[AP] Seven Haunted Dreams
On the seventh day of Christmas, the Asylum gave all of the patients seven horrible nightmares in succession, with the bonus of full recollection once the patients finally woke up. It was the worst night of sleep of all the patients' lives.
I.
Samus stands in the ruins of what was once a colony, now reduced to rubble with broken, mangled bodies everywhere. As she surveys the carnage, Ridley swoops down from no where, and Samus turns to aim her arm cannon at him. When she tries to fire, she finds that her suit is useless, like it is in the Asylum, and Ridley seems to not pay her any mind at first, landing in a pile of bodies and picking up each one, one by one, and swallowing them whole. She tries to get his attention shouting his name, waving her arms, ordering him to stop, anything to get him to leave the dead at peace. When he turns to her, he clearly recognizes she's not a threat, looking at her like she's nothing more than a pitiful nuisance, and swoops forward, lifting her up in his jaws, his teeth easily penetrating the metal of her suit...
II.
Samus is much younger, only fourteen, the helmet of her suit removed as she arrives in Tourian, standing in front of Mother Brain, her Chozo family cowed around the organic computer, motionless and resigned to their fates. She once more readies her cannon, knowing that Mother Brain herself is fragile, and that she can withstand the defense systems around her with her suit on. As she does, Mother Brain begins to speak.
"Don't you see your own superiority? Don't you sense your abilities? You're only tying yourself down needlessly if you continue to serve those who are inferior to you. Come to your senses, Samus Aran."
Samus insists that she's not like that, that she's never felt herself to be better or more worthy of survival than anyone else in this galaxy.
"Then why do you fight at all? Why do you tear apart the Pirates like they're nothing? Why do you destroy anything you can overpower? How does that fit your precious concept of 'justice'?"
Samus tries to explain, tries to tell Mother Brain that she doesn't act out of malice, she does it to protect the people who would fall prey to the Pirates' plans. If she had some assurance that sparing them would still keep the public safe, she would have more compassion. She doesn't register the anachronism of Mother Brain apparently talking about events from later in her life than when she had this confrontation in reality.
"You should have taken our side when you had the chance, foolish little Hatchling. Now you just keep deluding yourself, justifying your personal need for vengeance, your appetite for destruction, with somehow restoring peace."
III.
Samus is standing in a familiar civilization. The locals, none of them human, are running, cowering in fear, shielding their children, and Samus begins to run in the direction they came from, only to find Dark Samus standing there, her powerful Phazon-fueled suit easily destroying all in her path. Samus dives at her dark clone, enraged at the carnage, wanting more than anything to defend the fleeing civilians. She fires at Dark Samus, and in this dream, she succeeds in using her plasma cannon, knocking the evil copy off of her feet, her helmet tumbling off. As it does, there is no warped, Phazon-created copy of herself inside of it. Instead, golden hair spills out around her shoulders, and she lifts her head weakly, blue eyes reflecting both rage and helplessness. Suddenly, Samus realizes that the other's suit isn't the black copy of her own, but the same orange, red, and yellow suit that she herself wears. She looks down at herself, and sees that the black suit is on her, and as she turns around, she realizes that she's the one that all of the terrified locals are fleeing from.
IV.
Again, Samus is only fourteen, having stayed on Zebes despite the urgings of her unit, the pleas of the Chozo, the warning from Adam that the Federation was closing in with a plan to carpet-bomb the entire surface in order to destroy the Pirates. But she can't leave. Old Bird, the one who had given her his DNA to ensure her survival, the one who had taken the greatest hand in raising her, making sure she got an opportunity to do something other than train relentlessly in her childhood, was still down there, and she wouldn't leave without him. He'd saved her life, and she would have already failed in her mission if she couldn't return the favor. But as she reaches the entrance to Tourian again, using the shortcut through Brinstar she'd discovered in childhood, she saw Ridley, standing over Old Bird, taunting him for being powerless, about how he'd lost his wings, giving Ridley the supreme advantage over him. Old Bird was trying to attack him, to keep him occupied until the Federation could finish him off, although any sort of violent action caused him as much pain as Ridley's taunting blows, knocking the Chozo Elder over again and again only to laugh at him when he got back to his feet and lunged at him with his ancient and flimsy spear. Just as Samus was close enough to attack, close enough to get a clear shot at Ridley's weak point and draw his attention to her, he snapped up Old Bird in his mouth and crushed him.
V.
Samus is on BSL, but instead of her stripped "Fusion" suit, she's wearing her normal Varia suit. She's standing amidst the many SA-X clones of herself, and they don't seem to notice that she's out of place, that she's the original, that she's now got the biological signature of their only natural enemy. She pushes past them, tries to get in touch with Adam on her helmet's communicator, as she realizes the sirens and klaxons are sounding, and the station's already been set to crash and self-destruct. She'd been willing to stay behind, to die with the station, until Adam agreed to support her, but now, for some reason, she's terrified, needs to get off of it now. As she reaches the hangar, where her gunship is docked, she sees the Omega Metroid, sees one of the SA-X fighting it. No...this is all wrong. She's fearful of this copy of herself, sensing something hostile about it not present in the others. But at the same time, she's more fearful of the Metroid...what's going on? She runs forward, ready to ignore the SA-X for the time being and attack the Metroid, but she's quickly overpowered...and then she finds herself being absorbed into...no, it's not an SA-X. It's her "true" self, and she's the SA-X.
VI.
And now Samus is even younger, only three years old, tiny and scared and watching as the Pirates savage her colony, attempting to secure the ship fuel they'd come to steal. Anyone who gets in their way is torn to bits, tossed aside like ragdolls. She steps out, approaches Ridley, her innocent three year old mind wanting to ask him nicely to stop, wanting to reason with him and figure out what's making him so mad. As she steps out of her hiding place, standing before Ridley, her mother swoops in, orders her to run just as Ridley leans over and takes the woman into his mouth, tearing her to pieces easily. And Samus runs, hides. Watches as her father runs into the building where the fuel is stored. Watches the building blow up around him, injuring Ridley, who cries out in pain. And when the carnage is over, when the Pirates are done, there's only two people left alive on the planet: Samus, still hiding still watching fearfully, and Ridley, as he crawls weakly on the ground to each body, one by one, and devours them like he's starving. Watches him as he closes his mouth around the remains of her mother...
VII.
And Samus is an adult again, wearing her suit, standing in the middle of a city, as people watch her with horror. She doesn't know why, until she takes a step forward and the ground cracks beneath her. Another step, and the ground splits further, taking a building down with it. She stands still, but it's too late: the cracks are spreading, and the city is falling into the ground, being consumed by the planet as it falls apart, people screaming and pleading for mercy. And in Samus' mind, an accusing voice, that sounds like Mother Brain's:
"You're the destroyer. You're not an instrument of peace. Everything you come in contact with dies. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can confront your real destiny."
I.
Samus stands in the ruins of what was once a colony, now reduced to rubble with broken, mangled bodies everywhere. As she surveys the carnage, Ridley swoops down from no where, and Samus turns to aim her arm cannon at him. When she tries to fire, she finds that her suit is useless, like it is in the Asylum, and Ridley seems to not pay her any mind at first, landing in a pile of bodies and picking up each one, one by one, and swallowing them whole. She tries to get his attention shouting his name, waving her arms, ordering him to stop, anything to get him to leave the dead at peace. When he turns to her, he clearly recognizes she's not a threat, looking at her like she's nothing more than a pitiful nuisance, and swoops forward, lifting her up in his jaws, his teeth easily penetrating the metal of her suit...
II.
Samus is much younger, only fourteen, the helmet of her suit removed as she arrives in Tourian, standing in front of Mother Brain, her Chozo family cowed around the organic computer, motionless and resigned to their fates. She once more readies her cannon, knowing that Mother Brain herself is fragile, and that she can withstand the defense systems around her with her suit on. As she does, Mother Brain begins to speak.
"Don't you see your own superiority? Don't you sense your abilities? You're only tying yourself down needlessly if you continue to serve those who are inferior to you. Come to your senses, Samus Aran."
Samus insists that she's not like that, that she's never felt herself to be better or more worthy of survival than anyone else in this galaxy.
"Then why do you fight at all? Why do you tear apart the Pirates like they're nothing? Why do you destroy anything you can overpower? How does that fit your precious concept of 'justice'?"
Samus tries to explain, tries to tell Mother Brain that she doesn't act out of malice, she does it to protect the people who would fall prey to the Pirates' plans. If she had some assurance that sparing them would still keep the public safe, she would have more compassion. She doesn't register the anachronism of Mother Brain apparently talking about events from later in her life than when she had this confrontation in reality.
"You should have taken our side when you had the chance, foolish little Hatchling. Now you just keep deluding yourself, justifying your personal need for vengeance, your appetite for destruction, with somehow restoring peace."
III.
Samus is standing in a familiar civilization. The locals, none of them human, are running, cowering in fear, shielding their children, and Samus begins to run in the direction they came from, only to find Dark Samus standing there, her powerful Phazon-fueled suit easily destroying all in her path. Samus dives at her dark clone, enraged at the carnage, wanting more than anything to defend the fleeing civilians. She fires at Dark Samus, and in this dream, she succeeds in using her plasma cannon, knocking the evil copy off of her feet, her helmet tumbling off. As it does, there is no warped, Phazon-created copy of herself inside of it. Instead, golden hair spills out around her shoulders, and she lifts her head weakly, blue eyes reflecting both rage and helplessness. Suddenly, Samus realizes that the other's suit isn't the black copy of her own, but the same orange, red, and yellow suit that she herself wears. She looks down at herself, and sees that the black suit is on her, and as she turns around, she realizes that she's the one that all of the terrified locals are fleeing from.
IV.
Again, Samus is only fourteen, having stayed on Zebes despite the urgings of her unit, the pleas of the Chozo, the warning from Adam that the Federation was closing in with a plan to carpet-bomb the entire surface in order to destroy the Pirates. But she can't leave. Old Bird, the one who had given her his DNA to ensure her survival, the one who had taken the greatest hand in raising her, making sure she got an opportunity to do something other than train relentlessly in her childhood, was still down there, and she wouldn't leave without him. He'd saved her life, and she would have already failed in her mission if she couldn't return the favor. But as she reaches the entrance to Tourian again, using the shortcut through Brinstar she'd discovered in childhood, she saw Ridley, standing over Old Bird, taunting him for being powerless, about how he'd lost his wings, giving Ridley the supreme advantage over him. Old Bird was trying to attack him, to keep him occupied until the Federation could finish him off, although any sort of violent action caused him as much pain as Ridley's taunting blows, knocking the Chozo Elder over again and again only to laugh at him when he got back to his feet and lunged at him with his ancient and flimsy spear. Just as Samus was close enough to attack, close enough to get a clear shot at Ridley's weak point and draw his attention to her, he snapped up Old Bird in his mouth and crushed him.
V.
Samus is on BSL, but instead of her stripped "Fusion" suit, she's wearing her normal Varia suit. She's standing amidst the many SA-X clones of herself, and they don't seem to notice that she's out of place, that she's the original, that she's now got the biological signature of their only natural enemy. She pushes past them, tries to get in touch with Adam on her helmet's communicator, as she realizes the sirens and klaxons are sounding, and the station's already been set to crash and self-destruct. She'd been willing to stay behind, to die with the station, until Adam agreed to support her, but now, for some reason, she's terrified, needs to get off of it now. As she reaches the hangar, where her gunship is docked, she sees the Omega Metroid, sees one of the SA-X fighting it. No...this is all wrong. She's fearful of this copy of herself, sensing something hostile about it not present in the others. But at the same time, she's more fearful of the Metroid...what's going on? She runs forward, ready to ignore the SA-X for the time being and attack the Metroid, but she's quickly overpowered...and then she finds herself being absorbed into...no, it's not an SA-X. It's her "true" self, and she's the SA-X.
VI.
And now Samus is even younger, only three years old, tiny and scared and watching as the Pirates savage her colony, attempting to secure the ship fuel they'd come to steal. Anyone who gets in their way is torn to bits, tossed aside like ragdolls. She steps out, approaches Ridley, her innocent three year old mind wanting to ask him nicely to stop, wanting to reason with him and figure out what's making him so mad. As she steps out of her hiding place, standing before Ridley, her mother swoops in, orders her to run just as Ridley leans over and takes the woman into his mouth, tearing her to pieces easily. And Samus runs, hides. Watches as her father runs into the building where the fuel is stored. Watches the building blow up around him, injuring Ridley, who cries out in pain. And when the carnage is over, when the Pirates are done, there's only two people left alive on the planet: Samus, still hiding still watching fearfully, and Ridley, as he crawls weakly on the ground to each body, one by one, and devours them like he's starving. Watches him as he closes his mouth around the remains of her mother...
VII.
And Samus is an adult again, wearing her suit, standing in the middle of a city, as people watch her with horror. She doesn't know why, until she takes a step forward and the ground cracks beneath her. Another step, and the ground splits further, taking a building down with it. She stands still, but it's too late: the cracks are spreading, and the city is falling into the ground, being consumed by the planet as it falls apart, people screaming and pleading for mercy. And in Samus' mind, an accusing voice, that sounds like Mother Brain's:
"You're the destroyer. You're not an instrument of peace. Everything you come in contact with dies. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can confront your real destiny."