Every time I see the group of Pirates’ names/numbers on screen I instantly know something funny is about to happen, lol.

The more post-Fusion fics I read the more I think Mercury Steam just read a bunch of fanfiction and went: “Okay, now let’s take all of this disconnected nonsense and attempt to form a cohesive storyline!”

And it worked. Dread is awesome.

Good work my friend.

Why is two Space Pirates attempting to make small talk always so amusing? Lmao.

That was amazing!

Loving this so far! Like, in general, but especially the subtle bit of like...mmh, off-hand worldbuilding? (She hadn't the number of tentacles to convey her wishes, for example, and that him being commander of such a vessel meant that the only things out here not under his control were *certain* laws of physics XD), and just, yeah. Is cool, reading more.

Your story is amazing. I sit here in awe of not only the story but also the thoughts behind the story. I love when a story makes me think about big concepts like life, energy, matter, thought, free will, predetermination, etc.

Focusing on the big picture like I tend to do leaves me blind to small flaws, so in my mind's eye your work is perfect. One specific detail I liked was how the suit cannibalized it's functions in order to protect Samus, I've never read that take before.

I recently found your fic on ao3 and have been absolutely LOVING it. Y'know the cliche of hooking the reader through the first few lines? That's what you did. Ill prob leave more comments gushing but for now im going to treat myself to a reread. thanks so much

For some reason I missed the final chapter. I think I was busy and just forgot about it, but remembered this story and read chapter 26 just now.

The threat the chozo described reminds me of the Reapers from mass effect, though it seems to be a "natural" process? Or some kind of entity?

Amazing story, I hope you'll write more in the future!

i just finished this masterpiece today and im glad i found this. Cuofeng, you may not see this or read it, but your story has easily become one of my favorite reads on this site. The action, setting, the antagonists and mind of samus is perfect. If you do read this, just know you are doing all metroid fans a kind service! And thank you for such an amazing story. Btw fav scene is samus' declaration of war against everyone, and all the space pirate shenanigans!

It would have surprised me to no end had Samus not chosen to fight the devouring darkness, whatever it may be. As she had said, there was really no choice for her at all, even if there is no hope of victory to contain the star-swallowing darkness.

And the Chozo doing everything the hardest way possible does lend a gravitas to their actions, perhaps an attempt to lend real consequential weight to the lessons they would teach any that might follow them, or perhaps to punish themselves for their failures and weaknesses... or both. In any case, Samus seems to have been granted the wings the Chozo themselves could never attain.

Then as Samus plunges toward the darkness, you finish with another paragraph that seems to have Samus going on her Zero Mission. Interesting in a sort of reverse full-circle moment that I took as implying that perhaps Samus going into the darkness was her final mission, so here is an excerpt from her very first mission. It is certainly poetic in a way, but I don't really understand its purpose.

I would say the story overall is exceptionally solid, though I will admit that toward the end, the level of abstraction did get confusing for me. I am not well versed in philosophy of any kind having never had much more than a cursory interest in the subject, so even though the lines on the page were easy enough to follow, the philosophical underpinnings did befuddle me in places. This is not so much a complaint as an admittance of my own lack of understanding. I believe my biggest source of confusion came from when Samus destroyed the First Metroid, she sort of became the First in authority among the other metroids and thats why they didn't attack her, and even aided her in the final battle against the Last.

Now, it is not like metroids helping Samus is unprecedented, the baby metroid in Super Metroid did just that. In this case, I believe you might have been a little too subtle in spelling this out here in your story, however. Normally, you use subtly well, but I believe in some places a tad more overtness might be in order.

Other than this there is absolutely nothing to complain about. You write excellently, clear and concise in prose and literal intent, gorgeous imagery, heart-pumping action, profound characterization... I mean, as far as I am concerned, you have Samus down to a T, and I really liked your Ridely as well, despite the peripheral role he played in your story (understandable since he has been curb-stomped by Samus a thousand times at this point).

So kudos for such an entertaining and thought-provoking story about everybody's favorite bug-smashing, world-killing, bounty hunter badass, Samus Aran.

Wow! That was a crazy ending, in a very interesting way!
The twists of the final battle were amazing, with the hyper beam and actions of the Metroids particularly interesting. The line from the Aurora Unit, as well as the fact that the Space Pirate prediction of a ship came to be true, were both hilarious without distracting from the tone in general.

The battle scene, the wave beam moments, the interaction between the two Ridleys, the Pirates, and Samus's battle perception: I thought it was all very amazing and creative! I have to admit, I didn't entirely understand the dialogue the Mecha Ridley initially threw at Samus, though Samus's observation of their treachery was, in its own dark little way, hilarious.

The transition from the flashback was quite good, I really enjoyed it.

I will admit I don't understand how Samus turned the tables here, whether she got her suit back through sheer force of will, or if she was in charge of the metroids this whole time and them wounding her allowed her to transfer their energy into her so she could reconstitute her suit. I'm not sure, maybe this was all just too abstract for me or I have forgotten things from previous chapters.

Maybe the next chapter can clear some of this up. Either that or I need to go back and re-read some things from before.

Dang, that was... it was something alright. Absolutly glorious. I loved the story from begining to end. Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Loved it. Really well written. What I liked the most were the flashbacks. Hope you can do more stories

The Last is certainly not wrong about Samus, but I knew that little blurb would not be enough to sway the Hunter to abandon her pursuit. Fortunately, the Last had better.

Also, the heat death of the universe? I fully admit I initially felt as incredulous as Samus about the Last fearing that, but that is because I am using my limited human perspective. Naturally, the Chozo view time differently and you explained this effectively after the initial bout of incredulity wore off. So, yes, I suppose from their perspective the fear is very real. If an eon can be parsed down to the same as an hour, the terror can be translated.

Now, I will be honest and say that I had expected another replica like Dark Samus, but you did me one better. I did not expect the menagerie. Of course, grotesque monsters are nothing new for Samus, but the mental assault tied to their manifestation was actually effective... for Samus and for me. Very nice work.

And now it seems the final showdown is about to begin. I don't for the life of me believe you could have picked a better place for it. And the Last is such a fascinating antagonist that it will be interesting to see where all this leads.