Samus barely bothered giving her all against the pirates. She merely blasted them with beams and missiles and kept on moving onward up the path through the village. Each villager she passed watched her, though with what expression was difficult to discern, considering they were all wearing stylized masks that were apparently based on different animals. She didn't really care what they thought of her though. She had her own concerns.

As she fought past the pirate hordes, she could hear that voice again. Its smooth rasp echoed in her mind, telling her to keep doing what she was doing. Not that she needed someone to tell her to kill Space Pirates of course. She had been doing it for years. It was second nature at this point. But that voice… the more it praised her actions, the more pleased she felt as well. It was strange. She couldn't help but appreciate the voice's understanding of her, whether it was real or not.

She soon made it to the top of the hill that the village was built on, and followed the path further towards a gate as pirates charged at her. She scowled at this and unleashed a barrage of Seeker Missiles at them, destroying several in just one shot. She charged up her Plasma Beam as more sprinted to her position, and then activated her most powerful Missile Combo: her Flamethrower engulfed the force of pirates that had dared to challenge her.

Normally, she would simply leave the scene after using the Flamethrower, but this time, she stayed. She just watched as the pirates burned and screamed in agony as the blaze ate them alive. Some sick part of her actually… enjoyed it. She liked watching them suffer. She shuddered, though whether it was from pleasure or disgust, she couldn't tell. She had never done something quite like this before, just watching as her enemies suffered. Not even with the Pirates.

Once the pirates finally finished screaming, and were all motionless and still burning on the ground, Samus walked past their corpses and through the gate. She could wonder about whys later. She needed to find where the Pirates were coming from and destroy them as soon as possible. Lives were on the line.

What have these people ever done for you? And right on cue, the voice had spoken up. They have never helped you. They are not worth your time. This is not to protect them. This is personal.

That's right. The people of this land never did anything for her. Why should she save them? She had a vendetta to deal with. That's all that matters. It's all that ever mattered.

"I'm going to kill them all," Samus muttered to herself. If she had listened harder, she would've heard the sound of a pleased chuckle come from behind.

-o-

Ridley eyed the metal boat that floated several feet above the frozen lake. It resembled one of the ancient sea-faring vessels that humans would've ridden in their most primitive times, only it floated in the air rather than on the water. It was engraved with many strange markings, each one looking like some sort of creature: there was spider, and eight-headed serpent, a foxlike being, a hooved beast that bore a humanoid torso, an armored figure, and several others.

However, the one that really caught his eye was a circular emblem that appeared to be a hand of some kind holding an orb. That one was unique in the sense that it was blood-red, unlike the others, which were all blue. It fascinated him to almost no end. Why was it a separate color? What did it represent? Thievery? Conquest?

What was on the ship anyway? Treasure of some variety most likely. Or it could've been some kind of prison designed by a race not from this particular planet. Or, better yet, it stored a weapons cache. He grinned at this idea. Anything that could advance the Pirates' military prowess would be well received by High Command. Perhaps he may even be promoted for acquiring this ship's contents as well as the head of Hunter Samus Aran.

"Ridley," said a familiar, female voice. And right on schedule, too. The dragon turned to face the armored woman, who already had her Arm Cannon trained on him. "I should've known you'd be here, you snake. You're always where I least want you to be."

Ridley chuckled at this. "What sort of pirate would I be if I didn't stand against someone who's made countless attempts on my life?" he asked as though he were the victim rather than a murderer. Samus sneered at his tone, at the mere sound of his guttural voice. The true target of all her hatred was standing right in front of her yet again, almost as if fate just loved mocking her. His sickly yellow, villainous eyes held that same twisted look as when they had first met all those years ago. His eyes never changed. Always twisted. Always evil. Always despicable.

He needed to die.

"I'm going to kill you now, Ridley," Samus announced with spite in her tone. The voice in her head lauded her words and intentions. She was glad that it was pleased.

The dragon grinned at her statement, his long tail swishing behind him, both actions betraying his eagerness to do battle with his only true nemesis. "Then let's not delay any longer, Aran!" Without warning, he charged at the bounty hunter, who just as quickly unleashed a volley of Power Beam shots aimed at the dragon's head as she leaped away to the side. Ridley managed to move his head away from the bolts just before they could land, his mouth already glowing a searing red-orange.

Samus instinctively used her Space Jump thrusters in conjunction with her Speed Booster, launching herself hundreds of feet into the air to avoid the fire bomb that had launched out from Ridley's mouth. The pirate commander met her in the air as she was falling back to the ground, grabbing her by her leg and spinning rapidly, only releasing her to toss her back to the snowy earth with a painfully loud crash. He released another breath of flame at the hunter, who was too stunned to evade the attack. The flames enveloped her body, eating away at her suit's shields.

Pathetic, the voice muttered with clear disappointment. You are letting him win. Are you that weak?

She scowled at that question. "I'm not weak," she said as her Energy Tanks dropped to half. "I'm not weak…" She moved to stand up, ignoring the force of the flames attempting to push her back down. "I… am not…" She looked straight up, directly into the source of the inferno. "WEAK!"

Ridley could never have expected what happened next. Never in a thousand lifetimes would he have guessed that it was possible. But it happened. Samus Aran flew straight up, right into his abdomen with enough force to stop him from breathing fire and force him to cough out blood. She hadn't used any of her suit's functions from what he could see. She simply jumped into him.

Samus took hold of the dragon's neck, squeezing brutally, and tossed him down to earth. When he crashed into the same crater that she had been in not ten seconds ago, she looked at herself. The first thing she noticed was that she was floating. None of her suit's upgrades were being utilized. She was legitimately defying gravity. She soon also noticed a bizarre, smoky aura was oozing off of her armor. She had her suit's on-board compute run a medical diagnostic of her body. Everything had been enhanced; the diagnostic showed a dramatic increase in her physical strength, and an automatic simulation had demonstrated that was also faster. But how? What was this power? It felt… incredible. It was like she had achieved nirvana in less than an instant.

This is power, the voice explained. Embrace your vengeance. Wreak havoc upon all those who wronged you in the past. None of them deserves mercy. Samus thought on that for several seconds… and grinned. A chance to avenge all the wrongs committed against her? An opportunity to slaughter every Space Pirate in existence? It was simply perfect.

But why should she stop with the Pirates? The Federation had used her numerous times. They disregarded the warnings given by the Chozo and herself and attempted to reproduce Metroids as weapons. And when she destroyed them, the Federation had tried to deny the whole thing. Then the X-Parasites came along. After she had dealt with that, she was branded a traitor and forced into becoming a fugitive. They would all pay dearly for it.

They will all burn and die before her. And she'll stand there laughing as they pleaded mercy. Yes. That sounded like fun. Revenge was her mission now. And she'll more than gladly see it through.