Author's Note

I think things are about to get even more interesting here soon, but this chapter is a small chill-down between the action that's soon to come.

I'm going to honest, I was blown away with how positively received the last chapter was. As it stands, it's gained 17 reviews since it's been up, and the first chapter of this story has 18 total. That's nuts to me, especially since they were all positive too. I had been worried about how the last chapter would be received when I posted it, but it seems I had nothing to worry about.

Uploaded

04/11/2023

LEGEND BELOW

"Chief, that's not a good idea..." = Normal speech.

''You're you, don't let it control you...'' = Normal thoughts.

Chapter 16

A dream of the past/The beginnings of a species reborn anew

Rated-M

M rating for blood, and language.

Music of the day

Halo 1 - Perchance to Dream

"Can't you just relax for tonight, just this once? Come on, you just got back from that shit mission, you've got to chill. Maybe next time bring me along, don't give me the cold shoulder again." He laughed, voice deep and wispy like a ghost.

She sighed, lowering her head for a moment, before what he said finally clicked with her. It was such an on the nose joke that it shouldn't have been funny, especially coming from him, but this time it just seemed to hit her.

She snorted, the sound so unlike her that it made the massive creature double-take. He looked back down to her, the woman in question having raised her orange armored hand to her helmet covered chin as if to suppress her laughter before she got caught. Unfortunately, she wasn't nearly as quiet as she thought she was.

He scoffed confidently, deeply amused with himself. "Well, that one's never worked on you before. You must be tired…" He laughed genuinely, turning to face the dark looking bar once again.

She giggled uncontrollably to herself, bordering on delirious.

He started to sweat nervously.

Although, in his case, that just meant the room started to get real cold.

Phrygisian dna and all that.

"Alright, come on, I'm taking you back to my ship before you collapse in the bar. I'm not going to allow you to be seen sleeping here like some bum." He stated cooly, standing up to tower over her.

She craned her neck to look up at him, a glint in her eye. "Oh, you're not going to allow me…?" She asked back lowly, challenging him with a little smirk that was partially visible behind her visor. "But what if I want to stay here, are you going to stop me?" She taunted, eyebrow raised as if to challenge him.

He laughed, the sound ghostly and yet deep. "Don't threaten me with a good time. That'll be your last mistake." He muttered back, leaning over her. As he was, he was nearly twice her size, which made him all the more imposing to any onlookers.

If possible, however, her amusement faltered at his words, her mind hyper focusing on the word he so casually uttered.

Mistake.

That's why she was here after all, to attempt to drown out her thoughts, to try and forget her mistakes in a night of drinking.

She'd made a handful of mistakes on that last mission, mistakes that had nearly cost people their lives. Some would call it trivial, but she's not used to failure, not in this sense. When it came to her, failure meant people dying, failure meant placing others at risk, failure meant endangering more lives.

She was just lucky that this time, her failures didn't result in the deaths of those she was sent to save.

"Okay, that's it. Enough of this moping around garbage, this isn't you at all. I'm taking you back to my ship." He muttered, surprising her as he swept her off of her feet, carrying her bridal style. Although, in her large armor, it made it quite amusing to witness.

"Put me down." She grunted, cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "I'm fine." She deflected sharply.

"See, that's exactly why I know you're not fine." He replied wittily. "Now, you're coming with me. If you want to drink, do it somewhere else. This place is a shit hole."

"I feel so cared for…" She sighed, rolling her eyes.

Although she would never admit it, there was a part of her that deeply enjoyed this.

She could never let him know that, of course.

Eventually he got back to his ship, slipping inside it with her. Due to his size, it was a little cramped, but he'd manage. He sat down against the wall, the woman resting across from him against another. He sighed, shaking his head before addressing her.

"Come on, you can't keep letting these things get to you. Sooner or later you'll make a mistake that'll be worse than this one. No one's perfect, not even you, ms. Perfectionist. If you keep worrying about it, you're only going to make it happen sooner." He said genuinely.

She didn't say anything, her head lowered looking away from him. He sighed, before pulling her onto his lap. She bristled, but didn't really put up a struggle.

Eventually she sighed, giving up on all outward resistance as she instead rest her head on his shoulder. Her armor vanished, leaving her in her under suit.

"Feel better?" He asked, deeply amused.

"Talk about this to anyone and I'll blow your ship up." She blatantly threatened.

"Duly noted." He responded. She gained the impression he was smirking, or whatever counted as a smirk from his kind.

He sighed, glancing past her and to the wall before him, staring at the reflection of her nestled up on his lap.

He could tell she was messed up from whatever the hell had happened on that last mission, even though she didn't voice it. He'd tried to change her mood with some playful teasing and dry humor, and it had worked for a moment, but she'd drift back down that dark train of thought again.

It was clear to him words wouldn't help her right now, and so he offered himself as something instead, someone for her to lean on when she needed to. And right now, she needed to.

She didn't comment when he rest his hand on her head, gently trailing it down her long silky blond hair. Not for the first time he found himself getting lost in her presence, and he found himself wishing moments like these could go on for far longer.

"I know it's been hard lately, but you've got to have some confidence in your abilities and comrades." He said softly, his voice a ghostly whisper echoing off the walls of his ship. "We're the good guys, justice will prevail and all that stuff… Right, Samus?" He asked, glancing down.

Rundas' eyes widened when all he heard in response was her soft breathing warming up his shoulder. He huffed quietly in amusement, resting his head against the wall behind him.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, consciousness returning to her as she was roused from her desperately needed sleep. A strange wetness trailed down her cheeks, the woman blinking in surprise as she realized she'd been silently shedding tears. She raised her hand to her cheeks, wiping them away.

In the darkest recesses of her mind echoed the voice of her dear friend, his screams as he was brutally and violently taken away from her…

She shook her head, banishing the thought, burying it deep within herself again.

A chorus of worried cooing caught her attention, pulling her from her dark thoughts as she looked up to find her three children floating around her in concern, cooing like babies that knew something was wrong with their mother.

She huffed a sad yet happy laugh, reaching out to pull them into her embrace again. It wouldn't do to make them worry about her, not now. She nuzzled her face against them gently, placating their worries.

They cooed happily at the affection given them, and greedily nuzzled her in return.

A few hours passed with no one coming to bother her, leaving her undisturbed with her children. She'd come to the understanding that the Master Chief was likely being debriefed by his Captain, or was going over future battle plans. She didn't worry too much about it, knowing he'd tell her everything once he returned.

In the meantime, she'd spent that time with the infant Metroid's. It only took her twenty minutes to learn that she could communicate with them through her thoughts. Whenever they began wandering around the room too far from her, she'd glance at them and tell them to return to her, and beside bouncing around playfully for a moment, they would listen and return to her.

It didn't take long for her to learn, however, that they were hungry. They'd given her some of their energy to heal her before, and as such had left them, as well as her, wanting more.

But that was all something only lingering at the back of her mind. In reality, she couldn't push aside the thought of how crazy this was. She'd never thought about what would happen if she'd become a mother, and even now, the reality she found herself in felt surreal to experience.

Although she could communicate with them, their thoughts currently were very basic, early stage. Even then, that meant that she could only pick up feelings and emotions directed at her, simple words.

Mother…

Protect mother…

Love mother…

Food…

Where dad...?

Those were some of the thoughts that she'd picked up in a vast amount, making it all the more precious to her when they nuzzled up against her bosom lovingly, cooing in blissful glee as they did so.

A sudden beeping caught her attention as the bulkhead on the far side of the room opened, in stepping the Spartan himself.

"Samus, good, you're awake." The man in green muttered as he moved inside the room. "I've already been debriefed by the Captain, and he's curious about you. Said he wants to speak to the one that saved the ship."

Samus' eyes widened, not moving from her spot on the bed, keeping her children close to her bosom. "I see." She muttered, not eluding to anything further.

The Spartan tilted his head in question, but didn't push her. He glanced down to her chest, noticing the wounds she'd received from the plasma sword had healed. "Looks like you healed quickly." He commented.

"Hmm…" She hummed in acknowledgment, glancing down to her children. "They helped me. Gave me some of their energy. But, they're hungry, and I am too." She added, looking up to him. Three glowing red eyes stared at the Spartan, her eyes radiating hunger. "Do you have anything you could give us?" She asked.

If she took the infants out of the room as they were now, there was a good possibility they'd attack someone out of hunger. They were young and untrained, compelled to action by their base urges.

They were surprisingly obedient, completely unlike any Metroid she'd seen prior to now. And they listened to her with a blistering sense of loyalty, but she didn't wish to test that loyalty if they got hungry.

"I'm sure the Captain would be more then pleased to offer a fusion coil or two, it's the least he could do." The man added after a moment of thought. "I'll return with one as soon as I can, however, Samus?" He continued, but paused after a moment.

"Yes?" She asked back. Instead of speaking, he made a little head gesture to her in general. She blinked, before glancing down. "Ah, of course." She intoned blankly. A moment of concentration later saw her Zero-Suit reappearing over her naked body. After she'd taken it off before, she'd forgotten to put it back on. Unfortunately, her Power-Suit was still out of energy, and trying to use it at that moment would be a mistake.

"I'll return shortly. Please stay here until I return." The man asked, before vanishing out the door once more.

The Spartan was gone for easily ten minutes, before the door opened once more. In he came, in his hands two large rectangular storage devices that seemed to contain a vast amount of energy. "Be careful with these, they're known to be unstable to trauma." He warned, moving in to set them down beside her.

The Metroid's cooed in glee at the sight of food, and would've likely devoured the objects had she not stopped them. Her eyes narrowed, and the three infants stopped only a foot from the device.

The Spartan watched in surprise as she seemed to communicate with her children with some sort of psychic powers. They all cooed in shame as she seemingly recalled them to her side, hovering around her protectively once more.

"What was that?" He couldn't help but ask.

That actually got a small smile out of the green haired woman, turning her attention to him. "I can speak to them with my thoughts. I'm trying to train them to understand that it is not acceptable to feed off of anything or anyone without my express permission. In the meantime, I'll take in energy and feed it to them. I want them to garner a different view of life, and that won't happen will allowing them to do what they want." She explained.

What she didn't say was how she wasn't going to let these Metroids, these first of the new Metroid race turn into the mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that had become of the species in her universe.

The main reason behind the call for a total genocide of their race was twofold at first. One, their continued existence posed a serious threat to all life in the galaxy due to their immense power and resilience to nearly all forms of damage. To add to that, the Space Pirate's continued use of the species had only served to exacerbate that extreme danger.

Two. The Metroids on SR-388 were uncontrollable. Any Metroid that came from their home-world were all children of the Queen that had lived there for decades, and as such were fiercely loyal to her. Any Metroid worth its weight would live and die by the service of the Queen.

That was why the Space Pirates had begun propagating Metroids of their own, to a lesser degree. Any Metroids that came from anything less than a Queen were weak, fragile and lacking the power that made them so dangerous. Even when the Pirates eventually found out a way to make proper Metroids, they were still as dangerous as the ones on SR-388. The reason being, because a Metroid who lacked a Queen was essentially a careless and greedy monster, with no one capable of training and raising them.

This, of course lead to the Pirate's use of Mother Brain, and the same ideology of using a mother figure in MB aboard the Bottle Ship.

Once more, each of these plans all fell through, because they all lacked one common thing. Those Metroids, created in labs, or genetically engineered, all lacked a Queen. The Queen controlled the Metroids, raised them to serve her. And those Metroids on SR-388 were raised to be monsters.

But she was going to change this.

They were gone now.

Not a single Metroid still existed in her universe, none. Without even the dna of one, the Pirate's could not even attempt to restart their Metroid propagation experiments. And without a Queen or Mother Brain, it would be a futile and foolish attempt to make once more.

She was the last of her kind, and fortunately, was a Queen. Her dna made her a Queen Metroid, capable of controlling and communicating with her children. If, in the future, that meant that she was the mother of hundreds, or thousands, they would all bow to her, all listen to her.

Why?

Because she was the Queen, she was the originator.

She was their mother, and Metroids cared more about that than anything else, even their own baser urges.

It was why the Baby had done what it had done. It was why it had willingly sacrificed itself, even if it was, at that moment in time the last of its kind. Because it had seen Samus as it's mother, and she mattered to it more then it's own continued existence.

This was the ideal situation that both the Federation and the Space Pirates had strives for, yet found impossible to achieve.

She wasn't going to let this opportunity slip past her fingers.

This was her chance to rectify the problems caused by the Chozo's disappearance in the universe.

This was her chance to start over, and this time, her children were not ever going to be taken away from her. If that meant that she'd have to wipe out an entire race just to keep them out of the greedy hands of the Space Pirates, then so be it.

They were her children now, and nothing was going to change that.

She pulled herself from her thoughts as she stood from the bed, approaching the fusion coil. Her children eagerly hovered above her, waiting for their food.

She placed her hand to the object, absorbing it and the energy within it in a flash of pink energy. It felt like a surge of energy was flowing through her body, a wave of relief passing through her.

She didn't let herself soak in the bliss of it like she'd done before, and instead held her hands out. The babies all floated around her, as if waiting for confirmation.

She closed her eyes, telling them that it was okay to take from her. They all cooed in delight, latching onto her with their talons.

The Spartan watched the entire engagement in stunned silence, watching her so quickly and effortlessly meld into the role of mother that it left him speechless.

The creatures all pulled from her pool of energy, but stopped themselves before they drained too much of her. It wasn't enough, but it would suffice for the time being.

Samus closed her eyes, taking a deep and long breath. Her body began to glow a bright white, before her dangerous looking green power armor returned once more. She opened her eyes behind her baleful red visor, staring at the Spartan before her. Behind her, seemingly flanking her was her children. One on either side, with the third floating at chest height in front of her.

She was ready now.

"Lead the way." She said, voice distorted slightly from behind her helmet.

"Hmm." He nodded, turning to leave.

"I know I said it before, but you definitely know how to pick them…" Cortana chimed in, sounding as surprised and impressed as his silence said he was.

"Hmm…" He nodded again…

People cleared the path as they approached, awed at the sight of the legendary Master Chief strolling down the halls of the Infinity. Perhaps, however, they were more interested with the one that followed after him.

Samus' gaze was on the back of the Spartan the entire walk, refusing to look anywhere else. There were hundreds of people, thousands even, on the Infinity. Although she had indeed given birth, she still had the stomach for four, as she was directly responsible for feeding her young.

And she was starving hungry right about then. But she refused to lose her cool, and the best way to do that was refuse to even feed the temptations. So she kept her gaze locked solely on the one she couldn't hurt, that her powers wouldn't allow her to take from.

It did the part, and kept her hunger at bay, for the time being.

"What's going to happen now?" She found herself asking, keeping her tone level.

"Relax, the captain just wants to speak with you. I don't think he's going to demand anything outrageous. You were instrumental in saving both the lives of the people here, and the UNSC's flagship." The Spartan spoke up, trying to placate her worries.

"Tsk. That's never stopped then before…" She muttered to herself. Her irritation wasn't pointed at the UNSC, but just the many times in the past she was directly responsible for something like this, only to be strong armed into doing something she didn't want to do by a commanding officer or captain who loved to pretend like they had any authority over her.

If that same scenario happened here, she wasn't going to pleased, nor was she going to bend over and take it. She was done being ordered around by those that thought themselves of a position of power. She was going to stand her ground now and never again back down.

"Be nice, this will be fine." It seemed the Spartan was able to pick up on her frustration, so he decided to say something to sooth her nerves.

She didn't say anything in response, but the tension in her shoulders lessening somewhat was his sign that his words had done what he'd wanted.

Eventually they arrived at the bridge, the damaged doors sliding open with some struggle. "Captain Del Rio." The Spartan said, approaching the older man.

The captain had been seemingly deep into creating and communicating about what was next on the agenda with the shipboard A.I., when the Chief approached him. He turned around sharply, hands clasped behind his back firmly. His gaze widened when he looked beyond the Spartan's shoulder, finding the strangely armored alien woman from before.

However, now she was flanked by three more.

"Samus, I'm glad to see you up once more. I have been informed of your condition, and the Master Chief here has explained to me that you require energy to survive. Now, I'm not going to go ahead and say that I understand how this all works, but the Spartan armory may have what you require." Andrew said firmly. He couldn't stop his eyes from traveling to the infants floating around her. "I presume that these are your… children?" He asked.

"Indeed. They are young, so please excuse any inconvenience they may bring your crew." Samus responded levelheadedly, her visor depolarized to allow him a better grip of her expression.

"Commander Lasky, as well as the Master Chief here have also explained the danger you and your children pose to the crew, your special powers, the ability to reduce life to dust upon contact." Andrew prodded, his face neutral.

Samus didn't respond, but the slight increase of tension was visible on her body. Her shoulders tightened slightly, and she looked as if she was trying not to clench her claws in a fist.

Andrew glanced to the Chief, as if seeing what he was going to do, but he was unable to get a read on the man at all. His eyes narrowed, before turning back to her.

"However, despite this danger your presence and your newborns pose to my crew, that does not change how you were instrumental in saving the Infinity. I doubt we'd be having this conversation right now were it not for your assistance, so I will allow you to stay aboard under one condition." He continued, leveling a stare at her.

"And that would be?" Samus asked, voice firm. Her babies could sense her irritation, and grew worried, cooing in concern as they nuzzled up to her armored helmet.

Andrew actually cracked an old tired grin. "Don't kill any of my men, and you'll be fine. So long as you abide by that, you'll forever be welcome aboard the UNSC Infinity." He said, the tension in the room lessening as he dropped the gruff expression.

Samus had the decency to look mildly surprised, before her eyes narrowed into suspicion. Seeing her face the older man shrugged slightly, turning away to face his command terminal once more. "I won't lie to you, having you aboard would benefit everyone here. I've seen you fight, battle footage captured from my soldiers out in the field. I won't ask you to join the UNSC, as I have a feeling you won't even cater to the thought. However, I wouldn't object to hiring your skills now and then." He explained, clasping his hands behind his back. "Of course, if you're available?" He asked, facing away from her.

Samus didn't say anything, contemplating the offer thrown her way. The man didn't demand anything of her, instead offering her a permanent place aboard the UNSC's flagship. More than that, this would offer her a way to grow her reputation here in this universe. She would need to build a standing here in the event she was never able to return to her own.

She looked at him, having contemplated his words. She studied him for a long moment, searching him for any signs of deceit, but was unable to find anything.

"I am." She finally answered, voice firm.

He nodded, pleased with the outcome of the events. "Good. Then, I'll let the Chief bring you up to speed on our situation. In the meantime, I want you and 117 down in the armor bay immediately. We need to be prepared for this coming battle." He said firmly.

"Yes sir." John nodded, looking to Samus as if to ask if she was ready to go. She nodded, allowing him to again lead the way through the ship.

However, just before she could leave, Andrew called out to her with one last comment. "Oh, and Samus? You wouldn't happen to know about the situation with Spartan Castle team, would you?" He asked, his voice level.

The fireteam he spoke of had fallen in battle, or so had been reported. Next thing he knew, those same members of Castle Team appeared on the bridge ten minutes after Samus cleared out the Elite hit squad, their armor showing signs of having suffered many life ending blows, yet they seemed fine physically. They'd practically been brought back from the dead. Of course, this only made him recall the information Aine had informed him of, revolving around the Master Chief, the man too having been reported as deceased.

There was simply too many details and all of them pointed right back at the Bounty Hunter he'd just hired to defend his ship.

So, he simply had to ask.

And the response he got?

The doors to the command deck shut a moment later, the woman's having denied him an answer.

He shook his head, huffing out a gruff short laugh. Her silence was his answer, and her request to keep his mouth shut.

Chapter

16

End