A/N: WOAH LAST CHAPTER GUYS. Okay, big thank you is all at the end, but up here I wanted to say that sorry the last chapter (like a year ago) didn't have the correct line breaks. They didn't stay, apparently, so sorry for any confusion that caused. As for this chapter, I apologize for any accidental tense changes I missed. Also, brief WARNING: Some bad language! Just a few cases of f-bomb dropping, but if it offends you, please, close your eyes and insert a bleeping noise. I haven't written in present tense in a very, very long time, and it was more challenging than I thought! I hope I recaptured my earlier style so it flows cleanly, but be sure to leave a review and tell me how I did! Thank you so much, and enjoy the final Chapter of Alone.

To say I am surprised might be the biggest understatement of my life.

I stare at her, my eyes wide, blank, embarrassed, confused, as she sits down gently, resting herself into the chair so delicately for her strong frame. I see her lovely, smooth cheeks - I notice with a bit of a blink - warming palely, the barest hint of rose blossoming there.

Her green eyes meet mine, and I am trapped for a second -

Can she see the pain? The hurt, the bewilderment, the shame, the fear that she will reveal me? Or is my mask still thick enough? Then again, judging by the looks I've been getting, my mask, as golden and heroic as it is, isn't nearly as strong as I thought.

But I refuse to let her turn this crack in my barricade to rubble. I will seal it up and keep myself quiet, as I always have.

She stares at me, refusing to be the one who breaks eye contact. For a brief second I see retribution in those green, green eyes. So green. Sparkling brighter than emeralds, sharper than jade, pure and welcome as a tropical jungle. So green.

I finally allow her to win, and look back down, not bothering to pull my hair out of my eyes. I feel pathetic, stupid, mortified for being caught whilst so weak, especially to one as strong and infallible as her.

Wasn't that what I was supposed to be? I wonder, biting my chapped lips in mild chagrin. A rough noise escapes my sore throat, and I bring my trembling hand to my neck, as if to cut off the noise. It sounds like a wounded animal, like an old, dying wolf.

I glance back up to see Samus eyeing me carefully, like an owner watching over a pet. I hate the scrutinizing gaze, the clear and unadulterated concern in her eyes. I'm not a precious little child. I don't need anyone to take care of me.

I don't need anyone to fix me.

I snarl at her, ignoring her when she seems to shrink back. I go back to eating, staring everywhere but her, anywhere but those bright, cautious eyes, framed so perfectly by cornsilk yellow locks, ending in soft, natural curls. I ignore the eager pose of her body as she leans toward me, I ignore the quiet sound she makes, one of animalistic, naked concern, and I ignore with so much difficulty the trembling touch on my arm.

The inside of my cheek bitten raw, I throw myself out of my seat and turn to leave, but not before hearing one sound hit me like a wave of salty, stinging water, and it opens my eyes; suddenly the world seems to be in all sorts of colors I have never seen before, contrasts blinding my eyes with the brightness and range of palettes, and while my sight is no longer so dull and dark, my ears seem to drink up every noise I can hear, every different pitch of voice vibrating in my skull with such renewed frequency and intensity I am for a second worried I will go deaf. All of this, from one simple, world-changing note in that sympathetic, beautifully and amazingly real voice of hers:

"Link!"

Frozen where I stand, I feel so small and weak compared to the hold that voice has on me. I want to crouch down, fall to my knees and worship the voice that ensnares me like a quivering rabbit in a trap, ready to die; I feel all of a sudden as though my world is over, and simultaneously as though it's just beginning.

I don't turn around to see her. I can't.

What - what the hell - the very, ever-loving fuck - does this fucking girl want with me?!

The anger courses through me faster than I ever thought possible, faster than her voice had gone through me. And, to my terror, it's much stronger, so much stronger than the new colors and sounds are - and there they go, drained from my senses like the earth sucked dry in a draught. I was a crinkling, crisp leaf in the wind, and suddenly I am the sun burning up the land with fury I never even imagined impossible.

And I wheel on her, where she's caught up to me, and her face is so much closer than I intended. For a second, a sliver of time, I meet her innocent, scared eyes, and they bore into me, tornados of twirling emotions.

But I ignore it and begin to bellow at her. I don't look in her eyes as I demand to know what she wants with me, why she can't leave me alone like everyone else figured out. I only catch glimpses of her eyes as I rant, yelling on and on about why she can't just leave me to my misery, thoughtless and indifferent like the rest of the idiots here; I feel the curses, the profanities, the sarcasm positively dripping from my lips as I tear her apart ferociously, feeling as though my words are claws, and I must be absolutely growling and biting by now, foaming at the mouth, I am nothing more than an animal. An injured brute with nothing on it's mind but survival.

My howls die down, somehow, and there she stands, battered, bruised, beaten; and then, her eyes billowing with tears, she stares at me.

I can't stand the look of such broken, harrowed pain, sadness...and pity.

And this time, instead of being angry at the pity, whether at myself or someone else, I just feel it radiating from her, and then it hits me, like those damn colors and fucking noises, this hits me in a new sense, and it hits me right in the fucking face.

What have I done?

And, again, I am running.

-AL-

I watch after him, hands left outstretched. Come back, Link. Come back...

I want to fix you.

I watch my vision blur as the tears begin to freefall, but I don't mind, despite the people watching, amused or confused by the scene, I don't care. I care that this boy, this tattered wolf of a man, the one I have grown to worry about so much, just from a stupid mistake.

I gather myself, rubbing my long arms awkwardly, feeling gawky and uncomfortable in my body, and slowly leave my things behind. They don't matter. All that matters is Link.

How did I come to care for him so much?

That day I had seen him, invaded his privacy, more like, it had seemed as though I had seen him from the bottom of a grave, a tomb in which a thousand souls cried out for redemption I could never bring them. That no one could ever bring him. His eyes twisted into me like a blade, agony and fury lighting deep within, daring me to pity him and to save him. I didn't know what to do. How was I supposed to know what to do?

Whatever part of me tried to be a good person had prevailed, and pushed me forward despite my outer shell. I had reached for him, and for a split second, I saw him reaching back.

But then I ran, ran away just like he did.

But we hadn't always been running, I muse as I make my way around the stony, unfriendly walls of the manor. We were both hailed as heroes. We didn't run from our problems.

I think I understand Link a little bit more as a crooked smirk of chagrin winds up my face. We don't run away from our physical problems.

I feel that blade twist another notch through my heart. No, we don't. I remember the excruciating pain of a love lost, too. Of a love I never had.

I don't remember my parents as well as I want to. But, then again, I sometimes thought, maybe I don't want to have know them better. Might just make it even harder. But I remember the scent of my mother, the flowery perfume that evaded her as thought she were a living rose, and I remember her as just as beautiful. And my father. He'd smelled of warmth, of tanned hide and something I could never place...firewood, I'd eventually decided to call it, but I know it's not right. It is never right. And unfortunately, it was a smell that reminds me horribly, longingly, of Link.

For years I wondered if they were still alive. For most of my life I tortured myself into believing that I would see them again someday, that by thinking that all hope was lost they might actually come back. My reversed ways of thinking, of course, did nothing, and in the end, I always knew they were never going to come. They were never going to yell "Samus!" with a joy so profound and so long-awaited my very heart, my rough and calloused heart, would absolutely burst with all the overwhelming emotions I have barely ever felt: happiness, longing, home.

But in the end, I think, forcing myself to continue on as my knees start to buckle underneath me, they never came. My parents never got to see me grow up. My parents will never see me, with all my accomplishments.

And so I began to run again, as far away from the ghosts of my parents as I can, and I run so hard I think as though I might begin to fly, and I run again, no better than Link who might be able to run faster, but can't outrun them anymore than I can.

-AL-

I stand over the top of the building, gazing down intently at the ground so far below me. So far, falling from this distance wouldn't even hurt.

Not that I would. I am too much of a coward. Whatever part of me still has pride tells me that I've been through too much to give up now. And maybe it's right.

But I loved someone, and it went to waste. I had loved her so deeply. And I'd given her my all, and she'd promised me the same, and now she is somewhere else, telling another the same thing.

I stare into the horizon, a new thought entering the vicious cycle of my depression for the first time.

Too in love to let it go...

I am startled out of my fixation as I hear heavy footsteps behind me, on the stairwell. I turn quickly, shading my face with my shoulder, hoping, as usual, to hide it. But as I turn, my shoulders drop in amazement, and my jaw opens wide as I gape in stupid awe.

There's Samus, emerging from the last stair, cheeks bright pink from exertion, chest heaving as she slows herself. She looks...beautiful, I realize, a weird new feeling blooming in my chest like a swallow of sweet, spiced wine.

And her head jerks up as she looks at me, and then those intense, confusingly persistent, amazingly determined emeralds stare me down, and I watch as so many emotions cross her face, change the shape of her green eyes, twirling like a kaleidoscope through thoughts, as though she can't settle on what she wants to say, like the words are secrets hidden on the tip of her tongue as she pressures it to move. I can only gawk, speechless, thoughtless.

A tear or two glitters like a jewel as it traces a path down her rose-colored cheek, and she walks toward me. I can see her hands, nay, her whole body shaking as she advances, steps weak and uneven. I'm mildly worried for a minute that she's overexerted, but I quickly realize by the strength in her eyes that's it's pure determination. And a dash of nervousness?

And she's in front of me now, a foot or two away, and then she's a mere few inches away, and my breath is stopping short, my heart is paused in my chest as I wait for her next move. I am stuck as I was before, but this time, I simply can't tear my eyes away.

Her face, this close, is beaming like the most dazzling star I've ever seen. She looks so fresh, but I see pain deep in her eyes, in the tears streaming down her jaw. But her eyes are steady, so brave and promising as she stares at me, and all these feelings I can't understand are weaving through me, and for the first time in a long, long time, I forget about Zelda. All I can see is Samus as her lips move wordlessly, her supple, blush lips, becoming roughed when she bites them, searching for words. But I don't need words. Her eyes are telling me everything, even as I search her face for whatever it is I've always been looking for, even as she looks down, eyelashes frosted over with tears. Her eyes, sparkling and glimmering, seem to me like lights in the night sky, calling me to a place I haven't been for a very long time, and the bright green ribbons around my heart as it tries to find a steady rhythm. They speak to me of things I haven't dared dream of in a long, long time, those lights guiding me as I feel as though I can see into her soul. And all this time, her hands are wringing, and everything I remember saying is bubbling up in my throat, shame blocking my breaths, and for a minute or two I have no idea what to do except soak in her openness and sincerity, and so I do, until I feel a warm grip on my hands, and then her shaking, feather-soft fingers are intertwined in mine, a feeling I haven't had in a long time, and my eyebrows draw together in shock as all of a sudden her eyes are the only thing I can see -

"I've lost something I cannot replace, too."

A feeling, so warm, so welcoming, so strange and unfamiliar forces me to close my eyes in absolute pleasure. It's a feeling from long ago, a feeling I haven't felt in decades, centuries, eons. A feeling I remember dearly, but this time, it isn't tainted by betrayal. It isn't twisting, with secret intentions. It's pure, so innocent, and in awestruck wonder I feel the empty void inside of me fill up as I press Samus to me, and I begin to kiss her back.

Her lips are so delicate on mine, so tender and so full of emotion I feel my senses light up again, colors fireworking behind my eyes as I take her in, as I breath in the floral scent of her skin, so close to mine. Her hands clasp around mine tightly, and I feel light as air, I feel her positively yanking the void out of me like a sickness, and the wind is loud in my ears, her hair brushing me gently, soft as silk, glimmering in the corners of my eyes as I open them in astonishment.

There she is, her face so beautiful, so candid in total rapture as she pulls her sweet mouth away from mine. And those honest eyes, so unreserved and so unprejudiced, are searching mine in hope. I can only continue staring back, my breaths coming out of my mouth thickly as I try to fathom the turn my life just took.

The lights that are her green eyes smile at me, and all of a sudden, the only thing in the world that matters is that there's a person in front of me, having kissed me, who is willing to fix me.

To fix me.

Zelda is gone, the princess who betrayed me is gone. What matters, finally matters, is the beauty standing in front of me, chest heaving, eyes naked, smile so bright and happy I feel as though I may cry from the joy of seeing it. An angel is in front of me, sharing with me, through the tears, through the sympathy, through the kiss, that she's here with me.

I am not alone.

Euphoria such as I have never felt erupts through me, shooting into my veins like a drug, and my head is spinning, absolutely dizzied, as I feel bliss bringing me back to earth. She breaks out into a relieved, anticipated smile, so sweet and innocent, it's all I can do to gaze at her in unconcealed gratitude. My words will never be enough.

And I bring her to me, hands still wrapped in mine, and I smile in what feels like the first time in forever. She laughs, and I take her in my arms and spin her around, unsure and indifferent as to what bond we have, that we're forming - we're here, we're now. She's with me in this moment, and with her kiss, she brought me back from the dead shadow land I had convinced myself to live in. No longer will I dwell in the land of the dead, the past!

And I tell her so, and she smiles so wide her cheeks go red, and I kiss her so passionately, so elatedly, I feel her laughing under it, but I keep kissing her anyway, and she breaks away to pull me to her as she hugs me so tight I know that, in that very moment, and maybe for every moment onward, she doesn't want to ever let me go. And that feeling is the best one I have ever experienced: the unconditional love I have been searching for for so, so long.

And her green eyes gaze into mine in hope, exhilaration, and a love I never thought I would see again.

"Samus," I whisper, and my voice, so unused and so quiet, makes those green eyes nothing but lights, stars to guide me home.

I know, in this moment, that I will never truly be alone again.

A/N: Quick note about Samus and her parents: I've never played Metroid (sadly) but I do know a good amount of trivia. I'm unsure if she knew them at all before she was orphaned, but for the intents and purposes of this story, she did. Hope I didn't offended any Metorid fans.

Holy. Shit. Did I really complete my first multi-chapter fic ever?! Wow. Okay. Wow. So, um, yeah, this has been a long road. I started this when I was 13, and I turned 17 last weekend. But you know what? I'm okay with that. I'm so glad you guys convinced me to do a happy ending. I know it might sort of drag, in some opinions, but I was trying to make it feel stream of consciousness, and really focus on my earlier writing style to make sure everything connected, and not just connected, but have a good, full-circle, satisfying ending. I really hope I did well. Because this is my last chapter, I please ask that you review. It's been a long path, but I couldn't have done it with any of you. I appreciate you all so much, every review I've ever gotten, but so much so with this story as it hits me very personally. I'm so glad people like it, I'm actually elated, to be honest. Thank you so much. Please review and let me know how I did for the final chapter! Thank you all for sticking through with me!

So much love, always and always,
Ace