This is just something I wrote while bored. Hope you find it OK.

FEARFUL SYMMETRY

I'm exhausted. I can barely stand. I've lived through more in the last night than most people do in their entire lives.

The world calls me Solid Snake. The "Legend." The "Man who makes the impossible possible." And a thousand other names and reputations that I all got the same way.

By killing.

But right now, none of that matters to me. All that matters right now is this fight. This last, decisive battle.

He's still standing there…taunting me as we fight on top of this metal monstrosity.

My shoulder feels like a piece of floss. My vision's blurred. But I can still fight. And that's what matters.

He hits me again. Hard.

I hardly even feel it.

Physically speaking, I shouldn't even be able to stand up straight in this condition. But whatever physical pain I should be in, my rage…my hatred…renders it numb.

His name is Liquid. My brother.

My "Shadow."

But as I strike him…as I feel and hear his bones breaking…it's not his face I'm hitting. It's not his neck I'm wringing.

It's mine.

There's nothing I want to do more than end this. I just want to end it…end the endless nightmares and the glories that I don't deserve. To escape from it forever.

I can taste my own blood. I can barely even stand up straight. I can't speak. He's about to finish it…to deliver the killer blow…

And in some ways, I want him to. To put me out of my misery. To end it all for good.

He hits me again. I hit the metal hard.

Then my eyes fall on her.

Meryl.

And I remember…

…I remember the things worth fighting for. I remember why I do this.

And I'm not letting myself get stopped. Not now. Not after I've come so far.

I strike him back. Hard. In the face.

He falls back. Staggers. Falls. Falls into the abyss.

I breathe one last, heavy sigh of relief.

It's over.

But it's not. Somehow…despite all rationality…I know it isn't over yet. Some small, dark part of me knows he isn't dead.

But it wasn't really Liquid that I was fighting.

It was myself.

It was myself that I watched fall into the abyss.

No…not myself…just him. Just Liquid. Just my "Shadow."

Finally, slowly, the heat of battle fades. Rationality returns.

I turn around and head over to Meryl.

But in the end…it wasn't Liquid that I had to beat. It wasn't Liquid that was killing me. It was me…my own self-hatred.

And she's helped me see past that. Helped me see that there's more to life than that hatred.

And oddly…at this moment, I think back to all those names…"Legend" and the scores of other names I only earned through killing.

And I think of everything that's happened…Outer Heaven…Zanzibar…and everything before and since.

And it finally dawns on me; for the first time in years…that all those things…they're in the past. And all the rage and self-loathing in the world won't change it. But maybe…whatever I've done in the past…that's just what it is. In the past.

And maybe it's time I looked to the future for a change…

Author's Note: Never write at10 PM. Otherwise, crap like this comes out. Anyway, feel free to review.