1975

"Ten days ago, we got reports that Paz was still alive"

"She survived?"

"She was rescued by a Belizean fisherman who found her drifting in the Caribbean"

"Well fuck me I guess"

Ignoring my comment, Big Boss asked "So what's the plan? Silence her before we're compromised?".

"No, I've got something else in mind. Our "friends" at Cipher suspect Paz could be a double agent"

"Can we trust the intel?"

"We haven't got anything else to go on" Kaz told me "she's being held at a camp on the southern tip of Cuba"

"Black site - nice"

"Makes sense"

"A slice of American pie on communist soil, and out of US legal jurisdiction"

"The upcoming inspection of Mother Base has to be connected somehow, the timing's too perfect"

"The UN's nuclear inspection"

"My guess is they're trying to corroborate Paz's leak"

"We're an army without a nation"

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

"I don't like it, this whole thing screams trap"

"She knows their true nature, we don't have a choice"

"Right, Paz is our only link to Cipher. If she's alive, we need her on our side"

"Can we trust her?"

"We don't have a choice"

The freezing cold weather pierced my skin from inside my sneaking suit. The rain splashed against my skin as I lay in the grass. The entire base was packed with Cipher troops.

"So who's the other target"

"That would be Chico, he's being held in the same area as Paz. Last radio contact was forty hours ago"

"Do we even know they're still alive?"

"We can only hope. Find them both. Bring 'em back alive"

"Enter the compound from the south cliff. Secure Chico and Paz, then report back from the rendezvous point"

I heard Snake climbing up the side of the mountain. He was wearing a sneaking suit similar to mine, but he had green straps attached to his belt to hold extra weapons. I had a belt with several extra clips and a holster with my supressed pistol, with another pouch with my combat knife in.

"We'll send a chopper from across the Cuban border. You should be back at Mother Base in time for lunch. You'll probably just miss our… 'guests'"

"Sure as hell hope so"

I turned my attention back to the base while Snake crawled on his stomach towards me. He was wearing a pair of nigh vision goggles over his working eye. I pulled out my pistol and rose into a crouching position. Snake lifted the goggles off his face and looked at our objective.

"Kept you waiting, huh Scorpion?"

"I hate that fucking code name"

Snake brought out his I-Droid and brought up a map of the entire base. Kaz told us to recon the area before moving forward using the binoculars. "What are we dealing with?" I asked my oldest friend, who was scoping out the area. "There's at least one at every entrance and another two patrolling the fence. There's a guard on watch from a view point towards the North" Snake informed me.

I pulled out my pistol and went to work. I made my move towards the fence and tried to get their attention. The whole area smelt of the sea that was below the cliffs. There were tents inside the fenced area that multiple guards went in and out of. I was within ten metres of the fence, the perfect distance.

I drew my pistol from it's holster. I made doubly sure the suppressor was attached, and took aim. The rain and noise made it difficult at first, like trying to shoot through a fog that wasn't there. I took a deep breath, like I had so many times before, and calmed myself. My aim was corrected to the middle of the closest guard's forehead. Nobody heard the gunshot over the rain. The blood and brain matter was mixed in with the wet mud.

It took a few seconds but another guard found him lying on the soaked ground. This freed up an entrance for myself and Snake to use. We gently pushed the fence door open and made our way inside. Snake started making his way towards the POW area, while I made my way towards the inspecting guards.

It only took him a couple of seconds for the surviving guard to see the cause of his comrade's state. He reached for his radio to raise the alert status, but I reached him first. My right arm wrapped his arm that was reaching for his radio and pulled it away. My left went around his neck and started strangling him. Lastly, the heel of my right foot slammed into the back of his corresponding knee. The guard was on his knees being chocked out in less than a second.

"Where's the girl?" I asked, my arm loosening slightly to allow him to speak. "What girl?" the idiot asked. I tore his arm out of it's socket in response, my hand covering his mouth to muffle the scream. "That's one down. You have three left before it gets really painful" I informed the moron. "Jesus, you're fucking crazy" he told me once I removed my hand.

"Wrong answer"

SNAP

I slammed my foot into the side of his knee and placed my hand back against his mouth. This scream was far louder than the previous one. I looked around and saw that there was another guard coming towards me.

"You have until he gets here to answer me. I will kill him unless you save his life"

"She's underground, they tortured her for a while. It's in the middle of the base" he finally told me.

"Smart move, now you get to rest" I replied, before taking my knife and stabbing it into his wrist.

"What was…" he began, before collapsing with foam leaking out of his mouth. The blade was coated in the fastest acting poison in the world, he was dead before he finished his thought.

I started making my way into the base. It was crawling with Cipher soldiers, but after ten years of working as a world-famous super soldier, they weren't a problem.

Paz was being guarded by two Cipher guards. I leant over the corner and peaked at their position. They were standing, facing the wall adjacent to the fence keeping Paz secure. I snuck over to the wall they were against and started slowly making my way towards them. I slipped my knife out of it's place on my belt and placed my pistol in my other hand.

My knife went straight into the right most guard's neck quicker than a bullet. The left guard saw this and raised his gun to shoot me. I fired a bullet into his neck before he could pull the trigger, which caused him to drop to the ground.

I picked the keys one of the guards had dropped off of the ground and unlocked the door. What I saw shocked me. Paz was hanging from the ceiling by her arms, which were wrapped in barbed wire. Her head had been shaved to a buzz cut and was covered in bruises. She was muttering incoherently, clearly mentally exhausted from all the pain. I could smell the scent of burning flesh lingering in the air.

"Paz" I called out, trying to get her attention. I called out to her again, but she still didn't answer. I used my fore and middle fingers to check her pulse. It was weak, but definitely there. I drew my knife from it's sheath and sliced at the wire holding her in place.

"Snake, what's your status?" I asked into my I-Droid's communicator once I'd placed Paz on the ground. "Chico is aboard the chopper. Here are you?" he replied, the sounds of helicopter rotor blades in the background. "I've got Paz, but she's in bad shape. She won't make it to the rendezvous" I told Snake as I placed Paz onto my back.

"Damn it. Okay, we'll come to you. Get to the landing platform quickly" Snake told me as I made my way to the surface. I looked around and noticed that at least twenty people were surrounding the area. I pulled my pistol out and prepared to take them out, but Paz grabbed my shoulder and caused something to happen.

I saw flashes of things to come. Mother Base was in flames, Kaz was hurt and we were trying to escape attacking soldiers. Suddenly, I threw myself in front of Snake and covered him from an explosion that came from inside of Paz.

I came back to the present, my dull brown eyes locked with Paz's tired blue ones. She had used my abilities to show me what she couldn't say. They knew we would come for her and had placed a bomb inside of her.

I took a deep breath.

'It's fine' I thought 'the bomb doesn't go off until we get to Mother Base, we can take it out of her before then'.

I sent a reassuring nod towards Paz to inform her I understood the situation.

The sounds of a helicopter approaching caught my attention. Morpho was bringing the chopper down towards me, despite being shot at by Cipher troops.

It didn't take much to kill them. They were too focused on Snake firing at them with a minigun to stop me. I threw a grenade that I found on a dead soldier at the Anti Aircraft gun, blowing it up and causing smoke to pour out the top. Paz was re-secured on my back and we were out of there before they even knew what hit them.

"Snake, get the medic!" I shouted over the gun fire before we took off. "Why?" Snake asked as the on board medic approached us. "Paz has a bomb inside her, it goes off once we get back to Mother Base" I informed him. "Get us back there ASAP, Cipher are attacking" I told Morpho, who had already gotten us out of range of the guns.

"You saw it?" Snake asked as I placed Paz onto the seats in the chopper. "Yeah, Paz showed me" I replied. "Huh, clever" Snake commented.

The onboard medic had a painful task while he removed the explosive. He had to cut open a serious of stiches shaped like a V to get inside of Paz. "Hold her down!" Snake ordered Chico, who followed the instructions and placed his hands on her left arm. I repeated the action on her right and Snake put his on her shoulders.

Once the stiches were removed, he used two surgical instruments to part her stomach via the wound. I looked at Chico who had a worried look on his face. Kid must have had a thing for her. The medic brought out another pair of scissors and started cutting another load of stitches. Now came the worst part. I began applying more pressure to Paz's arm as the Medic slid his hands inside her stomach. The sound it created was grotesque.

His hands were too big for the wound. The Medic did the only thing he could and began to stretch her stomach out to create more room. Her intestines were clearly visible and there was blood leaking out of the sides. "Keep her gut in!" Snake told the Medic while Paz started thrashing. Her screams muffled the horrid sounds her stomach was making while the Medic searched for the bomb. I put all my strength into holding her down.

It felt like we had to watch this forever. Paz thrashed violently while the Medic rummaged around inside her. He pulled back for a second. I looked at him for a moment, before he slowly went back in and removed a rectangular package. Paz started to calm down as he handed the explosive to Snake.

I opened the hatch and allowed Snake to throw the device into the sea. I sat back while the Medic closed Paz's wound up.

We had moments to breath. I rested for a moment, before remembering the rest of what I saw. Mother Base was under attack, we had to be ready to counter attack.

Grabbing an assault rifle, I sat by the entrance and waited. Within minutes, I saw the orange glow of Mother Base in the distance. "Snake" I called over to my friend. He looked at the home we had spent so long creating.

Outer Haven was gone. Being burnt into the ocean by Cipher.

"What's the plan Snake?" I asked, turning away from the burning platforms. Snake was silent, the rage on his face was clear. He grabbed an assault rifle and began firing at the Cipher troops as we came within range.

We landed at the main fight and made our approach. Firing bullet after bullet at the enemy as they fired at our comrades. I knew there was no saving Mother Base, but if we could get as many people out of here as possible then maybe we had a chance of counter attacking.

We fought well for a while, but soon it became pointless. Miller, Snake, myself and a few other soldiers were making our way onto the chopper, but by the end, only the three of us made it. Snake tried to stay and fight, but the falling platform showed him it wasn't possible. I dragged him onto Morpho's chopper and told him to take off as quickly as possible.

I stared at the burning remains of my home. Kaz was sitting against the side of the seats with a look we were all sharing. One of rage, of a pain deeper than most would ever know. "The inspection was nothing but a smoke screen. I heard explosions, then…" Kaz stood to his feet, his rage bubbling to the surface.

"THEY PLAYED US LIKE A DAMN FIDDLE" he cried out. I was sitting on the opposite side of the helicopter to Snake, staring into nothingness. Cipher had attacked my home. My family hadn't been there, but if they had been…

"Give it back!" Kaz cried out, gripping onto Snake's shoulders "This isn't right! That was ours" he turned and slammed his fists against the door "We built it, damn it!". His head turned to a target for his rage. Paz was still unconscious from removing the explosive, but that didn't stop Kaz from moving towards her. "You spying bitch!" he swore. He grabbed her shoulders and demanded she talk.

Blood erupted from Paz's mouth as she shot awake. The whole situation was too much for her. She stumbled back and bumped into Snake, before backing away from him. "Bomb…" she muttered. I frowned. She should have known we'd stopped that future from happening. "It's okay, we got it out" Snake told her. Paz pushed the button to open the hatch. I suddenly realised what was happening and moved to do the only thing I could.

"There's another"

Paz fell backwards out of the Helicopter, while a Cipher one started flying towards us. I grabbed Snake's shoulders and threw him behind me. The explosion went off before Paz reached the ocean. The heat reached us and burnt my back. The pain was immense. I could feel my skin blistering beneath the flames.

We ended up crashing into the other chopper.

After that, nothing.

One Month Later

I was sitting at the funeral. So many people had died, they couldn't put a number on it.

I looked down at the only memory I had left of him. A bullet casing from his first mission. I had memorised the burn patterns of it over and over again. The tears escaped my eyes before I could stop them.

Three of the only known people who's names were on the list brought most who were present more sadness than any normal person could understand.

John "Big Boss"

Paz Ortega Andrade

Daniel "Scorpion" Phillips.

My father.

I looked to my mother, who was far sadder than anyone else here. She had lost her husband, the person she'd shared so much with. Now it was just us.

It was a week after the funeral when it happened. We got a visitor, an old friend of mom and dad's who had something to tell us.

"We recovered the body of Big Boss. We've taken him to a hospital to keep him safe" he told us "I was hoping you could help" the stranger told me. "You're going to replace Connor with John. You want him to fight your battles and make your predictions" mom stated. Her blonde hair was a mess. She looked tired more tired than I'd ever seen her before.

"EVA, he could help take vengeance on Cipher and save millions of people" the blonde man revealed.

"He could become the new Scorpion"

Mom became enraged by this. She looked at her old friend and stood to her feet. She yelled at him. Screamed, swore, called him every name she could find, despite my 11-year-old presence. "Why the fuck would I do that! Connor died fighting a loosing battle, Ocelot! Why would I allow you to take my son to do the same!"

After she had ordered him to leave, I decided to speak up. Before this man had walked in, I shook his hand and saw what I needed in order to make my decision.

"I'll do it!" I told them. "My name is John Michaels, and I will become the new Scorpion!".