It wasn't until I finished this that I checked Super Metroid's map and realized Kraid's Lair is beneath the ENTIRETY of Maridia…oh, well. I strive for accuracy, but I've realized I can't be 100% while writing this. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

…

…Sa…mus…

Samus.

She opened her eyes. Or at least, she thought she did, for cold oblivion enveloped both her unconsciousness and the waking world. The void suffocated all sensation. Not the faintest green light emitted from her suit. Nor did the slightest shadow graze her hand, which still reached for something far beyond its grasp. And the soft whisper in her ear vanished like a bubble on a needle. It might not have existed in the first place.

I'm alive.

She'd been knocked senseless. As she revived, the weight of the world pressed mercilessly upon every inch of her body. Her slow heartbeat punctuated every ache and throb of her head. She struggled to get her bearings; of what was up or down. Was she up or down? Couldn't tell. Her memory was sluggish as melting ice.

But like melting ice, memory trickled, drop by drop, back down into her mind.

Brinstar…Kraid…

The trickle became a stream, and the stream a river.

The dam…the falls…

And the river a raging flood.

It's been taken.

It's been taken.

It's been taken.

In a snap second, the Power Suit rebooted. A green flash like lightning surrounded her, then faded. The flash did nothing to illuminate the all-encompassing void, but she could at least make sense of her body's positioning. She indeed seemed to be upside-down, for her HUD indicated she was sinking rapidly.

…Sinking?

Her entire body jolted as if electrified, firing pins and needles through every single nerve. Firing her boosters, she quickly corrected her position.

Go up. Up.

The thrusters on her back were designed for relatively short bursts rather than lengthy usage, hence why she didn't use them like a jetpack for flight. However, by firing them consistently, she began making gradual progress towards— what she hoped— safety. Here, she realized she hadn't survived the fall unscathed— a large spiderweb crack had damaged one side of her visor, allowing water to slowly leak inside.

She needed to hurry, but taking her time was more crucial. Her HUD indicated she was at least three miles below sea level. Breathing was of no issue thanks to the apparatus covering her nose and mouth, but things would go sour rapidly if she rushed the ascent; her visor would shatter, leading to rapid decompression that would kill her with her basic Power Suit alone. She doubted even the Varia Suit could take the pressure for long. Only the Gravity Suit could properly adapt to such extreme conditions, but even if she had it, she wouldn't come back here in a hurry.

Maridia. So, Brinstar's falls indeed led down to Zebes' one and only ocean. Although it covered a vast expanse of the planet, the majority lay deep underground, with only a handful of pockets exposed to the sun. As a result, an unnatural murkiness clouded the water; Samus tested her visor's light and found it functioning, but it did nothing to penetrate the gloom. Neither sight nor sound of life existed.

Darkness did not frighten Samus Aran. Never had, even as a child. But unlike a child's wild imagination, something real and tangible could lurk in those shadows…something truly monstrous.

…...

…Sa…mus…

That faint whisper again… was she hearing things? Maybe her imagination was playing tricks on her.

Sa…mus…

Samus…

She jerked her head, tapping the side of her helmet to clear any static interference. Her eyes futilely scanned the waters; her radar revealed nothing.

…Samus…

No, a hallucination was out of the question. Her HUD recorded soundwaves each time she heard the whisper.

Come…come…

Who are you? Samus resisted the temptation to call out. Regardless, the whisper grew louder.

Come…Come…

Describing its voice was impossible. It sounded vaguely masculine, enticing yet hollow. It did not to come from one source but resonated all around. And its depth… She could not explain it, but it felt…evil.

COME.

Ugh! Samus doubled over in agony as the command exploded in her ears like a gunshot. Like an infernal heartbeat, the soundwaves pulsed against her body, like somebody throwing punches that phased through her skin and beat her organs instead. Though she instinctively pressed her hands as hard as she could to her head, she could not shut out the menacing voice.

COME.

Come where? Above? Below? The water inside her visor had already risen above her breathing apparatus. Salty droplets stung at her eyes, making her blink rapidly. A large shape flickered across her radar, but it blew out like a candle in the wind before she noticed.

COME!

Quicker than a striking serpent, something snaked around her leg and yanked her down. Her thrusters kicked in on instinct, pulling her in the opposite direction. Stuck in a deadlock, Samus fired down blindly. Miraculously, they hit, and the thing released her. Without hesitation, Samus boosted her thrusters to maximum power. Onward and upward, sparing no thought or backwards glance to the enemy below.

It wasn't until the shadows of the waters slightly lightened that Samus checked to see if it was in pursuit. Nothing except the yawning abyss stared back, though that hardly brought comfort. She allowed her thrusters a brief rest before resuming the steady emissions. The Power Suit could perform countless functions, but it could not swim worth Zoomer droppings. She'd sink like a rock if she paused longer than a second.

"You…"

A familiar, sinister blue fireball manifested before her eyes. As she raised her cannon, the fire flickered, swelled, and transformed.

"YOU HAVE FAILED!"

A warped, twisted specter of a Chozo with wild, sightless eyes blazing like hellfire screamed in distorted Chozodian. The ghastly, ghoulish howl, magnified exponentially by the water, ripped through Samus's mind, body, and soul. Static interference invaded her HUD. The Power Suit's lights blinked and shut off. Like a creature possessed, the phantom flew at her, swiping with long, cruel talons outstretched like sickles.

"YOU HAVE FAILED US ALL!"

On sheer reflex, the Charge Shot she'd readied fired into the middle of the phantom's distorted form. With one last horrific screech, it rippled, then dissipated like evaporating fog.

The Suit's lights powered back on. Samus was alone. The water, though still murky, seemed mysteriously less so. She no longer detected the evil presence in any capacity; it had completely vanished from Maridia.

That Chozo ghost had only been an extension of the greater presence. A puppet. Of that, she was certain. She doubted it was even a Chozo at all— just a trick of the blue fire's light, a cheap shot at scaring her.

She shrugged it off. Whatever this foul presence was trying, it wouldn't work. They both knew it had the Baby, and if it thought a little smoke and noise would keep her from finding the hatchling, it had another thing coming.

Her HUD cleared up the static, though water now completely filled up her visor. The saltiness stung her eyes, but she maintained focus. Her thoughts led back to the pirate logs she read in Brinstar's fortress. Mass outbreaks of hallucinations are plaguing the troops. They babble incoherently, claiming to have seen the dead. Security footage shows them fleeing east.

East of Brinstar…she knew that place. All evidence pointed to the ruins of an ancient Chozo starship. Even her family did not know for certain when the ship crashed on Zebes; its wrecked site had overlooked a deep lake on Crateria for millennia. Out of respect and a little caution, her family left it alone in peace. Samus, however, had explored a few times. Save for the fascinating, yet bizarre technology that once belonged to the ancestors of her tribe, nothing out of the ordinary stood out among the ruins. Nothing supernatural in the least.

Now, something had awakened in the silent hollows of the starship. Something evil, as archaic as the ship, and possibly the Chozo themselves. In her brief encounter, its voice alone nearly killed her. Its powers of possession were no joke if it could snatch pirates from under Mother Brain of all beings' control. Finally, it possessed the ability to summon ghosts, but were they truly ghosts or mere illusions? Samus decided illusions. Any Chozo who died on Zebes had long since been laid to peaceful rest…she herself made sure of that.

Shaking her head, she checked her HUD. Readings indicated a mile and a half left until the surface. Her first objective was simply to head straight back up. Since her position in relevance to the Wrecked Ship could not be determined in the void of Maridia, she would surface first to regain her sense of direction. And to expel the saltwater from her helmet.

Resuming her journey upward, she noted how calm the black waters were. Maridia's species likely congregated around solid ground, like coral reefs or the seafloor, rather than roaming the open ocean, where there was little prey to hunt. This also suggested the evil presence had not been physically present when it attacked Samus. Rather, it telepathically contacted her using powerful psychic waves.

Too much trouble to leave its shelter, she supposed. Coward. It went through all this trouble to try to frighten her when it wouldn't dare face her itself.

Still, she got the impression what she experienced was merely a fraction of its true power. Well, weak or strong, it couldn't hide forever, no matter how many so-called ghosts it threw at her.

But a little voice inside whispered: It looked like Gray Voice.

Samus realized her hands were trembling.