Author's Notes:

Hey guys! Long time no see! I've been absent from for how long now? xD And then the first thing I post in forever and a day is this, of all things.

So yeah... I just sat down one day during summer and decided, "I am going to write a SamusxSnake fanfiction." I spent like seven hours fleshing out the backstory to Brawl that wasn't the Subspace Emissary, and then a couple more getting the dynamic down. And then that day turned into four, and before I knew it I had written 40,000 words of something that I originally intended to be a one-shot of stupid, stupid slash fiction. I don't even know why I did this, I don't "ship" this particular couple really and if not for Brawl, I would have never thought to do so any way.

But, after sitting on this for two months and wondering if I should just keep this to myself or show it some people, I decided to let the entire internet read it :P So, here you go! Enjoy it, if you can.

-Jack Knights

PS: In case any of you were wondering in the slightest just what the hell is happening to my other FF "Conquering the Past"... that's been put on indefinite hold. I've decided to turn the entire thing into a completely original work and possibly get it published at some point. And since it had little to do with LoZ or Twilight Princess as a whole, I saw no reason in continuing it as it stands. Sorry about that!

An endless cycle of short, unfulfilling battles. That was what Samus Aran had signed herself into doing for the past four years, with no end in sight. Constantly fighting against friends and foes, sometimes even animals and children; it wasn't what she'd wanted for herself, but it kept her on her toes while the Space Pirates and the GFS fumbled in the dark. At least, until things got so bad she got sent out there to sort them out.

There were thirty-four other fighters of varying ages, genders and species in the facility besides Samus. Some were friends, others foes. They each had a bedroom on the upper floors and had full access to the other myriad of facilities and even the other arenas when they weren't being used. Not that any sane person would bother after getting clobbered multiple times throughout the day.

Their schedule was pre-established every day in the morning and depended on whether or not they were called on to fight. The thirty-five contestants would get up in the morning, eat a quick breakfast, and go down to the lobby where the day's "brawls" were announced. They'd then spend the day fighting—or if they weren't summoned, doing whatever they liked.

But that was the issue. The place had been designed to be entertaining, but for the crowds of people that would come watch them beat the living crap out of one another. There was little else to do aside from fighting. There were some outdoor grounds, a library and a few other things, but Samus found herself, more often than not, bored out of her mind, wandering the halls without anything to do. Whenever she wasn't fighting, that is.

A few of the other contestants that weren't used to fighting were going stir crazy. For example, the blond kid, Lucas, was a nervous wreck, forever drawing on the walls in his room. But most of them were well enough off, and there were few conflicts between them. Except when the villains got involved; then all hell broke loose.

Samus had been managing well enough for the four years she'd been fighting for other people's entertainment. Unlike most of the other, she was used to long periods of constant back-to-back conflict, going quite some time without a break and fighting for her life. But even the greatest soldier needs a chance to step away from all the wars and she was starting to feel the drag all the battles she'd fought pulling on her mind.

Like every morning, they convened in the lobby. Some people sat in the chairs and sofas strewn about the place, other leaned against the wall, too cool for conversation. Samus merely stood, arms crossed, in the center of the floor, waiting for the day to start.

Most of the fighters showed up already in their costumes. Some of them actually wore the outfits they fought in daily, like the princesses. Samus herself was dressed casually in jeans and a shirt, nothing crazy or fancy. Her Power Suit was too much too lug around all day, and there was no way she'd walk around in her Zero Suit. Lecherous eyes followed her every move even now; there was no need to give them more incentive.

Peach sat with Mario and Luigi on a couch, chatting amiably, looking like a child playing dress up in her pink gown and makeup. Samus knew otherwise; she was anything but. Peach might appear frail and ill-suited for combat, but she had developed a mean streak quite early on and could pack quite a punch within her dainty looking hands.

Zelda sat across from them, completely prim and proper, hands folded in her lap and her back perfectly straight. She too was a deceptive fighter. Her magic was brutal and when she became Sheik, she was every bit the underhanded ninja she appeared to be. Link stood guard behind her, scanning the room for threats; the poor guy had never gotten used to the idea that his princess could fight.

The underage fighters sat in the far corner of the room, acting like children and making a ton of noise. Seeing them always made Samus shake her head; children shouldn't be involved in fights like these. Directly contrasting them were the villains, who just walked in like they owned the place: Ganondorf, Bowser, Dedede, Wario and Wolf. Even after so long, their heroic counterparts still stiffened whenever they walked in the room

Some of the fighters didn't even bother joining the others, only appearing in the arenas when called to battle. They were mostly high tiered characters, with a couple of loners. Samus might've been fairly high up on the list at number twelve, but she made it a point to come down to the lobby every day. For her, it was a show of her strength and courage, making herself known to her possible opponents, not like the ever aloof Meta Knight who had hardly ever been seen outside an arena.

As the room filled up, out of the corner of her eye, Samus spied something surprising. Snake, dressed in his light grey sneak suit, was squatting on the floor, a cigarette between his lips as he looked at the ceiling. It was a rare occurrence to see the soldier out and about. Sure she saw plenty of him in the fights—they were two of the most popular brawlers—but this was the first time in months Samus, and probably the rest of them, had seen him.

His dark eyes fell on hers and she stared him down. Samus had been blatantly staring at him, as had several other people, but she wasn't about to look embarrassed about it. No weaknesses, she reminded herself as she narrowed her eyes at him. His upper lip twitched and he turned away first, but not before Samus caught the slight smirk on his face. He no doubt thinks I've been checking him out, she thought acidly as she let out a huff of annoyance.

The man was a pervert and a creep. He might think his codec calls he received periodically during fights were heard by him only, but the opposite was true. Everyone heard, or saw onscreen, his so-called private calls. Yoshi, the poor, strange, green… dinosaur thing, was absolutely terrified of him. And Samus herself wasn't charmed by him any either. A certain lecherous, womanizing call had given everyone endless gossip in the first few months, and despite the apathy everyone seemed to be suffering from, they would still bring it up every so often to annoy the living shit out of her.

And he hadn't said a word in his defense either. She approached him about it, with the intent on coercing him to take back what he said, and failing that, blackmail him with it. But he welcomed her attempts. And when she tried to beat him to a pulp, he let her land a single swing before incapacitating her. It was like Snake wanted to be known as a depraved unhinged individual.

The main screen in the lobby winked to life before Samus could delve into her foul mood any further and the announcer, a man dressed in black, half hidden by shadows, appeared on the television. Everything about him, from the constant smile both in his voice and on his face to the perfectly pressed black tuxedo he always wore gave Samus the creeps. She didn't know why he bothered doing this, giving the same damn speech every day. They just wanted to find out the match listings for the day and get to it.

"Good morning, brawlers!" he said cheerily. When he was met with perfect silence, like he had been for the longest time, he continued on without missing a beat.

"It is time, once again to see who among you will be the lucky participants in today's matches! And they are as follows," he added, a chart appearing to the right of him, with names and arenas assigned to a time stamp. "Good luck to those of you fortunate enough to participate and until next time for those of you left out! The first match begins in twenty minutes! Brawlers, suit up!"

The announcer disappeared from the screen and the chart filled the emptiness. Everyone was in relative quiet, scanning the day's line-up, hoping their names hadn't been chosen. Or Ganondorf's case, grinning wickedly when he discovered he had.

"We'll see who the better swordsman is today," he said, all but pointing at Link, who narrowed his eyes at him in silence. She didn't know why he bothered taunting the guy in green; he was dead last in tier rankings and Link always beat the daylights out of him. Some people just loved the abuse, she figured. When most of the participants had gotten their schedules, Samus stepped up and scanned the screen.

She had come to accept a long time ago that she was a regular, and wasn't the least bit surprised when she popped up in first match of the day. And while it annoyed her, she practically expected to go up against Snake and Ganondorf. She did, however, groan inwardly when she appeared on seven of the twelve total matches planned. With a shake of her head, she calmly marched out of the lobby and down the halls to the locker room to suit up.

When she left the lobby and headed to the lockers, she noticed Snake eying her. He nodded at her once, grinning crookedly as she rounded the corner. Creep.

And here you have it, the introduction/first chapter to the ridiculousness that is this fanfiction. I don't exactly know what the final rating for this is going to be, but I'll leave it at T for Teen for now since the upcoming chapters deal with violence and slight swearing. If I do eventually get to sex(ual content), then I'll bump the rating up accordingly. Just FYI, you know.

Anyway, let me know what you think, where I made mistakes-grammatical, punctual, cannon-wise-and whether or not you actually want more of this. I'll post the next two chapters regardless to give you guys a broader feel for it.