No Heroes in War

AN: Due to some business that's come up Metropolis Kid is unable to find the time to type up his contributions to this chapter. So this one is all Crow's. Metro's story lines will continue with the next chapter. Hope you'll enjoy.

The assault team sent to investigate the shootings in the First Floor Basement had left rather quickly, and the status quo had quickly returned. Seras had replaced one of the guards she had killed and now patrolled a large office space across the hall from the elevator.

Meryl had proven easy to keep track of. She hadn't changed the walking stance that Seras had used to identify her, and the only other guard in the area was leaving frequently for bathroom breaks. Now it was just a matter of keeping an eye out for Snake. The room was well lit and while there were a few high guard rails, she imagined there weren't many places to hide. She'd just smoke out Snake, find Meryl, and they could probably formulate a plan, simple as that?

Seras must have done her twentieth lap around the room when her foot brushed something.

"Huh?" She looked down at the offending pressure. "Oh...just a box."

She moved on until she passed a short staircase and started sweeping her vision across the room. There was a small "pit" in the center, its edges lined with four desks playing host to computers and other office supplies. Several doors of varying security clearance lined the walls, two across the room from her and three more on her side. There was a small space near the northwest corner of the room devoted to lockers and stacking boxes, and overall, not many places to hide. She'd find the agent soon enough.

'...If that ninja didn't kill him.' Seras still wasn't convinced any mortal could have stood up to that cybernetic monstrosity.

She looked back towards the entrance, waiting for Snake to step through, if he had survived, then considered searching one of the offices behind her for "intel" to pass the time.

As she turned to face one of the doors, however, her vision swept past the walkway she had just passed through.

The box was on the opposite side of the first door she had passed, closer to her.

She shook her head. Just because she had super-vision didn't mean she remembered exactly where every odd and end belonged.

Realizing she had wasted some time dwelling on the unlikely oddity, Seras once more scanned the room in case the one real guard came back. Discretion would do her, Meryl, and Snake a great deal of convenience in the long run.

Realizing that Meryl was still the only other "guard" in the room, she tried to do another about-face.

…Only to see that box again, now parked at the edge of the door she had intended to move back over.

Seras blinked, there wasn't anyone around to move that, was there?

Just to be sure, she rubbed her eyes. Probably just seeing things, she imagined...

After three seconds, her vision cleared quickly enough to still see the box...

...now sitting on the side of the door closer to her.

For the barest of moments, Seras thought she felt her heart start up again, as if feeling its body's rising apprehension.

No, no, nononononono! That was just your imagination! Seras' bit her lip so hard she was sure a bloody stain would appear on her mask. The box didn't talk to you...hehehehe...

She turned around, hoping the corrugated container would go away if she didn't look at it. You're just in a hospital, having a dying dream from that night Master shot you through the lung, and this is the effect of the drugs they're using for life-saving surgery.

Despite her best efforts, she dared to peak over her shoulder.

The box was right at her back.

Her eyes squeezed shut again! No Seras! It's just a stupid box...a very scary, mobile and unsettling box...but a cardboard box doesn't stand a chance against a vampire! You can do this!

Her grip tightened on her FAMAS one more time. She took an involuntary breath and counted down.

3...2...1...

She pivoted so quickly she was certain she left a Matrix-like after-image of herself standing still.

"Aha!"

The box was gone.

Seras' shoulders slumped.

...Really?

She was totally unprepared for the muscular arms that suddenly wrapped around her throat from behind.

On reflex alone, Seras tried to scream, but the phantom limbs had squeezed down on her windpipe too quickly for anything more than a plaintive squeak to force its way out of her throat. Then the pressure started to turn towards the sides of her neck, and that's when Seras' vision began to blur.

Her attacker was using a blood choke. As a vampire, brain damage wasn't as problematic as it otherwise would have been for a human, but being leaps and bounds below her master, her brain still needed a regular supply of blood to stay functioning...and now, as she felt herself being dragged away by her attacker, she could already see her world darken. Her struggles were already down to human level strength...too human to wrestle free from her anonymous assailant.

She saw a locker approach as her vision faded to black, and felt herself go limp entirely.

Seras blinked and shook her head. It was still dark, but it had taken only a second to find a source of light.

It was small though. Three horizontal slits showing the office space beyond. She was in a locker...again.

Rather than risk making a scene breaking the door down, she first began rapping on the inside of the door.

"Uh...hello?" Her new voice reverberated out of the locker. "I seem to be stuck here. Could someone help me out?"

As if on cue, a guard ran from around the corner and drifted up to her little prison. Was it Meryl? She had to warn her about-

When the door open, her hope for whatever plan was running through her head had been dashed.

"Sergeant, quit lollygagging and get out of there!" Said an annoyed and very manly Second Lieutenant.

Despite the curtness of his orders, Seras stepped back into the open world. No amount of sleeping in a coffin would have ever made a stay in a locker comfortable.

"I just got off the radio with Mantis. Says he wants all the soldiers here to vacate the floor and move onto the Communication Tower entrance." The lieutenant reported.

That update was all well and good, but something didn't ring right about all this.

"Um...lef..." she hesitated before remembering the proper pronunciation "...Lieutenant, aren't you the least bit curious of what I was doing in there?"

"..."

"I was knocked out and stuffed in there by someone! Don't you think that merits some sort of action?!"

"Uh..." the guard trailed off, bringing a thoughtful finger to his chin as he searched his memories.

Four Months Earlier

Lieutenant Lawrence DuPont and a smattering of other OCS graduates sat in the front row of the spacious auditorium. Behind them, nearly a thousand enlisted men (also rookies) brought their attention to their commander, a one Liquid Snake, standing at a podium. To Liquid's left were two other FOXHOUND operatives, Vulcan Raven and Decoy Octopus if he remembered correctly, the latter currently wearing Liquid's form and distinguished only by his trademark fedora.

'Ahem' Liquid cleared his throat loudly enough to silence the undisciplined whispering among the grunts in the audience.

"Congratulations on completing the Genome Soldier gene therapy treatment..." He paused, trying to think of the full name of the program "...thing."

He leaned forward slightly, scanning the crowd as he continued. "You are now among the most elite of modern soldiers."

"However!" He slammed his fist onto the podium, to underline the importance of his next statement. "Your conditioning is not over. The Next Generation Special Forces are affiliated with FOXHOUND, and we hold a higher standard of excellence."

DuPont had kept just enough attention away from Liquid to notice Octopus snicker before Raven shushed him.

"It is not enough to be physically superior!" Liquid stepped out from behind the podium and walked up to the edge of the stage. "You must be able to think as well as you can fight."

He brought his hands behind his back to take on a 'stern teacher' posture before continuing.

"Consider a hypothetical mission in which your unit is defending a base against a single enemy infiltrator," his eyes began to take a shifty look once he had said 'hypothetical.' "While on patrol, you find a fellow member of your unit unconscious. What do you do?"

He looked into the audience. "Yes Private?"

DuPont turned around to see an eager grunt raising his hand.

"Wake him up!" The F.N.G. answered.

Liquid's face remained neutral, but decided to follow that up with another statement.

"As soon as you get him on his feet, he mysteriously collapses again."

"Wake him up again!" Another grunt further back shouted.

A spark of annoyance appeared in the FOXHOUND commander's eyes as he turned to the offending soldier.

"The exact same thing happens as the last time you woke him up." His voice was quieter now, mumbling, but still coherent thanks to a mic in his vest.

"Wake him up again!" The man directly behind DuPont answered. This sounded easy enough.

"No matter how many times you wake him up..." Liquid's words were slightly scrambled by the sound of him forcing them through clenched teeth. "...he just falls unconscious again."

DuPont was about to answer when the frustrated commander gestured to his neck.

"There are a bunch of tranquilizer darts sticking out of the back of his neck."

Of course, DuPont had to answer now or never. All the enlisted guys had their turn. He couldn't let the officers look like a bunch of fools, especially when the answer was so readily obvious.

"Ooh! Ooh, I've got it sir!" DuPont waved his arms so eagerly he looked like a kindergartener.

"Yes?" Liquid asked patiently, not taking his finger away from his neck.

"...Wake him up again?"

Back In The Present

"...Nope, standard operating procedure Sergeant." Problem solved.

Having seen stranger things in the last half a day, the Police Girl shrugged and fell in step behind the lieutenant. She'd have to track down Meryl later.

However, something became apparent as she stepped back into the hallway.

Where's Mantis' song?

The hallway was quiet, too quiet. It wasn't quiet when she had arrived on the elevator. Psycho Mantis' tune had persistently played the entire time, and, while she had more pressing things to focus on, Seras was certain that it had continued to play as her mysterious attacker dragged her away.

Now that she thought of it, where had he gone after that?

"...-ey! Men aren't allowed in here!" Her ears caught a muffled sound coming down the corridor.

"...had no id...so...feminine," Another voice replied.

"I'm going to check the men's bathroom, see if there are any stragglers. Wait here." The lieutenant hadn't even checked to see if Seras had paid attention to him and walked to the opposite end of the hall, far away from the conversation Seras had picked up.

He hadn't even ducked into the door by the time Seras began inching across the marble floor to the women's bathroom, the source of the words earlier.

"This is no time to try and hit on me Snake..."

Seras froze...

Sure, she recognized the first voice as Meryl. She may have not known her long, but at least knew her long enough to tell...but did she just call the other person behind the door Snake?

Seras decided to keep her distance once she was a body length from the door. If that was really 'Snake' in there with the rookie, he might reflexively attack her. The last thing she wanted to do was let them think FOXHOUND had a vampire in their ranks he hadn't been briefed on.

Meryl's brief pause ended with a scoff, "...Besides, it's a waste of time. When I joined up, they gave me psychotherapy to destroy my interest in men."

"Same smart mouth, you're Meryl all right." Yes, Seras recognized it too. Even if she hadn't seen his face, that raspy voice, while more relaxed than she remembered, had burned itself into her brain. "Are you hurt?"

"Not yet, after all, I was disguised as a GENOME Soldier."

"So why'd you change? You'd be a lot better off dressed up like one of them." Again, a pleasant contrast to what she had heard the soldier say before. This time he sounded concerned, if slightly impatient with learning Meryl had not applied common sense to whatever he was complaining about.

"I got tired of disguising myself," Meryl sounded a little more irritable than the question should have made her. Though Seras realized a palpable silence underlined her answer.

"The truth is..." She finally added. "...The uniform smelled like blood."

Seras gulped. So it was strong enough that even the human soldier could smell it too?

She bowed her head in pity. Meryl looked young. She couldn't have been in the army long at her age. That firefight in the prison was probably her first. The terrified screaming, the continuous staccato, Seras didn't even get a good look at her in action and she could recall her battle high.

It brought to mind Seras' first mission when she became a vampire. Even after "surviving" (such as it could be called) her first encounter with the undead, and witnessing even greater depravity on her first mission, the "Bonnie and Clyde" duo made her cringe. Her target was a teenage girl...had been a teenage girl, but on the surface, for all intents and purposes had been human. Incredulity about her new abilities had only been the more immediate distraction from finishing the fight, but that night, everything about her police training had originally screamed at her not to fire a killing shot.

It had taken her some time to recover from that bloody first night.

"What's that mark?"

"Huh?" It seemed Meryl was on a similar mental tangent before Snake provided a welcome distraction. "Oh, this? It's a paint tattoo, it's not real."

Her voice began to sound nostalgic. "I'm a fan of FOXHOUND way back, when guys like you and my uncle were in it. None of that 'gene therapy' like there is today." She had intoned 'gene therapy' as though she were a kid talking about being forced to eat spinach. "You guys were real heroes."

"There are no heroes in war." Snake didn't sound flattered. In fact, he sounded quite bitter. "All the heroes I know are either dead, or in prison. One or the other."

"But Snake," an inflection of disbelief answered. "You're a hero, aren't you?"

A beat, its silence broken only by shifting feet...was he thinking it over?

"I'm just a guy who can only find meaning on the battlefield. There's no winning or losing for a mercenary. The only winners in war are the people."

"That's right," Meryl's idealism wasn't quashed yet. "and you fight for the people!"

Her assurance clearly didn't have the desired effect.

"I've never fought for anyone but myself," Snake sounded like he was trying not to sneer. "I've got no purpose in life, no ultimate goal."

"Come on!" Now Meryl's idealism was getting quashed.

"Sergeant!" Seras' head did a 180 to see the lieutenant emerge from the bathroom with two soldiers hobbling in tow. From this distance, he could see one man painfully massage his head and the other grasping at a small dart in the back of his neck.

"Onto the elevator, we're going to the Comm Towers now." He shot a contemptuous glance to the men behind him. "I suppose some slackers like you could use the cold to keep you awake. Snake could be anywhere and I find all you goofing off on the job, you're lucky I can't court marshal you!"

The only protest the men behind him could issue was a pair of disharmonic groans.

Seras dared not glance back at the women's bathroom as she fell in line with the officer and his men.

"It's only when I'm cheating death on the battlefield..." Snake said without the fanaticism Seras would have expected with those words. "...the only time I feel truly alive."

Seras winced and stepped onto the newly opened elevator.

"Seeing other people die makes you feel alive huh?" Even as Meryl's voice faded, Seras could hear her contempt surface. "You can't stop loving war. Is it the same for all soldiers throughout history?"

The doors slid shut...

'Wow' Seras thought. 'That arsehole is supposed to save the world?' Her face faulted under her balaclava. 'What kind of screwed up family makes a man like that?'

Twenty Minutes Later

Mantis strained to breathe, his punctured lungs struggling to pull the filtered air through his mask and into his dying, frail body.

He couldn't believe it. He may have known this simple grunt had been called The Man Who Makes The Impossible Possible, but how had he found his weakness? Exploited it? No one should have been able to bypass his telepathy, and yet Solid Snake had found the one blind spot in his mind.

"So..." he wheezed "You...used the other..." The pain and disbelief derailed the revelation. "I...I wasn't able to read the future."

Footsteps alerted him that his killer was moving. Lying on his back, Mantis could only see the ceiling.

"A strong man doesn't need to read the future...he makes his own."

Idling inside the alcove, Seras was grateful to be out of the other guards' line of sight. With her body temperature equal to whatever the temperature around her dictated, it would look awfully conspicuous that no one could see her breath.

Right outside her designated hiding place was a long outdoor corridor leading to Communication Tower A. The small squad had gathered here to ambush Snake and Meryl should Psycho Mantis fail to stop them.

'How would he fail to stop them?' That thought occurred to her. Mantis may have thought the Police Girl delusional, but surely he had time to dig deep enough to consider the possibility that he was going to die in the immediate future. Snake didn't have the benefit of a homicidally insane companion to mess with Mantis' mind-reading, so how did he die anyway?

Speaking of death, given the utter depravity the psychic seemed to ooze with, Seras wondered how wayward souls like him could have possibly been qualified for limbo. What could possibly have given a monster of Mantis' evil, never mind Millennium's, a Get Out Of Hell Free Card?

Mantis felt the last bit of strain on his will end as the bookcase moved clear of the door. The only obstacle preventing Snake and Meryl from continuing their mission had been removed, a small reward for removing him from this miserable world.

But even as his body shut down, no longer able to sustain itself as his blood pooled underneath him, he could still think, understanding the repercussions of this simple generosity.

This was part of Liquid's plan to lull Snake into doing their job for them. He may have not been in it for Liquid's revolution, but nonetheless, it was one step closer to fulfillment.

If Snake still lived up to his status as TMWMTIP, however, and won, the millions of people he despised would survive, at the cost of only himself.

Either way...

"This is the first time I've used my powers to help someone..." he wheezed at the mercenary, who still knelt over his dying form.

"Strange..." His world darkened... "It feels...kind of..."

Hesitation.

"...Nice..."

He did not breathe again.

Snake rose off his knees, shunting the conversation to the back of his mind.

"Let's go Meryl." He kept his tone even, ordered. There was still a mission, after all, and no time to give this corpse a pity party.

He turned to move towards the new entrance when Meryl interrupted him.

"I'm sorry..."

Snake didn't look back at her, but the whisper caught him off guard.

"Meryl?"

"How could I let Mantis control my mind like that?" The bitterness and self-loathing in her voice made Snake pivot to face the girl, but her back was still turned to him. He had no time for this.

"If you're going to doubt yourself, I'll leave you here." His harsh voice bared no restraint. Meryl may have been a rookie, but he had no time for regrets.

"You're right." She turned around, a bit of confidence forcing its way in. Just to be safe, Snake decided a little more positive reinforcement was in order.

"Never doubt yourself." He tried not to give her an encouraging smile. "Just let it make you stronger. Learn something from it."

"You're right," she repeated with even more confidence. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

That was a relief. Snake nodded and once again took a few more paces to the door.

"Snake, can I ask you something?"

"What?!" He didn't stop and hoped the shortness of his reply would make her rethink slowing him down.

"About what Mantis said..." She was hesitating, but her curiosity wouldn't let her stop. "I was just wondering..."

"What?!" Snakes frustration returned in full. "What's the problem now?!"

"Oh no..." she trailed off, a quiet bitterness creeping in. "...nothing."

To Snake's chagrin, she simply moved to another line of questions.

"So tell me Snake. What's your name? Your real name?"

"Name means nothing on the battlefield."

"How old are you?"

"Old enough to know what death looks like." Just as laconic as the last answer.

"Any family?" There had to be some shred of humanity behind that man.

"No, but I was raised by many people."

"Is there..." She wasn't sure how to word this next one. "...anyone you like?"

"I've never been interested in anyone else's life." As far as he was concerned, that answer was enough.

"So you are all alone..." Pity and disdain followed. "Just like Mantis said."

She watched Snake, waiting to see if those words got to him. The longer the silence dragged on, the more certain she was that she had struck a nerve.

"Other people just complicate my life," he almost sneered. "I don't like to get involved."

Meryl's voice was quieter than ever, she didn't care if Snake heard her or not now. "...You're a sad, lonely man."

If Snake did hear her, he didn't let her know.

"C'mon...let's go..."

They both moved into the passage. Silence at last returning between them.

Five Minutes Later...

Seras checked her watch. Another five minutes gone. Fourteen more hours until doomsday and there she was, waiting for two people she barely knew, one of whom she had never even met.

And while she was now thankful for the silence that let her collect her thoughts, it reminded her of another conundrum. Decoy Octopus was nowhere to be found. She'd lost track of the shapeshifter after her second encounter with that ninja and was doing God knows what now. At this rate he might not even look like her anymore.

Seras started to wonder how that could have been a bad thing when two familiar voices hit her ears again.

"This place is mined. I'll take point again, stay back, okay?"

Seras tensed and gripped her rifle.

"But the radar isn't working. And since we can't use the mine detector either..." Snake's voice was cut off by a sudden gasp.

"Leave it to me." Meryl said with a renewed confidence.

Seras listened as she heard slow, wet footfalls thump across the end of the outdoor corridor opposite the towers.

"So what do you think? Pretty good, huh?" A newfound cockiness filled the rookie's voice.

"How did you know where the mines were?"

"It sounds weird, but when Mantis dove into my mind, I was able to see where the mines were placed. Are you impressed?"

"Well...a little bit." The concession was forced and facetious.

"Only a little?" Meryl deadpanned.

Unwilling to take the suspense, Seras peeked around the corner just in time to see a familiar blue suited figure don a pair of thermal goggles and slink to the floor. He set about, crawling on his belly like his code-name-sake.

Seras stared, for all her vision, she couldn't see any tripwires or misshapen lumps, and very little snow had accumulated down here. Just what was...

...A small yellow claymore mine appeared as Snake reached out for it. He defused it in seconds.

Invisible mines...why am I not surprised?

Seras concluded that sharing an island with a magical shaman, a psychic, and a ninja robot—a few years after being turned into vampires and fighting an army of bloodsucking Nazis, an illusionist, a werewolf, and a Quantum Physics manipulating Cat boy—may have just raised the bar on her expectations for craziness.

Seras then remembered there were a few other guards waiting in ambush in the alcoves down the hall. She dug into her pocket, reaching for the laser pointer Meryl had warned her to signal her with. The discretion would be invaluable to take down the others with as little a mess as possible.

"Meryl?" Snake's gravely voice was low...but something sounded off, worried even, about its shift in tone.

Seras had barely noticed, she was considering jumping out of the alcove and just waving at the duo when she noticed a hole in her pocket. Could things be more inconvenient?

Seras' answer came when she gave another peek to find that there was a laser light dancing across Meryl's body after all.

Not Seras' of course. But Meryl didn't know that. Maybe that's why she was standing still, gawking like an idiot as the little red dot slowly worked its way down her.

Not sure what to make of this development, Seras strained her vision just enough to pan her head away from Meryl and towards the metal balcony of Comm Tower A.

Invisible to anyone without her talents, Seras saw a Heckler & Koch PSG1 at the other end of the red beam, and behind it, a smirking blonde wrapping a finger around its trigger.

Seras had just enough time to wish she had something more accurate than her FAMAS before she caught a tiny, brown, metal projectile cut through the freezing air, almost shattering it with its deadly velocity. It traveled the barely shaken length of the laser, arcing downwards, down, down, down...

...Until it vanished into Meryl's right kneecap.

Seras held her breath, Meryl froze, and Snake was dumbfounded.

...and at the same time a tantalizing smell hit Seras' nose, and an agonized scream hit the vampire's ears as the source of both sensations fell.