Yay! Samus's perspective again! By the way, hope you like my chapters. And please, please, please, review?! I get antsy! Please also tell me if the story is too long... :) I need a little info from my readers.

I felt a little bad for leaving Rundas and U-Mos behind to face that monster, but a bounty hunter has her duties. I needed to kill this thing so I could finally face Dark Samus, one last time.

As I rolled through the fuel gel pipe, I couldn't help but ponder. How did Dark Samus return through U-Mos? Had she grown to power gradually inside him? What had she mentioned about an egg? Was it some sort of seed?

No... she wouldn't! The Leviathan was dying on the Pirate Homeworld miles away. Didn't the host of the Seed have to be physically on the planet that was being corrupted? That was the case with Metroid Prime... Hmm...

I pushed the thought away, focusing more on how far I had gone, and where I was going. I had traveled for nearly six minutes, and covered approximately seventy feet, as my distance monitor read. This plumbing system was vast. I was headed towards the fuel gel refinery. It had been forgotten for quite some time once Phazon entered the Pirates' interests. Hopefully there wouldn't be any dead bodies there.

I couldn't quite understand why I had freaked out back there. Was it because of the great amount of corpses? The overflowing room of death and Phazon corruption? Or was it because I felt insecure? I had never felt that way... Not even alone...

I got rid of that thought too as I exited the pipe, dropping from the high ceiling and into a hallway. I unrolled myself, stretching and looking around. The floor was ankle deep with the tainted Phazon water, which was coming from the many doors in the passage. I found no windows, but a few disregarded guns and some shrapnel.

I checked my map, which only displayed my current position and the places I had recently explored. There were no orange dots on my enemy radar, so I started walking, in sync the creaks and rocks of Colossus.

Static popped in my ear, and I stopped. "Samus can you hear me?" a low, erudite voice asked.

"I read you." I resumed my pace through the corridor, scanning a few objects.

"Good. This is U-Mos. Have you found the fuel gel refinery, yet?" some noise came from the background, a grunt and a few charge shots. "Rundas is striving."

I heard my Phrygisian friend shout, "Don't you- augh! Stop with those stupid Jolly Rogers!! They're really starting to piss me off!" More gunshots came, and then followed sparking and a series of explosions. "Yeah! I'll kick your whomping rotten butt!"

I laughed. "Sounds like he's having fun." I passed a Space Pirate body, scanning it quickly. The select words in the screening that bothered me were, 'Subject appears to have been fleeing before being brutally shot in the back.' Seems like Dark Samus gave this one some pursuit.

"Believe me, he is," U-Mos teased, the line skipping a tad. "Any luck, may I ask again?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Still looking."

He sighed. "I'm worried."

I raised an eyebrow, passing through a door that I needed to shoot, for an energy shield was covering it. "Why?"

"We lost Gandrayda, your twisted alter ego is running around on this ship unsupervised, Ghor is breaking down mechanically, Rundas and I are in a room with an enormous undead beast..."

I chuckled. "Any more bad news I should know about?" There was a pause.

"Yes."

I pursed my lips, stepping over another carcass that was deeply seared. "And what is that?"

"I think... I'm getting worse..." U-Mos's voice went strained.

I peered through the scans I had previously made on his blood. 30, 60, 79.6% Phazon... Levels rising by the second... "What do you mean?"

"I seem to be sprouting cyan veins over my face and shoulders. They're spreading quickly down my arms, now, and some are twisting up my knees. My eyes are done changing from red to blue, and... I'm having these violent thoughts of killing and domination..." I could sense the tenseness in his tone. "I can't see straight..."

"You're either succumbing to Phazon Fever or Phazon Madness... Phazon Madness is what Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda got when they were corrupted. Do you feel any anxiety or anger?" I was starting to worry for my Luminoth friend.

He winced over the radio. "Oh yes, I feel it. It is not comfortable, and I don't like it at all. Is there anything we can do?"

"Run a biohazard scan on yourself. I want know how much Phazon is inside you." I demanded, using my bounty hunter voice.

U-Mos was quiet for some time. "Now?"

"Yes. Now." I repeated a little more sternly, hearing more of the battle sounds from Rundas and the beeps of U-Mos's typing.

A buzzing came from the speaker, and subsequent came more clicks and bleeps. "J-Gnk..." muttered the Luminoth, gasping.

"What? How much is it?" I forced. Now, I was distraught.

"88%"

I froze, leaning my hand against a wall. Then I gritted my teeth, fist clenched as I punched the deteriorating surface. "No! I'm not going to lose you to corruption too, U-Mos. I just won't." I left a dent, a lock of my hair falling in front of my eyes.

"They're creeping higher..." That was a whisper, but I heard it keenly.

"How can we stop it? I don't know why it's increasing," he asked, breathing deeply.

"I know why." I responded flatly, angrily.

"How?"

"When Dark Samus touched you, I bet she placed something else inside you so that you would become more corrupted." I pulled my fist from the wall, shaking off rust. "I think I have a hunch of what it is."

U-Mos swallowed audibly. "...And?" his voice was shaky.

"A Leviathan Parasite."

"What do Leviathan Parasites do?" U-Mos's tone was faint.

"They are the beginnings of Leviathan Seeds. I'm guessing that she wants to plant another Seed, using you as the host for it."

"So I'll... become the Leviathan?"

I sighed as well. "I'm afraid so. Unless we can get it out of you."

Before he could respond, movement came from the hallway bend. I pressed myself to the wall, listening to squeals and zaps. I went rigid as a fifty-strong swarm of regular Metroids poured into my atrium, shrieking and charging for me. I was about to attack when they formed a reflecting barrier around them, impervious to my weapon fire.

"Crap!!" I turned and bolted down the hall, feeling like a gutless coward. They gave into the chase.

"Samus! What's going on?" U-Mos panicked after hearing my outburst. "Where are you?"


"Maintenance Passage! I've got a crowd of Metroids on my tail!" I skidded around a corner, dashing down the steel quickly. "I can't hurt them, they've got a shield!"

The flock of monsters behind me was symbolized by a plethora of orange specks on my radar. I made sure they were always there, not wanting to relive the incident on Elysia at that Xenoresearch Lab, where I was jumped by the captured Phazon Metroids and their great numbers.

I was not so lucky, and was cornered by another horde of the creatures, they also having a barrier. I was caught between two masses, searching for an alternate escape route. Fate shined on me then, and I bolted through the door as the groups closed in.

I exhaled in relief at the rancid smell of fuel gel. I didn't need to check my map to know that this was the room of the refinery. I scanned the conveyor belts and containers that the gel was kept and stocked, plotting a way to pump this whole supply into the siphoning chamber. I immediately set to work, approaching a console that relayed all of the canisters and buckets of the gel.

"Okay, U-Mos. Had a little close call, there but I made it to the refinery." I said, listening intently for his reply. Rundas continued to battle and shout from the siphoning room. "What do I do?"

"Excellent work, Samus! All right, let us get down to business. First, you need to divert all of the fuel gel to a single spot."

I used my X-Ray Visor to find the combination of stopping the factory's work, and pressed the quintet of Space Pirate symbols. One looked like a hook, two like a flower, three like an 'X', and four like two hooks joined together. Once done, the console flashed, and all of the gel was transferred into a large, circular bin in the very center of the room. The glow was bright.

"Done. Now what?"

"Channel the gel from your location, to ours. It should be through pipe number 6-1B, that's the damaged duct. Otherwise it will just go through without any problems."

I obeyed, using my X-Ray Visor again to confirm the operation of moving the fuel from one place to the next. A map screen opened, and I specifically used 6-1B for the transferring tube. I clicked the siphoning room for the exit, and pressed verify.

A moan came from the bin, and a giant hose lowered from the ceiling, sticking its open lip into the fuel gel pool. It was translucent, so I watched the explosive substance get sucked up from the container and into the tubing. The sounds were bubbly and sickly, but delighted me a bit.

'Transplant Complete' blared on a monitor, which was translated from Space Pirate text to my own once I scanned it. I smiled, watching as the fuel gel disappeared into the ceiling.

"All right," I said to myself, curling into Morph Ball mode and boosting over to an open duct in the wall. I boarded a little lift inside it and rode it to the top, where I followed alongside the course of fuel gel towards the siphoning room, and Rundas, and U-Mos.

"It is coming in, Samus. Terrific job, once again!" U-Mos cheered in my earpiece. "Now if you'll just start heading over-"

"Don't worry, I'll be over in a little bit. I'm just following the gel to you guys." I said quickly, not wanting to talk in Morph Ball. It was really hard to do.

"Would you like us to wait to blow it up?" he asked thoughtfully.

I considered this. "No. Go ahead. I'll feel the blast."

"As you wish, hunter...

"Oh! One more thing!" U-Mos added after I nearly disabled our radio connection. "The Leviathan Seed implanted into the Pirate Homeworld has only minutes left."

I smiled. "Good to know."