Chapter 10: Samus Aran-Life is cruel.

A/N: Zenorac was kind enough to return the favor and wrote the majority of this chapter. Hats off to you Zen!

A/N pt2: We re-wrote the ending to this chapter as I, Overlord Zenorac, decided to as it seemed a bit iffy to me. I hope you enjoy it more than the original. Arigato

Previously: After being asked from NuPlan (a genetics company) and an Alice Unit (an android with near sentience) both Samus and Crecy went to save more Alice units and to capture Mr Raleigh (a slave trader). However, after they landed and Samus managed to get inside Mr Raleighs freighter thanks Adam (Samus' ship AI) who, with Crecy, hacked into the freighter. However, the ship took off whenever Samus was being surrounded by guards, both because of Samus ordering Adam to leave her behind if she didn't come back in 20 minutes and a virus took that over the ship. After Crecy managed to get rid of the virus, the virus entered her, however she was saved by the NuPlan doctors. After a few hours Samus returned, severely burned and beaten, with the Alice units, before being put into a healing tube.

'You can stop fighting, you can finally finish saving the universe...others will do it for you..' Samus thought as she felt her body weakening, before being drenched in a warm liquid. 'No, you must fight...for the universe, for Adam...For Crecy' she thought as the liquid careened up her body. before finally covering her head.

The doctors looked on as Samus was lowered into the growth tank, before then pressing the needed buttons to begin the process of healing. The liquid would accelerate and even exceed the body's usual healing abilities and regenerate the dead skin and speed up blood creation.

As the laborious task of consciousness left the bounty hunter she dreamt away of times gone by...

"Hello, I'm Samus Aran, 3 years old," A small, unremarkable, blond female child said. However the being it was talking to was quite remarkable, being that it was a chozo, quite an old looking chozo to be precise."Want to be my friend?" Samus asked, smiling as her eye seemed to dazzle from the hovering sun. "I am called old bird, but you may call me Tori Oji-chan if you like," The chozo replied, it's beak curving slightly imitating the smile., "And yes, I would be delighted."

"Why're you here?" The inquisitive Samus asked, looking and following as the giant blue bird began to move. The bird looked down at her, still retaining that beak-y smile, "I am here with some others trying to get Afloraltite," he said, his smile lowering slightly. "Why's that choji ogy-dan?" Samus asked, eliciting a small chuckle from the chozo, "It's just a mineral we'd like," he said, hoping to get off that topic. "Samus, you're quite unusual," He began as he stopped, the small girl stopping beside him, "Usually, the human children are afraid by our appearance, yet you're not," Tori said, more or less asking her why she wasn't afraid.

Samus just grinned before saying, "Because, you ain't scary, you look kinda funny with a beard and you have hairy eyebrooows," she giggled, as she pointed as the Chozo's small wispy beard. Tori raised his eyebrow, "Oh," he said his smile growing slightly, "Well, thank you."

"Samus?!" A female voice yelled out, catching the two by surprise, "It's mommy," Samus said with a smile, "Sorry, Grandpa, I've got to go home," she told Old Bird, before then turning and skipping back away to home.

Samus saw a huge freighter descend from the sky like a heavenly host before touching the ground. However, everyone around her were yelling loudly and panickedly, "SPACE PIRATES!" as the small girl walked closer to the ship, 'Whats a space pirate?' Samus thought as she saw a door on the ship open before a ramp came out and lowered itself to the ground.

A large shadow fell upon her as she saw something leave the space craft. The shadow was very big with lanky limbs and 2 giant wings. The being that Samus now classified as a 'Draggy-waggy'. The little girl just smiled as the dragon walked down, followed by a number of big bug like creatures. The dragon stood in front of her as the group of minions stood on either side of him.

It was at this time that Samus' mother noticed that her daughter was missing and went out to look for her.

"Can I be your friend?" Samus asked the huge dragon, before putting her hand out to him. The minions began to laugh loudly as they saw the dragon roar out in anger and embarrassment. Samus' mother finally found her daughter and ran for her, "Samus!" she yelled, seeing that the space pirates surrounded her little girl.

The little girl saw a pretty flame appear in the Dragons mouth. It felt really warm. She turned to see her mother behind her."Hey mommy, this is my frie-" she began, before her mother jumped on top of Samus covering her body as Ridley's flames cascaded down on top of her mother. Both the rancid smell of burning flesh and the severe temperature made the little girl lose what consciousness she had left.

"Grandpa, you summoned me," The 14 year old, chozo suited, Samus said as she kneeled down to her foster father after 'It' happened. "Samus," Old bird began as he walked over and gently touched her left big, spherical metal shoulder, "the council needs you to go out to the Celloian Valley and destroy the Badger Grove plants that are their." he said, smiling gently down at her. Samus rose up and nodded before then asking with a small tilt of her helmet covered head, "I will do it but, can I ask why?"

Her 'Grandpa' nodded as he turned around and sat on a small, but comfortable, cushion. "Samus, the Badger Groves are poisoning and corrupting the land, making other lifeforms follow the space pirates," He stated, knowing that the super suit would protect her from the poisonous pollen. An angry frown appeared across her helmet covered face, "I will return, after I've done it," she stated, her voice staying it neutral tone, as to not show her emotions.

After a few hours of walking, Samus arrived at the Celloian Valley and saw the entire expanse of land covered in the violet coloured plant. Samus also noticed the 30 odd butterfly looking creatures known as the Ion-Faeria, who were flying above the ground. Samus then began to eradicate the vast amount of flowers by using her hand-cannon. However, whenever she was a quarter of the way through it a small group of around 5 Ion-Faeria flew closer to her, before abruptly slamming themselves into her, making the armored 14 year old girl stumble slightly from the force.

"What?" she asked out loud as the group went to hit her again, however she jumped out of the way before the could attack her. 'They must be corrupted by the plants...' Samus deduced, due to the usual docile nature of the butterfly like creatures. Her face saddened as she knew that she would have to kill them. Samus then ran forwards grabbing one of them by the tail, easily outrunning the group. She then put the butterfly to ground, 'shh-ing' slightly as her hand went to the creatures head, "It's okay...It's okay...You're going to a better place," she whispered to it, before quickly twisting her hand and breaking the poor creatures neck.

She repeated this process another 4 times, each time saying comforting words as her voice trembled after having to kill such innocent and beautiful beings. She took a deep breath before returning to her job, hoping that she could kill the rest of these plants, so that the rest of the Ion-Faeria wouldn't get infected.

However, as murphy law states 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' Every single Ion-Faeria had been infected. Several hours later a depressed Samus returned to the chozo base. She walked past chozo after chozo, ignoring everything as she only wanted to tell Grandpa the mission was done and then go to bed.

Old Bird sat where he was originally as the armor suited hybrid kneeled before him, "I have finished the mission, Grandpa," she said, her voice having trace amounts of sadness and exasperation. "Samus, are you okay?" the chozo asked, his tallon-like-hand going to her cylindrical shoulder and gently holding it, trying to comfort her. "No...I had to kill all the Ion-Faeria in that valley," Samus replied, her voice cracking as she suddenly found the brick-layered floor to be very interesting. "I saw what you did Samus…" The Chozo began, making Samus tense under her suit.'He's not going to make me kill more Ion-Faeria is he?" the soon to be hunter thought in dread. "...and we are very proud of you for showing such sympathy for them."

A now 20 year old Samus received a distress call from Zebes, the planet that she was raised on since she was 3. 'I hope grandpa's okay' she thought, as her helmet like spacecraft landed on the surface near one of the bases. She then exited her ship, taking care to scan around so that she wouldn't be ambushed, before walking forwards towards the door to the entrance.

The Armor clad hunter shot a weak shot from her hand cannon which then disintegrated into nothingness. 'How peculiar...usually those door's just slide open when I hit them,' Samus thought as she walked into the base. What she discovered almost made her vomit inside her suit. The floors were littered with mutilated and disfigured corpses of chozo. However, she recognised a few of them as chozo's from her time on that planet.

'That's Golden Hawk and that's Silver Falcon,' Samus thought as she inspected some of the more recognisable dead. She stopped as she came across the one body she hoped never to see. In front of her sat Old Bird with a huge hole taken out of his abdomen. She fell to her knees before him, this time hugging him with all her might, "Grandpa…." she murmured as small tears began to trickle down her cheeks and onto her chin. "..I love you and…" Samus began before letting go and standing up, "...I will kill every one of those fucking space pirates!" she yelled, anger seething through her as she ran down into the rest of the base, seeing that it was swarming with pirates.

The hunter just growled lowly as she got all of their attention, "You're all going. To. Die."

She couldn't do anything...She couldn't do anything at all. Samus looked through the glass of the door as she saw Adam press down on the ejector button. Adam just turned to her, as the Metroid began to surround him, and smiled at her and mouthed, 'Goodbye Mistress..'

"No…" Samus mumbled out as sector zero detached and flew off a few kilometers from the ship before exploding. She fell down onto her knees, "Adam…" she muttered, before forcing back tears, "No, I still have a mission to do," she stated to herself, before standing up. She turned away and took one glance back, "I wish I told you how I felt…" she murmured before walking onwards.

.'My baby...' was all Samus could think when she saw that the now bipedal Mother Brain hadn't killed her. She saw her baby, the giant metroid that she had saved and had given to get raised, had saved her life. It distracted Mother Brain by smashing into it and even healed up Samus. The armor clad hybrid, could only smile as she saw her baby rescue her. She felt guilty though that she had abandoned the metroid to it's fate by giving it to the galactic federation.

She heard a scream. It wasn't a human scream or Mother Brain's scream. It was her baby's scream. She looked up as she saw the dead metroid fall down onto her, before changing into an energy force just before hitting Samus. She looked up at Mother Brain now, who was also focusing her one eye on Samus. "You killed my baby…" She muttered, as she felt an indescribable power surge through her body. "YOU KILLED MY BABY!" she yelled as she aimed and fired her newly given hyper beam at Mother Brain. She continued to fire and fire and fire even after the last remains of Mother Brain were gone.

However, her sense came back to her when she heard a base alarm ringing, indicating that it was going to blow up soon. Samus took one last look at where her baby would be, before running out of there as fast as she could.

"You really are a pure-bred bounty hunter aren't you?" the spy said as she removed her helmet. Her short hair and flawless skin were as white as marble and she looked up at the hunter in equal parts fear and determination. The spy unconsciously gripped the box at her side closer as she weighed her options.

"Look, I don't have that much on me, but what's in this box is worth a small fortune to the right buyer. If you just get me out of here I'll let you have a copy of the data." She was clearly trying her best not to be afraid, but something new was shining in her face. Hope.

The bounty hunter rose out of her seat, towering over the smaller woman, " Or I could just kill you and take the box from you. So, why should I get you out of here?" Samus replied, her voice remaining monotonous and robotic, so that no one would know the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy from the almost amazonian woman that she was. She knew full well that she wouldn't kill the spy. She had killed hundreds, if not thousands, of beings in her relatively short lifetime and this person in front of her wasn't going to be one of the many she would have to kill in the future. The spy swallowed.

"There's no call for that," she said as she held the box out. "Do what you want with it, and good luck with the code. If you don't get it right on the first try, it won't be worth anything to anyone and those nice men on the station won't be happy that you deleted their navigation charts."

She looked up at Samus with a look of defiance. A worried defiance, but defiance nonetheless.

Samus looked at her, a smile beginning to crown her face as she sat down. She then chuckled, the synthesizer transforming the chuckle into an almost evil one,"Impressive, very impressive." 'She stands in-front of the most famous bounty hunter and tries to be brave...' she thought, as her seat rotated so that she was facing the console, "Now, what is your destination?" the armor clad titan asked. 'Why not? It's not like I have any other missions.'

Samus looked at Crecy with a big blush, "Crecy. I have known you for only a few days but...I have developed strong feelings...for you.." the zero-suit wearing woman said as she put her hands on Crecy's shoulders, "And lifes too short to not just tell you out straight, that I want to be with you now...No matter what," Samus said as she leaned inwards. She puckered her lips slightly as she looked into Crecy's eyes.

However before her lips could meet Crecy's she felt a pair of long, thin fingers wrap themselves around her waist and forcefully pull her backwards. Samus turned to face her attacker and paled slightly as she saw the scarred face of Ridley. "Samus…" it spat out as it lifted her high above Crecy. Crecy herself seem to just disappear into the whiteness that surrounded the group, "Time to wake up," it growled, before the opening it's jaws and charging up it's fire-breath.

Samus just looked down towards where Crecy was, "I'm sorry Crecy.." she murmured, before allowing a few small tears to shed, "I'm so sorry…" Her moment ended abruptly when she felt Ridley finally let out the fire at her.

In the real world, Samus had been sleeping for two days straight and had fully recovered all her wounds. She had been placed into a medical bed beside Crecy, until she would awake.

Crecy's operation to clean out her brain from anything that virus might do to an organic computer-brain was relatively quick and painless, but she was still undergoing bed rest when Samus was brought out. It was a relief to see her back in one piece again, but as the doctors left them to their rest she mused that the hunter still had a lot of healing to fully recover.

Crecy then heard a very emotional whimper coming from from Samus, "I'm sorry Crecy..." She then saw a few beads of liquid fall down from Samus' eyes, all the way down to her chin, "I'm so sorry..."

Crecy was stunned. Even at her lowest point, she had never seen Samus cry. She always had a quiet air of invulnerability around her, and to see the front stripped away like this was just…

She slid out of bed and took a seat next to Samus's. She took her hand and just held it. The new skin from the healing tank was as soft and smooth as velvet.

The hunters eyes then shot open, before she bolted into a sitting position. She was breathing deeply as she felt everything begin to spin, "Where am I?" she asked as her world slowly came to stop. "Crecy?" she asked as she turned her head to face in the spy's direction.

"You took one hell of a beating. You okay now?" Crecy asked.

Samus then did something completely unexpected to Crecy. She embraced the spy in a big hug, tears falling from her eyes like rainfall. She remained silent as she finally allowed herself to weep for all the ghosts of her past: Her parents, Old bird, Baby, Adam...

"Never die Crecy!" the sobbing saviour yelled, her head entrenched in Crecy's shoulder. The stunned spy had no idea what to do, but settled for hugging the much stronger woman back.

"It's okay now," she crooned, trying to imitate Dr. Calloway at her most comforting, "I promise I won't die if you promise not to die either. Okay?"

Samus just nodded into Crecy's shoulder before pulling away and looking up at Crecy "I promise! I can't lose you too!" the hunter cried as she then let go of Crecy. She managed to slow turn her sob into a mere sniffle. "I've lived a nightmare Crecy...With only a few dreams."

"It's okay now. You're safe here." she crooned again, not entirely sure what to do. "You're awake now, the nightmare's over."

Samus lifted her hand up to gently cup Crecy's cheek, "Yeah...I suppose it is," she said giving a faint smile. Crecy blushed slightly at the close contact.

"So, uh, are you feeling any better? I was really worried about you."

"A little tired in the muscles, but it's probably normal after being in that tube for two days," The yawning hunter said, lying back, her hand still on the spy's cheek. "How about you? I remember seeing you when I came in."

"Oh, I was just given some anti-epileptic medicine and induced into REM sleep for a while. I didn't have to have my epidermal layer re-grown. I've actually just been confined to bed rest for the last day and a half or so."

"Why? What happened when I was...Down there?" Samus asked, her face filling with slight concern, as her hand slowly moved from the spy's cheek and down to her shoulder.. She knew full well that Crecy was fine, but she wanted to know what happened.

"Well, the bioroids are safe. They're waiting to go off world to one of the Federation colonies. Some funds have been quietly transferred to your account for your help too. Still no word from Raleigh though." Samus shook her head lightly, gently squeezing her shoulder.

"I meant, what happened to you? You didn't try and hack Raleigh's ship with your mind, did you?"

"No, no...but I did have to interface with your ship to get control of it after an attack virus got hold of it." Crecy said, looking away slightly. "That's what did me in."

Samus pulled Crecy into a comforting hug in silence. The hunter rested her head on the other's shoulder, slowly inhaling the sweet smell that radiated from Crecy's hair. After a few moments Crecy cleared her throat.

"Um, are you sure you're okay? You're being kinda...huggy."

The bounty hunter let out a small content sigh, before letting go of Crecy, a genuine and full smile on her lips. "Yes, I'm fine…" she said laying back before asking, "I don't suppose you discovered where Raleigh went, after I came back I mean?"

"Sorry, we still don't know where he is." Crecy shook her head. Samus was being unusually expressive and she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. "The only lead we've got is a shipment to a weapon depot. We should check it out once you're back on your feet." it's a lead."