Ok, here's Chapter four enjoy.

Again, if for some obscure reason known only to god (and don't think I won't ask him) you feel like reading a disclaimer, go back to chapter one to quench your thirst for legal bull.

Oops.  One slight disclaim must be made.  Mechadrakes, and the character Red Draco, is the property of Red Draco (www.mechadrake.com).  The character Maq is the property of Maqqy96 (www.mhho.com.)

Also, there are terms mentioned here connected a fic I wrote that never got off the ground that will need clarifying.

Bio-Metal:  A metallic substance with biological properties.  Including those of natural growth, physical adaptation, and natural reproduction.  Each bio-metal 'strain' is as diverse and unique as human DNA.  Bio-metal is present in Reploids, Cybrids, and Bioroids.  Incredibly strong and resistant to damage.

Cybrid:  A child naturally born by the coupling of two reploids, one male, one female, instead of constructed.  Made up entirely of Bio-Metal.  Still vulnerable to digital-based viruses, though immune to biological threats.

Bioroid:  A being born from the coupling of a Reploid and Human parent.  Made up of both bio-metal and biological material.  Immune to digital viruses, but vulnerable to biological threats.

One little edit:  In prior chapters I've said that Samus' hair is russet brown.  I was working off a fan-drawn pic at the time.  Since then I've seen some of the official art from the end of Metroid Fusion and have learned that her hair is in fact blond.  That correction has been made in this chapter.

Paths of Life

Chapter Four

Sleeping Beauty: Half Unconscious People Say the Damndest Things.

Part One: Discoveries


          Three days.  Three days now he and the unknown woman he had literally pulled from death's claws had been inside the troop compartment of an assault shuttle.  She was sill unconscious, but she was recovering.  She was also clean-now.  When X had brought her aboard her front had been covered in dried choked up blood, and he had had to wash her off before treating her for extreme viral poisoning.  X was rather proud of himself for managing to remain in detached clinical professionalism while he cleaned off all the dried blood that had covered her. He'd had to remove her shirt to do so, and he had to admit that whoever this woman was, she was a definite knockout.  She had a modest figure and was athletically built, but not overly muscular.  Slightly tanned skin and blond hair gave her a look that brought back memories of the forests on earth, and violet eyes.  However, X kept those thoughts locked up in the extreme reaches of the back of his mind as he was caring for her.  He was not going to succumb to Florence Nightingale syndrome.  Or risk getting himself killed by this woman when she woke up by letting his mind wander. 

X shuddered when he thought of the hell he was going to catch from his friends, Red Draco and Maq, when he got back to Antiga.  Maq might leave him be, but he doubted it, and Red was going to have a blast giving him a hard time.

          It was about 10:00PM now, and X was winding down.  He had been rather surprised at how tiring it was to be the sole outlet of care for a person. It was amazing.  X didn't have more than a cursory understanding of modern medicine, but the Stormrunner's doctor, a female Bioroid named Juno, was able to walk him through administering antiviral drugs using the shuttle's comm. system.  And it seemed that X's ministrations were paying off.  She was actually moving a bit now, like she was in a deep sleep, rather than a coma, and X expected her to come out of it any day now. 

There was one very interesting thing about this woman however.  Scans had shown that her DNA wasn't entirely human.  99.7% of it was, but that point three percent was a glaring question mark that needed to be answered.  Juno had spent two days scanning the Stormrunner's database before she found a match for it.  It was Metroid DNA.  Which explained why she was able to fight off the virus so quickly, let alone still be alive.  But there was one very large and prominent question.  How in the name of all that was holy did Metroid DNA get into her genetic structure?  For whatever reason, having that strain of Metroid DNA had some astounding effects, aside from saving her life.

After running tests on a blood sample, Juno had discovered an amazing regenerative capability.  She hypothesized that even regenerating a severed limb was well within this mystery woman's capability.  Juno had also found several bio-chemical tags that acted as 'antigerone' or, life extending.  Antigerone counteracted the chemicals in the human body that caused aging, theoretically making a human immortal, so determining her age would be all but impossible.  Her neural impulses fired at an increased rate as well.  Giving her a reaction speed many times that of a normal human. 

One thing that X had discovered as soon as he had picked this woman up to put her in bed was that she was a good deal heavier than she looked.  For her height and build, Juno figured she should mass about 140 pounds.  Instead she came damn near 200.  After some searching, Juno found why.  The Metroid DNA had re-enforced her skeleton and muscles.  Her bones were nearly as tough as a Bio-Metal skeleton, and while her muscles weren't big, they were extremely dense.  About fifty times denser than normal, making her a good twenty to thirty times stronger than even the strongest normal human.  Not quite as strong as a Reploid, but still truly amazing.  All this because Metroid DNA had been introduced to her body at some time, and made some changes.  X knew that metroids were notoriously hard to kill, he'd fought them himself, and that point three percent of this woman's DNA would make her just as tough and deadly.

X smiled down at her "An enigma, wrapped in a mystery, concealed in a puzzle, and hidden in shadow." He laughed softly "Comes very close to describing you."  X said as he covered her up with a blanket  "You'd probably be flattered to hear someone say that about you, wouldn't you?"  His patient, of course, said nothing.  Although she did mumble something incoherently, which was certainly a very good sign.

After finishing with tucking his patient in, X shook his head.  So many questions, not enough answers.  He'd find out more when his patient woke up, that he was sure of.  He sighed.  Four more days and they would be at the RCN starbase orbiting Antiga. Then he and his patient could be de-contaminated, and he could decide just what the hell he was supposed to do with a human from outside the Concordant.  X shook his head again, then tuned around to climb into the bunk across from his patient's.  His superiors we not going to be pleased, but he'd deal with that not-so-little problem later; right now he needed some sack time.

Part 2: Awakenings

The pain was gone.  It took several moments for Samus' jaded nerves to detect that, but once they did, they began to basic startup procedures that a human body went through when waking up.  She groaned softly as she started to come to.  She wanted to go back to sleep.  The darkness that had overtaken her had been soft and comfortable, without pain, and safe.  She wanted to fall back into it, but even as she tried, her body informed her that such laxity would not be tolerated.  Finally opening her eyes it took Samus a moment to see that she wasn't in her ship.  That brought on a surge of near panic, until her eyes fell on the medical supplies next to the bed she was on.  It was doubtful that pirates would have provided her with medical care.  In fact, not many people would.  The Terran Federation Navy grouped bounty hunters together with mercs, smugglers, and drug dealers, and afforded them all the same treatment.  That being destruction on sight.  Her involvement with them was only because they considered her fully expendable.  She obviously wasn't on a Chozo ship, the technology wasn't right. In fact, she didn't recognize the technology that was onboard whatever craft this was.  And any other race would simply have left her ship to drift.  So who owned this ship?  Her eyes fell on the form of the sleeping being across from her.  Samus raised her eyebrows.  Whoever it was, they had helped her, and, even if he (she could tell this person was a man by his size) had some ulterior motive, she really wasn't in any position to do anything at the moment.  Coming to this logical decision, Samus shifted around in her bunk and settled in to observe the man who had saved her life.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]^_^

X's eyes popped open as his systems restarted.  After a moment he sat up and turned to look at his patient-and stopped dead.

She was awake.  Not only awake, but lying on her side with her head propped up on her arm, looking at him curiously.  X looked right back.  He had always assumed that he would be caring for her when she awoke.  Perhaps as he was running a damp sponge across her forehead, or spooning broth into her mouth, but certainly not lying passively, watching him.  X swallowed and found the will to speak.

"Uh, hello."  Simple, yet effective [Well, that certainly sounded like you didn't make it up on the spot, you jackass] Funny, X didn't remember having a sarcastic conscience.

She blinked at him. "Hello yourself."  Her voice had softness to it; although it also had a no-nonsense quality as well, deep toned wasn't the right word, although it wasn't a high voice either and there was an inner strength there as well.

This conversation wasn't going the way X had planned it.  [Great, time to improvise.]  The thought went through his head [Hope I don't make a complete fool of myself.]  He rolled out of his bunk and stood up.  She Began to do the same, but stumbled as she came to her feet, her legs still weak from three days of being in a coma.  X stepped to her and held her up.  Samus was moderately surprised by this, but wasn't alarmed.  If he'd wanted to hurt her, he would have done so already.

"Well, uh…" X stumbled "I guess introductions are in order.  I'm Commander X, Reploid Concordant Navy."

Samus came to her feet, holding onto X's arm for support, she stood perhaps a inch or so shorter than him and wore a simple large T-shirt and a pair of shorts.  She quirked one eyebrow as questions ran through her mind.  [X?  What kind of name is X?  It sounds familiar though, where have I heard it before?  And that word 'Reploid'…that's framiliar too…]  She noticed that X was looking at her, waiting for her to speak.  "Sorry, I guess I'm still partly asleep.  My name's Samus.  Samus Aran."

X tilted his head to one side as the name registered.

"Samus Aran?  The same Samus that blew up SR388 and has been giving the pirate guilds such a hard time?"

Samus couldn't help smiling.

"Yes, the same.  Now is there any chance of you telling me just where I am, and how I got here?"

X smiled back.

"Certainly, but how about we talk sitting down, you probably should be on your feet for too long at a time, not to mention that you're probably hungry."

"Alright, and you're right, I'm starving."

X led Samus ahead to the pilot's compartment, the only place with seats that hadn't been converted to bunk space.  Samus sat down in the co-pilots seat.

"Well, there is a replicator onboard, what would you like for…" X looked at his wrist chrono "Brunch?"

Samus was looking out the canopy.  "Hmm?  Oh, sorry.  I'd kill for a strong cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal."

"Oatmeal?" X questioned.

"Yeah, I've loved it since I was a kid."

"Alright, coffee and oatmeal it is."

X tapped a few buttons on a small panel.  A faint shimmering appeared in a small alcove, and coalesced into a steaming bowl of thick oatmeal.  He tapped a few more, and two cups of hot coffee appeared.

"Well, here you go, uh, ma'am."  X set a cup of coffee on a tray and set it on Samus' lap.

"Please, just Samus, the only people who call me 'ma'am' are government officials and police officers."

X chuckled.  "Ok.  I'll call you Samus if you call me X, all those 'sir's  and 'commanders' grate on my nerves."

Samus laughed softly as X sat down in the pilots seat.  "We'll get along just fine."

It was silent for a moment as both X and Samus looked out the canopy of the shuttle at the wall of the launching bay.

Samus looked over at X.  "So" she asked "Just why exactly am I here?"

Ok.  This seems like a good spot to stop.  Chapter five is under way, and it will be interesting.

Notes:  Hrmm.  Nothing to report really, send any questions, C&C, money, or reviews to: max_sterling83@yahoo.com.  Send and hate mail, rants on characterization, or tirades against crossovers to: Idontgiveashit@shutthefuckup.net

Ja' ne.

Veritech