Fearing for her life, Peach slowly walked down the hallway. She could hear the Metroid's footsteps below her pacing back and forth. The trek down the hallway was shorter than Peach expected, and her nerves slowly took over. Her breathing quickened as her heart began racing. At the end of it, she saw a ladder that lead to the lower level of the ship. She peaked down there and saw the long face of the Blood Metroid. The sight of its grotesque fangs and multiple eyes were enough to make her feel sick; its claws, and maroon rigid skin caused her to gag. The Blood Metroid must have heard her, and it looked Peach dead in the eye.
Having caught its attention, Peach spoke up, "What are you doing down there when I'm right here, huh? Come kill me; you don't have to go that far!"
Fortunately for her, the Blood Metroid did not move, choosing to growl and shriek at her; it knew that Peach was absolutely terrified, so it was not worried in the slightest. However, Peach knew that Rosalina and Samus were still trapped down in maintenance. When the Blood Metroid began moving away from wear Peach could see it, she called out again, "Wait a second! Don't go anywhere!"
Seemingly understanding her, the Blood Metroid quickly popped back into her vision, startling Peach. It growled, bringing its head up. Peach struggled initially, but she reared the flamethrower in the air and pulled the trigger. Fire shot out of the tip of it, lighting the dark hallway with orange light briefly. The moment Peach let go of the trigger, she pointed down at the Blood Metroid. "Come out of there," Peach demanded, her adrenaline giving her voice some power, "Or else—!"
Suddenly, the Blood Metroid opened its mouth, and a green light began forming inside it. Peach jumped back as a green liquid fired out of the Metroid's mouth, splashing onto the wall behind Peach. Slowly, the liquid began to melt the wall. The Blood Metroid shrieked at Peach again, showing off the rest of the teeth that lined the inside of its mouth. It did not budge from it's position. Peach stared at it as the Blood Metroid looked down; she couldn't figure out how to distract it. As it looked down, Peach saw something sticking out of it's head. It looked like a large wooden splinter of some sort. Then, she got an idea.
Quickly, Peach reached for the splinter and grabbed it. When she jerked it upward, the Blood Metroid shrieked again. This time, however, it was one of pain, not intimidation. It seemed like an eternity, but Peach eventually pulled the splinter out of the Blood Metroid's head. It reared back and fell down into maintenance, it's blood pouring out of the wound and onto it's head. Within seconds, it jumped back up onto the same floor as Peach, surprising her. Here, Peach could see the full size of it; about eight or nine feet when standing on it's skinny hind legs. It growled and screamed viciously before lunging at Peach. Clutching the flamethrower in one hand, Peach sprinted in the other direction.
Although she never turned back, she could hear the thunderous footsteps of the Blood Metroid directly behind her. When they were at their loudest, and she heard the cry of the Blood Metroid, Peach turned around and fired at the Blood Metroid blindly. The fire provided some light in the dark hallway; it was much closer than she anticipated. The Blood Metroid covered its eyes, blinded by the heat and flames momentarily. Peach took the opportunity to run into the main hold and hide under a table. As she tried to slow down her breathing, she muttered to herself, "Calm down, calm down… You have to be brave for Samus and Rosalina… Just relax…"
Her breaths gradually became longer and deeper. She could finally breath normally. However, just as she caught her breath back, she heard the Blood Metroid enter the main hold. When she saw its tail walk by her, Peach crawled from underneath the table and stood tall. She fired the flamethrower, causing the Blood Metroid to back up. It reared back and roared but soon was forced to shield its underside by the fire.
"Come on, come one…" Peach muttered, pressing down on the trigger as hard as she could. She let go of it, due to the amount of heat coming off the barrel, for a second, causing the Blood Metroid to lung at her with it's fangs out and claws reaching, "Oh, shi—!"
The fire kept it at bay once more, causing the Blood Metroid to crouch down and ball up. It screamed in pain as Peach stepped closer to it. Suddenly, it's tail flung in front of Peach, making her flinch. The tail cut her knuckle and part of the flamethrower, Peach stepped back, feeling something seep down on her hand and dress. It must be blood from the cut, Peach thought. Then, when she pressed the trigger down, something ignited.
Rosalina occasionally checked that the Blood Metroid was still by the ladder. When she turned her attention back to Samus, she saw that Samus was looking very pale and extremely damp from sweat. In addition, her zero suit was completely filthy. "Stay with me, Samus," Rosalina whispered, kneeling in front of the bounty hunter, "Come on, stay with me."
She lightly slapped Samus on the cheek, trying to keep her eyes open. Samus hunched over, looking down at her zero suit; it was covered in blood from her, all of it from when she tried to stop the bleeding on her finger. She tried to speak, but she felt too light-headed, and no words came out of her mouth. "Samus, hey," Rosalina whispered, still slapping Samus' pale-white face, "You have to stay awake, okay? We'll get you help, we'll get your fingers patched up…"
Samus heard whatever Rosalina said, but she could not retain it. Everything blended together as her eyes became heavy. Her heard slowly tilted downwards; she could barely hold her head up. Rosalina no longer paid attention to her, instead seeing something off in the distance. Moving frantically, Rosalina ripped apart of her sleeve off and bandaged off Samus' stump and missing finger. Samus did not know how long it took, or how long they had been siting there; it felt like hours, days even, but it also felt like seconds. Right before Samus closed her eyes, Rosalina shook her violently. "Get up. Now," Rosalina ordered. As Rosalina helped Samus towards the ladder, her hearing and vision restored slowly with the thunderous stomps above them. With a violent cry of the Blood Metroid somewhere in the distance, Samus' senses came back fully.
"We have to hurry," Rosalina said, trying to push Samus up the ladder, "Come on."
Struggling, Samus pulled herself up the ladder and out of maintenance. She looked down the dark hallway, seeing some faint orange light around a corner. Turning around, Samus helped Rosalina off the ladder and onto the floor. Samus held her wounded hand as Rosalina doubled over tiredly. She straightened up and nodded at Samus. As soon as they took a step towards the cockpit, there was an explosion; the fiery blast shot around the corner, engulfing the entire hallway in flames momentarily. Samus shielded her eyes from the sudden blinding lights from the blast. When the flames went away, they heard a loud thud at the other end of the hallway. Following that, they heard a shriek.
"Oh no," Samus panted.
The footsteps again increased in speed, followed by another cry. Samus was knocked to the side by the charging Blood Metroid. While she was on the ground, she felt three claws dig into her back. Samus screamed in pain; her screams only got louder as she felt herself lift off the ground. The Blood Metroid brought her close to it's long face. From here, Samus saw that, in the explosion, the Blood Metroid's muscles had been exposed and, at it's joints, some bones poked out of it's skin. It growled at Samus, but Samus responded by spiting on it. The Blood Metroid raised its other hand, preparing to strike Samus.
Suddenly, Samus fell to the floor as the Blood Metroid cried in pain. From behind them, Rosalina had shot at some of it's exposed muscles. While she got to her feet, Samus jumped to her feet. Rosalina grabbed her hand as they began running towards the cockpit. The hallways were dark, but, as they got closer to the cockpit, the lights became more noticeable. Finally, after what seemed like ages, they were outside of the cockpit.
Samus banged onto the door and screamed, "Open the door! Open the door!"
The thunderous steps of the Blood Metroid became louder and louder. Samus leaned on the door as her knocks became weaker and her cries more desperate, "Please, for the love of God, open the door!"
The door opened quickly, and Samus collapsed onto Mario. Mario helped her into the cockpit as Rosalina followed closely behind. However, she was gone a fraction of a second later. Mario and Samus looked aside, hearing her cry out in pain; the Blood Metroid was on top of her, biting away at her torso and neck. Rosalina's screams became louder, giving Samus and Mario chills. Seeing her blood fly into the air as the Blood Metroid dug it's claws and fangs into her body made Samus' stomach drop. As the other two froze, Little Mac slammed his fist onto a button, causing the door to slam shut. Although the sounds were suppressed, they still heard Rosalina's blood-curling screams.
"Oh my god…" Mario muttered, looking away from the door.
Samus struggled over to the main console and leaned on it, trying to hold back tears. They all stood there in absolute silence, hearing only the Blood Metroid tear into Rosalina. It seemed to carry on for ages, and the screams turned into loud, violent cries for help. However, Samus knew that, to even try to help Rosalina, would be suicide. Eventually, Samus let the tears roll down her face; those screams outside the cockpit never seemed to stop. This monster was drawing this out for as long as it could. When those screams and cries slowly faded into nothing, there were three loud knocks onto the door, followed by a shriek. Samus shattered; she collapsed onto her knees in front of the main console and began to whimper helplessly into her own hands; Rosalina was dead, and it was all her fault.
"That thing… It was just eviscerating her with such ease," Little Mac muttered, as disgusted and shocked as the other two.
When Mario looked over at Samus, he saw her once blue zero suit was now a navy colour mixed with blackish-maroon. She had completely sweated through it, and the blood covering her arms, legs, and stomach made him uneasy. When he saw her hand covered in blood and missing fingers, he had to look elsewhere. "What do we do know?" Mario muttered, completely dumbfounded.
"I don't know…" Samus muttered, completely defeated, "The Blood Metroid is in it's Zeta stage now… It knows where we are, and it knows that we don't have anything in here to survive for more than a few days. The longer we wait, the stronger it gets."
"But, we don't have a choice," Little Mac contradicted, leaning his back onto the wall and crossing his arms, "How are we going to kill that thing? Our best bet was the flamethrower, and Peach ran off with it."
"She'll come back," Mario said immediately, looking out into space.
Turning to him, Little Mac stared at Mario strangely, "Didn't you hear that explosion? I'm sorry, Mario, but she's not coming back."
"Stop it before this turns into something we don't need right now," Samus spoke up as she sat down, "Listen, I can activate a self-destruct protocol from here… The only problem is that there's no power for the escape pods. I had to re-route all the power to the cockpit."
"What are you saying?" Little Mac asked.
"I told you before that, if the Blood Metroid is let loose onto a society of any kind, there will be consequences that you nor I can imagine," Samus explained. She tapped something on the main console with her unmaimed hand, then the lights on the main console turned red, "If we send out a distress signal, the Blood Metroid will kill all of us before help arrives. Then, when help arrives, a stronger Blood Metroid will have a new crew to feed on."
"We'll have to go down with the ship if we want this thing to truly die," Mario muttered, closing his eyes regretfully. He walked up to Samus, seemingly trying to come to acceptance, "Before you activate that protocol, give us one chance at killing it."
Thinking, Samus looked out into space. There was nothing expect the stars around them; absolutely nothing for a couple of lightyears at the very least. Hopeless, Samus sighed, "Okay. We can try."
Little Mac reluctantly opened the door. Samus stepped through it first, then Mario. Rosalina's body had vanished, but a trail of blood led towards the main hold. Samus knelt down and felt it between her fingers; it was still fresh. She stood back up as Mario handed the super scope to Little Mac. Mario summoned his fire, giving the three some light in the dark hallway. Because of the light, Samus saw her pistol on the ground. She picked it up and held it in her hands, testing her aim. However, her shooting hand was too weak to hold it properly now.
"It's trying to bait us," Little Mac said, looking down the hallway, "We shouldn't walk right into its arms…"
"Why not?" Mario asked, looking straight ahead, "It's right there. Let's go kill it."
They walked slowly as if to calculate each step they took. Eventually, the trail of blood led them to the main hold, where they saw Marth's sword and Dedede's hammer placed as a cross. On top of the cross was Rosalina's grey crown and parts of the blue fabric of her dress.
"It's taunting us," Samus said, tightening the grip on her pistol.
Mario's fire allowed them to see parts of the partially lit main hold. It had been dark before, but the burn marks explosion made the room much darker. Then, they spotted Peach's body; her dress was burnt off, and her skin was covered in ash. The flamethrower in her hands was completely blackened by the explosion, and the barrel had splintered and melted. Mario extinguished his flames and fell to his knees, trying to resuscitate Peach desperately. Samus looked around the room, as did Little Mac. Little Mac looked closely at the ceiling after seeing a shadow. There, on the ceiling directly above them, were six white eyes.