"Guys…" Little Mac muttered, still looking up at the Metroid above. The mere sight of it's dead white eyes and maroon fang paralyzed him in place, taking his ability to speak any louder. Nobody else heard him; Samus and Mario were too focused on Peach. As Mario put his mouth over Peach's, Samus cussed under her breath. When she saw a darkened tail in front of her, she turned around and saw Little Mac, who was still staring straight up. Without another word, Samus tackled Little Mac just as the Blood Metroid dropped down from the ceiling.
The thunderous slam onto the floor took Little Mac out of his stasis, and it caught the attention of Mario. As Mario was knocked to the side by the heavy tail of the Blood Metroid, Samus jumped up to her feet and shot at the Blood Metroid. The first few shots clearly hurt the beast, but it shook off the next couple and stood as tall as it could. Samus lowered her gun and braced herself; by shielding her face with her arm, she was able to protect herself from the Blood Metroid's claws. However, they still cut extremely deep into her arm. Samus ducked under the next swing of the Blood Metroid, rolling underneath and emerging behind it. Though it was nearly pitch-back inside the room, Samus could see Marth's sword and Dedede's hammer. As she tried to pick on of them up, the Blood Metroid's tail took out one of her legs. Samus slammed onto her back hard, struggling to rise to her feet from the impact.
Though she protected her face from the claws of the Blood Metroid, her arm was mangled, and her pistol had been cut in half. Three of the claws had cut deep into her arm, tearing away part of her Zero Suit and her skin. So much blood began rushing to that arm that it felt like it was on fire. Flopping onto her side, Samus tried to cover it as much as possible, hoping to prevent mass blood loss. Leaning down onto her bleeding arm, Samus crawled along the floor towards the two weapons. However, when she reached it, Marth's sword was already gone. Suddenly, red flames illuminated the dark room. It was Mario; he was trying his hardest to use his fire against the beast. Though it worked momentarily—much like Samus' pistol—the Blood Metroid simply stopped being affected by it in a matter of seconds. Despite this, Mario kept unleashing everything he had. And, when he was spent and fell to his knees, the Blood Metroid charged.
Quickly, Samus jumped to her feet with Dedede's hammer in both her hands. She jumped towards the Blood Metroid and pounded it in the back as hard as she could. The Blood Metroid crashed into the ground, and Samus' momentum carried her beyond the beast. She landed next to Mario, who helped her to her feet. When the Blood Metroid rose to its feet, Samus saw the anger and bloodlust in it's many eyes. She felt like running back to the safety of the cockpit, but something convinced her to stay. No matter what decision she made, the Blood Metroid had to die; it was just a question of whether she was going to.
As the Blood Metroid reared back and shrieked loudly, Samus saw Little Mac appear behind it with Marth's sword. Before she or Mario could say anything, Little Mac stabbed the Blood Metroid in the back. The blade did not pierce very far, however; he had tried to stab it into it's shoulder, but it's skin had not been weakened enough there. The Blood Metroid tripped Little Mac with it's tail and quickly spun around, making Samus and Mario dive out of the way of it's tail. The Blood Metroid picked Little Mac up with both its sharp, scaly hands and dug into his sides. Screaming in pain, Little Mac desperately punched the beast square in the jaw, making it let go. For a split second, he felt safe. Then, however, he felt it's sharp fangs dig into his trap. Again, he screamed, feeling his feet leave the ground.
Frozen in place, Samus watched as the Blood Metroid lifted Little Mac up with it's fang biting deep into his trap. Because it grabbed him from behind, he had nothing to punch at; when he landed an elbow to the Blood Metroid's head, it responded by grabbing his arm and pulling on it. When she heard Little Mac's scream louder, Samus yelled, "Give me some light, Mario!"
Panting, Mario summoned fire and tried to hit the Blood Metroid. However, he could not see much; his light only stayed aflame for a second, maybe less, at a time. With every flash, they saw Little Mac's mouth open wider, his eyes squint harder, and his body become bloodier. At the peak of Little Mac's screaming, Mario panted, "I can't… I can't get enough energy into the flames…"
"You don't really have a choice right now!" Samus shouted, trying to make out a good area to strike with the hammer. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Mario summoned enough fire to light everything around Samus. Unfortunately, Little Mac's screams had stopped, and Marth's blade was through his chest. Directly behind him was Peach, standing in horror with her hands wrapped around the handle of the sword.
After the explosion had knocked her out, Peach drifted in and out of states of consciousness. The room around her smelt like smoke and looked incredibly dark; it was a different kind of darkness, one that inspires an overwhelming sense of anxiety and dread, that engulphed her. For the seconds, or minute, where her eyes were opened, she could not move a muscle. Initially, she had no feeling whatsoever anywhere in her body, but then it progressed into more of a feeling of sleep-paralysis; she knew that she could get up and move around, but for whatever reason, she could not. During one of her moments of consciousness, she saw six dead-white eyes above her, staring down at her. However, it just stayed there, continuing to look at her instead of jumping down at ending her. Peach was confused by the Blood Metroid's behaviour. Then, when she heard Mario, Samus, and Little Mac approaching the main hold, she knew exactly what it had planned. At that moment, her mind blanked out, and she drifted off.
When she felt Mario's mouth on her own, she was conscious again but unable to open her eyes or communicate in any other way. She heard Little Mac mutter something then a loud slamming noise; the Blood Metroid had lured them away from the cockpit and ambushed them in the main hold. She felt the heat from Mario's fire and heard Samus' grunts in pain. It was not until she heard something land next to her when she could fully move again.
The sounds of Marth's blade smacking against the ground next to her gave her a sudden spike of adrenaline. She lifted her head from the ground and saw Little Mac get bitten. When he started to scream, her eyes shifted back down to the sword. Samus shouted something inaudible, and an orange flashing light soon gave Peach sight. This was her chance to finish what she started with the flamethrower, her chance at ending this horrid nightmare once and for all; and, all it would take was one expertly aimed stab in the chest of the Blood Metroid. Peach waited patiently in the shadows for that opportunity. Little Mac's screams and Samus' pleads to Mario became background noise to her. Then, she took her chance and thrusted the blade forward into the darkness.
Everything stopped, including the background noises. It was only a few seconds later that she realized what she had done. The blood that seeped down her arm was warm, but it did not burn; as soon as Mario's fire lit the room, she scarcely saw what she had done. Marth's sword was directly through Little Mac's chest. Peach dropped the sword, but, in her shock, she did not scream. Peach simply backed away, collapsing to her knees against the wall. The Blood Metroid shook Little Mac's body off it, approaching Peach slowly. As soon as it took a step towards Peach, Mario flung a fireball at it. The monster turned and ran towards Mario, who began running away.
"Mario!" Peach shouted, trying to get to her feet. However, she stumbled back down to the ground, clearly in pain. Quickly, Samus helped Peach to her feet and held her arm.
"We need to get out of here," Samus panted, guiding her back towards. As they ran through the hallway, they heard the Blood Metroid shrieking below them; Mario was down in maintenance, either distracting the monster, or meeting a more gruesome fate…
Right as Samus opened the cockpit's door, Peach dropped to her knees inside it. Now, she was able to see that her entire body was covered in ash. It was a miracle that she survived the explosion. Samus closed the door, holding Marth's sword tightly in her hand.
"If I don't make it back here in twenty minutes, set the ship to self-destruct," Samus told Peach, calming her own breathing.
As soon as she climbed down the ladder, Samus heard the Blood Metroid shriek again. She readied the blade in her hands, walking slowly down the dark hallway. Besides the flickering of the lights above her, nothing down there gave her any steady light. Samus made sure each of her steps were quiet enough not to alert the monster of her presence. As soon as she reached a corner, she heard Mario shout in pain. Peaking around it, Samus saw that the Blood Metroid had pinned Mario against the wall with its tail. Standing on its hind legs, the Blood Metroid was restraining Mario's arms with one of its own, while the other poked and scratched him; clearly, it was just trying to torture him before it finished him.
Samus snuck behind it with the sword ready. As soon as she got behind it, the Blood Metroid's tail swung wildly, slicing Samus in the stomach. Taken by surprise, Samus fell to a knee, holding her wound with one of hands. She looked up, seeing Mario on the ground in front of the monster; though his head was down, Samus still saw him breathing. When the Blood Metroid turned around to face Samus, she saw that its skin looked thoroughly burned. Mario had done a great job in making sure the skin was tender. For the first time, seemingly all not, Samus smirked as the Blood Metroid let out its cry for blood. When it swung its tail at Samus again, she tried to swing at it with Marth's sword. She had pierced it, though not all the way through.
The yellow blood flew out of the tail as the Blood Metroid screamed. Samus shielded her face from it as well as she could, but it burned her arm deeply. However, Samus was completely unfazed now; she knew that she had to kill the Blood Metroid, and now was her chance. She jumped up, readying to plunge the blade forward.
Right as she was at the peak of her jump, being eye-to-eye with the Blood Metroid, she heard Mario scream her name. But it was too late; Samus felt three of the Blood Metroid's claws stab into her side. She stopped midair, her eyes widening in shock. As the monster shrieked again, this time giving Samus a face-full of its saliva, Samus grunted, desperately shouting, "Why won't you just die already!?"
As the Blood Metroid raised Samus, preparing to finish her by taking a chunk out of her shoulder, Samus saw the gash between its white eyes. Reminding her about one of her earlier encounters, Samus quickly gripped the sword with both hands. When she was in range, Samus raised the blade and stabbed down as hard as she could. The sword stabbed deep into the gash, through the Blood Metroid's mouth. The monster let out another cry, however this one seemed to be in pain. Acting quickly, Samus took the blade out and thrusted the sword forward, stabbing the Blood Metroid through the head. As the Blood Metroid reared back, Samus felt the claws retract. She fell to the ground, landing hard on her back. She stayed on the ground, seeing the Blood Metroid stagger around, trying to get the blade out of his head. However, it was to no avail; its blood spilt out of the wounds inflicted by Samus quickly. Eventually, the Blood Metroid fell to the ground, its limbs twitching.
Struggling to her feet, Samus limped towards the Blood Metroid. She saw that the Blood Metroid's eyes were no longer white; they were not even visible anymore, as it's face was covered in drying yellow liquid. It was finally dead. Samus took a sigh in relief before turning to Mario, who was still slumped down with his head down. When she got closer to him, Samus saw how bad his wounds actually were; deep gashes were along his body and face.
"You did it…" Mario said, breathing heavily, "You actually did it… So much for a perfect organism, huh?"
"We'll get you patched up," Samus promised, trying to get Mario on his feet. However, he stopped her by snapping his fingers. When Mario's fire lit the corner he was in, Samus saw how much blood Mario lost from his wounds.
"There's no point," Mario panted, slowly becoming short of breath, "Just tell Peach… Tell her that she was brave, okay? Tell her that she did well…"
"You can tell her yourself," Samus said, shrugging off any emotions coming over her. However, it did not work; her eyes began watering, "Come on. You'll be okay."
"Samus, tell me…" Mario said, his body relaxing on the ground, "Tell her that I love her, okay…? I…"
When Mario stopped talking, his head resting on the wall, Samus knew it was over. Slowly, she walked towards the ladder. Though the Blood Metroid was dead, and she was relieved because of it, she could not shake the terrible feeling brewing inside her. She finally climbed back up the ladder. Samus looked down towards the closed door of the cockpit; she knew that the walk back to the cockpit would be the most dreadful of this trip, even after everything she went through.
Every step she took clouded her mind with the past few hours events; her entire crew was brutally killed by a Blood Metroid, a monster that she careless let on board. It all started with Marth, then Dedede, Rosalina, Little Mac, and Mario. Both she and Peach were on death's door too, but they were the only survivors. Now, they would have to get rid of the bodies; Samus would not risk contamination again. As badly as she wanted to get the bodies back home, for a proper burial, Samus could not take another risk again.
Samus slowly knocked on the door to the cockpit. "Peach, open the door…" Samus panted, wiping her head with her good hand, "It's over…"
A few seconds later, the cockpit's door opened. Peach was there, smiling in relief. Samus collapsed onto her, completely exhausted. Though initially surprised, Peach recovered and helped Samus onto a chair. As Samus relaxed, and the cockpit's door closed, Peach walked over and sat across from her. The smile on her face had vanished, just as Samus tried to relax.
"…I noticed you came back alone," Peach muttered, looking down at the ground.
Samus sat up as fast as he could, though it was still extremely slow. Before she could say anything, Peach began to silently weep. Samus sighed, unable to get up from the chair, "He told me to tell you that he's proud of you; you were brave. Because of you, we were able to kill that monster."
"That's it, huh?" Peach said, trying to get a grip on herself, "That's the end of him?"
"He wanted you to know that he loves you," Samus told, "Those were his last words…"
Now, Peach's cries became more audible; she sat in her chair, bawling into her hands. Samus forced herself to her feet to comfort Peach. She limped over to Peach, placing a hand on her shoulder. Reacting, Peach stood up and hugged Samus, crying loudly on her shoulder.