I couldn't stop writing. :D That's good for all of you guys. Two chapters in one night! In this chapter, you get to see a slightly different side of Samus. Enjoy!

Burning Hope

After traveling down another shaft and through a few more rooms with pools of acid in them, Samus and Caern came upon a small room with a perfectly circular, green disk lying flat in the floor. There was some sort of control panel sitting next to the disk. Samus walked over to the control panel and blew ages of dust from it. Coughing, she read the words on the panel.

"To Norfair." There was a single red button on the panel under the words.

"What does that mean?" Caern wondered aloud.

"We learned about this in history class," Samus said, "You know how I told you that we're in Brinstar, a deep underground mine? Well, Norfair was a sort of blacksmithing area because of its extreme heat and pools of molten lava."

Caern blinked. "Don't tell me we're going there… are we?"

"Are you kidding?" Samus almost shouted, "Norfair used to be a heavily used area by the chozo. That means that there must be a direct transport from there to the surface, right?"

Caern swallowed hard. "So we're heading out into an area filled with molten lava?"

"Well, look on the bright side. There can't be too many hostile life forms living in an environment like that, can there?" Samus urged. "Come on, we're almost outta here! I can practically feel it! Get on the disk."

Nervously, Caern stepped to the center of the green disk. Samus pressed the button and did the same. After a second or so, the disk began to slowly move down the shaft. It took several minutes, but the disk finally made it to the bottom of the shaft. Samus and Caern stepped off, and immediately noticed the increase in temperature. It was swelteringly hot.

"Let's hope we don't have to stay here too long," Caern muttered, wiping his forehead which was already sweating. Samus nodded in agreement. The two walked down a short flight of steps and came to a hallway leading in two opposite directions.

"Which way?" Caern asked. Samus had no idea, so she simply picked a direction. Unfortunately, the room they stepped into was filled with molten lava. There were several platforms built sticking out of the lava, but it appeared as if the bridges to these platforms had long been destroyed. The platforms were not at all far from each other: A human could step from platform to platform with relative ease, but tripping could be fatal, as it could easily mean dropping into the bubbling, glowing river of molten lava below.

To make matters worse, it seemed that a number of small, flaming creatures had taken up residence on the platforms. They each had three eyes, six stubby, crablike legs, and, most notably, flames shooting from the tops of their heads. They appeared to come in two colors: Orange and purple.

Samus whipped out her gun to see how difficult these things were going to be. She took aim at one on a faraway platform, and fired with perfect accuracy. The blast from the gun seemed to have explosive effects on the creature, as, upon contact, there was a large ball of fire and a loud boom. The creature seemed to have vaporized.

Seeing that the explosion had no effect on the platform, Samus shot another one, with the same results. Quickly picking off the rest of the critters, Samus noticed another possible menace. Quite similar to the first creatures, this creature appeared to be on fire, and not really care. However, unlike the other creatures, this one was flying around.

Aiming again, Samus fired at the burning insect. It burst in an even larger explosion than the other creatures had, actually taking out a chunk of the ceiling.

"Oops. Better not do that again," Samus mumbled to herself. Caern was simply watching her, dumbfounded. The other flying creatures were startled by the explosion and flew away. "They'll be back, so let's hurry," Samus advised, "Oh, and don't look down."

Samus leapt to the first platform, and quickly stepped across to the next one. She was almost surprised to find that Caern was following right behind her, sweating bullets, but still coming. She smiled, overjoyed at Caern's display of self-confidence.

They carefully picked their way along the platforms and finally made it to the other side of the room, and gratefully stepped off the platforms and back onto solid ground. Samus opened the door and peered at the room beyond.

"Not another shaft…" Caern groaned. His muscles were aching and he couldn't take another long climb.

"Come on, let's go up this time: It looks easier," Samus mumbled, not too happy herself to see another climb. As much as she would never admit it, she was beginning to tire, too.

Both humans slowly made their way up the face of the rock. It was, by no means, the hardest of their climbs, but both were getting tired, and they didn't really have the motivation any more.

Upon reaching a ledge, both humans stopped. "Let's rest here," Samus sighed. Caern nodded his head wearily, plopping himself down against the wall. Samus sat down beside him. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"Uh, Caern?" Samus almost whispered.

"Hm?"

"I… I have to apologize to you. I must admit, I haven't been very nice."

Caern was silent.

"Uh, I know that I've been trained by the chozo, so there's really no way I could expect you to keep up," Samus stammered, feeling very weak and small. "And, I think that without you, I'd have gone crazy without someone to talk to. But, it was selfish of me to have not seen things from your point of view. You need support, too. That is to say… you've been putting up with me throughout this whole thing. And you've always been nice to me, even when I haven't really been that nice to you."

More silence.

"And… I'm sorry."

Caern turned his head to face Samus. He put out his hand. "Friends?"

Samus smiled, still feeling awkward, but feeling better that a heavy burden had been lifted from her heart. "Friends." She said, shaking his hand.

"Now, let's see if we can get out of here," Caern announced, getting up. He seemed to have completely changed. It was as if he hadn't even seen himself as someone worth being around until this very moment. Samus' kind apology had shown him that he was just as important as a human being as anyone else. He was ready to move on.

The two humans continued up the shaft, finding that what they had been looking for was not far away at all. On another ledge at the top of the shaft was another green disc, exactly like the one they had seen before. Samus read the control panel.

"To Chozodia! This is it, Caern! This is what we've been searching for!" Samus was actually leaping up and down with joy. Without hesitation, Samus pressed the button on the panel, and the elevator started to rise.