Author's Notes: Happy Second Coming of Metroid day, everyone! If you didn't already know, Nintendo announced both Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch, and Metroid: Samus Returns - a remake of the Gameboy classic "Metroid II: Return of Samus" for the 3DS today during E3! Just when I was beginning to lose hope that Nintendo cared anymore about Metroid, they answer the prayers of Metroid fans wwith these two HUGE announcements. I'm ten kinds of happy right now! At any rate, enjoy the Metroid high and the new chapter, everyone. See you next mission! :)
Chapter 14: Back To School (Day 171)
Samus had nearly completed her second trimester. She was now twenty-four weeks to term, and the lives of the parents-to-be had quickly grown to be more and more involved with an assorted array of preparations, doctor visits and – for Samus at least – staying out of the Federation's line of sight as much as possible, even though deep down inside, the mercenary was growing tired of the game. After all, she'd concluded during her and Adam's return flight home, she – they – hadn't come this far just to go into hiding just because the Federation might have – or not, Samus still wasn't quite sure – known of their involvement. But Adam was a decorated, well-respected General, and for his sake, Samus decided, she would continue to lay low unless things ultimately came to blows.
As Adam sat reading in the dimness of their bedroom, he felt his heart skip a beat when Samus suddenly screamed herself awake. She sat bolt upright quickly despite her ever-increasing girth, her face, neck and chest drenched in tears and sweat. Adam immediately came to her, noticing she was breathing fast; to Adam it sounded more like she'd just finished running a marathon. Clearly something had frightened her enough to scream herself awake. And he had a pretty good idea of what it could be, given the recent increase in her night terrors; without so much as turning off his tablet book, Adam brought his arms around his wife's shoulders.
"Easy, Samus. Easy. Breathe. Did you have the nightmare again?" he asked while his left hand made small circles around the small of her back.
Her chest continued to heave, rising and falling like a frantic wave. Her heart and stomach felt sick with lingering terror. "The baby." she said, trying to catch her breath. "I h-had...t-the most fr-frightening dream about the baby, A-Adam." she stammered, breathless and on the verge of tears.
"What happened Samus?" he asked.
Samus gulped back her tears, yet her body continued to swim with that sick feeling as she wrapped her muscled arms protectively around her mid-section. "Ridley." she said simply. The connotation in which she said this, however, told Adam she was terrified. Her breath hitched in her chest. "I gave birth to our baby. Only, he wasn't human. He looked just like Ridley. Those wings, that tail, those eyes, everything..."
"He can't hurt you now, Samus. Now or ever again. You killed him, remember?"
Samus continued to struggle with the pain that threatened to consume her. "I killed him on Zebes, yes. But..." her heart pounded in her chest as her body broke out into a new sheen of sweat as she recalled the horrors aboard the Bottle Ship. "The creature we encountered aboard the Bottle Ship wasn't Ridley, but an exact clone of him. And something got to him before I could..."
"What do you mean?"
Samus appeared just a bit calmer now. "...His body looked like it had been drained of all its energy. He was nothing but a brittle husk when I found him in the bioweapon lab; I was on my way to look for the survivor you mentioned. A scientist named Madeline Bergman – I believe you met her briefly after the situation with MB was neutralized. She told me everything. Federation scientists were able to clone Ridley from traces of his DNA found on my suit after my second mission to Zebes. Typical of the Federation, they supposedly had no idea the creature they were cloning was Ridley – they instead raised it as a pet, naming it Little Birdie. I don't have to tell you what I think about that."
"You don't have to say anything, Lady." he replied, encircling her in his arms. "Thank you for telling me all this. But that bastard can't hurt you anymore. It's all right." One of his hands came to rest against the front of her belly. "There's a human baby in here..." he told her with a gentle, yet assertive look on his face. Then one of his eyebrows cocked up as his fingertips picked up activity from beneath. "And a damn active one, too."
She still looked pensive. "Human, yes… but maybe part Chozo, too? I still have no idea what my DNA will produce."
"Maybe that's why he's so active," Adam suggested. He never gave much thought to Samus's Chozo DNA. It was just part of who she was, able to control the superhuman gifts it had given her as if it were just another part of her. She didn't look birdlike, at least. "Maybe whatever it does to you will be the effect it has on him," he said as he felt the insistent movement under his hand.
"Well, I'd prefer his first toy not be a gun," she said wryly. "I'd like to give him something like the childhood I never had. The Chozo weren't exactly keen on that. They raised warriors and devout scholars, scientists. Not children," she said, yawning. "I should try and get back to sleep. We have our first parenting class tomorrow and I'd like to be somewhat aware." She glanced at him, suddenly shy. "Could you… maybe hold me until…"
"I will hold you all night, Lady. If that's what it takes," Adam said, reaching over to flick off the lamp.
He made good on his promise.
And Ridley never again found her in dreams. That night.
The other six couples were already sitting in a large circle at the center of the room when Samus and Adam arrived, listed under their pseudonyms, Adam and Samantha Bailey. For a moment, they felt like two children running late for their first class as the instructor stopped awkwardly midway through her introduction while they assimilated themselves into the circle. The other couples didn't seem to mind the interruption though, instead offering smiles and pleasant nods while the instructor continued to speak.
Remember to stay calm. Act natural. Breathe, Samus reminded herself as she leaned back against the pillow between her and Adam. Though she was already skeptical not even ten minutes in to the class, Samus knew it was essential to not only her son, but her growth as a human being.
After introductions, the instructor made the class watch an hour long presentation on the mechanics of pregnancy, stages of labor, and delivery. Essential to her growth or not, Samus couldn't deny finding the presentation a bit boring, and would have probably fallen asleep if it weren't for a couple of the men nearly fainting during the presentation of a live birth. When the film finally finished, and the color returned to everyone's faces, the instructor had the couples move to stations in the back of the room. Each one had diapers, a bottle, a blanket, and...something else... As Adam and Samus approached their station, Samus finally realized what the other strange object was, having remembered seeing a few during her many travels.
But before she could tell Adam, the female instructor spoke to the entire class. "In front of you are some essential baby items. I'd also like you to say hello to your baby!" she beamed.
Samus stared at the small creepy thing below her. It stared back, its eyes vacant of feeling or a soul, it's face mushing into garbled expressions, arms and legs moving. It's a synthetic. Don't trust those fucking things. Never have, never will, she said to herself, wanting to immediately distance herself from the apparatus with the disturbingly realistic face.
"What's wrong, Samus?" Adam mumbled while the other couples were fussing over their practice babies.
Try as she might, Samus couldn't stop looking at the creepy thing, her voice sounding somewhere else. "N-nothing. It's nothing, Adam."
"Just hold it for now," the instructor was saying. The thing blinked again, its mechanical eyelids making the softest of whirring noises. Samus complained and the instructor seemed surprised Samus could hear it, but assured her she'd get used to it. "For the next two weeks, this will be your homework assignment. You will care for him or her as if it were your own child. It's up to you to figure out what it is your baby needs at a certain time..."
"It won't just tell me?" Samus murmured to Adam while the woman continued. She held the baby out at arms' length and it stared at her with its blank, glass eyes. It blinked again and she instinctively shoved it toward Adam. "Here. You hold it."
Adam took the life-like android and dutifully cradled it against his shoulder. "We're supposed to be pretending it's our son," he reminded her, but he was smiling. "Our son won't be born with language skills, and you'll need to hold him more like this." He demonstrated by cradling the baby against his chest.
Samus stifled a giggle watching Adam, her voice still low. "Hey the only other thing I've ever taken care of is a baby Metroid. They feed themselves, don't need diapers, and they float. No strollers or car seats. And I was raised by birds who can't fly. Forgive me if I'm uncertain," she said. She reached for the android baby. "Give it here. I'll give it another try."
But no sooner had she taken it from him that it began to cry, a tinny annoying whine that was worse than any alarm she'd ever heard. She looked at Adam, then toward the instructor, who was watching them both with a dumb smile on her face. She nodded encouragingly and Samus stared back at Adam again. "Shit. What do I do?"
"Start by not cursing in front of our son," he said casually. He moved to unfold the small blanket provided. "And then try swaddling him."
Samus looked at him with utter bemusement on her face as the baby continued to scream at her, its face covered in artificial tears and snot. Then her actual baby started kicking her. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block it all out, but couldn't, the hairs on the back of her neck nervously standing on end. She would have given anything to be back on Zebes or some other planet. Geemers, Zoomers, Sidehoppers, even Metroids: those were creatures she could neutralize. They had weak points she knew about and could efficiently, and effectively deal with. But this crying synthetic infant with the realistic face, movements and behavior? It was uncharted territory.
And it scared the shit out of her.
She felt her cheeks flame under the scrutiny. "I don't know what to do," she admitted to Adam, frustrated. Her breathing came in hitches and her stomach felt like it was turning in on itself. "I can't make a fucking android stop crying, how am I going to do it with a real kid?"
Adam took the baby from her carefully. "Just breathe, OK? Relax. Let's try process of elimination," he said calmly, and the moment the infant left her hands Samus felt better. A little bit, at least; she was still desperately trying to keep herself together after hearing the baby's alarm-like crying earlier. Hoping to move her focus elsewhere, Samus watched as Adam laid the baby down gently on the blanket.
She half expected him to soothe the infant on the first try; that was just an Adam sort of thing that would happen. Apparently he did too, because after he'd swaddled the fussy child he smiled at her, "There."
The baby ceased its crying.
If only for a moment.
By now all the other couples in the room were watching them.
Adam stared at her, looking lost.
"Process of elimination," she said grimly while crossing her arms. "Right."
Seeing that they were in need of a little support, the instructor approached Samus and Adam's station to offer a suggestion. "Uh-oh! Looks like someone is still fussy! Why don't you try relaxing the wrap just a bit, like this." Her hands unwrapped the blanket just enough so that the doll could freely move its arms.
And the crying stopped.
"There! See, sometimes they tend to fuss if you swaddle them too tight." she explained. "But you'll get better with practice," she added before moving on to help the other couples.
Samus found her tone to be slightly condescending. Congratulations on making us feel like the dumbest to-be parents in the world, show-off, Samus thought to herself, unimpressed by the instructor's keen understanding of infant psychology.
Samus was good at reading people, and right now, something inside of her was telling her something was amiss. And it wasn't just the fact that their "child" was busy burning a hole through them at the moment, it's eyes distant and vacant of life. She looked at Adam, pensive. "Let's go." she suddenly mumbled.
"The class isn't over yet. What's wrong?"
Samus looked at him with a look of discomfort on her face. "I know it isn't over. But I'm not feeling so hot at the moment. I just want to go home and lie down."
That was all Adam needed to hear; he raised his hand to attract the instructor's attention. Once there, he was quick to offer an apology. "I'm sorry, but my wife says she's not feeling well so we're going to be leaving a bit early. Sorry for the inconvenience."
The instructor didn't sound the least bit bothered. "Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey. I do hope your wife feels better soon. Please don't forget to take your homework with you when you leave."
Samus clutched at Adam's left hand while he scooped the baby and the items up with his right before she walked with purpose towards the exit door.
Outside the establishment, she stood with her hands supporting her lower back and sighed with relief. "Feels so good to get out of there. My back was starting to hurt with all that standing."
Along with her growing belly grew the discomforts. Adam had been made painfully aware of this once Samus had entered her sixth month. But he knew something else, too. And as he watched her rub and arch her back, he called her out on it. "It's a reason. But not the main reason. Something else is bothering you, Lady. And I think I can guess what it is."
"Be my guest."
"That whole class got on your last nerve, didn't it?"
Samus tried to stifle the grin behind a straight face, but it forced her mouth to curve anyway. "I didn't want to say anything, but yeah. It did. Every bit of it. Especially Miss Baby Whisperer in there, among other things."
Adam chuckled at his wife's colorful description of the instructor then fell silent before taking her hand and starting for their hover car. Though it was only a training apparatus, Adam still insisted on strapping the baby in to the vacant car seat inside. "You never did tell me how you knew what was really bothering me," Samus said from the front passenger seat as she adjusted her safety belt. But she knew better and this made her feel a touch sheepish. Of course he knew what was really bothering her; the pair had been friends for years, going all the way back to Samus's days in the Army and as a result, they had both become exceedingly skilled in being able to read each other. "Nevermind. It was a stupid question."
Adam sat behind the controls, a coy grin on his face. "No, it's all right. I'll tell you. I knew what was really bothering you because...it got on my last nerve, too." he admitted.
Samus felt her mouth agape in shock; it had been his idea to take this class in the first place, saying it would be good for both of them. And now here he was, saying how much it had bothered him too! "What? I'm surprised at you, Adam Malkovich!" she told him with mock shame.
"Don't be, Lady. I'm only human. I thought it would be good for all three of us. But all it did was make me feel inadequate."
Samus was taken aback by Adam's admission. It was the first time she'd heard him contemplate his skills as a father since this journey first started. She attempted to reassure him, just as the many times he had with her. "But you're not, Adam. You handled yourself a hell of a lot better than I did in there. And sure as hell better than the other men in the class, even the ones who thought they knew what they were doing."
The mood in the car quickly turned from jovial to serious as Adam continued to question himself. "I just don't know, Samus," he replied, shaking his head. "I'm worried that I won't be strong enough for you in your time of need."
Samus kissed his fingers again. After having made sure she was being taken care of for so long, Samus could see that it was her husband who now needed the support. Even if it was just a few words of faith and encouragement. "You will be, Adam. There's no one else in this world – this universe – I trust more so than you. I have no doubt about it. And you know what? I'm not expecting you to have all the answers. You're not an Aurora Unit, you're human. I guess the point I'm trying to make is I believe in you, Adam, no matter what."
He looked at her with a slight glint of encouragement in his gray eyes. "Thank you, Lady," he said softly. "I really needed to hear that from you."
With the mood having relaxed just a bit, Samus glanced behind her seat at the thing strapped into their son's car seat. "So does this mean we have to keep this thing?" she asked, looking in the synthetic baby's direction.
"We're not keeping it, Lady. We're just borrowing it. At least until the next class meets, then we'll return it. And hopefully have a better experience with the next one."
Samus looked forward once more, her shoulders slumping just a tad as she sighed with disappointment. "When's the next class?"
Adam engaged the engines. "A week from now." he said simply before putting the car in gear.
Samus nearly felt like screaming.