Chapter 3: Nightmare Revisited

"When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state." -Euripides

Link, Zelda and Samus return to the castle to be greeted by several Sheikah that point their arrows at Samus, who Zelda stands in front of and orders them to stand down and that Samus is not their enemy, as well as that she had saved both Link and herself from the dreaded Yiga. Link confirms her words and the Sheikah lower their weapons. Zelda then commands them to escort Link inside to check on his wounds. They then enter themselves and have a brief conversation.

"Now then, I feel that you owe us an explanation as well; where did you come from and why have you come here?" Zelda asks.

"Of course princess. I come from a distant place, millions of miles away from this world. I have come here because of an anomaly that I detected from here." Samus explains.

"An anomaly?"

"Yes, I detected it some time ago and it resembled an energy that I've encountered several times in the past."

"What kind of energy?"

"Well, I don't want to mention what kind it is until I can speak to you all at once. It would be best if you and others who hold higher ranks be present."

"I understand. You should know that our chief scientist, Purah, will be arriving this morning. Perhaps you could explain to her as well what this 'energy' is. For now, I feel that we should put this night behind us. Please, allow me to lead you to your temporary lodgings."

"Alright, thank you."

Zelda leads Samus down the hallways of the castle as many of the Sheikah look at her in curiosity, never having seen a 'warrior' like her before and trying to figure out exactly how Samus puts on the suit with no visible openings or creases. Soon, the pair reaches a moderately elegant room.

"We were going to use this room for ambassadors that would visit us, but you may use it for the time being." Zelda politely says.

"Thank you, may I ask what you will do now?"

"Link, myself and the rest of the guards should get some sleep before the morning arrives. I suggest you do the same."

Samus nods and starts making for the bed before being stopped by Zelda.

"Um…"

"What's the matter?"

"I was wondering...If you're not too busy tomorrow. Could you...maybe...tell me how your suit works?" Zelda excitedly finishes her sentence.

"...Excuse me?"

Little did Samus realize that she had unleashed Zelda's scholarly nature. "It's just that your suit doesn't seem like any regular suit of armor I've ever seen. It doesn't seem like you can just jump in or out of it. How do you breathe in it? How can you run so fast and jump so high? How can you shoot so many different kinds of magic from your right arm?"

"Princess." Samus raises her left hand to try and slow Zelda down, but she grabs her hand and continues her questions.

"What kind of metal is this?" Zelda asks while rubbing the armor. "I've never seen anything like it before. Your eyewear is green; does that mean you see the world through the color green when you wear your helmet?"

"Princess."

"There's also the question of your physicality. Do you have any bruises from your suit hitting you from time to time? If not, then how do you manage to prevent self-injuries?"

"PRINCESS!" Samus raises her voice.

"Yes?" Zelda meekly responds.

"I'd be more than happy to explain it to you. But do you think your questions can wait until tomorrow?"

"Oh...yes, that's fine too." Zelda says with her cheeks flushed. "Well, I'd best leave you to your business now. Good night, Samus."

"Good night, princess."

Zelda closes the door behind her and excitedly walks down the hallway, mumbling to herself that she should write down her questions so that she doesn't forget them. Back in the guest room, Samus sits on the bed, retracts her helmet and lets out a sigh, trying to get the idea of the energy signature out of her thoughts.

Back in the shared room, Zelda quietly walks in and sees Link sound asleep on his bed, having been escorted by the guards, the injuries still visible on him. Zelda lets out a small sigh and quietly berates him for being so reckless. She then closes the divider and changes back to her white nightgown before finally bringing the covers over herself and drifting off to sleep.


Meanwhile: The new Yiga clan hideout, 14 minutes after escaping their failed assassination attempt.

The four surviving Yiga and the new commander, Silas (an older man with short grey hair and the regular Yiga attire), return to their hideout with several others waiting inside.

"Everybody, make way! The commander is injured!" One of the Yiga orders as they set Silas on a table to look over his severed arm.

"Who was that?! Where did that interloper come from?!" Silas shouts in anger.

"We don't know, but she was the most powerful warrior we've ever seen." One of the Yiga decides to speak up. "What do you want us to do, Silas?"

"I want her dead...I want the hero crucified and the princess dead at my feet! They will RUE the day that they defied us! The Yiga will not be so easily tossed aside as they had foolishly thought!"

The other Yiga grunt in approval. Silas, after having his dismembered arm bandaged, prepares new methods of trying to attack the castle, but soon they are interrupted by a cold wind emanating from all over the place. Silas stands up and orders the other Yiga to stay alert. Then, metallic footsteps are heard heading towards them.

"Who are you?! Show yourself!" Silas demands.

Out of the dark hallway, a dark blue and black armored figure appears, making some odd, otherworldly sounds.

"It's you! Attack!" Silas gives the order and several Yiga fire at the stranger, who takes all the arrows that then melt off of her body. She continues walking towards them and in response, they attack with their blades, only to be blocked by a force field she generates. Growing tired of their attacks, she generates a shockwave that knocks them all back and she swiftly approaches a stunned Silas.

"You're not the same person we met in the field…Who, or what, are you?"

She then begins to telepathically communicate with him, explaining very briefly who she is and why she is here.

"You come from another world? How did you arrive?"

The stranger responds in only one word: Leviathan. Silas continues questioning her motivations and the stranger answers in simple words. Finally, Silas asks his last question: "Why have you come to us?"

The stranger points her arm cannon at Silas and telepathically answers: "I am your new god…" She then fires a luminescent blue beam at Silas, causing him to fall over in pain as he is covered in blue, vein like tendrils. Soon, the pain subsides and Silas looks down in shock as his arm has regrown, although it is mostly a bioluminescent blue and black. The other Yiga recover and stare in awe. Silas flexes his new arm and marvels at the new power building up within him.

"Obey my rule…and you will rise again…" The stranger communicates.

"Heheh...Hahahah!" Silas laughs maniacally as he moves forward to address his followers. "Brothers! Sisters! Do not panic, for we have a new goal."

The members look on in confusion.

"Our objective is no longer Hyrule itself, but rather the whole world will be ours! With this new power, everything we've ever wanted will be ours for the taking. Our new god has blessed me with this, a power much greater than anything Ganon could have ever given us. Please, I ask you to show them, my liege.

The armored figure points to a random member of the Yiga and fires another shot at him. The member falls to the ground and convulses, the others back away in fear. After a while, his screaming subsides and notices that he feels more powerful. He excitedly proclaims that this new power is unlike anything that he'd ever seen and that the others should accept it willingly. One by one, the others apprehension begins to disappear.

"So now you see, brother. We need not fear this gift, we must embrace it!" Silas declares, earning scattered praise from the others. "We will follow her into this new path and the world will be cleansed with this new power: Phazon. And once this world is ours, many others after it will receive the same purification! We will triumph!" Silas raises his arms into the air; the phazon arching above him. "Are you with us?!"

The entire hideout erupts in applause and shouts of praise as the armored figure spreads the phazon to every Yiga present. Soon, all of them radiate phazon energy and are holding malicious, power-hungry smiles. Satisfied with this turn of events, Silas turns to the armored figure and bows to her.

"From this day, we shall carry forth your will. It is an honor to serve you, Dark Samus."

The other corrupted Yiga follow Silas lead and bow to Dark Samus, who in turn laughs ominously.


The morning after: Hyrule Castle.

The thunderstorm has finally subsided; Zelda awakens to the sound of birds chirping. She gets up off the bed and walks over to the divider and sees that Link is no longer on his bed. Zelda concludes that Link has already woken up to continue their talk with Samus and is waiting in the dining room, as the meeting room is yet to be repaired. Zelda puts on her formal blue dress with golden designs and accents, white high neckline, midriff, lower dress and long fingerless gloves, after which she walks out and runs into Impa.

"Ah, good morning Impa."

"Good morning princess, what was all the commotion last night?" Impa asks.

Zelda remembers that Impa can sleep like a log, even if a pack of 20 Lynels were barreling through the land, she'd still be out like a light. Nevertheless, she explains to Impa about what happened last night: Samus (or the "machine human") waking up and running off, their run in with the Yiga and how Samus saved them.

"Goodness gracious. It's fortunate that our guest was very well versed in fighting. What did you say her name was?"

"Samus Aran."

"Well, I certainly owe her my thanks for keeping the two of you safe. Any ally of yours is an ally of the Sheikah."

Zelda giggles at this and continues walking with Impa towards the dining room. As they reach the dining room, Link is in fact waiting there, having made several baked apples for everyone.

"Good morning princess, good morning Impa." Link says with a smile, his wounds having mostly been healed.

"Good morning, Link." Zelda replies.

"Good morning lad, you're up bright and early. Color me surprised." Impa quips.

"I wanted to have everything ready for our talk. It needs to be just us, so I left the chef's sleeping, so they won't hear us, and I made this."

"You'll always jump at the opportunity to cook, won't you?" Zelda replies with a joking face. "Oh great hero of meals."

"Ha ha." Link sarcastically laughs. "Anyway, I had a guard tell Samus where we are, she should be here soon."

Sure enough, the doors open up and Samus walks through. However, instead of her varia suit, she is wearing a skin tight blue suit with light grey calves and an odd symbol on her left hand, chest and entire back. To be frank, they notice that Samus is lean and slender.

"Sorry I'm late, I- What is it?"

"It's just that this is the first time I've seen you without armor." Link answers.

"Yes, you're so...tall." Zelda adds.

"Oh honestly, you two. As if you've never seen an adult woman before." Impa interrupts. "Pay them no mind, dear. First of all, I am Impa, current chief of the Sheikah; it is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Impa."

"Now, I hear that you wished to speak to us?"

Samus confirms this and has all four of them sit down at the table. She starts off with telling them who she is: a human that was raised by the Chozo, an ancient race of bird people that infused her with their blood, granting her superhuman strength and reflexes. After giving a very brief history of her ascension to intergalactic bounty hunter, she explains the reason she came to Hyrule in the first place: she detected an energy signature that was very similar to phazon, a highly mutagenic compound that causes catastrophic changes in living organisms and even certain machinery. In addition, she explains in painstaking detail about several incidents involving the phazon (the space pirates, the Ing invasion of Aether, her own near corruption and Metroid Prime). After she concludes, Link, Zelda and Impa stay in complete silence over these revelations. Finally, Zelda speaks up.

"Unbelievable, how can such a monstrous thing exist?" Zelda asks in disbelief.

"It shouldn't anymore, because I destroyed the source of it some time ago." Samus answers with worry.

"So this phazon is some sort of plague?" Link asks.

"You could say that. Now that I recall, there is one thing that all victims with higher brain functions suffer from the corruption: psyche degeneration. All of them had an impulsive need to spread the phazon to any healthy life-form."

"So, anyone can fall victim to this?" Impa questions.

"Yes."

The three try to process what Samus had just told them, the feeling of dread creeping its way into their hearts. All of a sudden, the doors swing open and Purah, accompanied by Symin, walks in.

"Well, I guess you guys forgot about our welcoming committee. That wasn't very hospitable!" Purah says with a pout.

"Ah, Purah. I almost forgot that you were coming." Zelda stands up to greet the pair.

"Your highness, good to see you are well and in high spirits." Symin greets with politeness. "We've come to inspect-"

"Hey there Zellie, so how's the tin man? Any problems?" Purah cuts in.

Zelda gestures over to the table and Samus stands up to greet the new guests.

"Not exactly a tin man or even a man." Zelda comments.

Samus becomes confused at these turn of events. When she heard that the top scientist would be coming, she assumed that they would be an older man or woman. Instead, before her stands a child.

"You must be Purah, the princess has told me about you. She said you were the forerunner of science in this land."

"Aww, Zellie is just a big fan of mine, isn't she? Hee hee. But wait a minute; I thought you were a machine. No told me you were just a girl in a suit."

Samus raises an eyebrow at being labeled a "girl", but decides to humor her anyway. "Ah, you mean this?" The symbol on her back begins to glow, followed by the ones on her chest and left hand, and then various hexagon-like particles spread around her, forming the varia suit. Leaving everyone present awestruck. "Princess, I believe I just answered one of your questions."

"I'll...be sure to write that down." Zelda answers with astonishment and Impa having the same reaction.

"So that's how she does it." Link says with a clearly impressed tone.

"Now then, shall I explain once more to our guests?" Samus asks Purah and Symin.

"Yeah...That would be great. Symin, be sure to write everything down. Ok?" Purah says in a dumbfounded tone.

"Snappity snap, Purah…" Symin responds with the same tone and picks up a journal. Thirty minutes later, Samus had brought them up to speed with what she explained earlier to the trio. While Symin was more concerned with what was explained about the phazon, Purah was more ecstatic about learning more about it. Concluding that her 'friend' would give them the final verdict on the energy signature, Samus has everyone present follow her to the ship. On a side note, Samus asks that if Purah is actually 120 years old, then why does she look like a six year old girl. Purah, Symin, Link, Zelda and Impa respond in unison: 'Long Story'. The group reaches Samus's gunship and she approaches it.

"Alright, time to wake up Virginia." Samus selects her command visor and reactivates the ships generator.

"You gave your 'ship' a name? I bet it can talk too." Purah quips.

"As a matter of fact I can, little girl." Virginia, the on board computer, responds. Earning a squeak of alarm from Purah.

"Who is speaking?" Zelda asks with surprise.

"Everyone, this is Virginia. My ships artificial intelligence or A.I." Samus explains. "Before anything else, Virginia, give me a status on the ship's condition."

"Hull integrity at 15%. Weapon systems at 78%. Shield generator fully functional. Power core at 63% and translator module active and fully functional." Virginia reports. "Auto repair in progress."

"Good, now I need- wait a minute, the translator module is active?" Samus questions.

"It has been active since you arrived; your suit activated it as soon as someone here spoke."

"Hmm, excuse me Link; can you recite a sentence for me?" Samus asks.

"A sentence? Like what?" Link asks with confusion.

"Anything at all. I want to test something." Samus says as she retracts her helmet.

Link complies and recites a passage from Hyrule's founding (which he knew by heart) and Samus removes the earpiece she had on. Sure enough, Link is now speaking in a language she's never heard of. Samus puts the earpiece back on and asks Link to stop. She then asks Zelda what language they speak and she answers with "Hylian". Samus was surprised by the fact that she was speaking to people that were not speaking a language similar to Terran. When Zelda ponders why she asked such an odd question, Samus dismissively replies that she'll explain later. Finally, Samus asks Virginia what the energy signature was and her worst fears are confirmed.

"Energy analysis complete. Source: Phazon." Virginia confirms and the group reel back in fear.

"It can't be. How is this possible?! I destroyed Phaaze (source of all phazon)!" Samus inquires.

"I don't believe this. We escape one calamity and we face another." Zelda remorsefully says. "This is terrible…."

"That explains the Guardian's sudden outburst." Link concludes. "If this phazons power does that, then what else could it be?"

"...Virginia, triangulate the source of the phazon in this planet." Samus quietly commands.

"Scanning….There is too much interference of unknown origin. Triangulation is impossible." Virginia states.

"Interference? What in the world is going on?"

"Samus, what is it?" Link asks with concern.

"I can't find the source, something is causing interference."

"Hmm, maybe we can use the Sheikah towers to find what you're looking for?" Purah comments. "We can use my lab to connect with the towers and scan the land, would that work?"

"It just might. Alright, we can head to your lab as soon as my ship repairs itself-" Samus is cut off as the castle begins to shake. Link grabs on to Zelda to keep her from falling as Symin does the same for both Impa and Purah. After a few seconds, the shaking subsides and Samus asks if everyone is alright. A moment later a guard runs in.

"Your Highness! Something has appeared in the land! I can't explain it!" The guard says in panic.

"Everyone! Get to the balcony!" Zelda shouts and they all run to the balcony of the dining room and they are shocked by what they find.

"What is all this…?" Link fearfully asks.

"Trouble…" Samus answers as she observes the massive luminescent blue barrier around the vast majority of Hyrule save for Central Hyrule and the Woodland Region. The phazon has begun its spread…


To be continued.

Authors Note: The story deepens…. Well, I finally got the next one up already. Now, the next one will be more development and the one after it will finally be some exploration. On another note, I made the part with Zelda asking Samus about her suit at the beginning funny because in one of the memories with Zelda trying to have Link taste a frog while explaining its properties (pretty fast at that) in BotW was one of the funniest things I've seen in a Zelda game. Also, to all the Metroid fans saying that Dark Samus died at the end of MP3: Corruption, remember that she can revive as long as there is phazon present anywhere. Well, stay tuned for the next one.

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