Metroid Diffusion XII

Treachery

(This is the saddest chapter by far, and so grab a packet of tissues before you read)

The Courtroom was a brightly decorated space station in the theta region of the galaxy. Its walls had held many celebrities over the centuries and it had been demolished five times. Its tall structure was surrounded by many small ships, like wasps around a bug zapper, all cramming to get space. Samus arrived expecting to not get a place, but as soon as the Courtroom's computer recognised her ship, it gave her an area instead of a well-known journalist. The hyper-net papers would have an article about 'Thieving Samus' soon. The ship hanger was so large that you could fit a medium-sized planet inside and still have room for at least five comets. Small gravity elevators zipped past Samus, ferrying people to their appropriate rooms. She could only hope one was still free, the first one she came to was occupied by two humans pressing their bodies together, Samus moved quickly to the next one, and finding it empty stepped inside. Relaxed she was on her own when a space pirate jumped in beside her. It looked at her dejectedly and began to shiver, Samus grinned and was happy she was in control, "Scared?" she said, the space pirate turned round and frowned at her,

"No, I've been freezing my exoskeleton off looking for some Samus woman"

"cough"

"What? Oh! You're Samus!"

"You deducted very well, Holmes!"

"My name is Xyd not Holmes."

"It's a saying", Samus rolled her eyes, space pirates could be so stupid. An awkward silence followed as the small elevator raced at astonishing speed to get its occupations to their destination.

At last, the large metal gleam of the roof came to meet them and after a few minutes so did a door into the foyer. The foyer was almost as large as the hanger, it needed to be, to hold over half the galaxy's journalists and thousands of security guards. The room was light up by a small star hanging from the ceiling, puzzled aliens poked gingerly at their computers trying to find out what happened to their hyper-net connection and finally being told by one of the staff that the star's magnetic field cuts out hyper-net connections and there was separate room for hyper-net connections. Samus travelled down five staircases to arrive at their quarters, to the left was a door which Xyd held open for her and which she stepped inside. The corridor was probably decorated by the best decorator in the galaxy; along the walls were beautifully painted pictures of the Chozo with annotation below them. Samus stared at the different legends, some she knew off by heart, and others she had never seen or heard of. Xyd brought her out of her awe and directed her to her room. Samus' room had a much more vibrant version of theme of the corridor outside. Jewels encrusted the four walls as eyes and amulets of the drawn Chozo. Samus lifted her hand and touched the smooth walls and letting her hand slip gently down riding on the dents and ridges like a ship in a storm. She felt at home here, this was her paradise, she felt euphoria in this place like never before. Here was the thing she loved within touching distance, a feeling no creature could give her.

Samus didn't hear the door open, "I'm glad you like it" Fadley said and grinned. Samus turned round and smiled, and then remembered no-one would be able to see her smile. Fadley sighed, "So you're staying on the side of the space pirates?" Samus smile faded,

"I am, but you are…not?"

"I am" Samus turned round and ran to Fadley with her arms outstretched but remembered herself in time,

"Eh…Sorry…thanks."

"No problem." There again was an awkward silence, Fadley broke it, and "Well I better get ready, and so see you."

"Bye" And Fadley closed the door. Samus was confused, why had she almost hugged Fadley? He is a nice guy but… it was that she never got close to anyone, because no-one got close to her. Maybe she didn't want him, she couldn't tell, maybe her happiness was contagious. Samus decided to sleep on the idea; she was very tired all of a sudden.

She woke up refreshed and ready for the trial. Trials in the Courtroom were usually short due to the size of the jury and the riots the defensive had. There were thousands of courtrooms in the Courtroom, but one large stood out, it was used for important trials and executions. This was the one the GF and Space pirates were fighting in. The roaring crowd booed as the Commander of GF entered but cheered as Samus entered. She gingerly lifted a hand and waved to the people around her, the war wasps in her stomach were getting wilder and she was shaking slightly. She walked to her seat, the bright glare of the beams shot down at her, pinning her to her seat as if she was in an interrogation chamber. Her throat tightened and her breath came out in ragged breaths. The light swooped away from her and concentrated its beams on the Judge, that what he was called, Judge. He had ruled over a million court trials and was respected by the whole galaxy. He wore long dark robes that covered most of his body; no-one has ever seen what he looks like underneath the drapes. He stood and called out the respective charges against each party and held the first prosecution. A talker from the space pirates began to talk, "4 AF, 5th Yetic lunar cycle, five space pirate infants were kidnapped from their homes during their sleep cycle. We have proof to link the GF to the kidnap of our children and the genetic mutation of the latter." The Commander stood up, red faced,

"Objection to the charges! Where is the proof?" Judge looked at the space pirates and gestured to show their proof. The talker looked back to Redact, who in turn stepped up and pulled out the glass cylinder that held Krask inside. He was blinking tears away from his reptilian eyes and held Krask high in the air. He tried to hide his sorrow, "This was my son, who played with me, danced with me and was everything to me. They took him away and changed him so they could benefit, so they could fix their problems after the fall." The GF were stunned, where had the space pirates got that specimen? How could they fight against this?

Two junior scientists stood, the light focused its blinding light on them. "We did not agree with our heads of section and decided to file a report on this specimen as non-viable but keep it hidden to a later date until we could deliver it to the space pirates." The other also spoke up,

"We did not expect to be stolen from us, too early. Taking it away from its podium killed its supply of nutrients and fluids and so rendered the specimen non-viable." The courtroom went silent, no-one even coughed; everyone turned their attention to Samus. The spotlight was glaring at her again, an evil stare blaming her for what she had done. The GF went the enemies here, she was, her. Look at the pain she had inflicted on the space pirates, she needed to die before this happened, to change history and prevent so many deaths that she had caused. Her pain would be nothing compared to the dark trauma that was her fault, now it was her own mission, to kill herself on planet Aether, back when none of this had happened. It was time

End of Chapter XII