times this sort of thing has happened, I would no longer need to be a bounty hunter to get money."

"Ah, yes indeed it blacked out. Well, looks like you're going to have to find an…"

"Alternate path to my target, I know, I know. I've heard this multiple times before. Wait…what is my target, anyway?" Samus asked.

"That's just it: you don't have one. Be creative," Adam responded. Samus frowned at the remark, but she listened. Up above, Samus could see small sparks falling, however, they stopped soon enough. She climbed the wall by using ledges and wires. However, she was at a stopping point. She hit her head on a ceiling, and fell. She quickly grabbed a ledge, and held tight. "Samus, it appears there is an alternate door on the ledge above you. Since you cannot crawl through solid objects, may I suggest wall jumping?" Adam said.

Ah, wall jumping. Samus's favorite trick to perform. She used it many times before to get to unreachable places that could not be reached without the help of certain items. Without a second thought, she jumped off the wall she was on, started to somersault in mid-air, and as soon as her feet touched the opposite wall, she pushed against it, and flew back. Samus grabbed onto another ledge, and found herself where she needed to be. However, the door was frozen shut. Samus took out the Plasma Beam and melted the ice, and the door remained in place. It was only half-way open when it got frozen. Samus rolled into a ball and barely slipped through the opening on the door.

Down a few emergency passages, and Samus found herself in the Ocul Breeding Sector of Settlement Zero. The hall she was currently in was lined with stasis tanks and Ocul variants sleeping within them, except a few broken ones. Samus entered another door, and found many different environments that were used for testing the Oculs. Most, if not all of the environments, were frozen over. She found Oculands sleeping in the environments. Since the power went out, the environments much have lost heat. She continued. A door was blocked off, so her first instinct was to find an alternate exit before Adam told her those exact words yet again. As soon as she stepped onto the frozen cold ground of the breeding environments, the Oculands woke and roared. They had spotted her.

Samus quickly shot a missile into one of their eyes, and it died. The others closed their eyes and aimlessly tried to ram Samus. More and more stormed into the room, trying to rid of her. They sensed her as a Metroid.

Luckily for Samus, it was just then when a few Metroid larvae flew in and saved the day. They latched onto the skulls of the Oculands, and scared the rest away. But the Metroids were still hungry. They turned to Samus, who sighed in response. She froze one and shot a diffusion missile, making it explode. The other Metroids, angered, called for help. Just then, four Alpha Metroids staggered in with a Gamma Metroid following them. Samus was officially surrounded.

"Samus, they outnumber us by too far. Simply run," Adam said. Samus nodded, and started running past them to the nearest door. The Gamma followed Samus quickly and whipped her with the electric whip Gamma Metroids sport. She shot a missile, which caused the Gamma to recoil. Just then, multiple sets of fangs hopped up out of the frosty ground and started tearing at the Gamma Metroid. The fangs busted the core membrane, causing the core itself to fall out. The Gamma Metroid lay there, dead. Samus was puzzled. How could that have killed the Gamma Metroid? Suddenly, the other Metroids left, seemingly afraid. Samus looked around, and saw little tracks and something moving under the ice. Just then, a little creature popped out the ground, and screeched, similar to that of a Metroid. It was pure white, and had a body protecting its core. It was a little fellow, with one eye and three fangs. Samus pulled out her Scan Visor and scanned it.

"A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Ice Metroid. A Metroid that is genetically mutated beyond imagination. The Ice Metroids are very different in appearance from normal Metroid larvae, and are unable to float. Rather, they burrow. They are invulnerable to the cold, making them solely weak to explosives delivered by your Morph Ball system. They are unable to latch onto you, but rather they rip and tear with their fangs. Ice Metroids originated when a Metroid larva accidentally injected itself with the Subzero Serum that which mutated their genetic appearance and abilities dramatically over several generations. They are so genetically different from a regular Metroid that they can be considered a different species rather than a simple mutation of the parent species. Use caution when handling Ice Metroids."

Ice…Metroids? Samus thought.

"Samus, do you think this might be what 'Project Dread' is based around?" Adam asked.

"No…" Samus replied. "The logbook states 'accidentally injected'. The Metroids did this to themselves."

"Well, take the logbook's advice and punish them with Bombs," Adam suggested. Samus agreed, and laid Bombs among the Ice Metroids. They subsequently exploded.

"Well…that was…simple," Samus said.

"I wouldn't expect their later metamorphic stages to be as simple," Adam said. "Be careful."

---

Ridley sat atop a tower in Settlement Zero. The tower was nearby an elevator Ridley hoped to find Samus taking. Weavel walked to Ridley.

"Sir…aren't you cold?" Weavel asked.

"Not at all," Ridley replied.

"Do you need anything?"

"Hm…by any chance, do you know how to send scan data to Samus, helping her find her destination?" Ridley asked.

"I could try," Weavel replied.

"Good," Ridley said. "Oh, and how is the Miteralis cure coming along?"

If he could, Weavel would have cracked a smile as he said these words:

"It's solved."

---

Samus entered through multiple rooms of the same thing: stasis tank after stasis tank. She wondered when the monotony would end. And it was then that she found something peculiar above a door. She scanned it quick.

"Bioscan complete. The creature is a Pyrocul, the inferno variant of the Ocul family. The creature is in hibernation. Threat level: critical. Do not disturb."

Samus ignored the creature, and entered the next room, which had an elevator. Finally! A way out of the dull repetition of that breeding sector! The only interesting find in there was the Ice Metroids. Though, since the power was out, the elevator didn't work. Samus sighed, and decided to climb the shaft. But just then, power flickered on, and the elevator was operational. Samus stepped on the panel, which took her upward. She heard a voice whispering to her.

"Funny how options and desperation work, isn't it? When one has no options left, they turn to desperation. And when they turn to desperation, they choose the option they wouldn't have chosen when they were thinking normally. I find it very interesting to see this happen, and I will see it soon…"

Samus was clueless of who the voice could have belonged to.

"Who is this?" she asked. She knew it wasn't Adam.

"Who am I? Who are you? You are the Hunter, the biggest threat to the galaxy. As soon as your team realized this, they turned against you, and you refuse to hurt the organization that proved to you in their desperation that they are corrupt and untrustworthy. As soon as they understood you were capable of ruling this galaxy with just you and your willpower, they did their best to destroy you by keeping you isolated in a space station infested with deadly parasites. They knew you would try to destroy the parasites they were interested in…so they threatened to take these parasites away to test and do good for the galaxy…because they knew you would try to stop them. They knew you would destroy the station and rid of the X, and they hoped it would take your life with it. They had never expected you to destroy the source of the X with the station. Yet you did, and you survived as well. Now, they have no intentions of stopping at anything to get rid of you. Your friend says 'one of them will understand. One of them must'. How foolish. The Galactic Federation will get to you, Samus, and they will dismember you until they are sure that you are dead. And with this knowledge, you know you have no options, therefore, you turn to desperation. And in your desperation, you will choose the option you would not have chosen if you came to your senses. This, I assure you, will come true. Because desperation is a funny little thing that no sentient being has ever managed to overcome…"

Samus heard every word, and spat at the thought. They were powerful words, but Samus hoped that the voice was wrong.

"Adam, track the source of the voice," Samus said.

"It's coming from somewhere on the opposite side of Settlement Zero…" Adam said. "Shall I pinpoint the coordinates?"

Samus nodded. Her map opened, and Adam quickly searched for the source. He then found it, and pointed at the room.

"How odd. It's in an elevator room," Adam said.

"Not a problem," Samus replied. "Now how to get there?"

"You should be able to reach it through the rooms between this elevator and that one," Adam said. "I know this should be fairly easy for you."

The elevator halted, and Samus stepped through the opened door. Right inside was a dead Federation trooper, whose body fell over when she opened it. This was definitely not a good sign. She scanned for life signs and cause of death.

"Bioscan complete. This Federation trooper has multiple burns across its armor and body, implying that it may have been incinerated. Life signs do remain, however, as weak brainwaves pulse from the corpse. Its heart does not beat, however. Final estimate is that the trooper has only died less than six hours ago."

Samus knew that the brain lives on for a few more hours after an organism dies provided the death was not caused by or involved with a severe cranial injury that ruptured the brain. She scanned the area for more corpses, and tried to do it before the power short circuited again. To her surprise, the floor had piles of dead Federation troops. Was this, perhaps, their rendezvous point?

"Samus, I detect Space Pirates approaching the vicinity. I suggest you move quickly," Adam said. Samus nodded, and walked on through the large room. Ahead of her were two doors, but she did not know which to take. Suddenly, the power shut off again, and the doors stopped working. "Damn! Just our luck. Samus, try to reconnect power to the doors. I am receiving odd transmissions from nearby emergency power nodes."

Samus scanned for any form of auxiliary power transmitters in the area, and found two.

"Based on your current map data, the door straight in front of you is the correct path to your target. Try to reconnect power to that one," Adam told Samus. Samus scanned the nearest transmitter, and the door to her right was powered on. "Incorrect transmitter, it seems. Try the other."

Samus scanned the other transmitter. A bit of electrical power shot through the wire behind the terminal, but then the electricity stopped as a bunch of small sparks shot out into the air.

"Most unfortunate…it seems the wire that supplies the door with electricity has been severed. Ah, well. We must persevere and try the one on your right," Adam said. Samus entered the powered door into an icy hallway. On the other side of the corridor, a glowing red creature hung from the ceiling. Samus walked a bit closer, which made the creature jump down. The ice around it slowly started to melt into water. Samus pulled out her scanner.

"A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Pyrocul. The inferno variant of the Ocul family. Pyroculs are deadly compared to their cousins. They radiate heat from their body at a constant rate, and are unable to be cold save for their eye. Pyroculs sport insect-like legs, and thus are capable of climbing any surface. They also spit a fluid that is only slightly colder than magma. It is also said that this fluid can melt Vhozon Crystals."

Another Pyrocul, eh? Samus thought. Before Adam made any comment on how Samus's safety is vital, she approached the Pyrocul. Its mouth started to foam the red liquid. She switched to Ice Beam and fired a charged shot into the beast's eye. After getting hit with a direct hit, the Pyrocul winced in pain and staggered backwards, busting the door behind it open with its tremendous girth. Samus followed it, and entered a large dome-shaped room. In the center lied an item Samus had the feeling was something her Power Suit could absorb and use. She quickly jumped down onto the lower level, and started to walk towards the item. The Pyrocul, having recovered from its pain, spat at the floor Samus was walking on. All around Samus, gargantuan tanks full of gasoline and afloraltite exploded, and caused the floor to collapse from beneath her. She fell into the icy cold blizzard outside. Samus landed in the snow face first, and then stood up. Out of the blizzard, a large white creature ran in and started shredding at Samus. She scanned the creature before anything else.

"A new [Creatures] entry has been added to your logbook. Morphology: Alpha Ice Metroid. Much like the Ice Metroid larvae, this creature burrows rather than floats. It also utilizes its tusks and claws more often than its life-draining capabilities. It also retains the same weaknesses as the larva stage, only, as expected, requiring more brutal force."

Samus counteracted by rolling into Morph Ball mode and lying three bombs at once under the creature's belly. The core membrane broke after the explosions, and the creature fell over. Power to a nearby device was restored, and so Samus's first instinct was to try it. After stepping into the panel, the ground beneath her shone. Then, she was lifted into the air. Well, well, it was an elevator! The elevator lifted her into the glass tube protecting the item she had seen earlier, and she obtained it.

----------------------ARMOR SUIT UPGRADE ACQUIRED. POWER BOMB SYSTEM ONLINE. ----------------------

Well, this was a surprise. What were Power Bombs doing at a Space Pirate facility? Stuck in the tube, Samus immediately assumed it was made of some isotope of Benzium and laid a Power Bomb. The tube, as expected, busted open.

"Another ability crucial to your progression has been recovered. But what was a Power Bomb system doing here?" Adam wondered.

"I don't know," Samus said. She scanned the room and conveniently found a Pirate Data log entry. She scanned it.

"Pirate data decoded and translated. Data entry title: Power Bombs. The entry is as follows: 'Many times we've attempted to mimic those damned birds, and every time we have failed. That is, we have failed up until now. We have stolen a Power Bomb and a spare, just in case, and reverse engineered it to the point that which we have successfully constructed a Power Bomb system of our own. While not nearly as powerful as the Chozos', nor as massive of a range, we have managed to successfully invent a Power Bomb system that cannot run out of ammunition, and still retain the effect of brutally annihilating objects made of Benzium or any lesser metal. We have impressed Master Ridley with this, and have been awarded commander rank for it. We are truly honored.'"

Samus was now puzzled and somewhat relieved at the same time. A Power Bomb system with unlimited ammunition? Sounded pretty sick.

She Hi-Jumped onto a ledge and returned to the large room with the severed wire, since she had no other way to go. She inspected the room for any alternate exits to her target, but had no luck in finding any.

"Samus, I have a suggestion. Perhaps you should try dropping a Power Bomb next to the powerless door?"

Samus liked that idea, and gave it a shot. She dropped a Power Bomb next to the door, and the door busted open. Samus walked through the opened doorway, into an even larger corridor. She started to hear footsteps. Suddenly, the lights flickered on and off extremely fast, and a Space Pirate appeared right in front of her, roaring. She quickly shoved a charged Plasma shot into the creature's chest, and it fell over, disintegrating. All around the room, Space Pirates popped out of nowhere. They started chasing after Samus, trying to grab her arms and legs, as if trying to pick her up. She dodged every attempt, and soon enough, GF troopers waltzed in and started letting their weapons loose. The Pirates turned around and shot back. There were about twenty of each side in here, making this a fairly large fight for an only somewhat large corridor. GF troopers came through and tried to shoot Samus, but she was saved again by the same unexpected savior: Sylux. Sylux came in and shocked all the troopers, and dragged Samus into a corner.

"See? This is precisely what happens when you do not take up an opportunity given by someone who hates you," Sylux said.

"I was afraid it would be a trap," Samus replied angrily. "I'm not stupid."

"But you were stupid by not listening to me. See all this effort you put in to get through this hellhole? You could have easily saved yourself the trouble by coming with me in the first place," Sylux responded.

"Why do you work for the Pirates, anyway?" Samus asked. Sylux looked behind him.

"I was convinced," he replied. "Now, the offer is still available. Will you come with me, or not?" Samus immediately shook her head. "Very well, then," Sylux said. "Then I will force you to."

All of a sudden, Sylux sent a shock through Samus's Power Suit, and knocked her out. He picked her up and started to walk out into the heat of the fight. He walked past the Pirates and the troopers, who all stopped battling to watch Sylux carry an unconscious Samus Aran.

"Do not follow me," he told the crowd. "In fact, I shouldn't have to tell you to."

He opened the door, stepped into the doorway, then pulled out a grenade. He pulled the pin, and quickly jumped through the doorway after dropping the grenade. The door shut, and as soon as the grenade exploded, large pieces of rubble blocked the doorway, so no one could follow.

He carried Samus through a large hallway with security turrets that viewed Sylux as an 'ally with cargo' until he entered the elevator room.

---

"She's out cold," a voice said. Samus's eyes opened to a squint, and she looked around her.

"She's awake!" Sylux shouted, spotting Samus sit up. She held her hand to her helmet.

"What happened…and where am I?" she asked.

"You're in Settlement Zero, still. As of now, we are examining you for any irregularities in a decrepit laboratory I managed to repair," the other voice said. "So far, we found but one: the Metroid DNA within your bloodstream. Tell us, how did you obtain it?"

A further look after her blurry vision cleared up, and she recognized the other voice as none other than Weavel.

"Why should I tell you?" Samus asked snidely.

"We wish to…help," Weavel responded.

"Help? HELP?! You're all filthy scumbags who kill and steal for money and fame! I don't want your help!" Samus yelled. She then heard Weavel chuckle.

"Now, now, Samus. You and I both know that my kind dislikes theft. It's a tad ironic, considering we're Space Pirates, but it's the truth," Weavel calmly replied.

"He's right on that, Samus. It's in your databanks; after scanning some sort of crate, it gave you that exact information," Adam said.

"It doesn't matter," Samus said. "Why are you keeping me here?"

"I'm not authorized to tell you, but if you really must know…you can speak to this raid's commander," Weavel replied.

"And who might that be?" Samus asked. Just then, the door opened, and Ridley walked in.

"Good evening, Samus," Ridley said. "I overheard that you are curious as to why we are holding you here currently."

Samus started to run at Ridley angrily, but she had a shock go through her body again, but this time with weaker voltage. She fell onto her knees and became dizzy. She felt Sylux pick her up and put her back on the table she was laying on.

"Strap her in," Ridley said to Weavel. Weavel gave Ridley a nod, and pressed a button on the nearby control terminal. Tough metallic straps rose and wrapped around Samus's arms and legs. When she recovered control of her body from the shock, she yanked at the straps, but to her misfortune, they would not budge. Ridley turned to Sylux. "Excellent work, Sylux."

"Let me out!" Samus screamed.

"We will," Ridley said calmly. "If you listen."

Samus stopped yanking.

"To what?"

"Our little proposition," Ridley replied. He walked over to Samus and looked over her so that she could look into his eyes. "See, we know already that you despise us. Me, especially, because I killed your mommy. But now, we must share with you the truth."

Ridley could see the anger in Samus's eyes, but he could tell she was listening.

"First of all, we are simply astonished that you still try not to kill the same people that lied to you, over and over again. Everything they've done to you, everything they plan to do to you now…and yet you still side with the Federation. That just doesn't make any sense to me. Those backstabbing liars need to grow up and give power to who truly deserves it," Ridley explained.

"That can't be you," Samus said quietly yet in an angry tone.

"I never said it was. I was going to say the Chozo. They deserve to rule this galaxy, and as I recall, the Federation drove them away. I presume you already know the Federation's darkest secret?" Ridley assumed. Samus shook her head. "Well, then. It all started about five centuries or so ago. Before this, Chozo, Luminoth, Bryyonians…they all were the unsung rulers of the galaxy, and they were the true peace keepers. A group of humans and other foreign alien species joined together to form an organization called simply 'The Alliance'. These people were also true peace keepers. They helped lead this galaxy to a golden age of peace and prosperity. And it stayed this way until the rebels came. The rebels were horrible people. They were undercover, disguised as members of the Alliance. What did these rebels do? When the Alliance was not expecting it, they overthrew the leader of the Alliance and destroyed all faithful member of it, and did it so quickly and quietly that public galactic civilization did not notice. The new leader came to them, and told them that he was appointed new leader of the Alliance because the other had died. The sad part is, everyone believed it. They also changed to a new name, and everyone only suspected it as a mere name change for whatever reason. Do you know what their new name was?"

"The Space Pirates," Samus spat.

"No. Their new name was the Galactic Federation, believe it or not. And they were no better than us, aside from that they were afraid to show their true colors. They told galactic civilization exactly what it wanted to hear, and then they performed deadly experiments behind their backs. See, I was not stupid. I could tell from the look in Vogl's ancestor's eyes that they were up to no good. So what did I do? On Zebes, after my race's little war with the Chozo, I met the large lizard you know to be Kraid. Together, we stole metals from the Chozo to make a spaceship. We succeeded, and flew to other planets to salvage metals and other materials. We made bigger spaceships that could house more organisms, and soon, we created what you know as the Space Pirates. We got many troops and returned to Zebes and attempted to shove the Chozo off one last time, but yet again, they refused. We accepted defeat, and simply stayed under Zebes's surface. Our first few outings were on other planets in the Ooromine system. We soon became so big, that the Federation did not like us. So, they attempted to kill us. What did we do? We discovered the Metroids, and wished to vanquish our enemies with these monsters. So, we built the first non-Zebesian settlement here, on Vho. On the outer rim of the galaxy, where, at the time, the Federation was restricted to enforce justice because it was out of their limits. We bred Metroids and built other weapons to conflict the Federation here. Our first official battle happened on Bilium, the quarantined planet in Ooromine. After that, we conflicted with the Federation since, attempting to rid of them so the galaxy could return to its previous state," Ridley explained.

"Liar!" Samus shouted. Ridley sighed.

"No, Samus. We are not the liars, but rather, the Federation is. They've lied to you countless times, and we lied to you not even once."

"That's a lie in itself!"

"Oh, but is it really? When have we truly lied to you, Samus? Sarcasm not included, of course. Hm, let's see. When I promised that I would try and kill you, I tried to, did I not? When I told everyone we were going to go raid some planet, we did, did we not? We have never lied to you once, yet your anger prevents you from believing us," Ridley told Samus. "Samus, heed those words. If you consider everything I have just said, along with that we have never lied to you, then whatever I say about the Galactic Federation and their secrets," Ridley stuck out a claw and patted Samus's hand. "You know I'm telling the truth."

Ridley could see Samus crying, likely from anger, or from remembering her mother. In any case, Ridley hoped she had listened.

"Now, since you have heard the truth, I have but one last question for you: is it worth it? Is it worth it to take sides with the people who are trying to kill you now, while running from both them, and from the people who are doing nothing but trying to help you? Sounds a bit silly to me," Ridley said. He gave the signal to Weavel, and Weavel unlatched the straps holding Samus down.

Samus was astonished. Adam had not said one word. She whispered to him, "Is all of this true?"

Adam responded, "Yes, Samus. Unfortunately, every word spoken is the truth…"

"Were you trying to kill me this whole time?" Samus said, sobbing.

"I believed the Federation was wrong for all of this, but I knew that if I told you, you would run away from me. You can trust me, Samus, and only me. I was one of the few noble troopers there. I hope you understand…" Adam replied.

"Who is she whispering to?" Ridley asked Weavel.

"It appears to be a computer file with someone's brain uploaded to it. It seems to be speaking to her from within her helmet," Weavel responded.

"Adam…" Sylux mumbled. He overheard her whispering. Ridley turned to Sylux.

"Did you once know this person, Sylux?" Ridley asked. Sylux did nothing, but merely nodded.

"Whatever happened to 'One of them will understand. One of them must.', Adam?" Samus sobbed.

"That someone…was me," Adam replied. Samus looked at Ridley.

"What is your proposition?"

"Oh, it's simple. Join the Space Pirates, Samus," Ridley replied. Samus's eyes widened. She was desperate, and she felt like accepting the offer. That voice she heard in the elevator…could it have been? Ridley?

"Was it you who spoke to me on the elevator, Ridley?" Samus asked. Ridley looked puzzled.

"What on Zebes are you blabbing about?" Ridley asked. Samus forgot about her question, and thought more about her decision. She thought about accepting, in fact, she knew she was going to say it. But the only words that escaped her lips were "No."

"Pardon?" Ridley asked. Samus continued.

"I-I don't n-need your h-help to survive in th-this galaxy…" she said. She was confused now. She knew she was going to accept the offer, but for some reason or another, she was denying it. All of a sudden, she felt herself run out of the room into the elevator room. Ridley's eyes narrowed.

"She doesn't mean what she says," he said. "Either she is afraid, or something is making her like this."

"It's the computer, sir," Weavel said. "This 'Adam' character is making her do all of this. I found no irregularities in her brainwave patterns, sir."

"Very well, then," Ridley replied. "Phantoon, shut her system down for a moment so we can make her a new one."

Phantoon appeared in the room.

"Sure thing," he replied.

"Screw this," Sylux said, standing up. "I'm going to kill her!" Sylux ran out the room into the elevator room. After a quick glance of Sylux running out, Ridley sighed.

"Him too," he said.

"Got it," Phantoon replied.