It was very peaceful just lying down. Samus breathed calmly in and out through her nose, finding her prone position to be very relaxing. If she concentrated hard enough, she could not even feel her wounds, discovering that her pain was dissipating the more she focused away from the discomfort. Samus gave a tiny smile; if this was dying, then it wasn't so bad.
She sighed, turning her head to the side so that she would be more comfortable. Samus prepared to embrace the blinding light, to see the people she had lost over the years come before her in greeting. Many said that death was the road to awe, a place where no harm would befall those who had proven themselves worthy. She hoped that she had done enough to earn her place amongst those that resided there. Perhaps she could even see her family once again. That alone would be a suitable reward.
But the light did not come, to her slight annoyance. Rather, whatever light filtered past her closed eyelids got slightly darker and there were soft sounds emanating from right in front of her body. Samus frowned; maybe it was a stray animal that had wandered down here that had cut off the illumination. Perhaps it was a hungry creature that was on the prowl for flesh and had finally struck gold by finding her down here, helpless and weak. Samus knew that death would come for her one day but she considered getting eaten alive to not be the sort of end that she would have picked out for herself. Calling upon her last fiber of energy, she lifted her head and twitched her arm in one final effort to ward off whatever was in front of her. It was only when she saw a pair of talons sticking from beneath a black robe inches away from her hand did she stop, her jaw dropping in surprise.
Her eyes gradually trailed up, moving along the featureless and slick cloak as she lifted her gaze. Moving past an ornate neckband, the head of the person who stood above her now came into view; a long beak, two golden eyes, and a feathered head.
"H-How…?" Samus mumbled. "How…c-can this…b-b-be?"
"How?" a gentle voice answered as the figure stooped down to take Samus' hand. From their dry grip, Samus felt a soothing sensation spread throughout her body, like she had been dipped in a warm bath. It oozed under her skin, thick as molten metal, and caused her limbs to heat up. It was not a searing heat, but a light smolder, burning through her bones and knitting them back together. She could feel her broken body converge repair themselves and at the second everything clicked back together, she cried out and her consciousness that linked her Power Suit finally severed, causing it to deposit her on the floor in her royal blue bodysuit.
Gasping, Samus tenderly used her arms to raise her torso, finding to her shock that all of the pain in her body had completely dissipated. Her hair fell around her head, still tied in a ponytail, but her twin locks fluttered over her forehead, gently tickling her. Samus unconsciously clasped a hand to her side and pulled it off to find that no blood remained on her hand. She looked down and saw that, despite there being a puncture mark that left a white circle of skin exposed and a patch of dried blood that had encrusted around the entrance, there was no wound to behold.
Still slowly, as if unsure of her new status, Samus got to her feet, her eyes never leaving her rescuer, her protector. Her fingertips twitched, like she wanted to abruptly reach out and grasp the person across from her, to confirm his tangibility, his corporealness.
"G-Gray?" Samus whispered, her voice husky with emotion.
The Chozo nodded, a sad smile crossing his features. "Yes, Samus," he said gently. "It is me."
Samus shook her head and took a step backwards in confusion. "N-no…" she muttered. "You're…you're dead, Gray. I'm dreaming. This…this can't be real."
"This is no dream," Gray Voice assured as he stepped closer to Samus, the slow movement still making the human flinch back even more. His expression hurt, he held out a hand to comfort Samus. "You have always been a rational person, Samus. I am dead, yes, but why should this mean that this isn't real right now?"
Samus crossed her arms, her face becoming incredulous. "Explain, Gray. Explain to me how this is possible, then."
"The persistence of memory," the Chozo sighed, tilting his head up thoughtfully. "All Chozo have the ability to imprint themselves upon a place if they so choose. I still have unfinished business to attend to in this place and thus a part of me remains. Your people call such things, 'spirits.' For us, the distinction is merely a matter of physical states, a rendering of the soul when part of it wants to be in one place while the other part wishes to remain in another."
"So…I'm just talking to a memory of you? Like an AI?"
"Yes and no," Gray Voice shrugged. "I carry all of Gray Voice's thoughts and emotions. I am a projection of his very being upon this place. In a sense, I am a final reminder of what Gray Voice used to be." He spread his palms wide and flexed his dexterous fingers. "In part, our genetic connection is what is tying us together right now. It is what called me to you. You are of my blood, Samus, and through our DNA I can establish this link with you, calling my final imprint forth so that I may speak with you right now."
He spotted Samus' distressed look and quickly changed his demeanor. "But, Samus, talk with me as if I was Gray Voice himself. There is no difference between the man and the memory. Please, let me have one final conversation with the woman that I have been proud to look after for most of her life."
Samus did not know what to think. She turned away and furtively glanced behind her, expecting to be alone in the hallway again. She breathed in and out in rapid succession, quite sure that she was hallucinating. As she looked back and forth, she could feel the icy touch of her blood in her veins start to warm, adjusting to the revelation. She took another deep breath and swiveled her feet, firmly planting her stance across from Gray Voice. Her hand held her cheek, fighting the urge to pinch herself for fear that after all this time, she had finally gone mad.
"I…" she stammered before finally surrendering herself to her desires. "I…missed you, Gray."
The Chozo smiled in relief, dipping his head graciously. "And I have missed you too, Samus. When I look at you now, I can no longer see the young and scared girl that we ushered in all those years ago. Now, you have become your own strong and confident person, a woman grown. You certainly have become all we have asked of you."
"But…is this what you wanted me to become?" Samus asked, her eyes pleading. "Or was it what I wanted? Did I even have a choice?"
Gray Voice lifted a hand, beckoning for Samus to follow. She caught up to him and timed her long gait to match the Chozo's slow and deliberate pace as they walked down the hallway together. "Would you have wished anything less for yourself if your parents had not been taken away, Samus?" he asked. "Would you have found peace with your life had everything gone as normally as it could have?"
"I don't know, maybe," Samus admitted, staring through the glass tubes at the molten rock that flowed around them, bathing the chamber in an orange glow. "I…never really thought about it much."
"That's understandable," Gray Voice said. "But consider this, when we found you, hurt but alive on that world you called home, would you have wanted a lesser life for yourself after that? Would you have wanted to be anywhere else, away from conflict and hate when all you had known had been taken away from you?"
"No," Samus said, steel in her eyes. "I would have wanted to fight."
"Then, you see, you made your choice long ago, Samus. You could have left at any time but you remained. Even after we modified you for a long-term stay, we had no legitimate claim over you. We offered to teach you our ways and you accepted them without as much as a second thought. Do you feel that you have not done enough, Samus? Do you think that I should have insisted on taking you to be with your own kind?"
"I don't know," Samus sighed as her arms hung loosely by her sides. "I don't even know what my true purpose is anymore, Gray. I have become the soldier you wanted me to be, the person I always envisioned myself to be for as long as I can remember, but…I do feel that I have not done enough. What has warranted me to be your successor, to be the protector of the galaxy? I want…I want to protect everyone, I do! It's just that…I don't know if I can do this, Gray. If I have to sacrifice myself, I will, because I want to save everyone but I have to know…is that going to be the fate you always planned for me?"
Gray Voice fixed Samus with a long look, stopping in the middle of the path. He closed his eyes mournfully, taking a slow breath before rapturing Samus with his kindly gaze, letting the corners of his mouth lift microscopically. "Follow me," he said, sweeping an arm down a side path. "I will not let you be a sacrifice today, Samus. I would think that I would have been sufficient enough in that regard."
"Then what is my fate?" Samus begged, almost shouting at the Chozo's back. "What am I supposed to do?"
Gray Voice stopped so that Samus was back at his side. "What I can do for you," he assured her, "is ensure that you will not make the same mistakes that I made. I can promise you that you will inherit our will, Samus. You can achieve victory today and all you have to do is trust me."
"But how will I know what to do next? I can't do this alone, Gray!"
"I will give you the confidence to do so," the Chozo said in determination. "You will soon know what you have to do. And Samus, known that you are never alone." Gray Voice gave a kindly smile and a brisk wave. "Allow me to take us off this morbid chain of thoughts. There are more challenges ahead but set those aside for now, and let us talk as we once did as we travel. I want to listen to what you have been doing in the past few years."
Samus' mind was jumbled so intensely that she found it strange that she could dispel all of her burning questions to acknowledge Gray Voice's request. The memories flowing forth to her, she began to indulge him as they both calmly began to walk back down the corridor.
In the shadow of a planetoid, the two armies viciously converged on the other, giant metal teeth gnashing at the bit, looking to snag their prey. Tiny blips of yellow and red dotted the space between the planet and its cratered moon, a sea of fiery flowers blooming in the field.
The silvery clouds of the nebula were aglow from the binary star system billions of miles away. The two stars hurled their gravitational forces on the other, spilling their gases and exchanging the wispy material between them. Hues of blue and orange fluttered through the silky cloud, creating a milky glow that smothered the fighting on the fringes of civilized space.
Expanding in perfect spheres, radio signals beamed into the far reaches of space, the only sound that traveled through the void as they sped on through the smothered roars of the dying ships. Requests for aid and war cries fluttered between ships, all screaming the call of battle. Beams as thin as needles glittered in the dark, spouting through space to gently touch the hull of enemy ships. With a flutter of plasma, metal blew apart and melted, causing the oxygen in the craft to quickly become sucked out in a violent decompression. Dead and crippled ships floated aimlessly, creating obstacles on the battlefield to block the way of incoming shots.
Only the sizzle from the outbound ion beam of the cruiser Plano blast reached the ears of Adam Malkovich, who stood in the middle of the bridge. He had no time to concentrate on such stimuli like sounds, order had to be maintained and leadership needed to be enforced, necessitating the drowning out of such distractions. He barked out a command to a bomber fleet hiding behind a rogue asteroid and ordered them to make a run on the Pirate frigate starting to appear from the far side of the moon. A wink of green on the display board indicated their acknowledgement and their icon started to move, headed for the red target painted at the end of the screen.
From the viewport, Malkovich managed a tight grin as he saw the bombers hit their mark, creating an electric blue flare that signaled the dying of the frigate. A small victory.
"Sir!" a technician called.
"What is it?" Malkovich shouted.
"I'm picking up a breach in the space-time fabric at the minimum edge of the planet's gravitational influence. Sir, it appears that the Pirates are going to make a jump. They're retreating!"
Cheers erupted from around the bridge but Malkovich silenced them with a wave. "Do you have their destination, Ensign?"
"Positioning puts them at the star FS-176. Only habitual planet in that system is Zebes, sir."
"Then follow that fleet!" Malkovich hollered. "Don't let them out of our sight, no matter the cost!"
"Sir," a lieutenant protested. "We're current at forty-five percent capability right now. We might be running into a trap and which will mean that we will be unable to fight our way out if sufficiently surrounded."
"Then relay to all ships closest to the vicinity of Zebes that I command them to regroup there! The Pirates are trying to make a stand and we cannot let them gain the confidence for a counterattack! Helmsman, all ahead full!"
"Aye-aye, sir," the helmsman said neutrally. "Setting a course for Zebes. All ships prepare to initiate hyperspace jump on my mark. Fighters, return to your ships. Stand by."
As he clutched onto the railing in front of him, as the first wave of stars began to streak by the viewport, all Malkovich could think of was the pained warrior that was on Zebes at this moment. The Pirates' retreat to that planet was no coincidence, something was happening there. Could it be that Samus had finally disrupted the Space Pirate war machine? Or was it a preventive action out of fear, to protect the leadership that lay housed within the interior of the planet itself?
Either way, Samus was in danger, and there was no way that she could take on an entire armada by herself. Malkovich knew that going to help her would just result in a derisive snort from the woman, if she somehow survived. She was never one to show her gratitude at being rescued so openly, but this was mainly for his conscience rather than hers. Malkovich didn't want Samus to die, nor did he want there to be any notion that she could die to irritate him within his mind. She was a good soldier, a bit of an awkward friend, but a person who had the capability to change things for the better.
Malkovich was not envious of Samus. He had always realized that she always had the potential to make a difference in the galaxy ever since he first met her. He had to build his capabilities in order to become a leader, but Samus was born into her role. She was never arrogant about her abilities, a quality which had always impressed Malkovich. He knew that if he had the power to do some of the miracles that Samus could do, he would certainly prove to be more weak-willed by bragging about his skills rather than keeping them as low key as possible.
But that was why Samus had to return home alive; she was not a tool to be used to defeat her enemies but a person surrounded by pain, helpless to change the fate of the people around her, despite her wondrous powers. Samus did not deserve martyrdom because it would just be an insult to her memory. Perhaps, with this mission, her burdens could be freed and she could finally live the normal life she had always been entitled to. Maybe…just maybe, she could be saved from her demons.
His face hardening as the frigate lurched into hyperspace, Malkovich gripped the sides of his desk so hard that his knuckles turned white. Anxiety rising within him, he hoped that he would not arrive too late to lend the lady his assistance.
"Lady…" he whispered, smiling as he remembered Samus' bemused expression when he first called her that. "It suits you more than you think."
The arthropod-like appearance of the Space Pirate hopped up the stone ledge, its claws already splayed out. It sniffed the air, detecting a faint musk that drew it near a hut at the edge of the settlement. Clicking its jaw together, the alien growled as it crouch-walked forward, knowing that the rest of its squad was not far behind.
As it approached the shack, the Pirate pushed aside the cloth covering the entryway and poked its head in. It barely got time to witness a darkened silhouetted crammed in the corner before a burst of light flared from within, causing the Pirate to be propelled backwards, now headless.
The noise drew the attention of the five other Pirates in the immediate area and they stopped their reconnaissance at the same time the towering form of Mauk lumbered from out of the shack, an enormous shotgun clutched in his hands. Making him even more dangerous was the contraption that he had strapped to his back: two automatic pulse rifles that utilized motion detectors and state-of-the-art scanners to track enemy combatants that Mauk could not otherwise tackle all at once. They tilted on their limited axis and started firing as soon as Mauk was clear from the hut.
Mauk's temper was searing to the point of him boiling over that he did not even care about the incredible amounts of heat being projected so close to his eyes from the pulse rifles. Sweat poured down his face, stinging and wet, but he just focused on lifting his shotgun and fired once more at the hip and bisected another Pirate completely, sending the halves splattering to the ground. The rear-mounted guns were doing their job admirably; several of the alien invaders fell with smoking holes in their chests and several limped off the battlefield with their remaining limbs. Mauk lost count of how many he had killed today as he continued to wade in the whirlwind of blood, as his only focus was wiping this scum off the face of his home planet at any cost.
He had been granted leave from the Federation to defend his homeworld, Jamoru, at the very first sign of trouble. The planet itself sat on the edge of Federation space and was thus more vulnerable to a Pirate invasion. As soon as he was able, Mauk had hurried back to Jamoru and began digging in for a siege, caused when thousands among thousands of Pirates had made planetfall, intent on making this planet their next forward base of operations. Like Mauk was going to let that happen anytime soon.
Mauk ducked a clumsy swing from a nearby Pirate. Grunting, he answered with a firm crack across its jaw with his shotgun. The Pirate was dead even before it hit the floor. He was feeling quite tired, but it was only background noise. With every enemy Mauk dispatched, he only got more incensed.
A bolt hit the stone face near his ear and Mauk made a hasty retreat into the abandoned village. His people had moved into the safety of the nearby caves at the first sign of trouble, but he was the only warrior left in the area. All of the other males were elsewhere on the planet, looking to spread the resistance any way they could. Unfortunately, the village's technology was still too primitive to call for help. As far as he was concerned, Mauk was on his own for now.
Another Pirate foolishly rounded the corner without looking first, and Mauk dropped him with a blast to the chest. The pulse rifles on his back whirred as they turned, spewing twin beams of death at the aliens skirting across the roofs, causing them to topple into the alleyways with gaping wounds in their torsos.
The numbers of the enemy were staggering. The shotgun was now definitely starting to feel heavier. Mauk panted, hunching over as he tried to catch his breath, his fierce exertions beginning to take their toll. He couldn't keep this up forever. At this rate, he was going to fall long before his enemies ever would. But, going out fighting was a hell of a lot better than sitting down and dying, in his opinion. Might as well make the most of things.
Ejecting a spent ammo cartridge, Mauk nimbly darted through alleyways, firing his shotgun at anything that moved in front of him. Screeches of pain wafted all around him and the noise of the approaching Pirate horde became unbearable. His pulse rifles whined as they slowly became overheated, the amount of motion not giving them a chance to cool down. The metal was starting to singe his fur as it became hot to the touch, so Mauk quickly shoved the apparatus off his back. He felt a lot lighter, but now he was even less armed than before.
With a sigh, Mauk charged through the abandoned market avenue, barreling over Space Pirates as he did so. Bright green bolts smashed into the ground at his feet, sending up globules of plasma. He tucked his feet and rolled to the side, crashing through a storefront to end up in the back room of the establishment. Surrounded by fallen comestibles, Mauk had only time to see a crowd of Space Pirates gathering at the door, preparing to fire upon his temporarily still body.
"Hey!" a new voice roared out suddenly. "Over here, you sons of bitches!"
Like clockwork, all of the Pirates immediately turned to face the source of the noise, shifting their aim away from Mauk. They did not remain distracted for long as the rapid pulsating beat of a chain gun ripped through the abandoned village, the bullets carving their way through the crowd of Pirates so conveniently clumped together in the road.
Blood sprayed in a fine mist as the heavy machine gun chewed the aliens up. Bones shattered, faces disappeared, and the stone walls quickly became a different color as the projectiles launched their way through. Mauk instinctively brought himself low to the ground, watching as a few bullets completely zipped through the stone walls of the pantry, leaving neat little puncture marks.
As the final Pirate fell with half its head missing, the loud gun in the distance quieted. Mauk still remained lying down, even as a soft crunching from boots on dirt came closer and closer. He carefully aimed his shotgun at the entrance, now noting that the ammo had run dry, rendering the weapon somewhat useless. Regardless, Mauk held the gun up to his face, the cold sweat on his neck mightily apparent as the makings of a huge gun began to peek from the corner.
"Nice beard, Mauk," the new arrival said drolly as he stepped inside. "You need a hand, old friend?"
"Kreatz!" Mauk gaped in amazement as he quickly stood up to embrace the smaller man in a fierce hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Gerroff me…" Kreatz mumbled as his face was squished against Mauk's chest. "Can't breathe…you oaf…"
"Oh, sorry," Mauk grinned sheepishly as he released Kreatz.
Panting hard, Kreatz adjusted the camouflage jacket he wore before brushing a hand through his spiked hair. The chain gun he toted in one arm was gently deposited on the ground and kicked aside, leaving room for the two men to catch their breath.
"You still haven't answered my question," Mauk laughed as he clapped his friend on the back. "Why the hell are you even here?"
"Your gratitude is overwhelming," Kreatz said with a snarky grin. "Ah, I was in the neighborhood and thought you could use a hand. I brought you a present, by the way."
Kreatz rummaged in his pocket and came out with a handful of shotgun ammo packs. Mauk eagerly took them and began jamming the ammunition into the gun's slot. "You're a lifesaver, Kreatz. But I thought that you would be back on your own planet, defending it from these Pirate bastards."
"That's what I thought too, only I got there to find out that my people already took care of the bulk of the threat hours earlier. I figured, since I missed the fun there, I might as well join up with my good friend Mauk and join the party that he was hosting. Just in time for drinks, by the looks of things."
"Well, you certainly picked a good time to show up," Mauk said gratefully as he racked the shotgun's slide. "We're kind of spoilt for choice at the moment."
"Don't I know it," Kreatz shrugged. "Which is why I had the good fortune to run into a few guys beforehand that wanted an invite on the guest list as badly as I did."
With a thunderous roar, Mauk saw several black and gray blurs sprint past the door opening. His interest piqued, he craned his neck outside to see several of his people, the males from the various war parties, rush into the Pirates around the village. Some cradled guns but most preferred to tear apart the insectoid aliens with their bare hands. A howl of victory rose from the Simians and many of the Pirates turned tail and fled. Mauk glanced back to Kreatz in amazement who merely shrugged again.
"What?" he asked sincerely. "Surely you didn't think that I would be your only backup, right?"
"You never know," Mauk admitted. "Perhaps some of Samus' attitude managed to rub off on your thick skull after all this time." That gave him pause. "Samus…I wonder what she's up to."
"Oh, you hadn't heard?" Kreatz said as he lifted the chain gun again, now walking out into the cleared streets. "She went ahead of the Federation fleet and infiltrated Zebes. All by herself, as usual."
"Sounds typical of her. Think she can handle all that alone?"
"I'm confident in her abilities," Kreatz grinned. "But…it was kind of rude of her not to extend us an invite." He paused to let loose with his gun, spraying a Pirate's guts all over the side of local establishment. "I'm just saying, a little backup probably wouldn't hurt all that much."
"Is that your idea of inviting me on another suicide mission with you?" Mauk responded coolly with an arched eyebrow.
"Well, when you put it like that…" Kreatz said. "So what do you say? Want to go on one last mission together?"
"I'm all for it," Mauk laughed with a fierce smile.
"Then Zebes it is," Kreatz said. "After we liberate your planet of course. That would just be selfish of me to steal you away at a time like this."
In the distance, the duo could see the approaching crowd of Pirates surging in their direction. The warriors of Jamoru were putting up a fight, keeping the invaders at bay. The sight alone would cause many a person to cower and flee, but Kreatz and Mauk looked upon it like it was another ordinary day for them, just simply a requirement of the duty they signed up for.
"Besides," Kreatz shrugged, "You know that I can't resist a good fight…"
"…And you'll be damned if you can't get in on this one," Mauk finished with a sly smirk. "Kreatz, my friend, let's go to work."
"With pleasure," his friend said as they both jumped into the fray, the barrels of their guns blazing all of the hellfire in the universe.
The walkway finally led out of the caverns and now extended to a covered bridge overlooking a ravine. Samus did not blink at the bright sunlight or even acknowledge the outside view. She kept her gaze firmly situated on Gray Voice, never leaving his line of sight as they walked side-by-side, through the Chozoian facility, the clink of their heels along the metal floor the only sounds interrupting their conversation.
Gray Voice blinked at something Samus had just said. "They actually were contemplating discharging you? For going to Zebes?"
"Something like that," Samus said with a meek look, followed by an embarrassed turn of her head. "After all, when I came to…err, rescue you, I had technically done that against orders. I was supposed to be on another planet helping with the recovery efforts when the distress signal you sent out came along."
"So they just slapped a court-martial upon you once you escaped?"
"Not exactly," Samus shook her head. "I decided at the moment they informed me of what they were going to do that I didn't want to be restricted by an organization any longer in my life. I wanted to stake out on my own, become an individual instead of a cog thrown in the machine. So I elected to dishonorably discharge myself early in lieu of going through the farce of a court-martial."
Gray Voice stopped in the middle of the path, the shadows of the walkway's pillars making it look like bars were thrown over his face. "Then they had no knowledge at what you had sacrificed to get to Zebes. Do you think it was all worth it, Samus?"
Samus looked away, out into the sunrise, before answering him. "It's hard to say," she admitted. "I don't think I had much choice in doing what I did, both in my resignation and my going to Zebes. I was taught to preserve all life, Gray, so I don't think that I regret disobeying orders to save the Chozo…even if I did mess it up a lot."
"Mess up?" Gray Voice tilted his head. "Why, Samus, you did better than I ever could have hoped."
The Chozo gave a tiny chuckle and proceeded onwards, leaving Samus momentarily behind. She faltered for a second before she caught up with him, confusion etched all over her face. "Better?" she gaped. "Gray, I cracked the last time I was here! I collapsed in a sniveling mess in front of you! I thought you really had turned, along with Mother. How was I supposed to know that you were playing a role all this time, an act that I was never let on to?!"
"And yet here you are," Gray Voice said mildly. "Would you not agree that the entire encounter has made you stronger as a person? Has there ever been a time in your life since then when you allowed yourself to feel true fear, to be shaken in the face of real danger?"
"Well, no…I mean, it's not like all my work afterward was more difficult…" She stopped for a second and glowered. "You're not saying that you engineered that entire encounter to benefit me, are you?"
Gray Voice shrugged. "Coming to Zebes was your decision, Samus. Would you argue against the fact that you managed to push aside your fear at the end, crafting a stronger shell of armor around you?"
Samus dipped her head, her eyes scanning the floor. "…No," she mumbled.
"Then there you are," the Chozo pointed out proudly. He stuck his chin out and waited for Samus to mimic his posture. Somewhat apprehensively, she instinctively copied him and they noiselessly began walking again. "Now that that's out in the open," Gray Voice said amicably, as if he was merely discussing the weather, "I believe you were talking about what happened after you returned from Zebes after your successful mission?"
Samus noted the adjective and twitched her nose in slight annoyance but kept her mouth shut on that point. "What else is there to tell? I got out, went on my own for a couple months, and then decided to start work as a bounty hunter just to keep myself financially afloat. That's all there is to it."
"You have no regrets leaving the military? No longing to return to your old life whatsoever?"
"Why? Being a bounty hunter, I have the freedom to explore the galaxy and take on whatever jobs that come my way. That's all I did for the first few years. I didn't think of it as quitting, but I always wondered what would have happened had I not chosen to come back to Zebes."
"You would not have confronted your inner torment, Samus. You would not have been stronger if you had not come."
"Strong?" she replied with a mirthless laugh. "I never thought of myself as strong, Gray. Not for…a long time."
Gray Voice gave a solitary shake of his head. "Trust me," he said. "You are strong, Samus. You just don't know how strong you really are."
With a flourish, the Chozo turned towards the next adjacent doorway, the surface opening at just the lightest touch. He led Samus into a large room with hieroglyphics lining the walls, empty except for the statue at the far side that depicted an armored Chozo holding out one of its many gifts, yet another representation of the generosity of the species. Samus remembered playing around such statues as a child and she smiled at the happy thought.
"Why am I here, Gray?" she asked, her voice echoing amongst the ruins. "What is it you would have of me?"
Gray Voice stepped in front of the statue, his poise perfectly straight. "I would have our will restored," he announced before he placed his palm upon the orb that the stone Chozo held out. Glowing inward with orange light, the stone sphere abruptly cracked down the middle, spraying dust into the air. The pieces crumbling away, Samus was shocked to see a bright sphere of red pulsating from within the statue, surrounded by twin orbits of blue plasma, sitting there this whole time in the stone carving's cupped hands.
Gray Voice held his own hand out to Samus as he cocked his head towards the glowing offering. "I left this for you a long time ago, knowing that you would be back here eventually. It is now time for you to claim your inheritance."
Samus was still befuddled as she didn't even know what Gray Voice was actually referring to, but she walked forward all the same. The fiery red ball was odd in nature, its usage inexplicable, but Samus had the notion that she should reach out and touch the glowing energy that the stone Chozo clamped its claws around. For some insane reason, she felt that was the right thing to do – the only thing to do.
At the very instant her fingertips brushed the energy sphere, Samus half expected for her skin to sting from a burn, but the odd singularity reacted much differently than she expected. Quickly, in blurs of red and orange, the orb shot itself upward, scaling itself along Samus' arm and around her body. Startled, Samus instinctively shut her eyes but relaxed as she felt a familiar sensation embrace her once again. The light began to harden and Samus felt her strength increase. She realized what was happening and let out a laugh in disbelief, gazing down at herself in astonishment as the glow finally ebbed away, leaving her standing magnificently in the hall.
"What…is…this?" Samus could only gasp as she raised her new gauntleted hand in marvel.
Where she had been standing just seconds before in a flimsy bodysuit, Samus now stood encased in a brand new suit of armor. The last one had been shaded mostly yellow with a red chestplate and helmet, but this one had a new orange tint over her arms and legs. Her lower torso, chestplate, and helmet retained their colors of yellow and red, respectively, but Samus' once blue visor was now an acid green. She looked over herself and noticed that the shin guards of this suit were more angular, and that the shoulder plates were bulkier, much more spherical. Her eyes gleefully scanned over her HUD, finding that this suit, whatever it was, had been equipped with a full load of energy tanks, missiles, and several other abilities and weapons that she had never been privy to in her entire life. She had no words to describe how she was feeling at the moment.
"You could call this parental affection," Gray Voice chuckled politely. "This is your key to achieving your victory, Samus. This is the Varia Suit."
"The Varia Suit…" Samus repeated as she ran her hand along the side of her arm cannon, noting the additional slots that enabled different forms of ammunition. "Gray…I…I don't know what to say…"
"You don't need to say it," Gray Voice said with a wave of his hand. "I know what you're feeling. And I can now rest easy, knowing that I have completed my task."
"C-Completed?" Samus said with a start. "Gray…you…you can't leave me now!"
"I'm not leaving you, Samus," Gray Voice said as he edged toward the far wall, his hands tightly clasped together. "I live on inside you, within your very genes. I could never leave you. Now that I have guided you to this place, all that is left for you to accomplish is our final command: to put our mistakes right. You can do this, Samus, and I will always be able to guide you. I'm just glad that I could see our greatest success through to the end, our most wondrous achievement…"
"Wait!" Samus begged as she could have sworn that the Chozo's outline began to fade. "Father, please don't go!"
That gave Gray Voice pause, his expression blanching. "F-Father?" he gaped. "Why…why did you call me that?"
"Because it's the truth!" Samus emphasized firmly, tears already stinging her eyes. "I am your daughter, in blood and in spirit. I may have had different parents, but you're the only father that I have ever known, Gray."
Across the way, the Chozo cracked the biggest smile Samus had ever seen him give. "You…" he now fumbled, caught up with emotion, "…honor me…my child." With a grateful and emotional laugh, he dipped his head in a bow. Before he vanished into the shadows, his golden eyes gave off a familiar glint. "Goodbye, Samus," he whispered, his robes flapping into nothing. "Know that I always love you, my daughter."
"I love you…" Samus whispered back as she watched the memory of the Chozo finally vanish into thin air, his cloak making a final snap. Samus stared at the spot where Gray Voice had last stood for a long time, some part of her mind praying for the void to give her back to him. There were so many more things that she wanted to talk to him about, just something, anything!
Why couldn't there be more time?
She turned to leave, her entire body straining not to look back when she became aware of a dripping noise in the corner. It was so slight that she thought she had imagined it, but then a quiet splash became picked up by the helmet's sensitive audio receptors. It also showed a low timbre in her visual audio representation in the corner of her visor that seemed to be timed precisely to the beat of a large animal's breathing. On a hunch, Samus tilted her head up slowly, not knowing what to expect.
As soon as she spotted the terrible outline silhouetted in the rafters, the daylight streaming through the venous membrane, Samus felt a feral growl erupt from her throat. "YOU!" she bellowed, jumping into a battle stance.
"That's right, human!" Ridley cackled as he dropped down to the ground. His tail whipped around and sped straight towards Samus, intent on piercing her heart. She tucked and rolled, however, the serrated edges just missing her side. "Your nightmare has returned to haunt you once more!"
Ridley tucked his wing and smashed it down, but Samus jumped away from the blow. She unloaded on the dragon's hide with her power beam, but the bullets merely caused Ridley to flinch away, not causing him any real harm.
"You're no longer my nightmare, Ridley!" Samus countered. "I'm not afraid of you anymore!"
"You will always be a weak, frightened girl!" Ridley roared. "A pathetic human like you can never stand up to the likes of me! Before me, you are nothing!"
Ridley raised his head and unleashed a long pillar of flame, headed straight in Samus' direction. She was too slow to react to the attack, as her momentum was currently situated in the other direction, and she let out a cry as the flame wrapped around her…
…And abruptly faded. Samus blinked and looked down in astonishment. The exterior of her Varia Suit was untarnished by the flame. She did not feel pained, nor did her energy levels reflect a change in her status for the worse. Astonishment slowly transitioning into confidence, a broad smile spread across Samus maniacally. Of course! The Varia Suit had the ability to protect her from heat and flame! With this new knowledge, Samus began to advance, her worry rapidly fading away.
"How is this possible?" Ridley asked, wondering why the human had not been burnt to a crisp by now.
"I could tell you how," Samus growled as she flicked a control on her arm cannon, watching the panels shift to reveal a cool blue light from the cracks. "But I think it will be better to show you."
Before Ridley could evade, Samus whipped her cannon up and fired a purple pulse of energy his way. The wave beam sizzled as the strands of energy snaked through the air and Ridley screeched as the beam jolted through his body, the first sound of pain that Samus had ever heard from him.
He can be hurt, therefore he can be killed!
"I'm your nightmare now, Ridley!" Samus yelled. "I'm the one who will end you on this day!"
"Never!" Ridley screamed, still shaken from the attack as he took flight. "I will finish what I should have done all those years ago, human! I killed your mother, I killed Gray Voice, and now I will kill you!"
"You stupid fool," Samus growled. "You lost your chance to kill me a long time ago. You're a coward that couldn't even eliminate a tiny little girl all that time ago. And when I have you begging for your life, helpless just like your victims, you will finally call me by my name before I end your wretched existence once and for all!"
Ridley's claws scraped the ground, intending to snatch Samus up into the air. She dodged the attack handily, countering with another wave beam burst that caused Ridley's hide to smoke. The injured dragon only flew higher, his expression becoming more clouded with worry.
"Your name means nothing to me, human!" he cried. "You will regret mocking me and when you finally fall at my hands, your memory will be forgotten for all eternity!"
"Is that so?" Samus taunted. "Well then, watch what one pathetic human can do!"
With a roar, Ridley dived, his mouth spewing liquid fire. Samus stood in place, weathering the storm, and as soon as Ridley was directly overhead, she fired a flurry of missiles straight into his torso. The concussive burst from the amplified projectiles knocked Ridley out of the air, creating a mini-shockwave that shook the walls. The Space Pirate leader coughed as he impacted with the ground after falling from a tremendous height, his wings shredded from the explosion. Blood dripped off of him in a thousand places, making the floor slippery underneath him. And just meters away, Samus began to stalk in the background.
Panicked, Ridley began to claw himself forward, but Samus raised her gun again and roared, "Stay there!" Two frosty white bursts were flung from the muzzle and Ridley looked down in horror to see that his two front hands were inexplicably frozen to the floor, coated in a thick lay of ice. His bones felt chilled and the intense cold felt like a scorch upon his skin.
The ice was too strong for Ridley to wrench himself out of, but simply burning his way out would also badly sear his hands as well. Suddenly afraid, Ridley belted out a plasma burst at Samus, hoping to delay her as he worked to free himself. She did not even make a move to evade the attack, simply choosing to let the fireball wash over her without incident. Completely astonished, Ridley expelled several more plasma bursts in quick succession, but they did now slow down his attacker any, merely delaying her approach.
"Human…" he gasped out.
Samus stopped walking forward when she was inches away from Ridley's gaping maw. Watching the trapped dragon breathe heavily, she gripped her arm cannon in preparation. "You may call me 'Samus,' Ridley, because it will be the last thing you will remember before you die." She tilted her head and whispered with all the rage she could muster, "Does that sound familiar, bastard?"
With a wrenching cry, Ridley threw his body backwards and finally yanked his hands free from the infernal ice, the chunks of frozen liquid already beginning to melt. He stomped forward, trying to claw the armored human in half, grunting in frustration as she nimbly leaped outside his reach every time.
"It does not matter what I call you, human! You seem to think that you're going to win, but you're just as foolish as Gray Voice! And now I will prove to him that his 'weapon' was never worthy of my attention!"
Unleashing a hellish scream, Ridley shot his body forward and flung himself upon Samus, his jaw opened wide. His sharp teeth began to close around the orange form, his gullet awaiting the arrival of the human. But Samus had one more trick up her sleeve. She ground her feet into the floor and sprinted off, pure white now enveloping her form, ducking underneath Ridley's attack. She sped through the room, her heart in her mouth, a song in her ears, and a rising feeling in her chest.
Everything seemed to be running in slow-motion now, while her feet looked like a blur down below. She glanced at the words "SPEED BOOSTER ENABLED" at the bottom of her HUD and grinned like a fool. A huge pressure upon Samus' back indicated that her rear thrusters had engaged, propelling her forward. But this was a different sort of velocity than she ever could have imagined; she felt invincible like this.
With a grunt of joy between her teeth, she leaped and found good purchase upon the wall. Thanks to her immense speed, Samus kept on putting her feet in front of the other, one by one, and found that she was still running sideways, planted on the surface by the centrifugal forces being projected upon her. She craned her neck as she ran around Ridley, now firmly situated at his backside. The dragon had realized that he had missed his target at this point, but he had still failed to flop to the ground thanks to the intensity of his momentum.
Pushing with all her might, Samus willed her feet to travel as fast as they could as she rounded the final corner. As the right side of Ridley's head came into view, she knew then it was time. Samus immediately tucked her knees and pushed off, becoming a white-hot bolt through the sky. Ridley did not even see her coming. Samus saw something in the corner of her vision, a smiling woman that called her name, eliciting the familiar scent of soap. On the other side stood a tall Chozo, a pleased expression on his face. Both figures whispered to her, assured her, and reinforced their love for her. Knowing that she was not alone, Samus focused her body with all her might and became a comet, shooting through the air with the might of a thousand suns.
With a final scream of a broken soul, Samus pushed her cannon forward and fired her last missile at the creature's head as it rapidly expanded in her view. There was a muffled boom and a cloud of smoke and blood, and Samus abruptly found herself tumbling around on the ground, the effects of the Speed Booster finally wearing off. Steam wisped off her body as the exterior cooled down from the friction. Grunting, Samus got to her feet and slowly aimed her weapon back at Ridley, who was still crawling on the ground like a worm.
The dragon turned his head to face her, revealing a horrid sight to Samus. The entire right side of Ridley's face was pulp. Skin and muscle hung in red tatters down his face. His right eye was now a black pit, gleaming white bone protruding from underneath. Ragged muscle dangled over his jaw and expelled blood heavily while he pathetically tried to drag himself forward, his arms giving out as he moved a few meters.
Ridley's lone eye stared directly at her, wide and fearful, no longer angry and slit. "Sa…Samus…" he coughed, expelling a thin cloud of smoke. "P-Please…"
Begging was not a new concept to Samus. She had witnessed her targets plead for life, despite the horrors they did in the past. It always took a great deal of self-control to not give in to her anger and dispose of them right then and there. Of course, that was if the bounties dictated that her targets were worth more alive and that she had to be in a merciful mood in order to oblige their request.
She was not feeling merciful today.
"Burn in hell, Ridley," Samus simply said before she tabbed a control on her cannon and unleashed a great shaft of fire, her plasma beam immediately smothering the damned creature.
Ridley screeched as his skin began to melt, the flames consuming his body. Fat dribbled down him, sloughing off of his bones, blackening them. His remaining eye popped from the heat and dribbled down his face. The screams of the dragon did not make Samus flinch away. Rather, she watched Ridley burn to death with all of the vindication possible for one to feel.
Still, Ridley was throwing himself upon the ground, desperately trying to douse the flames, but his movements were simply exacerbating his immolation. He vomited, throwing up a dark bloody liquid before the fat around his stomach disintegrated. Ridley's guts fell into his own searing hands, causing him more unbearable pain than before. His intestines slipped over his fingers, the flames licking at his organs. With a mournful cry of confusion as the fire wrapped around him, Ridley threw his head back and wailed his last sound, a pitiful cry, before he finally collapsed, twitched once, and lay still.
Samus watched the pyre smolder some more, even going so far as to put another missile into Ridley's cranium, just to confirm that he was well and truly dead. When the last of the flames died down to reveal a skeleton, charred so black it crumbled at the touch, Samus at last felt hope take her by the hand, letting her soar in the clouds with the future as bright as the morning in front of her.
She fell to her knees and howled a roar that stretched to the heavens, one that streaked through the smoke and the rock. Samus screamed for the fallen, for the living, all because her tormentor was dead. It was for the childhood she never had, for what he made her into. She could not remember making a noise so loud before; it lasted long inside her helmet after her breath had run out.
Reduced to a trembling ball on the ground, Samus gasped heavily as she began crying, the knowledge that she had avenged her mother and Gray Voice too intense for her to even move, that Ridley was dead. She could still see them in her head; they knelt in front of her and congratulated her, saying that they were so proud of her. Samus smiled weakly, her hand stretching out so that she might grasp them – to hold them one last time, but their comforting grip never came to her dismay.
It was a while after she began to accept that she had been alone all this time did Samus finally stand up and head over to the door, not looking any longer at Ridley's remains. Her eyes felt raw and her lungs felt scratchy, but she never felt as ready as this before. With her pounding heart, Samus took a moment to catch her breath in the hallway before she gave a shake of her head and moved on to the road to Tourian, a new fire igniting in her chest.
There was still a mission that needed completing.
A/N: Ding-dong, Ridley's dead. And good riddance, too. This was definitely one of my favorite chapters to write (it had a ton of emotion) so let me know what you thought of it.
Also, it is the right time to point out that this was the last chapter of the manga that could be adapted (technically - I did leave off a few pages). But, good news, this story will continue! That means that the next chapter will be all original content and not adapted from the source material, which disappointingly ended on a cliffhanger. This way, you get the whole story and don't have to fill in any of the blanks yourself.
So get set, there's one more boss left to face.
Also, I should point out that in this chapter and in the last one, there were some scenes with Damara in the manga that focused on her back at the capital in her classes and outside that did not make the cut into this story. I chose not to adapt these scenes because there was no ultimate payoff from their inclusion and merely served to needlessly bloat the story. Therefore, I figured I could get away with not including those scenes.
Heh, I might just make 125,000 words yet.