A/N: WARNING! This contains Spoilers!
A/N: Originally there is more to this, but I've decided to make a prologue first. If you want to read more, leave a review and follow. I've used my Avatar's appearance name for his role as Venom Snake.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Lost Episode
Prologue
"I did not choose to be Quiet… I wanted to express my feelings to you. If only we Shared a Common Tongue. Vengeance was what drove me to them… the only language left to me, revenge. But the words we shared… no, that was no language at all. That is why… I chose the language of gratitude instead, and go back to silence. I am Quiet. I am… the absence of words."
Snake rewound and listened to the tape for over an hour on the ride back to the Seychelles Waters, just listening to her recorded voice behind the static and heavy winds. His face was blank as always, covered in blood with dark circles around his eyes from the battle and still a little hazy from the snake bite. Sand was in every inch of his clothing that much he was used to since arriving except for the spitting a grain out once in a while. The phantom pain in his left hand didn't make things better either, no matter how much he rubbed at his bionic hand the pain never ceased. What he felt inside, however, was sadness by Quiet's departure and knowing that she was out there alone, dying from the Vocal Cord Parasites. His bionic hand then clenched tight as anger fell on his shoulders reflecting how they first met many months ago in Cyprus, then in Afghanistan, even as going far to remembering that rainy day when they splashed each other with water.
His feelings for her were getting the best out of him.
It was something Big Boss wouldn't do.
But I'm not Big Boss… Just a Phantom… A reflection of the Legendary Soldier, my leader.
Snake looked at the wall of pictures to his right. Memories of MSF Mother Base, he picked the picture of him, Big Boss, and Miller.
On the back was written "Good Luck Adrian Zhdanov."
That name even the face in the picture was a stranger to him now after taking the mantle as Big Boss while THE Big Boss was building his own nation.
Outer Heaven.
Snake looked at his reflection in the window. He shaved, cut his hair down to the scalp and his natural blonde was settling in all that was left was the shaved down piece of shrapnel in his forehead. He got rid of the eye patch, not afraid to show off its pale iris. He looked less like Big Boss and more like Adrian Zhadanov, the best damn medic MSF had to offer, who took over 300 shrapnel for his Commander that faithful day nine years ago. Now Quiet got to see his real face, behind the face he was forced to wear.
Did he do it for her? To make her see the man he really was?
"Boss! We're home!" A soldier said as he hopped out of the cabin.
They had already touched down on Mother Base. Snake hopped out of the chopper landing on his sore feet, surrounded by saluting troops. Amongst them was Ocelot and Miller who walked up to their leader.
"Boss… Quiet was useful... but she was too dangerous to be kept alive you know that… She was the last to be infected. We won't worry about her infecting others-"
Smack!
Kaz's glasses flew off his face and he tumbled to the ground clutching his painful jaw. Everyone's eyes widened at Snake's sudden action against the XO. Ocelot pinched the bridge of his nose as Kaz stared at their leader. Snake didn't say a word as he then walked away, and begun crossing the connecting bridge to the Medical Platform.
On foot.
Nothing but the sea breeze and fresh ocean air accompanied by the occasional calls of seagulls, by the time he had reached the Platform the sun had already set. He walked towards Quiet's cell, looking down through the barred ceiling seeing the cell empty. The signs that were tagged "Traitor" and other mean comments to them, Snake ripped them from the railings and tossed them into the sea. With his heart heavy, Snake descended the stairs walking closer to the cell, walking through the door and over to the cot. Snake sat on the cot staring blankly at the wall behind the bars. Pulling out his tape recorder and lying out on the cot, Snake played Quiet's message over and over before sleep overwhelmed him.