She stood there, looking at the main screen as they all watched five lightly armored men and women head into the engine drive. It was a standard operation, and one that even a ship serving as an academy training ground was equipped to handle. A thermal oscillation unit was something a cadet team could handle on their own, and they definitely had been trained for it.

"All crew and passengers clear, Captain Malkovich. We're heading into the main engine."

"Acknowledged." From his position on the bridge, standing next to the Fleet Captain Eisen, was Adam Malkovich, overseeing the Army cadets and their training. "Specialist Farns, our cadets are in your hands. Make sure they get a good work through."

Everything was fine, just as planned. And then Farns went into the main oscillator with Ian right behind her. Opening the manual shut off so that the engines would cool, allowing a safe tow for further repairs.

And the alarms went off. A cry like banshees as the bridge of the Vixiv was consumed in confusion, panic. And at the center of it, she felt her heart tear out as on the main screen, still displaying the video feed from the oscillation unit of the Lusitania, Ian and Specialist Farns were trying to figure out what was going wrong.

"Sir, main engine drive is overheating!"

"Second team reports that engineering station is not responding!"

She turned to Adam, her eyes wide with horror as he just stood there. Why wasn't he doing anything? "Adam, I can get them out! Let me go!"

No answer. It was like he hadn't heard her. "Adam! That's your little brother! Let me save him!"

He didn't even flinch. "Seal off the drive unit and prepare to disengage it from the Lusitania."

"I can save him!" She stood there, fully clad in her powered suit. She could tear through the drive unit and get at least Ian and Farns out. More alerts were screeching as she readied to push her way through the ship, but she was the only one who showed any concern. Even Captain Eisen was just standing there. What was wrong with everyone? "Why won't any of you do something?!"

"Why didn't you?

Her heart stopped. Everything around her seemed to freeze in time, except that voice she knew far too well. With baited breath, she turned to see Ian standing there. His containment suit was blasted open, scorched from the explosion she knew had claimed his life. His face was slowly burning from the small licking flames that were peeling his skin away. And his eyes were empty even as they were turning bloodshot from the heat that consumed him.

"Why didn't you save me, Samus?" His words were like a knife into her heart. "My brother was just doing his job…but why couldn't you save me? You said you loved me, why didn't you save me?!"

The screaming alarms continued, but she could only stare as Ian was consumed in flames, his words twisting in her heart as she couldn't move or breath. She tried to speak, but found only silence in her throat.

"Why couldn't you save us?!"

And she finally turned to see a woman behind her, red-touched blonde hair alit as the plains burned around them, her own skin cracked and blackened by flames. She reached out to the armored girl, causing plates of her suit to start disintegrating into embers and ash wherever she touched.

"Why did we have to die, Samus? Why did we all have to die?"

And then she heard that horrific high-pitched laugh as the glowing red eyes appeared from fires.

She gasped as she shot up, her throat raw as she panted heavily. Her hand came up to her chest, making sure that her skin was intact; sweaty, but no burns. An instant later, her hand reached to her eye; there was the burning sensation of a fresh wound, but her scar was just as healed as always. After a moment, Samus realized she could hear noise from outside. She was in her room, in Maru's nest. And the fact her throat was raw meant that she'd been screaming in her sleep. Which meant that the sounds outside were Maru, checking on her.

She had woke him up. Again.

"Varia, are you alright?"

Her Chozo name. It was becoming more frequently used, and it was hard to deny the comfort it gave her to hear it. Samus took a breath, reached over to the carved nightstand and grabbed her shirt. A moment later, having pulled it on, the girl tried to settle her nerves. "You can come in now."

A soft hiss accompanied the door as it slid open to reveal Maru standing there, holding a small night-lamp as he was dressed in a simple over robe. "This is the third night this week," he whispered as he walked over to her bedside. The Chozo settled himself after a moment of making sure he had a clear spot, and then set his night-lamp on the small table by her bed. "I can make you some k'mal tea to help your nerves."

Leaning forward now as she lifted her knees up so she could rest her head, the human girl gave a nod. She was definitely feeling the effects of abandoning her medications from the academy, though many of the problems they had caused were worth the consequences of dropping them. The Chozo thankfully had many plant based counterparts that served the needs, but even so, when the nightmares came, nothing could stop them.

As he rubbed her shoulder before leaving to make the tea, Maru gave a concerned sigh. These episodes had become more frequent since Samus had returned compared to their frequency before she had gone back to Terran space. Despite their discussions about her life with her own species, Maru knew she had not told him something important about what happened to her. Something that happened with her time in the Confederation had made her nightmares worse.

And his instinct as a father told him that it was the boy who had been her friend and confidant before the accident. No one let just a friend affect them this much. They had either become like family...or she was refusing to tell him how close they had really been and what had gone on. Which didn't take a father, adopted or not, long to figure out what that was.

A steaming pot of root tea was ready soon enough as Maru gathered his thoughts. A cup for him and Samus each was prepared before he made his way back toward Samus bedroom. She was still there, trying to calm herself. "An extra concentrate to help with your anxiety, little Hatchling."

As she lifted her head from her knees, Samus nodded her thanks while accepting the steaming cup. A few sips as it still cooled, but her throat was already calming and feeling less raw. Her nerves and anxiety would take some time, but Samus always had been able to rely on Maru's care before. She also ended up with far less nausea and vomiting than with the medications the academy had forced her to take.

"The nightmares again?"

She nodded as she sipped her tea. Maru took a drink from his own cup, having to pour a bit into the front part of his beak since the tips were hard. "They were...a bit different this time. I still don't remember what happened really beyond all the fire, and that laugh." Samus stopped as she realized she was shaking again. She'd come to recognize that really anything that made her think about the events of K-2L started these reactions. She did not want to remember.

And Maru was all too aware of it as well. "Don't force it. When such things are forgotten, it is the only way the mind is able to heal." He gave her a soft smile, drinking some more of his own tea, and setting the cup on her nightstand. "But this was indeed different, Varia. You said your friend's name, the one you were assigned with at the Academy." He kept an eye trained on her for reaction. If he pushed wrong, she was likely to go into a state where she would lock him out.

"Did Mother Brain read more of my journals behind my back again?" The tone was half joking, but they both knew that the super computer intelligence was not above such behavior.

"No, a father knows when his daughter isn't being completely honest about the relationships she had with others." Maru sighed as he rubbed his temples. He'd thought they were past this, but it seemed that human adolescents were indeed of a disposition toward keeping their secrets as a rule. "A simple friend, Varia, would not have made you abandon your learning and your place in human society as this boy's death did, nor would it have disturbed you enough to make these new nightmares plague you as they have."

She was silent. Not out of shame or dishonesty, but because she had wanted some privacy to this matter. And she knew what was coming even before Maru asked the dreaded question.

"What was your real relationship with Ian when he died, child?"

A deep breath. Another sip of her tea to help her nerves and to settle her stomach, because her anxiety was causing a wave of nausea that threatened to make her throw up. After she felt less nauseous, Samus set her cup on the carved stone nightstand and took one more deep breath.

"If you were anyone else asking me that, I'd tell you to go to Hell." Her eyes were filled with pain, tears coming down her cheeks. "But because you're my father, the one person on this rock that actually cares about me, and I know you're only asking because you want to help, not to shame me or pry into my life, I will tell you."

"You loved him."

Silence followed those words. When Samus did not respond, Maru only gave a soft, pained and understanding smile. "Varia, despite what the elders have claimed, we Chozo know the aches of the heart all too well. We have two of them, after all." When she looked at him, her eyes revealing all he suspected, Maru reached out and held her shoulder to pull her close for a hug. "There is no shame in admitting this to me. My regret is that the boy was lost far before his time, and that I did not have chance to meet him."

"After he got back from his yearly basic training and the academic year started, he did take me on that dinner he promised." She was finally speaking, her eyes still bloodshot, but calming at least. Samus breathed in deep as she wiped her face off, clearing away the tears. "Ian found out about the medications they put me on, about how I broke Elsa Winters' arm, and...he frankly didn't give a shit."

"His words?" The Chozo gave a smile and a raised brow at Samus' choice of words. She wasn't often one for resorting to such human expressions, though since she had returned to Zebes, her attitudes were more reminding of her biological species than those of the race she'd been raised by.

It was enough to make the girl laugh, even if it was strained. "Yeah," she replied, nodding despite herself. "Yeah, those were his words. I, uh, learned quite a bit of non-standard English from him...and some of my instructors at the academy."

That feathered brow arced, though quite amused by the girl's explanations. "Your command of the more colorful vernacular seems to extend beyond our tongue's own, it seems. Please, tell me more about Ian. Perhaps it might help you get through this."

Normally, that would be the last thing she wanted to think about. But Maru was right; her nightmares had gotten worse ever since Ian's death, and the fact she refused to confront it no doubt had to do with it. "Only because you're not Mother Brain. And the fact that, I know you would have liked him." Samus took the chance to pick her cup up again and sip at her tea. It was cooling, but still warm enough to help her. "Um, so...he was a bit older than me, about a year or so. His older brother, Adam, is about twelve years older than Ian was."

"So Ian and Adam were familiar with your birth-father, as I recall you telling me." Maru took the chance to reclaim his own cooling cup. It wasn't often they had a chance to just sit and talk like this, the way a parent and child should be able to. "And they had concluded where you had been raised on their own deductions."

Again, that nod. Samus found that she was feeling a little better talking about this more than she had the last time her time at the Confederation military academy had been discussed. "Adam's been very curious about precursor cultures like the Chozo, so he had done a research paper on them during college, and Ian followed suit for his academy entrance essay. They knew enough to recognize Chozia song speak when I had that slip I told you about."

"That would be my doing." Another gulp of his tea to finish it off, and Maru set the cup down on the nightstand once more. He gave a soft smile and a shrug. "I had more direct interaction with the Federation at large, and humans in particular, before the Kromus War, so there are some who I gave lessons to in Chozia song speak." His tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth as he reminisced himself on his own past. "That, Varia, is actually how I met your birth-father, just before the war."

This intrigued her as she decided to gulp down her remaining tea and set her cup aside. "So you actually knew him, before the war and the colony?" Samus could feel the edge of her curiosity overcoming her usual anxiety at even thinking about the events of K-2L. It was a welcome reprieve. "You have mentioned before that there were some humans you considered friends."

"John Aran was most certainly the closest of those." Maru sighed as he adjusted himself and his seating posture. It seems they both had much to tell the other, and Samus' story could wait a bit for now. "We kept in touch when I was able in my duties as liaison between the Brood and the Federation, but after the War...obviously contact became harder."

He winced as he could feel the pain in his damaged left leg. Maru took a moment to adjust himself so that his legs could stretch, hopefully letting the muscles relax. The tightening sensation told him otherwise as his nerves felt like they were being raked with knives. "Forgive the distraction." Another wince as he attempted adjusting again. "Twenty-five years have not been enough, it seems, for this to end the troubles it causes me."

Finishing her own tea, Samus looked to her adopted father in confusion. This was the first she had heard Maru talk about his injuries, let alone how he'd known her biological parents. "How did you hurt your leg? Gray Voice said once that it was the price of your impatience."

"And of associating too much with immature species such as the Terrans." A gruff chuffing was his expression of how he regarded such a sentiment. "I admit, he has always been quite critical of me more than most, especially after my mother passed from this plane while I was a hatchling." It seemed he was contemplating something for a moment, but then shook his head softly. "I met your father just before the war broke out to its worst point. He had enlisted to...counterbalance his higher-schooling, I believe was the phrase."

That expression, she better understood. "Pay off college, you mean." Samus smiled faintly as she settled in her bed a bit. It was a nice change to hear about her biological father as a person, after three years of having the military legend held over her. "It's when you go into military service so that they cover your education costs. Adam told me that's how he started after his accelerated courses, by enlisting for a commission as an officer after he finished school. Ian was able to get a sponsor for enrolling in the academy, so he didn't end up going that same route."

A nod, now that he understood better the phrase he'd been seeking to use. "Yes. We met during the official swearing in of Chairman Vogl, before the Kromus War broke out. Your father was on detail assignment for one of the attending Confederation Admirals, I believe it was Castor Dane."

That sounded about right. That would have been before Dane's family had been killed by the Kromus as well. Dane had told her some of the stories about her father from before the war; typical rising star, fresh faced and optimistic junior officer minted in peace time looking to do his term of service and move on to civilian life, like so many had.

"Gray Voice was the head of our ensemble, while I was given liaison duties." Now that familiar spark of mischief gleamed in his amber pools. "Truth be told, I wasn't much for just sitting around to wait for orders, so I decided to mingle with other junior staff, and came across your father. That was when I recognized his family name as being that of the exploration pilot who made first contact between our kind and the Terrans."

That sounded a bit familiar from her lessons on Terran history, both on Zebes as a child and in the academy. "Alexis Aran...right? I remember reading a bit about her, but I didn't think that she was directly related to me."

"I don't believe she was." Maru gave a perplexed expression as he scratched the back of his head, ruffling his feathers to get at an itch. "Your family name isn't that common, to my knowledge, but I would imagine she may have simply been some distant cousin." A shrug as he pulled out a rather gnarled feather that was the clear source of his itch. "Better. As I said, his name caught my eye, and we began talking. Your father was surprised I had a well trained grasp of Terran English, and since I had always been more curious about the Terrans, we struck up a friendship that grew over the years from there."

She had a warm smile on her face as she lay back down, pulling her sheets over her. Maru had never talked much about how he'd known her biological father in the past, so to hear him open up so much, to know that they had been friends in the years before she was born, made his assumption of her care more endearing to her. "Why don't you ever talk about him?" When he blinked at her, Samus gave that wordless chirp that had become her little quirk. "My birth-father, you don't really talk much about him, beyond just telling me who he was. Is it because I've always seen you as my father?"

The Chozo sighed. He'd long expected this talk for years, and despite that, he'd also dreaded it for just as long. There was no easy answer. "Samus, understand. I never wished to diminish who your birth-father was, to me as a friend, and to you as his daughter. He was a great man, both as a soldier in a war, and as a person. So yes, because you've always regarded me as your father, it's been hard to speak further about him."

Again, he paused, trying to find the right way to explain it. But it was difficult, because the concept was across the cultures of his species and that of Samus' own birth race. "I'm only aware of this as a matter of learning, since by the time I was born, there were no other hatchlings left. But in times past, when a Chozo hatchling lost their parents at such young ages like you were, or something happened to their parents before they hatched, the Chozo who winged them was to be considered their true parent, and outside of birth lineage, their birth-parents were not often spoken of, out of respect for them as the departed, and in respect for those Chozo who had taken on their burdens as parent." That pause again as he took a breath and ruffled his feathers, the bright orange and yellow patterns fluffing out for a moment. "It is sometimes a conflict of our culture with that I have assimilated from the Terrans, but I never meant to ignore your birth-parents and the role they held in your life. If you feel now that perhaps I was wrong, please forgive me, Varia."

Her head cocked in that peculiar fashion that Maru knew her body had adapted from the Chozo mannerisms. It told him that she held no ill will, but was more curious than anything. And seeing it warmed his twin hearts as it always had. "I know he loved me, I remember that much. Him and my mom...those feelings are what little I can remember." Samus gave a sigh as she sat up again, but now leaning against the head padding she used as a pillow. "The fact that they both died, I assume saving me, says that they would have wanted me happy. And they had no choice in not being here for me, while you have been. So, yeah, you are my father, just as much as he was. None of you is any less important to me." And then she smiled and rolled her eyes a bit in attempt to keep the mood from becoming dour. "Even if he got held over my head at the academy...and most of the guys who grew up with him as their hero all had dick envy."

Now Maru found his brow arcing in surprise. Samus had not been one to use such colorful figures of speech from the Terran vernacular in her past. That she would so now was telling of what she had assimilated as a cadet on Sol-3. "And what, pray tell, do you mean by 'dick envy'?"

A blink of her turquoise eyes. As she realized what she had said, to her father no less, Samus found her cheeks growing warm and her emotions in the range of embarrassment. "Oh gods, did I really just..." She sighed, trying to regain her composure from that rather interesting slip of the tongue. "Um...just a lot of hero worship...maybe I got a little tired of it, especially with some people saying I'd never measure up to him. And, well...Ian liked to make fun of his brother for how much of a pedestal Adam puts my dad on, so...I kind'a picked up on that?"

The response she got was not what she'd been expecting. Instead of disappointment, Maru gave a low chuckle and shook his head. He seemed to understand the phrase better than she'd thought. "Terrans, as I've learned, come up with such interesting figures of speak, including certain acts that are anatomically impossible for the most part. And your birth-father, believe it or not, taught me quite a few that I have thrown as certain members of the Council."

That admission made Samus giggle. "You mean that cunt Shaded Whisper, don't you?"

"Samus, I wasn't even aware we had a comparable word for that in Chozia, nor did I imagine you being that crude."

She went quiet, suddenly realizing maybe she had pushed a line too far with her father. "Sorry...but...I really do not-"

"And yes," the Chozo stated as he shifted into clear and refined Terran English, just to make his point. "She is a, as you said, 'cunt'." That trickster grin on his beak as he saw his daughter light up from his words. "Older than me or not, she is no Elder, and to be honest, she's not even from our Nest, so I don't feel so obligated to give her the respect they command."

"Especially when she's five hundred feet underground on Naraka?"

Again, that grin as he leaned in and touched her forehead with his own. "Especially because of that, Hatchling." A chuckle escaped his throat as he sat up and ruffled the teenage girl's hair with his feathered hand. "You get back to sleep, Varia. We'll talk more in the morning, just the two of us." And as he stood up, Maru gave that fatherly smile that he knew was able to comfort her. "I'll tell you more about your father and how this leg of mine happened, and you tell me about Ian, because it sounds indeed like I would have been honored to meet him."

"Okay." Samus gave a happy sigh as Maru picked up his night-lamp and helped settle her properly back into bed before heading for the door of her room. "Good night, papa."

As he reached the doorway, Maru paused at her words. She hadn't used that particular term for him in a long time, not since she was a child. It made him smile, reminding him that despite the separation of species between them, Samus was every bit his daughter, and he her father. It was enough to comfort him that her birth-parents would indeed be happy; their daughter had someone to be there for her, to be the parent they had been denied the chance to be.

"Good night, Little Bird."

And the door slid shut behind him to give her the dark of night again. But this time, it was comforting for her.