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Description
[Note: Disclaimer in Artist's Comments]

The Chozo statues watched over the Artifact Temple as the rain began to fall. Footsteps echoed in that place, heralding the arrival of a newcomer. She was known by many names. To those that had inhabited this place once, she was the Hatchling. To the Space Pirates that pillaged this planet, she was known as the Hunter. But to most others, and to herself especially, she was Samus Aran, mercenary extraordinaire.

She had come to this planet, Tallon IV, not twelve hours ago, having encountered the Space Pirates in orbit and seeking to discover why they were here. It was important to her. A dark cloud upon her past, in the form of an old nemesis, had risen up, and she had seen fit to do what she could to banish it.

In her hours upon the surface of the planet she had learned a great deal. There was more here than the Space Pirates. The Chozo, her adopted parent race, had been here. They had sealed something away beneath this very temple, something that had been poisoning the very life of the planet itself. Clues and tools had been left for her specifically, so that she might finish the work that those here before had been unable to complete. Fortune had seen fit to cast her here, so she had done so. She owed much to the Chozo as it was. It was only fitting that she pay them back however she could.

But now all of the twelve artifacts had been found. She could now gain access to the Meteor Crater, where this Worm that all the scans had spoken of was sealed away. There, hopefully, she could confront it and end its threat.

Samus approached the collection of pillars that represented the artifacts. As she moved among them though, she heard a loud shriek pierce the air. She froze, in spite of herself. She knew just who had made that noise. There was only one being in the entire galaxy capable of making that exact noise, one being that sent an involuntary jolt down the spine of this bounty hunter.

She looked to the sky and found that death itself swept down on metallic wings.

Ridley slammed into the floor of the Artifact Chamber, throwing Samus back against the wall and destroying half the pillars in the room. The bounty hunter shook her head as she got to her feet. The immense dragon turned his head to regard her, cold yellow eyes gazing upon her as they had done in the past, since almost the very beginning of Samus's life.

"Welcome, Hunter."

The words of the Space Pirate commander hung in the air, their hiss still apparent even after the sound itself had faded away. Samus grimaced and held her power beam at the ready.

"This isn't your place to welcome me to, Ridley."

"There are no more of your precious Chozo here, save those few who will not pass on and can only continue to trouble the living," the dragon said, turning to fully face Samus. "They are not worthy enough to reclaim their lost holdings, so I have come for them."

"Even the crazed dead are more worthy than you." Samus looked around the room, searching for some way in which she might be able to gain an advantage over Ridley when this exchange would come to blows, as it inevitably would.

The dragon laughed and his tail lashed out behind him. It reminded the bounty hunter of a cat who has found a mouse, and will now begin to play a long game before it kills its prey. Based on her prior experience with RIdley, this was not an incorrect comparison.

"Perhaps it is these ruins that are not worthy for me," the Space Pirate said. He gestured to the mess that he had made of the Artifact Chamber. "All of this I have done with only a fraction of my power."

"It's all you know how to do," Samus retorted. "Destroy. You can't hold something without it being destroyed in the end."

Ridley chuckled at this. "I'm sure that the ecosystem of this planet would say something similar of you. I saw you making your way through Phendrana. How many young Sheegoths? How many adults? When seen like that, we are not so different, Hunter."

Samus growled. "I'm nothing like you."

"Oh? And why wouldn't you be? After all, we both know that I made you. You are the way you are because you and I met so long ago."

The dragon's words brought up memories. For a moment the bounty hunter was not a bounty hunter, but a three year old girl again. And they were not upon Tallon IV, but K-2L. Her young eyes beheld her mother falling to the ground before Ridley, lifeless, all over again. It was but a momentary flash of the past, but it was enough to elicit a response from Samus. She shook, and a strained sound that was something like pain escaped from her. Ridley seemed to perceive this, for he laughed again.

"So true, is it not?" he asked with a hiss.

The bounty hunter shook her head, trying to shake off any effect that the dragon's words might have had on her. "You're nothing to me," she said. "Nothing more than just another Pirate."

"Do not lie to me, Hunter!" Ridley shrieked. "You know that is not true! You and I are intertwined. Forever the galaxy shall know our struggle until all the reasons we might have fought are lost! And in the end, the one thing they shall remember is that Samus Aran and Ridley met, and did do battle!"

With that, the dragon made his move, soaring up into the sky and spewing forth fire from his mouth. The bounty hunter dove to the side, firing her power beam up at him. And the battle began.

The two titans exchanged blow after blow. Flames and plasma cut the air as they attempted to destroy each other. They did not speak with words now, as they had before. This was not the time to speak like that. The way they spoke was the truest way they knew how, through their conflict.

Samus gave a good account. She kept up a seemingly relentless barrage of missiles and beams, an assault that would have utterly annihilated any lesser being. But Ridley was no such lesser being. It had been hard enough to strike him down before in his lair, in Norfair. Now, though, he had been upgraded. His body was augmented with cybernetics and his power levels increased almost tenfold. His own assault was wearing on the bounty hunter.

At last there was a slip, a momentary bout of exhaustion on the part of Samus, and she found herself tossed to the ground. Before she could enter her Morph Ball state and escape, Ridley wrapped his massive claws around her and held her up in the air. His yellow eyes leered at her. Samus would have fired at him, pumped a missile right into his ugly face, but her weapon was pinned against her side.

"I made you, Hunter," Ridley hissed, opening his mouth a little in what was probably some sort of blood-thirsty expectation. "And I can break you."

It would have been the end. It should have been the end. And yet, it was not. For there was a sound as of a thousand birds screeching in righteous anger. The dragon was suddenly thrown back as the statues that ringed the Artifact Room unleashed one last surprise upon him, fiery red beams that stunned the Space Pirate.

Samus fell to the ground, released from the monster's grip by the assault of the statues. She did not take long to get back on her feet, steadying her stance. Her gaze drifted off for a moment to the statues. They fired no more at Ridley. They had made their move in this battle. But Samus found that a smile drifted to her face all the same. For it was not the first move that they had made on her behalf.

"Thanks, guys," she said, extending gratitude to those who had flung a light into the future to aid her, as they had done before. Then she readied her weapon and advanced towards Ripley, who was beginning to recover from the blow that the statues had dealt him.

A missile streaked out from the dragon, heading right for Samus's head. But she merely side-stepped it, not even bothering to break her stride. Ridley growled and fired another missile, but the bounty hunter shot this one out of the air and simply kept coming. The Space Pirate commander roared and lunged forward, intending to dash Samus against the floor of the Artifact chamber. But she leapt up in the air and somersaulted over the monster as he passed beneath her.

Samus landed and looked back behind herself, as Ridley turned back towards her as well. This time the bounty hunter did not give him any time to try to attack her. She had been charging up a shot from her plasma beam, and now she let it fly into his face. The projectile slammed into Ridley and he stumbled back, teetering close to the very edge of a cliff. The bounty hunter followed this up with yet another charged plasma shot, this one aimed at the Space Pirate's chest. Again, Ridley was sent stumbling back towards the edge of the cliff. He fell on his forelegs, taking deep raspy breaths.

Samus waited a moment. This here was almost over. She wanted Ridley to look up at her though, wanted him to look her in the eyes before she did what had to be done. And so, when the dragon looked up, a grim smile crossed Samus's face.

"You give yourself too much credit, Ridley," the bounty hunter said, raising her weapon and selecting the missile launcher mode. "You couldn't make a thing in the world if you tried. You didn't make me. I made me."

If Ridley had any kind of response to this, it was lost when Samus fired a super missile right at his face. The blast blew the Space Pirate off of the cliff. His hulking form went spiraling into the abyss below, screaming out some curse to the heavens.

Samus took a breath now, waiting for a moment or to to see if her tormenter would rise up after that blow. When he did not, she released a sign of relief and looked back to the Artifact chamber. It had not been Norfair. But that had not mattered. In her heart she thanked the Chozo would would remain forever nameless to her, they who had aided her as Old Bird first had so long ago. If anything, they had more a right to claim they had made her than the monster she had just vanquished.

An orb of light appeared in the center of the room. It didn't take much for Samus to guess that this was what would take her into the impact crater to face whatever was sealed away there. With another sigh the bounty hunter entered the orb. As hard as that fight had been, there was work still to be done.

Description
[Note: Disclaimer in Artist's Comments]

The Chozo statues watched over the Artifact Temple as the rain began to fall. Footsteps echoed in that place, heralding the arrival of a newcomer. She was known by many names. To those that had inhabited this place once, she was the Hatchling. To the Space Pirates that pillaged this planet, she was known as the Hunter. But to most others, and to herself especially, she was Samus Aran, mercenary extraordinaire.

She had come to this planet, Tallon IV, not twelve hours ago, having encountered the Space Pirates in orbit and seeking to discover why they were here. It was important to her. A dark cloud upon her past, in the form of an old nemesis, had risen up, and she had seen fit to do what she could to banish it.

In her hours upon the surface of the planet she had learned a great deal. There was more here than the Space Pirates. The Chozo, her adopted parent race, had been here. They had sealed something away beneath this very temple, something that had been poisoning the very life of the planet itself. Clues and tools had been left for her specifically, so that she might finish the work that those here before had been unable to complete. Fortune had seen fit to cast her here, so she had done so. She owed much to the Chozo as it was. It was only fitting that she pay them back however she could.

But now all of the twelve artifacts had been found. She could now gain access to the Meteor Crater, where this Worm that all the scans had spoken of was sealed away. There, hopefully, she could confront it and end its threat.

Samus approached the collection of pillars that represented the artifacts. As she moved among them though, she heard a loud shriek pierce the air. She froze, in spite of herself. She knew just who had made that noise. There was only one being in the entire galaxy capable of making that exact noise, one being that sent an involuntary jolt down the spine of this bounty hunter.

She looked to the sky and found that death itself swept down on metallic wings.

Ridley slammed into the floor of the Artifact Chamber, throwing Samus back against the wall and destroying half the pillars in the room. The bounty hunter shook her head as she got to her feet. The immense dragon turned his head to regard her, cold yellow eyes gazing upon her as they had done in the past, since almost the very beginning of Samus's life.

"Welcome, Hunter."

The words of the Space Pirate commander hung in the air, their hiss still apparent even after the sound itself had faded away. Samus grimaced and held her power beam at the ready.

"This isn't your place to welcome me to, Ridley."

"There are no more of your precious Chozo here, save those few who will not pass on and can only continue to trouble the living," the dragon said, turning to fully face Samus. "They are not worthy enough to reclaim their lost holdings, so I have come for them."

"Even the crazed dead are more worthy than you." Samus looked around the room, searching for some way in which she might be able to gain an advantage over Ridley when this exchange would come to blows, as it inevitably would.

The dragon laughed and his tail lashed out behind him. It reminded the bounty hunter of a cat who has found a mouse, and will now begin to play a long game before it kills its prey. Based on her prior experience with RIdley, this was not an incorrect comparison.

"Perhaps it is these ruins that are not worthy for me," the Space Pirate said. He gestured to the mess that he had made of the Artifact Chamber. "All of this I have done with only a fraction of my power."

"It's all you know how to do," Samus retorted. "Destroy. You can't hold something without it being destroyed in the end."

Ridley chuckled at this. "I'm sure that the ecosystem of this planet would say something similar of you. I saw you making your way through Phendrana. How many young Sheegoths? How many adults? When seen like that, we are not so different, Hunter."

Samus growled. "I'm nothing like you."

"Oh? And why wouldn't you be? After all, we both know that I made you. You are the way you are because you and I met so long ago."

The dragon's words brought up memories. For a moment the bounty hunter was not a bounty hunter, but a three year old girl again. And they were not upon Tallon IV, but K-2L. Her young eyes beheld her mother falling to the ground before Ridley, lifeless, all over again. It was but a momentary flash of the past, but it was enough to elicit a response from Samus. She shook, and a strained sound that was something like pain escaped from her. Ridley seemed to perceive this, for he laughed again.

"So true, is it not?" he asked with a hiss.

The bounty hunter shook her head, trying to shake off any effect that the dragon's words might have had on her. "You're nothing to me," she said. "Nothing more than just another Pirate."

"Do not lie to me, Hunter!" Ridley shrieked. "You know that is not true! You and I are intertwined. Forever the galaxy shall know our struggle until all the reasons we might have fought are lost! And in the end, the one thing they shall remember is that Samus Aran and Ridley met, and did do battle!"

With that, the dragon made his move, soaring up into the sky and spewing forth fire from his mouth. The bounty hunter dove to the side, firing her power beam up at him. And the battle began.

The two titans exchanged blow after blow. Flames and plasma cut the air as they attempted to destroy each other. They did not speak with words now, as they had before. This was not the time to speak like that. The way they spoke was the truest way they knew how, through their conflict.

Samus gave a good account. She kept up a seemingly relentless barrage of missiles and beams, an assault that would have utterly annihilated any lesser being. But Ridley was no such lesser being. It had been hard enough to strike him down before in his lair, in Norfair. Now, though, he had been upgraded. His body was augmented with cybernetics and his power levels increased almost tenfold. His own assault was wearing on the bounty hunter.

At last there was a slip, a momentary bout of exhaustion on the part of Samus, and she found herself tossed to the ground. Before she could enter her Morph Ball state and escape, Ridley wrapped his massive claws around her and held her up in the air. His yellow eyes leered at her. Samus would have fired at him, pumped a missile right into his ugly face, but her weapon was pinned against her side.

"I made you, Hunter," Ridley hissed, opening his mouth a little in what was probably some sort of blood-thirsty expectation. "And I can break you."

It would have been the end. It should have been the end. And yet, it was not. For there was a sound as of a thousand birds screeching in righteous anger. The dragon was suddenly thrown back as the statues that ringed the Artifact Room unleashed one last surprise upon him, fiery red beams that stunned the Space Pirate.

Samus fell to the ground, released from the monster's grip by the assault of the statues. She did not take long to get back on her feet, steadying her stance. Her gaze drifted off for a moment to the statues. They fired no more at Ridley. They had made their move in this battle. But Samus found that a smile drifted to her face all the same. For it was not the first move that they had made on her behalf.

"Thanks, guys," she said, extending gratitude to those who had flung a light into the future to aid her, as they had done before. Then she readied her weapon and advanced towards Ripley, who was beginning to recover from the blow that the statues had dealt him.

A missile streaked out from the dragon, heading right for Samus's head. But she merely side-stepped it, not even bothering to break her stride. Ridley growled and fired another missile, but the bounty hunter shot this one out of the air and simply kept coming. The Space Pirate commander roared and lunged forward, intending to dash Samus against the floor of the Artifact chamber. But she leapt up in the air and somersaulted over the monster as he passed beneath her.

Samus landed and looked back behind herself, as Ridley turned back towards her as well. This time the bounty hunter did not give him any time to try to attack her. She had been charging up a shot from her plasma beam, and now she let it fly into his face. The projectile slammed into Ridley and he stumbled back, teetering close to the very edge of a cliff. The bounty hunter followed this up with yet another charged plasma shot, this one aimed at the Space Pirate's chest. Again, Ridley was sent stumbling back towards the edge of the cliff. He fell on his forelegs, taking deep raspy breaths.

Samus waited a moment. This here was almost over. She wanted Ridley to look up at her though, wanted him to look her in the eyes before she did what had to be done. And so, when the dragon looked up, a grim smile crossed Samus's face.

"You give yourself too much credit, Ridley," the bounty hunter said, raising her weapon and selecting the missile launcher mode. "You couldn't make a thing in the world if you tried. You didn't make me. I made me."

If Ridley had any kind of response to this, it was lost when Samus fired a super missile right at his face. The blast blew the Space Pirate off of the cliff. His hulking form went spiraling into the abyss below, screaming out some curse to the heavens.

Samus took a breath now, waiting for a moment or to to see if her tormenter would rise up after that blow. When he did not, she released a sign of relief and looked back to the Artifact chamber. It had not been Norfair. But that had not mattered. In her heart she thanked the Chozo would would remain forever nameless to her, they who had aided her as Old Bird first had so long ago. If anything, they had more a right to claim they had made her than the monster she had just vanquished.

An orb of light appeared in the center of the room. It didn't take much for Samus to guess that this was what would take her into the impact crater to face whatever was sealed away there. With another sigh the bounty hunter entered the orb. As hard as that fight had been, there was work still to be done.