Chapter 9
The halls were quiet, the faint hum of the background engines still going strong. Dark Samus walked slowly among the many lights and protrusions of the infinite walls, wondering what would become of her. How long would it be before the Leviathan finished, and the large blue planet was consumed? How long before she would be granted her new home? How would she even return to the blue world? There was simply no way to tell. Regardless, eventually she would have to leave this place, leave this ship, leave the gas giant it orbited, leave the man controlling it all…
Suddenly, she stopped. A dull, anxious ache throbbed inside of her. She held a hand to her chest, trying to understand what she was feeling. She had experienced this once before; but she could not remember when… Was the thought of leaving Kelly causing this strange unrest in her? The more she thought about him, the more she longed for his presence. She began to feel an odd swelling sensation in her chest, one of excitement, one of yearning.
What are these strange, alien feelings? She thought, I am certain that they were not part of me, originally…where did they come from?
She scoured the deepest depths of her memory, hoping to find an answer. The images in her head were distant, but constant. She recalled her first encounter with Kelly, her heartless trickery, her cold love charade, gaining the boy's trust and then using it against him. She then remembered what she had felt the moment she knew he had been taken from her; anguish, absolute anguish. It was the first time she had experienced such a disconcerting emotion; an emotion that, up until that point, had never been attributed to a metroid. It begged the question: how? How was this all possible? She shouldn't have been able to feel these things, but, nevertheless, the many sensations endured. She struggled to understand this troubling mental state; prior to her first contact with the young man, she had never felt anything like it…
Suddenly it hit her; it was him. It was all him. It was the only explanation that made sense. Her past exposure to the human had taught her to feel, or to at least simulate it. She then thought about Kelly, and how over the course of time, she had watched as he had slowly begun to adopt a frighteningly sadistic personality…her personality.
Dark Samus sat down on the cold metal floor, clutching her head. This was all too much, it was overwhelming. Because of him, she had learned to perceive the universe through emotional means, and because of her…he became a beast, a monster, an abomination. Thin turquoise tears streamed down her angelic face as she succumbed to reality: she was truly evil. So much was clear now; Kelly's antagonistic attitude towards her, the accusation of her being a cold-blooded parasite…it was all true. She hung her head between her legs, silently weeping. This was not what she wanted to be. Was this really how people remembered her? Why hadn't she seen it before? As she sat, shivering, she began wondering if there was any way to redeem herself. She had done many horrible things…so, so many horrible things, but she wasn't about to let her past interfere with the present.
She wiped the phazon tears from her face, slowly regaining her composure.
What must I do? She thought, how do I face those who I have done wrong?
Only one word came to mind…
Love.
The Dark Hunter sat up, addled by her own reasoning. Where had that thought come from? It was certainly not like her to solve problems with emotions and feelings… Typically, any issues she met in life were resolved with a powerful phazon blast, usually resulting in the death of said 'issue'. This time, however, was quite different. For the first time in her existence, she was the problem.
I can fix this.
She languidly lifted herself from the icy floor, continuing her walk down the long corridor, following the many signs and labels to the captain's quarters.
