It was only hours, but it felt like days had passed before Samus finally awoke from the world of energy. She felt a little confused as her eyes opened, as if she had woken from a dream or a nightmare and was not sure which one she had actually experienced. Then she saw the bodies, and memories flooded back. Carcasses were strewn all around her, floating silently in the liquid that once nourished them. The memory of those bodies, pressed warm against her thirsty fangs, flared brightly in her mind, horrible and obscene. But mostly, she remembered how much she enjoyed killing them. It was an ecstasy unlike anything she had ever experienced; it was sex and cocaine and the rapture of the stars and so much more all in an instant. Then she ran out of victims. And reality again took its hold.

She became panicked. She wanted to throw up. Instead, she ran out of the nursery as fast as she could, wanting to put as many miles as she could between herself and this scene of slaughter. The hatch opened before her, allowing the flooded room to spill some of its contents into the next chamber. Samus passed the Winged Trooper, whose body still bled from various wounds. She ran. It felt like she could run forever with all the energy she had acquired.

The bounty hunter practically flew through chamber after chamber, completely ignoring everything around her, desperate to get back to the ship. She suddenly stopped at the door to the homeostatic control center, breathing hard, considering. Her eyes hardened and she made a decision about what she must do. She went through the door and laid power bombs over everything that looked important, reducing the entire room to a hellish inferno with a few fantastic blasts. Without the control center, all the base's essential functions shut themselves down, rendered obsolete. Air began seeping out into the hungry void, depriving all that's living of oxygen. Pirates choked, gasping but drawing in nothing when they inhaled. They flailed their arms and legs helplessly in midair when the artificial gravity failed, as if they were drowning in invisible water. The base itself grew hotter with each passing moment, scorched by the nearest star and lacking the thermal shielding that once protected its inhabitants.

Samus registered none of this through her protective second-skin. The fusion suit kept her feet on the ground and her lungs from imploding. But there was no power going to the doors, so she had to manually push them open and hop through the half-open hatches as a morph ball. She shoved her way past the last door and scrambled up the hatch to her ship in record time.

The Dachoras and Etecoons were shocked awake by Samus falling through the ceiling. They watched from a distance as she tore off her helmet with a gasp and flung it against the wall. It hit the floor and spun a few times, then stared straight ahead, upside-down, its mandibles now mute. Samus tore at the opening at the back of her suit and upon escaping from its confines, fled to the washroom.

She filled the sink with water and feverishly rubbed her hands together, trying to get rid of the tingling energy feeling over every part of her skin. She splashed water on her arms and other parts of her body exposed by the leotard. Water pooled at her feet. She dipped her face in the sink and screamed, letting bubbles escape from her mouth and nostrils. Before she ran out of air, she flung her head backwards, water droplets flying everywhere, and scrubbed her face with furious up and down movements of her hands. She could still feel the mandibles of her suit within the fetal Pirates, pulsing with each fading heartbeat, and the syrup-stickyness of nutrient solution clinging to her skin.

Eventually, her motions slowed, her body exhausted physically and mentally. She ran her hands down her face one last time, starting from the hairline, slowly over the forehead to the eyebrows, fingers delicately caressing the pliable eyelids, around the nose ridge, catching the parted bottom lip, finally stopping at the chin and jawbone. She felt not a single rough edge on her unblemished skin. Samus stared at the mirror in front of her and her reflection stared back. What she saw was a woman with wet, mussed hair and a hint of madness in her eyes. Water droplets speckled the image.

"What is happening to me?" She whispered to her reflection. The image mouthed the words back at her. Unable to stand herself any longer, Samus retreated to the warmth of her bed and buried herself in the blankets.

And so the bounty hunter stayed there for almost two days. Sometimes she'd sleep, but most of the time she's awake, endlessly pondering her actions on that Space Pirate base. Confusion and doubt wracked her mind. What is happening to her? First it was that man in the alley, and now the Winged Trooper and all the infant Pirates. She didn't know how she killed them, nor was she able to control herself when she did. She was conscious during those times and her memory of the events were clear, but while they happened, it seemed as if Samus was but a mere bystander to the actions of her own body, detached and uncaring. Except for the rush of pleasure. Even now, when she imagined herself drinking the liquid energy of her victims, she would sweat and her heart would beat faster in anticipation. It was hard to forget such an intoxicating feeling, even if it was always followed by pangs of guilt and disgust. She thought about the slaughter of the Pirate children the most. Just like that Zebesian Pirate had said, had she, by hating and killing the Pirates, become one of them? She killed the helpless and innocent, just as the Pirates did on K2-L all those years ago.

Why did this have to happen. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that her condition had something to do with the fusion suit. None of this ever happened before the incident on B.S.L. laboratory, when she became infected by the deadly X. She wished someone would still have an X sample to research on, but they were too dangerous to keep, even in the most secure of enviroments. Sort of like metroids. And also like metroids, they have been annihilated by her own hand. How ironic.

The Dachoras and Etecoons took care of her during this time, feeding her, piloting her ship and cleaning the stains off her suit. They wandered the stars aimlessly and considered their next course of action. They desperately wanted to help their human friend, to whom they owe so much, but she would tell them nothing about what's wrong with her. They didn't know who they could turn to for help. Finally, the mother Dachora recalled something her own mother had drilled into her memory a long time ago. She opened up the map of the known galaxy and was surprised to find the coordinates she was looking for already marked. Yet, according to the ship's log, and salvaged logs from previous ships, Samus had never visited the area. A little perplexed, the Dachora plotted the course to their next destination.

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

Fighting Ridley was never a task to be taken lightly, even though it was the fourth time I've faced him. But this time, he was only a hollow shell of his former self, a puppet without a soul. I recalled the memory of his carcass encased in ice and how it collapsed, revealing the parasite within him. He did not taunt me as he always did while we fought, and that in itself was unnerving. He screeched, a combination of his own roaring voice and the high-pitched squeal of the X. That sound stayed with me, echoing in my ears as I traveled the core of SRX, trying to find a way to escape this sector.

I suddenly stopped in the middle of an atmospheric stabilizer room. I have been here before, when the computer ordered me to purge the area of X. But there was something different about the room this time. There were no X to be found, and a discarded metroid shell lay exposed in the middle of a clearing, glistening like a gem. I ventured towards it cautiously and tested the texture of the membrane between two fingers. It was still soft, as if recently shed.

So. One of the metroids from the restricted sector had escaped into SRX. It was growing extremely quickly, nurtured by this replica of its natural enviroment and feasting on the abundant X which were once rare on its home planet.

I sighed and moved on. The metroids never seem to completely die out, no matter how many times the official reports said they did. I couldn't help thinking that some higher power was at work, keeping the metroids entwined with my destiny, forever taunting me for losing Hatchling.

Finally, I reached a navigation room and wearily wondered what my mechanical CO would order me to do next. I had named this computer Adam, after a human CO from my past, yet I do not to trust it. It was a mindless, emotionless machine programmed to be a minion of the Federation, whose morals I find questionable. After all my years of working for them, I find out that they were secretly breeding metroids right under my nose. Adam claims that the metroids were for 'peaceful application'. Maybe so, but how am I supposed to believe that with all the other dangerous organisms they keep aboard the space station? The security robot, the Nightmare, even Ridley and the Space Pirates! And they expect me to believe that all those creatures were kept there for academic curiosity? What a fallacy. Militaristic and power-hungry, the Federation was as corrupt as any large- scale political organization. But, for the moment, I had no choice but to follow them. I opened a link to my ship and stared at the plain text words that appeared in front of me.

"Samus, we're done here. Leave the rest to the Federation..." The computer informed me abruptly. "We should be preparing to evacuate the station..."

I was taken aback by these turn of events. I had expected some new mission, some new weapon to download, some fruitless new strategy to defeat the X. Yet, no matter how difficult the mission, I was the only person who could survive on this station, for no other person alive could withstand the X parasites. To send humans here would be an act of suicide.

"Are you joking?!" I yelled to the monitor in disbelief. How could those idiots at headquarters be so naive? "Do they know how dangerous the X are? ...How quickly they reproduce?"

"The Federation has taken an interest in the X and the SA-X. They believe this life-form has endless potential applications."

"This is ridiculous!" I exclaimed. "The X are heartless abominations! What potential could they have ?"

My words were fed into the computer and translated into data, mere information to be processed and interpreted by this machine. "It is not necessary that you understand such matters. The Federation is coming now. You should just leave quietly..."

Of course the ship would not hear me out. If only it would listen to reason! "This is madness! They won't stand a chance here! This station will devour them! What could be worth the risk!?"

"Capturing the SA-X, of course." Came the calculated reply.

That rendered me speechless for a moment. A sick feeling of disgust wormed down my insides. "...Are you serious? Do they really think they can succeed?" My hatred for the SA-X ran deep, almost on an instinctive level. I wished to kill that lethal doppleganger of mine, whose creation was partly my doing. But if I, bounty hunter Samus Aran, can not even face the SA-X in battle, how the hell are normal Federation soldiers supposed to capture it?

"It will certainly be difficult." The computer said calmly, as if it was referring to some unfinished paperwork rather than the lives of real people. "They don't expect your help. They knew you would try to destroy the SA-X... That's why they stopped sending you support data... The Plasma Beam modification was ready some time ago, but they withheld it to keep you form engaging the SA-X. Yet somehow you restored that function on your own... They also tried to withhold the Diffusion Missile upgrade because they didn't want you to grow too powerful. But they had already sent it, and you tracked it down... Bravo, Samus."

Holy shit. This has been a conspiracy against me from the very beginning. I took a breath through my mouth and resisted the urge to drive my fist through the monitor."They must cancel this mission! Open a channel to HQ! I won't let this happen!"

"They are already on their way."

"Fools..." As soon as the Federation ships land, the X will overwhelm them and absorb the knowledge and power of their occupants. The X are just waiting for the hunt to begin, and then they'll spread across the universe. Galactic civilization will end. The X hunger for form, knowledge, and power. They mimic these perfectly. But they cannot copy the soul. They're single-minded, instinctively seeking to increase in number. They're a plague, and the Federation underestimates their threat. The X must not leave here. I must destroy them all before the Federation arrives. This station has a self-destruct mechanism. I must use it to destroy the X here and on the planet. I must send them to oblivion. Them, the station, and myself, if I have to.

The navigation screen winked shut and without hesitation, I ran for the hatch. It did not open at my approach, nor did it respond when I shot at it with my beam cannon. Frustrated, I pounded the door with my fist. I could not get out. That damn computer trapped me in here!

I reestablished communications to the ship. "Open the hatch!" I demanded.

"I have been ordered to confine you until the ships arrive."

Furious, desperate, my mind scrambled for something, anything, that would convince this computer to let me go. "Don't let them do this. Can't you see what will happen, Adam?"

There was a pause. "...Adam?"

"........." It was a mere slip of the tongue. I had been thinking of him, that human who had been the most calculating person I had ever met, and the most dutiful. I had been thinking about what he would do in this situation.

"...Who is Adam?"

"...A friend of mine." My words were short and clipped. Who does this computer think it is, prying into my personal life?

"And what would this...friend advise you to do now?"

That was an odd question for a mechanical entity to ask. I didn't know computers had a sense of curiosity. Or was it searching for some piece of information I had? I chose my words carefully. "He would know that the only way to end this is to start the self-destruct cycle. He'd know how important it is..."

"Did this 'Adam' care for you? Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?"

I licked my lips and kept my voice steady. "He would understand that some must live and some must die... He knew what it meant. He made that sacrifice once." My last memories of Adam came flooding back, reopening sealed wounds. The memories were almost too painful to touch. But how did the ship know what happened to him in his last moments? Or was it just guessing? There was something about its dialogue that I was missing.

"So, he chose life for you? Our fair warrior, Samus Aran... Your Adam gave his life so that you might keep yours... For the sake of the universe..."

No, that was wrong. Adam never did anything like that. Although... if he did, he might still be alive today. I remained silent, waiting for the computer to continue.

"How foolish." Those pixelated words appeared on the screen, toneless, yet mocking me and the memory of Adam.

"How dare you!" I screamed, ready to give this computer's wiring a taste of my wave beam. "How could you hope to understand, machine?"

Ignoring me, it continued to speak in that infuriating text. "You know that detonating this station in high orbit would not guarantee the complete extinction of the X parasites even though the station would be utterly destroyed... You would only succeed in removing the one obstacle to this galaxy's ruin... yourself. You would ignore this simple fact and choose death."

I lowered my weapon and stared at the monitor, puzzled. What was the computer talking about? Whose side is it on? It continued. "When Adam decided who would live, he chose incorrectly."

Oh my God! This machine really knew what happened to Adam! But how?!

"...If you were to alter the station's orbit, then you might be able to include the planet in the vaporization field of the self-destruct detonation."

I held my breath, waiting, not daring to hope. What was it implying...?

"You would have to start the propulsion sequence now. Before the Federation arrives. Samus, this is your last mission. Go to the Operations Room and adjust the station's orbit to intercept SR388. Then return to your ship and escape."

That was when I knew. This was not just a simple computer that I was talking to. No computer would ever disobey orders this far. It was Adam. He has come back! I don't know how, I don't know why, but somehow my former CO leads me still, his mind and memories now contained in a computer. Stunned speechless, I couldn't decide what to say to him. I wanted to tell him how much I've missed him, and how sorry I was for disobeying his last orders. But there was no time for sentiments. Adam knew this, and kept up his gruff exterior. For him, duty always comes first.

"Move quickly and stay alive. That's an order!" There was a pause, and I could almost see the corners of his lips lifting in a smile. "Any objections, Lady?"

He always used to call me Lady. And now he said it like it was an inside joke between the two of us, a reminder of days when we worked side by side, when the entire galaxy was within our grasp. It was a symbol of our trust. The hatches finally opened and I ran out of the navigation room, ready to complete my mission.