After ascending to a depth light reached, a hairy skirmish with a school of spiny Skulteras, a bone-chilling backwards glance at the void below and a massive, hideous yellow eyeball blinking back, Samus finally, finally touched ground again. She might have been tempted to drop down and kiss it if her helmet weren't full of saltwater.
Upper Maridia's shallows spanned a minefield of tide pools, pits, and quicksand. Shifting brown dunes, groves of seaweed, and patchy, sandstone walls painted the landscape. While Samus was grateful to plant her feet, "solid" was hardly the correct word. The drab environment provided perfect camouflage for quicksand pockets.
Lack of access to the Gravity Suit impeded movement, but she made steady progress and soon found her head above the water. At last. As she knelt beside the shallows, the first thing she did was dematerialize her helmet. A ludicrous volume of water poured out. Including a tiny squid.
She remained kneeling, breathing in the salty air, marred somewhat by the dank odor of seaweed. Her fingers absently sifted the wet sand. Here, in-between abyssal Maridia and stormy Crateria, the world was…not peaceful, but quiet. Far less suffocating than the ocean's black pit, and the wildlife conducted their own business instead of attacking her. She was alone. For better or worse, the quiet afforded her time to collect her thoughts.
You have failed.
She shifted her arm to restore her helmet, but found herself staring at her distorted reflection in the muddy water. Blank, bloodshot eyes stared back. Her hand would not, could not move. It remained half-buried in the sand, heavier than lead.
YOU HAVE FAILED US ALL!
Something deep inside flinched as she recalled the ghost's bone-chilling scream. It exploded in her mind, disrupting all other thoughts.
YOU HAVE FAILED!
I haven't.
…You're afraid.
Ridiculous.
But the weary eyes in the water believed otherwise. They narrowed.
You HAVE failed…
…and THEY know it.
She jerked her head away and forced her hand up. Helmet donned, she noticed her cracked visor was only partially restored. She set off without a backwards glance.
The rain on Crateria abated, but the dense, swollen thunderclouds still loomed overhead. Distant rumbling echoed off the cliffsides, signaling the approach of another squall. Samus crouched low; she didn't intend to linger on the clifftop when the lightning returned.
Eons ago, the downed vessel's impact crater filled with water, forming a deep lake half the ship was buried under. The upper half rose above like an eerie, glowing tombstone. Indeed, a phosphorescent green aura tinged the walls so dim, if Samus blinked, it seemed to disappear.
Despite its name, the hull was largely intact. With some repairs, it could be restored. She figured its main issues lay inside. She couldn't imagine the controls and circuitry in good shape after all this time.
The Pirates built scaffolding around its outside, providing a bridge to a single hatch some forty feet above the lake. Higher constructions acted as towers on which sentries perched like vultures. Samus counted six; even from her distance, she could see the vivid blue fire of their eyes.
The wind rose, whistling through the damaged portions like a chime of hollow bones. In the distance, the first bolt of lightning flashed behind the wreck, followed instantly by deafening thunder. Equally fleetingly, Samus thought of the Baby, and wondered if it could hear it. She tossed it aside. Being a prisoner is a bit more dangerous than a fear of thunder. Lightning flashed again. Then again, that fear is what got it captured.
And here again, she found herself in a similar situation as in Brinstar— overlooking a Pirate hive, watching them patrol, and pondering how to get inside. This time, she'd have to execute the plan solo, but that would actually come easier without a companion. What was different was that the Pirates' master knew she was coming before she even fell into Maridia. And she'd bet the gunship it knew exactly where she was now.
Incoherent snarls and screeches rang out below. A second storm commenced in the form of lasers blasting up the cliff.
Gunship's still mine.
Samus rapid-fired back, picking off the sentries one by one in the span of two lightning strikes. She didn't need to get knocked out by any more lucky shots. When their last cries died with them, only the sound of thunder remained, booming louder as the lightning struck closer. A huge bolt caused the cliff to quake, but Samus detected a multitude of smaller vibrations beneath it. Red dots scored the bottom of her radar.
A diversion!
She whipped around. A throng of blue-eyed Pirates swarmed the clifftop, charging with reckless abandon. Samus switched to Super Missiles. Its heavy blast sent several bodies flying, but the rest kept coming. A hideous cacophony of deranged gurgling and strangled shrieking buzzed in her ears. But none of it was standard Pirate, only garbled gibberish.
Something was wrong. These weren't the malicious, grudge-filled screeches of her hated enemies. These were the guttural, tortured wails of the damned. Hollow, almost robotic, they seemed only half-directed at her, generated from somewhere other than their emotions. It grated on her, and she eagerly met their assault head on to shut them up.
Like a living whirlwind, Samus shredded their ranks with nothing but the Power Beam, a storm of missiles, and her own body, slamming Pirates left and right. She seized one and threw it into two others, shoulder-checking them off the cliff with an exoskeleton-breaking crunch before they could recover. Three huge splashes confirmed their deaths; Pirates were lousy swimmers without scuba equipment. Another took one look at her and decided to follow its mates.
And still they came. The usurper must have sent about every Pirate under its control. Four fresh troopers tackled her to the ground. She managed to roll back and kick two overboard, but the others managed to cling to her as several more dogpiled on. Taking a risk at such close range, Samus fired a Super Missile into the mass. The impact flung them in every direction and sent her skidding backward until her head dangled above the lake eighty feet below. She got to her feet right as the stragglers recovered, but the Super Missile did the ledge in. As the ground crumbled and split, Samus turned, ran, and took a flying leap into the air, narrowly avoiding one final lightning blast that finished off the ledge.
Her jump carried her clear across the lake. Taking the forty-foot fall with ease, she landed right atop the platform the sentries were guarding. She turned and saw the last Pirates plummeting to their deaths, some still clinging vainly to the disintegrating rock and soil.
The very last blue-eyed Pirates rushed out of the hatch, but Samus was beyond caring. Charging straight for the hatch, she dove, morphed, and cannonballed between their outstretched claws. The instant she was inside, the hatch snapped shut and lost power, sealing her in.
Unmorphing, Samus stuck the landing at a crouch. Before she even rose, heavy pressure fell like lead upon her lungs. It could only be the usurper's malevolent presence, identical to what she felt in Maridia. No doubt it had her right where it wanted.
Sa…m…u……s…
Even her visor's brilliant reach was subdued. The ship's layout was not unfamiliar. Its halls were laid out in orderly rows befitting a spaceship's design, marred by collapse from the first impact and subsequent weakening over time. Samus could still mentally trace the path leading to the bridge above, as well as the cramped ducts sprawling down to the cargo hold.
If I'd captured a Metroid, I'd keep it there.
As soon as she began the descent, the pressure in her lungs increased. More than once, she laid bombs to clear a path through the damaged ducts. She noted a steady drop in temperature that increased with every step towards the hold. Perfect, she also noted, for subduing a Metroid.
Samus…
She stopped dead. Despite the wind howling like a banshee against the hull, she heard the whisper clear as day in her ear. A cold claw grazed her right shoulder whose bone-deep chill penetrated straight through her pauldron. She froze for a half-second before twisting away, swinging her cannon at the source. Nothing was there.
Focus.
She jumped down the next few flights of stairs, ignoring the invisible blue eye burning into the back of her skull.
The darkness grew oppressive as she reached the lower levels. Her light's reach dwindled to little more than arm's length. But about fifteen feet below, a single hatch shone green. The only working one she'd ever seen in all her times exploring this vessel. It, too, glowed like a dead eye, waiting, beckoning her to approach.
Samus…
Again, she felt the chilled touch on her shoulder. She spun and came face-to-face with the white, haggard ghost of a Chozo. Those same sightless eyes, pale fire tinged with a lick of blue, pierced her soul, threatening to freeze her in place.
She knew it was a trick, but she instinctively addressed it in Chozodian. "Stand aside."
The ghost regarded her, hunched like a rabid animal, its long translucent arms grazing the floor. It did not speak.
She readied a Charge Shot and hissed through gritted teeth. "Last warning."
The ghost lunged, and Samus fired. Like in Maridia, its form faded to mist. But a second, misshapen form lingered in its wake. She fired again, but the shape vanished, too. She'd only caught a glimpse, but it was far from humanoid.
Clenching her fist to steady it, she leaped off the stairs and let gravity carry her to the green hatch. She landed with a heavy thud, and rose with slight difficulty. Seemed like gravity had kicked up a notch. That could pose a problem, she mused as she blasted open the hatch with a Super Missile.
As soon as she jumped down, the hatch slid shut and died. She could no longer hear the storm. This room was long and low, with another dead door to the west and a partially collapsed wall to the east. The walls bent away from the floor and grew more disorienting the more she looked. With slow, cautious steps, Samus moved to investigate the collapsed wall.
There was a small opening at the bottom. As she crouched down to see if it was a tunnel, the ghost appeared right on top of her in a phosphorescent flash. She rolled aside, putting some distance between them.
The gravitational distortion revealed the ghost's true form: a melted amalgamation of deformed skulls. Some looked human, others Pirate, and some Chozo. Profound revulsion seized her gut. All she could do was stare at this disgusting abomination only the foulest mind alive would dream.
Even Mother Brain wouldn't create something like this.
Over the years, she'd seen many unimaginable creatures, but this one left her speechless. This thing— Samus didn't even know what to name it— bobbed up and down in the air. The bottomless pits swirling in every black socket pulled at her mind, sucking her in. This wasn't natural. Like the Tallon IV ghosts. Like Dark Aether. Like that poisoned shadow worming its claws into her brain.
Come. The dark voice thrummed from deep within the mass of skulls. Come.
Far away in the distance, an unearthly roar shook the earth. And then, slowly, a single, bloodstained talon stretched out from one of the sockets. She stood, frozen, as it reached for her face. "Failure."
Wordlessly, Samus shook her head. A red glow ignited in the socket's depths. The talon pointed between her eyes, phasing through her visor like it wasn't there. The sheer cold of its touch was beyond bearable, but she could not move.
A blizzard engulfed her senses. Faces, stars, and formless shapes spiraled around her like an unraveling tapestry. She heard a tempest of roars, screeches, and true speech, each their own thread flying past on their own time. The voice and eyes of her archenemy snaked through her brain like a viper. Then his face melted, his scream twisting into the hollow thrum of Old Bird. Then a spear of ice shattered his visage, and there stood a fallen hunter and two others behind. A multitude of red eyes, and the all-seeing one of Mother Brain. Trapped behind its lens watched Platinum Chest, Gray Voice, and everyone. Her family. So close, yet impossibly far. She stretched out her hand, and Gray Voice met her eyes with a stare of…contempt? Scorn? No. That…wasn't right. It couldn't be.
And she plunged through his gaze, where a million comets streaked through the infinite cosmos. Here, the threads wove together again. A tapestry of stars and comets formed the image of a Chozo statue. The light of twin suns burned in its eyes, and it raised its hands in offering to her still outstretched one. They lay empty, but something inside Samus was desperate to reach them all the same. She strained her arm as far as she possibly could. Just a little more…
A deafening crack tore space and time apart. The beautiful star statue fragmented and shattered. And from the dead void beyond it, a nameless, blue-eyed shadow lunged. "FAILURE!"
NO!
The room heaved and spun as Samus jolted back to reality. Nothing looked real anymore.
Not real—
Stand.
Gray Voice—
Stand!
Raising her eyes, Samus refocused on the ghost. No talons, glowing eyes, or menacing voice. It acted as it had before— harmlessly floating in the air.
With a glare that could poison the lake, she pulled the trigger. With a silent cry, the skulls shattered into a puddle of ectoplasm. Then it, too, faded.
"Failure, indeed." The unnaturally deep voice, invisible, laughed at her, sending ripples through the distorted walls. "You've come all this way for nothing, Hunter," it said. "It's not here."
I apologize this took so long. Some of it was procrastination, but mostly, I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure this part out. Unfortunately, I did not plan this out very far in advance, but I intend to give this my best nonetheless. Unless I state otherwise, I fully intend to continue writing this! Thank you for your patience!
Part 2 next week!
