Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the MG/MGS Franchise!

Author's Note: Welcome back! :) Here's the next chapter; I hope you enjoy!

Guest K: I'm getting in as many happy moments as I can before the ice cream turns to shit lmao :') GZ is just around the corner and it's gonna be a one-way trip on the feels train to Depressing City from there.

Guest: I agree 100%! Listening to the tapes in GZ and hearing Huey's interrogations throughout V was just cringe-worthy. Would you believe me if I said my mission play throughs on the two in MGSV that lead up to torture/interrogation scenes with Huey are now at 0 GMP reward because he deserved every bit of it?


"Too late, my time has come.

Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time.

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go.

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.

Mama, ooh, (any way the wind blows)

I don't want to die.

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all."

-Queen


February 28, 1975: 09:00

Lydia was sitting at her desk reading some reconnaissance reports sent in by a couple agents stationed in Angola. Nothing to report thus far. Nothing to report except for the fact that she was tired. "Ugh." Lydia's eyes fell on the clock that still read a time too early for her. Man, what's wrong with me? I'm usually not this distracted. Is it something to do with my health? It could be from all the stress about Paz and this IAEA shit. I better see Raven just in case. Lydia frowned and stood up from her chair and walked out the main Intel gathering room. The walk to the med bay was a long, boring one. It was mighty chilly outside; it was only made worse by the over-cast.

Lydia crossed her arms when she entered the facility. The warmness of the building soothed her as her bones began to thaw. The hall was empty, not a lot of people were getting sick on Mother Base this time of the year, which was pretty good! It was about time for the medical staff to get a break!

Lydia walked to Raven's office and knocked on the door. "Hey, Raven? You in there?"

"Come in." He responded. Lydia walked in, greeting him with a small wave with her hand. "Sub-C, what a surprise." He tapped a bundle of papers on his desk before setting them down into a neat pile. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm sure you hear this a lot, but I'm feeling…weird."

"Weird? That's a medical term I don't use, you're gonna have to be a bit more specific."

"How do I explain this? I've been more tired than usual, I've had random spurts of wanting to throw up…but I hate throwing up…it's gross."

"Hmmm…" Raven placed his hand to his chin and sized her up. "When was your last menstrual cycle?"

"Uhhhh…" Lydia took a minute to think. "January twenty-fifth—ish?"

"Hmmm…" Raven repeated his gesture. He looked back on his desk to scan for a vacant room. "Why don't you go to room 107. I'll be there in just a sec to check you out."

"Sounds good." She bowed out of his office and proceeded into the appropriate room where she waited on the medical bed. Only a few minutes passed until Raven walked in with a few test-tubes for blood samples. "Have any ideas?" She asked.

"I have a few. But I want to make sure before I throw out any assumptions." He tied off her right arm and then began to draw her blood after the necessary steps. After he was done, he wrapped her arm with medical tape and a gauze set in place of the puncture wound. "I'm going to go run these. I'll be right back."

"Alrighty." Lydia sat there in silence. Minutes had passed, maybe an hour. She heard something heavy rolling down the hall. Lydia raised an eyebrow as she kept her eyes on the door. Not but another minute later, Raven scanned open the door and wheeled in some type of machine. He maneuvered it by her bed and stepped away from it. "Ummm, what is that?"

"What is this? This is going to solidify my answer that your blood just told me."

"Alright, so tell me whats up?"

"I ran your blood and I found very high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin in your bloodstream."

"Ok, what does that tell me?" She raised her eyebrow again, dumbfounded.

"hCG is the pregnancy hormone. You're pregnant, Sub-C." He stood there in silence, watching the reaction on her face. Was there a reaction on her face? Lydia just stared at him, nothing came to mind. "And this is an ultrasound that will tell me how far along you are." He tapped his left hand against the ultrasound machine. She looked from him to the bulky machine and then back to Raven. Pregnant? Pregnant. I'm gonna have a…baby? I'm gonna have a baby. Lydia never had anyone to tell her about motherly things. Yeah, she had school and all but she never had a mother figure and Snake wasn't really the one to talk to about that. Even conversing to the other women on Mother Base was awkward. "You in there?" Raven nervously chuckled.

"Uhhhh, yeah." She quietly responded. "W-what should I do? Errr, what do I need to do?" She asked, nervously.

"Sub-C, you're timidness is freaking me out." Raven laughed. "Lay back on the bed and pull up your shirt just under your breasts. I need access to your abdomen." He walked over to the sink in the room to prepare as Lydia followed his instructions. She propped her back against the elevated bed and waited for him to finish. "Am I calling Commander Miller?"

"No! No you are not." Lydia nervously cracked a smile. She had to make it through one stretch at a time. Getting through this scan was her first priority.

"If you say so." Raven put on some medical gloves and retrieved some gel sealed in a plastic bottle out of a compartment that was located across the room in a cooler. He squeezed some of the gel onto her abdomen, it was cold, almost making her want to jump out of the bed and run away. Is this really happening? Raven powered on the ultrasound and readied the grocery-scanner-type device. "So this is going to give me a good look into the body of your uterus so I can judge how far along you are. The projection is going to appear on this screen." Raven pointed to the screen at the top of the machine. Lydia looked at her stomach and then up to the screen. "Are you ready?"

"Uhhhh, y-yeah." Lydia's never had the time to research into all these medical devices. She knew what an ultrasound was but had never seen one in action…and now she's getting one for her own body. Raven brought the scanner-remote-type-thing down to her belly. Automatically, the screen projected a black, white, and grey surface. He smeared the jelly substance around while he was searching for…whatever he was looking for.

"Ah." Lydia's eyes were glued on the screen. There was some type of black-hole that he stopped on. "There it is."

"There it is? Where?" Lydia's heart beat faster. Raven's free hand pressed up against the screen. "Right there." He pointed to a small bean-shaped figure that looked out of place.

"Seriously?" Lydia felt a smile come to her face.

"Yeah." Raven smiled, laughing. "It looks like you're a little over a month looking at the size of it. I would say you're probably due sometime in October."

"Wow." Lydia couldn't stop smiling, she stared at the monitor for a while. That small little thing…was her baby. A little Miller. "Today just turned around."

"And why's what?"

"The IAEA sent us a letter wanting to inspect Mother Base."

"Well, maybe they found out your baby's actually a nuclear bomb."

"Ha!" Lydia cackled. "Well would you look at that." Lydia couldn't take her eyes off the monitor! "What do I do now?"

"Well, I need to do blood tests on you frequently just to test your hCG levels. I also need to bring you back in for more ultrasounds maybe once a month."

"Ummmm alright."

"You need to eat healthy, make sure your getting plenty of nutrients. Cut down on coffee, no smoking, no drinking. Water is your best friend." Raven was spitting out everything he knew. He took the remote off her belly and began to disinfect it. He then removed the jelly-substance from her stomach. "Get plenty of sleep. It never hurts to take a nap when your tired. A healthy mom is a healthy baby."

"Y-yeah."

"And if Miller wants to have sex, tell him to wait about ten more weeks." Lydia blushed and pulled down her shirt. "I'm no gynecologist but you should be clear after 14 weeks. There's a thick mucus plug that seals your cervix that helps guard babies from infection. That and the amniotic sac and the uterus muscles will also keep you baby safe."

"So much information, but I'll remember."

"Congratulations are in order." Raven finished cleaning up. "You can take all the time you need in this room before heading out. My lips are sealed about that and the IAEA. Don't worry."

"I don't need to worry when it comes to you Raven, you're the best."

"Heh, thanks. If you need anything, come by my office or shoot me a call."

Lydia held a thumbs up as she swung her legs off the side of the bed. She sat there for a good minute before moving on. What is Kaz gonna say? Lydia smiled to herself. No doubt he would be happy, but he's probably gonna get suspicious if I keep telling him no when he wants to stick it in. Lydia narrowed her eyes. My birthday is coming up soon…that's when I'll tell him. Lydia smiled to herself and placed her right hand on her stomach. March 20. That's the day.


February 28, 1975: 17:00

Lydia sat patiently at her desk as she reviewed reports sent from her left-over intel agents at Camp Omega. Nothing too hype since the confirmation that Paz was alive and somewhat well. "Lydia." Lydia looked up from the pile of paper and connected her vision to Kaz who had just walked into the office area.

"Kaz, what's up?"

"Snake's back. I told him about the inspection. You wanna guess what he said?"

"To shove it up their ass?"

"You got that right." Kaz crossed his arms over his chest. "He smelled the bullshit. Told me to send an official letter of refusal that says we're a PF and we've done nothing to attract this suspicion."

"Great, let's send that to them ASAP." Lydia smiled. "I haven't heard anything else on Paz, by the way. Wherever she is in that base, they're keeping her there for an extended period of time."

"At least our contact that's keeping an eye on the place is reliable." Kaz replied. "I told Snake about Paz, too. He was just as surprised as I was. He thinks the timing between her and the inspection is just too perfect. Anyway, I'm going to draft that letter and tell them to fuck off. I'll see you later."

"Sounds good."


March 1, 1975: 12:00

Snake, Lydia, Kaz, and Huey were all gathered in Snake's office in the Control Tower for an emergency meeting. The lot of them were taken off guard as they caught wind of an acceptance letter was sent out shortly after Kaz had sent his official reply to the IAEA. Huey was rambling about their future inspection and the progress on getting ZEKE prepared. It seemed Huey had taken things into his own hands.

"We finished ZEKE's waterproofing reinforcement yesterday." Huey noted, bringing his nose up from the clipboard he held in his hands. "The day after tomorrow we'll be done installing the main depth control tank, the compressed air tank, and the attitude control propeller pod."

"Huey." Kaz sighed to cut him off.

"I-if the underwater test goes well, next week we'll try the 300-foot seabed depth."

"Drop the act Huey." Kaz snatched the clipboard out of Huey's hands and passed it off to Lydia. "How did we end up agreeing to the nuclear inspection?"

"…" Huey paused as he watched Lydia grab a hold of the clip-board. "Because after you sent that letter I told them, 'After careful reconsideration we agree to your request'. A-a-and frankly, we should be inspected. This is our chance. If they come and go without discovering the nuke, we can tell the world we're clean. Of course it's risky, and we'll have to make sure everything's perfect. But it'll be worth it."

"Huey you backed us into a corner." Lydia put the clipboard down on Snake's desk.

"Can they do an inspection without going through the Board of Governors?" Snake questioned with agitation in his voice.

"I contacted the IAEA's admin branch after sending the letter," Kaz began. "and they said there's no record of us being brought up at any of the Board's meetings."

"Right. For them to inspect, they need to go through an internal investigation. MSF's name would have been brought up at some point." Lydia added. "This is a load of bullshit."

"I'd say…probably a preliminary inspection to determine whether we should be referred to the Board." Huey answered. "So it's bound to be a small inspection team, and they won't be here that long." Huey held up his hands. "Don't worry, leave everything to me." Kaz and Lydia shared an annoyed look before diverting their attention back to Huey.

"Has the media gotten wind of this?" Snake crossed his arms.

Huey perked up before he answered. "Yeah. Two major Western networks want to do stories on us. I'd planned on saying yes."

"What?!" Kaz leaned in toward Huey. "You want to broadcast this place to the world?!"

"That's why I agreed to the inspection."

"Of course it is." Lydia scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"This is a golden opportunity. We can use the media to prove to the world we don't have a nuke. Besides, even if we said no, it would just be delaying the inevitable."

Snake groaned and ran his right hand through his hair. "Kaz, Lydia, our hands are tied now. Start getting the place ready." Lydia frowned at Snake's order.

"Thanks, Boss." Huey smiled.

"Don't get the wrong idea." Snake spat. "You've set it up so that any more 'changes of heart' will arouse suspicion, that's all."

"ZEKE stays…" Kaz inhaled with rage. "but we'll have to move all other AFVs to shore. Any potential troublemakers can go with them for some mandatory R&R. We'll send the department leads to watch out for them. Sound good, Boss?"

"Just do it." Snake waved his hand. "Huey, leave us." Snake ordered.

"You got it, Boss. Thank you." Huey rolled out of the office. When the door closed, Snake scratched his head.

"What do we tell the men?" Snake folded his arms across his chest.

"There's no use hiding it now." Lydia spoke. "We'll tell them the truth."

"She's right." Kaz agreed. "The one thing we don't need to worry about is anyone here spilling the beans about ZEKE."

"Good point." Snake leaned into his desk. "What about the Sandinistas? There's still quite a few of them left on base."

Kaz sighed. "I hate to say it, but it won't look good having Soviet Bloc personnel here…The problem is, moving a group that size in a hurry would look even worse."

"At least Amanda's on assignment in Cuba." Snake mentioned. "They'd recognize her. She should stay put for now."

"All civilians, save Huey, will have to return to their countries. We'll get everyone the papers they need."

"Not to mention Dr. Strangelove's departure came at a perfect time. The less ZEKE-related staff here the better." Lydia butted in.

"Wait, she left?" Snake questioned, surprised.

"When did she leave?" Kaz asked, just as shocked.

"She did leave. I'm sorry. You were away on an assignment, I had just forgot to mention it." Lydia confessed. "Huey had told me two days ago that she left the week prior." She lied through her teeth, something inside her felt dirty after that statement was delivered. She looked at Kaz, his eyebrows tilted toward his nose like he was narrowing his eyes under his glasses.

"I see." Snake noted.

"Regardless, ZEKE is complete and there's nothing major in development for any additional AI. I guess there wasn't a reason for her to hang around any longer."

"You have a point." Snake nodded. "I'm surprised Huey let her go that easy."

"You've got that right." Kaz butted in. "His crush on Strangelove was never much of a secret, huh. He followed her everywhere while ZEKE was in development. Boy would she get pissed."

"To break away from the Inspection, I have an idea." Kaz sighed. "Snake, as you know, we got reports that Paz was still alive. Lydia's recently obtained reports that she hasn't moved buildings or has made any movement since her arrival."

"What's your point?" Snake crossed his arms. "You think she's dead?"

"No, not yet." Kaz answered. "Our 'friends' in Cipher suspect Paz could be a double agent. I'm thinking the upcoming inspection of Mother Base has to be tied to this somehow. The timing is just too perfect. My guess is that through the inspection, they're trying to corroborate Paz's leak."

"We're an army without a nation." Snake reiterated MSF's slogan.

"Word of our capabilities gets out, and we'll have the whole world out to shut us down. Having an American private intelligence agency involved's bad news. Cipher's the ones who sent Paz to us in the first place."

"She knows their true nature." Snake spoke deeply.

"Right. Paz is our only link to Cipher. If she's still alive…we need her on our side." Kaz wanted to eat his own words. "If not us, who else is gonna rescue that bitch?"

"When do we do it?"

"The inspection comes first. We'll deal with Paz afterward." Kaz answered.

"Do the men know?"

"A select few in the Intel department are aware. But word has started to spread." Lydia added. "The information came from Cuba through Amanda. One of the base personnel used to belong to El Frente. I have one of our guys watching whoever goes in an out of the base from a safe perimeter."

"I'll tell everyone, 'We don't concern ourselves with the survival of enemy spies'. We need them focused on the inspection. And if we get Paz back here and she isn't…cooperative, there's still plenty of room for her in the ocean." Kaz looked from Lydia to Snake.

"Works for me." Snake agreed. "What about Chico? He had a chance to stop Paz from hijacking ZEKE, and he blew it. He's carried that guilt ever since. The kid really did care about her."

"Chico…it's hard to say how he'll react." Kaz crossed his arms.

"It'd be wise to keep any news about Paz from him. On the contrary, there's no telling word of mouth is going to get to him eventually when the other men are talking about it." Lydia said. "He's still unstable, maybe the best thing would be to send him back to Amanda."

"That's a good idea." Snake agreed. "Have Amanda call him out to Cuba. He shouldn't be here right now."

"Good idea, they haven't seen each other in a while." Kaz held a thumbs-up to Lydia. "A little time with big sis and he'll forget all about you-know-who."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Kids that fall in love are pretty head-strong." Lydia said. "Kaz, you can call Amanda. I'll start getting things ready on Intel's side for the inspection. There's no doubt he'll hear about Paz some time today. We'll send him out as soon as Amanda gives us the green light."


March 5, 1975: 08:00

Lydia emptied the clip of her pistol into the target board of the kill-room. "You can do better than that." All of the bullet-holes were body shots except for one. One of the bullets hit the target's arm. The way Snake's voice rumbled in her ears made her extremely frustrated, something she hadn't experienced before. I think these pregnancy hormones are making me more pissed off. Lydia frowned and reloaded the pistol. She cracked her neck side to side then aimed the gun back to a new target that revealed itself. She emptied the magazine of six with consecutive shots to the head and neck.

Lydia placed the gun down on the table and turned to face Snake who instantly bombarded her with an incoming punch to the face. "Ah shit!" Lydia lifted up her left arm to deflect his right straight. Next was the left, her eyes fell on his left fist coming in for a jab to her abdomen. Her right hand immediately apprehended his left wrist just before he was about to connect. "Snake!" She shouted out in a frantic plea. His eye widened the moment her voice echoed in the empty chamber.

"What is it?" He backed up with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Crap..." Lydia let go of his wrist and scratched her neck. "Just…try and not hit my stomach…ok?" She didn't look him in the eye.

"What do you mean?" Snake asked. "You have to sustain body blows to build your core muscle-strength." He spoke nonchalantly…and a bit confused.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Lydia sighed, wanting to fall over. Not a moment later, the entrance of the Kill Room opened and in walked Kaz.

"Get what?" Lydia nodded her head toward the door for Snake to look behind him. Snake turned his head then turned it back to Lydia who had put her hand on the lower part of her stomach. Snake's eye moved up from her hand then to her face. As Kaz grew closer, Lydia dropped her arm to her side and shrugged. "I get it." Snake nodded.

"Something I should know?" Kaz butted into the conversation.

"Nothing life-changing." Snake covered for her. "Any news on Chico?"

"If you say so." Kaz shrugged. Lydia wanted to wipe all the imaginary sweat that was trailing down her temples. She had truly dodged a bullet there. "Chico was supposed to arrive a couple hours ago, but the ship might be behind schedule. Amanda said she would call me once the ship arrives. She should give a call any minute n-" Like clockwork, Kaz's iDroid sounded off. He looked at the display and smiled. "What did I tell ya?" He winked at Lydia then answered the call.

Snake made eye contact with Lydia the moment Kaz picked up the transmission. His gaze was serious. "We need to talk." He spoke slowly. Lydia couldn't tell Snake's emotions from the look in his eye. Her sights fell on Kaz for only a moment before nodding her head. They both walked to the opposite side of the kill-room from where Kaz was standing.

"Lydia…" Snake started. "How did you find out?"

"Raven. A couple days ago." Lydia responded. "I'm just over a month." Snake's lip twitched, she could tell he wanted to light a cigar.

"There can't be a baby on mother base." Snake simply said without hesitation.

"I know…" Lydia broke her eye contact and looked toward Kaz who appeared to be a little frantic as he spoke with Amanda.

"What? Still no sign of Chico?" Kaz said loud enough for the both of them to hear from across the room.

"What's going on?" Snake hollered.

"Sounds like Chico never made it." Kaz waved for the both of them to walk to him.

"We can talk about this later." Lydia mentioned.

"There's nothing else to talk about. Do what needs to be done." Snake spoke sternly as he walked toward Kaz. Lydia grew petrified. "Do what needs to be done." His voice rang in her ears and shredded her mind. She was frozen in her tracks as the words repeated themselves over and over. Seconds felt like years before Lydia was able to move toward the two men.

"Our resupply package arrived, but Chico wasn't with it…" He then spoke up to talk to Amanda again. "Relax, Amanda. I'm sure he's just…exploring Havana or something. First time in the big city, he could've gotten carried away…"

"Kaz…wait." Snake interrupted. "The boat Chico was on - did it stop anywhere before it got to Havana?"

"Yeah, it had to refuel at Santiago de Cuba…You don't think…"

"Shit." Lydia cursed and tightened her fist as she put two and two together.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Kaz shouted in frustration. "He does this NOW?!" It seemed like Amanda had ended the transmission. By the look on Kaz's face, he wanted to throw his iDroid straight into the ground.

Snake pulled out his iDroid and opened the virtual map of Cuba. He pointed with his right index finger to Santiago, then dragged it to the camp's location. "It's sixty miles from Santiago to the prison camp. Chico used to cross the mountains with the older Sandinistas like it was nothing. He'll make that in three days."

"Still, even if he does find his way there…" Kaz gritted his teeth.

"You know how reckless he can be." Snake narrowed his eye. Lydia sighed and stared at the camp's projections from the holographic map. "He must have heard about Paz...he thinks we've abandoned her. That's why he's doing this."

"I'll have the intel team that's dispatched in Cuba look for him." Lydia pulled out her iDroid. "I have two men stationed around the prison. They'll find him."

"Good. We can't let him be captured." Kaz added. "Alright Lydia, let's get to it."

As hours turned into days...there was no sign of Chico anywhere. Lydia was becoming more on-edge as she waited word from one of her intel agents in the area. Kaz was starting to catch on that something was wrong with her, but wasn't asking any questions. He was preoccupied with finding Chico and getting the base ready for inspection…hell…Lydia was, too. She had the Intel team hide any type of nuclear-related deal paperwork as well as any recycled paperwork about ZEKE, Peace Walker, or any nuclear-based mission report.

"Do what needs to be done." The words from Snake kept her up day and night. Lydia didn't have the time to worry about Snake's idol suggestion toward her unborn child. Wether she was to leave MSF or stay wasn't a luxury she had the opportunity she had to think about as the days passed.


March 14, 1975: 10:00

The days had blended together until one fateful radio call was intercepted by the hands of the Intel team. "…There are some cages to the east of the building. It's an old, grassy facility. That's where we are. Help me, Snake…"