A/N: Alright, College really got in the way of this one. But, here it is. A little heart-to-heart oneshot and my second fic in a row involving Ms. Aran. However, this one's going to focus a little more on her vulnerable side, though I'm going to try to not make it as much as Other M (Even if I LIKE that game. It played fine, the story… I'll admit it was mostly crap. I liked Anthony and Adam, sue me) Enough Other M defense, this is Smash Bros. territory. Let's go!
Her Power Suit disintegrated as she slammed down hard on the steel floor, the skeletal dragon alien hovering above her with a triumphant grin on his disgusting face, his sharp teeth forming a nightmarish visage. Samus sat up slowly, still groggy from her impact. Desperately, she attempted to summon her Power Suit again. She was too slow. Ridley dived down, jaws wide. He screeched loudly before his jaws came down…
"AAAHHH!" Samus screamed as she sat bolt upright, hand clutched to her chest. Wildly, she looked around the room. She was in her room in the Smash Mansion. No Pyrosphere, no Ridley about to devour her, she was on the floor rather than in bed- that explained the impact in her dream. She finally allowed herself to breathe. That wasn't the first nightmare she'd had about Ridley, but it was the first in a while. Normally they didn't pop up during the tournaments, but the experience aboard the Bottle Ship, a personal shame of hers in how she had reacted, was still fresh in her mind.
*Creeeaaakk* the door to her room opened slowly. Samus looked up and at first, didn't see anyone. Then she saw the tiny lightning mouse coming in on all fours. "Pikapi?" Pikachu asked her, worry etched across the mouse's cute face. He'd obviously heard her scream. She smiled- a rarity around others- and motioned to the tiny Pokémon she had befriended during the Subspace incident, picking him up and hugging him to her chest.
"I'm fine, little guy- just a bad dream," she assured the lightning mouse. She made sure to scratch him behind the ears- he loved it when she did that. She then stood up. Pikachu looked at her quizzically. She turned to the tiny Pokémon and said "I'm just going to take a walk, see if I can clear my head." It was late, but not too late. She decided to go outside, let the fresh air do her some good.
Samus walked slowly out into the gardens, silhouetted against the full moon. She thought was definitely making a good choice here- and then a very fast gust blew past her. "Oh, no…" she muttered. She knew that blur meant one thing- Sonic was still awake. She could tolerate the hedgehog's presence, and like the others, she was still grateful for his last-minute rescue in the battle against Tabuu, but she still found the blue spikeball grated on her nerves sometimes. She still couldn't get "You're too slow!" out of her head, even after he stopped doing that. She wondered why he was still awake, and then remembered- the hyperactive hedgehog had gotten into a dessert eating contest with Wario after dinner tonight. She hoped he hadn't noticed her, but that hope was dashed when he skidded to a stop besides her wearing his usual friendly grin.
"Hi Samus, what's up?"
"I'm fine. Go away, Sonic."
"You don't look fine." Sonic's face softened somewhat. "Nightmare?"
"How did you know…?"
"It's written all over your face, that's how. Do you want to talk to me about it?"
"No."
"But…"
"NO."
Sonic sighed. "Fine, fine. Tough girl Samus over here," he snarked. Sonic's expression softened slightly. "In all seriousness, you should talk to someone else about those. I've found that talking about nightmares tends to make them disappear or at least allows you to turn it around into a better one next time you have it."
"How do you know about dealing with nightmares?"
"I did practically raise Tails since he was 6. I had to learn to recognize and deal with stuff like this, not to mention having gone through worst-case scenario nightmares myself. Comes with the hero territory. Now if you don't want to talk about it with me, go find Palutena or Rosalina. They should be able to help and I know they're both awake. Heck, if you can't find them, go see if Shulk's awake. He's good at talking about this kind of stuff. See you tomorrow. Goodnight." He turned and sped off, obviously trying to burn off excess energy. Samus thought to herself that Sonic really should try and cut down on how much dessert he ate, since it usually led to all-nighters like this for the hyperactive hedgehog. Still, she couldn't deny Sonic was a lot more mature than most of them gave him credit for. She then turned and decided to go find Palutena.
Samus found the Goddess of Light at a reflecting pool on the other end of the backyard. Palutena looked up at the bounty hunter approaching her and smiled. "Hello there, Samus. What are you still doing up?"
"I couldn't sleep" Samus replied.
"You mean you had a nightmare" Palutena retorted, a knowing grin on her face.
"How… yeah, you're right. I've had it before, but this one keeps popping up with increasing frequency ever since the Bottle Ship incident. It's basically just being knocked down and eaten by Ridley. Why can't I get rid of that nightmare?" Samus asked her. Her face had begun to show a lot of emotion, a rarity for Samus. Palutena dropped her joking demeanor, realizing this was serious.
"Well Samus, I can tell you're still afraid of Ridley, albeit far less than you used to be." Samus moved to protest, but the goddess held up her hand to signify to let her continue. "The nightmare seems so bad because your subconscious is amplifying that innate fear."
"But I've beaten him multiple times! How can I still be afraid of him?!"
"Samus, just because you've defeated him before and killed him does not mean that you automatically get over your fear of him. Pit still has occasional nightmares about Medusa or Hades, and I still have them about the Chaos Kin. And remember, I only said you were slightly afraid of him now. Your victories have helped you get over most of your fear. Your little freak out on the Bottle Ship was mainly because you let your guard down. Remember, you weren't expecting a clone. All the other times, you knew you'd have to face him eventually, and were able to prepare yourself."
"Ok, so that's why I freaked out on the Bottle Ship. Can you help me get rid of this nightmare?" Samus asked. She was feeling a lot better, but this still wasn't solving her problem.
"I find that if traditional remedies don't work, just try focusing on something positive before falling asleep. You know, think about something or someone that makes you happy. It always helps me after I wake up from a nightmare. Give that a try." Palutena looked up at the sky, observing the full moon. "I'm going to head to bed. Try my technique, and then you should get some sleep too. Last I checked you have quite a few matches tomorrow, one of which is against me" she said, her trademark mischievous smile returning to her face. "There's no fun in fighting a tired opponent."
Samus grinned back. "Don't worry, I don't plan on losing to you. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight." Samus headed back to her room and was greeted with a pleasant sight. Her bed was back in order, and the reason was obvious- Pikachu was curled up in the middle of her bed, fast asleep. Samus smiled at the lightning mouse and stroked his back a few times before climbing back into bed. She slowly moved her friend close to her, so as not to wake him up, and he snuggled close to her in his sleep. With her friend by her side, Samus realized she had the perfect person to focus on. She allowed her eyes to shut finally, sending her into a pleasant sleep.
A/N: Sooooo… Please don't murder me for making Samus have fears. I originally planned for Samus to talk to Anthony about this and have it be a pure Metroid fic, but I decided to make it Smash Bros. to give it some more characters. If you wonder how Palutena knew all that stuff about Samus and Ridley, I imagine that information on all fighters is gathered by Master Hand and Crazy Hand to let the others know about each other so they don't accidentally say the wrong thing about each other and improve relations between the fighters. Not to mention, Palutena likely can read minds, and before you bring up her saying she was joking with Pit in "The Reaper's Line of Sight", she was just joking about reading Pit's heart and mind through his laurel crown. It is likely Palutena does have this power; she just doesn't use it too much. As for next time… I'm thinking of letting Sonic head to a certain pizza place with 4 killer robots after him. We'll see what I do next, when that comes around. I'll see you next fic! Scorpion out.