Return to Coruscant [Exemplary]

[Samus Aran]

Samus switched on the lights to her apartment as she stepped off the landing pad and out of the rain. Her suit shimmered before fading into an orange light and vanishing. She shook her hair, crossed to the sofa, and threw herself down.

“Hey, Adam.”

“Hey, Samus.”

Adam was no normal artificial intelligence. Once a man, Samus’s commanding officer in her years at the Galactic Federation, he’d been one of the few people Samus had ever trusted entirely. In a bid to stop the Federation’s metroid-breeding program, he had sacrificed his own life.

Years later, Samus discovered that his intelligence and personality had been uploaded before his death. They’d been reunited only a short time before Samus had been jerked out of her own world to the Omniverse. But in the Omniverse, anything can be called from memory …

“I was worried about you, Samus.”

… Sometimes, she regretted that.

Samus folded her hands behind her head and gave a shrug. “I can’t check in all the time. Bounty hunting is my job, you know?”

There was a dull humming, the noise Adam’s computerised voice made when it was calculating the words to say. “I heard that the dragon had been killed, but you were nowhere to be found.”

“I was only gone a few days,” said Samus with a slight edge of ridicule in her tone.

“No you weren’t.” Adam’s deep tone never relayed much of his true feeling. He was much like Samus in that way. You had to read between the lines. “It might have seemed like days, but months have passed to us mundane secondaries.”

For the lack of anything to look at, Samus eyed the ceiling. “I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

There was a dull humming. “Were you hurt?”

Samus said nothing.

“Were you … did you die?”

The bounty hunter’s eyes flashed something between anger and concern. “No! I got … I got taken off guard. Sucker punched. Some people helped me out. Proto Man was there. I met some other guy, wizard, he took me back to his place. Seemed nice. It didn’t turn out to be a trap, in any case.”

There was a sound like a suppressed chuckle. “Okay. Well, I’m glad you’re alright. Are you going to be staying long?”

Samus frowned. “I don’t think so.”

The hunter was still on her mind. Cindy. She supposed it was no big deal, really, for one Prime to backstab another in the Omniverse. It probably happened all the time. No doubt it had been nothing personal to Cindy.

But it was personal to Samus. The anger flowed through her veins like molten lava. She would keep it there, beneath the surface. When the time came, she’d let it explode. Preferably, though, sooner than later.

“So what are you going to do?” asked Adam.

“For now? Sleep.”

And so she did.

Dragonfire. In reality, the Rathalos was a Rathalos. She could see it, and its face was plain, foolish. Like an angry dog. She had kept that sight in her mind’s eye as she fought it, and her fear was controllable. Ordinary. Day-to-day. Just another beast to be put down.

But in her dreams the eyes took on a sinister intelligence. A sadism. Before it, her arms felt weak, her suit suddenly so heavy. It was so fast, and its tail whipped around with a speed she could barely register. She was helpless as it bit down. Felt herself lifted in its jaws. All the Chozo’s protection, the armor they’d gifted her to keep her safe. The dragon didn’t care. It laughed. Its teeth cut through like butter, down into her flesh, and she couldn’t even scream.