Along with the medical supplies I found a small travel pack. I placed much of what I had found in the pack and strapped it to my side. "What kind of first-aid is this, anyway?" Samus asked, tapping the patches I had made over the holes in my exoskeleton.

"That is a piece of chitinite, affixed in place with small rivets," I explained. "I will keep it there until my exoskeleton grows back. It takes a long time, so the patch has to be sturdy, but overall it is a better method than hominid bandages." A little hesitantly, I asked, "Please do not take offense, but how did a species with such easily damaged bodies survive long enough to evolve into a state where they could comprehend and utilize interplanetary travel?"

She tapped the chest of her suit with her knuckles. "Humans have been putting one kind of protection or another on their bodies for about as long as they've been in existence. Fabric to regulate temperature, and metal armor to repel attacks."

"Do you have no creatures with exoskeletons on your planet of origin?"

"Yes we do, or so I'm told. They're not intelligent, but they've been around longer than humans." She motioned toward my medical pack. "You finished? I got a few scratches, but I can fix them if I stop at my ship before we enter the temple."

This proposal drove all thoughts of hominid medicine out of my mind. The Hunter's ship! The Others rarely managed to get a glimpse of it. She had managed to procure some special cloaking technology that we had not yet been able to crack. "Yes, I am finished."

It was a long journey back to the small valley where she kept her ship, but much easier to maneuver now that she had her suit. Once again, we met little resistance on the way. I figured that the Others must be regrouping; I doubted very much now that they would give up so easily. In fact, worry began to slow my steps, as I wondered what the Others might throw into our path this time to stop us. Setbacks only made them more determined to conquer.

"Samus," I said after a good three hours of silence between us, "I do not know much about it, but I remember a journal entry about additional security measures at the crater impact site. It said something about a bio-form being created to guard the site, using new technology. This bio-form was pieced together from the remains of another I. They called it…"

"Meta Ridley. Yes, I know." She stiffened at the name. "I read the same entry." Pausing, she asked, "Is it possible for your kind to resurrect the dead?"

I considered this. "I know little about this initiative, as I played no role in it. But…I understand that bio-form Ridley's brain was preserved, and that a new body was created using cybernetic technology. The Others are very good at that." I motioned toward my leg. "If you were to shoot off my leg, and yet leave me to survive, I could get a new one made out of artificial materials. Our bodies are adapted to accept foreign material quite easily. I would advise that you make every attack a clean kill."

"I'll keep that in mind," was all she said.

We finally reached the Tallon overworld. I didn't notice anything at first, just another plant-covered pile of rocks that had once been a structure of some sort. But then Samus tapped her weapon arm, and a small, sleekly built gunship suddenly appeared before my eyes.

"I'll just be a second," Samus said, jumping lightly to the top of the ship and then disappearing within it. I touched it lightly with one hand, that one gesture strangely more forbidden than all of the other things I had done for the Hunter's benefit. I admired the design, the way the rockets expelled so little fuel that it would not be picked up by our sensors.

"Okay, finished," she said, and appeared at the top of the ship. She laughed at my rapt interest. "You like it?"

"It sounds foolish," I said, "but the Others know even less about your ship than your suit, so it seems more attractive."

"I'd rather they went after the ship, if I'm not in it. I can live without it if I need to." She handed me a missile pack from her stores, then motioned for me to follow her. "C'mon, the temple is just ahead."

As we entered a series of long hallways, her manner changed ever so slightly, in a way that must have been subconscious. She did not stomp as hard on the ground, and walked a little straighter, as if our surroundings somehow commanded more respect than the other places we had been. But there were no turrets or other weapons that would demand caution. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was an important place to the Chozo, and Samus had gained part of her I from them. Of course, I treated areas full of Phazon with respect, but that was also because it was dangerous, not just because it had given me my I.

We entered an open courtyard filled with stone carvings that glowed blue. I remembered this site from images in journal entries and there had been no blue in them before, so Samus must have done something to create this change. As I watched, she held something like a gear in her hands and affixed it to one of the statues. A bright flash nearly blinded me, and the ground began to rumble as if other gears in other carvings were now turning as part of a machine. A great pillar of light rose from the middle of the courtyard, and Samus glanced around excitedly, as if waiting for a door to open.

For my part, I stepped back a few paces. I knew the Others guarded this place and there could be no doubt that a giant pillar of light would be noticed, from quite a long distance. I watched the opening from which we had come, but did not see or hear any of the Others.

For a few minutes nothing happened. Samus turned to speak to me and then suddenly jerked her head in the opposite direction, weapon arm raised. "Did you hear that?"

The gears made a lot of noise. I strained my ears and could hear a faint roar that came from off in the distance - a strange metallic sound, like Samus' digital translation of her human words. It seemed familiar, but I could not place it. She stepped quickly to the edge of the courtyard, which ended in a high cliff, then took several hurried steps back.

"What is it?" I asked, and before I even finished speaking a whirlwind flashed over us, through the air and behind the structure. I was about to ask again when a sudden change in Samus' manner nearly made me turn around and run. It was not fear, or excitement, but rage. Pure, illogical rage, that I could sense through my I.

"Damn you! Why do you still live!" Her words were not directed at me. They were directed at the thing flying above us. In fact, she seemed to have forgotten I was there. The thing swooped down closer and unleashed a blast of fire at the stone carvings, knocking several of them over. Finally I recognized it; it was Ridley.

Now I was unsure of what to do. Here were the two strongest beings with an I that I knew. My I wished to fight with Samus, but it also recoiled in fear of Ridley. Samus had beaten Ridley before, I reasoned, without help from anyone. I decided to stay out of the way unless things started turning bad for her. I hid in the entrance from which we came.

I noticed immediately that Samus behaved strangely in her fight with Ridley, different from any of the other attacks I'd seen. Before, she'd had a calm, almost detached air, dispatching the Others with mechanical precision. Now her movements seemed more frantic, almost like her fight for survival when I had first met her, but she was not in any immediate danger that I could see. She made angry cries when he dodged her shots. She still fought skillfully, but there was a desperation in her movements that had not been there before.

Ridley did not speak, though I knew he could. He had spoken to me as part of a group of the Others when I first came to this planet. Some speech about hard work and glory. Now he had found the Hunter and put all his concentration in attempting to dispose of her. If he saw me, he didn't acknowledge my presence.

Both of their shots found their marks, and after what seemed like a long time Ridley made a shrieking roar of anger. His wings disintegrated before us, made of some kind of energy that Samus must have depleted with her weaponry. He folded their frames, and made a great show of appearing low on energy, his head bowed and tail dragging on the ground. I never believed Samus would fall for such a ruse, but to my surprise she ran right toward him!

He made a bark of triumph and rammed into her so fast that she went flying past me before I even registered his movement. As she scrambled to her feet, he whipped his tail around and struck her again. Each time she attempted to move out of his way, he would ram her before she could get a shot in, then strike her with his tail as he whirled round. As she struggled to rise after the seventh or eighth hit, I attempted to move forward and found I could not. Ridley's cries, his movements, and their promise of death were holding me back.

Ridley strode forward and grabbed Samus with one hand, throwing her against the stone structure. He picked her up again and started bashing her against the rock. I felt an almost physical force pushing me to do something to help her, but what could I do? Her I was stronger than mine, and if she could not defeat Ridley then what could I hope to accomplish?

Still, if she lost, then I certainly would die too. So there was an almost certain chance of death, and a certain chance of death. Since helping Samus would give us both a slight chance at life, I had to think of a way to help somehow. I needed a way to boost her I. What had created her I? How could I strengthen it?

Samus' wrath came from her hatred of the Others. The Others had destroyed her hominid colony. Ridley had led the attack on hominid colony K-2L.

Samus had forbidden me from speaking about K-2L.

Samus' I reacted strongly in her fight with Ridley.

Suddenly I understood.

I stepped forward, all fear gone. "Ridley."

He turned his head to look at me, and stopped bashing Samus against the wall but held her weapon arm tight so that she could not fire on him. "So. The traitor, 8411-B." His voice had a computerized quality to it, his original voice box replaced with a cybernetic one.

"I am no longer 8411-B. I am Dr. B."

"Dr. B, what are you-" Samus began, but Ridley cut her off with a barking laugh.

"So it is true!" he exclaimed. "This one has gained sentience! Well, we can't have that, can we?" He reached for me. "All threats to Our supremacy must be eliminated."

I stepped back. "Then you must also destroy yourself."

His eyes narrowed, in a more humanlike manner than he probably would like to admit. "What?"

I gathered my courage, and laid out my revelation. "You destroyed Samus' hominid familial structure. So when the Chozo gave her weapons, she came for those that had stolen from her. The Federation deems you a threat for your crimes against them. But you have also committed a crime against your own kind."

"Because you created the Hunter."

Ridley's eyes widened at this final pronouncement. "What are you-"

I aimed my missile launcher. "All threats must be eliminated." I fired, once, twice, several times, keeping all my concentration on the place where his pulmonary center would have been, had he been alive.

But I only had ten missiles.

He dropped Samus in his fury and grabbed my weapon arm when I raised it to defend myself. He yanked, hard, and I felt an impossible influx of pain as he ripped the arm right out of its socket, then tossed it over the cliff.

"How dare you, a simple drone, raise any weapon against me?" he demanded. "Now you are as helpless as a fly with its wings pulled from its body. Shall I pull your other limbs? How long do you think your head can survive on its own?"

Suddenly he jerked back as Samus' wave beam stuck him full in the chest. He yowled and cursed, and attempted to strike her, but she held her ground. One knee to the ground, cannon arm supported by her other hand, she pushed Ridley slowly away from both of us as he desperately attempted to attack. As I struggled to control the waves of pain she inched closer and closer to the cliffside, pushing Ridley ever further toward the edge. Finally, with a great push, she heaved him over the side, the wave beam's purple crisscross spanning his body like a spider's web. He fell, shrieking, for a long time down the cliff. He did not return.

Samus watched for a few moments, as if to ensure he was dead. Then she limped over to me. "Dr. B, are you all right?"

I held my hand over the hole in my shoulder. "I will be fine. I can utilize another chitinite patch and then I can go on."

"Go on? I was going to bring you back to the ship, and let you stay there after I healed up."

"I can manage. I wish to see Metroid Prime, remember?"

"Dr. B, you're missing an arm."

I stood. "My kind can fight with a missing limb. I hurt, but I wish to follow you. To make sure there are no more surprises."

"Dr. B." She said nothing for a long while. Then she motioned for me to follow her back to her ship. "We'll both get patched up, and then we'll see this thing through to the end."