Chapter 12: A Cold Remembrance

Samus' gunship leaps out of the hyper space tunnel and arrives in yet unfamiliar sector of space from the teenage Overlord's point of view. The most immediate thing the boy notices about the planet lying outside the ship's visor is that it has similar aesthetic to Zebes, with the surface having an orange coating and there barely being any greenery visible from the skies. This piqued the boy's interest, and as Samus set the ship towards the descent into Bryyo he asked her "Say, did the Chozo ever have anything to do with Bryyo's eco-structure?"

"From what I read from the lore of the planet during my last visit here, the Chozo did come to this world at one point in time, but they didn't do anything besides try to convince the planet's residents to seek a perfect balance amongst their different sectors." After Samus' brief explanation, the gunship begins to pierce the glowing atmosphere of the planet, and due to a lack of clouds in the sky Riku sees a large patch of blue Phazon spreading across the world from the hollowed out shell of a giant Leviathan seed. The Phazon covered areas consisting of fire, rock, jungle and ice, and it was obvious that this batch of the corrosive material had been around the longest out of all the planets the two heroes had traveled across so far.

"…So, what happened to the people of Bryyo?" Riku decides to ask after momentarily staring in disgust at the Phazon cache on the planet.

"They all fell to ruin after a schism tore their people in two, long before they could even see Phazon taint their planet." Samus coldly recalls the details in her log books on Bryyo's past, understandably sharing little sympathy for the self-destructive actions of its people and their lack of foresight to heed the warnings of the Chozo.

Riku merely responds with a quiet "Oh, I see…" and drops the subject with a tilt of his head off to the side, his sagging eyelids showing that unlike the hunter he felt a bit of pity towards the people of Bryyo despite never seeing a single one of them.

"Anyways, considering the main part of the planet is split off into four sectors, I'm going to have to run a quick scan with the Phazon blood sample you gave me before to see where any apparitions are at. This will take a few minutes considering the surface area I have to cover, so just bear with me for a moment." Samus immediately begins to set the gunship onto autopilot and lets it hover hundreds of feet above the planet's surface while she works in conjunction with the scanner to find any apparition energy signatures.

Riku leans back in the mean time, saying to the hunter "If it will help, tell the computer not to scan the Leviathan seed. The Aurora Unit noted that there was likely nothing to find in any of them."

Samus nods her head in agreement and continued her work silently, the teenage Overlord sitting back with only a single reminding thought on his mind "Oh yeah, might be a good idea to contact Adam about what's been happening. I haven't communicated with him since Tallon IV…"

Thus Riku occasionally reminded himself of what he should take care of while Samus worked diligently on scanning the planet. The teenage Overlord felt as though he was forgetting a detail about the world that was crucial for what they were about to do, this constant forgetfulness of his dating back to the beginning of his adventure much to his chagrin, and more than once it prevented him from dealing with problems that he could have avoided or stopped.

But as she thinks about all of this, the ship's engines begin to quiet down as the scanners go off and Samus appears to flinch momentarily much to Riku's surprise. The boy asks "What's up Samus? Did you find something interesting?"

The hunter goes quiet, her eyebrows arching downward as she stays stoic and says nothing to boy in response to his inquiry. Updrafts of hot air can be see coming from the outside of the ship, signifying the descent into the fire sector of Bryyo. From what little Riku can see in front of the visor, the gunship was going into a circular landing port that had a platform raised over a vat of molten magma, the rough metal machinery inside the room appearing to run off of a gelatinous fuel that could likely be found in mass quantities on this sector of the planet if the machines were still operational long after its people had disappeared.

The ship's cooling system comes online to protect itself from any possible overheating, also signifying that Samus planned to keep the gunship at bay until its time to depart. The circuitry of the ship's legs let out a light hiss to release pressure, and after everything has been parked in place Samus gets out of her seat and turns around to begin heading for the exit lift without saying anything to Riku regarding his earlier question. The boy follows the hunter out of the ship, his suit adjusting to the intense heat on this sector of Bryyo in an instant. Samus begins to walk down the ramp towards the blue-laser locked door when the teenage Overlord says to her "Hey Samus, I need to get in touch with my superior officer real quick. I know you want to move on ahead, but-"

"Go on ahead Riku." Samus says as she turns her head over her shoulder to look at the boy, going on to say "I understand the importance of letting others know of your progress. I did used to be part of the Galactic Federation Police Force after all."

Riku is surprised by how Samus' sentence lacked her general tone of coldness, and after a couple blinks of his eyelids the boy nodded his head in thanks and watched as the hunter only went a little bit farther and began to examine the environment to see how badly Phazon has affected the area if it has at all. The boy then taps the side of his helmet to try and get a stable connection with Adam Malkovich wherever he may be. Thanks to the advanced technology of the Galactic Federation, the boy gets a response rather swiftly in the form of "Riku? I'm surprised to hear you call again. What's going on?" His tone is welcoming, even if he was a bit shocked at first.

"I'm just calling you to give you an update on the situation. Samus and I successfully took care of Tallon IV and Aether's Phazon problems, and now we are currently on Bryyo." Riku gives the details in a dutiful manner, showing respect towards his superior officer in the process.

"Hmm…I just heard about the Tallon IV rescue, but didn't receive any word on Aether yet. You guys are taking care of things quickly from the sounds of-…Wait a second, what planet did you say you are on now?" Adam's tone of voice shifts from joyous to concerned after a brief pause in his sentence, something that puzzles the young Riku greatly.

"What are you talking about?" Riku asks to get some answers, to which Adam replies firmly with "There's no time to waste Riku, I need the name now."

Riku blinks twice and awkwardly answers with "B-Bryyo. Seriously, what's going on here Adam?"

"I did some research on the apparitions after you mentioned them to me, and quickly observed that you fought enemies from Samus' past. Tell me, did you encounter these apparitions in the rooms that Samus originally encountered the enemies at?" Adam's question was meant to further his own personal theory, but Riku realized that he would have to deny his own knowledge on the matter to provide an answer.

"Samus never mentioned anything directly, but I can only imagine that we fought them in their original rooms…Why do you ask?" Riku responds after a moment of hesitation. Adam sighs after the response is given.

"Ridley in Norfair, Kraid in his lair, Mother Brain in Tourian…And if I could guess, the Omega Pirate in Phazon Mines and the Emperor Ing on Dark Aether. All of them are enemies that Samus has fought before, and all of them were brought back in the form of Phazon empowered apparitions. Give me a second to pull up a file, I need to go over something with you if you are on Bryyo…" Adam goes silent for a bit as he types something on his nearby keyboard, with Riku waiting patiently as he only turns his head to check up on Samus, who is tapping something on her arm cannon as she looks up towards the sky.

"Ok, here we go. Galactic Federation Log #8272007, Bryyo Chronicle. On the fourth week of the Phazon Insurrection, the hunter Samus Aran went to the planet Bryyo and destroyed the Leviathan seed. In the process, she was forced to terminate her corrupted ally…" "Rundas." Riku replies quietly to finish Adam's log recollection, realizing the point that Commander was making with everything he has said up until this point while failing to catch the fact that he shouldn't actually know the hunter's name. He gasps at the realization of what he had done.

However, Adam doesn't feel particular disturbed by the fact that Rundas' name was mentioned, and he goes on to say "The point I'm trying to get at is that the apparitions are based only on figures that Samus has fought on these planets, which means if you know what planets you are going to from here on out, you'll be able to determine which apparitions you'll be encountering with a little cooperation on Samus' part."

"Considering we only have two more known planets to deal with, this advice is rather lately-timed. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the attempt to help anyways, Adam. Also, I do think that Samus has already figured this information out, considering her reaction after performing a scan of Bryyo." Riku says slowly and quietly to avoid catching the attention of the hunter herself.

"I figured as much." Adam replies. "Listen to me when I say this Riku. This might be the hardest apparition for Samus to deal with beyond the Mother Brain and Ridley. Though she is a loner, she still felt an incredible amount of pity towards the three hunters that were corrupted by Dark Samus' brand of Phazon when she had to kill them in battle. Rundas' demise hit her the hardest, so you might need to be prepared to compensate for Samus if she becomes emotionally compromised for even a second."

The Commander shows a bit of doubt towards the hunter, to which Riku arches his eyebrows downward and disbelief and firmly states to Adam "I don't think Samus is going to run into any problems, Adam. She's stayed emotionally strong so far despite having to re-face some of her most nightmarish foes…I think she can handle fighting an old ally again, especially since it won't be the real deal."

"…No, you're right. For a moment, I forgot the type of woman Samus is these days and recalled how emotional she was under my watch. Sometimes its hard to let go of the past, whether the memories are good or bad. Do you understand what I'm getting at there, Riku?" Adam's inquiry and words combined cause Riku to flinch and think back to the pain brought on from the last video game world he traveled through, and in turn he responds with "Yeah, more than you possibly know. Either way, I should probably sign off, this conversation is starting to get a little personal."

"Right, can't let personal feelings get in the way of a mission. Heh, in a way, that sounds like something Samus would say these days. Maybe she is influencing you more than you know, Riku. Either way, I'm going to sign off for now. Contact me once its time for you to go after Dark Samus." Adam signs out, and Riku is left to think about his comment regarding his Samus-like remark just a moment ago.

"…Is Samus really influencing my actions? Hmm…Maybe she is and I haven't been paying enough attention to what I've been doing lately." Riku turns around and goes over to meet up with Samus, saying to her after dropping his line of thought for now "Alright, I'm ready to go. Lead the way Samus."

The hunter nods her head, remaining silent as she turns around and uses her arm cannon to open the door behind her body. The two heroes make their way into a hallway that is infected with Phazon. The lava is blue, the gelatinous material in the machinery is beginning to change colors as well, and once again the areas are devoid of wildlife. At the very end of the hall is a bird-like statue different from the Chozos with a vacuum of air going inward, in contrary to the push of air that Samus encountered from this statue the first time she came to this planet. "…How oddly convenient." The hunter quietly mumbles after her and Riku cross the hall.

"What's up Samus?" Riku says with a smile on his face, for he was happy to hear Samus speak after the last few minutes of utter silence.

"This transfer tube can take us only a room away from our target area if we go into our Morph Ball forms. But usually this tube blows air instead of sucking things in." Samus examines the tube with her visor while Riku merely shrugs behind her.

"Maybe it has something to do with the Phazon. Either way, I'm not one to mock convenience. Lets get a move on." Samus pauses in hesitation, but eventually nods her head and goes into Morph Ball mode alongside Riku so they can leap into the tube. Both their bodies are thrust along an incredibly long tube across multiple curves and straight-aways, their speeds reaching maximum velocity in a matter of seconds yet quickly halting as they are thrown out from the opposite tube into yet another hallway. After recovering from their travels and unfurling from their Morph Ball forms the two heroes find themselves in a cavern-like hallway drowned in the color blue thanks to a massive influx of Phazon that has overtaken the environment.

This area appears to be the origin point of most of the gelatinous material that powers the machinery, as the ceiling is dripping streams of it into a vat of Phazon infected gel. The spikes have been littered with sharp Phazon crystals, and the floor is slowly breaking apart into a pool of pure Phazon. Steady steps would have to be taken throughout the rest of the cavern as the two heroes headed to the right out of the area. After an ascension through a diagonal spiral tunnel the heroes come across another door and open it with a power beam shot from Samus.

Entering the next room, the heroes find themselves in a large temple area with a lake of light-blue gel hidden under circular grates that in turn are underneath square tiles. It appeas impossible to scale out of the temple thanks to the sheer cliff faces that have been contaminated with rooted Phazon vines and spores. But thankfully, there was a clear view of the sunset sky above, though thanks to the alien atmosphere the sky had a swampy orange tint to it. Samus slowly began to walk on ahead, hesitation being the clearest emotion she was experiencing now that she had entered this room.

Riku followed behind the hunter and drew his arm cannon into existence, preparing for battle against the apparition of Rundas that was certain now to appear in this location. As the heroes neared the center of the room, Samus caught a glimpse of her phantom running past her body. The phantom was more solidified than the last time it appeared, but now it wore the PED Suit on its body. After arriving at the center of the room, the phantom is ambushed by other phantoms representing Space Pirates. The phantom hunter fights them off quickly, but an envoy of dozens suddenly appears to surround the phantom.

Samus recalls what happens next, and slowly begins to walk to where her phantom is at with a look of near-stoic disbelief behind her visor as all of a sudden another apparition flies down from the sky riding a road of ice that is constantly being created and melted from his right hand. After landing in the center of the room, the apparition uses its awe-inspiring and destructive powers of ice to freeze the entire temple grounds, with real sharp stalagmites of ice thrusting out from the Phazon gel pools to impale the Space Pirate apparitions and create a large field of icy spikes around a round elevated platform surrounded by different sized crystal clear ice fangs.

Standing atop the platform is the apparition of an alien entity who was roughly one foot taller than Samus herself, with an elongated head, four icicle-like fingers on each hand, armored legs with pointed kneecaps leading down to feet with a triangular shaped at the front instead of anything resembling toes. The alien was covered in sleek Galactic Federation armor that resembled the PED Suit the phantom of Samus and Riku both had on, only this was specifically designed to fit his unique physique. Covered in front on the upper part of his legs and hands while the rest of his body was as black as the coldest ice, the apparition stared at the real Samus as she stepped into the spot where he phantom currently resides, his body hunched slightly like a controlled marionette as the hunter raises her arm cannon and stares into the visor of the once proud Phrygisian Rundas, gripping the barrel of her weapon with her left hand as she hears the raspy echo of the icy hunter's voice say to her "Sa…Samus…Sa…Samus…"

Samus pauses in shock at the apparition calling out her name, her arm cannon lowering briefly in hesitation as the ethereal form of Rundas fizzles back and forth in a wavy pattern. The apparition quickly puts on an armor of ice that wraps around all but his ghastly neck, the ice proving to be as real as the rest despite solidifying around an ethereal figure. The hunter knew that it was not the right time to become surprised by Rundas' appearance, and with hesitation shattered Samus raised her arm cannon towards the icy hunter once more and prepared for battle.

Rundas leaped from his platform and began to create ice underneath his feet in a steady stream to pass over the hunter, curving around a couple of his ice pillars to the right of the hunter until he feels ready to leap down, but not before taking his right arm and firing a few shots of crystallized ice Samus' way. The hunter somersaults to the left, getting on her knees and firing a few shots precisely aimed at the hole around Rundas' neck, forgetting for a moment that she cannot harm the apparition until Riku solidifies it with his Hyper Mode.

Thankfully, the teenage Overlord has ran around the circumference of the arena while Samus first approached the apparition, positioning himself perfectly behind Rundas and using the Grapple Beam in his left hand to try and pull the armor right off. However, Rundas'

apparition sensed the high concentration of Phazon coming from the boy, and with his desire to have a one-on-one duel with Samus being prominent even though he was still a ghost Rundas quickly summoned forth a large curved wall of ice behind his body with a thought to keep the Grapple Beam from reaching him. The tip of the beam connects with the wall and immediately retracts, and Riku flinches in shock and thinks to himself "Well, this isn't good…"

The wall was tall enough to keep the boy from using his thrusters to scale over them and join Samus in battle, and Rundas was having it expand out to trap both himself and the other hunter in battle without interference. Riku became worried that Samus wouldn't be able to last forever against Rundas' apparition, especially since while she had a Grapple Beam to remove his armor she didn't have a Hyper Mode to do anything afterwards. The teenage Overlord didn't feel good about prioritizing his own importance in this battle, but it wasn't a lie that his abilities were necessary to defeat the apparitions. Gritting his teeth, Riku switched his arm cannon to Plasma Beam mode and stared at the ice wall ready to melt it to the ground.

Inside of the walled in area of ice, Samus has a similar line of thinking to Riku, noting in her mind "I don't have my Plasma Beam, nor do I have access to Hyper Mode. My Power Bombs aren't strong enough to crack this thick ice, so I can only hope that Riku can make it through…I should be able to hold off in the mean time." Samus cocks her arm cannon and points it forward, firing a regular missile the very moment Rundas fires an icy one from his right arm. The two missiles collide and a flurry of ice is released in the center point of collision between both objects. Samus rushes forward without hesitation, keeping her arms swaying back and forth as she remembers Rundas' arsenal.

"The armor is attached to the apparition, which means if I strike it…" Samus leaps from the icy cloud with her visor providing her with clear vision of Rundas, and with her forward momentum the hunter swiftly and precisely strikes the head of the armor. The apparition feels the recoil of the strike and staggers backwards a few feet as Samus flips around after the rebound, landing on her feet and widening the barrel of her arm cannon with Power Beam energy.

"Rundas is staggered, recovery time estimated to be five seconds…" Calculating things out in her head with a cold tone, Samus runs at Rundas and sticks the front of her fully charged arm cannon against the chest plate of the armor, releasing a Super Missile point blank that creates an explosion strong enough to send Rundas' apparition crashing against his own ice wall. The inside of Samus' arm cannon cushions most of the explosion for her at the cost of skidding her back twenty feet away from the icy hunter.

As Rundas is peeled off from the wall via his own strength, it was clear that the armor had been cracked slightly. Another strong explosion would probably blow the armor right off, though that still left the hunter without a Hyper Mode to do anything to the apparition with. "Rundas is damaged, and he appears to be a little annoyed by my attacks. I need to keep up the pressure, give him little chance to strike me with his stronger ice based moves."

Samus goes into her Morph Ball state and rolls along the slippery ground, paying attention as Rundas recovers fully from her prior attack and forces spikes of ice to rupture through the ground to trip the hunter up. Samus weaves around the spikes and gets near Rundas in a matter of seconds, dropping a Power Bomb underneath his body and quickly flipping herself around to get out of the way before it detonates and releases an explosion powerful enough to shatter the ice armor surrounding the apparition and leave Rundas himself in a daze. Samus thinks to herself as she gets back onto her feet and turns towards the icy phantom "That should buy Riku some time to break down the ice wall…"

Speaking of the boy, he is currently firing at the wall with Plasma Beam shots, refusing to let up despite the fact that he is unable to melt even an inch into the ice wall. "Shoot, why is this so hard to get through? Are my powers really that gimped without Hyper Mode to empower them?"

As he asks these two questions towards himself, the boy considers the dire situation he is in, and realizes that he has no choice but to activate that dangerous mode in order to break through the wall. Raising his arm cannon back at the wall, he closes his eyes and focused on the Phazon spores in his body, activating Hyper Mode faster than the usual pace before realizing that with the time limit of this mode he might not have enough seconds to burn through the wall. He looks down at the Phazon gel below the grates, and thinks about siphoning off some extra power from it in order to sustain Hyper Mode for longer.

"…Its worth the risk." Riku says after thinking for a moment about whether or not this would heighten the risk of his body being fully corrupted and possessed by Dark Samus. He begins to charge his arm cannon, and the Phazon rises up in steady streams from the underground.

Inside of the icy arena, Samus begins to cock her arm cannon beside her body as Rundas recovers and creates another set of ice armor. The hunter scoffs, thinking to herself "What's happening on the other side? …I'm going to have to stall for just a little bit longer."

Samus aims her arm cannon at Rundas and fires a couple Power Beam shots. The apparition slams his knuckles against the ground and summons a rising wave of ice that blocks the hunter's attacks and forces her to leap to the right to avoid the advance form of the wave. Rundas' apparition follows up with a few spikes that surround the hunter's body, two of which impale on both sides of her arm cannon and lock it into place with a powerful chill to stop her from attacking. Samus is surprised by the icy hunter's clever maneuver that has pinned her in place, especially since by freezing the arm cannon she can't go into Morph Ball mode to escape.

The ice spikes placed in front and behind her body diagonally from each other also prevent her from swerving out of the way of Rundas' next ensuing salvo of ice chunks that he sends forth after he punches apart a nearby spike of his. The impact of the chunks damage Samus' Varia Suit shields immensely, bringing her down to 23% capacity. "…Its risky, but if I use a couple missiles in rapid succession I might be able to create a close-range explosion that can take care of the spikes." Samus thinks, her mind barely concerned about the concept of her possible demise as she tries to come up with a way to escape.

However, as Rundas' apparition slowly approaches the hunter, Samus can see some red light burning brighter through the ice wall. It doesn't take long for a searing sound to be heard, and a massive hole is melted through the wall, a ton of steam obscuring the figure of Riku as she thrusts his left hand into the air with a pale blue glow surrounding his body, sending out a Grapple Beam that latches to the back of Rundas' neck and sends a powerful pulse of Phazon through the beam that makes the apparition's head lurch up and swing its arms out to the side as it lets out a pained scream that fits his original dialect.

The apparition solidifies in place as Riku tugs hard on the Grapple Beam to pull Rundas' armor right off, stepping out of the fog to reveal that because of the massive dose of Phazon he absorbed into his body he has small glowing pearl tentacles growing out of different parts of his armor. Samus flinches in shock as the disruption of Rundas' mind forces the spikes of ice to shatter apart and free the hunter. She was shocked by how corrupted Riku looked, especially when he speaks to her and says in a distorted tone "SaMUs, gEt RUnDas wHIle You HaVE the CHancE!"

Samus pauses for a moment in hesitation because of Riku's condition, but quickly nods her head and shakes her arm cannon once to remove the frost from it before aiming it at Rundas' apparition and charging Power Beam energy inside. With a tone of remembrance towards the icy hunter, Samus says to him "Forgive me once more, Rundas…" A Super Missile is fired from the lip of the cannon and with a powerful strike directly into his chest Rundas is knocked back by a powerful explosion and forced onto his knees, the combined damage from the enhanced Grapple Beam and the Super Missile proving to be too much for the apparition, and he begins to fizzle out of existence rather quickly. Before it leaves the world though, it raises its right arm up pitifully and says to the hunter "T-Thank you…Samus…Once again…"

Rundas' apparition dies, showing in its final moments that it wasn't simply just a phantom, but rather it carried a bit of the real hunter's personality inside of its ethereal body. Samus closes her eyelids in remembrance of the icy hunter, saying stoically to him despite the lack of his presence "Rest in peace, Rundas…" All the ice in the temple grounds shatters a second later, spreading across the floor and into the pool of Phazon gels as two orbs appear where the apparition stood. One represented a crystal of solid ice and another was a missile of ice. Seeing the first orb swiftly reminded the hunter about Riku's condition, and she shifted her head up and watched as the boy grunted in pain and held his arm cannon towards the grates and constantly shot excess Phazon into the pool to get rid of his Hyper Mode since the time limit had long since passed.

Seeing as he was in the middle of the this process as Samus finished Rundas off, the teenage Overlord manages to complete this process the moment Samus hesitantly asks him "…You siphoned in more Phazon to keep your Hyper Mode going longer, huh?"

Riku pants after getting out of Hyper Mode, the tentacles that were plaguing his armor having vanished alongside the pale blue glow of Phazon. The teenage Overlord weakly stands up and looks at Samus, his vision blurred as he grins behind his visor and says to her "Y-Yeah, I'm glad I did it though…Looks like you were in a tight situation there, haha!" Riku tries to laugh off his pain as nothing and begins to stagger towards his Ice element, but after grabbing her ice missile and ignoring the words of her armor she stands in front of the other Phazon sphere and says to the boy "Don't take another step Riku. I can't allow you to take this sphere."

Riku lifts his head up to look at Samus' firm glare behind her green visor, smiling himself as he scoffs and asks her "What brought this on?" Feigning ignorance on his own condition in the process of asking that question.

"Don't give me that Riku." Samus says, seeing right through the teenage Overlord's ignorance with ease as she raises her arm cannon his way and goes on to mention "You are in no condition to move, let alone endure any further corruption by re-acquiring another one of your elements."

It was clear to Riku just why the hunter was so being so calmly defensive just now, and with a light smirk on his face the boy said to Samus "I get it, you're worried that I'm going to end up like Rundas and the other two hunters, that I'll succumb to corruption and become another one of Dark Samus' pawns…But you need to stand aside and let me grab this element."

Riku takes a single step, and Samus starts charging energy in her arm cannon ready to stop him. The boy pauses and looks up at the hunter as she says with her stoic tone cracking ever so slightly "I was beginning to think I was wrong about you, that you weren't just some reckless kid who didn't have a clue what he was getting himself into…But here you go ready to let your body become nothing but Phazon that will easily be used by Dark Samus for her nefarious ends. I have only one thing to ask you Riku…Are you suicidal, or not?"

This question pierced Riku's mind, causing him to actually forget about his advance for just a fleeting moment as he thinks about what the hunter said. After a few seconds of hearing the whirr of Samus' power beam energy charging the teenage Overlord closes his eyelids and staggers a bit, saying to the hunter "…Samus, before I met you I screwed up really badly on another planet…I allowed the hero of that planet to perish in battle simply because I didn't listen to my gut about warning him of a great danger that I knew had a chance of appearing…And when the hero died because of my foolishness I was too stricken by trauma, self-hatred and fear that I quickly flew away from that planet without lifting a finger to try and stop that monster…I left millions to the reign of a demon for my first gig as a so-called 'hero'…"

"As you can imagine…That left me pretty broken. For months I went without food, water, or human contact as I floated around in the depths of space, carrying nothing inside of me but the fearful images of that demon and the final blow he struck to that world's hero. And now, without even intending to do so, I've ended up involved in the journey of another hero, only this time around the situation is unfamiliar to me. So yeah, I'm really worried that once again I will fail to protect a hero that doesn't deserve to die because of my own naivety at this 'Elemental Overlord' job of mine. If my actions come across as suicidal to you, then that's not a horrible way to look at it…If I accomplish my goal of keeping you alive yet die in the process, then that's a worthy way for me to go out, and I will be perfectly fine with that."

"That's…That's insane!" Samus blurts out in disbelief towards the boy. "You do not need to sacrifice your humanity and your life to save anyone, especially not me!"

Riku was surprised by the brief moment of composure loss that the hunter went through, but chuckled in response and said to her calmly as she began to walk forward "…I hate to borrow a quote here, but I think it fits this situation…" As Riku walks beside Samus' body, he mutters out quietly "'You should remember what you are when you are not a warrior…'"

The hunter freezes in place, staring blankly in recognition of the line the teenage Overlord mentioned to her while quietly muttering out the name of the man who created said line "Adam…"

"That's partially why I am to press on despite all of this Phazon inside of me…I look past the warrior I am and the monster I may become, and remember that at the core of my being I am human…A vulnerable, mortal human…So long as I stay gripped to that humanity, Dark Samus will never be able to lay even a single finger on my body for her nefarious purposes, and I will continue to fight beside you until either the mission ends or the day I die…" Riku swings his hand out weakly at the Phazon sphere containing the Ice element, letting it all be absorbed into his body. His heart begins to pump like a factory now, producing Phazon through his veins at a rapid pace as his skin color begins to change into a pale-blue tint and his hair gains a slight dark blue streak across the front. His organs undergo other various changes, but he is too weak to endure the pain of it all and begins to collapse, all the while smiling and finishing his prior sentence with "I…promise…Sa…mus…"

Riku falls flat against the ground, and with both Phazon spheres gone the planet's supply of Phazon begins to pull away, Bryyo rumbling intensely from the strain of this release as Samus runs over to the fallen boy and quickly picks him up like he was a light feather and throws him over her left shoulder. She then quickly goes for her arm cannon to call he ship over for a quick escape. As she waits for its arrival, she turns to look at the boy's tired face through the visor and gives him a light smile, returning to a stoic expression as she hears the roar of her gunship's engine as it descends. The lift comes down for its owner, and Samus leaps up with Riku in tow to get into the ship. After laying the boy gently in the back of the cockpit the hunter gets to her seat and quickly takes off as the Phazon cloud leaves the planet once more. Samus wastes little time in activating the hyperspace jump to head off to the next destination, planet Elysia…

Next Time: Minds and Machines