Chapter 13: White Rabbit

Raiden was still inside of Octacon's office waiting for him to wake up. At that sudden instant, someone walked inside of room.

"You can't carry him?" Story Teller sat on a nearby chair. "We're in a rush you know." Raiden immediately pointed his gun towards her. Story Teller laughed. "Are you 'for serious'?"

"YES! I am VERY 'for serious'!"

"What do you want?" Story Teller adjusted her body.

"Explain things!"

Story Teller took a deep breath. "You're going to have to emphasize, because there's a lot of things to explain."

"Then explain everything."

"Ms. Orange. None of you have met her, correct?" Raiden nodded. "Good. Okay. She is most of the cause of this."

"Who is she?"

"You've heard of Dr. Clark, correct?"

"I can't say that I have."

"Member of the Patriots. Turned Grey Fox into a monster." Story Teller started to light a cigarette. "Anyway. What most people don't know is that Dr. Clark had an assistant."

"Is that supposed to be a big deal?"

"Yes. It is. Dr. Clark was a medical genius that was corrupted. She started on disturbing projects capable of bring the dying to a painful life. Did Snake ever tell you about a certain 'Grey Fox'?"

"Frank Jaeger?"

"That's the one! Anyway. Dr. Jennifer Tanger, Ms. Orange, was her assistant. She learned everything she could from Dr. Clark. So you could pretty much assume Ms. Orange's persona?"

"Yes. Dark, cruel, and unforgiving. Move on with this."

"You see. Diuqil was part of Otacon's team during the creation of Metal Gear Rex."

"Diuqil?"

"Liquid backwards. She changed her last name when she fell in love with Liquid Snake."

"She fell in love?"

"More or less. Liquid never knew she existed. Then again, he didn't know any of us existed."

"You were part of the team too?"

"Yep. Dr. Jessica White is my real name. During the time Snake infiltrated Shadow Moses, most of the team had been executed. The two of us were afraid. We tried to escape. Running on foot. That's when the wolves found us. Sniper Wolf knew we had escaped, and she helped us. She wanted us to live. So, the two of us hid inside of a location somewhat far off from Shadow Moses. Wolves would transfer rations to us. Soon after, Wolf died. That's when I found out about Solid Snake."

"I was amazed. Shocked by his bravery and skill. It was funny. I became amazed by Solid, and she amazed by Liquid. Afterwards, we escaped on our own. The two of us were friends during the time. We had no idea what had happened, but we made it out."

"We eventually met Black. Black introduced us to his 'family'. Majority of the crew was already with him. He adopted all of them. Lili, Onslaught, and Dhampir. All of them were already feared mass murderers. However, no one knew who they were. They were never caught."

"What about Xander?"

"Xander is Black's son. Xander has a twin sister, Xian."

"And the mother?"

Story Teller nodded her head in disappointment. "Dead. However, Diuqil is considered the 'mother' of the crew."

"Huh?"

"I'm Auntie White. We'll all one big miserable family. Onslaught hated me. Dhampir wanted to rape me. Xian wanted to kill me. Lili became my friend. And Xander was in a coma for the longest time."

"What about Dirk?"

"Black wanted to make an 'Uncle' type for the crew. Let's just say Black isn't the smartest bulb in the box."

"So then Xander's body was created by Diuqil?"

"Yep. A car hit Xander when he was a little boy. He lost most of his limbs and fell into a deep coma. Diuqil rebuilt him and made him what he is today. Eventually, Xander found out about his father's intentions. As you can tell, he's quite resistant."

"Okay. I can't take this anymore. Why are you acting so calm?"

"Hmm?"

"You're acting like this is a family argument. Thousands have died! Everyone in the world is dancing around like they have a llama on their roof! Snake is somehow alive! How can you be so calm about this?"

"Because I've been in this Hell for the past ten years! Do you honestly think I haven't lost a corner of my mind?"

Raiden turned silent.

"Why else do you think I've been calling you a scout, Meryl a princess, Johnny a prince, and so on? I'M BORED! DO YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH THIS?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

"Well too bad! I am trying to make things go my way, and you're making it difficult!"

Raiden decided to change the subject. "Why is everyone acting the way they are?"

Story Teller calmed herself down. "Diuqil discovered a mutant parasite. A robotic parasite capable of infesting the human brain and causes them to have certain spasm upon hearing certain music."

"What? That makes no sense!"

"It doesn't make sense, but it's been accomplished. Once injected, the host will be triggered to perform certain actions depending on the pattern of sound that was played."

"So how is everyone affected?"

"Like a virus, those parasites reproduce inside the body and escape to contaminate others. We simply captured a few people, injected them, and sent them out into the world. We're pretty surprised how well it spread across the globe."

"All of us were infected and never knew. But how are some of us not affected?"

"Simple. There's a vaccine. Sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'? And how did we get the vaccine?"

"I injected all of you with it."

"When?"

"During Snake's funeral. None of you noticed me or the injection. It was a piece of cake."

"You….you were at the funeral?"

"I needed some of you to stay normal."

"Why didn't you inject my son? Why didn't you inject my wife?"

"I only had five vaccines. I needed the three of you to save us. Sunny, I knew, would have been a valuable aid to you guys. And Mei Ling……..I need her to record something that will happen soon."

"When you said the vaccine 'sort of' worked, what did you mean?"

"The vaccine prevents the spreading of the virus through air. It prevents infection through standard spreading. However, if someone were to inject the virus into you, you would be infected once again."

"Then I would act strangely?"

"You'd have to hear the melody we played during our threat to act the way everyone else is acting. With a simple melody, it creates a script for a person to act. You see, Xian is infected worse than anyone imaginable. She's practically a walking human version of those parasites."

"So, she's just like everyone who is infected."

"No. She IS a parasite in a way. She can understand the parasite's listening patterns, which allows her to form the music that is needed to perform certain acts. She became this way through much infestation and radiation. With her knowledge, we were able to create the script."

"What is this script you keep talking about?"

"The time between the video threat we made and your arrival at Shadow Moses….it was all planned."

"What?"

The Story Teller slowly stood up. "Remember when you said goodbye to Rose?" She put her cigarette down. "You have to do what you have to do." She made her voice sound a bit like Rose. "Just promise me you'll come back alive. Don't do anything insane like last time. You have a different body now. A somewhat human body in comparison."

Those words were the exact words said by Rose when Raiden last spoke to her. Raiden felt outraged. "How much of what's happened has been a lie?"

"The soldiers 'happily' sacrificing themselves to help you. Campbell having as much information as he did. The claim that specific world leaders had surrendered themselves to us. The claim that countries were at war with themselves. The claim that their were traps inside of Shadow Moses killing any soldiers that got in. The claim that the White Soldier was incapable of dying." The White Rabbit took a deep breath. "In fact, the bombings never happened. We haven't killed anyone. Except for the soldiers that 'tried' to enter this place, but they were following the script too"

Raiden was horrified.

"Black and Diuqil were actually the news reporters that reported the bombings. The music that played during the newscast made everyone believe that the bombings did happen. And most importantly: Solid Snake missing. All of it was a lie created by us."