Metroid Prologue, Chapter 2
"What is this?"
"A human."
"So small, though."
"Indeed…"
"She is breathing."
"How did she survive the crash?"
"The pod's walls must have cushioned her…"
"We shall take her back to the complex."
"Indeed."
Swirls of mist… no, it was a tree. No, it wasn't. What was going on? Was it a bird, or a person? It was tall, taller than her, and had the body of a human, but it's face was that of a bird.
"What—"
"We are the Chozo, Hatchling."
She stood up in the pod to see twelve of the bird-people sitting around her. She was in a small room. They must have dragged her across the planet's surface for quite a ways to get her here.
"What's going on?"
"In time, Hatchling."
Samantha stood up and hopped out of the pod. One of the Chozo stood and gestured towards a door. "We will show you to the sleeping quarters, Hatchling."
Samantha felt calmed. She liked the serene grace with which these almost-ethereal creatures moved around their home.
It also made her feel better that this was just a dream, as "Chozo" do not exist. So, when she woke up, Mommy and Daddy would be smiling down at her like they always did. And she would be happy again.
As she sank into the bed, she knew with all her heart that everything would be okay. That she would wake up, and be happy.
The bright morning sunlight streamed through her open window, as she slowly rose out of bed and turned over.
Wait.
Sunlight? There was no sun in K-2L! She was still in the Chozo place! She began to sob, crying her very eyes out, hoping she would drown in her own tears so that she could go to whatever place Mommy and Daddy had gone to. Hoping with all her heart that--
"Why is it that you cry, Hatchling?"
"Mommy… Daddy… dead…that thing… it killed them…"
It nodded. "I see. What is the "thing" you speak of?"
"I don't know… please don't ask me any more questions…"
"Indeed…"
take her to the Commune
yes
The Chozo led Samantha to a small room It had a small chair in its center, and there were twelve Chozo sitting on mats on the floor looking at her.
One gestured for her to sit in the chair. She did so uneasily, sliding into it as if it was an electric chair like they used to execute criminals in the Federation. As she sat, one of the Chozo rose. The others arranged themselves into sitting positions around it.
The standing Chozo walked over to the chair and placed his smooth, hard hands over her forehead. He closed his yellow eyes, glazed with age, and began to slowly nod. The other Chozo did the same, albeit without placing their hands on her head.
Samantha suddenly felt odd, as if she was falling asleep only she wasn't and their hands felt like bird claws and they were sharp and she didn't like it and she wanted to… wanted to…
Black.
Samantha felt her world slowly sliding into focus.
She didn't want it to.
She hated everything. She hated the Chozo. She hated that thing that had killed her parents. She hated them all. She just wanted to die. Curl up here on this bench and wait for her life to seep away from her.
Wait…
This was different. Her thoughts had never been this mature before…
She sat up and looked at herself. She didn't look any different. It was just that she had never felt this emotion before. This raw hate and … rage.
She wanted that thing her mother had called a Pirate to die. It and all of its ilk deserved to be incinerated in the cold fire that burned within her heart. She hopped out of bed—quite a bit more lightly than usual, that was strange—and began to walk towards where the Chozo made their residence.
A Chozo stepped out of the door an instant before she opened it, staring down at her with the eyes a mother sparrow has when feeding her child.
"Greetings, Hatchli—"
"How can I kill them?"
"What?"
"Those—abominations. The Pirates. I want them to die. I don't care how, but they deserve to die, by my hand. How do I kill them?"
The Chozo sighed.
"Yes, he was right. You are truly the Defender."
"What?"
"The Chozo have an ancient prophecy that tells of The Defender, the one who will save us, our messiah. The prophecy states that she will have a past that is '…stained in blood and awash with pain…' and that she will be the last hope for our dying people."
"I don't want to save you, I only want to destroy them. They—"
"Yes, child, it is known." A tint of sarcasm stained this statement, a trait that Samantha had not known the Chozo for, although it wasn't like she had known them for very long.
"Can you help me?" A tint of anger stained this statement.
"Yes, Hatchling."
"How?"
"…"
"How?"
"… It will hurt…"
"I don't care if I lose my arms. I want to be able to kill them, it doesn't matter how."
Although I'd prefer if it involved an extreme amount of pain.
The Chozo sighed.
"We will help you."
"How?"
"We have already given you the first injection. It will speed up growth, bodily ability, and mental maturation. It has already begun."
Oh, so that was it…"What are the others? When do I get them?"
"Soon enough, Hatchling, Soon enough."
It took weeks for the Chozo medication to kick in, and then she was bed-ridden, with a continual dull ache in her body from her bones growing abnormally fast. She began to go through puberty at an enhanced rate, hormones rushing this way and that through her body, playing hell with her emotions and causing abnormal growth.
She barely noticed any of this, however.
The Chozo had (with her consent) sedated her, and she was only awake for one hour a day, which she had mentally dubbed "visiting hour" on account of the fact that she was constantly plagued during this hour by Chozo, swarming around her and asking her questions.
In fact, there were never more than four Chozo in her fairly spacious room at a time, and they took turns asking her questions, slowly and carefully, which proved to be all the more annoying for an adolescent.
Finally, though, she was completely sedated. They left her in a room for approximately a month, tossing and turning as they ran tests and gave injections. None of it hurt too much, but in her dreams she would occasionally experience a blinding flash of pain as something happened in the outside world. By average human reckoning it was a week, though to Samantha it was an eternity upon an eternity with all of forever in between. According to the Chozo after she woke up, she would go from a high fever to chills and back again in the course of 30 seconds or so. In many of her dreams she would move into the zone of being the Chozo referred to as "behind the Veil", and she would see her parents, floating aimlessly through the ethereal white space, and she would sometimes speak to them, but they never replied.
When they finally woke her, though, she didn't know who she was. She had had baby fat to spare a month ago, and now… she must have been twenty years old or so! She simply stared at herself for a second, and then—
"What the hell?" She said to herself, staring at the bloodstains on her covers. "What the--" A Chozo stepped into her room.
"Yes, Hatchling?"
"What—this blood—what—what the hell is going on? "
The Chozo stared at her for a second, and then something-was that embarrassment? -Creased its birdlike features
"Erm—It is a human condition called a period, hatchling. It is hard to explain, but it involves pregnancy and—"
"PREGNANCY? If I'm going to become one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy and possibly-hopefully-wipe out an entire race I'm not going to have much time to worry about having children, am I?
"Probably not, hatchling, but it is very hard to remove without damaging the subject."
"And why do you keep referring to me as 'hatchling?' I have to be nearly as old as you now, right?
The Chozo chuckled in that knowing way they all seemed to have, and said, "By Federation terms, you are now 21 years of age. By Federation terms our youngest is 476 years of age."
Samantha gawked for a moment.
"What the… How?"
"We simply… live. We have no way to explain it."
"But-what-ah-"
"Hatchling, I believe you need your rest."
"Samantha looked at herself for a moment, her new 20-year-old body, her strange new features, and a wave of tiredness nearly overcame her.
"Mmph".
"My thoughts exactly, Hatchling."
As the Chozo turned to leave the room, Samantha called out to it.
"When does my training start?"
"Tomorrow."