Chapter 12: Turning Tables

Samus Aran awoke some time later, dazed, weak, and wearing nothing more than her Zero Suit. Through bleary eyes, she was barely able to identify that she was still outside of Sector Zero's Main Airlock.

And the familiar face staring stoically back at her, his gray eyes piercing the very depths of her soul.

"...Adam?"

The General nodded slowly.

Had she not been feeling quite so weak and sluggish, Samus would have belted him then and there for pulling such a stunt. But she was much too groggy to think straight, much less strike her friend and former mentor. "...Why?" she asked instead, exhausted.

Adam took her in one last time before gripping his assault rifle and coming to his feet. He offered her a hand, but in typical Samus Aran fashion, the hunter denied his offering and managed to stand on her own two feet. "Why?" she asked again, making sure to put more force behind her voice.

The Commander turned his back to her before holding his rifle close to his chest. "...I had no choice. I couldn't afford to lose you like I did Ian."

Samus's anger quickly flared despite her weakened state. "Oh, don't give me that bullshit. I know why you did it – and there's no way in hell I'm going to let you do it!" she rebuked, still unstable on her feet. "I-"

Adam reached out to break her fall. His gray eyes took on an almost ethereal sparkle as they locked with hers. "I know, Lady. And I have no doubt you'd be able to put this nightmare to rest. You've proven that to me time and time again over the years. But it's not your time, not today," he told her before allowing her to stand on her own two feet once more.

Samus shook her head of the cobwebs, yet still felt as if she were in the middle of a nightmare turned reality. She clutched at his armored forearms, eyes smoldering with heartache and anger. "Stop talking like this is goodbye! I won't let you throw your life away for nothing, especially me, goddamn it!"

Something akin to a half-smile graced his rough features then, his arms finding their way around her waist. "Samus. Unlike you, I'm no galactic savior. I'm merely human. But I can save you..."

Samus reached out in an attempt to grab Adam's arm as he turned his back, forcing him to face her once more. Her blue-green eyes were smoldering with anger, frustration and pain. "If you believed in me, you'd let me be the one to go into Sector Zero!"

"I told you, I'm not going to lose you like I lost Ian."

Samus' voice suddenly rose to an almost feral growl. "I'M NOT IAN!"

The room suddenly fell into a deep, heavy silence as they stared each other down before the doors to the Main Airlock.

Eventually, Samus was able to speak once more, far more calmer now. "This doesn't have to be a repeat of the Lusitania. There was nothing more you could have done back then, Adam. Killing yourself won't bring him back, nor will it get rid of whatever lies beyond that door. The Federation will just create more cold-resistant Metroids and more copies of Mother – and by killing yourself, you'll merely be eliminating one more obstacle in their quest for power – yourself. Surely you understand this."

Adam looked at her with that same stoic look on his face. "Yes. I know, Lady. But there's no other way. It's either me or you, and in the grand scheme of things, you are far more vital to the safety of the galaxy than I am."

Samus reached to cup his face in her hands and pulled him close. "If that's the case, then I'm going with you. I'm not going to let you die alone. And I know if it were me going in there instead, you'd want to do the same thing. Because I know you, Adam Malkovich. I know you like no other. Because you and I...we're one in the same."

"Lady..." Adam whispered deeply. "Please..."

The mercenary's eyes suddenly glazed over with determination. "I'm not asking to go with you, Adam. I'm telling you." she interjected firmly.

Looking at her, Adam suddenly realized just how right she'd been in her assumption. They really were one in the same. Two terribly stubborn, determined individuals who would stop at nothing until their missions were completed. For a moment, Adam remembered the Lusitania incident, and how insistent Samus had been in being the one to rescue Ian, that same fiery, determined look in her eyes then as she had now. True, she wasn't a kid anymore, though she'd always been able to handle herself in combat. But she was still his best friend, and the thought of something happening to her terrified him despite her unprecedented ability to defy what all others assumed to be certain death and reign supreme.

But this was different...wasn't it? The Metroids beyond couldn't be killed in the fail-safe way, having had their weakness to cold eliminated through genetic manipulation. The creatures were known to be incredibly durable and resilient to most weaponry as it was, but now, with Federation scientists having eliminated their one mortal weakness, the odds of either Adam, Samus, or both, coming from this ordeal alive were dastardly low. It would take nothing short of a miracle for them to survive this.

But it was still a chance nevertheless.

And that was enough for them.

"...There isn't much time. We'd better get started." Adam said finally before clutching his rifle.

Samus gave a slow nod before moving to activate her Gravity Suit...

Only to suddenly thrust her fist into the General's gut, sending him crumbling to the floor and gasping briefly before surrendering his rifle to the floor and falling into unconsciousness. Samus merely stared at him lying there face down for a moment before flipping him over onto his back and taking a knee, only to run a quick scan of his vitals; luckily, she hadn't been at one-hundred percent when she struck him, but she'd made sure to put enough strength behind the punch to knock him out, enough that the blow had created a considerable dent in the stomach portion of Adam's combat armor. Body scans indicated, at the most, a couple of fractured ribs and grade two – of four - abdominal contusions. But he would, eventually, regain consciousness.

So long as it was after Samus had managed to complete her objective deep within Sector Zero.

"Forgive me, Adam...but it looks like you will be waiting for me, after all." she said softly behind the synthesized voice of her helmet before coming to her feet once more. "No objections, right?" she added with a soft grin before glaring directly in front of her at the sector's Main Airlock.

The doors to the Sector Zero Main Airlock whooshed open as Samus approached, only to close behind her. Without so much as a second look behind her, she soon vanished into the bright lights, her expression hinting at nothing, the fear, the pain, the horrors that awaited her beyond the door.

"If there's anyone capable of ending this nightmare, it's you."

Adam's words burned themselves on her mind as Samus made her way into the nightmare gauntlet known as Sector Zero. Unlike most of the people she worked with during her Federation days, never once had Adam expressed any doubt in her skills as a warrior, or in her uncanny ability to push herself beyond her limits and overcome any obstacle. It was this unshakable belief in her as a human being and a fierce warrior that allowed him to task her with the most critical missions - he knew Aran was the only one capable of defying such unbelievable odds.

And she would defy those odds yet again, one way or another, even as those last glimmers of hope faded before her very eyes. Because that's who she was, and had always been - a survivor fighting for the greater good of the galaxy. She would end this nightmare turned reality. She would return from this trip through hell and infinite darkness – just her latest of many – and reign supreme once more. But most of all, she would return to her proverbial rock, the one person who kept her grounded within this often tumultuous and ever-changing universe, the one person who had truly made her feel like more than just a weapon and awakened that long-dormant human being within her.

Her Adam Malkovich.

The tension within the sector was heavy like the air. Glass stasis tanks, filled with unfreezable Metroids, lined the sides of the walls; one look at the creatures and Samus immediately noticed a difference between them and the ones she was used to seeing. The nuclei of this variant was spiked and purple as opposed to the standard red, raspberry nuclei, and the creature's gelatinous body was a pale blue instead of green. Computer terminals lined the center of the first room and displayed the status of every Metroid within the sector. According to the data, only a few of the creatures were still in their most basic, larval stage. All others were currently within their mature adult stages, which meant they posed the greatest threat to Samus; she would attempt to eliminate these last, knowing they were much stronger and more aggressive than the infants. For now, she took aim at the helpless infants floating within their stasis-tanks and opened fire with bursts of charged Plasma Beam shots from her Arm Cannon, piercing and killing them on impact.

Sensing their kin in danger, however, the adults suddenly broke free of their tanks and swarmed the bounty hunter faster than she could get shots off. Samus was forced into a constant strafe around the room, leaping and dodging the Metroids as they lunged and attempted to ram her into submission. Charged Plasma Beam shots only managed to briefly stun the creatures before they recovered and began to swarm their target once more. To make matters worse for the mercenary, Rinkas, halo-like rings of energy, soon joined the fight, coming from the walls and ceilings of the room, their sights locked on Samus. She quickly destroyed them with missiles before focusing her attention back on the Metroids. one of which attached itself to her armor and began siphoning her energy; quickly, Samus formed into her Morph Ball and jettisoned a bomb, the blast enough to dislodge the creature and momentarily stun it before coming from her Morph Ball and opening fire on more Rinkas.

Another Metroid attached itself to the hunter's forearm armor, having caught her off guard. Her tanks began draining at an alarming rate before she managed to dislodge the creature again. Samus grimaced in pain behind her visor, the Metroid having pierced her armor with its razor sharp pincers. The mercenary, however, relegated the excruciating pain to the back of her mind, too keyed up on adrenaline to pay any attention to her injury as she moved from room to room, killing off as many of the larval predators as she could while causing as much collateral damage as possible before her progress through the sector was cut short by a locked door surrounded by large, thick pipes similar in design to those found in the sector's Main Airlock. MB was on the other side of that door, that much Samus was sure of, pulling the strings of every Zebesian and Metroid – perhaps every creature itself - in the station. With several angry Sector Zero Metroids circling her and Rinkas coming from the walls at regular intervals, Samus clenched her jaw and lunged at the swarm, only to jump into the air and assume her Morph Ball form and drop a Power Bomb, hoping it would be enough to activate the self-destruct protocol and put an end to the Metroids and MB, once and for all.

The immediate area was quickly enveloped in a white hot dome of blinding light and energy before expanding into an all encompassing swath of destruction just as Samus, still in ball form, rolled as fast as she could towards the door she'd originally came through. The hunter came promptly from the compact sphere just as the Metroids attempted to flee the blast radius, only to become vaporized by the sheer intensity of the blast.

What remained of the room was nothing more than a husk of twisted metal and broken glass. The sickening stench of burning Metroids hung in the air like a thick shroud. The blast had been enough to disintegrate the Metroid swarm and had clearly done quite a bit of damage to the room and the sector itself, but Samus was unsure if it had been enough to activate the sector's self-destruct protocol...until the ground suddenly started to tremble beneath her feet and siren-like red lights bathed the room in an ominous, blood red light.

Samus felt her heart resume its thunderous pumping as the voice of the vessel's announcer suddenly came to life overhead.

"Emergency detected within Sector Zero. Self destruct protocol activated. Beginning detachment sequence…"

Samus knew that was her cue to make haste for safer ground and immediately ran as fast as her strong legs could carry her, muscles and chest pumping with feverish intensity, lungs burning in an attempt to keep her moving through the twisted remains and steel corridors. Coming from the sector, Samus rushed headlong through the Main Airlock, Adam still unconscious on the floor; despite the excruciating pain radiating throughout her left arm, Samus dug deep to hoist the General over her shoulder before continuing her run from the doomed sector.

"...Forty-five seconds to reach minimum safe distance. Disengaging unit..."

Beginning up the spiral corridor, Samus was unable to activate her Speed Booster due to the small metal barriers that blocked her progress. Suddenly, Super Zebesians, a more powerful variant of Cyborg Zebesian she'd encountered before, came at her from ahead and behind and began to fire potent wave beam shots at her. And to make her escape even more difficult, the entrance to Sector Zero began to break off piece by piece as the countdown to its detachment and subsequent explosion neared its end. There was no more than half a minute remaining, and Samus knew she had to keep pushing if both she and Adam were to make it out of here alive.

"...Twenty-five seconds until detachment. Please evacuate the sector immediately..."

She continued up the spiral corridor ignoring as many of the Super Zebesians as she was able, making sure to shield Adam as she carried him while engaging the Super Zebesians foolish enough to stand in her way, as the pieces continued to break beneath her feet and threaten to send her and the unconscious General hurdling into the vacuum of outer space. She could nearly see the end at this point, even as the environment fell into disorder around her. Just a little more, Samus told herself, her chest heaving and legs furiously pumping.

"...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5..." the mindless voice announced.

Her heart thumped in her throat. With every last second fading away just like the floor beneath her feet, Samus could only think about Adam and how it was he who kept her going whenever she felt she could go on any longer. It was Adam who reawakened the warrior within her and gave her strength through everlasting support. It was he who had reawakened long-dormant feelings within her. It was Adam who had always seen her not as a weapon, but as a human being. Had treated her with dignity and respect, had showed her compassion and guidance. As the last seconds ticked by and the door to safety was within her immediate vision, Samus lunged toward the door just as the final seconds elapsed and the sector began its detachment and self-destruction.

"Warning… Disengaging unit.. Warning… Disengaging unit.."

Moments later, the sound of an ominous explosion could be heard outside the station...