A sound awoke Zelda from her sleep several hours later. Someone was opening the door. A tall blond woman walked in carrying a duffel bag in one hand and a suede leather jacket draped over one shoulder. She wore blue shorts and a matching sleeveless top.
"Oh, I didn't think anyone else was going to be here," said Zelda sitting up in bed rubbing her eyes.
"I'll go sleep in my ship if it's a problem," the woman replied.
"Oh no, it's no problem. I just thought…." the woman walked into the room ignoring her.
"Umm... You are Samus, are you not?"
"That's right," Samus said flatly, walking over to the bed on the other side of the room opposite Zelda's. She dropped her bag and jacket on the floor next to the bed.
"Pleased to meet you, my name is Zelda. I'm fairly new here and... I..." Samus, still ignoring her, marched off to the bathroom. Zelda thought that something obviously must be bothering her, though she didn't seem angry. It was... something else. Zelda could hear the shower running. She lay back down and listen to the sound for a while, drifting in and out of sleep. Sadness... that's what it was.
The sudden stop of the shower fully awoke her. She heard the door open and Samus' foot steps across the floor. Zelda looked over and was shocked. Samus was completely naked, holding her previous outfit bunched up in one hand and rubbing herself dry with a towel in the other. Both of which she threw to the floor when she reached her bed.
'What is she doing? Doesn't she care that someone else is in the room? Maybe she just thought I had gone back to sleep already,' Zelda thought to herself. She turned away not wanting to invade Samus' privacy. Though after only a few seconds, as if by some unseen force, her head was turned back to watch Samus. She dug through her bag and retrieved a pair of plain white panties that she slipped on. Then pulled out an extremely worn white T-shirt and pulled it over her head and down around her, not quite reaching her belly button. Finally she pulled her long, still damp, blond hair back into a ponytail, and laid down on her side facing into the room.
Their eyes met and Zelda sharply turned away, embarrassed she'd been caught staring. Though Samus didn't seem to care, or even notice. Well no use in hiding it now Zelda thought. She slowly turned back to face Samus. But now she realized Samus wasn't really looking at her, she was just sort of staring off into space. Zelda lay there examining Samus' face through the dim light that came in through the crack under the door. She really did seem sad Zelda thought as she drifted off to sleep.
Again Zelda awoke. She had such trouble sleeping in a bed that wasn't her own. She wasn't sure if she had been out only a few minutes or hours. But Samus was in the exact same position, still staring at nothing. She should probably say something. Maybe she was depressed and just needed someone to talk to. Zelda slid out of bed and slowly crossed the room. Only when she got within five feet did Samus take notice, sharply directing her eyes to Zelda.
"Is anything the matter?"
"What...? No... I'm fine," Samus said shutting her eyes finally and turning her head away.
"Are you certain, because you seem..."
"I said I'm fine," Samus cut her off. She rolled onto her other side to face the wall. "Go back to bed."
"Alright," Zelda said quietly. She wanted to press the issue, but from Samus' tone she thought better. She went back to her bed and fell asleep, hopefully for good this time.
------
Samus awoke early the next morning. Sitting up on the edge of her bed she stretched, putting her hands up in the air and behind her, and arching her back causing her vertebrae to crack. She then tilted her head side to side doing the same to the vertebrae in her neck. She glanced over at Zelda still sleeping, 'What was with her,' she thought. She pulled off her T-shirt, put a bra on, and changed into a skintight light blue jumpsuit that she pulled from her bag. She put on her boots and walked out the door giving Zelda one last questioning look.
When Zelda got up she saw Samus was gone. Looking over to where she had slept Zelda saw a complete mess. The bed was left unmade and there were clothes all over the floor. She shook her head in disapproval. After changing into her usual dress she picked up all of Samus' clothes and put them in a pile. Then she made the bed, hung the leather jacket over the chair and put the duffle bag at the foot of the bed.
She then thought to wash all the clothes she had picked up, as well as some of her own. She didn't mind doing chores, even though she had servants she frequently cleaned up around the castle, as she liked the feeling of doing things on her own. Completely unaware of laundry machines she went into the bathroom and turned on the faucet in the tub. Using hand soap and the running water she washed each article of clothing individually and hung them to dry on the bar that holds up the shower curtain.
Once done with that she had some free time before meeting Link for lunch. Since she'd be stuck here a while she thought she might sign up for some more matches, so she headed off to the registration office. They gave her one of the last matches of the day as well as one late tomorrow morning. Then she headed off to meet Link for lunch.
Walking to the cafeteria she pondered where Samus could have gone off too. Recalling the match schedule, Samus didn't have any today. Maybe she was using one of the training facilities. She really did want an opportunity to talk with her. Perhaps Samus would be in a better mood if she caught her in the middle of the day instead of so late at night.
Zelda sat across from Link who was preoccupied wolfing down his lunch. She spoke up asking, "Have you ever spoken with Samus," Link just shook his head not wanting to talk with his mouth full. He swallowed then reiterated his response "No. She's never really around much. Spends most of her time in the training facilities."
"Oh, I see."
"Though I think Fox knows her. You met her?" he asked.
"Yes, last night. Although I didn't have the opportunity to speak with her much. She went straight to bed as soon as she got there. And she had gone before I woke up this morning," She paused for a while before continuing "It seemed like she was depressed about something," to which link just shrugged and continued eating.
After finishing lunch Zelda went with Link to watch him fight in a match and after that back to her room. It looked like Samus hadn't been back yet. She decided to get some rest before her own match, and went to sleep on the couch for a few hours. Then finally went off to the arena.
------
Samus landed in the midst of four virtual fighters and executed a sweeping kick, tripping all four. She then launched a missile at one destroying it, and used her grapple beam to grab a second one. She pulled it and sent it flying into the a third as it was just standing up. The fourth charged at her but she easily took it out by clobbering it with her arm cannon. As each was destroyed More came so that she was constantly facing four at a time. She dispatched those just as easily and even more came. She was hours into this and was getting bored. These virtual fighters were too weak even though their attributes had been set to their max. But she mustn't give in; boredom is just another obstacle to over come. She couldn't let herself succumb to it on a real mission. She pressed on several hours more until she convinced herself that she could have gone on indefinitely.
Still not satisfied she decided she would try the target test. A number of breakable targets would be arranged around an obstacle course and she had to destroy all of them as quickly as possible. She had to be quick and efficient and think on her feet, or her enemies could gain the upper hand. This would be useful training. She repeated the course over and over using different tactics at various places along the course and trying out different routes to the various targets.
These training exercises were no substitute for real experience though. As long as she was stuck here she might as well make productive use of the time and decided she should sign up for more matches. Seeing it was getting late she hurried off to the registration office before they closed for the night. They gave her several matches including one late tomorrow morning. She then returned to her room to get some sleep.
Opening the door to the room she saw her clothes were not where she had left them on the floor, her bed had been made and her jacket was hung up. She found her laundry strung up all over the bathroom. "Did that girl do this?" she muttered. "Must have," she plucked up all the clothing that was hers, leaving Zelda's stuff where it hung, and crammed it all into her bag in one shot. She showered, changed and then went to bed.
------
"Great job tonight, princess," Fox said.
"Yeah you're really improving, your highness," Link added.
"Thank you, but I didn't win," Zelda said with a fake smile. They both either forgot or ignored her request to be called by her name. And what was worse they were patronizing her, she was terrible and she knew it, and so did they.
"Well your competition was pretty tough," Link replied.
"Maybe I'll let Falco know to take it easy on you next time," Fox said jokingly.
She couldn't feign a smile at that. She just stared at the floor and held her tongue until they reached her room.
"Well goodnight boys, it's been a pleasure," she said and bowed.
"Goodnight princess," Fox said.
"Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow?" Link said.
"Yes, goodnight," she said again.
When Zelda entered the room she saw Samus was back and had already gone to sleep. She tried to be as quiet as possible as not to wake her as she prepared for bed. Flopping down on the bed, she sighed 'Damn, I missed another opportunity to speak with her.' She settled in and tried to fall asleep.
------
Zelda woke to what she thought was the sound of a scream, although through the uncertainty of her drowsy state she couldn't be certain what, if anything, she heard. She lay back down, disregarding it as nothing and was about to go back to sleep when she noticed Samus was sitting up on the edge of her bed. She was holding her head and breathing heavily and the expression on her face was one of pure terror.
"Are you ok?" Zelda called out, but got no response.
She got up from her bed and crossed the room. As she approached she could see that Samus was shaking. "Samus?" she tried again but still no response.
Zelda knelt down in front of her to see her face to face. "Hey," she said softly. Samus jumped, startled as she became aware of Zelda's presence.
"Are you ok?" she repeated now that she had Samus' attention.
"I…" Samus just stared at Zelda, looking into her eyes. They seemed soothing to Samus, comforting somehow. They were a deep inviting blue, a darker shade than her own blue. She felt warmth in them yet at the same time they reminded her of a cool calm lake, whose surface hid its true depth. What ever it was about them she had stopped shivering. "I'm … alright," she said in a barely audible whisper.
"You don't look alright."
"I don't?"
'NO! NO! NO! STUPID IDIOT! STUPID AND WEAK! YOU'RE BEING WEAK!' Samus mentally scolded herself. 'NOW FUCKING SHAPE UP, PULL THIS SHIT OUT THERE AND YOU'RE DEAD!'
"No, you look terrified, you probably had a nightmare."
"No," Samus shut her eyes hard, shook her head and took a deep breath. "No," she said in a more normal voice. "I'm fine now."
"It must have been pretty bad, you were shaking..."
"I said I'm fine."
"But..."
"Look, I don't know what you want from me, but just... just leave me alone," Samus laid back down in the bed and shut her eyes.
A little hurt Zelda backed off. "I didn't want anything," she said to herself, "...just to talk to you."
"And don't touch my stuff anymore," Samus called out as Zelda walked back to her own bed.
------
Zelda woke the next morning to find Samus on her way out the door. "Samus, wait," she called getting up from the bed. "Last night... I mean, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just concerned," she explained.
"It's nothing, just forget it happened, I don't care," Samus said sounding more depressed than before, "Don't... don't say anything about it to anyone." Then she quickly exited.
"Alright, I won't," she said to the closed door. Now feeling a little down herself she decided to go get some breakfast, and headed off for the cafeteria. In the cafeteria she saw Fox waving to her from a table. She went and sat with him.
"Good morning princess," he greeted her cheerfully.
"Fox..." She was about to correct him for not using her name but decided she should just give up on it. "...so where is Link."
"Don't know, haven't seen him all morning."
"Oh, I see," she said sounding a little disappointed. "So, Link tells me you know Samus"
"Um... well you could say that," he said hesitantly. "Not very well, we've worked together a couple times before, and it was me that told her about this place"
"So then you are from the same place as her?"
"Well same dimension, but we're from different planets. Anyway aren't you staying in the same room as her?"
"Yes, I've tried talking to her but she's been very evasive. She's hardly ever there, and when she is she's sleeping. The few times I have spoken to her I hardly get two sentences out before she tells me to go away," Zelda said, a bit ranting.
Fox nodding the whole time. "Yeah, that's Samus. Well you'll get to see her later this morning, although I don't think you'll be doing much talking."
"What do you mean?"
"You're both in the 11:15 match this morning."
"What!"
"You didn't know?"
"No. There were still empty slots when I signed up. She must have signed up after me."
"Well good luck," He said finishing his breakfast. "Though against her I don't know what good it would do." He stood up from the table, "I have some things to take care of, see you later."
"Alright. Goodbye, Fox," she said then resumed eating her breakfast. 'A match with Samus?' she thought. People would expect her to be apprehensive about such a match up, but she was actually quite excited. She didn't care that she couldn't compete with Samus. Not only would she get the chance to fight in the same arena as this strong, powerful woman that she idolized, this would also give her something to talk about with Samus. She finished eating, got up and left, smiling the whole time.
End Part Two