A/N: Hello! Sorry to upload this so late. This chapter took way longer than I thought it would. Who knew writing a silent protag would take so long? Well, my only excuse is that, it's me? And, I just started Baldur Gate 3, so...

Sorry, guys.

Still, though. Super long chapter for you. Hope you like it.

Samus Aran and Metroid are owned by Nintendo

RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth and the late Monty Oum

Metroid Prime: Remnant

Chapter 2

Samus knew without a doubt that something was definitely wrong on this station as soon as she crossed the threshold. Though there was no obvious sign of violence or disorder she could feel a palpable sense of dread clinging to the very air.

Moreover, she felt like something, or someone, was watching her from the shadows.

She felt a shiver of fear ride up her spine then as she looked around the empty confines of the room before moving on to the next one. It reminded her of the very first time she had seen the Space Pirate, Ridley, as a child.

She since overcome such fear, even as she had fought that monster repeatedly over the years. Hopefully, their last battle was truly be the last.

But, she wasn't holding out much hope of that.

After all, she thought as she scanned the next room to no avail, even Kraid had somehow reappeared over the years, though not nearly as frequently as the Space Dragon.

She checked the next room. Empty.

Like all the others.

Or, her darker twin, she thought. By her own count, she had killed her at least three times on Aether before their final battle on Phaaze, and she still wasn't quite sure if that would be the final battle between the two of them.

After all, so long as Phazon existed in the galaxy, so would Dark Samus.

The next door opened up to a corridor. The only difference between it and the few rooms she had already walked through was the disabled and destroyed Defense Turrets facing her, and another door beyond.

But, supposedly, there was no more Phazon now, at least according to Federation Command. She doubted that, though. They had been wrong before about such things, like how safe the PED suits that she and her fellow Hunters had worn.

And, she didn't even want to think about the SA-X creature.

Not right now ,anyway.

Frankly, she had been through a lot in her thirty-two years and she was getting tired of it all. Maybe she should settle down, after all.

She paused, thinking about it for a moment. Then shook her head silently in denial as she entered the next room.

Once more, empty.

Nah. That would be boring.

And what would she do, anyway? Have a kid? With all the different genotypes rolling around in her now, she didn't think that she even could do that anymore.

And, besides, she liked what she did. Mercenary work was good. It was exciting, and, it paid well. Very well.

She was just, a bit tired after that last mission.

That's all.

Maybe a vacation was in order, after all. Higgs said she was working too hard. It be nice to just, unwind for a bit. And, he was good company.

Something pinged on her scanner and she snapped to the wall with her arm cannon raised. But, right now, there was the mission.

She focused on the wall, finding no threats. At least, not obvious ones. What there was, though, was a strange, glistening, black slime. It looked toxic.

She scanned it.

/ /

Scan complete…

Unknown compound.

Unknown chemical composition, although there is a trace of organic material found within.

Possible bio-mass…

Possible toxin…

More information needed. Proceed with caution.

/ /

She narrowed her eyes at that.

There was few things that her suit couldn't read. The combination Chozo, Luminoth and Federation technology in her suit had an extensive list of elements and materials in its archives up to and including some things that could only be described as magic.

She had fought ghosts before, after all.

However, there wasn't much she could do it, right now. Whatever the substance was, it wasn't moving, wasn't affecting her. So, her only recourse was to leave it be, for now.

There were more important things to do right now, anyway. Like find the station's occupants.

She left the room without glancing back. If she had, she would have notice the strange substance beginning to shift and move as it entered a previously hidden vent.

/ /

Samus lucked out with the next room. It was a security office.

The central terminal at the station not only gave her the codes to unlock the rest of the station, but a map of it as well.

It also gave her a list of the Federation personal that should've been here.

According to it, there should've been over thirty civilian researcher assigned to the Space Station, simply codenamed Gamma Station, as well as two squads worth of Federation Troopers for security, twenty-four in total, and another two hundred soldiers down below on the planet.

Yeah, small operation, her ass.

She paused as she read over the list. According to it, most of the researchers were deceased, their life signs terminated, but a few others were still alive, if faintly, their life signs in the red and falling as she watched.

It also showed where they all were. Or, should she say, where they weren't. As in, no longer found on the station. Their F.O.F chips not found within range of the Station.

Bizarre.

She added their designations to her suit for locating later on, when she went to the planet below.

As for the few remaining, living personnel. Most were found further on in the station. Others were missing entirely. Once more, no longer on the station, but still alive.

At least, according the Security Station.

And, one, was back behind her. Back the way she had come.

She blinked at that.

There was no way. The system must be malfunctioning.

Still, she had to check.

She sighed faintly to herself as she turned to go back, that was on her. She should've been more focused on the mission, not lost in her own thoughts.

Only to stop as she found the door behind her was now locked and sealed. She turned to the other door leading further into the interior, and found it the same way. Neither had been that way before.

She sighed again and checked the security terminal.

Now it was saying that there was a possible hostile threat onboard and had activated the Emergency Override, sealing her in the room, and locking down the rest of the station as well. But for a few areas, of course.

Great. Was it simply mistaking her for one? Or, was it merely busted?

There was no way that there was a hostile onboard. All the Space Pirate vessels out there had been dead, lifeless.

Regardless, there was no way to go, but forwards.

She looked around the room then, and found a possible escape route. A vent hatch. A quick scan told her all she needed to know about it, and, with a quick, slightly nauseous feeling of vertigo, she transformed into her Morph Ball form and rolled up the grate.

One quick Morph Ball Bomb later and she was through, rolling to freedom.

The vent didn't take her to the other side of the security station, though.

A sudden turn, and a steep ramp downwards, had her crashing through the ceiling into a room several floors below.

With the ease of long practice, she demorphed and flipping through the air, landing in a classic pose. She smiled at that, almost feeling like she heard some music going off in her ears at landing.

Then she frowned as she took in the room.

It was a lab. More specifically, a Research Lab.

And, it was in utter carnage.

There was a still burning fire from where some form of explosive had been used to slow or stop something. A portion of the station was now sealed off because the blast, including her access to the rest of the deck from the room as had most of the specimen containers.

There were the bodies of a squad Federation Troopers littered across the floor or laid out across the railings of the walkway overhead on the second floor of the room, as were the corpses of several scientists and researchers.

She looked about as she started forwards again, keeping her weapon at the ready. Just because whatever had happened here was over, didn't mean she should lower her guard. After all, the Station's security obviously thought something was still here.

Could it be more Pirates, she wondered?

The nature of the attack, and the obvious signs of dead Space Pirate vessels in the surrounding space, certainly made it a possibility, but she wasn't so sure. The damage to the surrounding walls, and the bodies were not concurrent with Space Pirate tactics, or weaponry.

It was odd.

Confusing.

Many of the bodies looked to have been partially eaten or, at least, torn apart. And, the troopers' weaponry, their Blasters, were spent, empty, as if they had fought against near overwhelming odds, but there were no corpses, no bodies of their attackers at all. No blood and visceral at all, but for their own.

It hadn't been long enough for the Pirates to remove their dead, if they had made it onto the station, somehow. Which Samus was beginning to believe had never happened.

More over, it seemed like whatever had done this had occurred way before the Pirates had even arrived in the system in the first place.

She just didn't understand the nature of this situation. Just what could have happened here?

She turned and looked into one of the large canisters that littered the room. Specimen tanks. There were at least ten of them, though most had been destroyed during the firefight and another three were empty.

Of those left, two held nothing but fragments of, something. Her suit's scanner noted it was similar to the slime she had discovered earlier.

Interesting. She noted that for later, and tried to ignore the chill that went up her spine at that.

She did not want to be thinking about Tallon IV right now.

The last two tanks held …creatures? At least, they seemed like creatures, animals. But, again, her scanner couldn't get a true reading on them, other than to say that they were once again composed of the same substance as before.

How was that possible?

Great. Now, she was thinking about Aether and it's dark twin as well.

But, this situation was different than that.

The planet below seemed normal to her ship's sensors. There was no changes in the atmosphere. No unusual radioactive signatures. No signs of Phazon either.

Which she felt was a good sign.

Which, again, made her wonder as to why the Pirates had attacked here in the first place.

Simple revenge for their homeworld? Or, something more?

She looked at the creature in the tank again. It resembled a large, bipedal, wolf-like entity though of a ghoulish nature. Its black, furred(?) form had large white bone spikes sprouting from its elbows, knees and spine and its upper jaw and skull were bare, completely devoid of fur or flesh, except for the ears, including the absence of a nose, yet it seemed unbothered by that.

The terminal next to the tank showed nominal, if subdued life signs, although her own suit's sensors couldn't read a heartbeat, and only the barest trace of brain activity.

She wondered if the creature was some kind of Bio-weapon.

That went against Federation Law, but, as she had learned over the years, the Federation did what it wanted, laws or not.

That could be why the Pirates were here, though. Or, at least, why they had come in the first place.

There didn't seem to be any Pirates left to fight. though.

So, then, why was a S.O.S. sent out? Had it merely an automatic message? A malfunction? Or, something else?

She didn't know.

There was too little evidence, either way.

All she could do was continue to investigate the facility as best she could as she searched for a way back to her ship. And, then go to the surface.

She scanned the few working terminals left over.

They said the usual things.

Subject A was being kept under heavy sedation. More than what should have been possible for its mass, but was otherwise unaffected. Subject B had nearly broke containment again. For the third time. Subject C had died by unknown causes, possibly due to the nature of its capture, or its confinement. The author was unsure.

And so on and so on. Things of that nature.

Whatever these things were. They were, at least, native to the planet, Remnant, below, apparent. Or, at least, they seemed that way.

They were also apparently extremely hard to capture with Subject A alone accounting for the deaths of over ten Troopers before it had been captured. Subject B even more so.

Likewise, they required significant sedation just to remain in their tanks, but otherwise required no substance.

Weird.

And unnatural, as far as she was concerned.

Any further investigation was of the room was stopped when a massive tremor when throughout the entire floor. She looked up as several loose pieces of the roof fall down then, clattering onto the deck, or cracking the see through polymer floor of the walkway.

Just what had done that? Sounded like something had struck the station then. Was it more Pirates? She didn't know.

She needed to move.

She took the ramp up to the second floor and found another vent to go through. Once more, the exit door was blocked.

This time by fallen rubble.

At least, the vent was open this time. She wouldn't have to blow the vent plating. She wasn't so sure making any noise was a good thing right now.

She shifted into her morph ball mode again, and rolled through the vent.

And, immediately paused as she nearly hit the corpse of another dead Trooper. There were two more beside it.

One was collapsed against the opposite wall and the third on the ground between the two.

All were dead, ripped apart. All had empty weapons just like the others before. And there were more bodies beyond them. Several scientists and two more Troopers.

All dead. All torn apart.

Yeah. This was definitely not the work of Pirates. They didn't kill like this. There were no bullet wounds. No stab wounds. Only cuts and rent flesh from claws and teeth.

As a shadow at the end of the hall disappeared around the corner, she demorphed and brought her arm cannon back up, but too late. Whatever it was, she was unable to get a read on it.

She took a step forwards and froze as a wave of despair and dread suddenly hit her even harder than when she originally entered the station. She shivered for a moment in sudden fear before shaking it off and stepping the hallway's end.

She didn't know what was doing this, but she had faced far worse in her day. Things that were actual Fear. Some unknown means of making her scared wasn't going to keep her down for long.

She hoped.

She took a breath in and blew back it out slowly as she continued down the hallway, the feelings of dread and despair getting stronger now.

She shook it off again as she kept going.

She reached the corner, hesitated, then jerked around with her cannon primed for a charge shot. There was nothing there, except the door to the next room.

She blinked at that for a second before launching the ball of energy at the door, opening it. She didn't know what was going on, but she really didn't like it.

She walked through the entrance.

/ /

The room she entered turned out to be the Central Access Hub for the whole station. She glanced around as she walked inside.

There were several more fires burning from where several platforms and sections of the various levels above her had been blown up, though the flames were now dwindling, now that most of the available fuel was gone. The remains of of the platforms above were scattered around on her platform and on lower ones below her level where they had broken through.

She could also see that all the doors on this level were still sealed by the Security Station. Yet, there was also no sign of whatever shadow she had seen. There were no bodies, either. No more feelings of dread.

Intriguing. And worrying.

Had she been seeing things? She might still be under the effects of her cryogenic chemicals, though her body should've filtered that out by now.

She looked around some more before starting towards the door the Central Elevator shaft. At least, that's what the map stated, anyway.

She shot the door and entered the large-sized elevator. And paused.

There before her was her first dead Space Pirate. A Pirate Militia member, specifically.

It had been torn apart.

Just like all the others she had found. Only this time it was fresh. The blood splattered across the walls behind it was still dripping down.

Well. That was one question answered, at least.

But now she was wondering, just what the Hell was this unknown thing? Was it a machine? A creature? One of those creatures from earlier?

She just didn't have enough evidence to know for sure.

She activated the elevator, hoping to take it back up towards her gunship.

It was time to get off this station. She wanted off.

She didn't like the feelings she was getting from this place. It was beyond the normal sense of dread she felt over the years in her long campaign of revenge against the Space Pirates.

It was… heavier. Darker.

Unnatural.

With a sudden lurch the elevator moved. Downwards.

She frowned at that as she turned back to the control panel and tried to change direction. Then she tried to reset it when that didn't work either.

Nothing.

She was stuck. Trapped.

And going down into the proverbial depths of Hell.

Great.

She looked around as she continued to descend, trying to figure things out. That's when she noted the cameras overhead, hidden behind pipes and other mechanical parts.

She made to shoot at the cameras when the elevator finally stopped. She looked towards the only door as it opened without her aid.

She paused at that, then she shrugged. She readied her cannon again and she stalked over towards it.

It closed behind her.

Then it was locked and powered down.

/ /

As she walked through the darken hallways, Samus continued to scan everything, looking for anything suspicious. And there was a lot.

For one, the power supply to this area was 110% more than anywhere else on the station so far. For another, there were dozens of cameras watching her now as she walked through each room and corridor with each door sealing and locking behind her.

There were also now multiple active defense turrets tracking her every move now. Most were plasma turrets, but a few were missile turrets as well.

At least, there were no bodies down here. Though the air tasted slightly stale, even through her suit's purifiers.

Old.

Finally, she reached a door that was different from all the others she had seen so far. For one, it didn't open automatically. For another, it energy barrier was colored a burnt orange-ish color.

She paused there, waiting.

She did scan the door while she waited. Her suit said that the door was locked by an unknown element. Much like with Aether, or Tallon IV, to open the door she would have to find this element. It was probably on the planet below.

Great. Back-tracking already.

Click!

With a audible click Samus raised her cannon and looked to either side above the door, seeking a threat. There was nothing.

"...Hello? Hello, can you hear me?"

Samus looked back at the door as she heard a voice over her comms. She paused for a moment at the slightly mechanical-sounding voice before nodding.

"Oh, terrific! My apologizes for forcing you down here. But I really had no other way to get a hold of you. The Security System has completely locked me out. Anyway, my name is Ozpin. Director Ozpin. I'm in charge here at Menagerie Station Gamma. Or, at least, I was before the Breach."

Samus said nothing, still suspicious of this… Director. And, his sudden appearance. Though, someone with that last name had appeared on some reports she had read.

"Ahem, right. Well. If I could ask for your assistance here? See, the station has been compromised after the Pirates attacked, and one of the organisms that we were previously researching have since escaped, and been rampaging throughout the facility, killing everyone it has since come across. Now, I'm the only one left."

Samus said nothing again.

"Well, I can't do anything here, you see. I'm locked behind this door. I don't even know how to open it. Moreover, I'm not trained for combat. Can you please help me out?

"I can give you the coordinates to the base down below. They should have the necessary equipment to get me out of here, anyway."

Samus said nothing, but, after a moment's thought, nodded.

"Excellent! Well then, uh, I'll go unlock the rooms back behind you. Take care on the way up, though. I can only open so many door from here.

"The rest, is up to you."

Then there was a faint Tzzz! sound as the "Director" disconnected from her comms. She stood there for a moment before turning and leaving once more. She didn't like that the man had somehow been able to hack her suit's comms.

That should've been impossible.

/ /

She took the elevator again. This time it went the way it was supposed to go.

Up.

Like she wanted.

When the elevator finally stop she had already prepared herself for what was to come.

She knew there was something out there.

Something powerful. Powerful enough to wipe out a station for of Federation personnel and the Space Pirates that had boarded it as well.

Oh, yeah. Space Pirates.

There were Pirates onboard as well now.

She rechecked her cannon and missile launcher for any issues again before stepping out of the elevator.

/ /

As soon as she left the elevator, she entered a warzone!

There were over a score of Pirate Militias fighting against some kind of tall, skeletal, black creatures. Most were on the ground, shooting at the creatures from behind cover, while others were on a trio of Skiffs overhead.

She dove behind a low rise made of a screen of loose rubble from sections of the fallen ceiling. And looked around as she tried to get her bearings as blasters and grenades continued to go off.

There!

She saw where the Pirates had entered the station then. They had torn the station's interior through the outer hull with some kind of boring laser drill that had dumped their forces here. The attack had obviously been recent, too. The metal of the upper catwalks on this level were still glowing near white hot. Some of the metal was even melting, dripping down on the firefight below.

Luckily for her, that meant that she finally had a way out of here.

She just had to kill some Pirates first.

Good.

Although, it looked like she wouldn't have to worry about that, actually. She ducked down as a Pirate flew by overhead to crash against the wall behind her. It fell limply to the ground with a broken neck.

She looked up as another was ripped apart as one of the creatures slashed it across the chest, somehow ripping through all the layers of its armor in one blow. Armor that she would normally blow off with either an explosive or a charged shot.

The Pirate crashed to the ground with in a shower of blood.

Whatever these things were, they were clearly incredibly powerful. And robust as well. As each of the three creatures were withstanding everything thrown at them so far from energy projectiles to grenades to melee attacks.

Although, they seemed to take extra damage from the melee attacks.

She scanned the closest one then as it was distracted by being shot from overhead.

/ /

Scan complete…

Unknown bio-organism.

Unknown chemical-biological composition of organism matches previous readings. Possible related species. More information needed.

Note: Traces of human genotype found within as well...

More information needed.

/ /

Samus frowned at that. Clearly there was something more going on here than she originally thought.

She glanced around at the situation then.

From what she could tell, it appeared like this fight was already over. Of the original three dozen Pirate Militia members, ranging from the basic units to ones with shields to Armored variants, only eighteen were left.

And the nine Pirates flying around on Assault Skiffs were the only ones that weren't injured.

She watched as one of the creature suddenly let out a horrific shriek right as one of the skiffs went by overhead. All the Pirates onboard seemed to seize up as a visible wave of dread expanded outwards and paralyze them.

The skiff jerked as the pilot lost control of it before it flew straight into the far wall and exploded as it crashed into it, showering everyone around the immediate vicinity with shrapnel.

A further five Militia members died from the resulting blast as did one of the creatures. Samus watched as the creature instantly vaporized into black smoke which then vanished itself.

She blinked at that.

Well, that explained why there were no corpses in the other rooms.

Intriguing. One more question answered then.

Now, how to get out of here? Preferably, without fighting those creatures as well.

She looked around the room for a moment more from her position.

There! Those platforms.

She took off and jumped, spinning onto the first the broken off section of a walkway then onto the large-scale fuel tank.

By then, the Pirates noticed her and began shooting at her.

She continued jumping from platform to hardware and back, ignoring the few random bolts of energy that struck her suit's energy barrier. She kept jumping until she couldn't ignored the incoming fire anymore, even as both skiffs moved to block her.

She glanced at her energy bar.

It read 84%.

She switch to her missile launcher, locked on to the first skiff's pilot and fired as she jumped through the air.

The small explosive zoomed through the air, a trail of smoke behind it before it impacted with the Pirate Militia pilot, exploding on contact. The blast knocked the alien life-form of the flying hovercraft as well as one of the gunners. The skiff then crashed on deck in a fiery ball of flames taking out the last gunner and three other Pirates.

Now, there were only four Pirate Militia left out of the original thirty plus.

And the two unknown bio-forms were still standing. Unfazed by the new addition to the fight.

Or, were they simply uncaring, concerned by it all?

She didn't know.

The things didn't actually seem to show any kind of cognitive function. Even as she had appeared, they had kept attacking the Pirates around them, even as she had been in their line of sight for far longer than the Pirates.

But now she was about their sole focus after she finished off the other skiff as the last Pirate had just been torn apart by the pair. It had failed to remain aware of its surroundings as it turned its attention to her, their Hunter.

Their Demon.

She shot at the skiff pilot with another missile. It glanced off the end of the vessel as the pilot made a sudden, wild turn, blowing one of the two gunners off the skiff as it did so.

She narrow her eyes at that.

Just three missiles left. Had to make them count.

She jumped to the next platform.

She was almost there to the Pirates Entry Point, but even from here she could see that the hatch in the hole was blocked by still glowing metal.

It was too dangerous right now to enter.

She turned back to the skiff as it made its way by her platform and just barely clipped one of the two remaining creatures below, killing it instantly as it sheared the top of its bald head off. Once more, the creature disintegrated near instantly into smoke and vapor ss its corpse fell to the deck, heavily.

Samus raised her arm cannon and took it in her other hand, priming her Power Beam as she focused on the skiff as it began to fly around in a long, circling arc, and fired. The large orb of golden energy arced slightly before it struck the Militia Pilot, blasting him upward into the empty air before he trashed lifelessly onto the deck below.

The last gunner screamed in fear as the skiff he was attached to then began to spin in the air as it flew into several containers below. The whole collective then exploded!

She sighed in relief as she scanned the fire and found no life-signs. Though she had long held a grudge against the monstrous alien race, that didn't mean that she wanted to watch someone burn to death.

Well, maybe Ridley…

She lowered her weapon and turned toward the entry hole, ignoring the remaining bio-form below. It seemed unable climb after her, and had no means of long range attacks. As long as she stayed away from whatever the Hell that paralyzing scream was, she should be fine.

She started towards the hole, seeing the metal was finally beginning to cool enough for her to walk on. She heard the sound of metal clanging on the deck behind her but chose to ignore it, figuring it was some other piece of the station collapsing after all the recent explosions.

She paused then and made to turn as some instinct warned her only to be struck by something. She flew backward to the deck far, far below.

She flipped in mid air and landed on her hand and knees, skidding backwards as she bled off the momentum before looking up to find that another of the strange creatures had attacked her.

She rose to her feet, tasting blood in her mouth at that impact, and glanced at her energy bar. It read 52%.

She blinked at that. One blow from the creature had taken off nearly a quarter of her energy?

She backed away as the one on the deck started to slowly lurch towards her. She only had one power cell so far in this new variant of her Varia suit, and she did not was to be hit by one of those things again. Once her power cell was depleted she'd be SOL.

This was why she hadn't wanted to fight them in the first place.

At least, it was only one. Or, that's what she would've liked to have said, as she stood there, ready to fight. Only to watch as the other creature that had just attacked her walked to the edge of the platform it was on and just, step off, falling to the deck below with a dull thud on impact.

After a moment of silence, it clambered back to its feet, slowly, seemingly unaffected. She had never met a living organism so robust.

Although, now that she got a better look at them, living might not be the appropriate word for them. They didn't seem all that alive.

They were both reminiscent of the creatures she had saw in the specimen tanks and the old stories of ghouls. They had spikes at their elbows, shoulders, and knees just like the wolf-like beasts. They were tall and slender, skeletal even, with the bones of their ribs and skulls exposed to the air.

Their mouths were agape, hanging loosely. Their eyes were holes of glowing red lights. Their legs ended is sharpened, black spikes. And, their overlong arms ended in massive grasping hands with wicked sharp claws.

And they were so damned tough!

She kept shooting rapidly at the one before her and it just wouldn't fall. It was missing an arm now, having fallen off under her relentless assault, and it's body was starting to smoke. But, it wasn't dead yet.

Samus jumped backwards as the bio-form finally reached her position and swiped at her with a sudden burst of speed.

Then it shrieked hellishly.

Samus grunted harshly as she felt her body seize up and fell to her hands and knees. She blinked, gasping for breath as a sudden burst of weakness struck her then. She shook her head as the weakness then went into fatigue then to an abject… nothingness.

No emotions. No feelings at all.

A blackness started to take her then as the two creatures stalked up to her slowly. Then, as they reached for her, something deep inside her cried out in defiance at the situation.

She blinked as the blackness and lack of emotions faded away then and looked up. She gasped at what she saw and rolled out of the way just as the smoking bio-form swiped at her again.

She absently noted that the shriek somehow dropped her energy bar even more. Down to 23% now.

She rolled into a kneeling position and charged up her Power Beam before firing it at the creature, before roll backwards into a standing position. As soon as she stood up she locked onto the second bio-form and shot two missiles at it.

All three projectiles struck their targets at nearly the same time. The second creature shrieked in pain as it was blown apart by the two missiles, disintegrating in death, while the first one was knocked off its feet. It twitched for a moment as black fluid leaked out its torso area before fully disintegrating as well.

Samus lowered her arm cannon as she gasped for breath. The Director wasn't lying. These things were far too dangerous to be allowed to live.

To be allowed to escape.

She looked around for a moment before taking her cannon to gather together the few remaining power cells that were still floating around after the deaths of the Space Pirate Militia. Enough was there to bring her energy bar back up to 68%.

Enough for what she needed.

She sighed before turning towards the Entry Hole again. The molten metal had cooled by now.

She began the journey back up to it again.

A/N: Hello again! Well, I hope you liked this chapter. We got a mystery. A sussy Director. And, a super dangerous new enemy for Samus. And, yes, her first "boss fight" is against the Apathy.

Alright, that's all for me. I gotta go to bed before work tomorrow.

Essiter out!