Chapter Eight: It Who Feeds



The stone door hadn't budged an inch, but Samus was determined. She grunted and pressed her palms into the indents on the edge and dug her heels into the ground. With a heave, she pressed all her strength into the stone. Her breath came in ragged gasps, but the door wouldn't move. Snarling, Samus crossed her arms and scowled at it. Why wouldn't it open?

"There you are." Samus whirled around, arms raised defensively, but it was only Old Bird. The elderly Chozo raised an eyebrow as she let her arms drop to her sides. "I had wondered where you ran off to, Samus."

She shuffled her feet, avoiding his eyes. Would Old Bird be mad that she'd run away from training? Meditating just seemed so boring when she could be exploring instead. "I got lost," she offered as an excuse.

"That is alright, Samus," he responded, raising his hand in an open palm gesture. "Do be careful when wandering these caves, however. There are many areas which have not been explored in a very long time." The Chozo's gaze shifted from Samus to the stone door. "Indeed, this one for much longer than most."

Samus turned back to the door. It was plain. Simply a round, stone door. Chozodia used plasma hatches, so this would have to be really old.

"Where does this go?" she asked.

The Chozo walked up to Samus and placed a hand on her shoulder. Though she was nine, she was taller than most girls her age would be, at least she assumed. She was already as tall as Old Bird was. He told her once that it was a secondary effect of the procedure that allowed her to survive living on Zebes.

"When you are older, you may be ready to know. This is not someplace that you should be exploring. It is dangerous." Old Bird's voice left no room for disagreement, but he put an arm around Samus' shoulders as he led them away. Samus nodded, but she couldn't resist one last glance at the door behind her.

The rocky cavern began to shake. Gravel fell from where the top of the stone door met the ceiling as it became unhinged. Light peaked out in a thin ray from behind it as the door began to crumble away, but once gone it left a void in the cave wall, black and empty. Samus' breathing became hard, and she gritted her teeth. Her eyes darted in each direction looking for Old Bird. He was gone. From within, a booming voice called out.

I am Ful-Tahn. Golden Beak. The Chozo warrior. You will know me.

"What is this?" Samus asked.

Like you, I was abandoned. They escaped the destruction of their home, leaving us behind. Do you believe they cared?

Samus stumbled backwards into the cave wall. From the darkness emerged Golden Beak, like a predator stalking its prey. The Chozo wore a metallic suit of red and gold. It was a Chozo battle suit, like the ones she saw painted on the walls of Chozodia, only without a helmet. Samus instinctively grabbed her right arm, but there was nothing there. As Golden Beak's voice echoed throughout the cave, his eyes fixed on Samus with a cold and emotionless glare incompatible with the tenure of his voice.

Our people searched the cosmos for life. We were met with warriors and sages. To survive, we had to adapt; we had to fight; and we had to learn. We reached the zenith of our great empire, and like all those before it, we grew complacent. We were secure, so why should we fight?

I have searched the vaults of your mind for our teachings, and though there are many, they are lacking. Did they not tell you of our history? I found only what suited them. I had felt your mind before when you were young. And his.

Golden Beak reached out with his arm cannon, pointing beside Samus. Old Bird was there once more, frozen in place. Samus found herself unable to move.

Such brilliance. Samus Aran, you are the culmination of our decadence. To hand off our technology to one that is not our own, to proclaim you a galactic savior, and yet not tell you the truth of our follies? You must be curious.

Samus moved forward, but not of her own volition. Instead of walking or running, she was lifted from the ground as if the planet's gravity had disappeared. As she moved closer to Golden Beak, she saw behind him, passed the open stone doorway. A massive metal structure of Chozo design filled with wires and brimming with electricity. In the center, a single glass tube, and within an infant Metroid.

We created the Metroid, Samus. The Ultimate Warrior.

Golden Beak turned his head and looked into the structure. Samus was thrust forward into it as if thrown. She landed on the clean, metal floor. She could move on her own again and turned to face the Chozo. Again she reached for her arm.

He didn't speak; he only stood there. The sound of shattered glass broke Samus' concentration, followed by the familiar screech of a Metroid.

Samus' eyes snapped open, and with a sharp exhale she groaned. She was awake.

There was a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she glanced over to see several small holes in her zero suit that each burned with searing pain. Samus cursed silently, before surveying her situation. She laid on an uncomfortable metal slab in the dreary medical bay of a pirate fortress. She'd seen these assemblies before. Space Pirates, despite their ruthless nature, did care for the sick and the injured in some capacity. This often involved some twisted experiment, stitching pieces back together until the quilted mess was sent back onto the field for Samus to destroy once more. Being on the other side of this felt strange.

Her arms and legs were bound to the slab with tight strips of metal. She began to remember what happened before she fell asleep. No, not asleep. Drugged. The memories were unclear, but she saw that thing, that creature with the translucent skin, followed by that Chozo. A Chozo. He had de-materialized her suit and drugged her. She tugged on her arms, but even as her strength returned to her the metal did not budge.

Samus closed her eyes and focused. If her bare strength was unable to break this grip, her power suit might be able to. She imagined the suit, trying to tug on that mental space that connected her to it. The Chozo had taught her to envision it, to focus, and to feel its energy. This would pull it from its immaterial state to the physical realm. But she felt no crackling energy, no tingling sensation. When her eyes opened, she remained in her zero suit, lying on the metal slab.

The plasma hatch to the medical bay opened with its distinct chime, and the sound of pattering against metal drew close. Samus counted two distinct gaits. She turned her head to find two Zebesian Space Pirates standing a few feet away from her. They were brutish, ugly creatures. They could hardly be classified as bugs or crustaceans, but their gray exoskeleton and large claws, coupled with their small, angular heads gave them the appearance of bipedal lobsters. It was a common insult among the GF troopers back in Samus' Police days. Lobster-heads. If Samus were in a favorable position, she might have tried her luck naming them.

The pirates were standing there idly for several minutes before Samus noticed the small flashes coming from their eyes. Normally, Zebesians had yellow eyes that glowed faintly in dimly lit rooms such as these, but these two were different. Their eyes were a bright green. Perhaps these two had been bio-engineered to have cameras in their eyes. It wouldn't be the oddest thing Samus saw recently.

"What're y'doin'?" Samus' words were slurred as they came out, muffled by a stiff, uncooperative tongue. The two pirates made a noise that Samus knew was their equivalent to laughing. It was a repetitive clicking noise made by flicking their tongues against either side of their mandibles. They were mocking her.

One of the pirates leaned over Samus, its eyes meeting hers. Once more, its eyes flashed.

Samus tugged on her arms, then yelped as her shoulder roared with fiery pain. She grimaced, still struggling in her binds as the pirates clicked their tongues.

"Basts," Samus attempted to say. "Ahl kih you." Whatever threat her words held, the pirates ignored.

"The great metal hunter, reduced to a slurring mess!" One of them finally spoke in its native hissing language. Samus was familiar enough to know what they said. "Aren't you a pathetic thing. How did you ever cause us any trouble?"

"She had that power suit," the other pirate added. This pirate was now standing by another metal slab, covered with various tools. Samus only now noticed that this one only had one claw. The Zebesian's other arm ended in a misshapen mess of a three-pronged hand. "Without it, she's completely defenseless." It reached down and grabbed something outside of Samus' field of view. Before she could get a chance to look, the pirate standing over her brought its claw down to her face. The pirate opened its claw and Samus could see the mechanical plasma cannon embedded in its arm. The pirate brought its claw to Samus' neck and firmly squeezed. Samus choked and wheezed as air struggled to pass. She could breathe, but barely.

"It would be too easy to just kill you. But our orders are clear," the pirate said. "Be on your best behavior, hunter."

"Fuh yuh," Samus responded, the words now additionally muffled by the claw around her throat.

The pirate clicked its tongue and turned its head to the other pirate. "Hurry up! If we're fast enough, maybe we can get a commendation from the science committee. A fat raise and first in line for rations."

"Wohdnt tah tough've I've free."

The pirate squeezed its claw and Samus let out a pained groan. It hissed – not any words but a primal noise – and turned its head back to her. "You're an annoying monkey, you know that? That sedative really knocked the sense out of you." It took its second claw and brought it down to the metal strip cuffing Samus to the slab. "We were told to study you. Maybe I should cut you into pieces, then we can just study your corpse."

"Quiet! The bird told us to keep her alive." The other pirate interjected from across the room, still messing around the table.

The claw around Samus' throat lessened its grip as the pirate's attention became focused on the metal strip. "Fine, I'll keep her alive. But I'm not passing up this opportunity to have some fun smacking her around." The pirate gripped the metal strip between its claws and yanked, breaking it off from the slab. His claw grasped Samus' wrist and pulled, agitating the wound on her shoulder and causing her to cry out in pain. The pirate's tongue clicks continued.

The second pirate shuffled over and paid no mind to the other's conduct. In its hand was a long metal rod with a small circular buzz saw attached to the end. No plasma, just old fashioned metal. "If you're done playing, I'd like to get some testing done." The three-pronged pirate looked down at Samus. "Don't worry. You'll feel everything." It then looked back to the other pirate. "Let her go, so we can begin."

It only took a moment.

The pirate released Samus' wrist and throat, and without hesitation, Samus grabbed the pirate's claw. With a forceful jerk, Samus twisted its arm. Ignoring the pirate's screech of pain, she finessed her fingers in between the claws and found the plasma cannon. Just underneath, she felt a bundle of nerves joined by metal. She pointed its claw at the other pirate and squeezed the nerves like a trigger. The other pirate had no time to dodge and was struck in the face by a bolt of plasma. It fell back onto the slab of equipment and landed with a heavy thud.

The pirate in Samus' grasp struggled to free itself, but Samus was well aware of Zebesian anatomy. Its joints were easily locked, and in its current position, it was at Samus' mercy.

"I told you," Samus said. "I would kill you."

Before they could respond, Samus turned the pirate's claw to its own head and squeezed the trigger twice. Each bolt of plasma hit their mark, scorching the pirate's face into a disfigured mess. The pirate slumped over top of Samus, dead.

Taking the dead pirate's claw, Samus pointed its plasma cannon to the metal strips constraining her other hand. She smirked in self-satisfaction at fooling the pirates. As if she had never been captured before! Still, she took a deep breath and fired. It was tricky shooting something so close to her skin, but Samus was anything but a poor marksman. The metal strip flew off her hand – thankfully not in her direction – and her hand was freed without injury. With both hands free, she was able to simply pry the strips off from her feet. She had enough strength for that, at least.

She carefully dismounted the slab and found herself looking to the plasma hatch. Standing next to two dead space pirates, she thought she recovered enough strength to access her power suit. But as she tried once more to reach out to it, she felt nothing. "So, I crash landed onto Zebes, I can't access my power suit, and I'm stuck inside a Space Pirate base? Nothing I haven't seen before," she said with a wry smile. It was an attempt to keep her spirits up. She had faced adverse odds her entire career. Situations like these were her normal.

All except for that Chozo.

"Ful-Tahn. Golden Beak," Samus said his name under her breath. "Why didn't Old Bird ever tell me about him? Who the hell is he?" Her head began to throb. She pressed her hand to her forehead and winced. She continued speaking to herself as she bent down over the dead pirate on the slab full of equipment.

"That wasn't a dream, then. That was him."

She grabbed the dead pirate and dragged it across the room, which ached her shoulder. Its plasma cannon would work so long as its nerves were attached to the trigger. Pointing its claw to the door, she fired a bolt at the hatch. Samus was unsure if there were other pirates around. No one had entered when she attacked the others, but perhaps they thought that was part of their experimentation. With the hatch open, she continued to drag the pirate to the doorway.

Samus peaked outside and found a long, empty corridor. No pirates, no defense system, and no Chozo. Empty once again. Without a map, Samus didn't know where to go. Pirate design was intentionally bare, focusing on function over form. It was easy to get lost in the labyrinthine designs. She would need to be careful. Even if there were no pirates in the immediate area, she was still hurt. Carrying around a half-tonne dead pirate as a weapon wouldn't help, either.

Samus moved through the dark hallway, only lit by the few red lightbars embedded into the corners. As she dragged along the corpse of the Space Pirate, using its plasma cannon to open the various hatches, she found her strength slowly returning to her. Being able to move around and stretch her legs allowed her to dig up some stored energy.

She came upon a large metal door surrounded by two pairs of smaller plasma hatches at the end of one of the corridors. It didn't appear to have any opening mechanisms. None Samus could find without her scan visor. Without her suit, she was running blind.

The red lights in the corners began to flash, and Samus knew immediately she was in trouble. In the distance, she could hear an alarm. It seemed the pirates were aware of her escape. This would complicate things.

She fired at one of the plasma hatches, opening to reveal a small ancillary storage area. It was filled with metal crates and machine parts. Samus couldn't stay in the open for long. Eventually, the pirates would find her and she would need to fight, but she would need the element of surprise. She brought the pirate corpse with her, stored it behind several of the larger crates, then ducked behind a machine that, with a cursory glance, appeared to be excavation equipment.

The equipment, Samus noted, was Federation design. Possibly stolen from the Aegir.

Samus doubted there would be an immediate onslaught of pirates, and so waited. Taking this chance to check her wounds, she ran her fingers along her perforated zero suit. The wounds stung as her fingers passed over the little holes. They didn't bleed and appeared skin deep, but the pain felt much deeper. Burning at the surface, but throbbing underneath. She had been wearing her power suit at the time, and she couldn't remember seeing it bite her.

I have calmed your senses until this point, just as I hid our presence.

She remembered what Golden Beak had said. Her chest tightened and she balled her fist as she thought about what he had been doing. "Shit, if he's messing with my mind, how do I know he isn't right now?" she said under her breath. Samus shook her head. "No, no, that can't be it. There has to be another explanation." With a long inhale, Samus counted down from ten. The tenseness started to leave her chest.

The alarm outside sounded distant and muffled through the walls, but Samus could hear it being overtaken by another sound. Footsteps. Many footsteps. The sound of carapace and steel clamoring against one another as a squadron of pirates, at least, searched for her. They drew close, and Samus reached over to the corpse she had stowed. The pirates were shouting various phrases and curses. It was too muffled, and there were too many voices, for Samus to make any in particular out. She pulled the corpse closer to her and held its claw, peaking out from behind her cover, ready for them to open the plasma hatch.

Samus heard a plasma hatch opening, but it wasn't to her storage closet. They had started elsewhere. Likely they would search each room one at a time. They would want to be thorough.

She heard a second hatch open. This time there was some shouting. It sounded angry. They hadn't found anything yet. Then came a third hatch's chime.

There was shouting, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of plasma firing.

Then came screaming.

The sounds swelled to a cacophony of dull thumps and piercing plasma shots. Samus was well aware of what a battle sounded like. Hoisting the corpse over the crates, Samus aimed for the plasma hatch and fired. It opened, and Samus cautiously neared the doorway to survey the battle.

Two pirates stood at a distance, firing in the opposite direction of Samus. They were surrounded by felled pirates. Half a dozen bodies, strewn about in terrified positions, bleeding from obvious puncture wounds in their chest, neck, and head. The still standing pirates showed no signs of noticing Samus. They were shouting, "Hit it! Kill this damn thing!" in their native tongue. Then came a smack, and it appeared.

Another one of those things.

The humanoid creature with the translucent, green skin was already upon the Space Pirates. It grappled one as the other fired on it. The plasma bolts seemed to not affect it at all, harmlessly absorbed by its elastic skin, as it threw the first pirate into the other. They landed on the floor and the creature jumped on top of them. It raised its hand and Samus saw that, unlike the first, this creature had a large protrusion sticking out from the back of its wrist. Shaped like a scythe, Samus knew it was a keratin deposit. It looked like a horn or fang.

The creature brought it upon the pirates. Their armor and exoskeleton did nothing to protect them as the creature stabbed them repeatedly in their chests in wide arcing swings. It heaved, ignoring the pirates' attempts to shove them off. The pirates writhed, but after several swings, their arms stopped flailing and their legs stopped kicking. They were both dead.

The creature sat on its knees by the two bodies. It brought its fanged wrist down one more time, digging into one of the dead. The creature let out a loud exhale, and Samus watched in horror as the pirate's body slowly withered away. The exoskeleton weakened and crumbled into dust, exposing their desiccated innards, which too crumbled to dust. Unlike the pirates Samus had seen before, this one had been fully fed on by the monstrosity before her.

Without her ice beam, Samus couldn't hope to kill this thing. She recognized that immediately. Conventional weaponry was ineffective against Metroids, and if this thing were the Metroids' bastard child, then a plasma cannon would never pierce its skin. She would need heavy firepower.

The creature removed its fang from the pirate, then slowly stood up to its feet. Its head slowly moved to the left, then the right, as if it were looking for something. Perhaps ensuring the pirates were all taken care of. Then it turned around, facing Samus as she stood in the open doorway of a storage closet.

With nowhere to run, Samus squeezed the triggering nerve of her makeshift weapon, knowing it would be useless, and a bolt of plasma shot out from its claw. It flew towards the creature, who reacted in a fluid motion, bending back so as to dodge the attack. The plasma flew past, down the corridor. The creature contorted its body, its balance shifting to its hand before returning to its feet.

"Stop!"

A woman's voice called out. Samus was unwilling to avert her gaze, but the voice, clearly human, came from one of the other rooms. The one the pirates had just opened.

"He won't hurt you!" the voice cried out. The woman grabbed Samus' arm and, instinctively, she dropped the pirate's claw, reached for the arm, and twisted it into a locked position, forcing the woman to her knees. Samus hadn't even gotten a look at the woman's face before the creature had begun running towards her. She braced herself, pushing the woman to the ground and raising her hands.

"Justin, stop!"

The creature, mere feet away from Samus, stopped in its tracks as the woman cried out. Samus took this chance to look down and saw the woman reaching out with her palm facing the creature she called Justin. Samus remembered that these things were people once. Perhaps it still had some of that humanity left.

"He won't hurt you," the woman said. "He's just scared."

"I can't take that chance," Samus responded.

"Escape."

It wasn't the woman who had spoken. The creature, Justin, whose voice was strained and hoarse as if his throat was filled with mucus, had talked. It pointed to the woman, then itself, and then up.

Samus knelt down beside the woman and offered her her hand. The woman accepted, and Samus helped to stand the woman. She was relatively young, likely her early twenties, with a shaved head.

"Who are you?" Samus asked.

"I'm Myra," the woman responded. "And that's Justin. And you? You don't handle yourself like a civilian."

"I'm Samus Aran." Her response was flat, simply a statement of fact. In a situation like this, however, it felt strange. If she were on a mission, usually anyone who wasn't a threat knew who she was. Without her power suit, she simply looked like any other abnormally Amazonian woman.

"The Samus Aran?" the woman replied with a skeptical raise of the eyebrow. "I had heard that Samus was a woman. But anyone can claim that. Don't you normally wear a power suit?"

"Yes. I don't have access to it right now. And I don't think there's time to explain." Samus looked over to the dead carcasses. "If you're trying to escape, I can help." Her gaze shifted to the creature. Justin. She would need to remember his name. "But I want to know everything as soon as we're off planet."

Big thanks to u/holliequ for critiquing the opening on Reddit! As well as to everyone who has reviewed.