He'd been waiting for this moment. For years - nay, decades - it had been his ambition, his drive. Through more defeats than he cared to count, through having his body destroyed and rebuilt and cloned and infested and regenerated, this moment had beckoned him, and he had pursued it relentlessly to this day.

From his place hovering over the battlefield, his keen eyes allowed him to witness every detail: the guided beams of light like the homing missiles he detested so much, the way they engulfed the incoming plasma shots, the briefest moment of fearful uncertainty before one of the beams hit home, dissolving its target to dust.

At long last, his crusade had come to an end. Samus Aran was dead.

... But...

Ridley snorted and made an agitated noise in his throat. His arch-nemesis had just been disintegrated before his very eyes. This was exactly what he'd wanted, wasn't it? The one who'd slipped through his claws as a child, the one opponent he could never seem to get the better of despite everything, killed in such an undoubtedly painful way - it had been the kind of thing he'd been craving above all else since the first time they'd fought.

So why didn't he feel any satisfaction?! This was his moment of triumph! He should be shouting his victory to the skies, terrorizing the galaxy in celebration of his victory like he'd planned to do once this time came! Why, then, now that the moment had finally come, could he not muster the will to even gloat about it?!

Was it the way it had happened? The enemy who had given him so much trouble, wiped out of the galaxy like so much chaff... If it had succeeded so effortlessly where he had failed so many times before, what might one of these beams of light do to him?

... No, that was an absurd line of reasoning. He was unmatched in flight; he would just have to be careful to evade the beams. That couldn't be all there was to his dissatisfaction.

Then was it because Ridley had wanted that much to be the one to end Samus? He wouldn't deny, he had been looking forward to rending her with his own teeth and claws. It had been his sole reason for ever appearing at these pointless tournaments.

He'd gotten the chance to end their feud a couple of times before, but she'd had allies with her each time, and their combined strength was always too much for him. By entering the tournament as a fighter, he'd hoped for the chance to settle his score with her once and for all, without interference. However, the very laws of how this place worked had stripped him of much of his power upon entry, and no one could do any lasting damage to anyone. He could hurt Samus, sure, but he couldn't finish the job. And then this nameless thing had appeared from nowhere and stolen the privilege away from him while he was so handicapped...

Ridley gave a low growl that quickly grew into an ear-splitting, bone-chilling screech. So, this creature of light had denied him the carnage he'd so striven for for so long, had it? That was all well and good. Now he would just have to make it pay for such an insult... and he would take it with interest!

In an instant, the space dragon was speeding right for the source of the beams. He opted to barrel-roll around Falco's Arwing as it fled, rather than blasting his way through it. He continued weaving through the sky, looping and diving and dodging and evading every beam that came his way. All the while, he started to build up plasma in his mouth. This wasn't a tournament battle; for now, he wasn't bound by its rules. He didn't need any help with sustaining flight, or with priming his most potent attack.

One last wing roll out of the way of an incoming beam, and he was ready. There was another coming straight for him; it didn't matter. His wings drove him forward, his maw parted, and with a roar, he unleashed a Plasma Scream.

He was the scourge of the galaxy; he was death incarnate; even if he somehow lost this fight, he would return, like he always did, and exact revenge. No matter how long it would take, no matter how many defeats he would have to go through, he wouldn't rest until he had the creature of light speared to his tail, bathed in plasma, and sent off to join Samus in her early grave!