Metroid Mama

Metroid Mama is a family ship between Samus Aran and the Baby Metroid from the Metroid fandom.

Metroid II: Return of Samus/Samus Returns
After Samus destroys the Queen Metroid in the depths of SR388 and has already eliminated all the living Metroids there to prevent the Space Pirates from using them as bioweapons, she treks further down into the depths of planet and comes across a single Metroid egg, which then hatches. Samus initially aims at it and braces for the possibility that it would attack at any given moment but is surprised by its rather docile nature towards her and also being orphaned and decides against killing it and brings it back to the surface and the baby helps by destroying the otherwise indestructible crystals that block her path.

In the remake, upon reaching the surface, they are attacked by Proteus Ridley, who was too late in preventing Samus from destroying the entire population of Metroids, but it resulted in the Baby Metroid in being its prime target due to their access of cloning technology. Ridley would seek to kidnap the infant Metroid and Samus and Ridley would engage in a fight, and the latter tries to fly away with it, only for Samus to blast it with her thrusters and striking its unprotected chest, which forces it to release the baby, which the hatchling would move aside during the second phase of the battle. Once Ridley pins Samus down, the Baby Metroid attacks Ridley and saps its energy to get him off of her and helps her with the fight until they were able to escape SR388. However, Ridley is able to survive and loses its cybernetics before going after them as the X-Parasites emerged after their natural predators were wiped out.

Super Metroid
Samus brings the young larva off at the Ceres Space Station where the scientists would study it and their findings were astounding and it can be done for the good of all mankind. After she leaves the station though, she is forced to return due to receiving a distress call from the staff. She discovers that many of them were killed, and Ridley finds the Baby Metroid in a capsule and despite Samus's best efforts, Ridley managed to escape with the Baby Metroid to Zebes and due to it being trapped inside the capsule, it could do nothing to defend itself this time around and Samus gives pursuit to save it while leaving the already doomed space station to explode. After she defeats Ridley, she heads into the next room, but its capsule is broken, and it was rendered missing. Eventually a giant-sized Baby Metroid initially begins draining Samus and almost kills her before it realizes that it was its adoptive mother and flees in shame. During the last battle with Mother Brain, the Baby Metroid drains the monster of its energy and later passes it to Samus and releases her before Mother Brain slays it, though it managed to grant Samus the Hyper Beam to finally destroy it before fleeing Zebes as it self-destructs.

Metroid: Other M
A flashback of the final battle has the Baby Metroid healing Samus and releasing her before it was killed by her laser. Samus was given the Hyper Beam and managed to defeat her.

The Baby Metroid would then be referenced multiple times throughout the game, When Samus is traveling through space, she gains a distress call under the code name, Baby's Cry, which reminds her of the lost hatchling. When the 07th Platoon were at the Exam Center to find out what was happening and to find out who the director of the project was, Samus thought of Adam Malkovich's opposition against experimentation of life forms and transporting the baby Metroid had been a protocol violation. Eventually, MB tells Samus that the fragments of the baby's DNA were taken from her Power Suit and used to recreate the Queen Metroid who would produce Metroids that would be immune to low temperatures and are currently stored in Sector Zero. Samus finds a Metroid larva which reminds her of the Baby Metroid she came across on SR388, but she remembers Adam's stance on bioweapons and was about to kill it, only for Adam to fire at her before doing it to the suddenly aggressive hatchling. The Baby Metroid and this hatchling are not the same entity.

Metroid Fusion
During Samus's return to SR388 to assist the researchers, she shoots at an X infected Horntoad and ends up being exposed to the X-Parasite and while she didn't show any abnormal signs at first, she then passes out and she was barely brought out before her Gunship was ultimately destroyed. With Samus in critical condition, the surgeons have to surgically remove parts of her Power Suit and they try figure out what to do as Samus is nearing death's door. One of them proposed a vaccine from the baby Metroid they received from the Ceres Station before it was attacked and it was injected, successfully saving Samus's life. She was given the benefits of safely absorbing the X Parasites, but its drawback was that it made her more vulnerable to extreme cold. Samus thinks back on the irony that the Baby Metroid has saved her life a second time.

Metroid Dread
The Baby Metroid's DNA in Samus plays a larger role in the game, as her possessing it made her a target for Raven Beak when he learns about it and has hacked into the E.M.M.I. research robots and has them target her for her DNA, though he also knew that she is capable of handling herself in life-threatening situations as he is doing this to influence her to access her Metroid power that he can use for his own ambitions. It is later found that receiving the vaccine would have immediately turned Samus into a Metroid if not for her Thoha DNA significantly slowing the process and the Thoha Chozo were responsible for the Metroid's creation and made themselves the only ones who can dominate over them. At Itorash, Samus and Raven Beak were having their battle with the latter seemingly coming out on top and reveals his intentions on creating clones of her who will cooperate with him since her defiance made her of no use to him. However, Samus's Metroid DNA went out of control as Samus turns into a humanoid Metroid and flies into a screaming rage and managed to smash his helmet and deprives him of energy which also affects his aerial fortress. Samus is able to defeat a X mutated Raven Beak with the Hyper Beam and escapes ZDR which is on the verge of destruction. Upon reaching her ship, the real ADAM stops her from making contact with the controls and warns that she will drain the ship of its energy, and just as all hope seemed to be lost, Quiet Robe X appears to her and reverts to a Red X with Thoha DNA, allowing Samus to revert to normal and able to fly her ship safely and flies out of the planet just as it explodes.

Fanon
Metroid Mama is an uncommon ship between them, though it is more abundant in fan art than fanfiction. Samus's relationship with the Baby Metroid is the most notable due to the latter being the only known friendly Metroid who does not attack innocent people and is noted to know what it was doing wrong as shown when it almost killed Samus, whom it imprinted as its mother. This ship has become very divisive in Metroid: Other M, due to Samus constantly mourning it numerous times to the point where fans found it exasperating, when to her, it was a tool that can be used for the good of the galaxy. Even then, Samus was not willing to let it fall into the wrong hands as she knows full well what that would bring.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION