The gunshot echoed off the smooth concrete walls of the interrogation room. Sunny staggered to catch the trooper's body as it slumped onto her. She was panting from the ordeal, having narrowly missed her own head with the shot. The Mk 23 was still pressed against the trooper's head, and Sunny had not released the trigger. Johnny walked over, and lifted up the body. He let the body drop, and looked over to Sunny. He knelt down in front of her, and took the gun from her hand. He engaged the safety, and set it down on the table.

"Sunny, are you alright?"

"I…I…I killed him," she said between gasps and sobs.

"You did your job, Sunny. That's all that matters."

"I felt it, Johnny."

"What?"

"I felt when his heart stopped beating. I saw the life leave his eyes."

"Killing isn't easy, Sunny. Not for anyone."

"You never saw their faces. You never felt their hearts stop."

"I have, Sunny."

"W…what?"

Johnny brushed the hair out of Sunny's face and looked into her eyes. She was still teary, but was not sobbing anymore. She just stood there, waiting for Johnny's story. He removed his sunglasses, showing his surprisingly stern face. He took a deep breath, and began his story:

I was just a Lance Corporal back then, and had just been assigned to a new squad. I was pretty nervous, but tried to keep me cool while I approached the rendezvous point. Coming around the corner, someone grabbed me by my weapon and flipped me head over heels. I noticed something as that someone set down my weapon: that was not a man's body. The way that tight suit let you see the shape of her…

"What?"

Oh, sorry. So anyway, I thought, 'Wow. What a woman.' And I was going to work with her for the whole tour of duty. But that day, we went into combat against these new soldiers. These weren't PMC soldiers. These were new. They wore a metallic uniform, used P90s, and were expertly trained. They could spring from wall to wall, and cling there while engaging targets. Our squad got into a small firefight: 4 of us against 6 of them. Meryl and the other two each shot one down as soon as we saw them, but I hesitated. Once I had taken off the safety on my weapon, Meryl had taken down two more with her Desert Eagle. She was amazing, and I was so distracted that I didn't see it when one rushed me. It pounced on top of me, and tried to cut me with it's knife. I reached for my sidearm, and shot it near the heart, but not before the enemy had given me a shallow cut across my chest in the struggle. It fell on top of me, and I sat up and took it in my arms. My squad held back; Meryl said, 'No. This is his first kill. Let it happen.' I removed the enemy's helmet, and saw it's face. A woman's face, poking out from a mass of wires, in the throes of death. I applied pressure to the spot on her chest where I had shot her, naively trying to save the enemy. She coughed, and with her last breath muttered, 'you men are all the same.' I saw as the shine in her eyes faded, and felt her heart quit under my hand. I was haunted by that face, Sunny. It's still with me to this day, and it's a weight I carry because of how personal that kill was. It's what the Samurai would call 'the scent of battle,' and for one to have it about the was the sign of a truly impressive yet sensitive warrior…"

"How can you tell, Johnny?"

"Look into my eyes, Sunny. Watch them change as I remember that day." She did, and noticed a slight change in his eyes, as though the life in them had moved back momentarily. "You have it too, Sunny. You care even about the people you kill. That's the mark of a true warrior."

"Did…did Snake have it?"

"Yes, but now that I think about it, his eyes always looked that way."

At that moment the guards rushed in, and demanded to know what had happened. Johnny stood up, put his sunglasses on, and became official once again. He told them that the detainee had broken free while the psychic was analyzing him. The detainee attacked, and the psychic was forced to shoot in self defense. Johnny signed some papers, and led Sunny out of the room.

"So, now that that's all over with, what do we do now, Sunny?"

"I don't know, let me ask Uncle Hal. Hey, Uncle Hal," she said, kneeling down to talk to the Mk IV, which had been left outside the police station. "What do we do now?"

"Sunny, first of all, well done with that last trooper. The police sent me something on US Military clearance which contained security footage. That was a tough situation, but you handled it well."

"Thank you. But, where do we go now?"

"We? Oh, right; Johnny. Well, why don't you two take a civilian plane back to the US. I'll meet you at BWI. Your tickets…are waiting for you."

"Thanks, Uncle Hal."

"I'll see you when you land. And Sunny, try to have some fun."

"Ok!"

Sunny and Johnny took a taxi to the nearest airport, where there were indeed tickets waiting for them. Their flight left right on time; Sunny and Johnny were in the air, homeward bound. Sunny took this opportunity to learn some more about Johnny.

"Johnny, how did you and Meryl meet?"

"Remember Sunny? When she ambushed me the first day we worked together?"

"Oh, right. And you still liked her, even though she was better than you?"

"Well Sunny, I think I liked her because she was better than me. She's a strong, independent woman. The kind of woman who likes to be on top…" Sunny shot him a quizzical look. "Of things. On top of things. Right. So, yes, I think that's the reason."

"Huh. That's interesting. Does that make you the Uke, Johnny?"

"What? Sunny, where did you learn about things like that?"

"The internet."

"Don't you think it's better to learn about that stuff from a real person?"

"Why don't you teach me?"

"I…umm…well Sunny, in life, there are two kinds of people. Some people pitch, and some people…catch. Understand?"

"Uncle Hal already taught me all about baseball, if that's what you mean."

"Sure, let's go with that. So," he said, trying to change the subject, "anything else you'd like to know?"

"When did you ask Meryl to marry you," Sunny asked, expecting a traditional romantic scenario.

"Well, it was during this gunfight we were having on Outer Haven. We were pinned down, and I thought that we were going to die, so I asked Meryl to marry me. She said no. Then, a few seconds later, she asked me to marry her, so I said yes. Once Snake deactivated the System through GW's server, we were safe. We headed back to base, and planned the wedding."

"That's not how I imagined it, but that's still pretty neat."

"I thought so too."

"So, what were you doing on that island when we visited you?"

"We were on our honeymoon."

"What's that?"

"Well… it's when a newly married couple takes a trip to…relax."

"What were you doing before we came? There wasn't much to do on a deserted island."

"Oh, don't you worry, Sunny. Meryl kept me busy, that's for sure."

"Doing what?"

"Fishing, mostly," he said, while thinking to himself, 'good cover, good cover.' "Well, we'd better get some sleep."

"Awww…"

"Hey, it's a long flight. There'll be lots of time for talking tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok."

"Then for now, Good night."

"Good night."