Author's note: Thank you for sticking with this story as long as you have! This is the last chapter. This story was really just intended to be a little bit of slice of life fluff between Human and Part 3, but it seems to have taken on a life of its own. lol. Anyway, it may be a bit of an odd place to end, but it does set up for Part 3, the Metroid/Aliens cross-over. Anyway, thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy the last installment of Spawn! :)

Chapter 19: Choice

As nice as it was to have her son on her ship with her, Samus had to admit that the tiny living space was getting even more cramped than usual. The addition of the giant wolfy dog did not help the matter. She truly loved her son and was glad for his visit, but though she loathed admitting it, a part of her would be very happy once she dropped him off at his father's house.

It had been two days since she had spoken to Adam, and she had not heard anything out of him in that time. A part of her worried, of course, but a part of her always worried about the General when he was in battle, particularly now that he was getting up there in years. The other part of her simply accepted that he had to do what he had to do. They were warriors, and these were their lives. That didn't mean she had to like it, however, and something about it still did not sit right with her. She wondered if his mission had anything to do with her upcoming battle on LV-426, but if he had been assigned to go there, wouldn't he have been able to tell her? She had thought about contacting Keaton and demanding more information, but that seemed pointless. He may have been paying her very well lately, but he would not give her classified military secrets just because she asked for them.

The bounty hunter leaned back in her pilot's chair once more as she stared out into space. As usual, she had a cup of coffee in her hands, but instead of casual clothes, she wore her navy blue flight suit once more with her hair in a high ponytail. She had already set the ship on a course toward Earth, although she was not jumping to hyperspace quite yet. It made her sad to know her visit with her son was coming to an end, but she knew it had to. She needed some time to herself before her next mission, and Jack was getting antsy about the amount of school the boy had been missing.

Samus sighed and sipped her coffee. The fact that he was missing school had never even crossed her mind. She had never personally been to school, save for a few night classes after she got out of the Army so she could get some kind of high school equivalent degree. There had not been any other children amongst the Chozo on Zebes. They had lost the ability to reproduce long ago. Hundreds of years ago, a plague had supposedly wiped out the females of their species, so by the time Samus came around, she was both the only child and the only female. Not that her sex had ever really mattered. Chozo lacked the same sexual dimorphism humans displayed, and the social construct of gender had never played a big role in their society. It had been a big shock to her when she realized it was such a big deal to humans and what an anomaly she was when so many were shocked to learn there was a woman under her armor.

No, her sex had never mattered to her. Until the day it did. That day over fifteen years ago when she had finally decided to go see a doctor after being sick for four months. Though she had never been sick a day in her life before that, the last thing she had expected to find out was that she was pregnant. Not only pregnant, but nearly halfway to term at that. It had never even occurred to her that she was capable of becoming pregnant. She had simply assumed the Chozo had sterilized her when they made all of the other modifications. They had done everything in their power to create the perfect human bioweapon, including cracking open her skull to install the electrodes in her brain that allowed her to interface with the powersuit. It had never made sense to her why they had left in such an obvious flaw.

That was not to say she really considered her son to be a flaw. Not anymore anyway. She loved him more than she had ever deemed herself capable of loving, and it put her at a peaceful ease knowing her was in the living space, just through the hatch behind her, watching the holoscreen and sitting on the couch beside Archer.

But fifteen years ago, she had felt very differently. Finding out she was pregnant had been one of the darker days in her life. Perhaps the darkest day that did not involve anyone dying. At eighteen, with no family, a failing Army career, and the ever-present threat of being sent back to prison, she had been terrified and certain that what little bit of a life she had been able to build for herself was over. Jack had not been the only man she had ever been with, but she was glad he was the one who ended up being her son's father. When she told him what had happened, he had not hesitated in wanting a part in their son's life. And when she told him she could not be a part of their lives, he gladly took full custody, no questions asked. And he had provided the boy with a loving, stable home for fifteen years.

As for her, the years between then and now had been difficult, but her whole life had been difficult. Adam had helped her get discharged from the Army, and while it was not a dishonorable discharge, she knew she had not left them on good terms and would never be welcomed back. Still, she had not been forced back to prison either, so she was free to pursue whatever work she could get. At that time, working meant chasing low life criminals for small bounties and scraping by month-by-month trying to take care of herself and send out child support payments. And then one day, she just started getting mercenary jobs, and things got easier financially. And money stopped being an issue altogether after her first mission to Zebes.

Samus stood up and stretched, setting her now-empty coffee mug to the side. It was nice taking a few minutes to herself, but she only had about twelve hours left before the ship would get to Earth, and she wanted to spend as much of that time with Hector as possible. Opening the hatch, she stepped into the living quarters and stared for a moment at the boy and the dog relaxing on the couch together. Hector looked up when he saw his mother enter the room, and Samus leaned against the wall and smirked.

"How are you two doing?" she asked.

"Pretty good," Hector replied, scratching the dog's massive head. "Watching the new Black Widow movie."

"How is it?" Samus had casually enjoyed super hero movies in the past. In some ways she could relate to them better than other movies, although she thought they definitely oversimplified some ethical dilemmas.

"It's pretty good. I'm glad they finally decided to make one."

The bounty hunter smiled as she scooted the dog over and took a seat next to her son. The three of them did not really fit very well on the tiny couch or in the tiny room, but they made it work. Samus was not familiar with the movie, but there was an attractive red-headed spy wearing a black leather jumpsuit and a lot of explosions, so she figured she could get into it.

"Samus?" Hector asked suddenly after they had been watching the movie for a while.

"Yes?"

"When your mission is over… do you think you could come back and visit us soon? It's been pretty cool spending time with you."

The mercenary smiled. It was a bittersweet question. "As soon as I am able to, I'll come visit. I just can't promise when that will be."

"Yeah… about that." The boy seemed nervous, like he was not sure how to phrase what he was about to say next. "Do you think you would ever… you know, consider living on Earth? Maybe buy a house and put paint on the walls?"

"Heh…" Samus was not sure how to answer that. It was something she had thrown around in her head a few times since meeting her surviving biological family members on Earth. "I had a house once. I sold it after a while because I never spent time there. I have an apartment now… somewhere." She shrugged. "I live on my ship."

"But you could have a house and live there part time. Or I could come visit you in space more often." He shuddered at the thought of trying to fly on a commercial spacecraft again though. That had been a nightmare.

"I suppose I could do that," she mused aloud. "I can't say anything for certain until I think through the logistics though."

Hector raised his eyebrows. "That sounds more like something General Malkovich would say."

Samus laughed, throwing back her head and laughing wholeheartedly. She supposed that really did sound more like something the General would have said. She was about to retort, but she was interrupted by the sudden ringing of her phone. Sitting up straight, she looked to her watch for the caller ID, hoping to see it was from Adam. However, the watch showed that the call was coming directly from Chairman Keaton. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment.

"I need to take this," she said to her son, fiddling with her earpiece and heading back into the cockpit. In her haste, she forgot to close the hatch behind her. The holoscreen flickered to life and the image of the little green Alien materialized before her. She stood facing it, not bothering to get into the pilot's chair this time. "Samus here."

"Samus," Keaton said, looking more irritable and stressed out than usual. "There's a problem."

The bounty hunter's heart sped up at the Chairman's words. He usually only called her if there were problems, but he was never usually so blunt about them. "What kind of problem, Sir?"

"Did you know General Malkovich was going on a mission to LV-426?" He stared her down, an uncharacteristic rage in his beady little eyes.

"I knew he was going on a mission," Samus replied slowly, trying to keep her cool. She hated being spoken to like she was a child who had gotten in trouble. "I didn't know it was to LV-426."

"Well it was," he said, more quietly, relaxing his posture once he was reasonably certain Samus had not known where the General's mission was.

"Okay," she said, not certain what he was expecting from her.

"Samus, there was an explosion onboard the vessel once the General and the Special Ops team entered the planet's atmosphere." He stared Samus down hard as she felt her heart sinking. "We've lost contact with them."

Samus froze, cold dread filling her veins as she felt bile coming up in her throat. It was as though someone had put her chest in a vice, and she found it suddenly difficult to breathe as she stared back at the Chairman in shocked horror.

"They may still be alive," he said after a moment when he realized the mercenary had become unresponsive. "It's too early to tell, but there is a good chance at least some of them survived the explosion and the crash. Look sharp, Aran, because I cannot have you breaking down now! We don't have a lot of time but—" The green Alien stopped short as he saw Hector and Archer walk into the room. For a few seconds, he and the boy locked eyes, both staring in disbelief. "You still have your spawn on your ship?" He turned his gaze back to Samus, who seemed to be regaining her composure.

"I'm taking him back to his father's house as we speak," she replied, her voice deeper and quieter than usual, though her eyes were wild and her breathing was fast.

"You don't have time for that." The Alien was not trying to be cruel but he also knew the situation warranted immediate action. "If the General and the others are to have any chance at survival, I need you to set your course to LV-426 immediately."

Samus just stared blankly at the screen, dozens of scenarios running through her head, each one of them ending badly. She's been here before, on the receiving end of this sort of news, and the images of the bodies and the carnage she had seen in the footage of LV-426 came flooding back. Except this time, she saw her son and the closest thing she had ever had to a brother laying amongst the dead. Finally, the rage welling up within her became too much to surpress, and something in her snapped. "How the fuck could you send Adam on a mission like that?! The man is fifty years old, Keaton! Hasn't he given enough to the Federation over the years? You go and send him to a dangerous planet with some extremely dangerous unknown fucking xenomorphs?! Why didn't you just send me instead?"

Keaton stared blankly at her for a moment. "Are you quite done, Aran?" There was annoyance in his tone, but a look almost of understanding on his wrinkly green face. "That's the problem. I didn't send General Malkovich. I sent Colonel Nelson and his troops, and I was told it would be Nelson leading the expedition. As far as I knew until an hour ago, Malkovich was still on Earth. Something is very wrong, Aran. Someone planted a bomb on that ship and sent the General in the Colonel's place, and somehow all this happened right under my nose. I can't risk sending any troops in. The military is compromised. I need an independent contractor, and you are, unfortunately, the only one I trust."

Samus stood in shock, staring up at the image of the Chairman, a sudden helplessness filling the spot where her rage had been only moments before. "My son is on this ship…"

"Then I hope you've taught the boy how to shoot," the Chairman snapped. "There lives at risk, Aran. You know how that goes. If you try to take that boy home, every man and woman on that squad will end up dead. You need to go to LV-426, stat!" With that, the screen flickered off, leaving Samus standing, still horror-struck in the middle of her cockpit.

The bounty hunter gripped the back of the pilot's chair for support as she steadied her breathing. If she took her son to safety, her best friend and the troops serving with him would die. If she rescued the troops, she was putting her son's life in danger. And there was the problem of the mole… how deep did the corruption in the Federation go, and should she even trust Keaton at this point? Adam had told her the orders came to him directly from General Harper and Secretary Green. If they were somehow trying to stage a coup… she couldn't think about that. Federation politics were not her priority at the moment.

Keaton was right about one thing; lives were at stake. And now she had a decision to make. She turned and looked back at Hector, and the confusion and horror on the boy's face mirrored her own. Slowly, wordlessly, she took her seat in the pilot's chair. The impossible choice lay out before her, but she knew what she ultimately had to do.

Without hesitance, she made her choice and entered the coordinates.