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

Author's Note: And you thought #49 would be the only chapter today, ha! Think again!

**Mature Content Warning: Violence (Strong), Gore (Strong), Mentions of sexual assault (strong)


"Running around trying to fit in,

Wanting to be loved.

It doesn't take much,

For someone to shut you down.

When you build a shelf,

Build a mummy in your mind.

You can't sit still and you don't like hanging 'round the crowd,

They don't understand.

You drove by as I was sleeping.

You came to see the whole commotion.

And when I woke I started laughing,

The joke's on me for not believing.

We are not your kind of people,

Won't be cast as demons,

Creatures you despise.

We are extraordinary people."

-Garbage


March 15, 1975: 19:00

Huey was in the main command room, giving Lydia and Kaz the run-down of how the inspection would go. "It's good to tell the both of you that everything is now 100% prepared for the inspection. We even had the men on guard put away their weapons so the IAEA would get the wrong idea." Huey twirled his thumbs around each other. "They'll arrive at the helipad on the Command Platform. From there, we'll start. I got news they should only be bringing a few professionals to get the job done."

"Once they're past the R&D Platform it'll be smooth sailing from there." Kaz mentioned.

"You got that right." Huey sighed with a smile on his face. Lydia's eye twitched as she stared at him. "Anyway, they should be here by midnight. It'll take a couple hours for them to inspect everything but they'll be done by two or three. I'm going to catch some shut-eye before they get here."

"You do that." Lydia spoke and crossed her arms sounding as nice as she could.

"T-thanks." He stumbled his words and rolled out of the building. Lydia looked to Kaz who had raised an eyebrow at her demeanor.

"Something happen between you two?"

"No." She sighed. "He just seems extra annoying today."

"Extra annoying." Kaz repeated with a light-hearted chuckle. "Maybe you're going to tell me you're having a secret relationship with Huey on the twentieth? Should I be concerned?"

"You're joking, right?" She punched him in the arm.

"Totally joking." He winked behind his glasses. "Now it's just the waiting game until we hear from Snake."

As the hours passed, Lydia, Kaz and the other soldiers in the room patiently prepared themselves. When the clock hit 22:56, there was an inbound transmission over the speaker, it was Raven. "Raven to Mother Base."

"We hear you." Kaz responded.

"We reached the LZ and dropped off Boss. We're en route to our stationary position. He should be there around midnight."

"Thanks for the check-in." Kaz responded. "The Inspection crew should be here in about an hour or so. Huey's all ready to give them the tour."

"Great news." Raven responded monotoned. "We'll check in if anything happens. Over and out." Kaz cut the transmission and held a thumbs up.

"So far so good."

"So far so good." Lydia repeated.


March 16, 1975: 00:00: Huey

Huey waved down the pitch-black helicopter as it landed on the Command Platform's helipad before him. The door slid open and a few men jumped out in business attire. The six of them were carrying large suit-cases. "Welcome, gentlemen!" Huey greeted. "Right on time!"

"Boss said you marked where to place the charges?"

Huey nodded. "In each platform, I marked an 'x' where the most effective place would be." The leader of the group turned to the men who were filed behind him.

"Split up." He simply ordered. The lot of them split in different directions. He lowered his gaze to Huey. "You're staying with me."

"G-got it." Huey stuttered. "Y-you're flying me out of here, aren't you?"

"You don't think our boss follows through with his promises?" The man scoffed at Huey's question. "You'll get the protection you wanted. We'll get you out just as the fireworks start."


March 16, 1975: 00:00: Lydia

"Lydia…you're trembling. Everything ok?" Kaz asked Lydia as they continued to wait. Her nerves were starting to stack up and represent themselves in her shaky hands.

"Yeah…just nervous is all." She half-smiled from across the table. "It looks like it's just about show-time." Lydia motioned.

"You're right. I should give Snake a call to check in." Kaz agreed. "Snake? You there?" Kaz chimed in from over the radio.

"I'm in front of the prison camp." Snake's voice wasn't even that strained.

"Excellent Snake. Age hasn't slowed you down one bit." Kaz winked at Lydia from the verbal jab.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" Waiting was an understatement. It had been radio silence since Morpho had dropped him off! Lydia rolled her eyes at Snake's punch-line.

"Snake, open your iDroid and check out the area before you head in." Lydia spoke. "We did some intel from a drone, your map should be updated with the most recent features of the camp." She nodded at Kaz to take it away for the rest of the briefing.

"Chico and Paz are being held in an old, unused part of the compound. Get inside and head north-east. Remember, this is an infiltration mission…" While Kaz was sending out the briefing, Lydia's eyes moved to the clock on the wall behind Kaz. 12:00am. Be careful, Snake. Lydia and the rest of the intel team carefully watched Snake's position on the digital reading in the center of the room.

He was moving as swift and careful as ever making his way to the north-east side of the camp. Watching his marker move was getting a tad more nerve-wrecking than usual…there was a lot at stake. Lydia's eyes moved to her hands on the edge of the table; they were still shaking. She stood up straight then was overcome with the need to throw up.

Lydia swallowed hard to keep it in then walked to Kaz who shared a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you sure you're ok?" His hand grazed her right arm.

"Yeah, I just need to run to the bathroom. Be one minute." Lydia waltzed out into the empty hall then jogged her way to the nearest restroom where she could throw-up in peace. She splashed cold water on her face then moved her hands to her belly. "Stop acting up for momma, ok? You're going to ruin the surprise." She joked, patting her stomach a few times before walking out.

Upon entering back into the room, Snake had just called in. "I've got Chico." Perfect timing. Lydia thought to herself, patting Kaz's shoulder before resuming her position on the other side of the room.

"And Paz?" Her husband urged on.

"Not here." Lydia raised her eyebrow at Snake's answer.

"They must have moved her somewhere else, no doubt." Lydia spoke before Kaz chimed back in over the comms.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure." He was aggravated from the sound of his voice. Something must have happened with Chico for his demeanor to change so suddenly.

"Can Chico walk?" Kaz asked.

"Hold on." There was silence. Lydia kept her eyes on the unmoving marker. "Not gonna happen." Snake finally responded after a painful minute.

"You'll have to carry him out then. Slight change of plans. Haul Chico over to the rendezvous point. We'll get Paz's whereabouts out of him once he's calmed down."

"That damn kid." Lydia cursed under her breath. She touched the virtual screen on the desk, sending out the proper rendezvous location to Snake's iDroid. "Snake, I've marked the rendezvous point. Go ahead and carry Chico there. Watch out on the trail there Snake, it's a pretty steep fall into the ocean."

Within minutes, Snake reached his goal. "Great." Kaz radioed in. "Put Chico down for a minute. How's he doing?"

"Probably dandy now that we've saved his life." Koala put in his two-cents from his seating position.

"I second that." Lydia agreed. Not a moment later, Snake sent in for Morpho to pick up Chico.

"Roger that chopper request." Kaz spoke, signaling to Koala to send a transmission to Morpho. "He's on the way as we speak."

"It's a good idea we decided to send Raven along. I'll let him know he has a patient coming." Lydia pulled out her own iDroid and called Raven. "Raven, do you read me? This is Lydia."

"Loud and clear Sub-C."

"You got a patient coming your way, Chico is in pretty bad shape. Get your gear ready."

"Yes ma'am." Lydia ended the conversation the placed the iDroid back into one of her pockets.

"That fucking kid." Lydia sighed. "At least he's alright."

"No doubt whatever he went through…he's gonna carry that with him for the rest of his life." Lydia frowned at Kaz's statement. Something I know all too well. It took just over an hour before the next call was inbound from Morpho.


March 16, 1975: 00:20: Raven

"Raven, do your read me? This is Lydia." Raven smiled at her voice.

"Loud and clear Sub-C." He responded.

"You got a patient coming your way, Chico is in pretty bad shape. Get your gear ready."

"Yes ma'am." It didn't take long for her to end the transmission. Raven walked to the corner of the room and readied his medical equipment for Chico's arrival. He stood by the door and waited until they reached the rendezvous point. Through the window, Raven spotted Snake with Chico over his shoulders. Raven pressed the 'open' button for the helicopter door and knelt down. "Snake, I've got him." Raven held out his arms.

Snake lifted Chico off his shoulders and handed him to Raven. Raven hooked his arms under Chico's armpits and lifted him inside the chopper. Snake was on the move back to the camp before he had a chance to say anything. Raven set Chico down on the cushioned bench inside the chopper. His eyes instantly fell on his ankles. "Chico…" Raven's eyes moved up to Chico's…they were nearly lifeless and void of all emotion.

His ankles had been bolted with metal to keep him from walking. With something like those hindering his movements, it must have been easy to torture him. Raven placed his hands on Chico's shoulders then lied him down. "I feel like I have to tell you that this doesn't look good. It's going to hurt."

"It's not going to hurt." Chico spoke quietly. Raven looked to him again, silent tears were falling from his eyes. "It's nothing compared to Paz." Raven couldn't say anything in return. He cleaned the wounds and removed the bolts from his feet. The holes were puss-filled, the tissue around was dark. As Raven carefully cleaned the holes in his ankles, Chico didn't cry out one time. He had stuffed the wounds with collagen to allow the wounds to start to heal properly. The last step was bandaging him.

"Chico, sit up." Raven ordered. Chico sat up and swung his legs on the side of the bench. There was a hole in the middle of Chico's chest that looked irritated. The skin around it was purple and red…just calling out for infection. Raven disinfected the wound and patched it up to prevent any further infection.

He took off his gloves and threw them into a small trash-bin on the other opposite side of the bench. "Why?" Chico nearly choked out.

"Why come get you?" Raven responded. Chico's head nodded in return. "We weren't intending on leaving you or Paz behind." Raven responded. "You have a big sister that's awfully worried about you, kid." He knelt in front of him. "If you waited just a little longer, Snake would have gone to get her, regardless." Chico's bottom lip trembled before he bit it to stop. "Your bones are still in-tact on your feet. You can walk, but it's probably going to hurt like hell. So don't stand too much, got it?"

Chico didn't budge. He was just staring at the door waiting for it to open again. An excruciating amount of time passed before Morpho got the signal to head back to the rendezvous point. "Raven, we're headed back. Clear one of the benches!" Morpho called out.

"On it." Raven responded. "Chico, hold onto me." Raven took Chico in his arms and moved him to a built-in chair next to the stretcher. When they were back on the cliff-side, Raven opened the door and helped Snake move in Paz. She was too light. It felt like she would break just by picking her up. Her hair had been shaves off…it didn't even look like her. Raven gently placed her on the bench that Chico was taking up a few moment ago. Snake shut the helicopter door then instantly sat down adjacent to Paz and sighed.

"Paz?" Chico weakly spoke. He got on his knees and shuffled to Paz's side.

"Good job, Snake." Raven nodded at Snake and sat next to him on the bench. A few minutes of flying passed until Chico's voice pierced the silent atmosphere with a drastic plea to grab Snake's attention.

"Snake! Snake!"

Before Snake could call out for Raven, he was already up and making his way closer to Paz. "Shit." Raven muttered under his breath. Across her abdomen was an inflamed access point that was horrifically sewn up. He quickly put on two gloves and pressed lightly on her stomach. He rubbed around and felt something out of the ordinary. Something hard and square. "She's rigged." Raven looked up at Snake.

"Dammit we were set up!" Snake grunted out, furious.

"We gotta get it out." Raven spoke. He stood straight up and went to his supplies. "There's no time for anesthetic. We have to open her now." He grabbed medical scissors and tweezers. Snake was bracing Paz's shoulders and Chico her arms. Carefully, Raven cut and removed the suture. After removing the thick thread, he then grabbed two prongs to open up the wound. God Paz, why did they do this to you? He slowly pried open the incision then turned his head to Chico. "Hold these."

Chico nodded and took a hold of the two metal objects while Raven retrieved a small pair of sharp scissors to cut away at tissue that was keeping him from the bomb. So far so good. Blood was staying in her body…but it was only a matter of time before he had to go in. He removed the prongs from Chico's hands and placed them out of his way. As Raven turned around he looked at Chico. "Chico, apply pressure to her legs. Here we go." He inhaled before quickly acting. His gloved hands entered into Paz's abdomen. He pulled apart the large incision before extending his hands further in. "Hold her down! Chico, keep her gut in!" Raven ordered. She woke up in pain and began to squirm. Her insides were wanting to fall right out the more he searched.

Her yelps and screams were something Raven didn't want to hear any more. He removed his hands from her gut and repositioned himself to go back in. He sat on one of her legs and searched lower and deeper. Her warm blood splashed out of her gut the more she struggled, covering Raven and Chico's face. Every second that passed felt like an eternity for Raven before he finally felt the dense object. He carefully inserted his other hand, gripped around it, and carefully pulled it out. It was a bomb alright, wrapped in dark green plastic. "Boss." Raven handed it to Snake who quickly took it away from him.

Shortly after, Snake opened the large helicopter door and tossed the bomb out into the ocean. Raven closed her skin momentarily before checking her pulse. He sighed in relief at the sound of her vitals. "Breathing's stable. No active bleeding. She's clean, I'm going to close her up." Raven grabbed a thick thread with a fishhook needle. "Chico, hold her steady. It's gotta be a continuous suture." Chico held onto her like he didn't want to let her go.

Raven cleaned up around the would before he moved forward. "Is she dead?" Chico asked once he was about to tie it off.

"No, she passed out from the trauma." Raven responded. While he was stitching her up, Snake got a call from Huey…probably about the inspection. One less thing to worry about.

"Is she going to die?" Chico sobbed.

"Not on my watch, kid." Raven promised. Once Snake ended the transmission with Huey, Raven looked up at him. He had leaned himself on one of the metal bars by the bench and was staring at Paz. He shook his head and spoke. "Something's not right. Check her again."

"Yessir." Raven gently placed his hands back onto her abdomen and pressed down gently. His hand moved to her pelvic area where he felt a second foreign object. "No…" Raven inhaled sharply through his nose. "Boss, hold her down." Snake lunged forward again and placed his hands on top of her shoulders. "Chico, I'm not going to tell you to look away…but I suggest you do." Raven remarked. He gently pulled down Paz's pants. When Raven moved apart her legs, her inner thighs were bruised and bloodied. Raven bit back tears and examined further. She had been raped by how many men and who knows what with. Her womanhood nearly looked like it was torn apart and mangled.

Raven closed his eyes and couldn't help but remember his Sofia's grim fate. Beaten. Battered. Helpless. Paz had it in her to fight back, but how much could she take before she just gave up? Whoever did this to you is a fucking monster. Raven grimaced and looked at Paz's peaceful face. "I'm sorry…Paz." He inserted his hand into her. The pain instantly woke her up, but had passed out again shortly after. The bomb didn't take long to find and was about half-way to the body of her uterus. Using caution, Raven pulled out the second bomb. He silently handed it to Snake who tossed it out the chopper without hesitation.

Raven disinfected the area then pulled up her pants. He sat down helplessly as the last words of his fiancé rumbled around in his head. "No. Roberto, don't watch." Snake snapped him out of the daze and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Good job, Raven. Because of you, Paz and all of us are alive."

"Thanks, Boss." Raven replied solemnly.

"Hey!" Morpho called out from the cockpit. "We're closing in on Mother Base but I can't get through!" Snake stood up and walked to the door. He pressed the button and awaited for it to open. "My god." Morpho breathlessly said. From outside, the orange and red hue of hell could be seen for miles in the night sky.


March 16, 1975: 02:00: Lydia

"Control tower, this is Morpho One. All hummingbirds are on the wing. We'll shake hands, then head back to the cage."

"Thank god." Lydia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Lydia stood and walked out of the coms room to get a breath of fresh air. The mission was over…Paz and Chico were safe.

"He did it." Kaz came up behind her, patting her on the back.

"Yeah, he sure did."

"Why don't we go and tell those IAEA bastards 'hello'. It would help if the Commander and SubCommander made an appearance."

"Yeah, good idea." Lydia nodded, taking the lead out of the control tower. She opened the automated door and stepped out into the cool, night air. She looked around the platform…there were no helicopters, no staff, no Huey. "Kaz, aren't they supposed to be here?"

"Where the hell is Emmerich?" Kaz riled up, furiously looking around for the inspectors. As Lydia took another step, she heard a foreign explosion a little too close for comfort, followed by a bright flash of light from all around.

"What?!" Before she could take a look, the platform quaked beneath her feet. Kaz quickly grabbed a hold of both of Lydia's arms to keep her in balance. Behind them, emerged the other intel agents from the building along with a few other soldiers.

"Did you hear that?!"

"What's going on?" Lydia looked around to see the other platforms going up in flames! The bridges were falling apart! In her peripherals, two black helicopters glided into view, both with manned weapons.

"Take cover!" Kaz shouted taking Lydia's hand and running to the nearest steel cargo container to hide themselves from the rain of bullets. Leaning her back against the container, her eyes caught a rogue helicopter leaving the top of the command tower.

"Huey…" Lydia gritted her teeth at the sight of the chopper disappearing into the night sky away from danger. Another chain of booms caught her out of the trance. The platform shook more violently this time. Soon enough, there were bullets flying in every direction.

"Commanders! We got you!" Four soldiers made their way the pair…all out of breath,

"The inspection was a hoax!" Lydia clenched her fists. "I fucking knew it!"

"Lydia, what are you saying?!"

"Think Kaz. Where the fuck is Huey right now?! I just saw a chopper leave from the tower's helipad! He did this!" She could physically see the anger boiling within his body.

"Dammit, this is our home!"

"Ahhh! Sub-C!" Another soldier slid into cover with them. "I got you a weapon!"

"Thanks!" Lydia took the AR from the individual. Lydia poked her head out from cover to see men in heavy-duty black suits and helmets littered all over the place! Where did these guys come from? She had never seen any uniform like that! "Kaz, we've got to move away from the tower. When it goes down, we don't want to be in it's AOE."

"Got it." He readied the pistol from his holster in his right hand.

"Let's get to the second command platform."

"We'll cover you!" A soldier shouted. "Form a perimeter. Nothing touches the commanders!"

"Yessir!"

"Move out!" Lydia motioned, keeping close to Kaz. They took frequent cover until they were able to slowly make a B-Line toward their goal. Up ahead, they were going to run into some inevitable cross-fire. "Shit." Lydia ground her teeth together. "Kaz, keep your head down." She ordered. The unmanned soldiers of MSF had found time to collect their things…but it was too late. There was no getting through this. Whoever these imposters were, they were well prepared and had the advantage to start.

As they were inching their way to cover, Lydia spotted Morpho closing in! Snake was providing some cover fire! "Contact!"

"Keep suppressing fire!" Lydia and Kaz made their way to a few heavy-duty boxes that were surrounded by friendlies. Lydia took this opportunity to ready her A.R.. She loaded in the ammo and turned her attention to an approaching enemy chopper. What is it with the fucking birds?! She aimed at the rotary, opening fire with the best aim she could muster. When her weapon ran out of juice, the assault was carried on by none other than Snake.

The chopper lost engine control and came propelling into the ground. The crash blinded Lydia for a moment. Lydia quickly ducked to take cover from any flying shrapnel. "Kaz! You ok?!"

"Yeah!" He shouted back. Kaz looked extremely disheveled. Hell…everybody was. Was this a battle they could even win? There were so many enemy worker-bees with hardly any prepared defenders to fight back. Lydia looked back just in time over the boxes to catch a glimpse of an RPG headed right in their direction!

"SHIT! BRACE!" Lydia called out, turning around as fast as she could. The RPG collided with what cover they had. The pressure sent Lydia flying a few feet. Her head hit the surface of the platform hard. Her ears were ringing and eyesight blurred from the impact. She couldn't move a limb. "Nnngh." She moaned, trying her best to stay conscious.

"I got you Mi-" A dead, heavy body soon fell on her back, crippling her even more.

"Ah!" Lydia yelped in pain. Bullets were still flying everywhere, no doubt the man that had fallen on her was being used as a shield of some kind. The blood from the man was soaking through his gear and through her own shirt. The warm liquid was pooling on her back as she attempted to gather herself. She pried her eyes open to witness Snake helping Kaz toward Morpho; they were covered by the best soldiers mother base had left. I've got to get to them. Lydia groaned, using all the strength she could muster to lift up her body. Once she had some leverage, she turned around and pushed the heavy male off of her.

Bullets were ripping through the air more violently the moment she stood up. "Snake! Kaz!" She yelled out. She caught Snake's attention and earned some cover-fire from the inside of Morpho.

"Lydia, hurry!" Kaz shouted as loud as he could.

Pain. Her left leg gave out from under her and crashed to the ground. Another tremor shook the core of the platform. This time, her body was shifting with the change in gravity. As Lydia was attempting to push herself up, she plummeted on her left side and groaned. "Dammit." Lydia spat out some blood that had pooled in her mouth after she had bit the inside of her cheek. She finally hoisted herself up to see the chopper ascending from the platform. "No, no, no!" Lydia limped as fast as she could to the chopper, not even being stopped when a bullet grazed her arm. "Kaz!" The hatch was still open; his hand was extending for her! There was still time to catch up! There was still a chance! The more he shouted for her, the faster she wanted to run. Lydia even ran right to the edge…but it was too late. Kaz had been held back by Snake from jumping off Morpho himself.

She could only watch Morpho get farther away as the platform shook and shifted beneath her. Numb tears streamed from her eyes…they were gone. Snake…Kaz…they weren't going to come back. This is the end, huh? Lydia turned to see her fellow brothers and sisters grabbing a hold of something to keep themselves level from the quaking platform.

The bullets had stopped whirring. Explosions were popping from all around. Everyone was scared senseless and the same went for Lydia. "Sub-C! Grab onto something! We're going down!" Shouted a soldier a few meters away from her. Shakily, she nodded her head and limped to a random metal bar before the platform started to break into pieces. Her eyes stayed on the chopper as it flew further and further away.

"Kaz…" She couldn't help but whisper as she shut her eyes. The area violently shook as another line of explosives went off that finally sent the platform hurling toward the ocean. Lydia opened her eyes to catch her surroundings before bracing for impact. The cold, dark depths were engulfing everything like a black hole in space. A soldier stationed a few meters below her was taken, no doubt swept away from the strong current surrounding them. Her heart rate was swelling at the inevitable demise that creeped up to swallow her up.

"Don't let go Miller! Hold on!" She could feel the last bit of adrenaline within her transfer to her arms as she held to the bar with all her might. Taking one final breath, she harbored on to the spared amount of oxygen that was gifted to her before she was plunged into the dark abyss.