Here is the third chapter, following up straight from where the first chapter started.

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with both parties nor own anything from them. All rights for Red vs. Blue goes to Rooster Teeth and all rights for Metroid goes to Nintendo.

Chapter 3: No Rest for the Weary

[Some time later...]

"I'm sorry, who the heck are you?" Grif didn't seem to care on who was the person behind the alien-looking suit even though he asked who they were, as long as he was just left alone afterward.

"Name's Samus. Bounty Hunter, Samus Aran on behalf of the Galactic Federation. I'm here for-"

Samus got cut off by a scream of fear, coming from Grif himself. When Grif heard the phrase, "bounty hunter", memories of Felix, Locus, and their ferocious mercenaries came back to haunt him, making him scream in fear.

"OH, MY GOD! BOUNTY HUNTER!? I THOUGHT WE WERE FINISHED WITH THOSE SPACE PIRATE ASSHOLES! AAGHH!"

As Grif started to panic, he started running away, tripping into almost everything he was running into, catching almost everyone's attention around him.

"Wait, what? NO! It's not what you think! Just let me explain!" Samus hollered, to no avail.

"What on Sam hill is going on out there!?" Sarge shouted at a distance.

"Grif?" Simmons knew Grif's scream like the back of his hand, just as he heard it far away from where he was.

"What the hell is going on?!" Tucker asked as he came to where Grif screamed and quickly saw Samus standing on his right side. "Woah! Dude nice suit. Where'd you get that?" Tucker commented, not knowing Samus was a girl behind the suit.

"Long story. Anyway, can you let that orange guy know I'm not here to hurt him or anything?"

"Well, how am I suppose to know you are not here to hurt anyone around here? And who are you anyway? No offense, but your suit isn't really anything I've ever seen. Not even the ancient alien temple we found back at Chorus had such thing."

"I guess you guys aren't as bad as I thought then," Samus commented, though she was still having her doubts floating around inside her mind. "Anyway, I'm Boun- Samus Aran on behalf of the Galactic Federation." Samus was already thinking they have some trust issues with bounty hunters that they knew of from before, though she didn't really know if bounty hunters around UNSC space were of those from Space Pirates, like what Grif was yelling about. What if the Space Pirates that the orange soldier was talking about were the same ones that are responsible for all the troubles she's been through? What if these soldiers had already dealt with the same Space Pirates that she has faced in the past? Then they would have the perfect training for the Galactic Federation. All these thoughts have been coming through her mind like tsunamis hitting inside her mind. She put those thoughts aside, but before she could utter another word to the teal soldier, she felt something poke her back a bit. At that moment, she knew that trying to get these Reds and Blues' trust had to be earned harder than expected.

"I think it would be in your best interest to start explaining yourself right about now," a voice came from behind her back.

Another teal soldier came by, though they looked more female looking and slowly aimed her gun at Samus and started speaking.

"You might wanna start by saying, who you are, where you come from, and what are you doing in here?"

"Just as I expected even by the looks of that picture of you and everyone else here," Samus remarked.

The soldier behind Samus slowly went around her, inspecting her Power Suit and stood next to where the female soldier was standing, still aiming their guns at her. "Hmm... you don't look from around here or anywhere else known in UNSC space. Answer our questions before things get a little out of hand here."

Everyone out of the conversation soon gathered around the three of them, curious as to who in the orange-greenish like armor.

"Ok, so where do I start...?" Samus paused for a bit, unsure how to gain their trust as some unnecessary tension was already rising between them. "Well for starters, my name is Samus Aran. I come from another region of space under the auspices of a corporation called 'The Galactic Federation'. I was sent by the Federation to come here and convince you guys to join our cause against a species called Space Pirates."

"What?" The female soldier gasped.

"Species? Don't you mean the Space Pirate mercenaries?" The man behind the steel-yellow trimmed suit corrected.

"No," Samus said blandly. "I literally meant 'species'; a group of species called Space Pirates. They are not your ordinary type of human military mercenaries you all have faced before. They are ruthless alien species, who would do anything to conquer lands, societies, even whole planets for their own needs too. They also possess other types of technology found from other types of intelligent life, including our own."

Everyone around Samus all seemed confused, but Washington and Carolina were still holding Samus at gunpoint, not fully trusting what she really is saying. Tucker then stood out of the crowd, with an annoyed and frustrated look in his eyes.

"Oh please don't tell us we are going on another fight we don't need to get ourselves into again. Literally, our fight back at Chorus was already enough and you think we are just gonna join you and your damn corporation in a fight that's light years away from even the reaches of the UNSC? I think we'll pass."

"You don't understand!" Samus began to feel some sort of frustration, although she knew that if she showed this off, she'll come into problems with the two freelancers still aiming at her. She settled down a bit and started speaking more calmly. "If you don't wanna help, I get it but think about this for a moment. What if it was you that was fighting these type of monsters and you couldn't do it yourselves? What if it hanged on everyone's lives around this particular region? You would do anything, desperate, enough to look for help in trying to take down a galactic threat."

There was silence for a moment. Then Samus broke it off as she continued.

"These so-called Space Pirates won't hesitate in going from one solar system to another, ravaging anything they come in contact with and soon, they'll find this place where we are standing right now and seek to either conquer or destroy this region of space. When I was a kid, they destroyed the planet where I was born in. They took everything away from me; killed my parents, destroyed neighborhoods, cities, even the creatures called the 'Chozo' that took care of me, all gone." Samus' tone then turned cold. "You have no idea what these monsters are capable of."

Another moment of silence kicked in. Just a minute later, Carolina finally spoke, with her gun lowered.

"I'm sorry for your loss... I know what it feels like to lose something dear to you. As you might've heard, considering how you may have found us here, we fought a long battle against a couple of bounty hunters and their corporation and suffered so many casualties," she turned to Caboose before finishing her sentence. "Including the loss of a friend..."

"I'm sorry to hear that, too..." Samus said in return. "If you want proof as to what I'm talking about, do you have any sort of projection or holographic device I could use to show you the intel I have about everything we are doing in the Galactic Federation Force?"

"Yes, ma'am. I have an underground room that's fitted with a giant hologram, suitable for shooting clones of Grifs," Sarge said in return.

"Ugh! I hope we don't get to do a shooting range ever again down there..." Grif responded in an annoyed tone.

"Well, it all depends on how you behave towards the lady in front of us, Grif." Sarge turned around, facing his back towards Grif. "Now stop being a dirtbag and get your ass moving, soldier! C'mon follow me this way, everyone! We've got someplace else to be!" Sarge then started leading them towards their secret underground hologram bunker.

Just as they entered the meeting room they had installed months back, Samus started blankly staring around as if the room was somehow vaguely familiar to her. Tucker was watching her all along, just like how he has done with other girls in the past, much like Carolina, which ended him up getting punched in the chest very hard. He then stops staring at her and broke up the silence as they were entering the room.

"Hey um.." Tucker didn't know what to say, but nonetheless, couldn't resist to not say anything to Samus he then tried not to flirt, but instead try to change the subject that was flowing into his mind. "You never have seen anything like this, right?"

"I've been into many meeting rooms, but this one seems more advanced than the ones that the G.F.F. has developed in recent years." Samus was surprised to see such technology, but then again, she wasn't as surprised as she has seen this type of technology from the Space Pirates, which could mean that they already have gained access to UNSC Space regions, secretly. That, or maybe they've only seen it somewhere else and decided to replicate such tech.

"Oh trust me, ma'am, this is nothing compared to the shooting gallery I have prepared back from where we came from," Sarge was beginning to feel a bit cocky on his knowledge of such tech. "Grif, you should show her after we are done with whatever she wants to show us here."

Grif was beginning to feel aggravated. "You know what? I'm just gonna pretend I never heard that. Plus I'm too lazy anyway so good luck with that, Sarge!"

"Hey! Don't talk back to Sarge like that!" Simmons defended Sarge, much like he has always been doing since they knew one another.

"I can talk like that to however I like so SUCK IT SIMMONS! Also, kiss Sarge's ass! No one likes a kiss ass anyway!"

"Hey, he's our leader so just give some respect you DOUCHE!" Simmons barked back.

"At least I'm not the one being a kiss ass!"

"Would you please just stop ARGUING FOR GOD'S SAKE!" Tucker shouted.

"NO ONE IS TALKING TO YOU, BLUE!" Grif and Simmons shot back at Tucker at the same time.

"Would you all just SHUT THE HELL UP and let Samus show us whatever she wants to show us!" Carolina hollered at the three of them, who were arguing like little kids for a toy. She then gave a deep sigh and stated, "Just listen to whatever she has to say and then you guys can continue whatever argument you guys have afterward".

Samus was just watching the whole situation, in confusion as to why would they even fight and partake in pointless arguments. "Thank you, Carolina. Now let me show you all this."

She took out a device on what it looked like to be just a small circular flat object and threw it in front of the table they were all gathering together upon. A moment later, it threw off a big map on where the G.F.S. Olympus is located at, along with the whole Kalandor Region. Samus was then describing everything that the map was showing, including the objectives each Bounty Hunter was given, in order to have the Reds and Blues be as informed as possible about the whole entire situation. Everyone just listened, quietly. As she finished doing her explaining on the whole situation, Samus then called out everyone's attention, after everyone around her was giving an opinion to each other. "So, who is willing to save the galaxy once again by this new peril that may come to your place in a matter of time?"

Everyone was just staring at each other as if they were waiting for one of them to say or do something until both freelancers raised their hands to show that they were joining Samus.

"If it means into getting rid of this so-called 'phazon' and the Space Pirates abusing this substance that poses a risk to the whole galaxy, then you can count me in," Carolina said, with confidence in her voice.

"I'm with Carolina," Washington stated, with some doubt in his mind as he knew that everything they have done hasn't always worked according to their way. "I mean, as much as how scary it sounds, I don't think we do have a choice if we all just stay here and wait for them to strike at us".

"I'm not getting involved in anything related to fighting anymore," Tucker said. "I'm done with this kinda thing. Plus I'd already given up enough to say that I won't need to go back into fighting another war that ain't mine".

"What Tucker said," Caboose stated, agreeing to what Tucker was saying, considering how all this isn't gonna help bring his best friend back. "If it has nothing to do with bringing back Church, I'm not joining either..."

Sarge was also on both Tucker and Caboose's side as he just recently found out that even though he is hungry for battling a war, having no personal motive to do so has already drained his ability to do so unless it was about killing Grif of course. "Sorry, but if I have no personal motivation into all this, I can't join you for as much as I want to if you have any idea of what I mean."

"I'm with Sarge," Simmons said. "Whatever Sarge says, I will always be on his side".

"You know, as much as I hate to admit this, I'm actually gonna stick with Simmons and Sarge," Grif stated his part as he was trying too hard not to admit that he was being another kiss ass, just like Simmons.

"Hmph, and I thought irony wasn't part of your to-do list, Grif," Simmons remarked.

"Oh just shut up. Plus, I don't have the energy to do everything we've done back at Chorus once again. We are talking about saving a galaxy and I, for one, wasn't quite in the mood of saving a whole planet either so yeah, I'm not being part of this..."

Donut, however, was thinking about joining the fight, but then considered otherwise after he was hearing the others talk about it.

"If no one on my team is going, I'll just stick with Lopez and just start practicing my Spanish with him. It's something productive I love to do anyway, especially decorating our things around here with colorful stuff so you already have my word that I won't be joining you, Saturn, or whatever your name was". Donut then turned to Lopez and tried asking him some questions in Spanish. [1]"Tu que dices Lopez?"[1]

Lopez then turned his back around to everybody and stated in Spanish, [2]"Yo no voy a ir a ningun lado con Samus. Todos tienen sus razones en no ir a la batalla contra los Piratas Espaciales y yo tengo mis razones en que yo tampoco tengo ganas de andar matandome en tratar de arreglar las cosas que ustedes idiotas quebran las 24 horas seguidas". [2]

Samus just silently watched everyone express their own thoughts and opinions about this matter and a few moments later, she finally spoke.

"Look, I know you guys don't know me that well, but this is nothing compared to what you guys have fought before. These Space Pirates are nothing you shouldn't be throwing off as a minimal threat. If the Galactic Federation has found this UNSC Space region, it'll be just a matter of time before they come and conquer this part of space region, but it is entirely your choice. I'm not gonna force you to join me or anything, but do consider this in mind." Samus made sure she had eye contact with everyone around and she spoke once more, "If the choice that you are making right here, right now, would it be worth it? Would you regret it later on in the future? Or would it be wise enough to keep certain others safe from harm? This will all depend on the choice you'll be making right now as even the smallest decision can dramatically affect the outcome of this fight."

The sound of silence quickly filled the air around them as it flowed by for 5 minutes until Wash then broke the silenced air around them.

"Don't worry, Carolina and I can take care of all this. You guys should just stay put as we have already lost too many of our friends before and I'll be damned if it were to ever happen again. Plus it'll be great as we could contact you guys, if it were ever to come to us getting into deep trouble," Wash was then making a serious eye contact towards everyone's eyes. "I'm sure we can count on you guys, right?"

"If it comes to that, you'll know where to find us," Tucker replied with a slightly worried expression on his face as he couldn't bear to lose Wash or Carolina as he did with Church. "Please, just... be careful, okay?"

Wash then made a quick chuckle. "Since when are we ever not careful?"

"You're right I guess," Tucker grinned.

"Eh well if those Space Pirates aren't gonna be waiting for you guys to rock'n'roll, then I suggest you guys fight them off in honor of me!" Sarge exclaimed as everyone was staring at him with an annoyed look. "What!?" Sarge asked. "Did I say something wrong?"

"You clearly won't be getting any honor at all as you aren't even dead too! Plus you aren't even getting involved so just cut it out, would you?" Grif said as he was getting too tired of Sarge about such thing.

Sarge then turned to Simmons, seemingly ignoring what Grif said. "Simmons?"

"Yes, Sarge?" Simmons answered.

"Remind me to poison his orange juice tomorrow morning before he wakes up, okay?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Ugh! Really Sarge?" Grif was already starting to burst out of annoyance and anger. "Just screw everyone! I'm out of here! & Tell that Samus chick again that I'm not going or even showing up into any of her own fights!"

As Grif pushed Donut and Simmons out of the way, Samus watched everything that was happening and then asked, "Does Grif always act like this?"

"Don't mind him," Carolina replied with an assuring tone. "He's been having anger issues lately and the therapy sessions that Donut has been giving to him recently has only made him worse, but eventually, he'll get it over with".

"Hey don't blame it on me! I was only trying to help him, by making him color some coloring books and having tea parties with me too". Donut said in defense.

"Where the hell did you even get any coloring books around this place?" Wash questioned, wondering how many things has Donut been doing in these past few months.

"Oh um... me and Caboose went into one of the old warehouse buildings back at Chorus, where they had a lot of different children stuff in there, so we took'em".

"You WHA-" Wash then reminded himself that Caboose and Donut would do many weird things in their spare time and decided not to even question him any further. "You know what? Just forget it. I'm not even gonna bother with you both".

"I also grabbed some old DVD cases named 'Blue's Clues' and 'Dora the Explorer'. It was fun watching them all with Donut and Grif when he was falling asleep, but it didn't matter," Caboose said with a happy and calm expression, smiling at the thought of watching those shows with everyone in the room.

"Oh God..." Wash just facepalmed without hesitation.

"Blue's Clues?" Samus asked in curiosity. "I might've heard something about that before...," Samus then stared into space as she remembered having seen such an old show from her mother's old collection, back when her parents were still alive, back when everything was just a normal life, back when her life was soon going to change in a matter months, before the Space Pirates invaded her home planet. This thought in mind came from being a happy-nostalgic thought to a sad, depressing, and devastating thought. She was starting to feel like crying a river in front of everyone, but no. She had to stay strong. She had to show that no matter the cost, one had to move on and step forward in life, in order to keep going. If it wasn't because of her mother, sacrificing herself for her, she would've been dead a long time ago and never become the woman she is now.

Carolina stepped forward, next to Samus, and asked in concern, "Are you feeling, okay?"

"I'm fine it's just... nevermind," Samus then tried to change the subject as she put all those feelings away and then turned to Carolina and said with a serious tone, "So you and Agent Washington are the only ones coming with me?"

Carolina was then turning to everyone else, in order to see if anyone changed their minds, but the Reds and Blues never uttered a word and only stood still where they were, "I guess it's only the two of us then. Will your boss not be mad at you for not including everyone else in our group?"

"As long as I tried hard enough to convince you all and get you all informed about this, I'm sure the federation wouldn't mind," Samus reassured her.

"Alright, then when will we be leaving?" Washington asked.

"Whenever you guys are ready, but the guy who sent me here, Admiral Dane, would like you guys to be there in less than 24 hours or so, before the next meeting starts, so you might want to get everything ready and packed soon enough," Samus answered.

"We'll be sure to get ready in less than an hour so we'll catch up. Thank God we have a working pelican still after Sarge managed to destroy two others by crashing them into asteroids, surrounding the moon," Wash then turned to look at Sarge with a serious look in his eyes.

"Don't look at me Mr. Washington! I was merely just trying to learn how to fly a pelican, but I as much as I hate to admit it, Grif knows more than I do, but that still doesn't mean I ain't killing him in his sleep or tomorrow morning!" Sarge said, with confidence, as if he was pledging the flag of his country.

"Yeah, whatever..." Wash replied.

"I'll wait inside my ship for you guys. Call me when you're ready," Samus said.

"Wait, but how would we be able to call you if you don't have a similar integrated radio in your suit like we do? Wash was wondering since they all knew her suit was of a completely different origin than theirs.

"Trust me. You'd be surprised at what this suit can do, compared to yours," Samus replied, with a smirk on her face.

"Okay then... we'll let you know however we can," Wash then watched as Samus and the others were leaving out the room.

Carolina then stopped mid-way, until she saw Wash having a worried expression on his face through his helmet, standing there as he was staring blankly at the table. She walked closer to him and said, "You know if you don't want to do this we can always-"

"No, it's not that Carolina. It's just... I don't want to make the Reds and Blues suffer for the loss of us... just like with Church..." Wash cut her off with a small depressing tone as he was already feeling that he just wanted everything to stay like normal. He only wants the safety of his friends, but leaving them behind makes him worried that what if he and Carolina won't make it? What if something goes wrong and the Space Pirates track their location and invade the moon before they could've done anything here by staying and protecting their friends? All of this was making Wash's stomach turn until he was met with a hug from Carolina.

"Don't worry Wash," Carolina reassured him with a soft, motherly-like voice. "We've been through a lot and now it is not the time for you to be feeling vulnerable at this point. Quite the opposite, you should be feeling strong and very proud of all of us, or even Church's sacrifice. If it weren't for him, I don't think we wouldn't be standing here right now."

All of these words were making Wash feel much better, although he was still saddened at the thought of so many sacrifices that has happened in their past lives, even before Project Freelancer was brought to justice, but Wash knew they weren't all in vain. They all had a reason and it was to let others live a whole life ahead of them and to encourage others to keep fighting, no matter the circumstances of the situation.

Just after five minutes have passed, they stopped hugging and Wash then finally spoke, "Well then, what are we waiting for? We've got some work to do."

[To be continued...]

So here you go! That was that for now. I'm extremely sorry this was posted late as there was a lot of correcting to do on this chapter (there are probably still a whole lot of different type of errors, but oh well :P). Once I finish the whole fanfic, I might update the whole thing as to the little errors I may have missed.

Anyways, I do hope you can excuse me for this, as college has also been getting in the way quite a lot recently and the holidays were just as busy too. From now on, I'll try my best to keep this fanfic updated at least weekly or so. Maybe put up 2 chapters per week, but I doubt it, considering my conflicting schedules. Again, I can't promise you anything so expect the unexpected.

Also, thank you guys for the reviews! Much appreciated! I will try to improve as I go so bear with me. I have so much in store that I'd like to add in the future, but I'm trying not to make it too long and boring as I just want to get to the main points of the story and be descriptive from there. Don't forget to drop a review in the future! All are welcome :)

Below are the Spanish Translations of the chapter:

[1] - "What do you say, Lopez?"

[2] - "I'm not going to go anywhere with Samus. Everyone has their reasons for why they don't want to go to battle against Space Pirates and I have my own reasons for why I also don't wanna join either. I don't wanna be killing myself trying to fix all the things you idiots break 24/7 continuously".