Somewhere in the back of my fuzzy mind, I think I can't feel my left arm. I remember it hurting so very much before, but now I don't feel anything. That made me curious enough to open my eyes and take a look at it. What I saw was just blood, lots of blood, and something burned black where my arm should have been.

My eyes were as big as disks, wanting to look away but my head would not turn. I wanted to scream. To scream and scream and scream and never stop but my throat closed up and all I can do was gasp. Then I remembered. I remembered the fire and the running and the yelling all over the place. Those people that I know who I have never seen cry were crying. Mommy was crying. I was crying.

But mommy told me to be brave. That's what she told me before she locked me in the flotsam box, all dark and alone. I waited for her to come back but there was a big noise then the box shook so bad that it knocked me out. Now I am here. Where am I? There is blood in my eyes and I can't see too clearly.

I know that I'm losing a lot of blood. I remember hearing somewhere that you can lose so much blood that you can faint. And you die if you don't get new blood soon. But I don't really care anymore. If I die, then maybe I'll see daddy. I saw daddy die when one of those aliens with claws jumped on him, spraying blood everywhere.

I heard footsteps coming towards me, so I became very, very still, just in case it's one of those aliens. Maybe if I'm still and quiet, it won't notice me and go away. It came closer, and held out its clawed hand in front of me. But this claw was not like the clamp-claws of those aliens who attacked my home. It was like a human hand with bird-like claws instead of fingernails. It touched my burnt arm gently, so gently that the claws didn't even catch onto my skin.

A bunch of those creatures came into the room and I was very afraid. I was too scared to move, but later, I found out that I couldn't move even if I tried. I couldn't think clearly. All I could think about was how I'm about to faint from blood loss.

I think that those creatures knew this too, because they used a laser to seal up my cut skin and put cooling salve on my arm. With all the pain gone, I suddenly felt very sleepy and closed my eyes.

I felt a clawed hand on my forehead. "You have to keep awake."

I forced my eyelids open and stared into the deep azure eyes of an alien. "You are very weak with lost blood, Hatchling. If you fall asleep, then you might never wake. Do you understand?"

He spoke in very accented Universal, but I still understood it. I gave him the tiniest of nods and he squawked orders to his friends in another language. He turned back to me. "We are going to give you some blood. This might hurt a little, but it will save your life."

Blood? Blood? There is blood everywhere. On the floor, in my eyes, from my daddy. Why do we need any more blood? My mind was growing feverish. I still wanted to sleep, just for a little while.

Someone brought in a container of blood, but it was not red like human blood. Instead, it was a deep purple with swirls of white, almost like ice cream. I would like some ice cream right now. Mommy used to give me some when I got hurt. And I would get hurt on purpose sometimes if I knew a good flavor of ice cream was in the storage.

The alien stroked my cheek softly, trying to make me feel better. A needle was poked into my left arm and it actually didn't hurt at all. The needle was connected to a tube which was connected to the swirly blood. I wonder what kind of blood it is. I closed my eyes.

....................

"SKREEEAAH!!"

Samus nimbly jumped over two laser shots and sought shelter behind an alloy compartment. The compartment immediately became riddled with smoking holes meant for the bounty hunter. But she didn't care. In fact, she was whistling off-key as she unlocked her beam cannon to allow for the launching of missiles. She stepped out from behind her cover and unleashed a single missile, one which found its target in the Space Pirate's abdomen. The Pirate gave a screaming roar and collapsed, not quite dead yet, but should be within the hour. Samus looked down at the Pirate and saw the pain convulsing over every part of its being.

"Ah, so now you know fear." The bounty hunter said conversationally to her victim. She kneeled down and tore the hand off the Pirate's right arm, the only arm which was left, ignoring the creature's screams of agony. The Federation pays handsomely for these Pirate claws. With the amount she had collected so far, her concerns over munitions and ship fuel would no longer be a problem.

Samus had been wandering aimlessly around the Pirate base for a few hours now, collecting their claws and trying to find the purpose of this operation. So far, this base appeared to be small and insignificant. The Pirates inhabiting this asteroid were curiously soft and few. They didn't expect any intruders and were not armed to oppose any. Some of them were ridiculously inexperienced, unsure about how to aim or even use their weapon. It was actually kind of odd. Every other base Samus had visited in the past always crawled with Pirates armed to the teeth and lusting for her blood. What kind of insignificant facility required such low-quality personnel? Or had the Pirates degraded so much since the destruction of Zebes that they couldn't organize a proper base?

Samus entered the next room and suddenly, all her suspicions about this base disappeared. Because standing on guard before her were two Zebesian Pirates and four shadow Pirates, both formidable versions of her most hated foes. One of them sensed her immediately, twisting its head towards her. It growled a warning, then set all the others roaring in defiance. The shadows activated their cloaking device and charged the Hunter, while the more agile Zebesian Pirates leaped onto the walls, providing their comrades with a cover of laser fire shot from inside their vice-grip claws.

Samus hissed in frustration. She hadn't faced shadow Pirates since her days on Tallon IV, when it was easy to dispose of them with the help of the thermal visor. Unfortunately, the fusion suit came with no such equipment. She couldn't see the shadow Pirates at all except when power surges caused their cloaking device to ripple in the air. There's still an easy way to kill them, but Samus was hesitant about using it. After all, a power bomb blows their bodies into such tiny pieces that their claws can't be collected afterwards.

"Agh!" One of the shadows cut a long gash in Samus's suit with a lethal swipe of its scythe blade. The bounty hunter gasped and backed away, arm pressed over her injury even though it was healing rapidly. She jumped to where she hoped no Pirates were standing, and was hit on the shoulder with a laser beam. Another one passed by so close to her helmet that it caused an electronic disturbance.

That's it. To hell with the bounty, Samus was going to make sure these Pirates ended up very, very dead. She curled into a morph ball and dropped one of the devastating power bombs, waiting for the Pirates to come closer. The bomb beeped a few times, flashing in warning, then bathed the entire room in blinding light. The four shadow Pirates nearest to the bomb had just enough time to scream before they became indistinguishable from the product of a meat grinder. The two Zebesian Pirates weren't hit with the full impact of the blast, although one of them fell to the floor, shrieking, with blood pouring from its mouth and eyes.

The other Space Pirate jumped off the wall and stood in front of the door to the next room. It started shooting an endless supply of lasers at Samus, either bravely or foolishly. It seemed desperate to guard whatever was behind that door. The bounty hunter fired an ice beam at it, then shattered the Pirate with one well-placed missile.

Samus wondered what could be so important in the next room. It must contain the main purpose of this facility if it was guarded so well. She activated the hatch with her beam cannon and was about to enter, when the cries of the remaining Zebesian Pirate distracted her. She turned back to it.

Damn. She's getting sloppy. It's not usual for Samus to leave any survivors, especially those of the Space Pirate variety. Oh well. She'll have to put an end to its misery, although she would love nothing more than to prolong it. Other than Ridley and Mother Brain, it was Zebesian Pirates that she hates the most. They were a breed of Pirates created on Zebes soon after their conquest of that planet. They desecrated Zebes's surface, destroying all the native life and mutating what was left. They killed thousands of Chozo, forcing the pitiful few remaining to wander the stars until death. Even their very names, 'Zebesian Pirates', were an insult to the creatures who were actually natives of Zebes.

The power bomb was not close enough to the Pirate to cause any damage to its exoskeleton, but the weaker cartilage between joints were hit with enough force to cause massive internal injuries. Samus kneeled down beside her victim, head cocked in an almost curious manner. The Pirate raised its arm and clamped her head in its pincer claws, trying to squeeze hard enough to crush her skull. She let it try, but it was too weak to even scratch the helmet. She laughed out loud, taunting her victim even more. She pointed her beam cannon at its head.

The Pirate's arm went slack, realizing its helplessness in the face of the bounty hunter. "Please, Hunter." It suddenly pleaded. "Do what you want to me, but please don't go into that room! I beg you!"

Samus raised an eyebrow, surprised that this Pirate had spoken to her in Universal. She thought only Ridley and Mother Brain ever bothered to learn the languages of other species. Furthermore, this Pirate was begging for mercy! They never beg for mercy, considering how they never give any of their own. Curiosity piqued, the bounty hunter lowered her gun but kept alert, just in case this turned out to be some sort of trick.

"Why?" Samus replied. "What could be so important to you that it'd be worth your life? Not that you have long to live."

The Pirate drew back its teeth in hatred. It answered with a question of its own. "Why do you want to kill us, Hunter? We are now just another small, weak species in the galaxy. We haven't done anything to you for years."

"'Why do you want to kill us?'" Samus echoed. She barked out a laugh. "For the bounty, of course!" She stroked her victim's face roughly, making it cringe. Her hand ran down the Pirate's shoulder and arm until it rested on the lobster-like claw. "Your claws are worth their weight in platinum." She said in a soft whisper.

"You lie." The Pirate coughed and gurgled, unable to talk properly with so much blood coming out of its mouth. "You never show any interest in our cargo even though it is worth more than Pirate hands. And you never leave our bases until you have killed as many of us as you can find. So you are not interested in the money. You have another reason for wanting to kill us."

Samus was suddenly enraged beyond description. With one violent jerk, she wrenched her victim's claw free from the wrist, leaving it weeping fluid and tendons. The Pirate wailed.

"You want to know the truth, you piece of shit?" Samus snarled. She threw the claw to the side. "You're right, I was never in it for the money. Ever heard of a little place called K2-L? Well, of course you haven't. It doesn't exist anymore. You Space Pirates wiped it off the face of the universe. That was my home, you fucking bastard. And you destroyed it. You killed my family! You destroyed my life!" The Pirate writhed on the floor, swimming in a pool of its own blood. "Men, women, children, even harmless animals! You killed them all! Only I survived the massacre, an orphan raised by the Chozo. And even they were homeless because you stole Zebes from them!" Samus was screaming by now, years of suppressed rage and hatred making her tremble with every word. "I will kill you all for what you've done to me! There isn't a day that passes that I don't want to tear you creatures apart with my bare hands!!"

Samus stopped, chest heaving with each gasp of breath. The sudden silence after that outburst left her feeling hollow and drained. She didn't know she still harbored so much pent-up emotion within her, even after all those years.

The Pirate was sprawled on the floor, unmoving save for the faint beating of its heart and laboured breathing. It mustered the energy to twist its neck towards the bounty hunter.

"So you will kill my people for killing your people. I can understand that." The Pirate gave her a mocking smile. "You are very much like us."

Samus stared at the Pirate, lips trembling with half-formed words. Unable to stand looking at the creature any longer, she raised her gun and shot it through the neck.