Samus really didn't want to do this, but she had no choice.

There was only one being here who was sure to have the power to undo everything. The same being created this place and gather everyone here. It took many forms, from disembodied hands to a horrifying mass of darkness in the shape of a beast, but it didn't really have a name. They just called it the Master. There was no doubt that it could help them.

The problem was that the Master was...eccentric. The only reason why they were here in the first place was because it "wanted to see Mario beat the stuffing out of Link while Donkey Kong prepares to launch Pikachu into the orbit" or something along those lines. It even offered them a chance to fight it several times and let itself be defeated, but nothing really happened after that. It was just messing with them.

It wasn't hard to find the Master. You just had to enter one of the rooms and it would respond to any questions. The whole thing was a little too theatrical for her, but it was better than having to search for him when this place was so big and confusing. It was composed of different locations simply stitched together in a haphazard way, with scenery just suddenly changing before you even know it. That made navigation nigh impossible without prior knowledge.

That did mean that she had to go there with Ridley. His mood got only worse since they parted ways in the morning, but he hasn't really said much yet, which always was a good thing.

While he was already barely five feet tall, he also keep that hunched over posture out of habit, which made him look even smaller. He wasn't used to wearing heels either, which was perfectly understandable given how it took real humans some time to get accustomed to those. She didn't miss how he tried to tear off his collar and bow several times either, but that obviously didn't work as clothes somehow couldn't be damaged in this place at all. This place was awfully inconsistent with those rules as certain objects could be broken, but others wouldn't even have a scratch from the strongest blows on them.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to reach that room as it was located in the middle of their living quarters. It felt completely different from others as it wasn't taken from other worlds. It's been there since they had first arrived and it completely changed its appearance with every shift although those changes were mostly cosmetic. It seemed like every shift made it flashier and flashier. The room itself looked like it was much bigger than everything else as it lead into a void where celestial bodies danced in a mesmerizing way, with no visible walls, ceiling or even a floor aside from one big platform with a set of smaller floating floating platforms forming a stairway leading to it.

"Hey, asshole, get down here! I need you to fix this shit!" Ridley said, impatient and rude as ever.

"Who dares to enter my domain?"

The main platforms starts shaking as the clouds above part to make way for a beam of blue light. The Master itself wasn't actually visible, but his loud voice was more than enough. Things didn't seem too bad just yet. Tet.

"Punishment for tres- Wait, who's this? I don't remember bringing her here. Did you make her when I wasn't looking? I thought I told you not t-"

"It's Ridley and we're here to ask you to turn him back."

The booming laugh that follows makes Ridley grind his teeth in anger. Even the shaft of blue light starts shifting as if somebody's desperately trying to hold the light source above in place, but they are laughing too hard to do so. That was probably the case. Either way, it took the Master some time to calm down.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just...Cunning God of Death...in a princess dress...It's the contrast that got me...But who did this?"

"It's her."

"I've told you that I had nothing to do with it!"

"You were the only one there when I woke up like this and you were the only one there who would care enough to put me through this! You've been enjoying this way too much ever since! Are you saying that's not true at all?"

"I was there, but I di-"

"Enough bickering! Man, you just never stop fighting! You're supposed to do that when I tell you to, not every time you have a meal!"

"Well, I'm sorry, it's not like this bastard took both of my families away from me or anything!"

"Only two families! You just gotta let it go sometimes."

"Don't act like you're the only one whose family I took. If you ever get another family, I'll take that one too."

"How about f-"

"Anyway, I made my decision. Samus, whatever you did to her, undo it now."

"What?! I've told you it wa-"

"Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of me not caring! I don't have all day."

"That's EXACTLY why we came here! YOU are supposed to fix this!"

"Look, Sammy, I-"

"Don't call me that."

"Okay, Sammy. Here's a thing: I don't have the time to deal with your problems. I've got all this cosmic business to take care of and you're here just to make my day.'

"Bullshit! You just want to watch us all suffer, don't you?!"

"I have nooooo idea what you're talking about. Oh, by the way, Riddles, my man! You're fun to watch in a fight and all, but ever since I promoted you, you've been causing nothing but trouble and ruining everyone's day. I really should just kick you out."

"Yes, do that! Please, just get him away from me!"

"I could do that...buuuuuuut I think I've got a better solution. Since somebody here clearly doesn't want to own up to their mistake...I'll have you look after my awesome space death dragon until she goes back to being an awesome space death dragon."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm NOT doing that!"

"Well, if you don't, I'll get rid of you both for causing trouble and disobeying me."

"I didn't even do ANYTHING! How the hell is ANYONE supposed to look after this bastard?"

"Just look at that cute lil' face! A little love and everything will be fine! That's what a intergalactic mass murderer needs, right? You're old enough to have children and you don't have a family anyway. Just think of her as your annoying daughter with extremely bad murderous habits. I mean she's already about as cruel as your average child, right? Just make sure she doesn't cause more trouble than she already has. It's not like I can ask Dark Samus to do that. I'm not keeping that thing here for amazing people skills, you know?"

"The hell did you just say? I swear I'm gonna kill you! Just get down here and I'll g-"

"Now, please, kindly leave my humble abode and have a nice day!"

Almost immediately afterwards, both were blown out of the room by an invisible force. By the time they recovered, the door has already been locked and neither could open it.

And that's exactly why Samus didn't want to go there. It was obvious that he didn't actually care about anything but entertaining himself and that's exactly what they gave him. They were actually better off not visiting him. Now they were under the threat of...Well, they didn't actually know what happened to those who were kicked out. The few who did had no recollection of their departure.

It took Ridley some time to stop trying to kick the door and even longer to stop trying to burn it down. THIS is what she had to look after. This bundle of anger and general dickery that had already managed to piss almost everyone off and the bastard who took everything from her and many others from her world.

This task was outright impossible. Almost everyone here disgusted Ridley for different reasons and he was so damn petty. Simply bumping into him or even getting too close was enough to get stabbed or burned if you weren't prepared for it. When he didn't resort to physical violence, he lashed out verbally and he didn't pull any punches if he knew something personal. How exactly he found out about all those things was hard to tell. He did have good hearing, but he couldn't have learned about everything by simply eavesdropping. Whatever was the case, it made him even less pleasant and Samus had to somehow keep him at bay.

The Master really was an asshole.

"Well, mother, take good care of me," Ridley said with a expression that would have been described as sweet...if it didn't belong to Ridley and, therefore, was obviously meant to mock her. It didn't stay on his face for long either as it was quickly replaced by a scowl he's been wearing the whole day.

It was still cute enough to make the bounty hunter's lips twitch. She hated that.

You could say that now things really start, but these 3 chapers can't really be called the prologue.