Re: Metroid - {PRE-READERS REQUESTED}

[Rachel Ascot]

TOURIAN
Chapter 25 – The Final Failure

It was like a great looming tear drop in the sky; a crescent moon that Samus looked up to, her eye’s scanning it with suspicion. Fear boiled in her stomach at the sight of it. Something about the moon seemed to unnerve Samus; it was so large this night, much larger than she ever remembered it, and it began to swell, as if it was coming nearer. Then, her eyes widened. It really was coming nearer, and she hadn’t seen it. How could she have been such a fool to have not seen it? She rose her hand to hold it back, only to see a child’s arm in her place. She looked to her pale arm, and quivered in fear.

“N-n-n-no.” She murmured, then she looked back up. The night sky was filled with a singular, ginormous egg, rushing towards her. She peered at it curiously; it was freckled, it looked ill and pathetic. She leapt back in horror, her child legs scrambling for purchase as she fell. She hit a hard obelisk in the shape of a feather, which she looked up to. The rock held the egg in place for a second, but then began to shake and crack, unable to support the weight, and fell apart before her eyes. Samus screamed at the development, her sapphire eyes weeping in fear as the great weight slammed into her. She was forced back onto the ground, before her head slowly turned, her eyes drifting to see the monster that the egg shell had held. She looked to it, and gasped.

It was a small, blonde child, weeping and crying out for mother. She had a bulb of golden hair shrouding her head from Samus’ view as she strained her eyes to look closer.

“Shush… it’s ok.” Samus Aran whispered to the girl, her pale fat hand extended to greet the girl. “My name’s Samus Aran. Are you ok?” The other girl didn’t turn around.

“… no… I want my mummy…” She whispered. Samus sighed slowly, then nodded.

“We all do.” She said. She walked slightly closer. She extended her hands. “I can help you, if you want.” The girl didn’t move for a second, but then she turned, and extended her hand.

Then, when the hands connected, both the girls bled crimson.

Samus screamed in horror as her hand shot with pain. The other girl looked in just as much horror, her agony ringing as blood seeped through her hand. Samus shook and tried to pull away, only to pull the girl closer and snap her into an excruciating hug of pain. Both their bodies stung, and then all was silenced by the distant call of a raven. Samus looked up, her body coated with blood now, to see the giant black bird unfold its wings, then uncurl the nasty looking talons and swoop down. Samus immediately tried to run, only to be clamped in place. She looked to either side; both her and the girl were now imprisoned by two vice grips. She screamed as she was forced further onto the girl, decaying more, until the bird finally swooped down and plunged its talons into both of them, the blades punching into her skin and slowly, execrably crushing her to death.

*

Mother Brain’s eye opened. The attack had drained her of energy. It was so powerful. She would require more strength from the metroids to remain. Earlier tests with the attack had a similar effect on her, but not to this degree. Battle exhaustion was the hypothesis. But the target, amazingly, wasn’t dead. Her armour had been penetrated by the attack, with parts of it missing. Where the armour remained it was blackened as if it had been scorched. The target was clearly in pain, and Mother Brain decided that one more blast would be a good test of its true potential, her head beginning to glow once more. The creature turned to Samus, her eye piercing the green visor with a punishingly uninterested gaze.

“The intruder’s reaction to the attack is; below average. Collapse, shock, nausea, pain, but survival.” Her head glowed brighter. “Secondary attack required.” Samus tried to move to avoid the next strike, but her hands wouldn’t budge, nor her legs, nor her head as it dropped forward.

It was over…

… until something expectedly latched itself onto her head.

Mother Brain immediately identified it as the metroid called Hugo, but everything else was scrambled. She had concentrated everything on the attack, so her analytical demeanour, the one of the computer, vanished as she let out an animal roar of pain and rage. The attack, much like a lazer in nature, a pulse of energy simultaneously kinetic, heat and light, had nowhere to go, so simply went nowhere, languishing in and around her own head, causing the agony that Mother Brain had inflicted upon all the test subjects she used, and indeed her current opponent. The scream was a series of short rumbles from her lowest bowels in a terrible fit of rage. Metallic claws reached up and grabbed the infant metroid, which wrapped its hideous teeth around her and used them to penetrate her brain, her greatest strength! She screamed in rage, trying to tear the monster off, but felt her own strength being sapped away. The brain began to drain in colour, slowly turning grey, the grip on her attacker getting weaker, unable to hold, and slowly but surely, dropping to the floor.
Hugo pulled off the beast that had attacked its ‘mother’. Rage and pain shook it. It couldn’t quite process anything; the attack did nothing to it, but the beasts claws digging into its flesh was painful enough, and it could barely feel anything more than anger at everything. It sensed its ‘mother’ behind it, still on the ground, about to die, but Hugo hesitated. The last time she was approached, she had attacked for some reason. He couldn’t contemplate her not recognising him, so suspicion paused it in mid-air, before it slowly approached its ‘mother’ and carefully clamped her in a vice grip. No fighting back. She was still, and Hugo was glad. It sank its teeth in, and begged for life.

Samus’ eyes shot awake at the sensation of being bit, but recognised it. She couldn’t move if she wanted to. She was just too weak to fight, allowing Hugo to coat her and sink his fangs in. The sting was quickly numbed and became a very slow coolness, like a life giving IV feed. Only her imprinted arm stung, but Samus was on edge, her teeth gritting in fear. What of Mother Brain? Her eyes looked ahead. A dead body, grey, drained of life, ahead of her. But she couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief when she saw an errant twitch, and decided something was wrong.

“Hugo, get off me.” She hissed, a pit of dread expanding in her stomach. The metroid refused to move, however, enraptured in saving her, but Samus’ paranoia screamed in her mind. “Hugo! Move!” But no, Hugo wouldn’t. And then, she saw the foot of the beast that had destroyed Zebes Four lurch forward, gaining more space. Samus gasped in horror. “Hugo, fly away for god’s sake!” But the creature wouldn’t budge as Mother Brain pulled herself up slowly, unbeknownst to Hugo, alive and well. A grand and great scowl emanated from the throat of the Brain, and Samus shook, before forcing one of her arms forward and pointing up. “Sorry, Hugo, but I’ve got to…” She teased the ice cannon slightly, a shot of cold running through the cannon, but Hugo understood, or so it thought, leaping off. Samus got to a stand, but suddenly a sharp pain forced her back to her knees. It was in her imprinted hand.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Came Hugo’s enraged wail. Its fears had been confirmed – its ‘mother’ was going to attack it. Betrayal rocked Hugo to the core, watching as its own pain flowed into Samus, but this rage made her weaker and weaker, lessening her ability to do harm. Samus shuddered, collapsing forward.

“Hugo, just go!” She screamed, forcing herself back to a stand and raising her arm cannon back up. Hugo snarled in a blind rage, and charged to Samus. However, its ‘mother’ pulled off the shot, and missed. Hugo sensed the blast go by…

… and then it sensed the claw that the blast hit.

Mother Brain wasn’t stopped by the attack, but Hugo sensed just in time to try to move. The claw punctured its side with a non-lethal attack, and the flying beast was sent rocking and reeling towards the ground. Samus leapt towards Mother Brain.
“No!” She screamed, her desperation taking over as she tried to stop the beast. Mother Brain saw this, her claw very quickly batting her away and sending her rolling towards the hole she had accidentally made in the floor. Samus felt dazed, dragged along the floor by mere motion, and then felt her body go over the edge. Her legs dropped, and she fought for purchase with her hand. Her vision went blurry, but she was able to see Mother Brain slowly approach Hugo. A newfound anger and speed was in the lumbering giant. It was not exerting any energy it didn’t need to earlier, in the fight with Samus, but now survival was threatened, she wanted to end it immediately.

“Not on my watch!” Samus screamed, her hand pulling the trigger frantically on her arm cannon, the lethal shot setting on as she hoped to simply give Hugo a chance. But Mother Brain didn’t pay attention as her foot clamped down on the green form.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…”

And what started as a mighty, defiant roar became a whimper of pain. Samus watched as Hugo somehow got back into the air, though now green goo flowed out of it, and the pain in her arm got worse and worse. Samus refused to let go, but she froze in place, watching as Mother Brain batted the slower, deflating Hugo out of the air and down to the ground. Samus could see her imprinted arm, exposed by the cracking of her armour, bleeding and looking weak, reflecting Hugo. Mother Brain kicked the dying creature Samus’ way, and knocked the bounty hunter’s grip away, letting her slip into darkness. She dropped, the visor of her helmet catching her tears as she dropped, one last sight visible through the shrinking hole she had fallen through; Hugo, trying to escape, but being caught and taken in a two handed grip, and ripped apart like wet paper, Samus herself being watched by a cold, emotionless, distant gaze. Her hand drifted around, firing the grapple hook and catching her in the wall, stopping her fall, but her mind was still in free fall, not noticing her own body had done this. She slammed into the wall, her feet trailing along the very close floor, the pinprick of a hole shining a miserable light on her as she sat dazed.

“… Hugo…” She whispered, and she felt her cheeks become a flood of tears.

[Rachel Ascot]

TOURIAN
Chapter 26 – Burial of a Ghost

Her feet carried her in a direction she didn’t even recognise. Just away. She wanted nothing else but to get away from the universe and have a moment to herself. Her gait became a weighed, weary stagger, every step sapping her strength. Her arms hung limply, heavily by her sides. Her eyes watered and reddened, her cracked visor matching the state of her body, her armour and her heart. Her left hand, the one that had been imprinted, bled openly and freely. Her lazily hanging hand let blood collect and spill around it as she walked with no sense of feeling or energy. The emphasised veins that she had, once an unhealthy dark green, were now a shade of pink which was even sicklier than the green. She kept moving, trying to get away, even if she knew it was pointless. She just had to hold back the tears and get as far away as she could. The texture beneath her feet changed from smooth metal to an uneasy collection of pipes. One of these pipes caught her foot and was torn from place as she simply collapsed forward, the pipe gushing liquid across the room away from Samus. She refused to stand up, lying there.

“… SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” She screamed pathetically. No answer came, and she began to weep.

Time stood still for a short while. The spraying of the water kept up the pace, filling the small nooks and crannies with water, making the room shine a dead blue and silver amongst the black and the grey of the pipes. Samus laid bleeding and crying, refusing to come to terms with anything. She had had enough, and now she just wanted some peace. Her ears only picked up the shriek of the liberated water as it escaped its cylindrical prison, and her heavy and constrained breathing. Her brain stopped. Her limbs stopped. Her mouth and heart stopped. She slowly wept her worries away, only for them to arise and be wept out all over again. Slowly, her weeping became a whimper, then a dying sigh.

“Hugo… Hugo, I’m sorry.” She said, despair coldly crushing her heart. Saying it only brought back more tears as she continued to weep.

It was over. She had failed.

She had failed Hugo. She had failed her parents. She had failed Old Bird and the legacy of the Chozo. She had failed Zebes Four, the planet itself and its heritage and its current inhabitants. She had failed those who would now fall under Mother Brain’s gaze. She had failed Adam Malkovich and Perlar and Galactic Federation. But more than anyone else, she had failed herself.

“Ridley… was right all along.” She moaned. “I’m a weak failure. I’m a murderer and a shambles, and if I had just thought for a minute…” Samus looked up to the blackness and back to her knees. She rocked forward, and landed on the pipe-laden ground. Her whole body simply eased into place, stuck in a hatefully uncomfortable position amongst the pipes that Samus could find no energy to move out of. Her heartbeat became a weary thud, her breathing became a choke. She smelt and tasted tears as they rolled down her cheeks in a downpour, unable to hold back the tide. She felt, more than ever before, truly lost, wretched and alone, shifting her arm cannon to point back towards her head.

“Lethal shot on.” She choked on the last word, the blue light in the barrel turning red. Born out of misery. Born out of solitude. Born out of death. Now it bookended her life. A tragically fitting fate for Samus to resign herself to. She couldn’t summon the energy to close her eyes as the tears blurred her vision, and she prepared to pull the trigger.

“Samus, you should not have come back.”

The once great warrior took a sharp intake of breath upon hearing the voice, her eyes wincing in pain. “Old Bird, please don’t do this.”

“But it is something you must hear.” The transmission continued, a distant chozo statue flickering to life. It was a great towering figure, standing at eight feet tall and made of a long dulled metal, and Old Bird stood in upon the statue’s palm, sad eyes gazing at the motionless, lying form of Samus. His voice was but a low hum to Samus, existing to exacerbate her misery. “Maybe a part of your heart will always be black, but it seems I didn’t do enough to subdue it.” The woman in broken armour stirred, tears rolling down her cheeks and her teeth digging into her bottom lip.

“I… I just…” She repeatedly choked on her words, and Old Bird took this opportunity to continue.

“The metroid’s imprinting would always be your downfall. It has driven you to this madness.” Samus’ head rolled upward, her gaze finally looking to Old Bird. He looked as if he was holding back a tide of anger, betrayal giving a harsh sting to all of his words. “You’ve gone against everything the Chozo stood for, and now you’ve destroyed us.”

“I couldn’t do anything else, though,” Samus let out a low whisper, crawling closer to the statue, her body painfully sliding across the pipes. “I just couldn’t.”

“Why not?” Old Bird asked, now his voice raising. Samus cowered a little, this tone alien when coming from Old Bird. “Because you could not control yourself! Because you value a killing machine over your own kin! No chozo would do any of that!” The disgust on his face was as hurtful to Samus as any one of Mother Brain’s strikes.

“Old Bird, please…” She began to beg, but Old Bird silenced her with a hand gesture.

“You were supposed to carry the chozo within you.” He said coldly. “And now you abandon it, chasing a metroid that tricked you into thinking it as your own.”

Samus’ mouth fell open at this, her breathing becoming a panting too painful to bear. Her heart ached, as if it was coiling, trying to undo her own wrongs through her death. The Hunter bowed her head to turn away, both fearful and miserable. A great weight fell upon her shoulders, forcing her down into the ground, back to her own suicidal depths. She had completely betrayed her heritage, her own family, her…

… she paused as a thought occurred to her.

“What did you just say?” She asked aloud. The small hologram in the palms of the chozo statue sneered as it recoiled, shocked at her question.

“Samus, I don’t think I understand where you are going with this.” Old Bird said. Samus turned her gaze to him, and rose to a stand.

“I just want to hear it again; what did you say?” She asked again. Old Bird did not respond, simply peering directly at her. Samus’ ears pounded, her cheeks wet, her every breath bringing a rumble. But while her sunken heart remained in a desolate state, emotions weighing down its shattered pieces, her mind was telling her to stand. Something, she felt, was very wrong.

“Fine.” She said finally, her voice sterner, stronger. “I’ll ask you something else. About seven or so years after I landed on Zebes 4, the original Old Bird said something very important to me. It was the most important thing to him. Do you know what that was?” The hologram seemed perplex, the flickering image of Old Bird stepping back.

“I recall no such…” The hologram stopped, and looked back to Samus, suspicious of her tone and her choice of words. “The original… Old Bird?”

“Yes. The original.” Samus clarified, crossing her arms. Her brow furrowed as the rightmost corner of her lip raised in a barely contained fury. “The chozo who raised me. The chozo who took me in as his own. The one you’re ostensibly based on.” The hologram bristled, now anger seeping into it too.

“I don’t appreciate the comparison you are making, Samus!” He said, his beak curling in an anger to match. “I did not raise you to…”

“You did not raise me at all!” Samus suddenly screamed, and the hologram was taken aback. Samus’ teeth were bared, gritted together, her breathing the only sound that could be heard. Now the warrior’s heart beat once again. The sadness from Hugo’s death was not gone, but now her heartbeat was loud, every beat like a drum, echoing a terrible indignant anger that rumbled through every bone of her body. “You have done nothing but confuse and distract me every step of the way! You have repeatedly told me not to save Hugo from Ridley, and what happened? I abandoned it! I marched into Ridley’s room, to take revenge! For what he did to me, to the chozo, to you!” She pointed accusingly at the silent figure standing at her neck height. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“I almost wanted to believe it, that I was a chozo myself and that it was my duty to keep on the life, but Old Bird never taught me that! I thought I needed you, when you’ve been the problem from the very start! If I hadn’t come back, then Hugo would be dead anyway, as would the prisoners I first saved! At least I tried! I tried, and I could’ve made a fucking difference, and you helped to squander all chance of that! I was no longer Samus Aran to you, I was your little pod to carry on the chozo, and you kept telling me to turn back, for your sake rather than what was really important!” The warrior had to stop to catch her breath, her words echoing through the halls of Tourian, her tears flowing at full force once more like rivers charging down her stained cheeks. Her breathing was heavy, her eyes punching through the hologram, the chozo statue towering above her as the small figure of Old Bird stood before her, shocked to speechlessness.

“Oh, and I’ll tell you what the original Old Bird said, seeing as you can’t recall.” Samus began once more, the hologram stepping forward a little. Her voice was more hushed but no less powerful. “He told me that to try and save the weak and the helpless was the noblest cause of all. It’s why he took me in and loved me as if I was his own child. It’s why I took in Hugo as my own, as he did for me. And it’s why, in my position, he would’ve gladly gone into Norfair and died looking for Hugo, imprinting or not!” She paused once more, collecting herself. She could not will herself to calm down, her heart ramming into her ribcage, nostrils flared, eyes stinging. She seethed with the fury of a caged animal, her heavy breathing the only sound. Old Bird stood stock still, an indiscernible emotion on his face. Finally, his eyes narrowed harshly.

“Samus, you need to stop and think.” He said. “You’re imagining what you want to hear because you cannot accept your place as…”

“I HAVE NO PLACE!”

Even from a hologram, a gasp could be heard as Old Bird recoiled in vain, Samus’ fist crashing into the statue. She pounced onto the statue like a tiger, fists slamming into the metallic bird. Every hit was punctuated with the statue shuddering and rumbling as another glaring white scratch scarred the dull, grey metal. Old Bird’s image flickered with every punch.

“Don’t do this, Samus!”

Samus completely ignored his orders, instead ripping into the statue like her life depended on it. She felt as if it did. Every ounce of emotion was turned to rage, and turned towards the single-minded goal of destroying this statue. Of silencing the computer code that pretended to be her foster father. Now the hits began to violently buckle the hollow statue, the metal being unable to take any more punishment and simply bending to Samus’ will. Old Bird became ever hazier and hazier.

“You need me!” He shouted in a desperate plea, but it was in vain. Samus kept pummelling at the now disfigured statue, now dropping to be smaller than her. Her arms swung with focus, though the rage behind them was animal. Her tears fell through the air with every motion. She was no longer conscious of what was around her, just the statue. Old Bird disappeared, but Samus carried on punching long after she stopped hearing his voice. She kept punching until her arms could no longer do so, when they begged for relent. She finally managed to step back, and look at the scene. What once stood at eight feet tall now was crumbled and had collapsed in on itself. Samus looked at the buckled beak, the feathers forced into one another, the twisted arms and, most eye-catching, the two palms, still together, a flickering blue bulb in the centre. It was as if they were begging for her. Begging for mercy or death, she could not immediately tell. She got closer, down onto one knee, and placed her two hands under the metal palms. A blink, a gulp.

“If I do this, there will be no more chozo presence on Zebes 4.” She said aloud, more for her own sake. So she knew the exact implications before she made her decision.

“You could’ve…” Came words through what sounded like a dying radio. The feedback ebbed in time with the voice. Samus looked straight at the glowing bulb, the light already beginning to die. “… been… chozo… you… abandon…” Samus scowled.

“I guess you were right.” She said, making her decision. “This really isn’t my home anymore.” With that, she raised her hands, curling the chozo statue’s palms in on themselves. She didn’t stop until she heard the glass of the bulb shatter, and now she was in a cold embrace of pitch blackness. Alone in the silent dark once more.

Samus closed her eyes, her heartbeat slowing once more. Her breathing slowed too, becoming more subdued. The anger now disappeared, and all that was left was a sombre exhaustion. She could not even summon up the energy to weep anymore, for all her tears were spent. The weight of all that had happened to her was on her shoulders once again; she had cut off all ties to the chozo now, but even that did not distract from Hugo’s death. Samus rocked backwards, sitting down with her legs crossed, her weary gaze fixed upon the shards of metal. It was a sight that reflected how she felt; her shattered heart and broken body begging for relief, for a respite from all the pain. One palm fed into the other unconsciously, and Samus only noticed that she was doing it when a frightful sting shot up her arm. She instinctively looked to the imprinted hand. It was still bleeding. The sight, the gruesome reminder, made Samus bring it to her chest as if it was a child. She shuddered, sorrow controlling her actions. She could feel her breath quicken as she tried to hold back the tears.

I need to collect my thoughts, she thought, looking for a hidden corner where she would not be disturbed. She edged herself towards the nearest wall of pipes and placed her back against it, before she wrapped her hands around her feet, holding herself still. I need to know what to do next.

With that, she forced herself into a dream state.

*

When her eyes pulled open, she recognised the night, and realised what was happening. “This damn dream.” She whispered. She looked up to what she knew would be there. It was like a great looming tear drop in the sky; a crescent moon that Samus looked up to, her eye’s scanning it with suspicion. Trepidation boiled in her stomach at the sight of it. She knew that it would begin to move. She looked to her hands; the hands of a child once again, but she clenched the soft fists and looked back up, as the moon finally began to swell and come closer. She frowned determinedly and looked back up.

“I’m not… I wasn’t ready.” She whispered. She turned to where the feather shaped obelisk would always be, but she knew that, this time, it wouldn’t be there to support her. “That’s fine.” She answered. “I need to do this alone anyway. I’ve been relying on your provision for far too long. You’re a guide, a role model and… and my father. But you’re not a shadow I must wallow in, nor a stone to hide behind. Thank you, but you’re not here anymore.” She looked back up, seeing the egg in mid-air swallow the sky, and then the weight hit her. She was forced back onto the ground, before her head slowly turned, her eyes drifting to see the monster that the egg shell had held. She looked to it, and sighed in sorrow. It was a small, blonde child, weeping and crying out for mother. She had a bulb of golden hair shrouding her head from Samus’ view as she strained her eyes to look closer.

“Shush… it’s ok.” Samus Aran whispered to the girl, her pale fat hand extended to greet the girl. “My name’s Samus Aran. Are you ok?” The other girl didn’t turn around.

“… no… I want my mummy…” She whispered. Samus sighed slowly, then nodded.

“We all do…” She said. She walked slightly closer. “- and I’m sorry; I’m not your mother. At least, I wasn’t a very good one.” The girl’s body stiffened. She stood up, not turning to Samus.

“W-w-what?” She asked nervously. Samus felt the weight continue to pile onto her shoulders as she was forced to her knees; she bowed her head to the girl and became to weep.

“I… I was weak. I couldn’t save you. I had to be saved. By you.” She couldn’t bear to look up to the girl, and tears escaped her sapphire eyes. “That’s why it hurts whenever I try to hold you. B-because I didn’t want you in the first place, and when I had you, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how I could save you from my past… my future… my life. I couldn’t save you from the dangers I would bring back every time I came home… and I hated you.” She looked back up the child, who was now crying too; she was yet to turn around.

“I hated you because I felt that you were taking me away from what I knew; the chozo pacifism. I thought I had to be the chozo, so when you gave me rage and strength, I panicked. I felt your rage, and your hate, and I became angrier and angrier, and I couldn’t control it. I lashed out on everything around me, including you. I was angry at you, I was angry at myself, and I let you down when it came down to the crunch. I even abandoned you when I had to choose between you and Ridley. I chased my pointless revenge because it was so much easier than making that choice, even though the answer was obvious.” She wept openly now, unable and unwilling to hold back her true feelings. “And that’s why you panicked and wouldn’t listen to me. Because you thought that I was no better than Ridley or Mother Brain. I was angry and miserable, and you drove me into action because you feared that I didn’t care for you… but I did. Otherwise… I wouldn’t have come back to Zebes Four. I couldn’t say it, but I wanted to protect you, and my fear and anger got in the way. And there was nothing I could do…”

“N-n-no.” The girl finally answered. “It wasn’t entirely your fault...”

“Maybe it was.” Samus interrupted her, then her eyebrows rutted once more and she rose to match the fellow infant girl’s height. “Maybe it wasn’t. That doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is what happens now.”

Silence.

“And… what does happen now?” She asked, and Samus remained in place. She knew this question would come, and she still wasn’t sure of an answer. But she continued anyway. She had to be strong, and she had a new goal.

“If I end it here, then all of this would’ve been a waste. I can’t leave this unfinished. I felt the pain you went through when Mother Brain transformed. I went through the pain you endured when Ridley held you. I can’t knowingly let any being go through that as well, and it’ll only get worse if she gets what she wants. For the metroids and the rest of the galaxy. I’m going to stop Mother Brain, and release the other metroids.” The girl shook in fear at the development, finally turning to her, revealing an identical face to Samus’ own.

“B-b-but they’ll kill you!” She said in horror. “They don’t know you like I do!” She finally turned to Samus, who chuckled slightly.

“The doctor was right after all. I should’ve gone with a genderless name.” She then walked closer to the girl, who stood back.

“No, mummy! It hurts you when we…” Then Samus placed her hand on the girl’s cheek.

Nothing happened. No pain. No blood. Nothing.

Samus gently kissed the girl on her forehead, then locked her eyes onto the girl’s own as she stared back in shock. “I’ve got to. They need help, like you did, and I’m not refuse to make the same mistake twice. I’ve come so far now, and now I’m the last person who can stop Mother Brain. If the metroids kill me, at least they’re safe, as is the universe at large.” Samus explained. The girl had tears in her eyes. “You trusted me, and I let you down. But can you put your faith in me again? I need your strength to help me defeat her and save the others.” The girl didn’t answer for a minute.
Then, slowly, a curl formed in her lips, and it got larger and larger as a smile came to her face.

“… I should’ve known.” She said. “I didn’t need to imprint you at all.” She hugged Samus with a strong force, who, for once, hugged back, no pain coming. “I love you, mummy.” A tear rolled down Samus’ cheek as she closed her eyes. As far as she was concerned, that moment could’ve lasted forever. She willed it to be that way, but the fact that she knew it must end made it all the sweeter for her.

“I love you too. And I’m sorry.”

But the mood was destroyed as a great caw rang throughout the world. A screech of a bird. Samus scowled as she opened her eyes. The girl was gone, but she felt stronger now as she looked back up to the circling bird. She didn’t even notice the metallic clamps slam onto either side of her, and as they touched her they cracked and collapsed around her as she flexed her arms.

“… and you’re him.” She spat. The bird didn’t reply, circling above her and screeching over and over. Samus clenched her childish fists and smirked. “And yet, you’re not. Because you’re still here.” She watched the bird plummet towards her. “You’re what he made me. What he left behind in me. My hate, my and violent rage.” The talons stretched out, shining like knifes. “I realise now what I did, and I will have to do again. I’m not proud of what I did to stop him...” She kept looking up as the bird suddenly vanished and black feathers rained down on top of her. She sighed. “– but in the end, so long as I keep control, I’ve got nothing to fear.”

She felt a tear she had cried earlier still on her cheek, and she plucked it off with her finger. She looked to the glass-like bead that sat on her hand, before flicking it away. Then in a blink she closed her eyes and opened then once more, back in Tourian. Her eyes drifted around, before she felt something she hadn’t felt in an age. A numbness. Particularly, in her left arm. She looked to the original bite mark that had started it all. The imprinting. The greening of her hand was gone, as were the emphasised veins. Now, there was simply a singular mark in the middle of her palm. In an odd way, it was almost shaped like a heart. Samus’ lips came to a brief smile, one of peace, before she looked above her. Back to the hole that she had dropped through. The way back to fight Mother Brain. It had gotten taller. Mother Brain must have chosen to retreat, with the metroids most likely in tow. She fired her grapple hook upwards into the darkness, her heart beating ever stronger.

“It’s time to end this nightmare.”

[Rachel Ascot]

TOURIAN
Chapter 27 – The Nightmare Ends

The ascent of Tourian looks no different to the lowliest floor. All of the iron shaded rooms looked the same. The only difference this time was the tubing that held the last metroids. Mother Brain looked over this. Her eye and her mouth was incapable of smiling, though a grim satisfaction pooled over her and she saw the fruits of her labour.

The metroids, some shuddering, some asleep, their wide-awake nightmare of their strength sapped every hour continuing. Mother Brain, however, looked over them with a hard, dead glare. A subroutine of a subroutine became a cavalcade of operations, and the metroids all awoke and screamed in shrill, agonising unison, and Mother Brain felt stronger. She felt the blood of life run through her veins as she calculated and recalculated and thrice recalculated the situation.

A young but powerful metroid had almost killed her. Why? Its mother figure was threatened, why, because she was attacking the mother figure, why, because the mother figure had attacked her. Mother Brain remained standing, and looked to the hole that the mother figure, Samus Aran, had fallen down.

Why had the mother figure attacked her, because she held the metroid prisoner, why had the mother figure attacked her, because she held the metroid prisoner, why had the mother figure attacked why had the mother figure attacked her…

“Insufficient data.” Mother Brain announced out loud, somewhat of a revelation passing through her mind. A different question came to fruition. Not why had the mother figure attacked her, but why was the mother figure here? Because the mother figure was here for the metroid, how did the metroid get here, Ridley brought it from… Earth… Mother Brain’s thoughts ran through the data again. Ridley had brought her here, she knew now. But he can’t have known that she could do this. But he knew she would’ve put up some kind of defence to ward off an attack, so he would only have brought her if he thought she had a chance of beating Mother Brain, and from that the conclusion that must come forward is…

Mother Brain slowly turned back to the hole she had blasted into the floor, the hole that Samus had fell from. The hole the warrior now rose out of, from the blackest pit into the light of the battleground.

“You have returned.” Mother Brain droned in the same monotone. “I did not calculate this. Obstruction of reasoning was; time. Reason for your return; Ridley, rid, lee, assumed you were able to defeat me. He knows that if you survived a fight you would come back, a possibility I have now calculated to be a certainty in the event of an impossibility.” Samus didn’t answer, but remained still. Mother Brain shifted her weight into the middle of the room. “The impossibility being your second survival. You are outclassed from multiple and simultaneous perspectives, including in no particular order; mathematical perspective, logical perspective, perspectives of size, weight, strength and intelligence.” The brain-like head began to glow the same ominous gold and yellow as before. “I have the strength of seven metroids plus my own personal strength which by itself exceeds yours. I have defeated you in our last encounter and am superior to the few you have managed to defeat yourself. I am larger, I am heavier, I am stronger and I am a being of unmatched reasoning capacity. You cannot destroy me.”

The head became a sun in the middle of the room as Samus shielded her eyes. “While I have the capability to destroy you, and ergo you will never achieve victory.” And thus, once more she unleashed the attack. The great light shuddered and cracked the air around it, a fizzling crackle emanating and giving support to the high pitched drone that accompanied it. It was white one moment and green the next, to blue to red to pink to black. It was, as Mother Brain had calculated, perfection. Not a beam of light out of place, not a wave of heat in the incorrect direction, not an ounce of energy in the wrong space. Mathematically anticipated to be the catalyst for the destruction of the imperfect and the impure in this universe and any other. Mother Brain felt her body tire from the energy used to bring this attack, and she relented for her own satisfaction. No chances of Samus Aran surviving; an interrupting blip in an otherwise completely smooth plan. A momentary dip in an upwards climb to victory.

A chill passed on her face.

Mother Brain’s eye wrenched open in shock as she glared at the very much alive Samus Aran. She stood proudly, the barrel of her arm cannon shining a glorious blue. Her body armour was not in an intact state; her helmet was not the red helm it used to be, but a ring of metal around her neck, a protruding shard covering her cheek leaving one half of a cracked visor there. Her chest was fully exposed and her leg armour resembled a collection of tin cans, only the shoulders and one arm remained a whole. Her clothes had a similar fate, only her shorts remaining. And yet, for all this, the woman appeared unhurt. Her body was coated in white lines where scratches and scars once were, and her hair was a mess worse than before, but the woman stood with a stance of power, her eyes burning into Mother Brain’s singular eye. Her expression was a determined, driven glare, as Mother Brain’s changed to match.

“I have to stop you!” Samus barked. “It’s why I’m still here!”

Mother Brain struck first, her open palm jutting forwards violently to collide with Samus, who retaliated with a great leap, allowing her to sail over the monstrous claw. A singular boot spun in mid-air and landed on Mother Brain’s wrist. A sharp crack was let out to Mother Brain’s horror, and then she sent another palm with the consistency of a machine. Samus was thrown back; without the armour to protect her from the full force she made an indent in the metallic wall, but her knees leapt up so her feet could catch another incoming punch.

The fist bent the metal even more as it struck, and Samus’ feet shook and ached from the strain of holding the crushing force at bay, but fight back she did. Her hands stroked at the bent metal, and then she felt something on her hip. Mud. Her eyes were distracted for a second. The ground… this wasn’t the part of Tourian that hung in the hollowness of whatever was below Norfair’s bowels. No, this was Brinstar, and already a plan formed in her mind. An insane gamble.

She looked back to the grey fist trying to force her further back, and straightened her legs, forcing Mother Brain’s hand to stagger back slowly. Samus gave a sharp output of force, then immediately leapt from the hole she had made to escape another strike. Her eyes darted to the metroids as she kept running, hoping Mother Brain wouldn’t catch up. Just outside the circle that was Mother Brain’s personal lift. Perfect.

She turned to Mother Brain and dug her hand into the bulb of armour on her shoulder. From it she summoned an MDED, her bombs, and flung it to the roof. It cracked the metal and stayed in place, but Samus didn’t see Mother Brain’s foot until the shadow of it passed over her. She dodged to the side frantically, flinging up another bomb. Mother Brain didn’t react, but stopped, looking to Samus thoughtfully. Was she figuring out Samus’ plan? Samus refused to let that happen and searched her brain for a way to stop it, then thought of something. Was Mother Brain… faster? She glared at Mother Brain, and scowled. She decided to buy some time; why not give Mother Brain time to gloat and less time to consider what Samus’ plan was.

“You were saving energy in our last fight.” She stated. Mother Brain didn’t react for a moment.

“Affirmative. About seventy, seven-oh exact, per cent. Speed nor power was not deemed necessary for such a weak and small opponent.” Came the cold reply. “Reconsidering this decision.” Mother Brain was suddenly thrown back, her face coated in light blue. She pulled the ice off her face to see the smirking Samus. Mother Brain let out an uncharacteristic growl, then very suddenly brought her hand forward again. It was like a bullet, but Samus leapt backwards. The beast scrambled forward, her other hand trying to catch the runaway opponent as she danced away.
Then Samus spun on the spot, dodging to the left of a huge foot that seemingly out of nowhere slammed towards her. Samus ran towards the side of the room with the metroids, but then Mother Brain leapt over to that end of the room and slammed directly in front of Samus, making the blonde warrior reconsider her plan somewhat. Mother Brain didn’t want her to get to the metroids, and there was the problem that Mother Brain hadn’t shown her true strength.

Samus’ face became stern but hopeful. She had her plan now, hurling another MDED to the ceiling. Enacting it was the difficult part. She backed away from the fast approaching Mother Brain, whose claws steadily became faster and faster. Every hit seemed to come sooner and sooner. There’s some of that extra speed. Samus thought to herself. Another bomb to the roof.

Suddenly, Samus was thrown back by an almighty attack. She was rammed back into the wall behind her, agony running through her body. She held the urge to scream, and saw Mother Brain spin in mid-air, her foot picking up enough momentum to be a tornado, before rushing towards Samus. The blonde warrior’s eyes widened, before leaning forward just in time. The metal cracked and shattered like glass, flying out as the foot ran along. Samus remained in air but didn’t force her body to drop, so she didn’t fall as quickly as Mother Brain had expected. When the strike came, the claw meant to kill her only slammed her legs and sent her spinning.

Samus was sent sailing over Mother Brain’s head, and saw her last chance. She knew that she couldn’t win this fight simply because Mother Brain would inevitably outlast her; there were only so many mistakes she would make, and she would never tire. So Samus released the contents of her shoulder bulbs of armour, and every bomb she had flew into the air. She caught the last seven in her hand and gave the detonator the directive to detonate every bomb behind it, ignoring the seven in her hands.
Mother Brain only saw the explosion above her when it was too late.

The blast forced the beast to the ground, but even the fifty or so bombs were not enough to hurt her. She grunted slightly as she hit the floor, but her long neck twisted to view Samus, “A pathetic attempt, and you have not struck the floor and let me drop as you should’ve, not that it would’ve helped you.”

Samus stood still, but pointed upward, which Mother Brain did so only to see the rush of rock, rubble, soil and metal drop onto her, with no roof to stop the tide coming in. It was almost as if the crust of the entire planet fought to crush the body of the beast. Samus looked as the pile grew higher and higher, but could not give herself a moment of rest before her titanic opponent rose again. Even the planet itself could not destroy it, it seemed. The brain-like head, however, snarled. It visibly hurt, blood dripping from several cuts on the brain, but sadly the creature survived.

“ANOTHER WASTE!” She very suddenly screamed. The logical brain tried to be considered about its approach and never allow any emotion to stir but for one second her emotions were heard and the beast’s mind agreed; don’t worry about expending excess amounts of energy, just kill her. The beast finally stood at full height, a slow trail of slobber emerging at the end of her mouth, a bi-product of the wild rage she barely restrained. Samus simply stayed put, in front of the metroid tanks.

“Release the metroids, Mother Brain.” Samus said. “Or I do.” It took a second for Mother Brain to analyse the data that was the sight, but she saw a small red dot on each tube containing a metroid, identical to the shower she saw before the explosion.

“Seven metroids; a weakening of my own force, and a collection of the deadliest predators in the known universe. Chances of survival minimal.” Mother Brain said aloud. “Explosion was not meant to kill, nor was collapse. Distraction. Allowing access to metroids without obstruction.” She coldly said, then glared at Samus. The taunting; it worked before. It had to work again. The creature stood back slowly and tried a sneer to match Ridley’s. “You would not kill me. Hugo’s, hue, goh, zzz, imprinting gave you motivation to kill. Hugo is dead.” She said. “Chozo, choh, zoh, were pacifists. You would be a; disappointment, to them.” Samus didn’t reply for a second, then looked back at Mother Brain.

“That’s what the chance to surrender’s for.” She stated, then raised her detonator to show Mother Brain. The beast didn’t react. New data, needed analysing. Samus Aran was highly motivated, most put-downs wouldn’t work, speed insufficient to kill before she sets off the bombs. Last resort; rely on fear for the flesh. Mother Brain stood back slowly to give herself room to attack if the metroids were released.

“You would also die.” She stated.

Now it was Samus’ turn to be silent. Am I ready to do this? She asked herself. Am I ready to kill myself to release seven monsters that would kill me as a thank you? A stalemate occurred as she kept thinking, but one image kept coming back to her head over and over again. Because, even though she was frightened of death, she already knew what she was going to do.

*

The pirate she would later know as Perlar staggered weakly behind, holding up the human that had been knocked out by Samus. The octopus-like creature hung on her shoulder lazily. And ahead of all three, Samus Aran. She checked every corner she could, and no one approached. However, she saw a sight. Two draconians were having fun playing football with a jar, and Samus saw what was in the jar. It was identical to the creature that she had just killed, just been attacked by… a ferocious, dangerous metroid. Only, it wasn’t. It was small and weak. Pathetic. Lost. In pain.

“That’s four to me.” One taunted. “I am way better than you!”

“Lucky! The goal’s just too wide, is all. I’ll shorten it while I’m here.”

“Allow me.”

The two stopped, turning to the bounty hunter who said it. The battle scars were unmistakeable; she had fought a metroid. And the fact that she was still walking meant she had won. One looked to the other. Suddenly, Ridley’s plan sounded a million times more dangerous to them.

“… screeee…” Came a whimper from the metroid, held by the pirate nearest the goal held. Samus looked to it. The cry was weak; weaker than anything she had ever heard. She then averted her gaze back to the draconians and snarled.

“Get away from that, you sick sons of bitches!” She spat. The one holding the metroid dropped it simply as he backed away. The other looked to him.

“Run!” He shouted, and the two broke into a desperate sprint. Samus watched them go, her face contorted in rage, and then she saw the metroid rise up out of the broken jar, shaking off broken glass. She studied it and readied her gun. Then it charged to her. She pointed her gun in a panic, but it was already to her left arm. It readied a fang and sank it into her left hand.

“Oww!” She barked, and shook painfully. She watched the metroid back away and hover there. She pointed a gun at it. Her fingers curled around the trigger.
And she couldn’t do it.

“What are you waiting for?” Came the human prisoner’s bark, but she shook her head.

“I can’t.” She explained. “It doesn’t seem to be a threat.” She looked back to the people she was escorting. “I’m bringing it with us. I’ll give it to the Information Bureau for research.” This reason wasn’t untrue, but it wasn’t her main reason. She didn’t spare the metroid because it was valuable. She spared it because it was helpless. She spared it because it was simply a newborn. She spared it because it was lost and alone.

She spared it because it was just like her when she had landed on Zebes Four.

*

As she remembered this, she sighed, her heart letting go of the fear.

“Mother Brain… you’re right.” She said. “If I blow up these tubes, these prisons, then there’s little chance of me walking about of this room alive.” Mother Brain stayed back, suspicious of where Samus was going. “And you’re so smart you’ve probably got an exact probability for me.” Then her expression became a soft smile. “It’s a shame I’m not as smart as you.”

BLAM!

It began with the glass crackling, and the metroids were awoken by the explosions on the outside of their prisons. The whole of Tourian seemed to shake as they saw the weakness in the material they were stuck in and charged through it towards their captor.

Samus kept watching, and was somewhat surprised by Mother Brain’s reaction. She did not meet them either as a titan or a weakling, with neither a pessimistic fear nor a defiant anger. More so, she was efficient. Maybe her logic dictated that she couldn’t win. Maybe she had concluded that it was impossible to fight back with effectiveness and fervour necessary to win. Maybe she was just tired from having all her strength sapped in one go. But the fact remained that Samus saw a pile of green collapse in on head and body, and only one claw remained, defiantly jarred out towards Samus. The blonde warrior watched the skin begin to grey as the monster’s energy was sapped, more and more, until it sagged. For real this time, the beast was dead.

The metroids dwelled a little, but when Samus turned to escape she saw that the door was simply jarred shut. She couldn’t hope to break out. Her gaze shifted back as the green monsters rose once again, and she conceded. She couldn’t kill that many if she tried with a full suit of armour, never mind without.

“I’m so tired.” She hummed to herself, a feeling conclusive exhaustion sweeping over her. She closed her eyes and spread her arms open, catching one last glimpse of a metroid rushing towards her.

And the nightmare came to a close.

[Rachel Ascot]

CRATERIA
Chapter 28 – The Knight and Dragon of Zebes

“It’s your ship alright, so she got here, but no trace of her.”

The post mortem was a curious affair. The draconian grunts of Brinstar were astounded not only to find out that their leader Kraid was long, long dead, but that the elite of the group, the Clan, had completely vanished. Then they looked to their databases. Mother Brain, the leader of all of them, the one who led them here on promises of big things, telling them to get the metroids to research weaponizing them, hadn’t said a peep from Tourian. But the grunts weren’t worried about the internal politics or what their leaders were planning, or even their fates. It was the money that they were worried about.

It was all gone. Not even enough for fuel to get past the Tannhäuser Gate.

They were practically giving themselves up for arrest when the Galactic Federation marines arrived. At least it was a ride off of this dangerous metroid-infested rock. They marched in line into the mobile prison ship so they could be charged on their home planets or the Federation courts. The grey of Crateria was coated in an equally grey fog, reflecting the canopy of the grey sky as if it were a mirror. Rain began to drop on the marching, obedient line of pirates, and a cold rush of wind consumed the planet’s surface. The golden, metallic bird that sat still was like a great v shape, with a green visor stretching along its front. It remained still, even under scrutiny as a stern eyed man in a blue and white uniform frowned at it.

“I’m sorry to say, sir…” The worker came out of the door at the bottom; a cockroach like creature that sighed. “- but I think the Hunter’s dead.”

“No.” Adam Malkovich said. “The leaders didn’t just vanish. She did what she came to do.” He turned and looked to the warren-sized hole from which Samus had begun her journey. He bent down to inspect the hole further. “She’s down here. Alive.” His eyes remained stern and strong, but a claw touched his shoulder, and he didn’t feel like brushing it away as he usually would’ve.

“She’s got to be…” Perlar said. He looked back to the grey scaled woman, her triangular body a little thinner and smoother than the male draconians he was used to seeing. As the sky darkened, it began to match her shade, before the rain began to fall tremendously, the harshness pummeling the two as Perlar looked back to the hole. Her own eyes began to tear up; she couldn’t quite feel the same optimism Adam had exhibited earlier, but his optimism was a cold, dead one; one based in fact, but he didn’t know Kraid and Ridley like she did. Perlar shook slightly, and Adam frowned. It was wrong to feel so sorry for someone who was technically still their prisoner, even if it was a hollow title now considering the help she had given them and the freedom she had. The young woman fell to her knees. Adam tried to think it was childish for Perlar to be so emotionally invested in the life of a human she barely knew, but deep down he understood. Even though the Hunter’s window into her life was brief, it had changed it for the better without dispute. Samus Aran had done so much for her, and indeed the infant metroid. She had become a champion of the weak; to lose her was a great blow to Perlar and, admittedly, himself. He didn’t move for a few seconds, then turned around to her and slowly pulled her into a hug, allowing himself the weakness to comfort her. His eyes closed as she began to weep, trying to stop himself from weeping too, but his eyes inevitably drifted open, the water slamming to them from above, and he was too late to stop himself from gasping.

A figure rose from the ground.

*

Her hand slipped slightly against the rock face. Moss made her bare hand slip away as her fingertips lost their grip. The armour hung around her elbow, her other hand fully protected, but it was like this all over her body; pieces of metal coated her with the pattern of scratch marks. The whole thing was as black as the Brinstar world, soot and burn marks coating it. The only light was the burden on her back, a watery bubble that she knew to be the infant she had let down, but she still smiled; she could at least give it this, a glimpse of the sun. She had taken on too many challenges for one lifetime, and it was barely a week now, but she felt a little happier now, for this was a time of safety. She clambered up weakly, but she knew that she had done it. Hell itself had greeted her, thrown everything at her and had her down, but she had conquered both it and herself. The light graced a red plate of metal that hung around her neck and left cheek, the remains of her once proud helm, as her eyes caught the brightest of the daylight. One last motion and she could see sky. She heard nothing but rain, and felt water pushing down onto her as she crawled on her hands and knees, shivering with cold. However, her lip curled as her forehead touched the soft soil of Crateria.

Finality was what Samus Aran felt the most.

She put one hand in front of the next, then straightened her arms, her legs shivering as she pulled herself to a stooped stand, before she threw the armour off of her, what little there was. It looked more like a collection of scrap tins than a suit of armour. A puddle in front of her gave her the first view of herself in weeks, and she gasped slightly. She didn’t expect to look so bad; her shorts remained and that was about it, and even then they were almost shredded to pieces. She pouted at the sight of her scarred head and her unprotected torso, ripping off a strip off the top of her shorts and wrapping it around her chest for decency’s sake. It would have to suffice until she got back to her ship, she supposed. The cuts weren’t as bad as she thought they would be, but she did have help in healing them. She then straightened her back as the main cave to Brinstar hung behind her, and she felt the rushing wind of something approaching fast. One hand on her shoulder, gripping onto the lifeless body of Hugo like a bag, she lifted her head and closed her eyes, extending her other arm and feeling the rain splash onto her skin, then the wind passed her as she saw metroids rush past her. The predators hovered still for a minute, comprehending their surroundings, before they began to explore the world, spinning as if they were dancing in midair. Samus smiled; she was so tired, and Hugo’s body remained on her back, but she couldn’t help but laugh at the dancing beasts. Almost like children. She wouldn’t be surprised if they were. A quiet joy flowed through her. She felt the rain come harder as she sighed heavily, feeling a weight fall of her shoulders, falling back on to rest on the rock behind her as she watched the metroids wander and rave in their new environment with a joy to match the motions they made. It took an age before a voice broke the blissful peace.

“Be careful, men!” Came a familiar voice Samus didn’t expect to hear. She turned her gaze to the military body assembling, their weapons pointed to the metroids. No anger pulsed through her like it would once though, as she smiled gently to the leader.

“Adam, don’t worry. They’re with me.” She explained. Adam Malkovich looked thoughtful for a moment, before turning to his men.

“Stand down, men. Be mindful if they come too close, but I trust her judgment.” The soldiers behind looked tentatively to each other, and stood to attention. Adam looked back to Samus and noticed her weight on her back. “I… am sorry, Miss Aran.” Samus looked to the blue blob too; it was like a deflated balloon, and even though she smiled, tears still formed in her eyes.

“I am too, Malkovich. But it… no, she… she saw her mother before her end. It’s something, at least; she didn’t survive but I know she’s at peace.” She said. Adam raised an eyebrow.

“She? I thought it was genderless. Besides, you called it ‘Hugo’, right?” Samus chuckled at this.

“It’s a little complex.” She answered. “But she still trusts me, in a way. I’m sorry, but things kind of went nuts down there. I need a bit of time to work out what happened to me in full.” Adam frowned, and looked to the metroids.

“It may be cold of me to ask, but did this help anyone?” He asked. “You came here because Hugo would’ve been killed as an enemy if my company got here first, but now you have… her on your back.”

“Well, you didn’t see what Mother Brain was doing. If you came here now, she would already have won. And it did help some people. Look at how few casualties there are. I’d estimate no more than ten dead. Not even the grand war the Federation expected. What, would thousands have died? And see how much money you’ve saved without the…”

“You know what I meant.” Adam said once more. “… if you knew how this would’ve turned out, would you have gone anyway? Are you any better off for this? Would the Chozo be proud of this?”

Samus didn’t respond for what was an eon.

Her mind wandered on its own way, reflecting on the journey she had. Her failures as much as her successes. She thought of her first meeting with Hugo, how the metroid had latched onto her almost immediately, and they bonded over a mutual understanding of what it meant to have nothing to go to. She thought of the feeling of impending doom back in the safety of Dublin, like a shadow of a blackbird had been overcast across the city. She thought of how the peace was shattered by one swipe of a claw and Ridley making his presence known to her. She shuddered as a chill which may or may not have been her imagination’s creation ran down her spine at that thought. She thought of the dark rocks and tropical abyss of Brinstar, and her run-in with a beast beyond all size and comprehension. She thought of the march through the furnace, the imitator of hell known simply as Norfair. Her eyes glazed over in horror as she remembered the final battle with Ridley, and memories of herself shuddering for what could’ve been hours or even days in death’s arms, then a simple joy at reuniting with Hugo. Her mood changed again and her eyes darkened; Hugo snatched from her, and a most hateful monotone taunt. The size and strength of the beast Mother Brain, and the fierce attack she had unleashed onto her.

Hugo’s sacrifice.

Samus pressed her eyelids together to dispel tears. She had lost as much as she had gained. The sights and sounds of Zebes Four returned to her. She could breathe in and smell the experience once again. Almost without thought, as if it was an automatic function like breathing, she looked to the imprinted mark. Gone, but for a bright pink scar in the centre of her palm. A weight fell away from her shoulders at the sight, allowing her weary heart to lift as she decided upon a reply.

“The answers changed while I was here.” She finally said. Adam crooked an eyebrow. “I lied to you; I wanted to find Hugo, I really did, but I think you knew that it wasn’t why I really came back. I came here for revenge. I didn’t have any plan other than kill Ridley and anyone who stood in-between, find Hugo and leave. Had I not met Kraid earlier, I probably would’ve left him for you lot. As you can guess, it went from disaster after disaster. I become confused about why I was there, the voices of the Chozo tried to make me turn back and abandon Hugo, and when I didn’t know what to do I just focused more on revenge because it was easy. My own guilt was driving me crazy. Even when he died, I think Ridley won, on some level. He really did win our battle of wits. I never saw his body, and the Clan’s still out there. No, had I known just how badly it would go, I wouldn’t have come here.” She smiled, looking back up to the green and blue metroids that danced above them, scattering rays of coloured light across her.

“But that was a different, angrier woman than I am now. The Chozo and I are not one and the same; I was at my strongest when I wasn’t fighting for death, but for life. When I was defending the weak and defenseless from the brutish and the merciless. And I’ve become a better person for it. Revenge brought me nothing, but I didn’t just get revenge while I was here. I gained my own independence. I don’t need Hugo’s influence to force myself into action anymore, nor do I need the Chozo to motivate my good causes anymore. I seriously wondered if my heritage was the only reason that I defended the weak, or even if I was achieving that, but now I don’t need to worry. And my goals changed; even when Hugo was dead, Mother Brain was planning to do all kinds of experiments on these metroids, and she was growing stronger with every day. She may well have taken over the universe as she had planned. The metroids were suffering for it. So, right now, if I was forced back and asked to do this again… I’d do it in a heartbeat.” She looked back to Adam. “How’s that for an answer?” Adam didn’t respond, but finally a smirk came to his lips.

“Would you want it to be so difficult?” He said. Samus smiled.

“I could’ve done with a meal or two more.” The two shared a small chuckle, but Adam saw that, though her chuckle was light and quiet, Samus’ passion and goodness was louder than a lion’s roar. She was a changed woman, a world away from the miserable and angry warrior she was in Dublin. He turned as she did.

“I shall negotiate the treatment of the metroids here.” He explained. “I cannot promise anything, but I shall fight for their freedom. They are dangerous, yes, but looking at them right now I think something of you is rubbing off them.” Samus smiled at this.

“I’d like that.” She looked ahead, and then she smiled at another familiar face. “Perlar.” She hummed as the draconian stood, her eyes wet with tears and rain. The ex-pirate shook, then leapt forward to hug her. Samus looked surprised at first, before she pulled her close and held her in place. Adam remained silent as Samus placed Perlar’s head on her shoulders. “Perlar, its fine, I’m not dead, unless that’s what you’re upset about.” They parted, and the grey female wiped her face with her claw.

“Y-y-yeah, but...” She started. “- you saved my life. You give yourself so willingly to lost causes. I’d be a cold one to not be upset by your death. I feared the worst.” Samus nodded, then looked ahead. It was Adam’s ship, and she smiled slightly, walking ahead of the two.

“Adam, the Varia Suit is probably impossible to repair, but I’m sure you can make another if you made that one in three days.” She said. The man nodded as she smiled, before she looked to the hole where she had started the journey, and kicked some dirt down it. “Then I’d like to place an order for a new suit of armour. Deliver it to Flat 38 of Brandywine Building. And give my compliments to Nostromo, the landlord’s cat. And maybe some beef; I’d suggest ‘lights’ but they stink out the place.” More dirt went down the hole, and Samus finally got her arm cannon from her back, sitting underneath Hugo, and she fired down the hole to create a whole new surface. The hole began to fill as Samus took Hugo’s limp, flat body in hand and began to fold it like a quilt.

“Why?” Adam asked. “What do you plan to do?” Samus shrugged her shoulders.

“I plan to keep going.” She replied. “Hugo is not the only weak being in the universe. Maybe, for those, I can save them before it’s too late like it was for her.” She folded Hugo to a satisfactory size and placed it into the icy grave. “I’ll take more jobs, and I might just give a few check-ins on places I’ve never been to, to places where there’s suffering and pain, to wherever the pursuit of pain takes me. I’ll dismantle crime rings, I’ll tackle great dictators, I’ll deliver food and aid; anything that is needed of me will be done, whether I benefit from it or not.”

“But why?” Perlar asked. “A-a-and where will you start?” Samus took the remains of the Varia Suit in her hand and took the largest piece, before jamming it hard into the ground like a tombstone. Then she thought of her words, and her mind was cast back to the sidehopper all those years ago.

“This world is survival of the fittest, but there a great many people who think that that is the way it should be. That only the strong should prosper, that the weak must perish for the good of all, and that to help a weaker being that can’t help itself is to waste energy.” She smiled to Adam and Perlar. “I like to think that it is less a worthless cause and more the worthiest of all. As for where I start, I’ll turn to the second star on the right, go straight on until morning.” She sighed slightly. “Now, if I may spend the last moments on this planet alone? I’m not coming back, for real this time, and I’d like to pay my respects to Hugo.” Her two companions looked to each other, then her, and then they headed their own ways as Samus leant forward and pushed her head onto the metal plate.

A sombre peace washed over her. Not so much contemplation or regret, but a blank feeling of peace. Samus was determined more than ever to do what she had begun with on the plains of Crateria. She wanted to punch the sidehopper again. She wanted to make the universe a better place to live in, but she allowed herself this moment of rest as the rain fell across her body. Her eyes began to tear up, and warm water dribbled across her cheek and fell onto the dirt Hugo was now under, but Samus wore a smile.

“N-n-no.” The girl finally answered. “It wasn’t your fault...”

“Maybe it was.” Samus interrupted her, then her eyebrows jutted once more and she rose to match the fellow infant girl’s height. “Maybe it wasn’t. What matters is what happens now.”

Samus breathed out of her nostrils as they flared, sniffing up as more tears fell away. She could prevent this from happening to others, but not just the metroids; now she could turn her head to the wide universe above her. Even as the sadness held her down and the happiness lifted her up at once, she felt a warm compassion seeping through her veins for the first time. She had doubted her own kindness, her own empathy, her own love for so long, the revenge she had sought casting a doubt over her, over Hugo, over Old Bird. And now she knew her own place.

“… I should’ve known.” She said. “I didn’t need to imprint you at all.” She hugged Samus with a strong force, who, for once, hugged back, no pain coming. “I love you, mummy.”

“I love you too, Hugo.” Samus whispered, pulling herself away from the metal shard that was the metroid’s headstone. “I didn’t mean to let you down.” She stood up slowly, tears still in her eyes, but she wiped them away. “Never again.” She looked back up to the metallic v that was Adam’s ship, and looked around to see if anyone was watching, before she stepped in with plans to take it on her journey. However, as she stepped in, she saw something on the hull. A tiny black box. She plucked it off gingerly and inspected it closer, then frightfully gasped. The black box cast a looming doubt on Samus once more where a truth had been before. However, she frowned as she pushed the doubt into the back of her mind as she crushed the box in her palm. The doubt would have to wait.

The box was a camera.

*

“Interesting.” Weeve mumbled, the brightness of the video screen glaring into the dark grey of the Clan spaceship bridge, the white noise taking over as Samus crushed the camera in her hand. The screen contrasted the bright, grey, cold feel of the rest of the ship; it was swelteringly hot and dark, and Weeve smiled. She liked it in here; it was like a bed. However, she knew that these circumstances were for function, not her own pleasantries. She looked back to Kott and the two draconians standing either side of her. Her masseuses, the female with the table at the ready and the male with the steam billowing hoses. However, all their attention was diverted to a metallic box. A claw weakly rose out of it and the third draconian in a white coat caught it, forcing it back in.

“The hand isn’t setting, no matter what I do.” She said coldly, and the claw popped out. She huffed in exhaustion, pushing at it. “Clan Leader Ridley’s strength is still there.” She drove her shoulder into it and the blackened claw retracted.

“Well, that was a disaster.” Kott spat. “A complete disaster.” She cracked her knuckles and rose up. “Our leader and three more of our glorious organisation are dead, and we’ve lost a good base. But we’ve come back from worse.” She smiled to Weeve, who nodded to her.

“Yeah, well, Mother Brain and Kraid’s finances needed to go… somewhere.” She reminded her superior in age, height and, so far as Kott thought, rank.

“Yes, well, I won’t deny the money is certainly good, but Ridley’s focus was on power.” She replied, then she thought of something. “Just… how much money was it?” Weeve smiled nastily.

“Nine billion credits, in total.”

“Nine… billion…” Kott stuttered. Her mood did more than a 180; it soared through the sky. “Nine billion? But, the richest man in the universe has…”

“Six and a half.” Weeve finished her. “And here we are, sitting on nine billion. Of course, we have to consider the cost of the next move… that leaves us at just seven.”

“What next move?” The purple Fladres pirate peered at Weeve, turning angry once more. “You think you’re in charge now? You might’ve worshiped Ridley more than I did, but I was next in line; now I’m in charge! We bury Ridley’s body, then we disappear. And what was your plan that would cost two billion credits? May I add that most people never see a thousand credits in their lifeti-”

“X.”

“… what?”

Weeve reached to a console and clasped a glass vial, each end wrapped in metal, and she showed her superior a thick golden liquid like honey.

“This is X. A parasitic bacterium that mutates its targets hideously and turns them into part of a terrible hive mind.” Kott peered at the liquid. “Researching it will be expensive, but after a year, I’m sure we can weaponize it and sell to the highest bidder.” Kott peered cynically at it. “And all we need is a body. A strong body that can take a lot of punishment, resilient and strong…”

“… like a Fladres.” Kott smiled nastily as she turned her head to the metallic box. The front of it was shaved off, and it looked like a coffin, holding a bundle of bandages with straps on it, a green light blaring out of it. Only a black claw poked out, and a red eye in a gap on the head. Ridley’s bandaged body. Kott grinned. “You’re a genius, Weeve.” She walked over, past Weeve’s masseuses. Had she known they had killed Srekkitt at Weeve’s command, she wouldn’t have let them into the room, but they were to be her undoing as the purple beast smiled. “Yeah, I like this idea.” She smiled to Weeve. “Getting the money out of Mother Brain and Kraid’s accounts to us and finding this ‘X’ stuff, wherever you got it…”

“Oh, Ridley got it, he just couldn’t use it.” Weeve said.

“- whatever.” Kott waved her hand dismissively. “The point is that you’re a genius. I can see why Ridley liked you so much.”

“Pardon me, my ladies.” Came the voice of the white coated draconian again. Kott looked to her as the draconian peered at the corpse of Ridley. In fact, her head got too close for comfort, practically cheek to cheek. The white coated draconian nodded once and twice, then looked to Kott and Weeve, then back to the bandaged figure. “The process is ready to start.” Kott’s eyebrow crooked.

“P-process?” She asked, then the whole room whirred dangerously. Machines buzzed and hummed with a subtle horror, and the bandages began to fall away. Kott nodded confidently.

“Yeah, this is where we test ‘X’, right?” She said.

“… in a way. Say, are you two dating?”

The voice echoed into the noisy, near black room, but to Kott all was silent. She stared into space for a few seconds, then turned around. The masseuses suddenly grabbed her by the arms; she wiggled for freedom, but the female brought her foot into the back of her knee joint, and the male brought his claw to the back of her neck, and she was forced to her knees with her arms and wings locked out involuntarily. She looked back up to the bandaged body. The red eye under the bandages rolled to her, a dead expression within, then widened, filling with emotion. Another bandage across Ridley’s snout fell away, and a wide grin was revealed.

“Sorry, Kott.” Came a croak, but it was unmistakable. The whole body was charred and when he stepped out of the coffin he shook in agony, but his smile, his eye, and the cruelty written into his face was like an old friend, or rather, a familiar nightmare. “I didn’t hope it would come to this, but pride doesn’t make me an idiot; I prepare for the worst as well as the best, and The Clan was never going to serve you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “The ‘X’ comes from the same place we found a lot of the metroids; a little planet called SR388. It was prey to the metroids; well, everything was, but these little X in particular. Now that the last metroids in the galaxy consider a dead rock their new home, there’s nothing stopping these babies, but did you think weaponizing them would cost two billion credits? No; restoring me costs two billion credits; the cost of the X research and weaponization is about one whole Fladres pirate.”

“B-b-but Weeve said that…” Kott started, then the realisation struck her. A Fladres. A strong Fladres. Her. “NO!” She screamed, struggling in vain, then she burst out of her captors’ grip and towards Ridley. “I WILL MURDER YOU!” Her claws leaped to the corpse like figure, then her hands snapped backwards. She wailed in pain, and a tail punched into her stomach. She looked into Ridley’s eye as he held her hands back with her own. He smirked calmly up to her; she was almost double his height, she was at the peak of health, he was nothing but a charred skeleton, but he smiled back hideously and gleefully without effort.

“Samus Aran, the champion and saviour of three whole races, including the strongest of all, destroyed me completely, and here I am ready for more; what chance do you have?” He asked her with a grin on his face, before throwing her down to the ground. She remained on the floor, and looked up to him as he clicked his fingers. More draconians, nearly all twenty two under his employment, marched in. “Take her to the testing ground. Weeve will deal with her later.” Four of them saluted, and walked away, dragging the screaming Kott with them. The rest looked to their leader as his legs suddenly wobbled, and he fell forward, the white coated draconian catching him. She supported him as he swung limply on her, as if he had died all over again.

“Clan Leader Ridley, don’t strain yourself.” She set him back into the coffin. He laid back, his head resting against the soft, hot green. He sighed in exhaustion, and saw the tools above him. It was alarming to say the least; there were circular saws, spikes, drills, metallic talons and all a manner of sharp objects. The white coated draconian smiled pleasantly. “Sir, relax. This process will, to you, feel like nothing; a second will go by, but when you open your eyes, it will be a year later at least.” Then her eyes darkened. “And you’ll no longer be Ridley. Some of your body will remain, but you will be much more of a machine than beast.” Ridley looked to his claw, possibly for the last time, and smiled.

“Metal’s sharper than bone.” He clenched his fist and leaned back. “You don’t become the strongest without a few knocks, anyway. Do it.” The draconian nodded, and the box reared backwards. It tipped slowly and Ridley was looking to the sky. He turned his head and saw Weeve lying parallel, albeit on her stomach. Her masseuses and assassins stood by her, coating her in steam, which caused her to moan.

“Do nothing to draw attention to us.” He ordered her, and she nodded. “You’ve got more than enough for two whole planets to survive on. Twenty two of you should last. We have to conserve our strength.” Weeve raised an eyebrow.

“For what?” She asked. Ridley looked back up to the tools that would recreate him. He thought of his mother’s last words to him, the last words she ever spoke, words he forced out of her mouth as his claw bashed her head against a rock again and again, his mother saying anything she could to dissuade his anger and attain mercy.

“Your eyes hold everything key to our race, Ridley. The wisdom of eons, the cunning of the animal, the strength of the Fladres. Your eyes will gleam on long after the rest of the fladres are dead, because you are the strongest. And I will watch on even in death, out of love and admiration for you. You will make yourself worthy of the fear of all races across the galaxy, Ridley. Your eyes will see you conquer races, gain riches, defeat all your foes and sway the fate of the galaxy as it enters a new era, where your eyes see all and conquer all.”

His mother’s words rang in his head, and he tapped where his eye used to be before a blonde infant blasted it out. He scowled, and looked back up. They’d meet again, he knew. And he knew it wouldn’t be over a petty theft like last time; the kidnapping of a jellyfish. No, it would be the fate of the universe. He would rule, or he would fall.

No. No ‘or’ about it. He said to himself, grinning again. Next time, I’ll win. No alternative. And the grand prize will be mine. I’ve got the money, I’ve got the time, I’ve got the strength, and I’ve got the weapon. That was merely a warm up, and now for a rest, and I’ll be back.

“The universe.” He said as the draconian in white put a mask over his face. He felt a chill over his huge snout as it spoke for a final time. “I will be… no… I am the strongest. And when I wake up, Samus Aran’s days are as good as over.”

Then his eyes closed, and he fell into a deep sleep.

THE END

[Rachel Ascot]

TRIVIA, REFERENCES AND CHANGES FROM ORIGINAL GAMES

• The names of the four plot arcs all reference Hamlet, a play that, like this book, addresses revenge and the damage it can cause to one’s psyche. The first arc’s namesake is the ghost of Hamlet’s father revealing his identity; “I am thy father’s spirit.” It corresponds to Samus meeting the AI programme that is based on Old Bird, her father figure. The second takes its name from the scene when Hamlet devotes himself to revenge, as Samus also does at the end of this arc; “My thoughts be bloody or nothing worth.” The third arc’s title quotes King Claudius to Laertes, saying ‘Revenge should have no bounds’ to persuade him to kill Hamlet, which is also reflected in Ridley repeatedly taunting Samus and appealing to her murderous tendencies. The fourth and final arc takes its namesake from the dying words of Hamlet. “The rest is silence.” This is the end of the story, and it also reflects in that Samus begins at the arc on the verge of death.

• The plot of the book is actually an amalgamation of the plots of the first three games. The second game, Metroid 2, has Samus find and adopt the metroid larvae in the ending. The third game, Super Metroid, has the metroid stolen by Ridley and taken to Zebes and has the metroid larva sacrifice itself to save Samus from Mother Brain at the ending of the game. Otherwise, the first game, Metroid, has a very similar plot to both Super Metroid and this book. Each plot’s ending is based in order of favouritism as well as for narrative purposes; Metroid 2’s ending is mirrored early on in the book, signifying that is of poorer quality than the other two games the book was based on, the original Metroid’s plot is mirrored in the beginning and the middle of the book and the overall plot along with Super Metroid, signifying that it is the next favourite. Super Metroid ends in a very similar way as this book, signifying that it is Rob’s favourite game of the series.

• Samus’ backstory in this book has several changes from other media. While the three games the author based this book on don’t explain her backstory, it is often considered that she was a special operations solider before becoming a bounty hunter, while in this book she becomes a bounty hunter immediately. Also, while the mining is referenced here, in other media Samus’ parents are killed at a mining facility, not on a spaceship. This was changed to fit with the idea that the Chozo haven’t travelled off their own planet yet. Her life on Zebes is heavily simplified, with many details being taken out for the purpose of streamlining the story and preventing the backstory interrupting the main events.

• Samus’ backstory is not the only one to have been changed. In an e-manga that is often considered in canon with the games, Mother Brain was on the planet long before Samus had even arrived, and was a defective security system. This was changed to make sense of the reasoning behind Ridley and Kraid obeying her. Another change in her backstory is that it is often implied, particularly in the Metroid Prime trilogy, that Mother Brain is neither the only nor the highest ranking leader of Space Pirates; this hasn’t exactly been changed. If the author does decide to write a sequel to this book, then other leaders of the Space Pirates may be introduced. The metroids themselves have different backstories. In later games of the series, it is revealed that metroids were actually created by the Chozo who intended for them to kill a parasite called X. In this book, they are simply creatures that happen to cope well with the Zebes Four climate.

• While in the games her nationality is never specified, in this book Samus Aran is considered to be Irish because of the similarity to the Irish name ‘Shamus’. The name ‘Shamus’ is a male name, a reference to the first Metroid game. The manual included with the game said that Samus was a man, with the fact that she was actually a woman being a major plot twist, aided by the fact that she never spoke in the first game and the player only saw her out of her armour after the game was completed. This is also why several characters throughout the book express surprise at Samus’ gender.

• Ridley in this book is a sand coloured creature that resembles a dragon or a pterodactyl, but he hasn’t always been so in the games. In the original Metroid, he resembles a bright purple insect more than anything. This was the only time he looked like an insect, but his purple colour scheme has often been repeated in media other than the games. In the games themselves, Ridley’s been yellow, grey, orange, blue, bright red, green and just about any other colour. Also, in the games both his eyes are intact, while in the book he is blind in one eye.

• Two chapters share unofficial names with various parts of the levels in the Metroid games that take place on Zebes (Metroid, Super Metroid and Zero Mission); ‘A Bridge Too Far’ and ‘The Sea of Fire’

• In the book, Zebes is a moon separated into four parts; Crateria, Brinstar, Norfair and Tourian. In the games, Zebes is a planet with six parts, the two not mentioned in this book being Maridia and The Wrecked Ship. However, the colour schemes in the book for each area are heavily influenced by the games; the Brinstar in the first game emphasised black, green and blue. In all the games featuring this area, Norfair is defined by the colours red and orange. In Metroid Zero Mission, Crateria is given the colours grey and gold, which is why the author made Zebes a fairly barren place while the Great Palace is a golden structure. The only area that is not directly influenced by a Metroid game is Ridley’s lair, which takes heavy influences from the various areas of horror game series Silent Hill.

• The journey that Samus takes from Chapter 14 – Come Back Home onward to the end of the book references Inferno in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri; specifically in the theme of descent and ascent. As Samus is forced to confront her own failings she must descend, and only ascends when she has reached her epiphany. Also, while Norfair is described as a fiery place, Tourian, the last and deepest area she visits, is extremely cold and lifeless. In Inferno, the ninth and final circle of hell is an icy wasteland that contrasts the heat of the preceding circles.

• None of The Clan are in the game series, nor is any of Ridley’s race besides Ridley himself.

• A lot of the character’s names are references to the 1979 film Alien, which was one of the main inspirations for the game. Ridley was named after Ridley Scott, the director. Ridley is the leader of The Clan, as Ridley Scott was the director of Alien. All of The Clan were references to various people who worked on Alien; Gyler (David Giler, producer, hence making her Ridley’s second in command in the book), Weeve (Sigourney Weaver, played Ripley who was the only human character to survive at the end of the film, hence making her the only Fladres pirate to survive or not be captured besides Ridley), Kott (Yaphet Kotto, another actor in the film. Kotto had also played the James Bond villain Mr Big in the film Live or Let Die. In the book, Mr Big is described as to have grey skin, as does Kott in this book), Hill (Walter Hill, another producer), Srekkitt (Tom Skerrit, who played Captain Dallas, with his leadership in the film referenced by the fact that in the book Srekkitt is the largest of The Clan) and Hertz (John Hurt, another actor. His character was the first to die in the film, so in the book Hertz is the first of The Clan to be killed). The Clan were not the only names to be references to Alien. Stantoronski is a reference to Harry Dean Stanton. His character Brett was the second character to be killed. Stantoronski’s death was caused by following Hugo to keep him calm before being ambushed by Ridley in a large room. This mirrors Brett’s death in the film, as he was killed while following the ship’s cat. The cat was called Jones, which is the name of the ship Samus’ parents were killed on. Hugo, the baby metroid Samus adopts, is a reference to the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, which the film Alien won. The Clan are attempting to, and succeed in, capturing Hugo. Stantoronski’s daughter, Samus’ friend, is called Veronica, a reference to Veronica Cartwright, who played the only female character in the film besides Ripley. The block of flats that Samus lives in is called ‘The Brandywine Building’. Brandywine was the name of the studio that made Alien. The landlord’s cat is called Nostromo, named after the ship that Alien takes place on. Bannon, the bartender at Club Kano that Samus talks to, takes his name from Dan O’Bannon, another screenwriter of Alien. Ian Holms is referenced twice; the doctor at the hospital Samus wakes up in is called Holmes (Holms’ character was an android and the medical officer for the Nostromo) and Kraid’s double is recognised to be an S.M.L.O.H brand robot.

• Samus at the beginning mentions in a log that she had only been in six missions before the one on Planet Zebes. At time of writing, there are only six games in the main Metroid series, with five in a spin-off series called Metroid Prime.

• The Draconians in this game share their name with a species in Dragonlance series of books. The reason for this is that, in the games, the Space Pirates are never given a specific name for their species, only being called ‘Pirates’. While a specific species of pirate is called a ‘Zebesian’, these creatures may have created inconsistencies with the book’s backstory (being that the pirates only took over Zebes Four fairly recently, and also that the chozo were the main inhabitants of the planet) so they were not mentioned.

• The HMRSS Jones was destroyed as it passed by the Tannhäuser Gate. The Tannhäuser Gate is a fictional section of space mentioned by Rutger Hueur’s character Roy Batty in Blade Runner, another Ridley Scott film. Tannhäuser Gate is a name often used in science fiction as a place in space, including in Soldier, Gunbuster, the Heavy Gear series and the video game Homeworld. The Tannhäuser Gate itself varies from text to text, as Blade Runner never specifies just what the Tannhäuser Gate actually is.

• Hertz’ name was originally going to be ‘Scotts’, as she once was Ridley’s leader; ‘Ridley Scott’ as it were.

• The font for the Fladres pirate language is actually based on the language of the dragons in the Elder Scrolls series of video games, also known as the Dova language. You see the text in three places in the story, and actually gives away upcoming plot twists about each of the pirate leaders;

- found in an electronic screen Samus finds in Chapter 5) translates to THE WATCHER IS NOT WHO YOU SEE, which foreshadows that the real Kraid is not the blue robotic double seen in the majority of the book.

- written in Hertz’ blood in Chapter 10, and translates to THE BRAIN HAS A BODY, foreshadowing Mother Brain’s transformation.

- The final message, on Ridley’s door in Chapter 20, actually foreshadows the twist ending extremely blatently;
THE WINGED ONE SURVIVES

• Samus’ mentor was Old Bird, and she mentions knowing two more Chozo called Grey Voice and Calm Wings. In 2003, an e-manga based on the Metroid games was released; Old Bird and Grey Voice were in this, with only Calm Wings being an invention of the author. In the book, Old Bird is Samus’ father figure, but in the e-manga it is Grey Voice and (later in the e-manga and suggested in later games) Adam Malkovich who are Samus’ father figures, though in both this book and the e-manga it is Old Bird who finds Samus.

• When Samus finds Hugo, he is being used as a football by two draconian guards. She sees them and says “Get away from it, you sick sons of bitches!” This is a reference to Sigourney Weaver’s famous line in the film Aliens; “Get away from her, you bitch!” She says this when she confronts the Alien Queen in the film as she saves Newt, a young girl that she becomes a surrogate mother for. In the book, Samus becomes a surrogate mother for Hugo. This is also a reference to Samus Aran herself, who was heavily inspired by the character Ellen Ripley, who Weaver played, and the game series Metroid itself, which was also heavily inspired by the Alien series of films.

• Hugo often revolves around Samus rather than staying still. This is what the infant metroid Samus adopts in Metroid 2 does.

• Perlar takes her name from Michelle Perl, a semi-famous cosplayer who most often cosplays as Samus, who appeared in Nintendo Power, a gaming magazine, describing how inspiration from Samus got her through dark times in her life. In this book, the character Perlar is saved from a metroid by Samus and often expresses her gratitude as a reference of this.

• Eki Ninjetta, and her race the Kinne, take their names from the game Super House of Dead Ninjas.

• Adam Malkovich mentions that his brother died on the HMRSS Jones. This is a reference to Metroid Other M, in which during a flashback Adam’s brother Ian dies, though in differing circumstances.

• Ironically enough, the names Jones and Nostromo are reversed from the film Alien to this book; Jones was the ship’s cat of the Nostromo in Alien, while the ship that Samus’ parents were killed on is called Jones and Samus’ landlord has a cat called Nostromo.

• Samus’ apartment at Brandywine Building is 38. The release date of the original Metroid game was the 6th of August 1986. 6 + 8 + 1 + 9 + 8 + 6 = 38.

• Samus mentions her birthday is on a Wednesday. Wednesday was the weekday the original Metroid was released.

• Club Kano is named after Makoto Kano, the video game designer credited as the original creator of Samus Aran. It takes aesthetic influence from the level ‘New Alexandria’ in the video game Halo Reach, particularly the section in Club Errera.

• A drink that Samus drinks in Club Kano is called Talizorah. Tali’Zorah is a character in the video game series Mass Effect.

• During the first fight with Ridley that Samus has, she curls into a ball and avoids Ridley slamming his tail down. The pattern she moves in is ‘Left, back, right, back, left’ then she is hit by Ridley, before she escapes, going ‘Right, forward, left’. In the original Metroid video game, the fastest way to get to Ridley from the entrance of his lair is to go to the left, then down a shaft, then right and down the next shaft, then to the left. This is where Ridley is. After you beat him, the fastest way out of his lair is to go far to the right, then up a shaft as far as you can go, then to the left and completing a large circle.

• Kraid’s robotic body-double is actually in the first Metroid game. In this the double and Kraid are both the same size as each other, but in the book they are radically larger. This is because while in the original Metroid game Kraid was only about as tall as Samus, the subsequent games have him almost twenty times her size and often the largest character in the game. The robotic double appears in two of the three games Kraid is in, but only in the first game is he a different colour to the real Kraid.

• Mother Brain is another reference to Alien. ‘Mother’ is what the crew of the Nostromo nicknamed their computer. In fact, Kraid is the only one of the three pirate leaders to not be a direct reference to Alien.

• Mother Brain’s design in the final fight is changed slightly; in the game Super Metroid, it’s obvious she’s more of a machine than a living being, while in this book it is left ambiguous.

• One of the possible events that was left out of this book was the revelation that the visions of Old Bird were hallucinations brought on by Samus’ guilt.

• While not specifically naming anything, the final nightmare reveals what the various symbols in the nightmare represent. For those who have not discerned it, here is a list of the symbols and what they each mean.
- The crescent moon: often considered a symbol for mothers and motherhood. Samus is scared of it because, upon receiving Hugo, she is scared of the responsibilities of motherhood and the risk of failure. When the moon turns into an egg as it bears down on her, it represents this also, just as an egg often represents a woman’s womb and birth.
- The stone feather-shaped obelisk: the Chozo were avian in nature, and the obelisk is a phallic symbol, suggesting a male. It holds up the incoming egg that was about to crush Samus. This is because the obelisk feather actually represents Old Bird and how Samus used him and the Chozo to stop her being overwhelmed by the world’s problems. It was because of this that she had dependency issues. When the obelisk crumbles away, it represents two things; it firstly shows that Old Bird isn’t there for Samus anymore, and the fact that it is crushed under the ‘egg of motherhood’ represents that the ideals that the Chozo taught her are in direct contradiction to the urges that Hugo has forced into her with the imprinting; the rage and violence against the stoic peacefulness. This is another reason for Samus to fear Hugo; by giving in to her urges of violence and rage, she feels she is failing the pacifistic Old Bird. It is only in finding a balance between the peace and the violence that Samus finds that she doesn’t need the obelisk anymore, so when she turns around in the final nightmare, it isn’t there anymore.
- The little girl who hatched from the egg: The girl hatching from the egg is symbolic of birth, as the egg often represents a womb. The fact that the girl herself looks like Samus as a child, with a round cut of blonde hair, is because this is what Samus initially saw in Hugo; a reflection of herself at her weakest moment, when she landed on Zebes for the first time. The girl, in essence, is both Samus and Hugo at once, at least in the first few nightmares. Whenever Samus touches the girl, both of them bleed and are in agony, because this is what Samus feared the most; that she’d fail Hugo, in essence ‘killing’ it, and Hugo itself was driving her away from the Chozo ideals of pacifism, ‘killing’ her. Both were destroying each other by being close. However, when Samus finally accepts Hugo’s sacrifice for her, she understands that, while she is in part at fault, she must set things right and make sure the sacrifice is not in vain. The girl, in this scene, is detached from Samus; while she still looks like Samus at her weakest, Hugo finally realises that forcing Samus to protect it was unnecessary, saying “I didn’t need to imprint you at all.” This proves to both her and Samus that she would’ve tried to save it anyway. It’s also why, when she wakes up, the imprinting is gone; Samus doesn’t need Hugo to motivate her into action anymore, and Hugo is letting her be her own person. It also confirms to Samus that she is not stepping away from the Chozo teachings of compassion after all, but rather going about a defence of the weak in a different way.
- The gigantic bird: the black bird at first seems to represent Ridley, as it specifically apes Ridley’s form, and the large wings and the talons as it towers over Samus are very similar to Ridley. She becomes entrapped in two vice clamps because that is how she first encountered Ridley; she was hiding in her armour and couldn’t escape, surrounded by metal. However, it actually represents her violent tendencies. It apes Ridley because it’s what, in Samus’s words, “- made me into.” Ridley tempted her to kill him, and is the one responsible for making her kill everyone else she killed on her journey. Old Bird even mentions that “- part of [her] heart will always be black…” She’s seen too much violence to not resort to it. She can only defeat it by controlling the urges rather than fighting them.

• In the final fight between Mother Brain and Samus, Mother Brain says that the ratio of Samus’ strength to her own is 1:297. 297 is the exact amount of damage inflicted to Samus by her strongest attack in the final boss battle of Super Metroid.

• Tourian is supposed to be the lowest point of Zebes both in the games and this book. However, the coding and the nature of the creation of the games actually make Tourian the highest point of the map excluding Crateria.

• Samus, in her final words with Adam and Perlar, says “As for where I start, I’ll turn to the second star on the right, go straight on until morning.” This is a reference to Peter Pan; specifically, it is the directions from Earth to Never-land.

• In the final chapter of this book, Ridley is still alive and is about to have surgery to save his life by replacing many parts of his body with machinery. This is both a reference to the Metroid games and other media. In Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 3, there is a boss called ‘Meta-Ridley’, who strongly resembles Ridley but has metallic body parts. It is never explained how or why this happens. The transformation itself is inspired by the scene of building Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode 3, and the draconian doctor even says “…more of a machine than beast…” which is how Obi-Wan describes Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.

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