Anxiety in a Heartbeat, Serenity in a Millenium
A study of time in the Metroid saga.
Metroid belongs to Nintendo.
Time upon a time.
This was it: Samus was facing off against the Mother Brain. The end of her mission lay in sight, though its formidable defenses awaited.
Everything went so quickly…
Too quickly. A rinka collided with Samus's visor, propelling her backwards. The defenses were getting harder to avoid, she would get hit again…
No.
There's a mission to complete, and Samus has a goal to accomplish. To do so, she has all the time she needs.
The next pair of rinka's come, but Samus is already leaping, ready to fire the missiles to finish off the Brain.
The Omega Pirate stumbled, as its fiery essence goes out.
Samus is tired from her struggle, and is too slow, flinching as the creature's bulk descends…
A moment of slowness, and she has a new tool with which to use.
The bane of the Alimbics comes for Samus, and Samus rises to meet it, when her gunship calls.
In the midst of combat with perhaps the fiercest foe Samus has yet to face, Samus reads the message.
For Samus, there is all the time she needs, and she knows this.
When the gunship calls again, providing her the means to put down the monstrosity, Samus has a realization. If Gorea could read her mind, it might have felt a chill.
Samus has all the time she needs, and Gorea's time is at an end.
As the Emperor's swings grow wilder, they seem to freeze.
Samus digests her scan's description, even as she faces the most powerful of the parasites she has been combating.
Time resumes, for eight minutes, long enough for Samus to escape.
Short enough that the Ing cannot follow.
It's amazing how quickly a poison can spread.
It's revolting.
Samus feels each heartbeat as a timer as her body seems to wither on the blue planet, its color not of lifeless ice nor refreshing sky, but of sickly eerie corruption.
Dark Samus has a timer too, as Samus draws ever nearer to the brain of the planet. It is this timer that draws the Dark Hunter out of hiding, and the duo clash.
One's story ends, purging the corruption and leaving only echoes.
Against a Metroid, Samus cannot afford to be slow.
Against this particular predator, however, it seems Samus's hand shall always be slow.
The shot she would have fired to freeze the cooing infant is so slow, in fact, that it never comes.
As Samus takes in this fresh infant's mannerisms, she wonders when their time together shall draw to a close…
An explosion.
The Baby swells, then bursts, showering iridescent particles on Samus, and time stretches with her arm as she raises it.
Time resumes as Mother Brain's hand comes to tear away the moment, only for Samus to pulverize the giant.
Even in death, Mother Brain tries to rob time from Samus, but Samus escapes the exploding planet.
Her heart doesn't have a countdown, however. It's simply in stasis.
As her ship flies, Samus watches the asteroids out of the corner of her eye.
At the speeds her ship is traveling at, a single impact would be fatal. Even computerized systems might have trouble picking out a course through the debris field, yet Samus's hand rests on the control device, picking a path as she contemplates the Ship she has just left behind. The Ship, its monsters, and the people the Ship consumed.
For Samus, she no longer has time with some. With others, she still has time; years, perhaps.
As her ship flies both away and towards, Samus has all the time.
All the time she needs, right at her fingertips.
The Omega Metroid approaches.
Even as the timer runs, as the station careens towards a brilliant end, Samus can do little but wait, crouching.
The Omega Metroid has all the time.
At least, until the doppelganger comes. The brethren of the one who annihilated most of the Metroids in the station seeks to finish the job.
The Omega Metroid thinks differently, but now Samus has had time.
As pulses of plasma tear through Metroid, Samus is back on schedule, only for her to remember that time may not be able to purchase a transport through space.
Such needs are met, however, through a motley collection of creatures. Samus had rescued them in her time of rushing, and they return to their own part in the story.