MGS – The Patriot's Knight: Part 2
"Vamp!"
"Yes. Since the first time we met I've had an urge to face you in true battle. But when we met again two days ago I had to follow the simulation, so our fight was unable to occur. But now, now we shall truly face one another."
"Fine."
Snake draws his gun and fires several times. Vamp dances around the bullets and jumps to the opposite side of the room. Snake quickly takes cover behind a desk as Vamp tosses several knives. The blades hit the desk and fall to the floor. Snake reloads his gun and looks up. Vamp takes out a knife and throws it at Snake as the gun is pointed.. Snake shoots down the knife and fires several more shots at Vamp.
The Romanian dives across the room and throws a knife downward.. The knife hits the ground and something grabs Snake. He can't move. Vamp smiles and walks slowly over to Snake. He circles the immobilized Snake and sniffs at him.. Vamp then takes out a knife, stands behind Snake and holds it to his neck. "Now, I will taste the blood of a true legend."
Vamp is about to slice Snake's throat when he suddenly stops. Vamp sniffs around and looks straight forward. Vamp eyes grow wide in realization. "Damn."
Out of nowhere Vamp is thrown back to the wall and the ninja reveals himself by taking off his camouflage. He is pointing his gun directly at where Vamp's head used to be. The ninja slowly steps forward and keeps the gun directly pointed at Vamp who looks at him in shock.: "Messiah? He'll be very disappointed."
The ninja asks Vamp. "You know me?"
Vamp quickly jumps up and flees into the vent.
The ninja walks over to the knife that restraints Snake and pulls it from the ground freeing Snake. "Thanks. Now I have to ask, who is the He you were talking about?"
The ninja points his gun at Snake. "No. I demand some answers first. Who was that?"
"What are you doing? That's Vamp."
"That was not Vamp. Because the Vamp I've heard of is a low level slave to the government. That man knew something. The Vamp I've heard of wouldn't know about this place but somehow he's here and it seems like he was invited. Now tell me how does he know you?"
"During my first days in Fox-Hound we had a training exercise. It was quite simple. Dead Cell attacked a location and Fox-Hound restrained them. We weren't allowed to actually kill each other so that is why Vamp wants to face me in true battle."
"Something doesn't add up. He said he didn't fight you at the Big Shell because it wasn't part of the simulation. Why would Vamp follow the S3 plan when he wasn't even aware of its existence? I know you don't have the answers, but maybe we can find out together."
The ninja lowers his gun. Snake immediately draws his. "Ok my turn. Who the hell are you and who are you referring to as He?"
"Is this supposed to be the part where I say: I'm like you, I have no name. Well that's not true. You had a name, David. I never did."
"What are you talking about?"
"They thought that your genes would control you and force you to join the military on your own. So they let you live a semi normal life. They were right. You joined the army as promised and quickly became the best soldier they ever had. It wasn't long before Big Boss recruited you.
"I was a different story. Even though my father was a soldier, it wouldn't be a certainty that I would choose that life for me. So He held me, trained me to be His 'perfect weapon'. Even though the gene therapy process wasn't complete back then they had an idea of what they were doing. They gave me everything I needed to be perfect. I never stopped training from birth. He, in fact, created this exoskeleton for me. They never gave me a real name, Dave. So He thought it was fitting to call me Messiah because I would be His 'savior'. Basically what you could say is that I'm not His pawn, but His knight."
"Someone once told me that 'We are not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I fought for what I believe in."
"Frank told you that didn't he. I met him once before he joined Fox-Hound. He thought I was just a fellow SEAL but I was really testing his skills for Fox-Hound. Smart guy. But he's wrong. We don't fight for what we believe in. We fight for what He wants us to. Believing in it is just a counter part. He's had me do many things. Kill many people. And all I want is to fight for what I truly believe in."
Snake lowers his gun. "And what is that?"
"Maybe someday you'll find out."
The two sit down and relax for a second. Snake pulls out a smoke and Messiah brakes the silence. "You know there's only forty minutes before GW is downloaded."
"Yeah. But first I need to know: Who is this He?"
"The organization you know of as the Patriots died over a hundred years ago. Now who's running the country you ask? Well the answer is quite simple: The Patriot."
"You just said the Patriots are dead."
"No. Not the Patriots; THE Patriot, one man. See, when this country was formed the Patriots took power. But things didn't go so smoothly. It's impossible for twelve men to share absolute power over anything. They fought constantly and so they came to an agreement: they will continue to rule together but when one of them died they didn't replace him. Then they started to die off one by one.
"When the last man was left he became the secret dictator of this country. But nobody knew. As far as the privileged few were concerned: The Patriots were still supreme. This man, who called himself The Patriot, set up another man to be his most trusted assistant. This man would set up the way for The Patriot to give orders and make it look like it was coming from The Patriots Wisemen's Committee.
"This system has been flawless until now. The current Patriot thought it mandatory to have not just a right hand man but an enforcer. So he had me trained to be that enforcer. I don't know who this right hand man is or even who the Patriot himself is but what I do know is that he is here and I will kill him."
"But why here?"
"Because of FAL. Even though the public doesn't know it, this country is at a heavy war with practically everyone. Any moment now this country can be attacked. The Patriot has created FAL to be his one man army against his enemies. With it he can fire nuclear warheads anywhere and be able to keep his secrecy…"
"By downloading GW?"
"Exactly. So in short: The Patriot wants to re-create Big Boss' dream, Outer Heaven, here."
The two don't waste anymore time. Snake has Otacon stay in the lab and provide Codec support. The two soldiers get focused once more and head to the center of the structure. They take out many cameras, motion sensors, ciphers, semtex and advanced security systems on their way.
Eventually they come across some sort of armory. Inside the armory they see Vamp waiting for them in the center. He's standing and has a knife to Ocelot's throat kneeling beside him. Vamp smiles as he sees Snake and Messiah. "Good. Now everyone is here for the bloodbath. Don't worry; the man of honor will arrive soon."
Ocelot coughs blood as he tries to talk. "You back stabbing *cough* I should have killed you when I had the chance."
"Backstabbing? You're the last one to talk about backstabbing. Even though Dead Cell was just my cover I was still quite fond of them. Killing our Queen was never part of the simulation. And you know it."
Vamp picks up Ocelot by his neck and throw him to the feet of Messiah and Snake. Ocelot stumbles just to get to his knees and fires six shots at Vamp. The bullets are direct hits but they don't even faze him. "You freak. What are you?"
"You said it yourself Shalashaska: There is no such thing as magic, only cutting-edge technology."
Messiah responds angirly. "You… you are The Patriot's message boy."
"If you like. I prefer to be called His assistant. Everything that I am is just the latest technology developed by Him. That gizmo you had back on Arsenal was just a paper weight compared to what I am now."
"You just used me to create the S3 plan. I was never working for The Patriots was I?"
"How could you work for something that died over a hundred years ago?"
Messiah once again speaks. "You will die Vamp. I promise you."
"How do you plan to do that?"
Messiah steps forward and pushes something on his exoskeleton that opens a compartment. In the compartment extends a handle to a katana sword. "Where's the blade," Vamp asks. With a flick of the wrist, a full length katana blade appears on the handle and Messiah smiles. "Are you forgetting: I work for The Patriot too. You said it yourself: only 'cutting-edge' technology."
Vamp flings his knife at Messiah who flips through the air and lands in behind his attacker. Vamp takes out two more knives and the two battle at the speed of light. Snake can barely keep up with their movements.
Ocelot, lying on the floor, gasps for breath as the two duel. Then, out of nowhere Messiah lands in the center of the room confused. It seems he has lost Vamp.
Snake tells Messiah to look behind him but it's too late. Vamp takes a swing with his knife at the back of Messiah's neck. Messiah moves to the side and Vamp's attack misses.
Messiah raises his blade and in one quick motion chopping Vamp's head right off. As Vamp's head flies off into the distance sparks fly from it as well as from the headless body. Messiah looks at the slice he made in the neck and notices circuitry beyond anything he's ever seen. He turns to Snake. "Vamp was a robot."
After the battle, Snake looks around for Ocelot, but it seems he dragged himself off into the distance. "Messiah, Ocelot's gone. Should we go after him?"
"No. FAL is not far. We have to keep going."
But before they have a chance to get moving they are hit with two darts and fall unconscious.
As the two are knocked out, more robot Vamps come over to their bodies, pick them up and bring them to the biggest room in the base. The robots handcuff them and place them down on the floor. The Vamps then revitalize them.
The two soldiers, now awake, see FAL in the distance as well as five Vamps surrounding them. Snake looks to his right and also sees Otacon kneeling handcuffed as well.
FAL starts walking towards them. Snake demands answers from the person inside but Messiah just stares with a look of pure hatred in his eyes. As the suit opens up, out walks The Patriot. He looks exactly like Solid Snake except with short blonde hair and an eye patch. Messiah and Otacon are in complete confusion. They don't understand. Any ordinary human being would think this is trick, but Snake is no ordinary human and he knows the truth. He can only say two words. "Big Boss."
Messiah now has a look of total disbelief on his face. The room is silent for what seems like eternity and then Messiah is the first to break the silence with a single word. "Dad?"