Pneumonia

I got lazy… sorry…

I own Metroid, Halo and all their affiliates… (Hears the thunder of a thousand lawyers' footsteps…)

Oh yes. Later on, after this Fic is finished (I refuse to do two at a time) I'll be doing a Naruto one. I have high hopes for it; however I need a way of converting English to Japanese, in case I need to make names or people or jutsus.

Everyone's eyes flicked between Samus and O'Hala. Everyone's that is, apart from a certain supersoldier's, who was currently lying unconscious at the bottom of an empty med-tank.

"And what, exactly, did you mean by that horribly clichéd phase?" Samus was giving O'Hala a death glare.

O'Hala rubbed his face wearily. He then turned and addressed the gathered medical professionals.

"All of you," he pointed to the door, "Get out. I'll personally deal with the 13th, which, might I point out, none of you have realised is still unconscious after feeling what was most likely his first attack of phantom limb syndrome."

As one, every Chozo in the room turned and marched out of the room, almost like a military parade.

As the door closed behind their retreating backs O'Hala he leapt into action, pouncing onto the computer and began rapidly firing commands into the processor. It took the new head Chozo scientist a grant total of roughly three seconds to send his commands, and knowing ever so slightly how much O'Hala despised vagueness, those commands would have been extensive.

It was for his sheer natural talent for efficiency which placed him at the rank of second greatest scientist in Chozo history, under O'Icun, the most brilliant, if ever so slightly odd Chozo who had ever lived.

Samus' seventeen second death glare turned off as she changed targets to the poorly neglected lump of abused flesh which was currently being hoisted by robotic limbs into a bed. The bed looked like a medicine capsule which had been cut in half lengthways. The mechanised medic dropped the patient in the capsule, which then filled up with foam, whose purpose was to regulate body temperature.

IVs went in, readings were taken and stats were checked.

"All stable." O'Hala said, startling Samus out of her observation. After a few more seconds O'Hala fixed her with a glare.

"Why the HELL are you here." Samus was mildly surprised, Chozo almost never swore.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Do not give me that shit! You were not to come back, ever!"

Samus leant forward in what she hoped was an intimidating gesture. "That wasn't decided! I was to come back if it was an emergency"

"This isn't a damned emergency! You wanted a reason to come back and mess up everything I've worked for in the past seven years!" O'Hala was getting more and more agitated, his feathers ruffling and narrowing until he looked like a giant, clawed, beaked enraged echidna.

Samus barked a laugh, "I didn't even know you had been put in position as head of the council. I don't give a shit about you."

O'Hala stood abruptly, his black Chozo robes of office swishing violently around his feet. "You are not supposed to be here!" He began to pace around the room. "You were never meant to be here!"

"What have you been doing for the past seven years? Stewing in your own juices? Chewing over old grudges?"

"Shut up! I never wanted to deal with you again. Life began to return to normal when you left."

Samus stood up as well. "You couldn't bear the fact that O'Icun was a better scientist than you! He was a better Chozo than you! You are inferior to him, always have and always will be."

O'Hala spun around. "You DARE!" He was shaking with rage, his claws clenched and unclenched, and his calculating eyes narrowed.

"This colony wouldn't even exist without me. I created the food, I bred the agriculture we needed to survive, and I even gave you your blood. I was always in his shadow, doing what he asked of me and even took the blame whenever something went wrong. After all, no one would believe that the greatest genius ever born could make mistakes. Every time something he made exploded, or went on a rampage, or spurted out so much radiation that the lead guards melted, I was blamed for it."

A sneer appeared on his, which was hard to do with a beak. "Although that is not a problem anymore now is it, has not been for several years."

O'Hala flowed to the side as Samus' axe kick came down on the spot he had recently vacated.

"I'm sick of your whining!" Despite the bravado Samus knew that in a close range fight she stood no chance. Having no natural weapons put her at an immediate disadvantage. The Chozo body had hollow bones, a remnant of their ancient flying days, which made them light, fast and flexible, as well as highly developed leg and arm muscles.

Of course O'Hala knew this. "Do not start something you have no chance of finishing."

Samus gave him another death glare, which he ignored. O'Hala returned to the console. After frowning at the screen for a few seconds he sighed. "I am going to decode his language. Once I have done that I will wake him up and get all available personnel onto the task of figuring out what to do with your pet. Then I want him, and you, out of here." He looked up at her. "If you delay, for any reason, I will not allow you back here."

As Samus' eyes narrowed with rage, O'Hala looked her straight in the face.

"O'Icun is not in charge anymore. I am. There are few Chozo you can call your friends. The only reason you were accepted was for two reasons. One, O'Icun had adopted you, and two, you were his greatest project, a potential one-female army, nothing more. Now shut up and let me do my job."

Samus struggled to master her temper. Barely succeeding she stomped back over to her chair, flung herself into it and rubbed her face with one hand. "Hurry it up then."

O'Hala ignored her and placed a small metal plate over the eyes of the sleeping man. It was one of O'Icun's most useful and least offensive inventions. The device, which had never been named as far as Samus could remember, was designed to decode languages of creatures when their language was completely unknown. It showed a semiconscious person images, to which, in their passive state, would think the word, which would then be recorded. It sent hundreds of images a second and could effectively translate a language in a few hours.

Once the process had begun O'Hala stalked from the room.

'Finally, peace and quiet.' Samus looked at the ceiling. 'Damn I'm tired.' She looked for a bit longer. Point 5 of a second later she was asleep, going from alertness to thunderous snoring in a humorous way, which almost seemed to make a ding in the air.

Time passed, as it had the habit of doing.

Samus' sleep was plagued by violent, bloody dreams. Formless shapes seemed to flit around an empty dead landscape, never taking corporeal form. The dark purple sky broiled as black clouds raced over head at incredible speeds. The scene blurred, and Samus found herself standing in the main hall of an abandoned space station.

'I was born here…" She didn't know how she knew this, it just seemed obvious to her subconscious mind.

The dome that made up the roof of the structure began to groan. It then buckled, stretched and spit, as if a huge, silent, invisible explosion was taking place in slow motion. All at once the remains of the roof shattered like glass, raining billions of little stars down across the floor. The stars could be seen through a gapping hole, along with a huge water covered planet. A few distant yellow suns and a great red nebula coloured the blackness of space.

Clack, Clack, Clack…

As the glimmering lights fell a figure could be seen striding towards Samus, indistinct between the light and the blackness of space behind it.

Closer and closer, until the last few shards fell.

Samus' eyes widened.

It was her, but it wasn't her. Different suit, different glow, different mask. Different person.

"Doppelganger."

Before Samus stood the only creature to ever be placed in the extreme threat section of her combat library.

'Shit!' She slipped into her combat stance and raised her cannon.

It wasn't there.

Instead the soft skin of a four year old girl pointed at the face of her greatest threat.

'No, no, no, no, NO!' Samus began to scramble backwards, while Dark Samus marched forward at an increasing rate.

With out any warning the march became a run, which then became…

'Shinespark?'

Dark Samus became a blur, roaring through the remaining space separating them in a second.

With a shriek Samus threw her four year old body backwards, covering her face with her arms.

Silence filled the two seconds it took for her to remove her hands from her face.

The scene had once again changed. It was still the space station, but it was complete. There was no hole in the roof, and the central hall of the station was filled with light. There were also people. Not real people, but shadows of people, all going about their daily business. They all ignored the terrified four year old on the floor in the centre of the chamber.

Then it started. Faint shadows came running through walls which bucked ghostly in silent explosions, and yet the main, corporeal wall remained untouched. It was like a holographic projector with a faded lens. Samus knew what these events were. They were a replication of the day she lost her first life.

Shadowy Space Pirates slaughtered phantom civilians by the hundreds. Gore splattered every available surface, heads literally rolled. Samus just watched with a terrified expression, her seasoned soldier's resolve deserting her in the land of dreams. More and more corpses fell and ethereal blood seemed to fill the room.

Soon it was over, all that remained standing were the Space Pirates, towering over the mounds of dead. Samus just watched as they began leaving, filing with military precision out the main exits. All of them, bar one.

A Space Pirate stopped in front of Samus.

Everything else in the background faded to black, leaving only the single Pirate looking down on her.

"Ridley."

A long fingered metal claw reached for her. This time her mother wouldn't throw herself in the way.

'Shiiiit!'

Samus threw herself up off the seat she had been lying in. She then rubbed the sweat from her face, still gasping for breath.

'That damned dream again. I can never remember having it before while in it, and afterwards I always feel like shit, damn.'

She stretched her cramped shoulders, since it's generally quite uncomfortable to sleep in a seat, and looked around for a moment before deciding to head to her dorm for some real sleep.

She walked to the door. She turned around and pointed a finger at the figure sitting on the side of the capsule.

"Don't move until I've had some sleep!"

The figure looked wearily up at her, his long silver bangs shadowing his eyes. He opened his mouth and moaned a few things in what was either his native language or was him trying to vomit up his lungs, she couldn't tell.

"Fine, move, don't give me any sleep for the third day in a row. Inconsiderate bastard..."

The zombie rises from the dead. TADAAAA!!!

Did I make O'Hala villainous enough you rekon? Probably enough.

Oh, Samus is wearing black combat boots, baggy pants and shirt with her zero suit underneath. The Chozo all wear black robes.

Onward! (Hitches a ride with a hippie convoy to escape the marauding lawyers.)