Dark Samus

Dark Samus is the primary antagonist of the second and third instalments of the Metroid Prime trilogy. This creature appears to be a dark, twisted mirror image of the bounty hunter Samus Aran, but it actually used to be the colossal mutant Metroid known as Metroid Prime. Since its rebirth, it has evolved from being a hybrid of human and Metroid genes into a creature of pure Phazon energy.

Birth
After Samus defeated Metroid Prime on Tallon IV, the monster, in its death-throes, grasped at Samus with a tentacled appendage and tore away her Phazon Suit before it dissolved into a pile of radioactive goo. Samus made her escape from the Metroid Prime's lair as it collapsed and believed that she had seen the last of the creature. However, when the creature tore away the Phazon Suit, it used the lingering traces of Samus' DNA to bond with the suit, becoming one with it and taking on a new form reflecting that of the one who had defeated it. This was the birth of Dark Samus.

Search on Aether
Dark Samus, now with a new shell based on Samus' Power Suit and instincts that commanded her to absorb and spread Phazon, managed to leave Tallon IV in search of the substance. She eventually discovered the planet Aether, which was rich with Phazon. A Leviathan from Phaaze had landed on the planet fifty years prior, ripping open a second, darker dimension, Dark Aether. Dark Samus explored Aether and absorbed any Phazon she could find on the planet.

The Space Pirates, prior to Dark Samus' arrival, had established a base on Aether. Once Dark Samus arrived, they initially thought she was Samus Aran, but were perplexed as to her strange dark suit and her actions. She only raided their base to obtain Phazon, only killing any who denied her. Some of their Metroid specimens were also reported as stolen, and the Pirates, having spotted her at one time near the containment tanks attempting to breach them, believed that this "Dark Hunter" (as they began calling her) was to blame for the theft. She most likely freed them out of compassion due to her previous connection with them. Dark Samus also destroyed their stealth generator in one of her raids, causing disastrous results for the Pirates.

Samus Aran eventually landed on Aether to investigate a missing team of Galactic Federation Marines who had landed on the planet in pursuit of a Space Pirate starship. Samus first encountered Dark Samus in the marine base, where Samus followed her into a portal to Dark Aether. There, she found Dark Samus absorbing Phazon, with several shadowy creatures above which Samus would soon learn were the Ing. Dark Samus fired a shot at the Light Crystal that protected her from Dark Aether's poisonous atmosphere. With the crystal broken, the Ing stole most of Samus's abilities while Dark Samus fled. She escaped through the portal with only a few pieces of equipment intact. It was at first unclear if this meant that Dark Samus was working directly for/with the Ing Horde though it was only due to the Ing choosing to attack Samus over the far less vulnerable Dark Samus, as the former could not resist Dark Aether's atmosphere. A Space Pirate witnessed this encounter and believed that they were not allies, but foes. The Pirates then considered employing Dark Samus to kill the real Samus, with precious Phazon as a reward, though unfortunately they did not have time to put this plan into action.

The next encounter took place in the Agon Wastes, within the Pirate base. Dark Samus appeared in front of Samus, behind a locked gate, and left. Unable to bypass the gate, Samus explored the rest of the base and reached a room full of Phazon collected by the Pirates. There, Samus had her first battle with Dark Samus. Once Dark Samus was defeated, she began to destabilize and unleashed a massive Phazon explosion before collapsing and disintegrating into Phazon particles in the air. Samus believed that her foe was dead after the encounter.

However, this was not the case. The particles that Dark Samus transformed into managed to reach Torvus Bog. Samus saw the cloud transform into Dark Samus, though she did not fight Samus. Instead, she merely laughed maniacally and disappeared, supposedly to mock her and show her that she was alive. Samus later saw the same cloud in the Sanctuary Fortress, and it once again transformed into Dark Samus. She then destroyed the bridge to the Sanctuary Fortress and left, forcing Samus to find an alternative route across the chasm.

Samus later saw Dark Samus firing at several Dark Pirate Troopers; this confirmed that the Ing regard her as an enemy and not an ally as thought at the beginning. She disposed of them and began absorbing several canisters of Phazon (showing just what happens if Dark Samus is denied Phazon). Samus pursued her foe, cornering Dark Samus within an elevator and battling her once more. Samus defeated her once again and the doppelganger, losing stability in her body, allowed herself to fall off the top of the tower as a hasty retreat before Samus attempted to stop her. Once Samus had defeated the Emperor Ing and absorbed the remaining planetary energy, Dark Aether became unstable and began to collapse. Samus, having only eight minutes to escape, hurried out of the Sky Temple and began moving toward the exit. However, her hopes of escape were crushed when Dark Samus appeared, blocking the exit with a Phazon wall. Due to the huge amount of Phazon that she had absorbed, Dark Samus had begun to deteriorate, causing her suit to become transparent and revealing her organs along with a humanoid face with three yellow eyes inside her helmet that bore a slight resemblance to Metroid Prime's core form, telling Samus who her foe was. It is interesting to note that her "organs" are actually energy-based, and are shaped in galaxy spiral-type shapes in various colours. It also appears that she has a skeletal system, albeit shaped like Samus's suit.

Both Samus and Dark Samus engaged in a gruelling battle, though Samus managed to defeat her once again by taking advantage of her foe's sole weakness: an overload of Phazon. Samus absorbed Dark Samus' Phazon into her Charge Beam, and shot it back. The attack penetrated Dark Samus's Phazon shield, and caused Dark Samus to destabilize, just as she had as the Metroid Prime, and she collapsed, defeated once again by her own attacks. In her dying moments, she painstakingly reached out in an attempt to touch Samus (possibly trying to absorb the Light Suit like she did the Phazon Suit), but dematerialized into a cloud of Phazon particles at the last second. Samus escaped Dark Aether and brought peace to the Luminoth on the planet, and it seemed that Dark Samus perished along with Dark Aether.

Yet, even though Dark Samus lacked a corporeal form, she still existed. Her particles would reconstitute yet again and it would be only a small amount of time before she would return.

Corruption
The Galactic Federation, seeing great use for the mutagenic substance, took some of the Phazon from Aether. However, they left most of it behind, and the Space Pirate crew of the battleship Colossus soon collected the remaining Phazon. However, they would soon find out to their horror that they had unknowingly taken the particles of Dark Samus as well. Using the Phazon collected by the Space Pirates, Dark Samus regained her physical form (now with a more armoured look to it) and wiped out a third of the Space Pirates aboard the ship. She then used her Phazon energy to brainwash the rest into accepting her as their new leader with the promises of incredible riches and power.

With the Pirates so suckered into her megalomaniacal schemes, a quasi-religious cult began to form around her and they followed her every whim. She taught the crew to turn the Colossus into a mighty Phazon-fueled craft. She then left them for several months to locate the source of all Phazon - the planet Phaaze. During her absence, her followers maintained order by executing those who doubted that she would return. During her journey, she encountered a Leviathan and used her energy to take control of it which led her to Phaaze. For Dark Samus, the chance to control the source of all Phazon was a chance to control the universe. Dark Samus absorbed a tremendous amount of Phazon, increasing her power to new heights. She then returned to the Pirates with the Leviathan and commanded them to follow it through the wormhole to Phaaze. She then revealed her plan to take control of the planet and the Genesis Chamber to speed up Leviathan production and spread Phazon across the universe. How to do this was a dilemma, but a solution soon presented itself in the form of the Federation's Aurora Units.

Under her orders, the Space Pirates attacked the G.F.S. Valhalla and stole the ship's Aurora Unit 313. If the survivors of the raid expected mercy, they did not receive any. Under Dark Samus' orders, the pirates jettisoned the survivors into the cold depths of space. The Aurora Unit was corrupted with Phazon and implanted into Phaaze, allowing Dark Samus to directly control the planet and all of its assets - including the Leviathans. The first Leviathan that she controlled was sent to the Space Pirate Homeworld. According to Space Pirate Data, the Space Pirates on the homeworld that had not been brought under Dark Samus' control fought back against the Leviathan, but failed. All remaining Pirates were brainwashed.

Next, Dark Samus sent three more Leviathans to planets important to the Galactic Federation - one to Norion, containing the important Sector Zero; one to Bryyo, the Federation's primary source of Fuel Gel; and the last to Elysia, containing SkyTown, a vital research facility. While the Bryyo and Elysia Seeds collided without any trouble, Dark Samus encountered opposition on Norion - specifically, in the form of Samus Aran and three other Bounty Hunters: Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda. Just before they activated the cannon to destroy the oncoming Leviathan, Dark Samus confronted them, crashing through a window and repelling the Hunters' attacks with a Phazon shield. Despite the Hunters' efforts, she overpowered them and corrupted them with Phazon. Believing her work to be done, Dark Samus flew off, but Samus, using the last of her strength, managed to activate the cannon and destroy the Leviathan before falling unconscious.

After this, Dark Samus herself stayed on Phaaze and did not appear to the bounty hunters, busy performing their duties of destroying the Leviathans. However, due to her "mark of corruption" that she had left on all four of the bounty hunters, all but Samus succumb to Phazon Corruption and are, apparently, completely possessed by Dark Samus (this is most evident in the cutscene just prior to the battle with Rundas). Over the course of the game, Samus is forced to kill all three of them. Each time one of them dies, a shadowy apparition of Dark Samus appears before them, absorbing their bodies and their powers. This form is a black collection of smoke that has what may be tentacles acting as "wings". After each absorption, Dark Samus swoops down and flies away similar to a bird. This form depicts Dark Samus' visor.

Dark Samus was confronted for the final time in her Sanctum on Phaaze, where she challenged Samus to a grand final battle. However, after being injured considerably, Dark Samus called forth the stolen Aurora Unit 313 and merged with it in a last-ditch effort to defeat Samus. After a gruelling two-part battle, the Aurora Unit was destroyed, and because it was directly linked to Phaaze's core, it began a chain reaction that culminated in Phaaze exploding. As a result, Dark Samus was ejected from the Aurora Unit and, exploding into Phazon dust, was supposedly destroyed for good. However, the 100% Ending alludes to Dark Samus' survival as a mysterious spacecraft is depicted flying off after Samus' gunship, though this ship may belong to another being.

Personality
Dark Samus, as her name implies, is shown to be cold, calculating, and merciless. The lives of her opponents hold little to no value to her. When necessary, she uses her allies to her own gain. A prominent example of this is when she corrupts Rundas, Ghor, and Gandradya and uses them to battle Samus, only to absorb their powers upon their defeats. The extent of her cruelty is described in one of the Pirate Logs, where she is said to have ordered her Pirate forces to jettison the surviving crew members of the G.F.S. Valhalla raid into space.

Dark Samus only seems to show compassion toward Metroids, like herself. In Echoes, she takes an interest in the Metroids being researched by the Pirates in Agon Wastes and frees them.

Dark Samus is also greedy for Phazon, as, throughout the entire Prime series, her goal is to consume said-substance. She will kill anyone in her way, as the Space Pirate Logs in Echoes mention that Dark Samus only killed those who denied it to her.

Her personality undergoes a great change between Echoes and Corruption. In Echoes, she's portrayed as unstable and unpredictable, shown by her maniacal laughter and chaotic attack patterns. In Corruption, she's significantly calmer. She's shown to be quite cunning, capable of long-range planning, and remains calm even if her plans are not going accordingly. The massive invasion she led on Norion would have succeeded, if not for Samus Aran.

Powers and abilities
As Dark Samus, the creature utilized many abilities similar to Samus, in more powerful forms. She could fire two types of Phazon beams (which the scan mentioned to be altered versions of the Power Beam) at enemies in the form of either a continuous stream of small shard-like bursts, or a thin laser Beam which she shot in an arc. She possessed standard Missiles as well as Super Missiles to blast opponents into bits. Also, she used what appeared to be a Phazon-charged Ice Spreader attack. She could also do a powerful dive bomb attack (which could be a Phazon-based Screw Attack, Shinespark or a combination of both), a Phazon Boost Ball that generated vast amounts of kinetic energy in alarmingly short times, raise pillars of crystallized Phazon in this form, is capable of both flight and levitation, and can render herself invisible; it is interesting to note that her Morph Ball form contained an eyeball on each side of the sphere. However, when Dark Samus consumed too much Phazon, she gained the disadvantages she possessed as Metroid Prime: although she was eventually able to render herself invulnerable to all conventional weaponry, Phazon fired at her could overload and destabilize her, resulting in her generating very powerful Phazon attacks to discharge the used Phazon radiation from her body, including a massive beam of pure, highly concentrated Phazon.

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Dark Samus' abilities are further augmented. In addition to most of her previous abilities, she can now produce near-perfect clones of herself (fittingly called "Dark Echoes") and is much more resilient to Phazon attacks (though Hyper Missiles are still effective on her). Combining with the Echoes temporarily also allowed her to form a purple energy shield around her body which rendered her invulnerable until she had to separate back into herself and the Echoes. After she unleashed the massive blast of Phazon at the four Hunters using what appears to be a version of the Charge Beam, the corruption within them seemed to be connected to Dark Samus; after the defeat of each hunter, a strange, black, wraith-like entity in the shape of Dark Samus would appear above the hunters, and fly off into space, presumably back to Dark Samus herself. This seems to be the manner through which she gained the Hunters' abilities, such as Ghor's Plasma Beam, Gandrayda's ground-based energy wave, and the ability to create giant Phazon pillars like Rundas could with ice. It is also possible that this entity was a form of Dark Samus herself interpreted as some sort of astral projection, which she used to possess the Hunters. She also has the ability to merge with the stolen Aurora Unit at the climax of the game, a technique which may have also been adapted from Ghor or connected with her apparent possession abilities. After this merge, the mutated Aurora Unit is capable of launching out holographic-like Dark Echoes from its eye; these copies will either shoot at Samus or enter Morph Ball mode and boost around the area in an attempt to ram her (reminiscent of her attack in the previous game). She is notably more agile in Corruption than in Echoes, able to perform graceful backflips and cartwheels.

In Echoes, Dark Samus seems to be somewhat incomplete; this is supported by the fact that she is constantly absorbing Phazon, looks slightly deformed, and has a range of chaotic attack moves. In Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime's tentacle was broken off of Samus prematurely, possibly not absorbing enough DNA to create a whole, stable Dark Samus. Dark Samus seems to act mentally unstable in Echoes cutscenes, even laughing maniacally in several instances. In the same game, Dark Samus also became physically unstable due to excessive Phazon exposure. While her physical body continues to be unstable in Prime 3: Corruption, she is surprisingly calm and attacks in a more organized and orderly method, suggesting she has absorbed sufficient Phazon to reach a stable mentality; this also explains how she was able to brainwash the Pirates, plan the coordinates of the Leviathan impact locations, and steal Aurora Unit 313.

Dark Samus is a very durable life-form, able to regenerate from any injury short of total atomic disruption, and traveling unaided through space and freely between the Dark and Light Dimensions of Aether, and even showing immunity to the caustic atmosphere of Dark Aether. She can survive in the vastness of space, travel through it, and survive the explosions of planets, even dimensions. This is how she has constantly been able to regenerate herself after defeat and fly to another planet for Phazon absorption. Her incredible regenerative abilities combined with Phazon-ehhanced versions of Samus' devastating abilites make her nearly impossible to defeat. In fact, she may have temporarily held the place of most powerful being in the Metroid universe. During the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, she singlehandedly defeated the highly skilled bounty hunters Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda. Though Samus held up better than the others, Dark Samus defeated all four of them with one blast of Phazon. Considering Samus herself seldom loses battles, even against ten-meter tall opponents, this is an impressive feat. Her massive durability at the climax at Phaaze, even against Hypermode's chaotic and devastating power just furthers this possibility. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption also reveals her to be sentient and capable of long-range planning, as noted through a series of Space Pirate data logs that record the fanaticism she inspires among the mind-warped pirates. They detail her plans and how she reacts to certain events, and credit her with being something near a deity whose rule of the galaxy will be great. She might have been and may still be the greatest threat ever to the Galactic Federation, and Samus's most powerful opponent to date.