(this is an edit)

WARNING: Weak stomach alert. If you barf easily, don't read this chapter unless you've got a bucket nearby...

** Oh, and guess what? I finally decided to get off of my literary butt and finish this thing. Man, those surprise reviews really kick me in the pants... Anyway! I rewrote this chapter, since it needed the love, so expect the FINAL chapter to be out soon! I really like the new result!

"You want me to what?" I shrieked, digging my fingers into my head. Gawking at U-Mos crouched before me, my eyes bulged from their sockets in horror, his previous request still ringing in my thoughts. My mind was flying to places and details that I shuddered to imagine. "I've... I've... I can't do this!"

A glare was beginning to form on his face, which took me slightly by surprise. "You mean to tell me you refuse to help?" he growled. "Even after you jumped three hundred feet down a crater, ripped a Chromia from your neck, and faced the wrath of a monster?!" He gouged me out with his critical cyan gaze, his eyelids tightening. The Sentinel spat, "Seems pretty shallow, Phrygisian."

"But I haven't pulledsomething out of another person's body! That's just... wrong! In so many ways..." In my astonishment, I was babbling out excuses - I really didn't want to even consider what he was asking me to do. My stomach was already twisting itself into knots.

I could tell he was becoming frustrated; our discussion was getting nowhere, thanks to my reluctance. U-Mos began shaking his head and closed his eyes, rubbing his fingertips against the steel floor.

"Can't you wait until Samus comes back-" I proposed.

Suddenly his hands were around my throat, and he silenced me. With a firm jerk, I was pulled closer to his furious expression, those Phazonic eyes in flames. We were so close he rubbed against my forehead. "NO I CANNOT!" he shouted into my face. I'll admit I cringed a bit. "This is dire, Rundas! Either help me, or suffer the consequences! I will not survive if it is not removed!"

U-Mos's voice echoed off the walls briefly as we fixed glances for several moments. His dominance had proved it: I wasn't going to sneak out of this one, no matter how much I stalled. His anger eventually frightened me into submission, and after I released a defeated sigh, he faltered his death-grip on my neck. In but a few moments, his anger slightly dissipated into discomfort, and he positioned himself in front of me.

In spite of the mixture of resistance and disgust hammering my thoughts, I raised my dominant hand - the right - and scooted closer to the Luminoth. Staring at my hand, I bit my lip, curling and uncurling my fingers in worry.

I couldn't believe this was happening. What was I getting myself into? I tried to keep my thoughts in places that were less... grotesque.

"So... how am I supposed to do this?" I finally murmured, although I knew the answer. My hand was roughly the size of the cavity in U-Mos's abdomen, providing an easy explanation as to what I was about to do. I gulped hard.

I was glad to find reassurance that I wasn't the only one freaking out, due to U-Mos's attempts to settle his breathing. "Simply reach in and take it from me. I trust you." He offered me a smile. His face had softened - I knew that face better than his rage-twisted mask.

He blinked and gestured at his wound. "Do the best you may, please? I have confidence in you." Clenching his hands, he waited for me to make my move.

The Luminoth was discussing this like yanking a parasite from somebody's stomach was completely normal. I ignored my sweaty palms and stared at his gross wound for some time, shivering. It was hard to believe that there was something inside of him... something that I was about to extract.

"O-okay, U-Mos. You ready?" My voice was vibrating like crazy in my nervousness. I held my breath, even though I wasn't the one who was going to have someone else's arm delving into my gut. I was sure that my quivering fingers were enormous examples of my confidence as my hand hovered a few inches from his scarred abdomen.

Later, I would come to admire U-Mos's confidence in me, however meager or spacious it was. I mean, if I had a Leviathan Parasite inside of me, I'd sooner let it kill me than have a shivering greenhorn like myself play surgeon.

U-Mos braced himself, locking his gaze past my shoulder and onto the wall. "Yes," he managed, slapping his mandibles back onto his jawline, preparing for the worst.

Looking away, I shaped my hand into a cone, and thrust it forward. A sucking sound bubbled forth subsequent and warmth spread over my fingers. My hand instantly became wet.

My spine tingled. I had just stuck my hand inside another person's body.

U-Mos uttered a pained squelch. Peeking at him as he exhaled, we both glanced downward at my wrist, grossly protruding from his stomach. "Good start," he forced from his mandibles, his voice raspy. "N-now keep going."

Ignoring the Phazony sludge that was coating my arm, I began to push my hand deeper inside of U-Mos, fighting against my urge to lean over and vomit. He was trying his hardest not to fidget, but every now and then, once I gently moved past something, his body would jerk and he'd subdue a gasp.

"Do not mind me... just press onward, Rundas," he inspirited each time, although through clenched mandibles. His cheeks were starting to fade in color.

I couldn't find the parasite, which was starting to scare me. After all, I had no idea what I was looking for. I probed by a few hard objects, then something runny would brush my knuckle, or the walls of his abdomen would tighten over my hand with each of his breaths. The entire time, I was biting back yanking my hand out and saying that I couldn't do this at all - that I was squeamish (hey, it was a possibility) and that Samus-could-handle-the-whole-thing-because-she-was-awesome-and-I-wasn't.

Nevertheless, I did as my friend said, though not without dissent. "Oh, this is sick..." I whimpered.

I found my fingertips running over an extremely squishy object. Thinking it was the Parasite, I closed my fingers around it. "Got it!" I said in confident triumph. U-Mos was trembling and breathing heavily. He tried for a smile, but it was feeble. I began to tug the object back.

U-Mos abruptly sucked in a gasp and doubled over, clasping his hands around my forearm - my wrist had already disappeared inside him. "Agh! That is an organ!" he spluttered in agony, his fingers pressing against my muscle pettily. "Do NOT pull that out!"

I immediately let go, guilt over causing him pain consuming me like a wave. I felt horrible. "Oh, man, I'm sorry! Are you okay?!"

Nothing happened for a good while. Practically laying on my arm, he finally nodded briskly. His antennae tickled my chest. "Now that you are not grasping it... I am doing better..." he croaked. Gathering his strength, he slowly sat up. When he focused his eyes on me, they were sunken and scarred with torture - I wanted to apologize profusely. "Please do not hurt my appendix."

I nodded as well. "Okay, okay." I said the words rapidly, moving gently away from his slightly-squeezed organ, shifting rightward. It was awful knowing that I could have harmed him even more than what he already had been. I needed to be careful.

On my "constant alert," I accidentally knocked something as I inched away from the appendix, which caused U-Mos to cry out and lurch forward again. He ended up smacking his forehead on my shoulder armor with a crack. I recoiled.

He leaned back and rubbed his skull, struggling to hide the pain as he bore his mandibles. My hand went stiff within his body as I reached with my other to place on his shoulder. "What did I hit this time?!" I nearly screamed.

"Something important, I know that much!" he wheezed. He had his eyes pinched shut, his breath coming out in ragged bursts. "I... beg you to monitor what you are grabbing."

I nodded, swallowing. "I'm sorry, U-Mos. I don't want to hurt you, but this is scary..." I felt like a little kid, whining and afraid. "Really scary..."

He looked at me, his face strained. He repeated with effort, "I trust you."

I swallowed my fear and gathered my wits, fishing more inside his stomach. Heightening my focus, I kept tabs on what I was touching and going through. I was puncturing my lip with my teeth so much that I tasted blood.

U-Mos was appearing worse than ever. His face was ghostly-white, and his eyes were dominated beneath by thick, dark rings. His entire body shivered steadily, almost as if he was cold.

Eventually, he asked, "May I use you for support?"

I nodded again. "Of course. Lean on me, dude."

Almost relaxing, U-Mos weakly raised his empty hands and slapped them onto my shoulder pads, leaning dependently on his palms and pressing his weight against me. He was remaining quite still, except for the movement his ragged breathing made on his back and chest.

Now that he had someone to lean on, he gained a bit of his voice back. "You are doing great, Rundas. I have not-"

He sucked in a sharp breath and winced. I went rigid instantaneously. "What did I do?!" Why had he reacted? I hadn't nudged, split, or tore anything. Panic threatened to flutter up in my own gut.

U-Mos's gaze seemed far off as he grabbed for my arm, holding it with an abnormally strong grip. "It knows you are after it!"

That was the most disturbing thing I'd heard all day. "The parasite has its own mind?!" Now the urge to jerk my hand out of him was nearly overwhelming. It was bad enough that the thing had totally overrun his body with Phazon, but now that it could think for itself, I was ready to screech. "Since when?!"

The poor Sentinel faced me in hysterics. "Since its insertion! It does not want to be removed! It has been hiding from you!" he hollered.

Something wiggled around my claw. What the...?

U-Mos was steadily losing it; his hands began flailing around our heads in dismay. The last thing I needed was for him to fall apart. Quickly, I clamped his spastic hands under my free grip, keeping them steady. "Don't panic, U-Mos," I urged. "I've got this. Don't panic."

Wow, I had no idea where in this universe those sentences came from.

U-Mos's face was as white as death. He looked like he was about to be sick. I tried to say, "Just keep-"

But then the Luminoth let out a scream of pure pain as something I couldn't see struck him from the inside. I expected him to start to thrash, but instead, he went completely stiff. Hunched before me, I dared not look at the agony imprinted on his face. Instead, his groans - that were close enough to wails - booted me out of my panicked state. I decided that it was the time to act.

I shook off my sickened feeling and searched around his stomach hastily, intent on getting that parasite and destroying it for good. I had to do something to save him. I had to get rid of the thing.

I will not survive if it is not removed!

His exclamation from before enticed me further, and I replayed his words in my mind as I continued to probe his abdomen with speed. I knew my actions were probably hurting him worse, seeing as his shrieking had heightened considerably, but I didn't care right now. I was bent on curing him of the parasite.

It was around the center of his stomach where I discovered something. I knew from the fleeting touch I gave it that it wasn't a vital part of his organs. Whatever-it-was was twisting, rough, and exuded a wave of what felt like frozen water out into its environment.

I smirked. I had found the Parasite.

With U-Mos's screams in the background, I wrapped my fingers around the monstrosity. It immediately began to try and squirm from my grip, but I held strong. I looked at U-Mos as he nearly crushed my shoulder plating, baring his mandibles.

"I have it. You ready?" I asked.

He replied with a gravelly, "DO IT!"

Needing no other permission, I pulled with all my might on the Parasite's tail. I felt something physically tear inside of U-Mos as the beast was dragged backward beyond its will. The closer it came to me, my wrist began to come free of his abdomen, soaked blue and slick. Soon my hand was visible, along with the tossing tail of the Leviathan Parasite clenched between my fingers. U-Mos threw his head back, howling in utter torture. I placed my hand on his chest and pushed against him.

That extra force was enough to pry the Parasite from U-Mos entirely. Upon its release, a long stem of goopy Phazon shot out of his scar, splattering blue everywhere - on my face, the floor, and all over my chest.

I held the Parasite aloft from U-Mos while it twisted in anger. His face was blank.

I beamed. "We did it!"

U-Mos's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed to the floor.

Shocked, I stared. "U-Mos?!" Then my gaze went from his unmoving body, to the thing I gripped in my fist.

The Leviathan parasite was a three foot long, mutated scorpion. It had four vicious pincers and eighteen, taloned legs. The tail I had seized bore a huge, translucent stinger on the end that sloshed inside with an electric-blue fluid. It had six sharp, pupilless blue eyes, lidless and riveted on me in hatred. Its mouth opened and closed repeatedly as if gulping in the fresh, non-bloody air, its rows of tiny, white fangs glittering at me.

I gawked. This monster had been living inside of U-Mos.

Its carapace was pure Phazon blue, dripping with the sludge. Only after it registered that I had so rudely taken it out of its host did it emit a buzzing noise.

That was presumably not good.

I said, "Uh-oh."

Suddenly the parasite jolted towards my face, screeching a high-pitched squeal that stabbed my eardrums. I was forced to let go as it tackled me, clawing at my face and digging its claws into my chin.

I gave it a good punch, but it quickly recovered and bit my knuckles ferociously. "Ow!" Its teeth had left a sharp pain gnawing at my hand, leaving behind a nice circle of shredded skin. The Parasite flew to the air, jumped onto me and began its attack on whatever it could pinch, scratch, or bite.

I wrestled with the miniature beast, avoiding its fearsome barb. After several minutes, my hands were riddled with cuts and my face bruised at this thing's pummeling. I had done a bit of damage to it as well, but due to its thick carapace, all I really did was knock off one of its claws and twist a few of its legs out of place. I only found success in angering the beast more and more.

Desperately, I kept it away from any openings on me I could. There was no telling what it would do if it still wanted to corrupt. I didn't want to take any chances of being infested with that overgrown Parasite like U-Mos had. Just the thought of its crawling around inside me had me shuddering.

It raised its tail menacingly. While I was lost in my fantasies, the Leviathan made its mark and pricked me right on the leg with its stinger. Flaming pain shot through my thigh a split second after, and I yelled. The circular barb was stuck into my leg, unattached from the Parasite. I watched with dread as the blue fluid filling the orb drained down below my skin. The effects weren't immediate, but I had a hunch that that would come back to haunt me as a chill embraced my veins.

Triumphant, the Leviathan Parasite crawled off my limb, skittering back towards U-Mos as inconspicuously as it could. I turned toward it, casting my hand out and preparing to shoot it with ice. "Oh, no you don't-"

In a flash, the Parasite exploded - I didn't have to fire a single thing. With the monster reduced to a sizzling, brittle heap on the floor, I traced the familiar sound of a gunfire towards the open doorway.

There Samus stood, her arm cannon aimed at the Leviathan's remains. Behind her were Dray and Ghor, with the Admiral slung over the robot's shoulder. I thunked my head back onto the ground in gratitude with my vision starting to swim.

"Rundas! U-Mos! Are you guys all right?" Samus called, darting over to my side. She knelt surveyed the two of us, her eyes behind her visor worried. "What happened? We heard the explosion..."

I patted her knee; my arm felt like lead. I couldn't feel my fingers. "It's all right, Samus. Got everything under control. No need for you to think about it..."

The others came as well. Ghor laid a very weak looking Dane onto the floor and met my foggy gaze while Dray went to U-Mos. "What...?" She looked from his abdomen to my hand and made a face, disgusted. "I'm not so sure I wanna know."

"Rundas," Samus said, catching my waning attention and raising my head. "You've got a thorn in your leg, what did you do?"

I couldn't respond; my throat had dried in mere seconds and my tongue was useless. I could only muster a gravelly moan, my body swept with numbness as darkness bled into my vision.

"Rundas! Rundas!" I heard a voice say frantically.

The suited figure above me started to fade.

It wasn't until the darkness closed in that I finally became at peace. Painless, carefree, peace.

I will not survive if it is not removed...

All right, you finally got me to finish this story. I should've done it a long time ago, I realize, but something happened, so... it got cut. Anyway, expect another update relatively soon, but don't lean on me too much, yet. I've still got my book that I'm worrying about.

Thanks for your patience and reviews!