XV. Crossovers

Joanna repeated in her mind Samus' instructions as the voices from the inner chamber faded from her hearing. The corridor stretched endlessly before her beyond the range of her lenses. Soon the only sound she heard was her footfalls on the metallic-stone floor. Their sound echoed around her, seemingly amplified by the surrounding silence. A thought occurring to her, she stopped, reached to her belt, and opened the panel she had previously used to modify her uniform. A few taps on the display and the panel closed back up. When she again took step, she was walking in complete silence. A smirk grew on her face.

Score one for Carrington ingenuity.

She continued on for some ways, her paranoia slowly giving way to boredom. What she wouldn't give for an onslaught of Datadyne troops and a hail of gunfire. Just as she was beginning the question the length of the tunnel fitting logically in the interior of the fountain structure, something entered her vision directly ahead of her. The object took up the entirety of the passageway and, as she approached it, Joanna recognized it as one of the doors Samus had told her about. She stopped in front of it, looking it over. It seemed just as had been described to her: a wall of convex glass, solid in color. The only problem was, through her night-vision lenses, she couldn't quite tell what color the door was. She didn't have a flashlight as she normally didn't need one, and deactivating her lenses would be pointless.

Joanna stood there for some time, thinking logically about what her next move should be. At last, her conclusion reached, she raised her pistol and with, three quick rounds, shattered the glass door.

"So much for your methods, Sammy." She said as she approached the door and stepped through. "And so much for stealth. Guess I'll have to apologize to La-agh!"

She yelped as the floor beneath her gave way and she felt herself beginning to fall. Her free hand reached out deftly to grab hold of the ledge. But that too crumbled beneath her grip and she continued to fall.

Lara walked at a casual pace down the long corridor, shining her flashlight upon the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, eager for some symbols or hieroglyphs for her to decipher, or some hidden passageway to find. But as her search went on and her walk lengthened, she became increasingly disappointed and bored. The passageway was a blank slate. There was nothing to do, but walk.

Becoming extremely bored, she began tossing her flashlight from hand to hand, flipping it in midair as she walked. One particular time, something glinted in the corner of her eye and she stopped, aiming her flashlight down the corridor where she thought she had seen something. Off in the distance, something caught the light from her flashlight and sent it back. Lara quickly walked further down, keeping her light on the object, which grew as she approached. When she at last reached it, she stared at it, dumbfounded.

The corridor had abruptly ended at a wall. But it was the large object that sat in front of the wall, as large as the corridor itself, that befuddled her. Standing before her, reflecting back the light of her flashlight, was the aluminum frame of a freight elevator. The object was plainly of human construction. In fact, Lara could tell it was one of those few portable models specifically manufactured to be carried and assembled on-sight. They were often used on archeological digs where the building structure required for an industry standard freight elevator was not available.

Leaning into the elevator, Lara shined her flashlight upwards and noted the wide shaft that continued up directly overhead. Stepping inside, she looked at the control panel, noting the name printed in plain English and recognizing it as from a manufacturer in England – Derbyshire, specifically.

Well, she though to herself. No place to go from here but up.

Reaching out, she pressed the button marked by an "up" arrow. Bright lights suddenly lit up the hollow chamber. The sound of a hydraulic engine powering up filled the shaft. With a lurch, the elevator began to move up the wide shaft. Lara switched off her flashlight and tucked it away in her pack. A thought occurring to her, she looked back at the name on the control panel. Someone had put this elevator here. That meant there was someone waiting on the other end. Lara adjusted her gloves, lowered her sunglasses, and checked the clips on her pistols. She then moved to rest her hand on the control panel, one finger on the stop button. Having prepared herself as best she could, she stood there staring up the shaft, patiently waiting as the elevator took her ever closer to its destination.

Only a short time passed, and she could already see a ledge coming closer above her. She could see as well some ambient lighting coming from it. No doubt there was someone waiting at the top. She waited until she was within arms-length, hit the stop button and pressed herself against the ledge wall. Just as she suspected, she heard the sound of footsteps on stone floor.

"What's the matter, Reese?" a voice called as a figure stepped onto the ledge. "That cheap piece of junk get stuck agai-"

On the word "stuck", Lara jumped up and simultaneously grabbed the figure's ankles and planted her feet on the wall. She heard a gasp and, "There's someone here!" as she pulled with all her might. The man fell on his back and Lara heard the sound of automatic fire as she pulled the man right off the ledge. The man flipped forward as he fell, smashing face on the control panel. Lara released her grip as soon as she had pulled him from the ledge. As she fell, she continued her motion into a tuck, flipping and landing on her feet. Her hands went immediately to her guns and she turned, drawing them and aiming them squarely at her opponent who now lay on the floor of the elevator with his hands covering his nose. Blood was trickling forth from underneath his hands and he was grunting in pain. What looked like a laptop had fallen on the floor beside him. Lara quickly surmised his gun must still be up on the ledge.

That'll be bad news if anyone comes looking for trouble. Better get this over quick.

"Sorry about the nose, chap." She said. "But I couldn't afford for you to have the upper-hand. Why don't you tell me who you are and what you're doing here?"

The moment Samus cleared the doorway, two enormous stone slabs slid down, sealing her inside a narrow section of the corridor. This was nothing new, and Samus was immediately ready to implement any one of ten different strategies to face what was coming. But what came was not what she expected. Floor, ceiling, and every wall porcupined forth hundreds of short, metallic cylinders. In a fraction of a second, Samus picked her strategy and mentally commanded her cannon to switch to missile-fire. She aimed at the wall, an action that also took no time. So well-trained and experienced was she, that she could not be completely caught off-guard by any trap laid by a sentient being. But the ones who had built this place were not just any sentient beings. They were the Chozo.

Before she could complete the command to fire, a storm of electrical energy filled the room. Electrical current ran from cylinder to cylinder, reaching right through Samus' suit and through Samus herself. The hardened bounty-hunter would have screamed, but all her efforts were aimed at keeping her body from convulsing and staying conscious long enough to switch to her grapple beam. Her suit sparked and faded. Her eyes were shut tight, her teeth were gritted. She struggled to hold on to her suit's solid form and control her thoughts enough to issue a single command.

Fire.

Electric wave met electromagnetic wave. Electric feedback of tremendous power instantly shot into every cylinder. A barrage of explosions filled the chamber, first knocking her senseless, and then sending her crashing through one of the solid, stone walls that surrounded her. The momentum was such that she flew several hundred feet and landed with a painful, uncontrolled roll on hard, metallic stone. At last her body, beatn and electrocuted came to a rest in a heap.

Pain rippled through her body. Her mind was fading. She needed to contact the others. She needed her chamber. She moved her mouth to call out, yet no words came. The feel of cold stone was against her skin. She held on desperately to consciousness. It took all she had to remain awake and aware.

Aware? Aware of what? Where am I? What happened?

Her mind was garbled, her memories seemingly like vague dreams, her immediate memories seeming to have vanished altogether. She was surrounded by darkness. Her body refused to respond. Her head hurt like nothing else, her brain was scrambled and she felt sick. She seemed to be in that state for an eternity, unable to move, barely able to think groggy thoughts of where she was and what had happened.

Time passed, how much or little, she could not tell. She seemed to be in limbo and began to dread more and more the possibility of such a fate when footsteps, loud and echoing entered her ears, the pitch-blackness changed to an ambient lighting. Numbly, for she did not feel the action in her muscles, she raised her head to see Lara and Joanna standing over her. Samus reached out an arm, attempting in vain to call out for help. The two simply stood there, staring at her unsympathetically. Jo's hands were on her hips. Lara's arms were crossed. Why weren't they helping her? They couldn't leave her to die!

Why are you just standing there? Her garbled mind called out in anger. Help me! What sort of friends are you?

Though the thought was strange as it passed through her mind, she nonetheless believed it to be true. She was far too distraught with anger and fear to care, however, feelings which grew as the two continued to stare down at her in silence. At last, Joanna's mouth opened to speak, but the voice was not hers. It was male and much deeper.

"Where in the world did this chick come from?"

Somehow, Samus was able to comprehend the inconsistency and realize that these were not the women she had been traveling with.

"Got me." Replied Lara in an equally strange voice. "Better take her with us, though. The boss will want to see her."

Samus felt her body being lifted and slowly drug along the floor. Not quite remembering what had happened or understanding all that was happening now, Samus nevertheless understood one thing: She was in the hands of captors.

The thought seemed to spark in her mind a survival instinct and a refusal to give up. It jump-started her memories. She remembered the chamber of electricity and the resulting explosion. She knew she was weak, helpless. She needed to heal. She steeled her mind, searching for an answer within her garbled memories. At last her thoughts settled on an ancient Chozo technique that would allow her body to rest and heal, whilst restoring her mind and its connection to her muscles. Delving her thoughts into the technique, her environment faded back to darkness as she withdrew into herself.

She felt her heart beating.

It was the first sign of progress. She would be fully recovered within an hour's time.

Joanna groaned. She had slid hundreds of feet down a narrow shaft. The walls were sheer and somehow covered in a material so sand-like, she couldn't even get a grip. After sliding for what seemed like an eternity, the shaft ended, depositing her hard onto the stone floor of a large, open chamber. It hurt like all get out and she groaned again as she attempted to force herself to her feet. Slowly, she managed and looked around at where she was. Her night-vision revealed a large chamber extending beyond the range of her lenses in both directions. Strange creatures of which Jo couldn't make heads or tails, littered the area. They bounced along the ground, flew through the air, crawled on walls, and even ran circuits around blocks in strangely logical patterns. She felt like she was in an alien wild-life reservation...underground.

Of all the places I'd planned to be today...

Shaking her head, she looked up to the hole she'd fallen through. It was nearly twenty feet up.

No point of going back the way I came. No possibility of it anyway.

Blowing some air up which ruffled her bangs, she checked her equipment, which seemed to be all there and intact, picked up her gun, which she had dropped when she fell, and began walking. Most of the creatures of the cavern seemed to pay her no heed. Rather, they stuck to their own doings and patterns, completely oblivious to her presence, though a few followed her with cautioned interest. She had to stop a few times to shoo them away. They didn't retreat very far and always resumed their activity when she continued on. Eventually, she went far enough that her vision revealed a wall coming up before her. Jo stopped short. The wall was made of the same square blocks as the rest of the cavern. She blew out some more air in frustration and was about to turn away when the little creatures that had been following her (which resembled some strange breed of ostrich) ran in front of her, towards the wall. Jo first looked behind her, and when she saw nothing coming, she went forward and noticed the meta-ostriches (for that is what she decided they were) were pecking at a brick at the base of the wall. The brick seemed to be chipping away rather easily. Jo knelt down and shooed away the little creatures and then began pounding on the brick with the butt of her gun. The rocky material crumbled away revealing what appeared to be a glass block. Taking a wide swing with both hands, Jo swung the butt of her pistol and shattered the glass. Several spherical objects tumbled out of the hole. Gingerly, she picked the objects from among the shards of glass, making sure to get any that were still in the hole. Setting them aside, she picked one up and examined it.

The object was a spherical in shape with a ridged band encircling it. She fiddled with it a moment and found the band could be rotated. It went so far and then clicked into position, moving no further. Immediately, it began to pulse and Jo quickly clicked it back. The pulsing stopped and Jo breathed out a heavy breath. This was either a bomb or a beacon. Either way, Jo didn't care to find out by trial and error. She'd let Samus have a look at it. This was her department anyway.

The band took some force to engage and so she decided it was safe to carry. As she gathered the objects and put them in her belt, she looked back at the hole and found the little meta-ostriches were hungrily eating the glass shards. Jo stared at them in surprise. Once they had finished their meal, they chirped happily and scuttled into the hole. Jo peered in and saw them running down a lengthy shaft. The last in the group stopped and turned back to her. It chirped, seemingly beckoning to her and then continued on. After a short distance, the little creature repeated the action, Jo decided she had best follow. The shaft was large enough for her to fit...if she crawled.

Oh, well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose.

She found as she squeezed through the small opening, that her mood had turned a little lighter and she almost didn't mind crawling into a hole in a cave on an alien planet being let by baby meta-ostriches...almost.

Lara tapped a few keys on the keyboard of the open laptop on her lap. She sat with her hand on her chin, staring at the large screen in front of her. It was a remarkable model, made of some kind of flexible material that allowed it to fold in half without damaging the screen. Despite the level of technology inherent in its design, however, Lara was frustrated. The screen before her demanded a password for further access and she'd had no luck cracking it. She tried another combination with no success and growled in her throat. This was always Zip's sort of thing, not hers. Her body wobbled as her seat shifted underneath her. She looked down to the bound and gagged man lying beneath her. He noticed her gaze and looked up.

"Y'know, this could be a lot easier on you if you were to just give your password or a little information."

The man simply gave an angered mumble and gave a brief jerk of a struggle.

"There's really no point in trying to get free." Lara told him. "I do know how to tie a rope pretty effectively. Why don't you stop all this nonsense and tell me what I need to know?"

The man let out a long breath and turned his head away.

"Fine." Lara said, standing up and closing the laptop. "Have it your way. Hope you like peeing on yourself. I'm sure it must have been a while since the last time you went."

Lara folded the laptop in half and stuffed it in her backpack, adding, "You don't mind if I borrow this do you? Of course you don't. There's a good chap."

A sound drew their attention to the passageway still a few feet above them. After strangely finding no gun where her captive had been standing, Lara had gone a little ways down and laid a trap for anyone that might come along. The sound she heard told her it had been sprung and someone was caught in it.

Just in case, though.

Lara drew her guns and climbed up onto the ledge.

Alec held his head. He'd smacked it when...what had happened? He looked around and realized he was swinging...upside-down. His hands groped for his radio as he grunted in pain. Finding it, he let his body hang back limp as he brought the radio to his mouth.

"Central- oh!" he grunted at the pain as he spoke in slow words. "This is Twelve. We have an intrud-"

"I'll take that."

A feminine hand reached around and pulled the radio from his hand. Alec found himself being spun around to find a woman he did not recognize staring back at him. His head felt strange as he tried to place her.

"Who..." he managed. His head was starting to hurt more.

"That's exactly the question I wanted to ask you." Lara told him. "That, and who you're working for."

"Oh...please cut me down."

Lara pulled a hunting knife and held it up.

"Whenever you're ready."

"...bite me...OH!"

Alec put a hand to his head as a pain shot through it. Lara tsk'ed.

"Now that wasn't very good manners." She said as she cut the strap holding his machine gun. "You'd better think of something better to say before all the blood finishes rushing to your head and you wind up a babbling idiot. Not that there will be much difference."

Alec just replied with another, "oh" while Lara looked over the gun she held in her hands. Another technologically advanced model. Something was nagging her about all this technology, like she was missing something. The gun appeared to be a fully automatic assault rifle of some sort. Seeing an insignia on the clip, Lara held it closer. It was the same symbol on both men's uniforms: a right triangle sitting on a point. The line connecting that point and the right angle ran vertically upwards, double the length of the side. Immediately to the right was an equilateral triangle also sitting on a point, it's left side made up of the overly-long side of the right triangle. Lara adjusted the gun in the light of the man's dropped flashlight and suddenly saw the symbol differently.

"'dD'" she read. Her eyes went wide as a revelation hit her and she looked again to the insignia on the man's uniform. Her mind went back to her first encounter with Joanna and it all connected as a familiar sound entered her ears.

Lara jumped back as a spray of bullets ricocheted off the wall. A voice came from a hallway previously hidden in shadow.

"Get her!"

"I wouldn't if I were you, chaps!" Lara shouted from around the corner. "Your friend is literally hanging by a thread directly in your line of fire. So, unless you want-"

Another hail of bullets silenced her and forced her to press herself against the wall adjacent to the hallway. The bullets stopped and Lara stood horrified at the ruthless killing of her captive by his own men.

These guys are serious. She thought to herself. Checking the gun, she thought, High technology or no, a gun is a gun. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Indeed it wasn't. There were a couple extra buttons she didn't recognize, but they weren't needed anyway. All she needed was the barrel and the trigger. Those she found easily.

Alright, chaps. This is the way you want to do things? She thought as she backed up a few paces. I'll oblige.

She then charged forward and sprang into a dive. As she crossed the threshold, she aimed and opened fire.

The first sign of consciousness that came to Samus was the sound of rumblings in her ears. As she slowly came back from her comatose-like state, the rumblings changed. They morphed into muffled voices, which in turn became clearer as she felt her other senses beginning to return. She felt her eyelids and the temptation to open them. She felt strength in her limbs and the desire to move. Nevertheless, she held still, waiting to hear as much as she could before she was forced to reveal her state.

"chamber." Was the first word she heard. The voice was young, probably mid-to-late-thirties. As she continued to listen and recover, she heard a thick accent within the words.

"These symbols will no doubt lead us." The voice continued. "But we must decipher them in order to follow them in the proper order."

"What does it matter?" said another, deeper voice. "Just try different combinations until you find the right one."

"Silence!" shouted the other. "You know nothing of ancient civilizations! The wrong order or the wrong symbol could spring a trap, or lead us into a passage that will get us hopelessly lost. These things MUST be handled delicately."

"Delicate handling takes too much time, Doctor. We want results."

"Then you will die in your pursuits! And your precious federation will have nothing to show for itself but an embarrassing coalition and conglomeration of dead men! And that goes for your alien friends as well! Restrain yourself! And let me do my work!"

"Hey, Boss." A third voice spoke. "What do you want us to do with this chick? I'm tired of carrying her."

"Leave her alone, I told you." The first voice responded. "You will carry her as long as I-"

"Kill her." The second voice cut in.

"I will not have blood on my hands, Colonel!" said the first voice. "You cannot-"

"Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot do." The second voice said rather forcefully. "This woman is a threat to all our work and a wanted criminal."

Criminal?

"It is completely within my jurisdiction and irrelevant to our agreement to do with her as I see fit. She is my concern, doctor, not yours. But if you remain insistent on it, you can join her."

The first voice was silent. A pair of feet shuffled.

"Kill her." The second voice commanded.

At this, Samus opened her eyes.

In quick action, she moved her hands beneath her and swung her legs around, sweeping the feet that she saw when she opened her eyes. As she swung around, her eyes surveyed her surroundings. Five men stood around, not yet able to react to her quick movements. Most where in clothing reflective of Lara's time period. But two figures stood out in her mind. One was dressed in a cream-colored suit that seemed to Samus as a figure she had seen somewhere recently. The other wore the military uniform of a Galactic Federation soldier.

As her legs contacted the feet of her would-be executioner, she formulated her strategy. Pushing off the ground, she vaulted herself sideways and caught the falling man, her arms quickly enfolding him, one going for his pistol, the other wrapping around his neck. The man impacted Samus into the hard, metallic-stone floor. She felt the impact, but suffered little, knowing she had only milliseconds. She took aim with the pistol, and forced the man's finger onto the trigger. The weapon kicked unexpectedly, sending a tremor up Samus' arm as a spray of bullets rocketed out of the gun. Before her first target hit the ground, Samus was already swiveling her aim to her second target, sending a hailstorm of gunfire across the chamber and into the second man. The man in the suit and the Galactic Federation Colonel ducked and fled at the hail of gunfire. The colonel ran down an adjacent corridor. The man in the suit hit a panel on the wall and fled through a closing doorway. As the doorway closed, the man turned back. Samus got the briefest of glimpses at a face filled with bitter anger. Samus' eyes narrowed as she freeze-framed the image in her head. It was him, but younger.

A descendant?

She replayed the image again. The look was the same. It was him. As Samus tried to wrap her mind around the mystery of the matter, she felt the man on top of her go limp. Shoving him off her, she took his gun and stood up. She examined the gun a moment. An archaic piece of weaponry, but she was eventually able to figure out the clip, rounds, and operation of the whole thing. She then looked down the corridor she had seen the colonel run down. It was completely dark only a few feet from the chamber in which she stood. Were her suit functional, she would have immediately given chase. But then again, if her suit were functional, he wouldn't have gotten away in the first place.

If only I'd seen his face…

Forcing her attention away, Samus moved to the bodies of the men she killed. Taking two more clips off them, she searched their belongings. Inside the packs on their backs were days' worth of rations, archaic light sticks (electrical and chemical), and several other strange objects she did not recognize. Finally resigning herself to take a little of everything, Samus emptied out one of the packs and re-packed it with just that as well as the extra clips. She then put the pack on and stood to face the wall where the familiar man had pressed the panel.

Ancient Chozo writing covered the wall. It didn't take someone with Samus' knowledge long to read the hieroglyphs and decipher the messages therein.

You have survived, as we always knew you would. You have not forgotten even after these long years. I know your heart breaks whenever you look upon what remains. But the years can be reversed, the evils that befell our race can be rescinded, and you can be restored to that for which your heart so greatly longs. To find it, you must pass through the maze to the heart of this fountain. Beware. Your enemies will also be fervently seeking this treasure. Treasure well the friendships you have made. They will be invaluable. Forgive easily, remembering that all of us fall short of perfection. Most of all, do not put your desire above the truth…daughter Samus.

Samus stood there, staring at the writing, doing everything in her power to keep her emotions in check. Her heart broke for her extinct people. She yearned for some deeper interaction with them, as she had done so many times in her youth, to sit at the feet of Old Bird and learn from his wisdom of years, as well as to hear of his heart from his aged voice lovingly call her, "Daughter Samus."

Her emotions became too strong at the thought and she leaned her head against the wall, her hand feeling the raised surfaces of the hieroglyphs as her cheeks felt trickles of water flowing over them. She desired there to be something more. She desired to grab hold of the stones pull them down and somehow restore the people which she had lost to time and circumstance. But there was nothing. There was only the writing and the faint glimmer of hope it held.

…the years can be reversed, the evils that befell our race can be rescinded, and you can be restored to that for which your heart so greatly longs…

Perhaps there was a way. But even if there wasn't, somewhere in the heart of this complex lay a treasure of the Chozo. Such things could not fall into the hand of the space pirates, or any that would misuse it for their own gain. She still had her people to honor, and a universe to protect.

Steeling her mind, she straightened up and wrestled her emotions under control as she once again looked over the writing. The familiar man had pressed the first instance of treasure and it had sealed him behind that particular wall. Samus looked at it. He had not pressed the proper panel to lead him into the maze. But correct path or not, a man of ill intent let loose in a Chozo ruin was still a dangerous matter. Samus thought over her options. Her power suit was disabled. She possibly had some explosives picked off the men she killed, but there was no way to tell, and no knowledge of how to use them even if she could recognize them. She would simply have to follow the path Old Bird had laid out for her.

Turning back to the wall, she pressed the panels in the correct order, a phrase Old Bird had often spoken in instructing her.

daughter

Samus

desire

truth

The panels immediately popped back into place. Metallic stone ground against metallic stone as the wall behind Samus slid open to reveal another passage. Turning, Samus stepped inside. Two Chozo statues sat on either side just inside the opening. Samus froze as their eyes lit up with a purple hue. The color was indicative of their scanning nature. These were not guardians. Understanding their purpose, Samus stood still and allowed them to scan and identify her Chozo DNA. At last their scans ceased, the purple glow of their eyes faded and the walls began to slide back into place.

A sensation of being watched came over Samus and she turned and looked back into the darkened passageway down which the Galactic Federation Colonel had fled. Her eyes narrowed as she searched the darkness. But she saw nothing. At last, the walls slammed shut, sealing her inside the maze. She stood staring at the wall a moment, eventually coming to the same conclusion as before. She rested in the fact that even if he figured out the sequence, he would still have to deal with the Chozirim. Turning away, she set her mind to the task ahead and headed down the corridor.