We're nearing the end, now. I really like this chapter. I won't spoil it with a big author's note: just read.
Torment
Samus gazed into a large room full of stasis tanks, each with a different organism floating in it. They were all disfigured in various ways: Some bloated, some missing limbs or other body parts, some with other species' parts crudely sewn onto them.
The most horrifying thing Samus saw was the figure of a chozo, horribly misshapen, slumped in a tank in the center. She slowly walked to it in morbid fascination, as if observing a train wreck: She didn't really want to look, but she felt compelled to.
"Samus, look at this!" Caern called to her from across the room. Samus took a moment to respond.
Tearing her eyes away from the ghastly sight, Samus replied, "What is it?"
"It seems to be a recording of an experiment they did," He answered. Samus walked over and took a look at the computer screen displaying the picture.
She saw two pirates working in a room with a large table in the center. Samus gasped: That was the very room she had been in when she was captured, or at least a room quite like it. Memories flooded back to her. She pushed them away.
Then she noticed something that was also quite peculiar: One of the pirates had severe burns on his lower body. It was the exact same pirate that Samus had saved twice. Now she would get an idea of exactly what this pirate does.
The door opened, and two burly pirates lugged in a creature that was wriggling and kicking frantically.
Samus slammed her fists on the desk. "It can't be…" Her eyes widening with terror, she studied the writhing creature. "No!" All of her fears were validated at this very moment: The creature was her own adoptive father: Toré.
The entire world around her disappeared. Now all she could see was the screen in front of her. The pirates strapped Toré to the table, and the burned pirate produced a needle. After injecting a clear liquid into Toré's forehead, the pirate turned and picked up a menacing looking tool with sharp projections all around it.
In sheer mortification, Samus saw the burned pirate proceed to conduct some sort of surgery on Toré. The injection was obviously not a sedative, as she could see the muscles in Toré's arm twitch in agony with every cut the pirate made. After several terrible minutes, the pirate sewed up Toré in an uneven manner.
Samus felt sick. She would have thrown up if her suit would not have regulated her system and prevented her from doing so. She couldn't watch any more. She closed the program. In a separate window that was open, Samus saw a log of the event. Her helmet automatically translated the foreign characters to words she could understand.
She read the words there, barely comprehending their meaning. "Subject chozo was given twelve units of mutative substance class VII and pirate DNA was injected into bloodstream. Various sensors were implanted under the skin. Shortly after surgery, the subject went into cardiac arrest and expired."
Feeling her breathing become short and her vision fading, Samus clutched the desk to stabilize herself. Her suit was working overtime to keep her conscious. Caern merely watched, not knowing what to do. He felt very vulnerable, both of them sitting still for so long, but he didn't know if Samus would be receptive to anything he tried to tell her at the moment.
After giving her a few minutes, Caern said softly, "Samus, we really need to keep moving." As she raised her head and slowly turned from the desk, Caern realized that she had been crying. Pretending not to notice, he started to make his way back to the door they had come from.
"We failed Caern," Samus sobbed, unable to hold her sorrow back. "We didn't make it in time. We just didn't make it…" Caern gave her a sad look, wanting nothing more than a way to make her happy, but that was impossible at the moment. They simply had to make it out alive. Then Caern would try to sort through things.
Caern opened the door and then jumped back. Standing there, waiting, was the pirate with the burn scars. He had found a wrist blade somewhere and was now charging towards Caern with it drawn. He quickly jumped back and fumbled for his gun. Unfortunately, he ended up dropping it on the floor.
The pirate slashed at Caern again, this time nearly catching his arm. Caern's marine suit was strong, but the pirate's blade would be able to pierce it with little effort. Caern managed to scrabble behind a tank, temporarily protecting himself. Samus was hiding behind another tank, charging her beam weapon.
"Samus! He's coming around to your left!" Caern warned, seeing the pirate about to catch her off guard. She jumped out of the way, but unfortunately also accidentally fired her beam, burning a circle in the floor. While she charged up for another shot, the pirate was chasing her around the room. He managed to corner her, and he raised his blade.
Seemingly coming from nowhere, Caern kicked the pirate to the floor. He had retrieved his gun and was now aiming it at the pirate. Samus ran back to the center of the room to avoid being cornered again.
The pirate swung his foot around and tripped Caern, throwing him to the floor. Before he could recover, the pirate managed to stand up and stood over Caern.
Samus seemed to be watching this whole thing in slow motion as her gun charged, all too slowly. The pirate raised his blade in the air, and triumphantly plunged it into Caern's back. Caern let out a cry of pain as the blade tore through his flesh.
Letting out a cry of despair, Samus arrived too late, kicking the pirate away. He quickly rose and came at Samus, his dripping, crimson blade raised above his head. Samus jumped out of the way and fired her beam at the pirate, missing. Samus cursed and ran backwards to the other side of the room.
Suddenly, Samus tripped over a power cord running along the floor. She fell on her back with a thud. The pirate came up, roaring in fury, raising his blade for the final blow.
Suddenly, it shattered in the air. Turning around, shocked, the pirate saw Caern, lying on his stomach, was clutching his gun, his finger on the trigger.
Not missing the opportunity, Samus fired a missile at one of the empty stasis tanks in the room, bringing it crashing down on the pirate, pinning him to the ground.
Immediately, Samus jumped up and ran over to Caern. He had a large hole in his back, and he was now lying in a pool of his own blood. Carefully, Samus removed his helmet and turned him over so that she could look at his face.
"No… Caern, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault…" Samus whimpered, removing her own helmet. "If I had only killed that pirate when I had the chance…"
"Don't blame yourself, Samus," Caern muttered, his breathing becoming ragged. "You did the right thing back there. You've helped me all the way through. Thank you."
"Caern…" Samus sobbed. She wanted to save him. She wanted to make everything right. She wanted to stop her world from crashing down around her. But she was helpless.
The chozo were trained to be able to control their feelings, to be able to handle extreme mental trauma. But Samus had lost her father, and was now losing her best friend, all in the past few minutes. It was too much for her to bear. She was nothing more than that little girl, hiding under her bed as her parents and neighbors were massacred. It was exactly the same.
"No," Samus thought. "I was helpless then."
She stood up, her heart pounding, racing. She felt hatred well up inside of her, for all the pirates had done. They had killed her biological parents. They had killed her adoptive father. They had killed her best friend. They had destroyed her life.
Samus noticed that the pirate was still pinned beneath the stasis tank. It was wriggling and writhing, trying to get free. She walked up to it. It was now the helpless one, and it was completely at Samus' mercy.
"I saved your life. Twice," Samus was saying, "And how do you repay me? You kill my father and my best friend. Do you know how that makes me feel?" Samus bent down, her nose nearly touching the pirate's. She saw complete terror in the pirate's face. This time, there was no pity. Samus laughed. "It makes me feel very, very angry."
The pirate's eyes got wide with realization. Terror shook his entire being as Samus stood up and began fiddling with the controls on her arm cannon. "I've never met a trustworthy pirate," She was saying to herself.
The Hunter was born.