Author's note: Thanks everyone for your reviews and readership! You guys really help motivate me to write, especially right now. I've got a lot of stress coming up in the next few weeks, so wish me luck!
And thank you for everyone putting forth theories and different ideas about the Host and Harper's scheme. lol. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 29: All Fired Up
"Calline?" Chance stared at the girl as blood dripped from her arm, burning holes in the worn wooden floor. "What's going on?"
The girl fidgeted nervously as she looked between all of the people standing the foyer and staring at her. Chance seemed shocked but concerned while the others wore different expressions. Morrigan looked almost fearful to see the girl bleeding acid, but Hector and Abby gazed on almost stoically. Maggie held a nervous Buck in her arms as he hid his face in her chest. Only Elisa seemed completely uninterested as she focused on the barely conscious mercenary whose head was resting in her lap.
"I—" the girl began, looking around the room. "I— I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…."
"Calline," Chance said, slowly taking a step toward the trembling girl. "It's okay. Why didn't you tell me? Did the Federation do this to you too?"
Calline nodded, seeming to shrink into herself as she raised her hands to her face. "I'm sorry I lied… I didn't want you to think I was too dangerous and then leave me behind!"
"Hey, no," the lemur creature said with a soft smile. "It's ok. I understand."
Despite Chance's reassurances, the girl began to cry. "I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry, Chance! Please don't be—"
"Hey," Elisa cut her off, shooting the girl a cutting glare. "If you're going to keep up with the water works, do you mind getting out of here? Maybe actually doing something about that acid you're bleeding all over the floor?"
Calline blinked and stared in shock at Elisa's abruptness.
"Can't you see," Elisa continued as she pet the trembling mercenary's hair, "that we have a different crisis already unfolding here? Put some neutralizing powder on the cuts and then wrap your arm up in gauze like a normal person instead of whining about it. Don't you think you've done enough damage already by rushing in and throwing yourself at Samus while she was having an attack? Show some damn respect and get the hell out of here!"
The girl stared quietly at Elisa, not knowing what to say and surprised that the woman could sound so commanding while kneeling on the ground. "Y-Yes, Ma'am."
Abridgette stepped forward and put her arm gently around the girl's shoulders. "Come on, Calline. Let's go see where the first aid kit is."
As they began to leave the room, Morrigan and Maggie followed and began telling Abby where the medical supplies were. Only Hector and Chance stayed behind.
"Um… Elisa?" Hector said after a moment.
Elisa looked up at him, suddenly noticing his presence after having let herself get lost in thought. "Yes?"
"Is Mom all right? What happened to her?"
Elisa paused. She knew Samus could be very self-conscious about her anxiety disorder and one of her greatest fears was her son ever seeing her have an attack.
"She's fine, Hector." Elisa went back to petting the mercenary's hair. "She just had a flashback and took a nasty fall."
"Oh… did she hit her head?"
"I don't know. Why don't you go head over to wherever Abby is and go help out with Calline?"
Hector took one last look at Samus laying in Elisa's lap before he nodded and turned to walk away. He doubted Abby needed any help with Calline, but he also didn't think Samus or Elisa wanted him to stay near them.
Elisa waited for Hector to disappear down the hall with the rest of them before she leaned down and kissed the still-trembling Samus on her forehead. "It's all right, Love," she whispered to the bounty hunter as she gently wiped some of the sweat from her face. "You're safe now. Everything is all right now."
Samus's eyes slowly opened, but they didn't seem to see anything as they just gazed off distantly. She seemed to be in a daze as Elisa continued speaking softly to her and petting her hair. Chance watched quietly, not sure what to do, but he took a seat on the ground and wrapped his long bushy tail around his body as he watched the two women together.
"I'm going to go out on a limb," Elisa said as she looked toward the semi-human, "and guess she hasn't taken any of her medications since going on the run?"
Chance shook his head. "I put her on some antibiotics because she was wounded and it got infected, but that was it."
Elisa nodded, looked down at Samus, and sighed. "You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days, you know that? I know protecting the galaxy is more important to you than taking care of yourself, but don't you know you're no good to the galaxy when you let yourself get like this?"
"What happened?" Chance asked, inching closer to the two women. "Was it a seizure or something?"
Elisa shook her head. "I doubt it. I think she must have had a nasty flashback to something and it threw her off balance, and combined with falling down the stairs, she ended up having a massive panic attack."
"Oh…" Chance looked down at Samus who had ceased trembling but now had her eyes closed and looked almost peaceful as Elisa stroked her hair. "There was one night aboard the Dreamboat Annie, our ship, that she had a nightmare. I heard her screaming and went to check on her. She said she had a dream where she watched her friend die."
"Adam," Elisa said, glancing down at Samus.
The bounty hunter's eyes opened and she stared languidly up at her partner at the sound of the late General's name. "A… dam?" she asked weakly.
Elisa kissed her forehead again. "Coming around, are you?" she asked in a soft, soothing voice. "I'm glad."
Samus looked up at her partner, a little more lucid now. "Elisa? What… what happened?"
"You had an attack, Love. And you fell down a flight of stairs."
"Oh… is that all?" Samus sounded groggy as she looked up at Elisa and then over to Chance. "Oh, hi Chancey."
The semi-human grinned. "Hi, Samus."
"Were you hurt anywhere?" Elisa asked.
The bounty hunter nuzzled into Elisa's lap. "I'm pretty sure I've been hurt everywhere at some point. Sometimes I wonder if the scar tissue is the only thing holding me together."
Elisa shook her head. "That's not what I meant. Are you hurting anywhere right now? Did you hit your head when you fell down the stairs?"
Samus thought about it for a minute. "Probably."
Elisa raised her eyebrows. "Probably?"
"Yes."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Mmm…." Samus closed her eyes. "I think I hurt something but I can't remember."
"You can't remember?"
"Mmm… nope."
"Why can't you remember?"
"'Cause I hit my head when I fell down the stairs."
Elisa sighed in exasperation. "That's literally what I just asked you…"
Samus looked up at her in surprise but then looked over to Chance. "I hit my head."
Chance just smiled awkwardly. "I know."
Elisa gently pulled Samus further into her lap and wrapped her arms around the bounty hunter's chest. While it worried her that Samus probably had a concussion, she was just thankful the bounty hunter seemed more loopy than upset at the moment. "I worry about you, you know."
Looking up at Elisa, Samus seemed a little confused but genuinely concerned. "You know it would take more than falling down the stairs to kill me."
Much to the bounty hunter's surprise, a couple of tears rolled down her partner's face as she held onto Samus tighter. "I know it takes more than that to kill you, but dammit Samus, I just hate seeing you get hurt and you're really good at that. And I get scared!"
Samus's eyes grew wide as she reached up with one hand and wiped the tears from Elisa's cheeks. "I'm not hurt bad or anything. Just a few bruises at most. No broken bones.
Elisa closed her eyes and the tears started falling faster as she actively began crying. "Y-you don't understand, Samus… I thought I lost you!"
"Because I fell down the stairs?"
"Because you were gone and I thought I would never see you again!" Elisa sobbed as she held Samus even tighter. "Because you blew up a planet and had to flee, and you were gone from me forever! And then they thought I knew where you were and they took me to that awful place, and I can't even tell you what they did to me there! And I didn't know if you were safe or if they had caught you too or what they were doing to you!"
Samus clumsily tried to sit up, but Elisa held her down and the bounty hunter didn't try too hard to break her partner's grasp. "Elisa…"
"You could have been dead for all I knew!"
The mercenary stopped trying to sit up and instead snuggled into her partner's lap and kissed her leg. "But I'm not dead. I'm right here, and I love you. I'm not leaving you behind ever again."
Elisa's tears let up for a moment as she looked down at Samus in her arms. "What happened just now? What happened that made you fall down the stairs?"
Samus closed her eyes and took a breath. "I got dizzy. I was thinking about Adam and flashed back to his death on that bottle ship. When I had the heat stroke and couldn't stand up right. Everything started spinning and I could hear the explosions. Then there's a blank spot until when I woke up and you were holding me and said I fell down the stairs."
Elisa steadied her breathing as she looked down at Samus and nodded. "What triggered that?"
Samus thought about it for a little while, her lips pressed tight as she recalled the details leading up to the attack. "Seeing Hector and Abby engaged. It made me so happy. I just wished he could have been there…"
"Wait," Chance said, looking confused as he glanced between Samus and Elisa. "I really don't know much about this stuff, but I thought flashbacks were triggered by scary things?"
Elisa smiled sadly. "Not always."
Samus just nodded. "Scary things rarely bother me. I'm used to those. I'm trained to handle entire planets full of things that want to kill me. This is different. I'm happy Hector and Abby are moving forward in their lives, but I'm sad because it's something I used to tease Adam about. I'm not used to these feelings together, and sometimes they just get so tangled up I don't know how to feel them and…" She paused. "I wish it were more straight forward, but my… condition is a little messier than that."
Elisa ran her fingers through Samus's hair. "And then she skulks off and beats herself up for not being able to feel happy when everyone else is. Happiness is a complicated feeling for someone who's lost so many people that she's cared about." She gave Samus a gently scolding look. "But I keep telling her she doesn't have to beat herself up over something like that. The fact that she needs a little extra time and her own space to sort out her feelings doesn't rain on anyone else's parade."
Samus looked embarrassed and just nodded wordlessly.
"And honestly," Elisa continued, eyeing Samus impishly, "I'd rather she take some alone time to sort out those feelings instead of getting overwhelmed and punching spaceship hulls until they're dented beyond repair."
Samus's face blushed a deep red as she turned to look at Chance. "I was a bit less stable when I first came to Earth five years ago. I've had to really work on myself since the Space Pirate War ended."
"She's come a long way," Elisa said, placing a kiss on her lover's forehead. "Even if we do hit a few bumps from time to time."
"Oh," Samus said, looking like she had suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of bumps, I think I hit my head on the stairs when I fell down."
Elisa laughed and kissed her forehead again. "Well, that settles it. I am now thoroughly convinced that you are concussed."
The mercenary smiled awkwardly. "Oh…"
Chance' tail flicked at he looked from Samus to Elisa. "I do have some medical training. I can take care of her."
Samus just shook her head. "It's not the worst injury I've ever had. I think just taking it easy tonight should be enough."
Elisa nodded. "Everyone else has probably already started dinner without us. We'll just get some food and fluids in her, and she'll probably be fine in a few hours. The nice thing about her being so accident prone is that I actually have a good sense of how long it will take her to heal from anything."
The mercenary and her partner stood slowly, Elisa helping Samus to balance as she got to her feet. As soon as she was upright, however, Samus seemed more stable, and Elisa was able to relax a bit.
Chance smiled. "You two are adorable together."
Samus laughed. "First time I've ever been called adorable."
Without warning, the lemur creature stepped forward and gave Samus a big hug, wrapping his long fluffy tail around her body.
"Hey," Samus laughed, hugging him back. "What's this for?"
"You just looked like you need it," he replied before turning to Elisa and pulling her into a three-way hug. "You, too." His tail wrapped around all of them as the shared the hug for a moment before breaking apart.
"Wow, Chance," Elisa said as they turned to walk toward the dining room. "Your fur is so soft. What do you condition it with?"
The lemur man beamed with pride. "It's my own concoction. I can show you how to make it later if you want."
"That would be awesome," she replied as she slipped one of her hands into his and the other into Samus's. Together, the three of them held hands as they walked to join the rest of their group for dinner.
It didn't take long for everyone to eat once Samus, Chance, and Elisa joined them at the table. Samus, in particular, had not realized just how hungry she was as she devoured everything on her plate and even took a second helping. Despite the earlier commotion, dinner was one of those rare times when there was no talk of missions, danger, or the Federation, and no one mentioned Samus's accident on the stairs. Instead, the dinner was treated as a celebration of Hector and Abby's engagement, and the whole group feasted on turkey, fresh vegetables, breads, cheeses, and wine.
By the end of the meal, everyone was very full and a few people were even blissfully tipsy as the group dispersed. Hector and Abby, practically glowing from excitement and wine, headed into the living room with Morrigan, Maggie, Buck, and Chance. Elisa and Samus headed into the kitchen, insisting that Morrigan and Maggie rest while they cleaned up. They figured it was only fair since the other two women had done all of the cooking.
Once everything was off the table, however, Elisa shooed Samus over to the small kitchen table to sit and rest while she did the dishes. Normally the bounty hunter would have put up more of a resistance, but she knew how important it was to Elisa that she rest, and her head was still hurting. As though able to read her mind, Elisa went into the freezer, grabbed an ice pack, and gave it to her lover to apply to the bump on her head. Samus smiled, once again wondering how she had gotten lucky enough to find someone who not only cared about her but also was able to anticipate her needs and help her out without her asking.
Elisa was just finishing up the dishes when they heard a knock coming from the kitchen entryway. Both women looked over to see a very nervous looking Calline standing in the door frame, and Samus's eyes dated directly to the bandage wrapped around the girl's arm.
"Calline?" the bounty hunter asked. "Are you all right? What happened to your arm?"
The girl's eyes widened as she looked at the bounty hunter. She was already pale as a ghost and looked almost frightened of Samus. "You don't remember?"
The mercenary shook her head, and Elisa turned off the water, quietly regarding the teenager.
"You… clawed me," Calline replied, confusion evident in her voice.
Samus raised her eyebrows. "I did?"
"Y-you don't remember?"
Samus shook her head.
"Oh… you were on the floor and I got scared and ran up to you but—"
"I lashed out at you," Samus finished for her and frowned. "I'm sorry Calline. If you ever see me like that, well, it's best not to approach."
"Samus," Elisa said quietly, not taking her eyes off of the girl in the doorway, "we discovered that Calline bleeds acid blood like you do."
Samus tilted her head curiously as she looked between her wife and the girl. "You do? Was that part of the Project Zero experiment also?"
Calline nodded. "The Host bleeds acid. I didn't want anyone to know… I was afraid they wouldn't let me stay with them. You bleed acid too?"
The mercenary nodded. "I do. I have the genes of a few different creatures in my DNA."
"I wanted to come in here," Calline began, "to apologize for upsetting you and running at you earlier. I got scared seeing you on the ground…"
Samus held up her hand. "No, Calline. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you. You were just worried about me and didn't know about my reflexes. I'm sorry I cut up your arm."
"So… it doesn't bother you that I bleed acid?"
The mercenary shook her head. "No." Then suddenly an idea occurred to her, and she was surprised she had not thought of it sooner. "Calline, you were part of Project Zero for a couple of years and then escaped, right?"
The girl nodded.
"What if I told you I wanted to infiltrate and destroy the project? Rescue any of the children who were being used as test subjects and destroy the Federation's bioweapons research?"
Calline's mouth fell open as she stared at Samus in shock. "I'd say you're crazy. I know you're a strong warrior, but you wouldn't stand a chance against the stuff they're engineering there. And the Host…"
"Have you actually seen the Host?"
Calline shifted uncomfortably and fidgeted. "No. But I'm psychic. And I bleed acid, and there are other species in the Host. Strong species, and the derivative creatures… you wouldn't stand a chance."
Samus's mind flashed back briefly to her battle with Silver Wing and how completely powerless she had been against his telekinetic abilities. She shuddered to think of taking on another psychic enemy like that. "I'm stronger than you think, Calline. And if I don't stop the Zero Host experiments, who will?"
The girl shivered but balled her hands up into fists. "I-I will…"
"You?" Samus raised an eyebrow. "Do you even know where to begin? Where they keep the experiments? Where they keep the Host?"
"I-I know… a little." Her voice broke, and she sounded terrified but she pushed on. "I know about the man who oversees the experiments and where a lot of the monsters are stored while they're making them. I know where I trained with the Federation Force, but I doubt they have that facility open anymore since we escaped."
"But do you think the same man is still in charge and that they still build the monsters in the same place?"
Calline nodded. "The man wasn't there when we escaped. He works for the government and oversees the program, but he wasn't in charge of training us. He just designed the experiments."
"You've seen the man?" Samus asked.
"Yes. When I was taken to have my procedures… when they made me into what I am now, we were taken to his ship. That's how I know the monsters were made there."
"Do you remember the name of the ship where they made the monsters?" Samus asked gently. "Or the name of the man?"
The girl nodded, and by this point she was visibly shaking as she recalled the traumatic events. "He was a doctor in a white lab coat. The ship was called the Arcadia, and his name was Dr. Renpo."
Samus's mind raced as she searched her brain for where she had heard that name before. It sounded so familiar but the fog of the concussion still made it difficult to think. As it hit her all at once, she stood bolt upright and gasped, knocking the chair to the ground.
"That's it!" she exclaimed as memories came flooding back of waking up injured after her mission to SR-388 and finding that pieces of her suit had been cut away. "The Arcadia! That's where they injected me with the Metroid DNA. Of course! Adam said there was a scientist named Renpo involved in the Zero Host project! That must have been the doctor who cut the pieces of my suit off of me!"
Samus's head was spinning with the revelation. She was not sure why she had not put two and two together sooner. Of course the vessel that just so happened to come up with the Metroid vaccine had been the hotbed of bioweapon experimentation she had been searching for. And of course the Zero Host project would have been trying to dabble in Metroid experimentations as well.
The existence of the Xenotroids on the bottle ship also made sense now. Adam had been looking for the Zero Host, and the creatures they had come across had been derivatives of the Host. Perhaps that was even why they knew Samus's xenomorph DNA would be compatible with the Metroid vaccine. She could have kicked herself for not realizing the connection sooner. She had been right there on the Arcadia at the start of this mission, probably closer to the Zero Host than she had ever imagined. The Metroid cells they had injected her with had probably come from the Zero Host, making her, in some ways, also one of its derivative creatures.
"We have to get to the Arcadia!" Samus exclaimed excitedly, looking toward Elisa. She was surprised to find the woman wore a completely blank expression. "What's wrong?"
"Um," Calline said, looking at Samus, "who's Adam?"
"What?" The bounty hunter was confused by the sudden change in topic.
"Who's Adam? You said that Adam said that Dr. Renpo was involved with the Zero Host. Who's Adam?"
Samus hesitated. "He's a computer program. I named him after a very dear friend of mine who passed away a couple of years ago."
If it were possible, Calline's big eyes grew even wider. "Was it Adam Malkovich? The General?"
Samus nodded. "Yes. Do you remember hearing about his death on the news?"
Calline shook her head. "N-no. I was part of Project Zero at that time. Back when it was still illegal and underground. He was opposed to the project and all bioweapon experiments."
Samus nodded. "Yes. He was. He was a staunch opponent of unethical genetic experiments. And he was an important General who helped us win the Space Pirate War."
"I know," Calline replied. "That's why he was going to become Secretary of Defense."
"What?" Samus felt like someone had just slapped her across the face.
"General Adam Malkovich. Before he left office, Former Chairman Keaton was going to appoint him to the Secretary of Defense position so he would be grandfathered in under the McKinnon administration."
"I… I never knew that." Samus found herself at a loss for words. "Did Adam know that?"
Calline nodded. "All the Generals did. That's why they leaked the information to him about the Zero Host and the location of where some of the monsters were being kept."
"What?"
"Yeah… their computer division was pretty good at doing stuff like that. False leads. He must have taken the bait because they said he went to that ship and blew himself up to take out the monsters there."
Samus felt the world falling out under her feet again, and she almost fell over. But she gripped the table to steady herself, forcing her mind to stay in the present even as the sounds of the explosions rang out in her ears again. "They killed him."
Calline seemed confused by Samus's reaction. "I'm sorry about your friend."
But Samus wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were wild and unfocused as she looked over to Elisa. "They planned it. Th-they murdered him. All this time… I blamed myself. They planned it all along. They planted those things there because they knew he would sacrifice himself!"
"Samus," Elisa began, but even she didn't know what to say. The revelation was a shock to her as well.
"This was all fucking Harper's plan!" Samus shouted. "I knew I should have finished the job when my hands were around that bitch's throat! She murdered Adam so she could become Secretary of Defense! She knew there wasn't time for Keaton to appoint someone else before McKinnon took office!"
Samus's face contorted wildly, and she looked like she was going to growl. Elisa felt helpless as Calline gasped and backed away from the angry mercenary.
"Fuck!" Samus screamed as she whirled around and punched through one of the walls. "Fuck it all! He died for nothing! I killed him! I killed him for nothing!"
"Samus," Elisa said softly as she approached the mercenary, whose fist was bleeding by this point. "Oh, Samus…"
The bounty hunter turned to Elisa, her eyes wild with rage. "No more fucking around here. We leave tomorrow. We're going to the Arcadia, and by the time I'm done there, Renpo and Harper will be lucky if the worst thing I've done is killed them."
