Chapter 3

But, she hadn't seen him, Ridley realized. She was to busy examining the wreckage of his ship, looking through her handy work. He still possessed the element of surprise, he still had a chance to kill her. But how? The dragon stretched out his wings, just to remind himself he couldn't fly. And lacking a blaster, killing her at this distance would be impossible. His only option was to lure her into the forest.

He was sure that in the labyrinth of trees, she would find her bothersome missiles and that damn cannon useless. All he had to do was lure her into the wood, and he could kill this bitch, take her ship, and everything would be fine. His mind reeled with the idea of finally killing her, of feeling her warm blood on his skin and listening as her heart stopped. After all the pain she had caused him, he would finally taste sweet revenge.

Just as Ridley was about to act, he noticed the sound of propellers in the air. A bright beam of light shown down onto the stunned hunter, blinding her briefly. A cackling voice shouted over the gun ship's, the volume hurting Ridley's ears: "Samus Aran. This is the Galactic Federation Alliance. We received your distress call. Surrender and you will die humanely." Ridley decided he may like this.

Lasers rained down to the ground, and Samus was barely able to dash into the ship's wreckage. The assault continued, lasers firing blindly through smolder and smoke, attempting to snuff the life of the hunter. Briefly, the soldiers thought they had succeeded, until Samus burst from the debris. The thrusters on her back allowed her to glide above the ship's weapons and landed on the cockpit. She pushed her cannon into the reinforced plastic and fired. Cracks appeared in the false glass, beneath it the soldiers looked up in horror as Samus fired again. Another blast of her cannon and the plastic shattered. The soldiers may have screamed, but Samus wasn't sure. The explosion of her missile killed off her ears.

The hunter landed on the ground, the gun ship behind her spiraling to a stop. With the Federation soldiers dead, Samus thought that the danger had passed. She took a deep breath and examined the danger to her power suit.

Diving to the left, Samus lifted her cannon and fired a beam into one of the soldier's chest. The others continued their assault. Rolling to her feet, the hunter blasted another assailant, the shock of energy colliding with armor sending him to the ground. A blast shook Samus, the power burning through her power suit and charring a piece of skin on her back. She twisted her form and brought a foot up to her assailant's head, knocking him down. Another soldier fired two shots. The hunter's armor deflected one of the shots, but the other bolt buried itself deep in her stomach. Samus was forced to apply pressure to her wounded side as she shot down another of the soldiers. A fifth assailant shot her through the chest and arm. Her shields protected her from the fatal wound to her heart, but the injury in her shoulder caused her cannoned arm to go limp. The soldier quickly adjusted his blaster to stun, before delivering a final blast to Samus's gut.

Ridley chose this moment to strike. He burst out of the forest and darted over the ground. Even without wings, he could cover the distance swiftly. The soldier was distracted as he examined his victim. When in range the dragon, lifted a clawed foot to the soldier's chest and thrust a talon into his heart.

Ridley examined each of the scattered weapons carefully, finding only four that worked. He strapped a pair of rifles to his back and placed three pistols into a sack he found on a corpse. Then he remembered Samus. He laughed hardily as he pushed a foot to her chest and began to slowly crush her beneath him. He moved the barrel of a rifle to her helmet and grinned. "I can't miss, space cadet," he cackled. His finger itched. His muscles tensed. But for some reason, he couldn't pull the trigger. He growled loudly, his free claw began to move over his nemesis's body, finally settling on her neck. After carefully searching, he found an almost unnoticeable latch beneath her chin. After flicking it gently, her helmet popped off. A bundle of golden locks burst out from beneath the armor and covered hunter's face. Ridley continued carefully disarming her, finding the latch that would release her chest plate under her left arm and one that would free her legs near her groin. When the armor cracked open, a stream of blood burst out and stained the ground beneath her. "If I don't suture this, you'll die," he growled. "I can't have that. When you die space cadet, you'll see it coming."

When Samus woke next she was someplace cold, which she immediately found odd, since her suit should've kept her body at a comfortable temperature. Moving two fingers to her breastplate to adjust her armor, she felt soft skin rather than metal. "Fuck," she gasped, having a horrible realization. She wasn't wearing her power suit! She didn't even have her spacesuit. Desperate, she moved her hands over her form, but other than a few bits of cloth that covered her wounds, she was completely naked!

Then she heard the laughter: rhythmic and cold and slow. She looked towards the source of the noise and gasped. "Bout time you woke up space cadet," Ridley laughed, pointing his rifle at Samus's bare chest.

"How did you remove my suit?" she demanded.

"Did you know I was born on Zebes? I learned quite a bit about Chozo technology in that time. Now, are you going to beg for mercy or not?"

"Killing me isn't the best of ideas," Samus muttered, and to her relief the dragon lowered his rifle slightly. Ridley was a calculating creature, and if she could convince him she was worth something, there was a chance. "I've seen your ship. And since there's no meat on your wings, I'm guessing you can't fly. You need my ship."

"I'm aware of that. Now you'll die."

"It won't work. The AI on the ship won't fly without me. You need me, alive and well."

"But you don't need me, space cadet." The cold steel of the rifle pushed gradually harder into Samus's breast. "I turn my back and you shoot me. Then you make it to your ship and mount my head on your dash board."

"I'm unarmed. You can kill me any moment you like."

Ridley thought to himself, calculating eyes a testimony to the decision he made. "Trust is the basis of any relationship?" He scooped the various bits of Samus's power suit into a sack and hoisted it over his shoulder. He then tossed a pair of pistols into the hunter's lap, never ceasing a cold chuckle. "I'm keeping your armor, space cadet. And if you think it wise to shoot me when my back is turned, just ask yourself: 'What if I miss?'"