Chapter 2: Hydar

When they were about to reach Hydar Josh woke up Samus. She snapped up, went to the controls, and turned off the auto-pilot. As they entered the atmosphere Josh braced for re-entry but he didn't feel anything.

Samus must have seen the expression on his face "this ship enters on a shield of ions which push away the atmosphere."

"Were can I get one of those" he asked smirking. She turned back to the controls not answering him. The ship touched down with a soft thud. As Josh stepped out of the ship he admired the grass lands for a little bit before snapping back to the mission.

Josh was about to go look for a gun shop to arm himself when Samus asked "where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for a gun shop" he answered.

"These people don't have gun shops there pacifists." She said.

"Great, how am I going to fight now?" he said.

"You can't"

Josh turned around "what?"

"If you have no weapon then you would be useless in a fight. You can find a ride here; I'm going after the sarsilian." She said and started to walk away.

"I am a Kanta" he said his one changed "my body is my weapon" and sprinted past Samus to where his radar said the sarsilian was. After awhile he stopped the dot on his radar in the center. Samus was a good Mile behind him, but catching up faster then he had expected. He looked around but couldn't find any cave or place for the sarsilian to hide. He stood there confused until Samus caught up. She looked around but before she could say anything both of there weapons detection systems went off. They looked up and saw two transport ships roaring towards them. They landed about 20 feet from them and 4 heavily armed squads jumped out. Josh saw that they were all Kantas, he recognized all of them and the look of killing in there eyes. He knew that two people could not beat 16 Kantas. Before he could think of anything else the Kantas moved on them. They all fired stun rounds at them. Josh ducked and missed most of them but enough hit him that he would be unconscious in a couple of minutes. They then fired bug rounds at Samus that immediately turned of her suit. As she fell Josh lunged at his former friends with the intent to kill. He pulled the grenades of the first one to come at him, his old friend Carus. He threw the grenades at there feet. The grenades detonated which killed 4 of them. One snuck up behind him and knocked him out.

He woke up in an antigravity chamber. He didn't try to move it would be futile and just a waste of energy. He would just wait for his captures to come and make demands. If they wanted to kill him they would have done it already. He locked through the energy shield and saw who he thought was Samus unconscious in another chamber. He only thought it was here because she didn't have her suit on. He had to look away because of how little she was wearing. A little while later he heard her wake up. He turned and looked at her. He tried to look away but couldn't. She noticed him watching her but when she opened her mouth she coughed. This most have been her first time in an antigravity chamber: the magnets for some reason irritate your mouth. He looked away at the sound of something on the other side of the room where a man stepped through a hidden door and casually walked towards them. The man stopped before them. He had on rich cloths, jewelry, and a smirk.

"I have a mission for you" the man said.

"Who are you?" Josh asked through gritted teeth "and why did you capture us you could have just paid us to do it."

"I am your employer that is all you need to know about me and as for why I captured you that is simple; you are not coming back for this mission. I am sending you on an impossible mission and even if you do succeed I have a backup plan." He said, turned, and walked off. Right after he left the lights turned out and there antigravity chambers turned off. They both fell heavily to the floor. Josh looked around and saw Samus's suit on the other side of the room. He looked and saw Samus feeling around blindly trying to find something to hold on to. Josh ran over and picked up her suit. It was a lot lighter then he would have thought.

"Here" he said and gave it to her. She quickly put on the suit and turned on a light. He closed his eyes in pain, his super sensitive eyes making it worse. He had to wait for the spots in his eyes to fade away before he started looking around. On the wall next to wear he found her suit there was a rack felled with guns. He chose a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, a couple of grenades, and a battle knife. He knew it was futile, that man was going to make good on his claim. He found a folder on a stand next to the gun rack. It explained what they were to do. Josh gasped as he read it, there was no way they could even think of trying this. There weirdest thing was on the last page. All it said was "RUN." He couldn't understand it until he heard the slow hiss of decompression from a door being opened in space. He rushed over to Samus and pulled her towards a small "planet jumper" he had seen a little ways off. Without complaint she followed. When the got to the ship he saw that the autopilot was on and that it already had a locked destination. He knew this was the only way to survive but Josh thought about staying outside, the mission was suicide anyway. He quickly dismissed it; he could not just leave Samus to die alone. Right after they got in the ship he heard the creak of metal and the doors fully open. The ship got sucked out in space before the engines could fully warm up.

After the ship was going for awhile Josh told Samus what there employer expected them to do. She had her helmet off and he saw the look of dread in her eyes they both knew there was no way to complete this mission. There was no way they could survive even one day on Frusis 5. Every creature on that planet could tear a regular person to shreds. No one could fight more then ten by themselves and they were expected to go into one of the cave hives and extracted an egg. Each hive held about 80 creatures and those were the worst of them all. He looked out the viewer screen and saw the planet quickly coming into view. Even from space it looks menacing, the red of the soil being seen from space and the black dots that are the plants there. The ship started to rock after entering the atmosphere. This time it didn't have anything to cushion the fall so it rumpled violently through the air and with a loud thud hit the ground.

Josh woke up a little while later in a house on a little bed. He sat up and saw a native seating in the corner looking at him. He at up and felt a sharp pain in his neck. He laid back down carefully trying to think what had happened. He remember being in a ship coming down onto… where? Frusis 5 and why was he here? Because he had been forced to. There was something else that was hazy in his mind, and then he sat up Samus! The pain form his neck instantly knocked him out again.

When he woke up this time he noticed that he was wearing a neck brace made out of leaves. He sat up and saw Samus sitting on the other side of the room. When she looked over at him he gave her a joking smile. She looked away with a grunt. He got up and retrieved his weapons.

Then through the intercom he heard her ask "So eager to die?"

"Unless there is something else you want to do first?" he asked.

"Well we could make a plan, get something to eat, wait till your neck is better. If I have to go down fighting I want to take as many of them with me as I can."

He saw the logic in that, but it all seemed so useless.

"Fine what first?" he said.

"The food" she said.

He smiled "sounds good to me."

They walked to the center of the native village and found a place to get food. The natives only ate meat so they dug in not asking what it was. Through the meal Josh thought of plans to attack the hive that will get the egg. Only and army could get into that cave. The best he could think of was to lure most of the creatures out and trap them, and then run in guns blazing. He turned around at a noise and saw that a crowd of natives was gathering around them, staring at them as if they were gods. Samus turned at the sound to, which caused and uproar form the crowd. Is seemed as if everything they did was somehow special. A woman stepped forward from the crowd; she had a hat on made of a one of the creature's skulls. That was what the leader of the village wore. She knelt down on one knee and handed Samus a scroll. Their leader seemed happy that she would accept it. She opened it up and after scanning it gave it to him.

"I can't read it" she explained. He picked it up and to his surprise he could read it. It wasn't the people's native language, but some other language. When he was trained as a Kanta in his sleep he subliminally learned many of the major languages in the galaxy. This was one of them, but he didn't know what it was.

"I can read it" he said after scanning through it "and it talks about a person in metal suit and another with an injury and a past that will lead them into a cave and to victory."

"That will help us" she said.

"There's more and it will surprise you. Well, uh first it know you are a girl, and…well it says that we are…together." he said and felt confused.

She turned and stared at him "your kidding right?"

"I wish, there is a lot here and well… this is weird. First the 'hunt' as it calls it is in four days. Also if we want them to follow us we have to keep up the appearance that we are…together."

"Together, and what would that entail?" she asked.

He looked down at the scroll again "since these people have different customs most of it isn't that bad. Eating together is actual a strong, and intimate sign. There is using the same weapon, looking each other in the eyes…" he scanned down the scroll one more time "uh, and well, sleeping together."

"I don't know about you but I will not do that last one." She said in a threatening tone.

"Relax Samus we can easily foul them it's not like there going to listen in on what we do at night. All we have to do is sleep in the same room." He said.

"That better be all, I remember the antigravity chamber." She said the threat still on her voice.

"Look I used to be a different person not that long ago. I was as bad as the Kanta that attacked us. I am not proud of it, and sometimes my old self comes out and for that I am sorry."

She put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him and the crowd behind them gasped. With all that had been going on he had forgotten about the crowd of people around them. They all looked happy that Samus and he would show such caring feelings for each other. This must be like a romance story to them. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was almost dark and he was getting a bit drowsy.

"I think it is about time he go to sleep we will need to train tomorrow" he said and tried to explain to the head native that they wanted to go to sleep. After a while the leader nodded his head in understanding and led them to regular house on the eastern side of the village.

"I was excepting something grander" she said.

"These people are warriors, to live in a simple house is a high honor." He explained. The natives shuffled them in the door with wide grins on their faces. They did not close the door but stood there eagerly awaited something. Then Josh remembered another custom of these people and swore under his breath.

"What are they waiting for?" Samus asked.

He thought that he should just say it outright "for us to get into bed."

She turned to him "What!"

He stared talking with a lump in his throat "it is customary for the village to watch the couple get into the bed, it is like there way of a wedding where the people watch as the couple kiss."

"I will not do that." She said.

"Look I don't want to do it either. We only have to get into bed together and if we don't they will kill us, thinking we have shamed each other."

She agreed, quickly undressing around the corner as he did himself. They quickly got into the small bed and pretended to kiss each other, quivering the whole time, hoping it would be enough and that the natives would leave. He knew it would not be enough and under the cover moved his bode over hers to the other side.

"Move with me" he said. She complied and then they finally heard the door close and the natives start to move away. He was still quivering, his old self trying to fight their way out. But it was different; it was like his mind wanted to. He looked at Samus, her blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin, and noticed that she looked beautiful. She sat up and went over to get her cloths on. Before she got there he caught a glimpse of her without her cloths on and he started the shake more. This was more then lust he actually liked her. He had had girlfriends before but after he had become a Kanta he no longer cared for what they were like only what they looked like. He stood up and put on his cloths and started to lie down on the floor when Samus returned from around the corner. She was not wearing her suit only a nightdress that the natives gave her. When he saw her in it he knew that he did like her, it was a twist of cruel fate. They were both going to die in four days and she would probably never know him more then jerk. With a sign he laid his head on his ammo pack and quickly fell asleep.

He woke up to a gasp from outside the door. He looked up and saw natives looking into the room in horror. At first he was to sleepy to know what was going on but as his mind cleared it dawned on him; they were no sleeping together. Samus woke up at the noise too and figured out what was wrong before he could explain it to her.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"We might try to explain it to them that I rolled out of the bed." He said.

"That is all you got?" she said turning to him.

"Any better ideas?" he angrily asked. She turned to the natives again without saying anything. He sat up and went over to the bed and pretended to fall out. He then rolled arouse the floor to where he was sleeping. The natives understood what he was trying to say and started roaring in laughter. That day they helped the natives gather weapons for the upcoming battle.

That next night the natives placed guards in their room so that he wouldn't fall out. At least that's what he thought they were there for, or the leader saw through their lie.

"Do we have to…" she said not finishing the sentence.

"No we only have to sleep in the same bed." He explained.

They got into the bed pretending to sleep next to each other. Josh was sweating from knowing where he was and who he was next to. He did the only thing he could think of to get his mind of her he thought about when he became a Kanta. Before the painful surgeries even started they broke him; giving him enough pain that he went almost insane. They twisted his arms until the bone shattered into hundreds of pieces and then making him do pushups with that arm. The surgeries were the worst though: the pain that seemed to come form his mind, his temporary parallization, the pain in his eyes that never completely went away, and the physiological torment through it all. The horror of it all knocked him out.

He woke up and quickly moved away. He had been a little to close to Samus. Sleepy she moved towards him. he know that it was not her doing it so he moved further back and bumped into the wall. She scooted close again to him, and there was nowhere for him to go. He tried pushing her back but that made her flip over toward him. He couldn't stand being so close to her and seeing her face so he closed his eyes. With her right there he could not fall asleep. After what seemed like eternity she groggily woke up.

First he heard her say happily in a whisper "good morning" and then after realizing where she was slowly moved back. He so longed to scoot back towards her and couldn't help himself. As if asleep he pushed towards her. For a moment she didn't react but then slowly moved back. After starting he couldn't stop and sleepily moved towards her again. This time in was her on the edge of the bed. He felt her starting to tremble and his common sense returned. He slowly moved back towards the wall. He could not lie to her like that.

"I am sorry." He said in a shaky voice "I don't know what came over me." He noticed that he had tears running down his cheek and quickly turned away. He heard her move and felt a sharp pain in his back; she had hit him in a pressure point. He did not move thinking he deserved more then that. She got up and he heard her get into her suit. He then pretended to wake up for the guards and got his gear on. Throughout the day Josh was in a bad mood thinking on what he had done.

That night when they got into bed instead of the fake kiss they usually did Samus gave him a real kiss. To him it felt like the best kiss in the world. She then fisted him in the gut. And said

"I know what is in your eyes, but you better not try anything tonight." Then turned over and slid close to him. He hoped that that was a sign that she liked him too, but he also had the thought that she was doing it for his sake and nothing more. That night he had the best sleep of his life. He had no nightmares about the operations like he usually did, but faintly remembered dreams that left him feeling happy.

That day in the village it was like a parade, with people cheering everywhere, a lot of food being cooked, and more natives coming in from other villages. After seeing all the native soldiers come in, his hopes of actually getting an egg lifted. Every native was trained since a child to fight the beasts that live on this world. The fiercest of all of them were the woman; they usually didn't even wear armor. The afternoon feast stretched on from one end of the village to the other. Most of the people were facing away from each other and the people that were usually holding hands. The meal actually had other things beside meat. Some of the tribes were not just meat eaters and Josh was proud of that. He had been getting a little sick of all the meat. After the meal was over everyone started gathering there weapons; swords, bows, axes, and spears. Josh made sure that everyone got on armor. Most of the women were sad that they had to put on armor, but Josh needed every person they could get alive.

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A/n: next chapter done, R&R please.