onemorebounty | Someone to Count On

She hmms thoughtfully, then looks over at Samus. "Didn't tell them about this place I'm guessing. Did you manage to clear your name?"

I really don't want to see the Galactic Federation or one of the corporates leveraging this place to the extent I know they could and would. I like my Facet, I don't want greedy morons to break it like a stock-picking algorithm. And yes.

*It's another brief flash of triumph in her smile.*

Aether is the world claimed by the Luminoth, allies of the Chozo. Moth-people who eat light. They hadn't been able to contain their phazon impact, and it'd been poisoning their whole world. The impact created a subspace echo of their planet, even, that was slowly stealing substance and reality from the original. The indigenous life of Dark Aether were trying to kill the Luminoth, the Space Pirates were mining phazon, the wildlife was trying to kill everything, and the creature that sucked the phazon off of me on Tallon IV had apparently grown into the imprint of my suit, and was hunting the phazon deposits for itself. A great, tangled mess, but I managed to kill everyone who needed to die, including Dark Aether itself, and Aether's recovering nicely. I also thought I'd killed my dark twin.

"That's why I haven't either. The idea of something like Roxxon getting here..." She shivers at the thought. Literally.

"And then you were home in time for brunch, right?" She's teasing, trying to be light-hearted about it.

Good call. I usually leave it to other people to decide, in their own Facet, but I'm perfectly willing to say it's a good call after the fact.

*The teasing gets a flash of a grin.*

I was, actually. Well, dinner. Anyway, I thought that was it. Again. I hunted other bounties, and got roped in on a high-secrecy job delivering antivirus software to some sensitive computers that'd gone offline. Apparently, the pirates had hit a Federation battleship on a training run with a crew of trainees, gutted the vessel, and stole the Aurora Unit--their node in that network of sensitive computers. They'd used it to infect the entire network, and get the Aurora Units everywhere to start generating phazon. Some other Hunters and I were supposed to go in and upload a countermeasure, but our meeting was cut short by a pirate fleet attacking as cover for a leviathan splashdown.

Cue us, fighting our way through pirates on the ground to get the planetary defenses up and running. And cue my dark twin swooping in at the last second and hitting us all with some kind of phazon beam.

*Her voice grows suddenly hollow. This is one of the hard parts.*

It infected all four of us. I was in a coma for a month, and when I woke up, my body was producing enough phazon to power my suit.

Verity won't rush her. She rests a hand on Samus' arm, and there's a hug waiting if it's wanted, but there's no rush. They can stand there until the tides die for all she cares. She can be patient, sometimes, for the right reasons.

*The touch gets a grateful look; there's a fine tremor running through the taller woman, hard to see but unmistakable at a touch. A hug would not be unwelcome.*

Then she can have one of Verity's well-intentioned but not very practiced hugs. And hopefully the LOL isn't contagious.

*With hugs, intentions count for a great deal. Samus' hold is tight, and lasts for some time before she makes herself relax.*

Verity squeaks when she's squeezed, so that might be a fun surprise for Samus. Hopefully, not one that sets off the paranoia.

*That gets an embarrassed chuckle.*

Sorry.

Make that two. "It's okay. You must have found that squeaky toy I swallowed as a baby."

They just let you swallow anything, didn't they?

"I know, right? I'm wondering where the squeaky toy even came from, we never had a dog. But hey, take me swing dancing some time and you can hear my collection of state quarters rattling around."

*That wins a laugh.*

How do you get through metal detectors?

"A medical exemption and a lot of personal time with security guards."

I've seen those guards. That sounds terrible.

"It really is. They never call after." She tried to pull it off, really she did, but now she's rolling her eyes.

*She chuckles again, then sighs, and the story resumes.*

I should explain, the Chozo are much more technologically advanced than the Federation, and I'm very protective of that difference. I've seen what happens when people get their hands on technology too far ahead of their social development. So waking up to find Federation scientists had made some pretty significant modifications to my suit while I was out was... upsetting.

Having some witless tech cheerfully explain to me that it would be using the phazon in my blood for fuel wasn't much better. Then, learning that the other three Hunters this had happened to were now missing?

It was good while it lasted. She'll link arms with Samus while she's telling the tale, trying to get her to keep walking.

"They shouldn't have done that. I'm going to guess they asked you to go find the others?"

It may, possibly, have been the only thing they could think of to save my life. But still, upsetting.

*She sighs, but walks with Verity.*

And yes, I was supposed to find the others. They'd been checking out other leviathan impact-sites on other planets, so there were pirates to deal with, as well.

*After a moment's pause, her gaze grows distant--whether from some induced hallucination, or a memory.*

I could feel the phazon in me--this tickling burn from the inside out. Aggression, impulse, the feeling that I should be doing something, part of something, that I was fighting against. And whenever I used hyper mode--ignited some of that phazon to overcharge my suit for a while? Then it felt like the world snapped into focus. Everything slowed down, I could see the invisibly tiny motes of phazon in the air, feel it anywhere it was present, and everything else... dropped away. Didn't seem to matter. Then it would end, and I'd come down.

Samus sounds suspiciously like an addict talking, and that's worrying. "That must have been painful. I'm sorry." She doesn't want to emote for her friend, but she doesn't want the admission to pass without comment either. A slow turn now, so they're walking back toward their bags. Samus finds the device comforting, so Verity doesn't want to leave it too far behind.

*Samus knows how she sounds--it's not far off from how it felt. Veins full of fire and every nerve singing, with the galaxy at her mercy and no great need to give it. And that whisper, in the back of her mind, that she could belong, she could have a place, a family, if only she decided to let the phazon have her.*

It was a problem. Thank you. I caught up to the other three, eventually, one at a time. All three had gone over, let the phazon control them--let my dark twin control them. Good hunters, good people--rare, in this job. And I had to kill them, and watch her rip the phazon out of their bodies as they died.

*She sighs.*

The more phazon I absorbed, and the more I used, the more it spread. By the end, I had veins of it breaking through my face, and a cataract of it forming in one eye.

Verity will give her another hug, brief but warm, and keeps an arm around her now as they walk. "I'm sorry."

Thank you.

*She leans into the hug a little, grateful for the comfort of another person, and an accepting audience.*

In the end, I killed my twin... again. And the planet that was the source of it all. All the phazon, anywhere, went inert. I stopped hearing it, stopped feeling it... it was a relief.

*And now the reason for the story.*

I felt it again, today. That's why I was so shaken.

"You beat it once. You can do it again. And you're not alone this time."

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