Attached Ch9: Rescue

Link and Samus crouched behind a rock, a short distance from the mouth of a cave, which was located at the spot indicated on the map they found earlier. The cave appeared to be artificial, something dug into the ground. Samus scanned the area with her visor, looking for possible ambush or other surprises. Other than the landscape and rocks she saw nothing.

"It looks clear. Let's move in closer," Samus said, then jumped up and started moving for the cave while motioning for Link to follow.

As they got to the caves' entrance, she scanned the interior for anything suspicious and again saw nothing, so they proceeded inside. It was now very apparent that this cave wasn't natural. It was perfectly straight and the spiral grooves along the wall were from a large bore. The tunnel was angled downward, so it was taking them deep under the surface.

They eventually came to a part of the cave that was a natural formation. It was a large open area with under ground streams running across it. It looked to be part of a much more massive cave system, with countless openings and passages, many of which looked like they led deeper into the planet. At the other end of the cavern was a large rock formation with a metal structure built into the rocks' face.

They approached the structure as Samus scanned it.

"It looks like there's a second entrance around the other side. Let's enter separately, it might give us an advantage if they're expecting me alone. I'll go in the front first; wait about a minute before going in the back."

"Alright."

"Try not to make your presence known until we have some idea what they're planning."

"Got it. Let's get this over with."

They parted, and Samus approached the front entrance, opened the hatch, and then entered. There was a short hallway and another hatch; opening that one led her to a somewhat larger room with a high ceiling. The room was poorly illuminated but it appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. There were various machines arranged in rows along the floor, with an open area in the center of the room. Lining the walls were what appeared to be biological specimen containment tubes. Some were shrouded with a protective metal shell, while others were just glass with no shell.

Just as she stepped into the room, she noticed Ridley perched on the top of one of the specimen tubes just above the entrance she had used. She jumped back into the room and leveled her cannon at him.

"I wouldn't do that," he said, then held out a small device in his claw; it looked to be a control device for something.

Ridley pressed a button on it which lowered the metal shroud on one of the tubes revealing Zelda inside. When she saw Samus she banged on the glass and appeared to be shouting something, but she couldn't be heard through the tubes' walls. Samus was relieved to see her and that she appeared to be unharmed.

"Let her go, it's me you want!" Samus shouted angrily.

Ridley swooped down and landed in the center of the room, placing himself between her and Zelda.

"Yes; it's you I went through all this trouble for, now lower your weapon."

He pressed a second button and a second tube was revealed to be above Zelda's. The two were connected end to end, and there was a hatch between them. Inside the second tube was one of the planets' local fauna; an armored creature, with scythes for forearms and a large toothy mouth. Not a pleasant looking thing in the least.

Samus did as she was told and lowered her gun. "Alright, what is it you want with me then? As if you haven't caused me enough trouble already."

"Ah, but you have that wrong, it is you who has caused us much trouble. For too long now you have been a constant obstruction to our operations. I'm personally going to put an end to that now."

"You expect me to just roll over and die then?"

"You don't have much choice, unless you don't care if this one dies as well," he said gesturing toward Zelda. "And I don't require your life, just your ability to cause us damage. Hand over the Chozo weapon and I'll allow you to keep your lives. Without it you are no threat; besides we have a direct interest in it as well."

"My armor...?"

That was almost as bad as being killed. Her armor was her identity, her livelihood, and in a way her heritage. It would be like giving up an arm or leg or some internal organ. It was a part of her at this point and she would be virtually defenseless without it. The suit was vital to her survival. The idea of giving it up hadn't been something she was prepared to even contemplate. Then she stared at Zelda and the creature in the adjoining tube. The image of it tearing her apart wasn't something she wanted to contemplate either. Zelda sat on her knees with one hand pressed against the glass, observing the situation that would decide her fate. She was staring right back at Samus with those captivating eyes. That was all it took.

Samus hung her head. This wasn't something she was used to, she had been completely defeated and no shots had even been fired. The armor melted away from her body and she was left clutching the small disk. She held it out in front of her, and turned her angry, piercing gaze to Ridley.

Zelda banged on the glass angrily, mouthing the word, "No!"

"Release her now and this is yours."

"Oh, no, only after that thing is safely out of your possession. I won't give away my only advantage."

"Neither will I... We exchange them at the same time then, slide me that remote and I slide this over to you. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

Samus set the armor's disk at her feet and Ridley followed suit with the remote to the containment tube. Samus glanced at Zelda one last time. Zelda still sat with her hand pressed against the glass. She stared back at Samus with a sad look on her face.

"Don't," she mouthed.

Samus kicked the disk across the floor while Ridley used the tip of his tail to flick the remote at Samus. Then without warning something shot out from behind one of the pieces of lab equipment and sped towards the armor disk. It appeared to be a metal chain with a hook on the end. It latched onto the disk and snatched it away into the dark corner of the room. Samus recognized the chain as belonging to Link from the many times they'd fought.

Without hesitation Ridley sped after his stolen prize. Finding the man in green holding the disk, he brought his powerful tail down on him with incredible force. Link narrowly avoided the blow, while the sharp tip of the tail created a decent sized gash in the floor. Link drew his sword and shield, and prepared for battle.

Samus ran over to where Zelda was and released her from her tiny prison. She slid out of the bottom of the tube and on to the floor. Samus knelt down and put her hand on Zelda's shoulder.

"Are you alright, he didn't hurt y--"

"Samus!" Zelda lunged at her and embraced her, squeezing her tight. Samus hugged her back briefly, before pulling her to her feet.

"Come on we have to go," Samus said.

Zelda still clung tightly to her. Samus gently pried her away and caressed her face.

"Hey, you're alright now," she spoke softy, and Zelda nodded. "Then let's go."

Zelda nodded again.

"Samus!" Link called from across the lab.

He held up the armor disk and was about to throw it to her, but Ridley got in his way. The last thing he wanted was for Samus to get her armor back, as he knew first hand how deadly she could be with it. Link tried again but Ridley attacked with his fire breath and Link had to defend with his shield. He managed to throw it but couldn't get a clean line, so it landed thirty feet away from Samus. She went for it but Ridley chased after it as well. He attacked with his fire breath to block her way. As a stream of fire came towards her she was partially tackled by Zelda from behind, who put up a barrier to protect them from the flames that surrounded them.

"Zelda, what are you doing? That was dangerous."

"I...I have to protect you. You gave up your armor for me, gave up your only protection, so I have to protect you now!" she said, sounding on the verge of tears.

"Zelda, thanks... But until we get out of here I need you to do only as I say and to not take risks like that, ok...?"

"But I--"

"This isn't like training; you make a mistake here and you don't get a second chance. So don't do anything like that again, if you died now... I... just be more careful. Ok?"

"O-ok."

When the flames had cleared they could see Ridley heading out the front hatch with the armor disc along with Link who had somehow managed to climb onto his back. When he got outside he took flight trying to shake Link off of him, but Link held tight.

Samus and Zelda ran outside after them. They saw Ridley flying around the caves interior, they also saw something else that was very troubling. Space pirates, the insect-like ones. There were dozens of them in the cave now and more were streaming in from the various entrances.

"He never had any intention of letting us leave here alive," Samus muttered to herself. "Zelda, come on, lets go..." she said dragging Zelda along.

"But, what about Link?"

"There's nothing we can do about it right now. Not while he's up there."

"But--"

"No time, let's go."

Link, who had been holding on to Ridley with just his hands, managed to get his legs around the creatures' back, then drew his weapon. He raised his sword and struck Ridley between the shoulders. However his thick skin was like armor and thus the sword did little to it. A few more blows and Link realized it was futile. He put his sword away and got out his bow and arrow, drew an arrow back all the way and then concentrated on it, using magic to form a blue energy around the tip. He took aim at one of Ridley's wings and fired. The entire wing became frozen solid and Ridley began to fall in an only half controlled glide.

By this time, Samus and Zelda had reached the mouth of the tunnel that led back up to the surface while the swarming pirates had only reached about mid-way across the cavern.

As Link and Ridley approached the ground, Link drove both of his feet into the back of Ridley's head forcing it down and causing him to slam head first into the cavern floor. The two of them skidded across the ground a short ways before coming to a stop. Link jumped off and retrieved Samus' armor from the unconscious creature's claw. Now, though, he was in the midst of a horde of space pirates and quite far from where Zelda and Samus were.

Seeing Ridley had been taken down Samus saw her opportunity.

"Zelda, stay here. Defend yourself if necessary. These things are a lot stronger than a training hologram. Don't fight them directly, use that shield of yours."

Samus took off running but stopped and turned around; she stared at Zelda with a serious look in her eyes. "Stay alive."

"Yeah," Zelda returned her look and nodded. Then Samus went off in Links direction.

She sprinted as fast as she could manage. As she approached the advancing pirates she leaped, planting her hand on one of their heads, and vaulting past, she landed and kept running. She could hear the sound of a shot being fired behind her and she immediately rolled to the side narrowly avoiding it, she continued rolling into an upright position in one fluid motion and continued running.

Link stood his ground as a couple of the creatures approached him; they reminded him of lobsters. One of them opened its claw and a bolt of energy shot forth. Link guarded with his shield. Another shot came and he stepped to the side. As soon as the one of the creatures was within ten feet he charged at it. It fired another shot which he deflected in mid-stride and then brought his blade down on its claw, cracking its carapace. He then thrust at its head, piercing its skull and killing it, just as the second one approached and fired two shots at him, one he dodged and the other he deflected with his sword.

He charged at the second one but it leaped over him and landed behind. He turned around and with a swing of his sword slashed it across the chest, but he only caused a superficial wound. The pirate attacked with its pincers grabbing the blade of his sword and the edge of the shield. Letting go of the shield, he took the sword in two hands to get extra leverage, and was able to slide it out of the pirate's pincer. Once free, he quickly brought the sword down on the creature's arm, and wielding it with two hands, he easily severed the arm. He then chopped at its side cutting half-way into its torso. It dropped to the ground, dead.

There were now three more approaching from behind and it looked as if Ridley was slowly regaining consciousness. He thought it would be best to get out of there and started running for the cave's exit, but before he got too far, his way was blocked by at least five pirates. He couldn't take that many at once and turned to avoid them but ran into three more. Now he was beginning to get boxed in and the only way to go was back, in the wrong direction. It was than that he heard someone shouting his name; it was Samus' voice.

"Link! I hope you have it!" her voice came from across the cavern.

He retrieved the armor disk from his pocket. Then he saw her on the other side of the pirates, running at him. She leaped over one and stepped on its head and jumped again.

"Throw it!" Samus shouted.

Link tossed it straight up over his head and she caught it as she soared over him. The armor was completely on her before she landed. Without turning to face them she vaulted into the air again, a seemingly impossible height over the heads of the pirates, and rained plasma blasts down on them. Her powerful cannon easily took out seven pirates in one clean hit each. She landed again, directly behind the one pirate she didn't hit from the air. With her cannon pressed to the back of its head, she fired before it had a chance to know what hit it.

"Link, let's go!"

"Uh... right," he said, a bit stunned at her ability.

He never saw her fight like that in the stadium. She seemed much more powerful now, her cannon never did that much damage, and he was certain she couldn't jump that high. Perhaps she was holding back her suit's capabilities before. He ran after her to the cave exit where he could see more pirates gathering. What was going on over there?

Zelda stood with her arms crossed and eyes half open, her Triforce mark shown brightly. The dozen or so monsters around her continued to prod at her barrier; looking for a weakness. She concentrated and formed a fireball in front of her and fired it at one of the creature. It was knocked back and injured badly but another one took its place immediately.

'There's so many!'

She sighed and was thankful when she saw Samus and Link returning. As Samus got closer she leaped into the air doing a somersault, her body was covered in bright crackling energy. As she landed in the midst of the pirates, several of them that had touched her just exploded on contact. She fired a few shots off at the rest of them from her cannon, scattering them like ants.

"Zelda, come on, we have to make it to the ship. Link, you too, hurry up!" she shouted back to him.

He came running up behind them as they started heading up the shaft. As he passed through the mouth of the tunnel, one of the pirates that Samus had scattered jumped out at him, it had actually ran into the tunnel when running away from Samus. He didn't give it time to attack; he slashed it across the chest diagonally, wounding it. The force of the attack knocked the thing on its back. Link jumped over it and put his full weight in to his sword thrust, driving the blade through its chest. In its death throws, it managed to fire one plasma bolt up at Link, narrowly missing his head, and instead going into the ceiling above him.

The sound of the shot caused Samus to turn around to see what happened.

"Stop screwing around back there, we're getting out of here. Now!" Samus yelled at him. He was about to respond when suddenly the roof of the cave collapsed, burying him under a ton of rock.

"What was that?" Zelda turned to see the pile of rocks. "Samus? What happened? Where's Link?"

Samus stood looking at the rocks in disbelief. "He's...he was... Zelda, it's too late to save him. I'm sorry."

"No. No!" Zelda shook her head, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Come on; we can't stay here."

"No, we can't, we can't leave without him. We have to help him. Samus, we can't leave!" Zelda cried as she grabbed Samus and shook her.

"Zelda... he's gone. We have to--"

"No!" Zelda took off back down the tunnel, but Samus grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

"Stay here!" Samus said sternly.

Then she went back down the tunnel herself to where the rocks were and started digging, throwing one after another behind her, digging for what she knew would be a corpse. After about a minute there was some movement, the rocks began falling out towards her on their own. But the movement was coming from the top of the pile, and eventually she could see the red claw of a space pirate poking through. They were digging through from the other side. If she fired at it now more of the cave would collapse. She just kept digging as long as she could.

Zelda stood with her hands clasped in front of her, anxiously watching through tear filled eyes as Samus dug. 'Please...'

Eventually the hole above the pile had widened enough for Samus to see that there were several pirates on the other side digging their way through, and no telling how many more behind that; the cave had been steadily filling up, there could be over a hundred by now, and Ridley was still in there as well. The pirate was now squirming through the hole.

'Time to go.'

She backed off the rock pile and went back up to Zelda.

"I'm sorry, but I can't get to him. We have to go now," Samus explained, but Zelda just stood there watching as the pirates wormed there way over the rocks. "Zelda!"

No response.

"Damn it." Samus picked Zelda up by her waist and put her over her shoulders then started running up the tunnel. Zelda stared blankly behind them as they sped away from where Link was.

Pirates were now chasing them up the tunnel. A shot whizzed by them and Samus turned briefly and fired a barrage of missiles back down the tunnel. Not much further now, they were almost at the surface. Another shot came up the tunnel and hit Samus in the leg. She faltered but kept on her feet. The armor had protected her for the most part, though she wasn't running quite as fast now.

Finally they exited the cave and made it to the surface, but there were pirates there as well, mostly from behind them. Samus thought they must have been able to surface elsewhere from the cave system.

No time to fight now though, not while carrying Zelda and with a slightly damaged leg; best to make a run for the ship and just get out of here. She ran over the hilly terrain, occasionally looking behind them; their pursuers were massing. She recalled the trip across this terrain before and there was a small chasm that she could manage to jump even with her leg the way it was, and that the pirates wouldn't be able to cross so easily. It was coming up soon. She tried as hard as she could to pick up the speed necessary to clear the gap.

"Zelda, hold on, we're jumping!"

"...ok..." she responded not really registering what Samus had said. Samus launched herself over the small canyon and landed a few feet past the edge on the other side. Now they were home free, there was one more hill, then a valley, and the ship was on a hill on the other side of that valley.

She could see the crest of the first hill now. Just a bit more...

She stopped at the top of the hill and stood there. This snapped Zelda out of her daze.

"Wh-Why did we stop? ...Samus?" Samus set her down on her feet in front of her. Zelda turned to look in the direction they had been running, she saw a valley stretched out before them. In the valley were... thousands... thousands of those monsters that attacked her before. "What!?"

'Ridley really had gone to great lengths to make sure I didn't survive this,' Samus thought.

She considered her options, going through them wasn't possible with Zelda in tow; far too many to fight straight up; but could she go around? No. The pirates behind them would catch up soon enough. All she had to do was get to the ship and... wait, where is the ship?

She scanned the crest of the valley looking for the ship... 'Where in the hell...wait, the nav-beacon, it's right next to the nav-beacon.'

She used her scanners to detect the beacons' signal. There it was... but... the ship wasn't there. They took her ship as well? Without the ship they were stuck. There was no way off the planet and more importantly no escape from the thousands of space pirates. There was no way she could take on that many, especially while having to protect Zelda. No escape, no way to fight...

'Ridley... you've won.'

She loathed quitting, giving up; it went completely against her nature, but the situation was utterly hopeless at this point. Her armor melted away and she was left standing with shoulders slumped and head hung.

"Samus? What are you doing... what's--" Samus suddenly embraced her tightly. "Samus...?"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything more than this. I couldn't save you."

Zelda squeezed her back. "Are... we... are we going to die?"

"Sorry." Samus pulled Zelda's head down into her chest, so as to hide their impending doom from her eyes. "Don't look," she whispered. Zelda closed her eyes and buried her head into Samus. "This is...my fault. Zelda, I... I'm sorry... I don't... I ..."

"It's ok, you don't have to say anything... I... I don't mind so much. Spending my last moments with you... it's not so bad."

"Mm," Samus nodded.

The two of them stood there on the crest of the hill holding each other as hordes of space pirates closed in on them.

End Part Nine