This is it! This is the final chapter! Don't forget to leave a review, and read the afterword (next chapter.)

To all who asked weather or not this story was over yet, the answer is no, obviously. Well, this is the last chapter, but the previous one wasn't. There were some loose ends I wanted to tie up, yet.

I'm glad you guys seem to like it:D Well, enough of this: Finish the story!

Return

Samus dragged herself back to Chozodia, barely noticing the armed guards now standing at the entrance. She was weary, everything that had happened in the past few short hours now collapsing in on her.

Upon her entry into the city, many onlookers gathered around, mumbling and whispering to each other. Samus didn't care. Nothing really mattered any more.

Master Yurh came through the crowd and approached Samus. He had a shocked look on his face. "Samus, what have you done?"

Samus looked down at herself, still fully armored in her power suit. She was covered in a bright green liquid. She was baffled for a moment, unsure of what it was. Then she seemed to remember, if only vaguely, what had happened.

Suddenly feeling the weight of what she had done, Samus brought her hands to her head. "I killed them, Master!" She murmured through uncontrollable sobs, "I killed them all!"

Master Yurh turned to the crowd. "Chozo, get back to your jobs. The attack will be tomorrow: Make sure we are ready. Go on." They slowly dissipated, still catching glances at the human clad in chozo armor, stained with pirate blood. Master Yurh took Samus' hand and led her to his hut. She sat down on a chair. She was still weeping over the lives she had taken.

After removing her helmet and allowing her some time to recuperate, Master Yurh spoke. "We are at war, Samus. The chozo are a peace-loving people, and they hate to claim the lives of others, but there are times that it is necessary—"

"No!" Samus yelled through her tears, startling the chozo. "You don't understand. I didn't just kill them, I… I… I made them suffer, Master. I wanted to hurt them. I tried to make it as painful as possible. I— I just…" Samus trailed off. Master Yurh seemed pensive, and remained silent. "I'm a horrible person, aren't I, Master?"

"No, Samus," He responded. How else could he respond? Then again, Samus was responsible for torturing hundreds of pirates to death. He was, for once in his life, completely at a loss for words.

Samus once again burst into tears. Her life was in shambles, and she had now done something she could never take back. Master Yurh wanted to comfort her. "Let's get you cleaned up, and then you need a good night's rest," He said, standing up.

Numbly, Samus removed her suit and sat back down. Master Yurh took it and placed it on the porch. He would hose it off later. Right now, Samus needed support.

-X-

The next morning, Samus woke with a start. She had slept fitfully, and when she could sleep, nightmares plagued her.

Stepping into the living room, Samus saw that her suit had been washed off and was waiting for her in a corner. The shiny orange luster had returned to it.

Samus slumped down in a chair in Master Yurh's living room. It was big and soft, and she sunk into the chair. It comforted her, in a way. She got to thinking about what had happened last night.

The chozo were a very peace loving people. They hated war, but understood it. The warrior's code clearly stated that they should only kill as many of the opponents as necessary, and to always be humane. Samus had been anything but humane. She shuddered at the memory of it.

The chozo people would not understand what she had done. They would not understand that her loss had caused a momentary lapse in sanity. They would only see the human girl who murdered hundreds of pirates in cold blood. They might even call for her arrest, fearing her to be volatile. Is that what she wanted? To spend the rest of her life in jail, or at the very least, with people always holding her suspect, never trusting her?

She couldn't live like that.

Springing from the chair, her mind made up, Samus dashed out of the door. Running down the empty streets, she started to head towards the Cliffs of Chozodia. Before getting too far, however, she turned around and headed back to Master Yurh's house. She looked at the shiny orange suit leaning up against the wall.

A few moments later, Samus re-emerged from the building with her armor on. She started running, running away from everything she'd ever known, just running, leaving all of it behind her.

She passed her old schoolhouse. She remembered all of the time she had spent there, learning the ways of the chozo. They were useless now. She would be living all alone, somewhere in the wilderness. She thought about what a waste it had all been.

She never stopped running, even as she approached the edge of the cliff. For a brief moment, she thought about throwing herself off of it instead of climbing down, but then she was ashamed of herself. She couldn't do that. She wasn't just living for herself anymore, she now had to survive to uphold the legacy of her lost loved ones.

Almost automatically, Samus made her way down the face of the cliff. She was alone with her thoughts now. She was all alone in such a huge universe. Everybody she had ever cared for was gone now.

After reaching the ground, Samus broke out into a run again. She ran faster than she ever had before, determined to outrun her painful past. She was going to start over.

Samus ran for what seemed like forever, never slowing down or stopping for anything. Suddenly she saw a shape on the horizon. It started as a small dot, and then, as Samus approached it, it slowly took shape.

She slowed her pace to examine the thing. It turned out to be a small Space Pirate ship, abandoned by the pirates that had no doubt used it. Checking to see that nobody was around, Samus slowly walked into the ship.

Samus didn't know very much about ships like this. She had never been away from Zebes since the chozo had brought her here. She walked around, looking at all of the complicated buttons and controls, trying to make sense of them all.

Then she thought of something. She reached her left hand up to her helmet, feeling for the button that switched on the scan visor. After a moment, she found it and used the complex device to gather information about the different uses of each control.

She quickly found what she was searching for. Her scan visor identified one of the buttons as an autopilot device. After scrolling through a list of planets pre-programmed into the autopilot, Samus selected one called "Ceres". In all honesty, Samus had only heard of some of the names that she found there; she knew nothing of where she was actually going.

After activating the autopilot, the engines of the small craft roared to life. In a few seconds, it was off the ground and soaring upwards into the vast sky. Samus didn't know what the future held for her, but she sincerely hoped that it would be better than what she was leaving behind.

As the craft broke the atmosphere, Samus sat back, almost relieved. She would now be able to start all over, never looking back. She would get a new life out there, somewhere, and she promised herself that she would never let anybody hurt her again.

And that, my friends, is how the young bounty hunter, Samus Aran, got her start. She would come to be known by many names, such as "The Huntress" and "The Metal Hunter," but to the chozo, she would ever be called "The Hatchling."

See you next mission!