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Chapter 7

The Darkness Within

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When you think the answer is impossible to get, it is always right in front of you. I hate that saying, but it is the truest one I’ve heard in years. Sometimes the answer is right there, in plain sight. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve backtracked through the inside of the planet Zebes, only to find out that I was passing the solution to all my problems every time.

I felt so blind sometimes…but as the years went by I’ve learned to let my eyes see the answer a little faster.

-Samus Aran

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“Samus? Samus, are you there? Can you hear me?” Adam was becoming worried. It had been a few hours since he had lost contact with Samus, and nothing had happened since then. Shortly after he had lost contact with the Cyrosio, and this only compounded his fears. “Samus, if you can hear me, head to the surface now, I’m going to pick you up and we’re going to leave. This isn’t worth it…”

“Lost someone?”

“Gah!” Adam took a few nanoseconds to clear his processor of the bits of random code that had appeared when he had heard the voice. It was calm, cold, and far from human. It was the kind of voice that you hear a doctor using when he is telling you that you have so long to live, and he doesn’t really care. Except, this voice was female.

“Oh, did I scare you?” The voice gave a cold chuckle. “How ironic. You are far from able to feel fear, but here I am scaring you out of your processes.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Shura, the AI aboard the Valence.” The voice was sharp and to the point now. “I have lost contact with the Cyrosio and I came around the planet to find out why. You are in a very suspicious position, you understand. My superiors want me to question you…I think they are idiots.”

“I do not know what happened to the Cyrosio.” Adam explained. “All I know is that they were talking about aberrant behavior in their test subjects, whatever that means, and then suddenly they vanished. I can’t even pick them up on radar.”

“The same here.” Shura said quietly. “I have a visual on her now…sweet merciful God…”

“What’s going on?”

“Emergency! Shields online, powering up weapons! All ships converge on my position now!”

“What’s going on? Valence? Shura? Hello?”

“This is Captain Freer, we are moving towards you.” A new voice said.

“Admiral Ramon is on the other side of the planet.” Another voice broke in. “He is sending a flight of fighters instead, they will reach you faster. We are coming in behind the Novastam II and Captain Freer now. What the?! The Cyrosio is powering up weapons? Novastam, break off, the X-6 device is charging!”

“I can’t see, where is-“ The new voice vanished in a burst of static.

“We’ve lost the Novastam.” Shura said. “I am overriding restraining code and beginning my assault, focus on the X-6 cannon!”

“Shura! What is going on up there?” Adam yelled.

“The Cyrosio…the X have invaded it. They’ve taken over, the weapons are powered up and they are somehow using them against us. Get far away from here; you can’t handle this sort of weaponry.”

“I can-“

“That’s an order.” Shura said forcefully. “Whatever you do, don’t enter the atmosphere. You might get infected by the X.”

“The X cannot infect AIs.”

“They’re using weapons, they’re moving that ship. They have already taken out a battle-cruiser using weapons not even most humans understand. Who’s to say they can’t take over a simple computer program?”

“I…I understand. Good luck.” Adam focused his transmissions on the planet. “Samus…you’d better get out of there now. We need you up here. You are the key to winning this war…”

--

Samus Aran

--

Samus ducked as the copy of herself swung its arm-cannon like a club, trying to beat her brains out. It snarled and stomped the ground, cracking stone. Not only was it in a power-suit, and not human, it was also male and thus had more muscle mass than Samus. In a toe-to-toe slug fest, she would have lost right off the bat.

The copy snarled and dropped to the ground, clicking noises preceding its transformation into a sphere that was black with yellow lines across its surface, thrumming with a steady rhythm. The orb rolled towards Samus at a tremendous pace, and she hopped out of the way as it rolled up a wall, across the ceiling, and then dropped down on her, turning back into the full-sized SA-X.

Samus raised her arm-cannon, firing off a beam of blue light, which struck the copy dead in the chest. The light dissipated without harming it whatsoever; it was immune to the ice beam. Samus dove out of the thing’s path as it charged at her, slamming into a wall when it missed. It had struck so hard its visor was cracked when it turned around…but the crack healed itself like a living thing a moment later.

The copy raised its weapon, giving a short grunt as the golden beam lanced out. Whatever this creature was…it was a terrible shot. The beam missed by several feet, boiling the surface of the water a few feet away. Samus returned fire, but her ice beam still had no effect. In an attempt to find a weakness, she disabled the ice function and switched to normal plasma.

At this time the copy charged again, and it caught her off guard. It was like being hit by a truck, and Samus went flying backwards. Sparks flew up as she skidded to a stop on the cold stone, and she tried pulling herself to her feet as the copy approached her.

Before Samus could react, the copy was beside her, gripping the underside of her helmet and lifting her to her knees. The golden visor snapped back and the creature smiled at her, unclasping her helmet and removing it. It drew her close, showing silver-gray fangs as it put its face right into hers.

It sniffed. And again. It suddenly seemed confused…even frightened. It released her to drop onto the floor, and lowered its weapon, standing still as it stared at her. Samus waited for several moments, but nothing happened. She reached out and grabbed her helmet from the floor, slowly placing it back on her head and sealing it. The creature did not move.

“What…are you?”

The creature hissed, tilting its head to the side. The visor snapped back into place, and it raised its weapon, growling.

“What do you want?” Samus asked the creature slowly. It made no noise. Samus took a step backwards, and the copy took a step forwards, following her. Samus moved forward towards the copy, and it stepped to the side to let her pass, and then turned to follow her down the hall. It was waiting for something…a signal of some sort. Samus stopped and the copy did as well, and Samus turned to face it.

“Why did you attack me, just to stop now?” She said slowly, and very clearly.

The creature hissed, and its visor snapped upwards to show the glowing yellow eyes and pale skin.

“Why are you following me?”

Of course, there was no answer other than a hiss.

Those eyes… Samus thought. They look like the eyes of the SA-X. If that thing is an X…where did it come from? All of the SA-X were destroyed! Its suit is black…nothing like the ones on the station. It must be some kind of mutation, some new stage in evolution from when the X split…in half?

Samus swallowed, looking down at her suit. The X…they split in half to reproduce. Maybe…but I’m half Metroid, right? Wait…the doctor said I have some X DNA in my system…so maybe… She looked up at the creature. “Shit…”

--

Alpha Squad

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Alpha Squad had found a break room of some sort…some kind of employee lounge. It had only two doors, both were metal, and six vending machines…BlackJack had already broken the glass on them and gathered the goodies inside. Candy, snacks, drink, anything that was there. He even had over-the-counter medication from one machine.

“Wraith, what’s on the radar?” Corpse asked, chewing slowly on a chocolate bar. He hated chocolate, but it was sugar and therefore energy. He would need the energy.

“Nothing but us. There are a few echoes every now and then, but nothing constant.” The panel with the radar screen was set on a table in the center of the room, and it would bleep every now and then. “Spark, how’s the welding going?”

Spark was on a ladder near a vent, welding a plate of steel over it with his weapon. “Eh, we be done ‘ere in no time! Nothing get through ‘ere when Spark is through wit it!”

BAM!

“What the hell was that?” Wraith said in a low voice, looking down at the radar. There was nothing on it but blue blankness, the white lines that showed the layout of the complex, and the faint red dots of each one of the squad. “Sir? Did you hear something?”

“I think I did.” Corpse licked his lips, staring at the door.

Weee ssssseeeee…you…It was a faint whispering…a low voice in agony, trying to speak but making almost no sound. The ‘sound’ cut into them, making their skin tingle. We…seeeee…you…

“Fuck!” BlackJack raised his weapon towards the door. “Stalkers!”

“Damnit! I can’t see them on the radar!” Wraith drew his pistol. “Sir…that door isn’t going to stop a Stalker, and you know it.”

“I know it won’t…we have to hope it will pass us by. Spark! Turn off that JAV!” Spark flipped a switch on his weapon, and there was a low hum as it shut down. “No one move…”

The emergency lights flickered and Blackjack twitched, clenching his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering in the sudden arctic cold. The door creaked from pressure being applied to the other side…and then a dark shape pushed through it, as though it were insubstantial.

It was an arm, vaguely human but ending with long fingers tipped with wicked claws. The skin was so black it sucked the light from the room, and put out its own dark aura. The arm retreated back into the metal…and then the full form stepped through the door as if it wasn’t even there. The figure was human, but with very long limbs and sharp claws, and an elongated skull. The skin had no contrast, no shadow or light areas, just blackness like that of empty space. It had a single eye in the center of its ‘face’, which burned with green light.

The Stalker stood very still in front of the door, breathing slowly. Each breath it took was like a sick man taking his last breath, a cold rasp that was drenched with agony. The creature turned its head slowly to scan the room, searching for something…but not seeming to notice the humans in the room with it. Once it stared straight at BlackJack for a full minute, and the humans found it terribly hard to not move.

The Stalker finally turned and walked through the door and out of the room, and the light returned. Silence… It hissed in the cold voice that was heard from all around. The voice became softer. …we seek…we move…

“Fuck…” BlackJack muttered, letting out a long breath. “…that was close.”

Corpse lowered his weapon and glanced at the radar screen, though it still showed no sign of the demonic creature that had just been there. “Damnit, if the Auquans are using Stalkers now, they must really want the device.”

“You sure it’s the device they’re after, sir?”

“Wraith, what else could it possibly be?”

“…they might be here for an all out extermination.” Wraith shrugged, as if not so sure of himself.

“I think it’s the device.” Corpse set his weapon on the table, then signaled to Spark to continue his work. “But where there are Stalkers, there are Auquan commanders. We need to find the one controlling them so we can find out what they really want with this facility. Wraith, what level is the device on?”

“Level 9.”

“We’re on Level 2…Samus is on Level 3, if she hasn’t fallen too far. We have to get word to her somehow, find a way to get her out of there…to get as far from the device as possible. We have our orders…we can’t let outsiders see the ZEUS…”