Biography of Dark Samus

Dark Samus was a being of Phazon created after the dying Metroid Prime absorbed Samus' Phazon Suit and her DNA. She had many battles with Samus during her search for Phazon on the planet Aether and later returned as the mastermind of the Space Pirate invasion until her defeat on Phaaze. Below is a full account of her history.

Death and Rebirth
After Samus defeated Metroid Prime on Tallon IV by overloading it with the Phazon Beam, the creature began to destabilize, and in a desperate move, it absorbed her Phazon Suit and subsequently exploded. Little did Samus know that as she left the planet, a new enemy was born from her DNA and the remains of Metroid Prime, using her Phazon Suit as a mold to contain its new body - the creature known as 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 it in Samus's stolen Phazon Suit, though now black and dark blue in color with skeletal features and Phazon markings (most notably on the shoulders), suggesting her 'suit' has more organic components than Samus'. This makes her look more menacing than her heroine counterpart. 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.

Pirate Raids
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 disasterous results for the Pirates.

Encounters with Samus
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 doppleganger, 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.



Final Battle
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. The eye on the back of her hand featured on the arm that reached out of the pool at the end of the first game was also rendered visible (though with a smaller pupil and yellow rather than blue; why and how these changes occurred is uncertain, although it may just be a random mutation (like the third eye on her face) resulting from the massive quantities of Phazon she had consumed by that time). 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 grueling 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, and as shown in the 100% ending of Echoes, in which the Phazon particles again reform into Dark Samus's body, it would be only a small amount of time before she would return.

Return
Sometime between the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: 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 armored 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.

The Seeds of Scheming
With the Pirates so suckered into her megalomanical 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.

Raid on the Valhalla
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 recieve 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.

The Invasion of Norion
Next, Dark Samus sent three more Leviathans to planets important to the Galactic Federation - one to Norion, containing an important military base, 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.

The Final Confrontation
Dark Samus was confronted for what may have been 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 grueling 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 presumably defeated for good. However, the ship seen in the 100% ending alludes to the contrary, but may be open to interpretation.