INT. MEI LING'S LIVING ROOM - DAY

RAIDEN, a nearly white-haired male with androgynous features and a dark, rubber sneaking suit, gently lays down the lifeless body of Olivia on a sofa. There's a large, fresh WOUND on the right side of her face running almost parallel with her cheek bone.

Otacon clearly becomes blanched looking at her.

RAIDEN

Don't worry, Otacon. She's still alive. Just exhausted.

Otacon moves closer to her, studying her face fondly yet a little painfully.

Raiden looks at him.

RAIDEN

What's wrong?

OTACON

She looks so different.

RAIDEN

I thought this was your first time meeting her in person.

OTACON

It is but we've been talking via web cam since Snake left Canada a few weeks ago. I've been teaching her hacking techniques and she's been suggesting medication for some of Snake's symptoms.

RAIDEN

Does Snake know she's okay?

Otacon shakes his head.

OTACON

No. I haven't told him.

RAIDEN

(beat)

You don't plan to, do you?

OTACON

Not right now. I have some things to do first.

RAIDEN

Shouldn't at least Snake know what those things are?

OTACON

I don't like the idea of keeping anything from Snake but it's just easier to do so right now. She's not safe. Ocelot knows she's alive and it's only a matter of time before the news starts to spread to all the wrong people. I want to wipe her slate clean and get rid of anything that could be used to track her.

RAIDEN

That's a lot to go through for someone you've known for a couple of weeks.

OTACON

Deleting someone from existence is surprisingly simple. It's a little disturbing, actually.

RAIDEN

You know what I mean.

Otacon sighs.

OTACON

She saved Snake's life, Raiden. It's the very least I can do.

RAIDEN

Is that the only reason?

OTACON

Yes.

Raiden doesn't look convinced of his response.

RAIDEN

You can keep me updated on her status over Codec. I need to get going.

OTACON

Leaving so soon? Mei Ling will be disappointed you didn't stick around to say hello to her.

RAIDEN

You can tell her for me. I've got a lead I need to follow. On Sunny.

OTACON

That means she's still alive then.

RAIDEN

As long as I am. Let's just hope the Patriots don't decide to change the rules.

OTACON

Do you know where she is?

RAIDEN

That lead didn't exactly include a location. I'll have one soon though and I'll bring her to you and Snake.

OTACON

Whoa! Me and Snake? We can't take Sunny in. What about you and Rose?

Raiden looks away from him.

RAIDEN

Things aren't quite the same between us. They haven't been for a while. It's not a good idea for her to live with us.

OTACON

Well neither me nor Snake know the first thing about taking care of a child.

Raiden smirks.

RAIDEN

You'll figure it out. You'll have to.

Raiden exits out the door.

Otacon turns his attention back to Olivia and sits next to her on the sofa she's on. After watching over her a moment, he takes his glasses off and runs his hands over his face.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. MEI LING'S LIVING ROOM - LATER

Otacon is sleeping uncomfortably in a chair across from where Olivia lays. She now has a BANDAGE on her face over her injury.

She moans and shifts a bit causing him to become alert. When she begins to awake, he crosses back over to the sofa and sits next to her.

Her eyes slowly flutter open and look up at him. She smiles.

OLIVIA

(groggy)

Hey.

OTACON

(smiling)

Hey.

OLIVIA

Please tell me the last five hours or so of my life have been a bad dream.

OTACON

You mean the last...

(looking at his watch)

16 hours.

OLIVIA

Ugh. Was I really out that long?

OTACON

Afraid so. How do you feel?

OLIVIA

Like I should probably be dead. That guy who saved me... I don't even know his name. I completely blacked before I could ask.

OTACON

That was Raiden. You'll have to meet him again one day under better circumstances.

OLIVIA

How'd he know where I was?

OTACON

Well, Snake had this weird feeling about you so--

Her eyes suddenly widen. She SHOOTS upright.

OLIVIA

(frantic)

Snake! Is he okay? Did that maniac find him?!

OTACON

No. He's fine. He's back in New York. Relax.

Relieved, she lays back down.

OLIVIA

Back in New York? Where are we?

OTACON

We're in LA at Mei Ling's. I've been here for a couple of days working on something with her.

Olivia sighs and looks up at the ceiling.

OTACON (CONT'D)

You know...I've only seen a few people stand up to Revolver Ocelot the way you did and live to tell about it.

Olivia looks at him with confusion.

OLIVIA

Seen?

OTACON (CONT'D)

Ocelot courteously recorded the entire thing and emailed it to me. It's not his usual way of doing things but you learn to prepare for anything with him.

OLIVIA

I kind of remember a camera but it didn't occur to me that it would be recording or that he would send it to you and Snake.

He stares at her intensely yet thoughtfully.

OTACON

(seriously)

I half expected Raiden to bring in your corpse. This would have been a very different day for me if he would have.

OLIVIA

Probably would have been a very different day for me too, actually.

OTACON

I'm serious, Olivia. I really thought you were dead.

OLIVIA

To be completely honest...so did I.

MEI LING enters the living room from a hallway. She has a MANILA FOLDER in her hand. She is a sweet-faced girl of Chinese decent in her early to mid 20s with dark brown almond eyes.

Olivia sits up.

Mei Ling smiles when she looks at them.

MEI

I see both of the sleeping beauties are awake. How are you feeling, Olivia?

OLIVIA

Better. Thanks.

MEI

Good. I hope you don't mind but I bandaged you up while you were sleeping. You're ultimately going to be fine but my apartment is far from the facilities of a hospital. I'm really sorry I can't do more.

OLIVIA

I'm alive. That's more than enough. Thank you for everything.

OTACON

Olivia, this, of course, is Mei Ling. She's a good friend of mine and Snake's from Shadow Moses.

OLIVIA

It's good to meet you, Mei Ling. There's not a single published essay out of MIT that doesn't mention you.

MEI

Your reputation precedes you too, actually.

(looking at Otacon)

You have quite the fan in Otacon.

He quickly turns a little red.

Mei hands him the folder and he takes it.

MEI (CONT'D)

More of Naomi's files on FoxDie and Snake. I dug these up a couple of hours ago. We definitely can't ever say she wasn't thorough.

OTACON

(flipping through the folder)

I have no idea how we're going to decipher all of this information. We still have mountains of files and data we haven't even touched yet.

MEI

One day at a time, Otacon.

OTACON

Snake is running out of days.

Mei's expression drops. So does Olivia's.

OLIVIA

Maybe I can help. I have a medical background of sorts.

OTACON

Unless you have a doctorate in genetics, you're probably not much better off than us.

OLIVIA

I just happen to be full of surprises, Dr. Emmerich.

She holds out her hand and he places the folder in it.

Olivia looks over the file a long moment.

OLIVIA (CONT'D)

Well, the good news is not all of it looks like Greek. The bad news is not enough of it looks like English. Not yet anyway. It'll take me a couple of days but I can crack this.

MEI

Olivia, you should be resting and healing. Otacon and I will handle this.

OLIVIA

To me, it sounds like you guys can't afford to turn away any help with this. I'll be fine. I'm going to be doing a lot of sitting for the next couple of weeks. I might as well do it with a laptop.

OTACON

She's right, Mei. She'll be working around us the whole time. We can still keep an eye on her.

MEI

(smiling; to Olivia)

You're never going to stop trying to save Snake's life, are you?

Olivia smiles faintly.

OLIVIA

I guess it's a calling.

Mei Ling leaves back down the hallway.

Olivia looks at Hal. She looks betrayed.

OLIVIA (CONT'D)

(calmly)

Hal, you're going to tell me how serious Snake's illness is and you're not going to sugar coat a single syllable of it this time.

OTACON

(beat)

He's dying. And fast.

OLIVIA

Why didn't you tell me that? You made it sound like he'd be okay if I told you to right medications to get.

OTACON

I don't know, Olivia. Maybe it was wishful thinking... or maybe I didn't want to hear myself admit it.

He crosses to a chair across from her. He sits down and stares at the floor.

There's a beat of silence until Olivia sighs.

OLIVIA

What's FoxDie?

He looks up at her.

OTACON

It's the virus Snake was injected with during the Shadow Moses incident by Dr. Naomi Hunter. We think it's causing his accelerated aging.

OLIVIA

I don't care how savvy you are in a lab; an age-accelerating virus is impossible.

OTACON

Well, that wasn't the actual purpose of it. We think it may be a side effect. Snake's...extraordinary on a lot of different levels.

OLIVIA

He's the son of Big Boss. You certainly can't walk around with that man's genes and think of yourself as ordinary.

OTACON

That's not the only reason. He's very different from other men genetically as well. His DNA wasn't created in nature.

OLIVIA

There's no such thing as synthetic DNA, Hal.

OTACON

I know and it's not faked. It's copied.

OLIVIA

That's still impossible. That would technically make Snake a clone.

OTACON

That's actually the point I was making. Him being a clone is the one factor that could explain his current condition. Maybe something in the FoxDie--something probably completely overlooked by Naomi--is drastically altering his body's balance and causing him to age faster than normal.

OLIVIA

Wow. Just...slow down. I'm still on the whole Snake being a clone thing. That's scientifically unfeasible. We've been cloning horses and sheep for the last 16 years or so. Snake's a living, breathing human being. We aren't nearly that advanced.

Otacon gets up and begins rummaging through the papers on the top of a desk. When he finds the paper he's looking for, he hands it to her.

Olivia starts to look over it. After a few seconds, her face takes on an expression of disbelief.

He sits down next to her.

OLIVIA

(shocked; looking at paper)

Holy shit... Hal...

OTACON

Dolly the sheep...that's text book fluff. The truth is, the government's been successfully cloning humans for years. They couldn't risk telling the public though, especially not in the 60s and 70s. Besides possibly sparking major tension with other countries, every religious group in the world would have come down on the U.S. It would have been considered an ethical abomination. That's definitely not the kind of attention they wanted.

OLIVIA

You hacked this information?

OTACON

Some of it. Mostly just to confirm what Snake had been told on Shadow Moses. Trust me, it didn't add up for us either at first. We were in just as much disbelief as you are.

OLIVIA

I'm guessing they weren't exactly trying to find the cure for cancer by doing this.

OTACON

No. Big Boss was unable to have children as a result of his time at Bikini Atoll but that didn't stop the government from wanting to preserve his genes and skills for their use. They carried out the Les Enfants Terrible project without his permission or approval. From the moment they were born, Snake and his brothers weren't acknowledged as anything more than comrades by their father...and barely that.

OLIVIA

Brothers?

OTACON

He has, or rather had, two other brothers. Solidus and Liquid. Solidus was killed by Raiden a couple of years ago.

OLIVIA

And Liquid? What happened to him?

OTACON

It's a long story. Anyway, ever since Shadow Moses, the government hasn't been very shy about trying to publicly ruin Snake and ultimately get rid of him. As far as they're concerned, he's not working for their cause anymore so they have no use for him.

OLIVIA

(awed; upset)

So they made plans to just do away with him? He's nothing more than a disposable weapon to them, a science project with an expiration date.

She shakes her head and quickly wipes her hand across her face.

OLIVIA (CONT'D)

That's the most sadistic thing I've ever heard.

OTACON

There's a lot you still don't know, Olivia, and I'll tell you soon enough but I think that's enough of a history lesson for right now.

He crosses to the desk and picks up an LAPTOP. He punches a few keys on it before he sits it in Olivia's possession.

OTACON (CONT'D)

Mei Ling and I think we can create an inhibitor to weaken the string of FoxDie in Snake and perhaps re-regulate his aging.

OLIVIA

Shouldn't we be working to find a cure? It is a virus, afterall.

OTACON

It is but its exact make up is still completely elusive. All the information we've been finding is mostly Naomi's research but it tells very little about anything we actually need to know about it. We're not entirely sure if we can even control it like we want to but we know we can't cure it.

OLIVIA

Well, what about tracking her down and making her cure this damn thing herself?

OTACON

She technically doesn't know how to cure it either. Even so, we'd have to find her first. She went underground a few years ago after being broken out of prison. No one's heard from her since.

OLIVIA

You think she could be dead?

OTACON

It's a definite possibility. She betrayed the government so she has no shortage of enemies. Something tells me she's not, though.

OLIVIA

So basically, we're on our own.

OTACON

Yes but between the three of us, we have a really good chance of creating something that could save Snake's life...

(quietly)

or at least delay his death.

OLIVIA

I'll do everything in my power, Hal.

OTACON

I know.

OLIVIA

Hey, can I ask you something?

OTACON

Sure.

OLIVIA

What's Snake's real name?

OTACON

It's Dave.

OLIVIA

What about his last name?

He smiles.

OTACON

It's whatever you want it to be.

CUT TO:

INT. MEI LING'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Mei Ling and Otacon work side by side at their respective desk top computers.

OTACON'S COMPUTER SCREEN

A new email message comes in. It's from Olivia.

He opens it and downloads the attachment.

BACK TO OTACON

OTACON

Something just came in from Olivia.

Mei Ling rolls her chair next to his and looks at his computer screen.

He clicks the mouse a few times on the screen before taking a moment to read over it.

OTACON

According to her, FoxDie's chemical structure isn't entirely ironclad. It can't be broken but it can be modified to a certain extent.

MEI

That means the possibilities of an inhibitor are very real.

OTACON

It also means it could mutate and turn into something ten times more deadly than what Naomi injected him with 8 years ago.

MEI

Otacon...this is more or less the news we wanted. Don't spoil it.

He sighs.

OTACON

You're right. I'm sorry.

Hal continues his work. Mei Ling moves her chair back to her own computer and picks up with her work as well.

After a short moment, he glances at Mei.

OTACON (CONT'D)

You know, I don't think we could gotten through so much of that data without Olivia's help. She probably shouldn't be working the hours we are, though. So much for resting.

MEI

She's doing great. Her sense of humor is certainly still in tact so we probably don't need to worry about her too much.

OTACON

The brand on her face, though. It really should be healing better than it is.

Mei Ling giggles quietly but Hal hears her.

OTACON (CONT'D)

(curiously)

What?

MEI

'You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel.'

OTACON

I don't think I know what you're saying, Mei Ling.

MEI

You do...and if you truly don't, you will.

Mei smiles at him and returns back to her work.

Hal spends a moment processing their conversation before finally shrugging it off and returning his attention back to his computer.

FADE OUT:

END