Though I apologize for the delay in the update, it doesn't seem that it mattered greatly.

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Chapter 18: Perseverance

Yawning, the guard glanced down the empty corridor one more time. The other bounty hunters nearby all continued to watch as well. Being bored, he glanced over their position and realized they were carefully placed so that no one explosive could damage too many of them at once. Smart, as always. It wouldn't be easy to take this door.

Still, though, none of it took any of his effort. All he had to do was obey orders and then sit around the corridor half the day. For all the intelligence displayed by the people setting up this safe zone, he was still bored. And that was how most of the galaxy was... bored with safety. He wasn't even that bored and he was already wishing that someone would come wildly shooting, just so they could kill something.

A clanking noise became quite clear, some way down the corridor. Immediately all the bounty hunters were on alert, switching through vision modes. Some of them looked toward the source of the noise, but equal numbers looked elsewhere to check for sneak attacks. The clanking continued steadily. There was a long moment of tension that continued to stretch...

Samus Aran emerged from a side path far down the corridor. Slowly she moved toward them, her walk halting and slow. Oddly, she was wearing a sickly green bio suit that the guard had never seen before. The helmet had been removed, however, and he recognized her face almost instantly. Something was obviously up.

The right shoulder of her bio suit had been blown away. Beneath it the light grey surface of her full body suit appeared to be untouched, but there were cracks all along the suit's armor. At her side in one hand the helmet hung, a massive crack through its visor. Both of her legs appeared to be heavily damaged, but one had a grinding gear that made it jerk during walking and produced the clanking. She was holding her left arm at her side as if it was injured.

"What happened to you?" the leader of the post asked. Samus glanced up at them, eyes half lidded but completely alert through her weariness.

"GC forces," she explained, stopping a safe distance from the door. "I was spying on them and things didn't go to well near the end. Will you guys let me through?"

"I don't suppose you really need identification," the squad captain shrugged, "we know who you are. Approach."

Doing so slowly, Samus got to the group without wincing and then dropped to one knee. Immediately several of the bounty hunters expanded to a new formation. One bent down beside her, concerned, and the others covered them for any attack. Mentally Samus cursed the inferior bio suit that was so easily damaged. It'd been drained of power almost immediately, too.

"There are quarters nearby," the bounty hunter explained to her in a low tone. "Just go down the corridor, past the bar and then to the right. You can take any room that's not locked as long as you tell the commander everything you discovered first."

"Right," Samus agreed with a slight nod. Commander? There was someone in charge of all these bounty hunters as well? In any case, she had no intention of telling anyone what she had discovered. Beyond this point, it was her mission alone. She didn't feel particularly loyal to either side of the conflict, but she knew she was against whoever was responsible for all this. For all the good intentions of the people in charge of this safe zone, they were only out for themselves.

Struggling to her feet, Samus continued into the safe area. Many, many strange looks were cast her direction by the bounty hunters she passed. Most of them had the sense to look away immediately, but she glared away a few of the more obnoxious ones. Of first importance was reaching Bartholomew.

She limped into his repair shop eight minutes later. He was polishing something behind the counter without looking around the room. The instant she entered every eye in the room was on her. Getting up, Bartholomew moved to help her into the back room without a single word. Behind him he locked and soundproofed the door.

"What the hell did you do to that sorry piece of crap?" he asked, the instant the door sealed. Moving to a wall, Samus leaned back against it. She'd avoided much physical damage to herself, but there would be a few bruises from the battle.

"I needed some info," Samus answered him, honestly but briefly. "It was in a GC troop base. Getting in was easy, getting out got a bit messy."

"Ah. Your suit is done."

"Good." A slight smile appeared on Samus's face as she pulled the armor off her. At least it was still functioning enough to unfuse itself properly. Turning to the unit, she found the central processor and removed it, immediately slipping it into one of her pockets. That, she needed to transfer to her real suit. "Consider it yours," Samus vaguely waved toward the suit, "though I don't know what it's worth."

"Scrap metal, probably," Bartholomew appraised swiftly. He was moving toward the back end of the room, past mountains of mechanical parts and partially finished bio suits. Standing against one wall was Samus' bio suit, gleaming orange in the room's light. He'd even polished it, then. Though Samus generally appreciated her bio suit, she was going to do so far more after having her memory refreshed on what an inferior suit felt like.

"That's better," Samus said, stepped to her bio suit and beginning to connect its hard drive with the other suit's. "What'd you add?"

"Slight armor upgrades. Some nasty chemical missiles. Modified speakers that can produce 200 decibels of sound. There are a few new poisons for the needle now. Improved environmental safety in the areas of gases and heat. A personal cloaking device. Computer lock pick. An interesting shock weapon. Improved chemical stores if you want to go the freeze route. I think that's pretty much it." Bartholomew scratched the back of his head, searching for anything to add to his list.

"That should do," Samus responded. "Thanks. How much money did you take?"

"Somewhere from 10,000 to 12,000. Depends on how much trouble other people cause because I took their stuff. I'll deduct whatever the scrap metal you gave me's worth."

"That's generous of you."

Bartholomew merely grunted in response, folding his massive arms and leaning back against a wall. Finishing the information transfer, Samus unhooked both processors and then got inside her suit. It came online and she sighed with relief. Almost like being home again. If she had ever actually had a home, that is.

"Do I really want to know what you'll be doing?" Bartholomew asked her, just before she reached the door. She glanced back at him through her visor emotionlessly.

"Probably not. I'll recuperate here today, and tomorrow I'm gone."

"Well, the best of luck to ya."

Waving goodbye absentmindedly, Samus left the room. The best of luck, eh? That was probably the best she could hope for. Compared to everything she typically had to face, someone willing to just be helpful was a wonderful relief. Those simple words, not even considering the bio suit, but Bartholomew in a different class.

Not many people in the universe were like that. Most of them were like Shilo, or Mr. Divel, or the thousands of corrupted persons who would never be caught. Tal had been one of the people against the grain, and now he was dead. Samus's eyes narrowed dangerously. His passing would signal the beginning of the end for Project Darklight.

-

Unstoppably he fell back through the air, falling toward the death that awaited him. Too late to jump, to use his wings, Tal seemed almost to drift toward the green acid below. Across the room, Samus felt her eyes widen and her mouth go slack, even as another bolt of plasma shot out of her gun and dropped an opponent.

There was nothing she could do. For a terrible moment she realized that she had no skill, no technology, no ability that could stop him. He was dying and there was nothing that she could do. Everything continued to move sluggishly, and he turned toward her with that slow, sad smile...

With a violent jolt Samus jerked awake. Not this. She did not need a recurring dream to continue haunting her. His smile already haunted her enough...

Putting both hands over her face, Samus just sat in bed for a moment, trying to clear her mind of the dream's images. She had to put this behind her. The past could destroy you or it could fuel you, and she couldn't afford to be destroyed by it. But that didn't make it hurt any less, be any better.

But she could deal with pain, couldn't she? Bitterly Samus pushed her legs over the side of her bed and stood up sleepily. It haunted her that she would soon adapt, get over the issue of his death. No matter what happened, she would always adapt. She didn't need him to go on... but she wanted him to be alive.

Her life was a mass of pain, like skin that had scarred so endlessly that new scars could not be seen. For a brief moment it would remain fresh, but then it would fade away like all the others. She didn't want it to fade away, but another part of her did, wanted to keep going. It wasn't like Tal would have wanted her to waste away in the past. Not while there was a future to look to. Still at times, in the painlessness, Samus had to wonder what she was becoming.

Shaking herself, Samus refocused on her objective. All the preparation had been taken care of. Today was the last day she remained on this station, and then it was time to end this mess. She had to fix everything here before she could go back to her own life.

For one of the few times her life, Samus took a hot shower. Normally she used cold water to keep herself completely alert, but today she was more interested in being completely relaxed. It might be a long time before she got an opportunity to rest again. Drying off and replacing her newly washed full body suit, Samus narrowed her eyes. Time to go.

She pulled on the mechanical gloves, the boots, latched the rest of the armor, pulled on the helmet, remained perfectly still as all of it fused together into a lethal fighting machine. A slight smile flickered across her face as the system came online. Better. Much better. The instant she had full movement, the smile vanished. Now.

Leaving the confines of her temporary quarters, Samus strode down the hallway. Almost immediately she found herself intercepted. Another bounty hunter, out of his bio suit, was leaning against one edge of the door she wanted to go through. She didn't really remember him; he was just average in skill, had slick blond hair, a thin goatee. It didn't matter who he was... he was in the way.

"Good morning, Samus."

"This is not a good time," she almost growled, eyes dangerously narrow. Most people had the sense to stay away from her in such a mood. Most.

"Came too late," the other bounty hunter muttered. "I had heard you were actually walking around in normal clothes. You use such a bulky bio suit; I always wondered what you looked like under-" A smoking hole appeared in his chest, and he dropped to the ground. Samus stepped over his body and continued on. Nothing was going to get in her way now.