Epilogue: Look to the Stars
Samus Aran, who left behind the teenage Overlord to his sacrifice what felt like all too long ago, managed to make it back to her gunship with the help of her Speed Booster. Keeping her emotions in check as she enters the ship, Samus fired up the thrusters and turned on the wings of her ship, making her way out of the dying Phaaze without so much as a hint of hesitation in her body. Once past the gravitational pull of the planet, Samus took her ship a great distance away from Phaaze before turning it around to look on, hoping deep down that Riku would make it out in some manner.
"Come on…I know you can do it." She says quietly, her eyelids arched firmly in a worried fashion as she stands up and lays her hands down on the safer parts of her control panel.
But after a short deal of time passes, the hunter witnesses the end of Phaaze before her very eyes, the collapse and explosion of the planet rocking her ship slightly and forcing her back into her seat to avoid being tossed aside by this powerful shockwave. Once the aftermath of Phaaze's demise has died down, Samus looks on ahead and quickly taps on the controls of her ship to activate her life scanner. But despite the long-range capabilities of the device, the hunter didn't pick up anything where Phaaze once was.
Riku was gone, and for all of Samus' hopes there was no chance that he was suddenly going to show up in front of her ship. For a moment, the hunter clenched her left fist in anger and pounded the top of her control panel, but as she began to tremble and bring herself onto the verge of tears she paused momentarily and thought about how the boy would react if he saw her make too big of a deal out of his death.
Samus then smiles and lifts her head up, looking out through the window of her ship and giving a rather honorable salute with her arm cannon in front of the top of her helmet as she says mostly to herself "Riku…I'm glad to have had you as my partner, even if it was for such a short period of time. When I look to the stars from here on out, I'll likely think of you and the time we spent together…Thank you."
The hunter barely gets any time to spend thinking about the boy when the Aurora Unit suddenly appears in holographic form, surprising Samus and causing her to sit back down as the figures speaks "So…It appears as though Phaaze has been destroyed for good this time. Congratulations on completing the missions, Samus Aran, and we will forward the money from this mission to your account post-haste. However, while I can only imagine the stress this mission has brought upon you, we have to express urgency in another crisis that has come to our attention thanks to Dark Samus' return. Come back to the GFS Olympus whenever you can, and we shall discuss our discovery of the Metroid's home world…"
The Aurora Unit quickly signs out, and Samus is left to her own devices once more. Grabbing hold onto the steering wheel of her ship, the hunter smiles one last time out into the depths of space where Phaaze once was in remembrance of the boy, and with a quiet whisper she says "…Maybe there is a possibility that you survived." Still holding a fragment of hope in her heart, the hunter turns her ship around and prepares to head off to the GFS Olympus.
But unbeknownst to Samus, her hopes had already come true. Floating far along the depths of space away from the end of planet Phaaze is the teenage Overlord, his body having been restored perfectly to its original state in the final moments of the planet with his consciousness having been inserted into it for him to control as he sees fit.
In the final moments of Metroid Prime's life, it recreated the boy's body in its one and only act of kindness, but the timing of the recreation made it so Riku's body was launched far away from Phaaze once the planet exploded. An aura of air surrounding the teenage Overlord's currently unconscious body, protecting him from the killing vacuum of space as he floats onward.
Thanks to the slight damage to his consciousness in the final moments of Phazon's existence, the boy was currently forced to wait for his consciousness to be reconstructed, but when he finally awakened from his slumber he would be in for a surprise…For as days turned into weeks and then into a couple months, his body was on a direct course for a lone yellow planet that was shaped like a five-pointed star…
To be continued in Clash of the Elements: Return of Dark Matter…
Afterword:
Well, that's the end of the second of six stories for this Part. All in all, despite how rough of a time it was for me to start this story up while working on a second fic, I must admit that I enjoyed writing this story a lot more than the Zelda world tale. Maybe this has to do with my greater like of the Metroid series compared to Zelda, or perhaps because I did an original tale here instead of copying Ocarina of Time for the most part despite how necessary the events were for the development of Riku's character.
Usually after these stories I tend to go off on a few details involving the plot in the form of a made-up questionnaire, but I think a lot of the plot details were pretty much answered and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out other parts if you read between the lines a bit. If you do have any questions though, feel free to ask, I'm always open to answering.
Anyways, as the end of this Epilogue would imply, the next story shall take place on the Kirby world, in what shall be yet another original story. The villain should be obvious off the bat, but that doesn't mean there isn't going to be any surprises. Just keep an eye out on that section of , since I'm not getting started on that right away. I still have to go back to the Zelda story and do up a quick What-If, and then I need to write another story for Tales of Plit involving Mallow, which will only take three chapters. So for estimates sake, the Kirby story should be up and running by the start of October at the very least. That story will be rather short much like this one, and its kind of meant to be a breather between a rather major short story and the second half of Part 4. But there will still be a couple character development moments that will be crucial for how Riku acts in accordance to the rest of the worlds he visits, so if you care to follow his tale then keep reading, or perhaps just read because you are also a fan of the Kirby series.
Either way, I appreciate all the support you readers have been giving, even if its a simple remark of "Nice story" or criticism such as "The paragraphs are too clunky", and I hope to continue writing for you all. Until the next tale arises, have a wonderful day!