Ehanu: No excuses. I'm just glad to get this chapter out. Please R&R and critique if you feel so inclined. I need as much help as I can get with this story.

The first thing Samus thought of, upon her return to consciousness, was how annoying this mission was beginning to get. Years of plowing through insurmountable odds clearly weren't a qualification for this kind of adventure. For that, it was likely better to have insane amounts of sheer, dumb luck.

Which just so happened to be the very thing Samus seemed to lack today.

Immediately after this realization, however, came the enlightenment that her ankles were tied together, leaving her thus dangling who-knew-how-high and upside-down off the ground. Opening her eyes, Samus tried to recon what she could from the vicinity.

The darkness didn't reveal anything outside of a three foot perimeter from her, leaving much to the imagination. Her body hung limply in its restraints, arms hanging limply up, or down, from her head. As Samus' slowly felt her muscles reawaken, she continued her search for anything that might be of aid to her current situation. From what she remembered of the brief battle, there had been her lunge, Darakoru turning to face her, then sudden blackness.

Just as she wondered how it was possible to faint so suddenly, a sharp pain fired through her entire skull, frying every nerve in her cranium with the annoyingly intense fire. But, just as fast as the reminder of her defeat came on, it vanished with not so much as a metaphorical whisper. Without the mysterious headache, Samus immediately resumed her search for anything useful, trying hard to ignore the questions of this whole situation.

That was how she discovered the third piece of information. Blinking in her sight, to the lower-right of her view, was a single white light. Slowly, at the pace of a snail, it processed in her mind that she was receiving a communication.

Reaching up to her helmet, she pressed the button to open the channel.

"SAMUS! RESPOND!"

Recently-rectified headaches had a thing for sudden, loud noise.

Samus jerked awake with an eagle-cry, dangerously swinging back and forth through the air. Quickly, she flapped her wings to regain control even as her head began to throb with a vengeance. But, just as before, the headache vanished as if chased away by some internal guardian angel.

Wait a minute, Samus thought, the last split-second beginning to register in her mind. One simply did not cry like an eagle or flap their wings.

Unless they were transformed into a friggin' Chozo! Samus thought with a groan, remembering her transformation.

"SAMUS!"

"WHAT!? I'm awake already! Sheez!" Samus groaned back, making no effort to hide her annoyance.

"We thought you were dead! Your life-signs went crazy one moment, then the next they were absolutely dead. We thought for sure we lost you, but I couldn't be so sure. So, I kept calling you on the comm, hoping you'd respond," the speaker - T-Fru, Samus realized - said. Groaning, Samus rubbed the temples of her head as T-Fru kept talking, going on about "scientific statistics" and other things Samus didn't understand.

But, at last, T-Fru got to the all-important question.

"So, what's going on?"

Samus sighed bitterly at the thought, thinking how to best preserve her pride.

"Honestly, I have no idea," Samus said at last. "My last conscious memory was attacking Darakoru, then, nothing."

"Nice to know," Falco cut in, "but what about before, y'know, when we lost contact with you? Would you kindly enlighten us on the subject?"

"Oh, that," Samus said, thoughts beginning to race as she tried to think of a viable response. "Well, in that case, suffice it to say that what I thought was going to happen was only slightly different than what actually happened. And what actually happened is something that would require seeing to believe."

"What sort of response is that?" T-Gan said, "Either tell us what happened or..."

Samus shut off the link, not wishing to listen to T-Gan's hot-headed mouth-off. The last thing she needed right now was T-Gan's fiery attitude. What she did need...

Wait a minute, Samus thought, feeling a familiar energy begin pulsating through her bonds. Looking down (or up) at her feet, she noticed the dim, blue glow of Phazon eminating from the thick talon-bindings beginning to glow brighter and brighter. Pulling her upper body towards the cords, Samus grabbed one of the coils of cord in her right claw and used it to hoist herself up to the object.

As soon as she got close enough to see the cords, however, the light in her ankle-bonds suddenly exploded with azure light. The phazonic energy raced from her bonds, up the pillar to which she was bound, and throughout the chamber she was in, revealing it to be the very room she had battled Darakoru in.

The bridge. The next question, though, was the bridge for who's ship?

As if hearing her silent question, the entire back wall of the bridge opened. Massive plates slid and ground away, slowly opening whatever was behind it into the light. The mystery didn't last long, as a tank filled with blue liquid revealed itself as the entity beyond the wall. The blue energy continued to illuminate the object from within, gradually bringing a shape into focus with more and more clarity. Narrowing her eyes, Samus hoped her suspicions on the occupant were wrong. But, if she was right...

She was.

"Nova!"

The giant brain, armored in a combination of many colors and styles of protection, had no facial features. But she didn't need any of that to know the brain was pleased that she recognized him.

"Greetings, Samus Aran, it is a grand pleasure indeed to make your acquaintance in a more... formal setting. Introductions are in order, I believe..."

"What for?" Samus interrupted, "I already know your name and you know mine!"

"My point, but you haven't properly met your colleague, 'Darakoru' as the Sadarshians call him. I will have to apologize before hand, however, as there is some urgent business that requires attention after this formality is done with," Nova said.

Samus wondered what sort of "formality" the Nova had in mind. But she did have some idea of what the entity had in store.

When Samus had initially awakened to find herself as a Chozo, she had completely forgotten one fact of her Phazon-Mirath corruption. She hadn't noticed it, no thanks to her rearranged anatomy, but now that she had had time to adjust, somewhat, she realized that her free-will was still completely hers. Somehow, her Phazonic corruption had missed that part of her.

Upon that realization, however, came the thought of what Nova and Darakoru had planned.

Samus threw herself towards the bindings again, determined to rip them off with her bare talons, if neccessary.

"Would you kindly explain to me what you are doing?" Nova said to Samus, who ignored him as she continued her effort against the rope-like tentacles. But, as before, it was in vain. The tentacles would not give at all.

"Such an effort is futile," Nova said, "those bindings are connected to your brainwaves. As you are aggravated, the tentacles react to negative emotion by tightening. So, essentially, you are keeping yourself imprisoned."

Once again, Samus fell slack in the bindings, seething with impatience.

"Kill me or release me, Nova, but do not waste my time with talk," Samus said.

"Talk? You underestimate the value of talk. Wars and murders, jealousies and anger, all preventable with talk," Nova said.

Samus just glared at Nova, scoffing. Nothing would make her happier right now than to just put a few well-placed plasma bursts through that brain's non-existant face. If she had her Morph Ball capabilities, that would've...

A burst of light shone from Samus' body, an electronic clinking and an odd, yet familiar pressure formed over the whole of Samus' body. Her foot-claws suddenly freed themselves from the immovable bondage, leaving Samus to fall. But she did not fear as she felt her body rapidly compress and cocoon in armor-like material. Seconds before crashing to the ground with a metallic thud, Samus - or the Morph Ball that constituted Samus - landed to the ground.

Without hardly a moment's celebration at the discovery, Samus leapt out of her Morph Ball and jumped behind a pillar. Without any visible means of activating her weapons, Samus searched the immediate area for a weapon of any kind.

"Samus! Stop! You know not what I mean to tell you!" Nova yelled.

Yeah, right, I know exactly what you mean, Samus thought sarcastically. At the same moment, she found a weapon. Dashing out of the cover, she grabbed the weapon and, noticing its weight, grabbed it with both talons. At this point, Nova had seen her and turned in her direction.

"What do you hope to accomplish, Samus, by continuing your senseless rampage?" Nova said.

A shadow flitted across Samus' vision, but she made no visible movement. She kept the weapon, which looked like a detached turret of some sort, aimed at Nova.

"Did it ever occurr to you that you might be on the wrong justifications and impressions?"

Another shadow flitted by. There was no mistaking that shape.

"You will learn the truth, Samus, and you will feel deep sorrow for what you've done."

THERE!

Samus whipped around, hitting her assailant-to-be in the face, knocking him back. At once, she saw it was Darakoru, stumbling from that hit from the weapon.

Samus pulled the trigger and screeched a Chozo war-cry as the turret unloaded its plasma fury straight into Darakoru's face.

Darakoru threw up his arms as the first bolts reached him, blocking them with his wrist's with seemingly hardly any effort.

"You always shoot first before asking questions, why is that?" Nova said.

A beep whined from the turret as the stream of plasma cut off. Samus cursed and threw the now-useless weapon away dashing straight at Darakoru. She hit him mid-chest, throwing both of them beyond the threshold of piping that had rimmed their position. A sudden lightness betrayed the fact they were falling, and falling fast.

"Why must you senselessly fight all the time, Samus?" Nova said.

"SHUT...UUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPP!" Samus screeched, half at Darakoru.

Darakoru threw his fist at her. She caught it and hit him in the face easily with it. He lashed out with his tail and caught Samus on the leg. The force sent her somersaulting through the air, but she wasn't finished. She streamlined her body, tucking in her arms, legs, and wings as close as possible and arrowed straight at Darakoru. At the moment of impact, Phazon energy exploded out from them, lighting up the shaft as brightly as Galactic Federation headquarters. The duo plummeted even faster as the wind whipped in their faces.

Samus connected a fist to Darakoru's chin, he lashed back with a swift uppercut to her cheek, she back-handed him, he head-butted her. They exchanged blows faster than any outside observer could likely keep track of, their fists nothing but blurs as they fell.

Darakoru's fist slammed into Samus' beak once again, snapping her head back for that split-second. As she brought her head back to bear, she grabbed Darakoru's armor collar and prepared for a head-butt. But, she saw something that made her pause for another split-second. To any lesser-experienced, the slight hesitation Samus showed for that mere fraction of a second didn't seem like it mattered, but in the moment she reeled her head back and stopped, she saw Darakoru's eyes. And then, all thoughts of attacking were pushed to the side.

The many enemies Samus had fought, she had subconsciously noticed one thing about every single one of her foes: their eyes. She remembered Mother Brain's single, crazed eye trained on her, murder in that gaze. She thought of Kraid and the soulless efficiency inherant in his eyes. Even Ridley and his countless forces of Pirates had a look of sheer primevel hatred for anything that wasn't under their control. Samus had seen that darkness in each of them, but had not realized then.

But, staring into Darakoru's eyes, she realized how true it was that the eyes really are the windows to the soul.

Suddenly, Darakoru lashed out with a fist, connection hard enough with Samus' beak to flip her over, Darakoru still holding on his death-grip. But their eyes remained in contact.

Samus fought back, grabbing Darakoru's face and trying as hard as she could to wrench it from his neck. Darakoru grabbed her wrists, making a similar effort to break her grip. Neither of the two combatants gained the advantage, neither did they give.

Samus got another glance into Darakoru's eyes, understanding beginning to dawn on her.

Darakoru had a fire in his eyes that she had never seen in any of her foes. It had been easy to slay the likes of Pirates and Metroids, those all having a dead look in their eyes as they fought for wicked purposes. But Darakoru had a fire that Samus had only seen in one other group of people. It wasn't in any of the people or creatures she had fought.

It was in the eyes of her allies!

Samus kneed Darakoru in the gut, rocketing him off her, leaving her room to unfurl her wings. Immediately, she was wary of any follow-up attack from him, but he fell roaring past her to the dark pit below, wailing his cry of defeat.

Samus, however, hovered there with concern weighing heavily on her mind. The fire that Samus had seen in Darakoru's eyes was one she had definitely seen many times in the eyes of her allies, but never in that of her enemies. Until now, at least. Now, it had just became a little harder to be able to fight Darakoru.

Because he believed in his cause.

Turning her eyes down the shaft, she couldn't help but wonder what it was that made this strange, Phazon entity have this alien idea. It was a monster! He wasn't supposed to believe what he was doing as right! What could've possibly possessed him to believe so firmly?

I can always go ask him, Samus thought, sighing with annoyance.

Why couldn't enemies just stay in a basic form and and avoid all evolution of a conscious?

Ehanu: And there we have what I was able to cough up after my frickin' writer's slump.