Archive of Our Own ^beta

Reflection- a young Samus story

Samus didn't have much on her mind that morning as she wandered through the Tourian. It was hot outside, and though she was not particularly fond of the Sector that housed their Artificial Intelligence unit, Mother Brain, the metallic floors were cool against her bare feet, and the ceiling and walls protected her from the harsh sun.

Normally on days like this she was more interested in heading down to the underground lakes of Maridia and going for a swim, but Grey Voice had specifically requested she stay close by. Apparently he and Old Bird had something they wanted to discuss with her once the Council of Elders finished their meeting.

The girl wondered what the old Chozo could be discussing, but only vaguely. Their affairs rarely interested her. At roughly ten years old, she did not understand much about what went on amongst the elders, and she did not bother trying to figure it out.

When they were all cloistered in meeting, she would take the opportunity to go out and explore Zebes on her own. While she did not normally mind the long hours of physical training and conditioning they put her through, she savored her freedom much more. She supposed it was lonely to be the only child and the only human in their society, but she did not have anything to compare it to. Instead of dwelling on her solitary state, she much preferred to befriend the other animal species native to the planet.

But as her small, bare feet padded through the halls of Tourian, she could not help but think that there was one creature on this planet she had never managed to befriend. Mother Brain, the Chozo's trusted AI, had never seemed particularly fond of her, nor she of it.

She paused by the hatch that led to where Mother Brain was. A shiver always went up her spine when she came anywhere near the artificial bioform, and she thought of turning around and leaving. It might have been better to brave the heat on the surface than to be anywhere near here.

Samus was about to turn and leave the Tourian when she heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. Old Bird and Grey Voice's clawed talons had a unique sound on the metal floors, and the child was relieved to hear them coming. It was easier to bare being near Mother Brain when the old Chozo were around. As they came into view, she ran up to them and grinned.

Grey Voice was a tall, thin creature that resembled an anthropomorphic bird, and Old Bird was obviously of the same species although shorter and quite a bit wider. The two seemed almost opposites between their physical structures and the way Grey's sharp eyes always seemed to be analyzing everything while Old Bird's seemed softer and more welcoming. While she loved both of the Chozo dearly, Samus secretly preferred Old Bird and his gentle nature.

"Back from your meeting so soon?" Samus asked in a language that sounded unnatural coming from the mouth of a human child. It more closely resembled the squawking of a bird than human speech.

"Not exactly," the taller of the two Chozo began as his sharp eyes scrutinized Samus's slight form. "We're still working on the same project, but we've come to an important decision, and we need you, Samus."

The little girl's eyes widened as she stared up at the Chozo. "Me?"

Old Bird nodded as he looked down at her. His soft eyes were gentle and helped to ease Samus's sudden apprehension. "Yes, Hatchling, we need you now."

Samus fidgeted where she stood, looking down as she slid her foot around on the metal ground. "Are we going to train today? Because you promised me I wouldn't have to train today…"

"Not training in the traditional sense," Grey Voice replied, his feathers slightly ruffled with annoyance, "but it's related to your training, yes. Though I would think you would understand the importance of your training and not be so reluctant to do it, day off or not. Hatchling, you've made great gains since we took you in all of those years ago, seven years ago by how your species measures time. And in that time we've enhanced you with our own blood, trained you as a fighter, and brought you to a level of physical conditioning I had not even thought possible. Still, I have my reservations about what the Council has decided today..."

Samus tilted her head curiously as she looked at Grey Voice before turning her attention toward Old Bird. He recognized the questioning look she was giving him.

"What Grey Voice is trying to say, Hatchling," Old Bird began, "is that the Council has come to a decision today. We believe that you are ready to begin the next portion of your training."

"Physically," Grey Voice cut in. "Mentally, you still lack the executive functioning of a mature human. But physically, you've exceeded what we had believed to be the limits of your species."

Samus blinked a couple of times as she looked up at him. She was really getting the itch to run off and go swimming in Maridia before either of the two Chozo tried making her train more.

She was expecting Grey Voice to list a set of new activities she would be forced to do day in and day out to make her even stronger than she was now, but instead, she was surprised to see Old Bird offering her his outstretched hand.

"Come with us, Hatchling."

With a deep breath, Samus took hold of his claw with her small hand and allowed the two elders to lead her deeper into the Tourian, well past Mother Brain's room and toward what appeared to be a dead end. A holoscreen appeared on the wall beside him, and he pressed his other hand up against it.

As soon as he did so, the wall in front of them began to rise up and revealed a secret passage Samus had never seen before. She perked up at the sight of the dark hall on the other side of the door. Unlike the metal floors of the Tourian, the ground here was natural and earthen. As they walked down the secret hall, the air was cooler and more humid.

Samus bounced along with a lot more spring in her step as she took in the sights. Chozo paintings and writings adorned the stone walls, and she did not have time to study them all as they walked deeper into the ancient tunnel. There was something familiar about this place, but she could not remember exactly when she had been here before.

Eventually, they reached a large antechamber where Samus discovered the rest of the Chozo Council standing around, awaiting her arrival. Like Old Bird and Grey Voice, they were all wearing traditional long brown robes.

"So you finally brought the Hatchling," one of the ancient bird creatures spoke as a dozen pairs of eyes all focused on Samus. "Very well then. Let her approach."

The members of the Chozo Council stepped aside, and even Old Bird and Grey Voice backed away as Samus looked at the far wall to discover that the Chozo had been standing around to conceal a large circular mirror. Samus stared at her reflection for a long time before tentatively taking a step forward.

She had seen something like this once before, a long time ago in a Chozo temple. She suddenly realized why all of this seemed so familiar to her. When she had been a small child, when she had first come to Zebes, she had been here. At least, she had been in an area like this.

The mirror before her now was similar to the one she had seen in the Chozo temple, but it was smaller. As she approached it, her reflection stared back at her, but it did not last long. When at last she was close enough to touch it, her image disappeared from the mirror and was suddenly replaced with the image of a golden suit of Chozo armor with a red helmet and green visor. Below the elbow, a large green cannon replaced the right arm.

Samus gasped as she studied the armored suit. It was almost exactly like the armor ancient Chozo warriors wore in the paintings she had seen, but it looked like it was made for a human form. A human form about her size.

Realizing the significance of the image before her, Samus looked over her shoulder to where Old Bird was standing, and he nodded as though he knew exactly what she wanted to ask him.

With a new resolve, Samus turned back to the image of the golden armor. Gone was her reluctance to train or her desire to run off and play. This was the moment all that training had been leading up to.

She was not sure she was ready, but she understood the gravity of the Council's decision. They thought she was ready. Closing her eyes, Samus reached out toward the mirror with both hands.

As she made contact, a blinding light filled the antechamber, and when it grew dim once more, Samus finally opened her eyes.

The mirror still showed the reflection of the armored suit, and as Samus looked down to observe the armored suit that now covered her body, she was pleased to see that reflection was her own.

Bounties

New Dresden was sometimes called the Ruby of Calliope IX because of its opulence in wealth and culture, but that ruby cast its red light straight into the surrounding districts, and The Inferno was probably the most notorious of New Dresden's shady neighborhoods. Once known for its diverse and flavorful restaurants flaunting culinary delicacies from throughout the Urania System, a massive fire had rampaged through years back leaving nothing but burned out shells of buildings, many of which would later be inhabited by burned out shells of people as a once vibrant cultural center faded into the bowels of history. Once renowned as "the district paved in gold", the only thing that glittered on the streets now was the broken glass of beer bottles stepped on and run over until they were so ground into the pavement one would swear they had been laid with the concrete.

But even amongst the squalor and decay of the Ozymandian hellhole, one rancid flower still bloomed, proliferating and thriving in the shadows of dilapidated buildings that drowned out any sun. It was a haven for crime. A holy city for gangsters. A bona fide sanctuary for fugitives. And prime hunting grounds for anyone desperate or crazy enough to go after the bounties on their heads.

Of course, violent criminals did not make up the district's whole population. It had its fair share of starving artists, starving addicts, women of the night, and of course a few average Janes and Joes who had screwed up one too many times and found themselves scraping the bottom of society's barrel just to get a private roof over their heads and paying for it with jobs they convinced themselves were only temporary.

It was to one of these semi-legal apartments over a greasy Thalian take-out restaurant that a young blonde woman returned after a long day of work down at the bendezium mill, where she could have sworn she inhaled enough of the metallic dust that she would develop the dreaded bendezi-cough before she ever turned thirty. Throwing her bag down on the floor, she turned back to the weathered door and did four of the deadbolts and slipped the chain through its clasp. Most of the locks only worked from the inside these days, the keys having been lost long ago by tenants who had come and gone. And each time a key was lost, it seemed the landlord just found it easier to install an additional lock rather than replace the one that had been rendered mostly useless. But even if they could no longer be opened from the outside, the young woman still liked knowing she could lock them from within. It wasn't like anyone else would be coming home anyway.

Rubbing a kink from her neck and trying to avoid stepping too hard on any of the sinking floor boards, the blonde walked past her bag into her living room/ bedroom/ kitchen and threw herself onto the beat up secondhand futon that served as her couch, bed, and entire dining room set. She sighed as she rolled over onto her side, too wired to do anything productive and took tired to sleep. Her stomach rumbled angrily, but she ignored it until it got so loud she no longer could. Groaning, she got up and walked over to the alcove her landlord had advertised as a kitchen. Other than a few empty beer bottles and a not-quite-empty fifth of cheap whiskey, her countertops were nearly as empty as her refrigerator. Without thinking too hard about it, the blonde grabbed a protein bar and poured herself some leftover coffee that had passed stale hours ago and was now a nasty room temperature pot of brown water.

But the woman did not care that her coffee was beyond what any reasonable person would have poured down the sink or that the protein bar was probably the only thing she ate that day. It was sustenance, and she had eaten far worse years ago when she had only been able to dream of renting a dingy little apartment. As she sat back down on the couch she cast her gaze quickly over a set of books thrown in a corner. A former commanding officer from her army days had given them to her after she had been discharged, hoping she would try for some kind of high school equivalency certificate, but she had mostly ignored them. Between the hours at the factory and moonlighting at a second job, she didn't have time to study.

Finishing the protein bar in three bites and the coffee in a few gulps, she turned her attention to her other job, the second shift she worked in secret. The outskirts of New Dresden were riddled with crime, and law enforcement had never seemed particularly motivated in cleaning any of that up. The young woman, on the other hand, had other ideas. The seediness of the run-down district was crawling with opportunities for quick cash, if only one had the skill set to snag them. For every career criminal who made The Inferno their place of business, there was a bounty, and where public servants refused to tread, the free market took over with any private citizen who was desperate enough trying to make arrests themselves. But unless they knew what they were doing, a lot of them ended up dead, which only served to drive up the rewards for those who did manage to turn in the wanted.

Though these weekend bounty hunters were far from heroes, many of them got it in their heads that they were executing some kind of vigilante justice and making the city a safer place. The young blonde woman had no such delusions, however. Nineteen years old and already with a failed army career and several stints in jail on her record, she knew she was no hero. All the same, she was one of the many desperate people who thought they would try their luck at being one of amateur crime fighters. The only difference was that she had the training to back it up.

Peeling off her dirty gray factory uniform, the woman grabbed a plain black dress out of her closet. It was not much nicer than the uniform, but it was the only dress she had. That same commanding officer had gotten it for her so she could attend a funeral a couple of years back. She had not touched it since then, but it seemed appropriate for the occasion.

Running a brush through her hair, she looked in the mirror. She was a pretty young woman. Her blonde hair was short and straight, only just starting to grow now that she had been out of the army for the past six months. Her eyes were a gray-blue, and they stood out. She was thin, though decently well endowed, and she had a conventionally pretty face even if there was a slight boyish look to it. She didn't have any make-up though, not that she would have known what to do with it if she had. And as she stood in her bare feet, she realized she didn't have any appropriate shoes to wear. Not that it mattered. Her "date" would be there whether she looked good or not. She only needed to hang around him long enough to get them alone together, and if there was one thing she had learned out on the streets, it was that men could get really stupid for over an attractive girl. People underestimated her when they saw her, and she had been around the block enough times to know how to make that work in her favor.

Grabbing a purse, she threw in her wallet, keys, and a set of energy cuffs. Since the dress went down past her knees, she slipped her handgun into a thigh holster and put it on underneath. Not that she usually needed a gun, but she would rather have one and not need it that need one and not have it.

Tonight she would be meeting a man for drinks, a man she had met through a few unsavory acquaintances, and he had arranged a date with her. Only it was not really a date. She had let word get around that she was down to do anything for some quick cash, and he didn't have to know that she intended to make him a bounty rather than a John.

He would probably come in looking to get liquored up and laid, but she had something else in mind. The man, Mike Vandercamp, was also known as the Dire Wolf on the streets, but in the world of slinging morpheus, he was a few levels higher than the street. Morpheus was a blue powder derived from an almost opium-like plant that grew native to this planet, and the slums of New Dresden were littered with people strung out on it, living in the world it sent them to that only they could see. And this guy Mike headed up part of its distribution, only a couple of levels removed from the cooks and local kingpins.

The woman looked forward to meeting him as she looked back at herself in the mirror one last time. There was a price on his head big enough to pay next month's rent, and she'd be damned if she let him get away so easy. He might have thought he was chasing tail, but she was chasing much bigger game. Fortunately, even though she had brought in a couple of bail jumpers and drug dealers so far, she had been discrete enough that she had not gained any notoriety in the area, and she was more than happy to keep it that way. After all, no criminal with an ounce of sense would try to pick up a woman if he suspected she was after the bounty on his head. And this guy was pretty big, but not big enough to think he was untouchable.

As she pulled down her dress to better conceal the gun holstered to her thigh, she could not help but think that there had to be more to her life than chasing petty bounties. Perhaps someday, she would be able to channel her skills into making some kind of difference in the galaxy. It was something she had dreamed about and believed in when she was younger, long before the raids had forced her from her second home. Perhaps someday, she'd be able to do some real good.

Until then, a girl had to make ends meet, even if that meant chasing petty little bounties.

Flashback

There were times Samus thought she was at her limit, times when she was certain she would collapse under the weight of the galaxy or the intensity of a battle. And then there were times afterward that made those moments look easy. Somehow, she had survived them all.

She supposed that should have comforted her, knowing that she was far stronger than she thought she was and that time and again she had overcome her own limits to accomplish all she had in life. But for some reason, thinking of all those things now was not inspirational so much as it was exhausting. She may have survived the beatings and the raw exhaustion that had threatened to destroy her, but it had all left its mark. Lately, she could feel the cracks breaking deeper and deeper into her foundation, and she wondered how much more she could take before everything would collapse.

This was one of those times when she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to hold out. Every muscle in her body was tense and sore as though she had been in a wreck the day before, even though she hadn't left her apartment in nearly a week. It was only the intensity with which the flashback had struck her, pure panic causing every muscle in her body to tighten and knot up as she had curled into a fetal position. Her throat was raw from screaming, and her mouth tasted like vomit. Her nose smelled like blood. For some reason, she was lying in an empty bathtub, and she couldn't remember why.

At least at this point she was aware that she was in the bathtub, the cold, hard porcelain unyielding against her cheek as she lay. She wasn't sure if she had hit her head at some point, but it pounded as if from dehydration. Her breathing was coming slower now, long deep breaths that she carefully controlled. She stared intently at her hands, watching her fingers twitch and move as feeling came back to them. For some reason, the simple hyper-focus on something so mundane helped to ground her back into reality.

She didn't want to think about what had been tearing and ripping through her mind for the past hour. It was too real, still too fresh. She could still hear the screams and feel where its innards had spilled onto her skin even though she knew it had only ever touched her power suit and even there it had been washed away months before.

A ringing sound made her jump, jarring her out of the thoughts she was slipping back into. The sound of the phone was particularly harsh on her sensitive ears. She felt like she had a hangover.

Samus groaned as she curled tighter into a ball, but the shrill ring continued and there was only one way to stop it. Slowly, begrudgingly, Samus lifted herself up. Her hands and limbs shook as she balanced herself against the wall and stepped over the edge of the tub. Fortunately her crappy apartment was small enough that it was only a few steps between the bathroom and the kitchen counter where she had left her phone.

Scanning the caller ID, she had to read it a few times before her addled brain could recognize the name. With a sigh, she hit answer and brought the phone to her ear.

"What?" she answered in a hoarse, raspy voice as she leaned up against the wall.

"Samus?" a man's voice asked from the other end. Though cool and collected, he sounded unmistakably concerned. "Are you all right?"

The bounty hunter groaned. "I'm all right enough. What do you want, Adam?"

The man was quiet for a moment on the other end of the line. "I just wanted to know if you were okay. It's been months since you blew up Zebes, and well… since you left the public eye no one has seen you. At all."

Samus rolled her eyes but instantly regretted it as a wave of dizziness overcame her. "Well I'm not dead. No one's hunted me down and I haven't offed myself or anything."

"Lady, please don't take this the wrong way," Adam began slowly, "but have you been drinking again?"

Samus grunted. "For once, no. I haven't. Just not feeling good."

"I'm sorry to hear that. A lot of people have been wondering what happened you since you disappeared. I've been quite worried about you myself. I'm surprised you actually picked up the phone this time."

Samus was quiet for a moment. "How many times have you tried calling?"

"A lot."

"Oh." She paused. "I saw your name come up a few times, but I guess I just didn't know what to say."

"'Hello' would have been sufficient." Though he clearly wasn't mincing words, Adam's voice was soft. Samus appreciated that.

"So I guess you want to chew me out for the radio silence?"

"Not particularly." Adam paused. "I was actually hoping to see you."

Samus grit her teeth, her head still pounding. "I'm not really feeling up to going out."

"Then I'll come to you."

The bounty hunter snorted at the idea of the Federation Army General flying out to meet her where she lived in one of the sleaziest neighborhoods on a backwoods outer planet. "I don't recommend it."

"I'm serious, Samus." His voice was firm, but there was a note of compassion in it. "You don't sound well. At all."

She thought it over for a moment, legitimately unsure of whether she wanted the General there or not. Her head was too fuzzy. Decision-making was nearly impossible. "Whatever. You know where I live."

It was a few hours before Adam actually made it to Samus's apartment, and as she waited for him, the bounty hunter tried to clean it up as best she could. Even if she wouldn't have time to plaster over the holes in the walls where she had punched them, she would have time to pick up the empty liquor bottles that were thrown about. It was only as she was running around trying to tidy up that she was able to see just how much disarray her life had fallen into these past few months.

She wasn't sure how long she had been in her sweat-soaked clothes, so she threw them into a hamper before getting into the shower. That was an accomplishment in and of itself. The more she tried to pull herself together, the more she realized how out of control she had let things get. The hot water of the shower felt good, but it set her on edge that it impaired her ability to see and hear what was happening around her. She rushed through washing her hair and body, and her heart rate was noticeably elevated by the time she stepped out onto her bathroom mat. She was just thankful no one was around to see her.

She brushed her teeth in an attempt to get the taste of vomit out of her mouth, and ran a brush through her matted blonde hair to try to make it at least halfway presentable. Seeing her reflection in the mirror, however, was like looking at a ghost. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face looked thin and sunken in. It was hardly the face of the warrior who had taken down the last Space Pirate stronghold only a few months before.

When Adam finally arrived, the bounty hunter was just glad she had managed to shower and dress even if her apartment still looked like she had set off a bomb in it. Hearing the sounds of his footsteps coming down the hall, she opened the door before he even got a chance to knock on it. He looked genuinely surprised to see her there, unable to take his eyes off of her face.

"Good evening, Lady," he said in his calm and controlled manner. "May I come in?"

Samus just nodded and stepped out of the way to let him pass. She didn't know what to say, but seeing his familiar gray eyes and hearing his voice was soothing in a way she couldn't explain. It had been months since she had truly spoken to another human being.

He walked through the short narrow hall, past the kitchen nook, and into the living room portion of the tiny apartment. He frowned as he saw the fist-sized holes in the walls with their brown traces of dried blood. Samus didn't need to say anything. He knew exactly what kind of state she had been in since she disappeared.

"I was worried about you," he said, turning to face her. He looked around for anywhere to sit, but seeing she didn't seem to own a single chair, he took a seat on the floor. Samus joined him, slouching in an uncharacteristic manner. She felt ashamed that he should see her like this.

"Just been here," she muttered, not able to bring herself to make eye contact with him. "Figured I wasn't doing so well around people and it might be better for everyone if I took off for a while."

Adam nodded quietly. "I can see that." His voice was soft but firm. "It's been nearly six months since the end of the Space Pirate War. Most people in Federation territory have been very happy about that."

Samus didn't say anything.

"I would think," Adam continued in a gentle manner, "that you would be the happiest of all given you had made defeating them your purpose in life. And you succeeded. Far beyond what anyone had believed possible."

Samus looked up at him for a moment, seemed to try to say something, but ultimately looked away again. "I guess it just doesn't feel like that."

"What do you mean?"

She shifted uncomfortably. It was just the two of them there. He had come all of this way just to be here for her now. "I can't… move on."

The General nodded. "It's okay, Samus."

"I just… I know that logically it's over and people are celebrating. I blew up Zebes. Mother Brain and Ridley and the Metroids… they're gone. But they don't feel like they're gone. It feels like they're still out there somewhere, waiting. Rebuilding. And no one is doing anything about it. And I should still be out there, hunting them down, fighting something… but I don't know what to fight anymore." She took a deep breath. Her heart was racing. "I can't escape them, Adam. Every time I close my eyes, even sometimes when I'm awake, I'm back there. It's like Zebes may be gone from the universe but it's still in me… and I don't know if that makes any sense."

"It makes a lot of sense," Adam said softly. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her into an embrace. "It takes some of us longer to come back from these things than others, and you were right in the middle of it all."

Samus let herself fall into her friend's arms, resting her head on one of his shoulders. "That's just it though. I don't think I can come back. I don't think I ever had anything else to begin with, Adam. Losing my family back on K-2L… that's my first memory. There never was a 'before' time for me. Fighting this war has been my entire life and now I just… there's no other use for me."

Adam placed a hand reassuringly on his friend's back and held her close. "You've saved billions of lives, Lady. You're not just some weapon that became obsolete the moment the war ended. You're a human being, Samus."

She grunted. "Not really. I might have started out as one but that's definitely not what they built me into." She paused. "I should have died on Zebes."

The General took a deep breath and sighed. "What makes you say that?"

"It's the only thing that would have been truly suiting. My life, everything about me… it's all just been for one purpose. I am a weapon. I am nothing but a tool of war. There was no 'before' for me. There's no 'after.'" She took a trembling breath as she clung tighter to her friend. "The end of the Space Pirates and the Metroids and Mother Brain and Ridley… it should have been the end of me too."

Adam stiffened for a moment before he took both of her shoulders in his hands and pushed her just far enough away from him so that they could see each other's faces. "Stop that. I don't know if you actually believe what you're saying or not, Lady, but you're hardly just a weapon. I wouldn't have traveled all this way out here to visit a weapon. Maybe you never had a 'before' period. But you're hardly as alone in the world as you think you are. Just because you never knew a time before the war doesn't mean you can't build a life for yourself after. I refuse to let you just sequester yourself in this filthy snake pit and slowly poison yourself to death with cheap whiskey and thoughts that the universe would be better off without you in it."

Samus blinked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting him to be quite so forward.

"I'm not saying you have to do it today," he continued, "but at some point, you need to get off your ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself. The galaxy is moving on and it's moving on without you in it. But that's only because you made that choice, Samus. I, for one, refuse to leave you behind, and I would appreciate a little assistance from your end on making that happen."

The bounty hunter closed her eyes, and for a moment her face scrunched up like she wanted to cry. But she didn't. There was a lot she needed to release, but now wasn't the time for that. "I just… I just don't see how there can be anything for me after this. I can't see myself having any kind of a future…."

"I know," Adam said gently. "But please, even if it's just for a little while, promise me you'll try. Is there anything you want to do? Are there any jobs you've been thinking of taking?"

Samus thought about it for a moment. "There was one, but I doubt I'll be able to get a visa to the planet it's on."

Genuinely surprised, Adam smiled. "I'll see what I can do about that. Maybe we can work something out. What kind of job is it and what planet do you need to get to?"

Samus shrugged. "Probably just a bullshit assignment, but I figure what the hell. I'm not exactly getting another giant mission any time soon… not that I'm really in any shape to take on a big mission. It's just a private security assignment over on Earth. Some Sinclaire woman wants a body guard or something."

The Hatchling

What was there to say about it really? Even now she questioned her decision as she stared at the creature she had allowed to board her ship. Soft and gelatinously looking, though demonstratively deadly as their battle had shown, it was almost cute in its own weird way.

No, not almost cute. It was cute. It chirped like a little bird, and even after all these years, Samus had to admit she still had a soft spot for anything that reminded her of a bird. Especially knowing it had come from the same species that had created her. They were almost siblings in a way.

Almost.

She leaned back in the pilot's chair of her ship as they flew farther and farther away from SR-388. It probably wasn't the best idea to let a lethal alien parasite loose in the cockpit with her, but she found herself unable to care about that. The Metroid Hatchling had proven to be an ally, clearing the way for her throughout the labyrinth below the planet's surface, and it had proven itself again in the battle with Proteus Ridley.

Without its help, she realized, she may very well not have made it back onto this ship. She'd fought Ridley before, but he had never pinned her and come so close to defeating her as he had in that last fight. It gave her pause. He was getting stronger, and she knew their next encounter would truly put her strength to the test.

The Metroid chirped suddenly, snapping Samus out of her thoughts. It floated playfully in front of her, shifting from one side to the other and continuing to chirp as it did so.

"What are you doing?" she asked, realizing it was the first time she had spoken to the creature out loud. There was a strange feeling of finality to it, as if her verbal acknowledgment of the Metroid's presence somehow made the whole situation real. "More importantly, what am I going to do with you?"

She couldn't exactly keep it as a pet. For one thing, bioweapons like the Metroid were banned throughout Federation territory, and for another thing she had been ordered to exterminate the species. Not adopt one.

She was trying to figure out how exactly she would get a collar on a pet Metroid when all of a sudden the ship's communication system alerted her of an incoming call. Snatching the baby Metroid out of the air with lightning reflexes, she managed to drag it down and trap it between her knees before the holoscreen materialized with its image of the Federation Marine Admiral staring at her intently.

"I assume your departure from SR-388 means you've completed the mission, Aran," he said. He was a short man, probably in his sixties. He had white hair and olive skin, but Samus didn't recognize him. At this point she'd interacted with so many high-ranking officers in the Federation military, she had stopped trying to tell them apart unless they did something to really stand out.

"Mission accomplished," she said in the synthetic voice of her power suit. "Invasive species exterminated. Not a single Metroid remains on SR-388."

She conveniently left out the part where there was one Metroid still alive on her ship. It struggled against her knees, trying to free itself, but she held it tight below the view of the camera. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do soon.

The little Metroid screeched in frustration, and the Admiral raised an eyebrow at her.

"What was that, Aran?"

"Um…" She paused. "Chozo. I was speaking Chozo."

"Chozo?"

"Yes, Admiral. The Chozo were a bird-like species. They squawked and made sounds your human mouth can't." Trying to cover up the additional chirps of the Metroid, Samus made a few more noises in Chozo. It sounded like a bird squawking or being strangled.

"I see…" The Admiral looked at her skeptically. "And what exactly are you saying in Chozo?"

"Mission accomplished," she lied, "and that it is an honor to be of service to the Galactic Federation."

She had actually said "Dammit, I hate molting season," but there was no reason for the Admiral to know that. It had been so many years since she had spoken Chozo to anyone that it was the first thing that popped into her head. She had heard her fathers say it a lot in the springtime back on the Zebes colony.

"The Galactic Federation is thankful to you for your service as well, Aran," the Admiral said, standing way too stiffly and reluctantly giving her a salute.

Samus just awkwardly gave him a thumbs up as she rushed to switch off the holoscreen. She hadn't done that a moment too soon because as soon as the Admiral's image disappeared, the baby Metroid burst free from the vice-like grip of her thighs and began chirping angrily at her and floating around her head.

Somehow though, she knew it wouldn't attack her.

"Sorry, but that was a close one. I can't have anyone finding out about you just yet, um… Baby."

It chattered at her like a cat, but eventually it seemed to calm down and go back to floating around playfully and exploring her ship.

"What am I going to do with you?" she asked again, not expecting any kind of response. She wasn't exactly looking forward to explaining to the stuffed shirts of the top brass why she was transporting illegal alien cargo. They wouldn't understand, and even if they did, they would probably just want to take the Baby and make it into a weapon.

No, if she was going to take it anywhere, she had to make sure it would only be studied for peaceful applications. Somewhere with people who respected life and wouldn't try to alter it. Basically, she needed to find some hippie scientists.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered as she keyed in a few words to the search engine and watched as a holoscreen appeared with links to different research stations within the Federation. She scrolled through it for a while before one research station stood out to her.

Ceres.

She had studied a bit of classical human mythology amongst the Chozo before trying to reintegrate with her species. It had never proven particularly useful, but she remembered the name Ceres. She was the Roman goddess of agriculture, the harvest, and maternal relationships. If she was going to find a ship full of hippie scientists, she'd bet it would be on a research station named after a maternal plant goddess.

"See that, Baby?" she said, looking over to the hatchling. It chirped and floated over to rest on her shoulder. "I think we may have just found a good home for you. Some place where you could help do some real good for the galaxy."

It made its chattering sounds again, and Samus smiled. She knew, against her better judgment, that she was developing a soft spot for her little companion. Slowly, so as not to disturb the Metroid perched on her shoulder, Samus reached up and removed her helmet.

The Metroid squished up and down and chirped excitedly as Samus's face came into view for the first time. It was a little bruised up, and her bottom lip was bleeding, but she smiled back at the little creature as she freed her sweat-caked hair from its ponytail.

"Surprised, little guy?" She laughed. "You didn't think that helmet was my actual face, did you?"

The Metroid chirped incoherently, but it sounded happy and that made Samus grin. She turned back to the ship's console and put in the coordinates for the Ceres Research Station.

"Look, I don't want you to think I'm abandoning you," she said as her ship changed course. "I'm just taking you to somewhere with people who can take better care of you than I can. They're Federation scientists, but they specialize in creating things for peaceful application. Medicines and eco-friendly stuff and the like from what I can tell."

She pointed out the description of the station on the Ceres Research Group's website. The Metroid looked like it was trying to read it, chattering to itself all the while.
"They're going to take good care of you there," she said, looking over to her small friend with a sad smile. "I wouldn't be a good mama for you. Trust me. Mine died when I was little, and the only mama figure I had growing up was a giant brain that lived in a jar and eventually tried to kill me. Heh… my dads were all right though. Old Bird and Grey Voice adopted me into their family and raised me as their daughter."

She frowned.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not that I want to get rid of you." She wasn't sure if the Metroid could understand any of what she was saying, but it seemed to be listening despite its lack of ears. "I just want you to be safe. I couldn't give you that. My life is way too dangerous."

The Metroid chirped and gently began to nuzzle itself against her face. Samus didn't know how to respond to that. It had been a very long time since any creature had shown her any level of affection, and sitting there wearing the armor of the ancient Chozo war god, it wasn't hard to figure out why.

"Hey," she said as they exited hyperspace and the Ceres Research Station came into view. "You're going to be okay, Squishy. I'm going to make sure you're well taken care of by these people and they give you a good life."

She gently began to pet the top of the little Metroid as it let out a series of contented squeaks.

"I will make sure you're safe, even if we'll be apart. I promise. I'll always protect you."