Sniper Wolf; War from the Outside.
If you ask any self-respecting Metal Gear fan about any scene which made them feel sad or even cry, one of the answers which comes up is Sniper Wolf's. While maybe at first portrayed as "a merciless killer" by Snake, it was discovered that this wasn't essentially true. It brings up one of the questions in the games theme of genetic heritage. The question being is it the genes, which determine a person's future, or is it what happens in their life? I find it hard to sum in a few words what I thought of Sniper Wolf and her passing away, and it might not agree with everybody's views. But with this fanfic I hope to show what happened on Shadow Moses through the eyes of Sniper Wolf, an observer looking at war from the outside. Since nobody really knows Wolf's role prior to the scene when Meryl is shot, I decide to begin moments before that scene as everyone is familiar with that scene and I wouldn't get lost in trying to make something from scratch and loose the whole point.
Nothing could move Wolf from her position on the communications tower. She lay on the frozen walkway still and unmoving, steady and solid like a rock, an iron grip on her precious rifle. She and her rifle had seen so much together over the years, watching quietly and patiently, hidden unnoticed and undisturbed for weeks at a time. Wolf always worked alone, her rifle the only company she had on every mission. She welcomed the bang when she fired like an old friend, and the sound of it was almost comforting. Wolf knew her PSG-1 as if she'd been born with it attached to her and had grown up with it, both of them watching as her terrible life unfolded before her. It was almost as if Wolf and the rifle were one, always in tune with each other knowing what each was going to do next. It was a strange almost symbiotic existence between them.
Sniper Wolf waited, concentrating and focused, letting the howl of the snowstorm, icy snapping wind and the wails of her adopted wolf dogs wash over her. All of her attention was fixed upon what she saw through the scope, ringed in black and crossed by two broken lines pointing the way to her targets death.
Wolf couldn't help but worry if this Solid Snake was the legend he was in all of the stories she had heard. It concerned her that Psycho Mantis had failed to stop Snake, despite his powers.
"It isn't my job to doubt. If I question even my own skills then I'm already defeated." She thought, before dismissing all feelings of uncertainty from her mind to focus again on her view through the scope.
Sniper Wolf's attention was sharpened when the big, heavy double doors slowly slid apart, carrying in howls from the caves. At first there was nothing but darkness in the doorway. Wolf reached for her diazepam pills, swallowed one and settled again having barely moved. Somebody was there, and Wolf didn't want to take risks just incase it was indeed Snake. From the gloom stepped a young woman with red hair, dressed in combat fatigues, a Desert Eagle handgun in one hand. The woman looked forward in Wolf's direction before turning round. She was waiting. Wolf could see the orange glow of a cigarette. It brightened slightly as the smoker took a drag from it and materialised from the darkness. It was Wolf's duty to notice every tiny detail as a sniper, because it all added up to mean failure or success. The figure calmly but with reservation stepped into the open, and looked around.
"It's him!" Wolf thought. "Solid Snake." She said silently to herself and her PSG-1.
They both looked upwards at the tower, soaring into the sky above. Snake took the cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it before crushing it out under his boot. The woman turned to face him, her head moving as she talked; it was too far for Wolf to make out what was being said. She also noticed that neither of them carried any weapon with which to fight back with against her. That made her relax a little knowing that she would meet little resistance. But, now wasn't the time to make the call. Seeing that there was somebody else accompanying Snake, it presented all sorts of opportunities to Wolf to achieve her objective. She continued to watch as the woman walked round, Snake following round and picking up the Claymore mines previously set up to catch Snake out. Somehow they knew where they were.
"I wonder, did Mantis let it slip that there were mines here?" Wolf pondered and focused on getting her aim as she switched on the laser-aiming device on her rifle.
It was clear that neither Snake nor the woman who was with him were expecting any confrontations. Neither of them had any weapons which, had a firing range big enough to fire back. Sniper Wolf lined up the cross hairs on the woman's chest. Snake opened his mouth and said something to her, as Wolf aimed lower for her leg. The woman reacted, a hand to where she'd seen the red dot and touched it and looked at her hand thinking that it had been blood. Snake moved into Wolf's view an anxious look on his face as he tried to move the woman out of shot. She was too slow, Snake far too late. Wolf fired, her rifle shouted out loud and booming. The woman answered the rifle's voice with a scream as the bullet tore through her leg and she fell down onto her knees. Snake froze for a second, a look of horror on his face before running for cover. Wolf calmly aimed again.
"This girl is not going to go down easily." She thought as she fired and let her rifle speak again. The woman cried out again, falling over, the Desert Eagle out of reach. Wolf removed the magazine and quickly loaded another and chambered the first round. She watched as the woman got onto her front and wriggled forward to get the Desert Eagle, which lay uselessly on the concrete, in a worthless attempt to fight back at her assailant. Wolf lined up the crosshairs with the woman's arm.
"Sorry, but I have to do this." She whispered and her PSG-1 barked out its order to get down. The woman replied with another cry and stopped, obeying Wolf and her rifle's orders, and lay on her back. Blood was over the concrete, bright red against the pale grey. Wolf stayed where she was expecting Snake to make an appearance to escape or foolishly help his companion. However Wolf didn't expect him to help her, he was smarter than that and if the stories of him were anything to go by, he had enough battle experience to know that it was a sniper and his friend was just bait to draw him out. She waited patiently; faint cries from her victim invoked some feelings of pity and remorse in Wolf. Again she cast these from her mind. They weren't relevant. Snake poked his head round the corner before withdrawing back to his retreat moments before Wolf shot a warning shot. It hit the corner of the wall, which Snake hid behind, and dust and chips of concrete flew off. The woman was moving, just talking to Snake who made sure he was out of harms way.
"I can wait here for as long as I want Snake. The longer you stay there the longer she lies there and the longer it takes for me to get her some help to survive." Wolf thought as she watched where Snake was hiding. It was a few minutes before he reappeared and ran towards the door. Wolf lined him up in her scope, but he was saved as the doors closed behind him. The last thing Sniper Wolf saw was his face; he really didn't want to leave his comrade behind at the mercy of the sniper, but his survival and the woman's overrode any feelings Snake had for her. Wolf had discovered the fatal flaw in his defences, which to Wolf seemed to be out of the character painted by all of the tales she had heard about Snake; he had feelings for the woman.
Wolf stayed still in her sniping position for a while; just incase Snake made an appearance. She doubted it, since again she didn't think that Snake was stupid enough to try and be a hero.
Satisfied that it was safe to get up and down to where the woman was lying, Wolf stood up and stretched to ease away the stiff feeling from the cold in her body. She picked up her rifle and carried it with her. She called the boss on her Codec.
"Liquid, I've got a prisoner here, send along a couple of soldiers to pick her up. I think we've just got Snake where it hurts." She said plainly with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Liquid asked somewhat perplexed.
"It's a woman, probably that soldier put into the cell with the Armstech president." Wolf answered. "Anyway, it seems that our friend Snake has some sentiments after all. He cares about this woman."
"What did you do?" Liquid asked and signalled for two soldiers to go to Wolf's position.
"She's alive, but I had to shoot her to stop her from getting away." Wolf said now standing over Meryl.
"Well, good work Wolf. I'll deal with her later." He paused. "Wolf, Snake is heading to the armoury, so expect him to return. I'll send two soldiers along from the communications tower. All you have to do capture him. Just make sure you bring him back relatively unharmed." And he ended the call.
Wolf looked at Meryl who looked back at her, tears streaming down her face blood seeping from her gunshot wounds into small dark pools. She wasn't old, about eighteen maybe.
"I won't kill you. You're worth something to us girl." Wolf said simply ignoring Meryl's look of hate in her eyes. Wolf caught a glimpse of Meryl and it occurred to her that really what existed between her and Snake wasn't much different from the feelings between herself and Otacon. Wolf suddenly felt another wave of remorse overcome her.
"Don't think like that! It'll just lead to failure." Wolf thought angrily. It occurred to her that really she was no better than the murderers who killed her friends and family. They were defenceless, running from place to place, each day a struggle to survive just to exist for the next. It hadn't been a life at all. And her she was doing exactly the same thing they had done to her. She was causing hurt and pain and it wasn't really necessary. It wasn't helping in her conquest for revenge.
The soldiers arrived. They waited while Sniper Wolf continued to bury herself in her thoughts. One of them coughed.
"Oh, I...." she started. "Yes go on take her away." Wolf said turning round to face the soldiers. She turned away and returned to the walkway.
"What am I fighting for anyway? It just seems somehow that this isn't all about vengeance anymore, and just to kill the innocent. She had nothing to do with it, she's just a girl!" Wolf thought. She had reached her sniping post. "No time to dwell on the past. If I don't do this then I'll look weak in front of the others." Wolf concluded. She lay down prone holding her rifle still, the feel of it's weight in her hands reassured her as she rested the butt of it against her shoulder and peered through the scope. Back in her element, Wolf was now in control of her world and didn't worry about Snake's return. Her mind focused on the task at hand and waited for him to arrive.
It was a long way from here to the armoury and back again, but Snake appeared as Liquid had predicted. Wolf got ready, swallowed another pill and lined him up in her crosshairs. She wasn't going to miss this time and fired at Snake. He had expected an attack from her and moved out of the bullets way. Wolf saw the reserve PSG-1 in his hands and took the opportunity while he was getting down onto his front, to change to a different spot. She got up and hid behind a steel girder. She waited for a few seconds and peeped round lining him up in her crosshairs again and the rifle spoke out. The bullet whizzed past Snake's head and he froze for a second as he considered what had happened. She shifted again, and aimed from another place. She saw Snake just recovering from the shot as he got up and moved closer to the wall. He was more cautious this time. Wolf made it difficult for him to get a good aim by running and hiding. She knelt down and lined up for another shot, and missed. Wolf cursed at herself for missing; she never missed, ever, unless she wanted to. They continued to play this game of long distance hide and seek, waiting for the other to make a mistake. Wolf waited for the right moment to stop Snake in his tracks and allow his capture. She edged out again for what seemed to have been the millionth time, and aimed at Snake. Before she even caught sight of him in her scope she heard a bang and it wasn't from her rifle. A split second later she felt the pain. She'd been hit by Snake's shot. She cried out loud in pain and fell over.
"I don't believe it!" She thought angrily. " How can anybody outshoot me?" Wolf lay there considering the scene. There was still a chance to catch Snake. She signalled to the soldiers who lay in wait to get ready.
Snake was in so much of a hurry to find out where Meryl was being held, he just rushed in totally unprepared. He was armed only with a SOCOM pistol and didn't stand a chance against the two soldiers who stood behind him aiming their FAMAS rifles at him.
"Don't move!" one of them shouted. Snake put his hands in the air and slowly turned around. Sniper Wolf had made her way down from her post and walked towards him training her rifle on him.
"It's hard to miss when you're this close." She said and stopped in front of him. "Toss your weapon over here. Slowly..." she ordered. Snake responded and bent down still looking up and slid his handgun to a soldier who then picked it up. He stood up slowly and put his hands back up in the air.
"You are a fool to come back here... stupid man!" Wolf mocked.
"A lady sniper huh?" Snake replied.
"Didn't you know that two thirds of the world's greatest assassins are women?" she shot back coolly and continued to point the barrel of her rifle at him.
"Do you want to die now or after your female friend? Which will it be?" she asked sharply, looking him in the eye. Snake looked up.
"I'll die after I kill you!" He said defiantly, clearly not affected by the fact that he had three guns trained on him. Wolf was rather impressed by this show of bravado.
"I didn't expect anything less." She thought to herself.
"Is that right? Well at least you've got spirit." she laughed, lowering her rifle and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. "I am Sniper Wolf and I always kill what I aim at."
Confident that right now Snake didn't pose any threat to her, she moved closer towards him so that she was standing right in front of him. Wolf reached up and put her hand on his cheek, running her fingers down the side of his face.
"You're my. . special prey..." she said to him with a smile. "Got it?"
"He's better looking than I thought..." she said in her head still looking Snake in the eye. "But just to make sure the others know that he's mine..." Wolf thought as she stroked his cheek. Wolf dragged a fingernail roughly across his skin. Snake flinched at the scratch turning his face away.
"Aww, I've left my mark on you. I won't forget it until I kill you... you're all I'll think about." Wolf said the smile appearing on her face again. She was enjoying the control she had over Snake.
"Here you are, a Special Forces soldier, a lethal killing machine, and yet look at you, standing here and you can't do anything. Feeling helpless now are we Snake?" she thought watching him. Wolf nodded to a genome soldier who struck Snake on the side of his head with the butt of his FAMAS. Snake fell over unconscious onto the ground. Wolf watched him fall and signalled with a wave of her hand.
"Take him away!" one of them said harshly. The two soldiers took Snake's arms and dragged him away. Wolf followed and watched on as Snake struggled to stay awake. Eventually his eyes closed and he was out like a light. They carried him off back to the tank hanger down to the 1st floor basement, into Ocelot's torture room. Sniper Wolf despised his ways of forcing information out of people. In her eyes it was crude and didn't always succeed, the DARPA chief's death had proved that.
Liquid and Revolver Ocelot awaited their arrival.
"Good work, Wolf!" Congratulated Liquid with a smile, clearly satisfied that he finally had the one who was about to undo all of their plans. The two soldiers lifted Snake up onto Ocelot's torture machine. Liquid dismissed the soldiers as Ocelot continued to make preparations. All of Snake's equipment was taken from him, not even his cigarettes were left behind and his top taken off leaving him in only his boots and trousers. Snake still hadn't woken up and Wolf reckoned that it would be a while before he eventually came round. Liquid paced around for a while and stopped when he saw Ocelot at the controls of the torture machine.
"Don't kill him yet! I want him alive." He snapped holding his hand out to make his point clear. Ocelot stopped.
"Leave it to me." He said calmly.
"Idiot!" Wolf thought angrily. "Look what happened the last time he said that. We lost a valuable hostage."
"I don't want anymore accidents like the DARPA chief." Liquid continued.
"Yes. He's my target. Mine alone." Wolf said staking her claim on Snake's death. Ocelot always made a mess of things. At least she did them quickly and cleanly with a single bullet, frying somebody to death wasn't pleasant and Wolf thought that Snake deserved better. She did after all say that she would carry on until he died with a bullet from her gun. Sniper Wolf wasn't one who went back on her word.
Snake was showing signs of returning back to consciousness, but as yet he still wasn't fully awake and had no idea of where he was. Liquid saw this.
"Can you hear me, Solid Snake?" he said in his sardonic, cold English accent. Wolf was surprised that he was beginning to come round so soon.
"He's tougher than I thought." She put in and stood next to Liquid Snake, watching Snake.
"Do you know who I am? I always knew that I would meet you. The man who stole who stole what's rightly mine. The man who stole my birthright." Liquid said an edge of anger entering his voice. He paused and put his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat. "Me? I'm the man you stole everything good from. And now after the sacrifice of our brothers... after thirty long years... finally, the two of us meet. The brother of light and the brother of dark." He continued contemptuously. Snake realised that he was captured yet he tried to escape and wriggled about weakly. He stopped, discovering that he wasn't going anywhere. Wolf thought for a while before speaking up.
"Do you need his DNA too?" Remembering the objective of their mission to obtain Big Boss' DNA. Liquid pondered on the question.
"Yes. I want a sample while he's still alive. We need it to correct the genome soldiers mutations." He finally said.
"Then we'll be able to cure them?" She asked hopefully.
"No, we still need to get our hands on Big Boss' DNA."
Wolf spoke up again after a short pause.
"Have they given into our demands yet?"
"Not yet." Liquid said simply.
"They won't give in. They're all hypocrites, every one of them." She hated politics. It was because of them that her people suffered.
"Is that your opinion, as a Kurd?" Liquid asked. He might have been the brains behind this operation and seen the opportunity to get what they wanted, but he really was a little slow at times Wolf thought.
"They always put politics first." She stated.
"That's right. That's why they don't want any leaks about their new precious nuclear weapon." Liquid began about to begin on another talk. Ocelot interrupted him.
"Boss, it looks like our friend is awake." He said and the torture machine began to move so that it was lying vertically. Sniper Wolf watched on, as Snake appeared facing her and Liquid. Now that both of them were in the same room together and she got a good look at them both, Wolf's initial doubts over Liquid's claims that Snake was his twin brother were destroyed.
"There definitely is a resemblance, don't you think little brother? Or should I say big brother? I'm not sure... Anyway, it doesn't matter, you and I are the last surviving "Sons of Big Boss." Liquid said in an almost sarcastic tone. The ring of his cell phone promptly interrupted him. He reached into his pocket and answered it.
"It's me" he started. "Really?" Wolf looked round, hoping that the news was going to be about the government wanting to start negotiating over their demands.
"Then what?" Liquid continued. He frowned furiously. "Doof! Those idiots!" Sniper Wolf laughed to herself at Liquid's amusing mannerism when he got annoyed. Liquid looked round "Alright Raven, I'll be right there." He ended the call and put it back into his pocket with a sigh as Ocelot and Wolf waited to hear the news. But it was clear that by his reaction that it was not good.
"They're not responding to our demands." He announced and put his hands in his pockets. "We launch the first one in ten hours as planned." Wolf knew that this was not true however, since they did not have the codes to allow a launch but, because Snake was there and providing that he noted this false point, he'd report back when he had the chance and it might cause the government to get into action and do something to prevent the "launch." She continued on with the spiel.
"Damn Americans!" she spat, shaking her head in disapproval.
"Looks like you read them wrong." Ocelot pointed out, the Western twang matching his attire. Liquid thought for a second.
"Something's funny. Normally the Americans are the first ones to the negotiating table. They must think they have something up their sleeves..." he declared. Wolf thought that this was probably Snake, as he had been sent in to prevent a nuclear launch, and all of the governments hopes were riding on his success.
"So it's come to it has it? We're going to launch that nuke and ride it all the way into history?" Ocelot asked keeping up the pretence. Liquid crossed his arms, yet another peculiarity of his, which Wolf had begun to notice when he was bothered.
"I've got to take care of some launch preparations. You're in charge here Ocelot." Liquid continued, still with his back to Snake and arms folded.
Ocelot looked towards Sniper Wolf.
"What about you?" he said gesturing with his only other hand. "Wanna stay for the show?" At least to him torture was as much of a spectacle as sport. To him that was what torture was; just a game.
"I've better things to do than watch people suffer for your enjoyment, even if they are our enemy." Wolf thought. She spoke up and changed her thoughts so that it wouldn't offend Ocelot too much.
"I'm not interested." She said rattling her pill case, checking if she had to go and get more pills. "It's time to feed the family." She finished before gulping down a pill.
"So you prefer your wolves to my show, huh?" he said disappointed. Liquid wasn't up for Ocelot's arrogant attitude and didn't want him to make the same mistake again, even more so because Snake was a lot more valuable to them than the DARPA chief.
"Ocelot, don't screw up like you did with the chief!" he snapped. Ocelot as ever, just brushed this off and didn't listen.
"Yes, I know, that was an accident. I didn't realise that a pencil-pusher like him, would be so tough." He said casually as if it didn't really matter to him.
"Well his mental defences were reinforced by hypnotherapy." Liquid stated. Wolf wasn't paying much attention, as far as she was concerned this only really concerned them. Instead she watched Snake listening in on the discussion. He looked to be more alert than before.
"You have to be." Wolf thought. "You might be tougher than the DARPA chief but knowing Ocelot, he'll just enjoy making the pain worse for you."
While she thought to herself, Liquid and Ocelot continued talking.
"Boss, what about that ninja?" Ocelot asked.
"He's killed twelve men. Whoever he is, he's some kind of lunatic." Liquid said irritated that they'd lost some of their soldiers.
"Bastard took my hand..." grumbled Ocelot. "How could he have gotten in?"
" You deserved it." Wolf thought with a smile.
"Perhaps there's a spy among us..." Liquid said as a warning if there was. "Mantis is dead. We've also got to find out what killed Baker and Octopus. We're short-handed so make this little torture show of yours as short as possible." He retorted angrily.
"Torture? This is an interrogation." Ocelot said in defence. Liquid clearly didn't agree with Ocelot's hobby.
"As you wish." He barked. He looked round back at Snake. "See you later, brother!" he said with a cruel smile, before turning around and leaving them behind. Wolf turned her attention to Solid Snake, seeing that he had been ignored while Liquid and Ocelot squabbled on amongst themselves. It always seemed to Wolf that whenever they had to talk it always ended up with them coming to loggerheads over little trivial things to major problems like the passing away of the DARPA chief. Wolf strode up towards Snake. What happened to him now was up to Ocelot and knowing him, he wouldn't give Snake any respite. Wolf almost felt sorry for him. She put her hand on his chest. Close up, Snake was far better looking than she'd imagined. It was a shame that he'd have to be killed later.
"Your woman is still in this world." She said gently. Snake lifted his head up.
"Meryl..." he said, concern and hope for his companion creeping into his voice. The colder side of Sniper Wolf decided to show itself, and she reminded him that he was still going to keep on tracking him. She ran her fingers down his chest and over his stomach.
"Catch you later, handsome." She said with a smile and turned to leave the room. Ocelot made a low whistle.
"Once she picks a target, she doesn't think about anything else. Sometimes she even falls in love with them before she kills them." He said as Sniper Wolf left. The door closed behind her and made her way back to the caves where her wolf dogs were. She had arranged to meet Otacon there at feeding time, and was anxious to meet him.
Wolf entered the caves and the wolves rushed towards her, barking and howling their welcomes with canine smiles on their faces, happy to see her again. Otacon had brought along the food for them. He walked towards her.
"Where were you? I was getting worried Wolf." He said pushing his spectacles back up on his nose.
"It was nothing really, just that we had to deal with somebody. It doesn't really concern you Hal." She filled up the bowls with dog food for the wolf dogs.
"I guess that person was Snake, wasn't it?" Otacon asked. Wolf sighed.
"Look, Hal, you shouldn't try to get involved in this. This is between me, the rest of Fox-Hound and him. He might have helped you but I have a job to do. Snake has a job to do as well, but unfortunately it is my duty to stop him and I will do anything to make sure of that." She said simply. Otacon just looked at her, that same sad look on his face and not saying a word.
"But what... what if you..." he started. " You shot Meryl, Wolf!" he protested. "Snake..." Wolf cut him off.
"I know, I know. But that doesn't come into the equation when it comes to fighting." She said waving a hand at him.
"Does it really?" Hal said folding his arms. Wolf looked up and got his point. Here she was saying that feelings didn't matter and yet was contradicting herself again. She almost regretted shooting Meryl and felt sorry for both of them that she had to bring this upon them. She might have felt differently if she didn't have feelings for Hal, or even Snake, but she did and she couldn't help but think about how she'd feel if it were them instead. She got up and was about to leave.
"Wolf, I... I'm just... just worried if..." Hal started. "I don't want you to kill Snake, but I don't want you to die either, you know." He said finally. "He's my friend I guess, and he's been really helpful to me and couldn't thank him enough for that, but I really like you Wolf. I don't want to lose you. I just wish I didn't have to be in this situation." Wolf turned round to face him.
"Well, you just make sure that you are not there when me and Snake meet again." She said and reached into a pocket in her jacket. "Look, here take this." And she handed him a handkerchief and put it in his hands and left.
"Wa. . .wait! Wolf, wait!" he called after her as she exited the caves.
Wolf left Hal on his own to go back to the armoury to stock up on supplies and see if there had been any developments concerning the stand-off. She didn't have any intention on returning to meet Ocelot, unless of course Snake died because of him, then she'd have reason to have strong words with him, and no doubt Liquid would too. That aside all Wolf was thinking about was the next confrontation with Solid Snake. Arriving at the armoury being patrolled by the genome soldiers, she went to where she stored her sniper rifle and ammunition. She gathered up some magazines, and carried her PSG-1 while in search of equipment to clean up her rifle. It seemed over fussy to dismantle the rifle almost completely, but she knew that in her field it was essential for accurate shots, and she would need lots of it if she were to face him again. She sat down and proceeded to take it to pieces, cleaning every trace of dirt from every surface. The last thing she wanted was to be pointing a gun at somebody only to have it jam. Not only was it embarrassing especially for a sniper of her calibre, but it could mean death, but then she didn't really think about that. While she was piecing it back together she received a Codec call from Liquid.
"What is it?" she asked, continuing to put the last components back on.
"Wolf I want you to go to the snowfield and set up there." He said.
"What are you doing? I thought you were there at the underground maintenance base." Wolf said, and was deafened by the sound of helicopter rotors, slowly building up speed.
"Well, everybody else has had a go at fighting against him. Anyway, lets just see how he gets on against a Hind after torture and still wallowing in sorrow over that girl." He paused after speaking aside to a soldier. "Wolf you can go to the snowfield with some more soldiers I'm sending that way. They're meeting in the nuclear warhead storage building."
"Understood. I'm on my way." She said and ended the call.
"The snowfield... perfect!" she thought giving her rifle a final once over to make sure everything was right. " Plenty of trees and snow drifts to hide behind, and this snow storm makes it harder to see far." Wolf thought. She knew exactly what she needed; plenty of warm, white clothes for camouflage, ammo, a supply of her diazepam pills and a frame of mind to make the Alaskan climate look tropical. She got up and packed away the cleaning kit, filled a couple of pockets with five round magazines and left the armoury now in the search for more pills and the white combat gear. There was a supplies room near the mess and lockers for the resident soldiers before their invasion, so there was bound be something there.
When she got to the mess Sniper Wolf was surprised to find that the area behind the mess counter where the soldiers got their food had been turned upside down. Bottles of tomato sauce were scattered across one of the worktops and puddles of it were dotted about.
"Must have been a skiving genome soldier with a serious attack of the munchies!" she laughed to herself, and continued to go on and do some hunting herself. She eventually found what she was looking for in a store cupboard. It was unlikely that she'd have found a white uniform to fit her in the soldiers' lockers. She pulled on the thick white coat and zipped it right up to her chin, seeing as it was bitterly cold outside and she could be in for a long wait. Over her other trousers she pulled on a pair of dark grey trousers and opted for thicker socks under her boots. She pulled on a pair of gloves and tried them out for size to make sure she could hold her rifle comfortably and fire properly. She had emptied all of her pockets beforehand and found a couple of convenient pouches on the belt to attach a couple of magazines and put her pill case in her hip pocket. She sighed, it wasn't long before she had to rendezvous at the nuclear warhead storage building and with each minute it drew her closer to her next fight.
"I survived the first one and I'm not going to make the same mistakes this time. Snake will die this time." She thought picking up her rifle and quickly left. It was a short walk back to the tank hangar and through the canyon, the blackened remains of the M-1 tank still there with a dusting of snow and ice on it's painted surface, pockmarked where the grenades had hit home. Wolf carried on to meet up with the group of four soldiers wearing the same kind of white uniforms as herself, but they looked more like Michelin men, but less friendly, carrying their FAMAS assault rifles and grenades. They turned and saluted like they did with all of the other Fox-Hound members. Three of them hopped into the back of the truck while Sniper Wolf put her rifle in along with them and walked round to the passenger side and sat down in the front. The leader got in and started the truck and the drove off.
Nobody spoke in the truck, and that didn't bother Wolf. She enjoyed the silence, it gave her time to think and let her mind relax for a change instead of the constant, single mindedness and absolute concentration which was required of any sniper. But she was used to that, as a child she had to have this kind of tunnel vision to survive the day and it had made for excellent practice as a sniper, but at a terrible cost. It was too late to regret the past because it was after all, in the past and could not be changed. It just seemed that ever since then Sniper Wolf had just let herself be carried along and accepted whatever came across her in life. Yet, she didn't really feel ready to face what was coming next. Instead, she would have to accept it like he did as a child whether she liked it or not.
It was only minutes later that they arrived at the snowfield. Wolf couldn't hear the Hind at all. She looked around and got her bearings. The only way Snake could enter the snowfield was through the tower behind her and the maintenance entrance was the only way forward. So the logical place to dig in was to the north. Thankfully for Wolf, there was plenty of cover in the form of trees and snow-drifts and she had the advantage of being slightly higher up. Snake would have trouble finding her and fighting back. What was even better was the lack of cover on the south side. There were fewer trees and Wolf had a clear view of the door. On scouting out her surroundings Wolf felt a bit more comfortable knowing that she had the upper hand here and made her way towards the north and settled down to get a clear view of the south and some cover. The snow was falling heavily and her footprints would be gone in a few minutes so there would be no evidence of her presence until the last minute... She lay down and tucked her rifle up against her shoulder and looked through the scope, waiting, eternally patient. It wasn't long before she had drifted off into her usual state of total concentration and she totally ignored everything around her, except for what was in the narrow view of her scope.
The silence was shattered by the sound of many explosions, flashes of orange light from the top of the first tower and the faint judder of rotor blades. There was a groan of metal as it gave way and fell down hundreds of feet to land with a tremendous crash. There was a brief gap of silence and more explosions followed again and the snapping rattle as the machine gun spat out death. Wolf looked up at the noise and flinched at the boom as the mass of steel hurtled downwards between the towers. For a few second there was peace all but for the rapid budda, budda, budda of the Hinds blades swirling round and round, which got louder as it got closer to her. Wolf couldn't make it out with the flurry of snow appearing out of the sky and the Hind was painted in a dark colour. There was another short burst from the choppers machine guns then nothing. Wolf waited, looking up toward the sky; still nothing except for the Hind which circled round and round, much like vultures watching a staggering animal, willing it to die so the could gorge themselves on it's dead carcass.
"Maybe Snake is dead. If that was the walkway which got destroyed then how could he get here? Climb down?" she thought. Wolf was not certain as to Snake's fate, and returned to her rifle, still waiting for him to appear, religiously. She'd waited so long that the snow was building up on her back and made her some camouflage.
Her attention was caught again by more machine gun fire. What was different this time was that ever now and then, high up in the sky there was a dull boom and a burning trail would fly through the air and scream towards the Hind. It reminded Wolf of fireworks, but she knew all too well that this wasn't a display for crowds to "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" at. This was a display of daring and some lunacy. The trails were from a Stinger and no doubt the person firing it was Snake. Wolf took time to watch as she observed the battle from afar. The odds on Snake succeeding were paper thin, even if he was one of Big Boss's sons; it was an incredibly unbalanced battle. The Hind flew further away and fired a missile in retaliation.
"He's gone for sure now." Wolf thought as the missile made impact and sent more metal pieces flying down to the ground. There was a volley of more machine gun fire and... another Stinger missile? It hit the war bird in the tail and in the flash of light Wolf saw the Hind quake at the strike. It was still flying perfectly and continued to fire on spraying red-hot lead. There were a few more direct hits to the Hind, and it started to suffer for it. Smoke was belching from the tail, sparks shot out and it sounded different while it was flying. Liquid struggled along and managed to get far away enough to fire the last missile. It screeched through the wind and the whole roof of the tower lit up. Seconds later the Hind lurched and was spiralling downwards, completely out of control. The damage from Snake's last shot had been done and the Hind plunged down in flames. It hit the ground just next to the snowfield furthest away from Wolf's position and exploded into flames that stretched high up into the dark blue sky. Thick black smoke billowed out, choking and smelling strongly of fuel. Wolf was about to return to her view in the scope, but saw a shape in the air. She picked up her binoculars and saw a parachute. It was empty but it looked like Liquid had somehow escaped. How exactly, eluded Wolf, but he lived and that was what mattered. The question on her mind now was if Snake was still alive and if so, how many more lives did he have left?
The Hind continued to smoke, and fortunately the fumes didn't reach Wolf which would have made her nauseous and sick. She was focused again on the little circular view and her aim steady. It wouldn't be long before Snake would turn up, if at all. But Wolf had the patience and could stay as long as she wanted. She didn't have anything else to do and there was no rush.
Wolf jumped at the sight of the door moving, and in her nervousness, swallowed down another pill. Solid Snake was there, alive and reasonably well from the last time he'd seen him. Wolf followed him in her scope and took care to make sure that the laser sight was off; she wanted to catch him by surprise. At first he ran along to the side a bit and spotted the parachute. Wolf could see him cough at the smoke that drifted over the wall. He continued on after reporting back over Codec and headed towards the north. He walked along slowly, blinking at the falling snow. Wolf lined him up in the cross hairs and pulled back on the trigger. The result was quite satisfying for Wolf as he saw him spin round at the impact of the shot and fall down face first into the snow. She allowed herself a smile and continued to watch. The smile gradually twisted into a frown when she saw Snake haul himself up. He looked around tensely, and was receiving a call on his Codec. Wolf swore in anger to herself at missing. She had meant for him to go down with that shot, but it must have gone astray. Wolf took another pill to steady her aim even more, and called Otacon. Instead she overheard the conversation between him and Snake and listened quietly.
"Snake!! Are you okay?" he asked hysterically.
"Otacon!" Snake growled holding onto his arm where the bullet had hit him. "Were there an other stealth prototypes?"
"No... there were only five." Otacon replied calmly.
"So this isn't stealth camouflage then..." Snake concluded.
"What are you talking about?" asked Otacon dumbly.
"Someone's aiming at me, in the middle of this blizzard!" Snake barked again, not happy at being shot by someone he couldn't see. Wolf could see blood oozing from his wound.
"It's her!!" Otacon shouted in realisation.
"Wolf? Sniper Wolf?" Snake asked to confirm his fears.
"Yes it's her! It's definitely her!" he gushed not bothering to conceal his joy.
"Otacon..." Snake began. "You sound like you're happy." He said slightly worried at Otacon's reaction.
"No I'm not." Otacon said defensively.
"So then what is it?" Snake demanded. There was a pause.
"Snake... please don't kill her!" Otacon pleaded. Wolf rolled her eyes at him.
"I told him not to get involved! That fool!" she thought angrily. Now he'd interfere and make things worse.
"Are you insane!?" Snake shouted. Wolf had to agree that Otacon was crazy.
"Please." He started again. "She's a good person! You'd know that if you talked to her..." Otacon continued. How could he understand Otacon's views after what Sniper Wolf had done to him? She'd shot the woman he loved and taken him prisoner. Snake cut him off.
"Listen to me, kid." Snake said furiously. "She's a merciless killer." Wolf decided to make her presence known.
"I can see you perfectly from here." Snake didn't move. Wolf laughed at how helpless he looked in the scope. "I told you I'd never quit the hunt. Now your mine." She said callously.
"Wolf! No, you can't!" Otacon began, trying desperately to stop them from fighting.
"Don't get between a wolf and it's prey!" Wolf hissed to Otacon and he fell silent.
"You're pretty good if you can hit me in this storm." Snake said viciously.
"You see? Women naturally make better soldiers." Wolf shot back reinforcing her idea again, reminding Snake that many assassins were women.
"Wolf! Don't do this!" Otacon wailed. Sniper Wolf ignored him. She was so absorbed in taunting Snake like she had been doing ever since she shot Meryl. It was her way of flirting with him. She continued to torment him.
"Snake," she said softly. "I'm near. Can't you sense me near you?" Snake wasn't put off by her words.
"It's a mistake for a sniper to reveal her location." He shot back coolly.
"Is that right?" she drawled in a matter of fact tone. "Well I'm going to send you a love letter my dear." She watched Snake carefully to see his reaction. "Do you know what that is?" She paused to let him think. "It's a bullet, straight from my gun to your heart." She had done that already in shooting Meryl and had deliberately put that in to remind him of what happened to her. She watched Snake as he played the memory back in his mind and a look of quiet rage spread over his face
"Please! Wolf!... Snake!... No!" Otacon wailed again. His words didn't affect Snake or Wolf. Wolf snapped at him and forgot about the relationship between them. Wolf was focused entirely on Snake, and everything else didn't matter at all. It was between her and Snake.
"Quiet! Don't get in our way!" she roared.
"Now I'm going to pay you back for Meryl..." growled Snake as he took his sniper rifle and got ready to fight Wolf.
"You men are so weak. You never finish what you start..." Wolf said wearily. "And I'll make sure that you won't ever." She thought to herself as she finished the call.
She watched Snake hide behind a tree and waited for him to look away before she moved to another spot. The howl of wolves floated eerily on the wind as she ran through the snow. It was soft and made it hard to run quickly without stumbling or slowing down to regain her balance. She made it to a snowdrift and lined up Snake's arm in her crosshairs. The plan was to do exactly what she did to Meryl, but first she had to make sure he couldn't move about. She fired but instead the bullet splintered the bark of the tree he hid behind and Snake quickly moved away to another spot. Wolf lost him and ran to her right to find him again. She hid behind a tree peeped round and spotted him, his bandannad head visible and his rifle propped up on a snowy ridge. She fired again, the boom as it fired echoed over the whistle of the wind. She cursed at seeing snow from the ridge go up in a cloud in front of Snake's face. Wolf wasn't going to give up until she saw red and Snake drop dead with a bullet in his skull, but it just wasn't happening. She moved again and so did Snake, they each knew that the other was watching for a chink in their defences to show itself. Wolf behind another tree, swallowed down another pill, her whole body trembling with cold, nerves and anger. She looked round and tried to catch Snake while he ran along. He dove behind a snowdrift and the bullet hit the ground behind him in a puff of white dust.
"Two rounds before I change." Wolf thought, and felt for another magazine so that she knew where it was for later. She knelt down propping her front elbow on her bent knee for support. Snake fired first and Wolf jumped at how close it got to her. He was aiming for her torso and Wolf could feel it fly past her waist.
"Smart, easier to aim for a bigger target." She thought with a smile. That's why Snake was leaving very little of himself exposed, especially his shot arm. But it also meant that if Wolf aimed true, he would be killed instantly. Wolf aimed again, the crosshairs trained on Snake's head. He saw the red laser and ducked down. He ran along. Wolf followed him and fired at his feet to make him jump and hopefully fall. Instead he jumped and managed to land again perfectly. Wolf had forgotten that down where Snake was, the snow was slightly harder and he wasn't as tired as Wolf was. Wolf struggled to get moving in the snow and her legs were beginning to ache with the extra effort to pull each foot out of the snow. She eventually made it to a ridge and disappeared from sight. She waited and caught her breath to swallow another diazepam. Wolf got up and dashed out again. She stopped and saw Snake lying prone in the open. She lay down under the cover of a rock and fired the last round of her magazine. It hit Snake but just grazed his other arm and did very little damage. Wolf got up and ran for the ridge again.
"What is going on!?" she thought and threw away the empty magazine and slotted in the full one. "Why is this happening? This can't be happening to me, it mustn't!" she thought frantically. Her usual cool and calm manner had been lost. Keeping unruffled was essential to a sniper's survival, but now it seemed as if she was loosing at least on this. She dashed out again in the opposite direction and went behind a group of trees. She looked out and lined Snake up again in her scope. She was too late; he'd been waiting for her. Now it seemed that he had more patience than she did now. The bullet hit her in the arm and Sniper Wolf drew back into the trees. Bright red was splashed over her sleeve where the bullet had torn through and into her upper arm. Her arm went and she struggled to hold her gun up. The pain was terrible and he ran away to another pot blindly. The wind blew her hair in her face and she couldn't see. Wolf ran quickly. She heard another bang from the south and then a sharp, burning pain as the bullet tore into her stomach. She stalled and uprighted herself again, pain raging through her body. She took a few more steps forward running for cover.
"I'm not going to make it..." she thought, her feet felt like she was running in thick sticky toffee. Her heart missed a beat when a split second later after the first shot to her stomach, another bullet ripped through her coat and into her chest. Wolf made a choking gasp, trying to draw breath in shock. He dropped her rifle and took a few more steps. Another one followed it and burrowed its destructive path into her body. Wolf's eyes widened at the tearing sensation as she tried to breathe. Her vision blurred and her rifle was lying some distance from her. Wolf was numb with shock and the pain almost faded from her mind. She screamed out loud despite the hideous feeling as the bullets worked their way inside her and passed through her body. There was no way she could fight back now. She couldn't move quickly enough and her body was so weak, keeping herself on her feet demanded all of her attention.
"I shouldn't have underestimated Snake. Shouldn't have misjudged his rage." She thought, her mind foggy as she fell down to the ground. The soft, white snow rushed up to meet her and another jolt of agony ran through her as she landed.
Wolf lay on her back, staring up into the blackness as snowflakes fell and landed on her face. A breeze blew carrying the howls of the wolf dogs. It was silent and Wolf remembered how she looked up into the blue as a girl, wishing for better days, and for the constant sound of death to disappear. Wolf was alerted by the sound of footsteps, the wet crunch of snow got closer to her. Solid Snake appeared into her view and slowed down. He stopped and knelt down next to her. Wolf started to panic, but stopped. Snake was unarmed, except for his SOCOM, which was holstered at his side. Wolf didn't understand why he was here next to her. She looked up to him; he looked as if he were waiting for her to say something.
"I... I've waited for this moment..." she started making a colossal effort to speak. Her voice croaked unbearably. Snake's face was blank, neutral as he listened. "I am a sniper, waiting is my job... Never moving a muscle... concentrating..." she began to cough and blood came up. Her heart sank, and she recovered. It was a bad sign and confirmed her fears. She looked to Snake again, some compassion in his eyes.
"I am lung-shot..." she said softly to him. "you cannot save me... Please... Just finish me quick." She paused. Finally, she'd found her peace. Peace with herself, and peace with the world. It was going to be short lived, but at long last after hanging on for all these years, all the suffering as a child, watching mankind slaughtering each other in bloody combat in her early sniping days, Sniper Wolf had found what she'd been looking for. It seemed that she had only existed to reach this dream and then her life would be complete and there'd be no more reason to live anymore.
"I am a Kurd. I have always dreamed of a peaceful place like this..." Wolf finished. Snake noted this and Wolf could see that he understood her better.
"A Kurd? So that's why you're called Wolf..." he said quietly.
"I was born on a battlefield. Raised on a battlefield." Wolf began, memories returning, pictures in her minds eye of this little girl that just didn't belong there. Her sobs drowned out by bloody cries as people died. Always running and hiding, the time when she found her mother dead, still holding her to comfort her and shield her from the darker side of human nature. Death was served up along with dinner and it tasted sour. It wasn't living; it was just managing to exist on this Earth. Living was full of good and bad things, but it never was a struggle for survival. Wolf could hear the sounds of war raging on into the night, which she heard while trying to sleep as a child.
"Gunfire, sirens and screams... they were my lullabies... Hunted like dogs day after day. Driven from our ragged shelters... that was my life." Wolf seemed to look through Snake and she could almost see the cloudless skies above when she awoke each morning and the unrecognisable lumps of dead bodies scattered all around.
"Each morning I'd wake up and find a few more of my family or friends dead beside me." She remembered seeing brothers and her father going out to fight and never to return.
"I'd stare at the morning sun... and pray to make it through the day." Wolf's voice took on a harsh tone, showing her clear hatred for the way their suffering was swept under the carpet and thought of as just another little conflict in a far out land. People were being persecuted and it angered Wolf how once before, the world had jumped to stop the singling out of a people.
"The governments of the world turned a blind eye to our misery." She murmured bitterly. "But then... he appeared..." she said with a faint smile as if welcoming and old friend. "My hero..." she said and paused to think of their name. "Saladin... he took me away from all that..."
Snake's attention was suddenly drawn to that name and Wolf guessed that he knew them.
"Saladin?" he asked surprised. " You mean Big Boss?"
"I became a sniper... Hidden, watching everything through a rifles scope." Wolf thought of her PSG-1 that she had been given from Saladin, and it had seen all that she had seen in her new life. They had never been apart, her and her rifle.
"Now I could see war, not from the inside, but from the outside, as an observer."
Sights returned as she watched people kill each other mindlessly and it disgusted her. It amazed her how brutal and unforgiving people were.
"I watched the brutality... the stupidity of mankind through the scope of my rifle. I joined this group of revolutionaries... to take my revenge on the world." She wanted to show what war did to the innocent, and to show to the world what they didn't want to see. All of the greed, ignorance and stupidity which nobody would accept was in everyone's nature no matter how deeply buried it was, the potential for evil was in everyone.
" But... I have shamed myself and my people. I am no longer the Wolf I was born to be." She cried softly, as tears started to well up in her eyes. "In the name of vengeance I sold my body and my soul. Now I am nothing more than a dog." Her voice began to crack up in sorrow. She was no longer fighting for her own cause and to Wolf she felt as if he had sunk to the same level as those who had murdered her people. In her conquest she'd lost her goal in her resentment and desperation. It had been in essence, Sniper Wolf against the world. All of this time she'd been on her own trying to make sense of it all and chasing her hopes and dreams. Even now she couldn't make a head or tail of it all. She was confused and lost, just like the little girl in her memory, standing in the middle of the battlefield waiting for her parents to wake up. From the beginning, Wolf had given up all hope and had only really seeked one thing.
"Wolves are noble animals. They're not like dogs." Snake said gently. "In Yupik the word for wolf is "Kegluneq" and the Aluets revere them as honourable cousins. It's true we're all for sale at some price or another, that's why they call mercenaries like us "dogs of war." But you're different... untamed... solitary. You're no dog... you're a wolf." He continued on in a low thoughtful voice. Wolf thought she had heard somebody say some words of encouragement like this before to her when she was taken from her hell. She looked at Snake. There was something very familiar about his face, and he'd seen it before...
"Who are you?" she asked bluntly. "Are you Saladin?"
"Wolf," Snake began again. "you spared Meryl's life."
Wolf wanted to make her intentions clear before dying and get this weight from her conscience.
"She... she was never my real target. I... I don't kill for sport."
"Rest easy. You'll die as the proud wolf you are." Snake said as if he were forgiving her for hurting Meryl. Knowing her name now made it worse. Before she had not known the names of those she shot and the sight of their deaths just faded away. Meryl was not going to go quite so easily.
Wolf sighed taking a breath as much as her ruined lungs would allow. The cold air soothed the pain. Along with it Wolf slowly realised what was at the core of her quest. It was to find peace but not the flimsy quiet found in a place like this. Here even, she could not forget the things she'd seen and the sins she had committed to get here. The world had been cruel, fate had been harsh and the only way Sniper Wolf could escape the daily torture of her memories was to let herself go.
"I finally understand... I wasn't waiting to kill people." She started slowly. He took a breath. "I was waiting for someone to kill me." Wolf tried hard to focus her fading vision on Snake again. "A man like you... You're a hero. Please... set me free."
That was it. All these years, Wolf had accepted what she'd been denying all along. The only thing she had ever wanted was to die and forget everything. To go to a place where she could be happy. It just seemed right.
Snake slowly got up after a few seconds. To Wolf he had been a hero, much like Saladin; he'd taken the time to listen to her words. She admired him for what he did, impressed with his courage. Perhaps Snake was him, or... She watched as Snake stood by her side, slowly and deliberately upholstered his SOCOM and removed the suppressor. All the time his face was blank not letting her read what was going through his mind. Wolf couldn't decide if it was because he felt down or nothing at all. Snake took his time and raised his gun, both hands wrapped around it, his finger on the trigger as he levelled it with her head. Wolf closed her eyes, waiting.
"Why?!" a voice howled. Wolf looked over to see Otacon appear from nowhere as he deactivated his stealth camouflage. He dropped to his knees. "Why!? I loved you." He cried.
Wolf slowly reached out to him, asking for him to come to her side. Snake looked up and lowered his gun.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
"My gun..." she said simply. "give it to me..." and visions of how they had fought together appeared to the front of her mind. Her rifle had been the only true friend Wolf had ever had. It had never lied, it never deserted her. It had been there and was there to help her on her fight for freedom. Otacon picked it up in his arms and ran over to her. Wolf smiled weakly as Otacon bent down to let her cradle the gun in her arms. Sniper Wolf was only half of what she was without it; her name Sniper Wolf wouldn't be complete if he didn't have her rifle with her. Wolf hugged the cold gun, warmly.
"She's part of me." She said softly, clutching the gun. She took a look round. Solid Snake and Otacon were there at either side of her, hero and admirer. There was one party missing; the creatures that were part of her name and embodied the qualities she possessed. The only other thing she loved and cared about. As if they were sensing her passing away, the dogs sang their farewell in a haunting chorus of howls. Sniper Wolf smiled, they had not forgotten the kindness she had shown them, by chasing away the soldiers who were about to kill them. She sighed.
"Everyone's here now." She said quietly, blinking back tears. She didn't want to end her life as she had started it, crying. She slowly turned her head to look at Snake.
"Okay hero..." she said after a brief pause. "set me free." Wolf held on tighter to her PSG-1, and took another laboured breath. Snake raised his gun slowly. Otacon turned away, hands over his ears and tears on his face. Wolf shut her eyes again.
"Goodbye..." Otacon sobbed quietly. Wolf heard Snake squeeze the trigger. The sound of it as it fired rang out over the empty snowfield.
Finally Sniper Wolf had escaped and was no longer a prisoner of her own memories.
• Silver Wolf •
A little note.
Writing this fanfic has been very hard for me in many ways. Mostly because this is really my first one to actually be finished. First everybody is his or her worst critic, and at times I felt like giving up on this because I wasn't sure if it would be good enough. Secondly, I often find it hard to put exactly in words what I think, and this was a big obstacle for me to overcome which, had been before the main cause for stopping before. Nobody is perfect, I have tried very hard to get everything I wanted in here, but in the end what you think of Sniper Wolf is up to you. It has been lots of fun writing this fanfic and I never expected it to be so long! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
If you ask any self-respecting Metal Gear fan about any scene which made them feel sad or even cry, one of the answers which comes up is Sniper Wolf's. While maybe at first portrayed as "a merciless killer" by Snake, it was discovered that this wasn't essentially true. It brings up one of the questions in the games theme of genetic heritage. The question being is it the genes, which determine a person's future, or is it what happens in their life? I find it hard to sum in a few words what I thought of Sniper Wolf and her passing away, and it might not agree with everybody's views. But with this fanfic I hope to show what happened on Shadow Moses through the eyes of Sniper Wolf, an observer looking at war from the outside. Since nobody really knows Wolf's role prior to the scene when Meryl is shot, I decide to begin moments before that scene as everyone is familiar with that scene and I wouldn't get lost in trying to make something from scratch and loose the whole point.
Nothing could move Wolf from her position on the communications tower. She lay on the frozen walkway still and unmoving, steady and solid like a rock, an iron grip on her precious rifle. She and her rifle had seen so much together over the years, watching quietly and patiently, hidden unnoticed and undisturbed for weeks at a time. Wolf always worked alone, her rifle the only company she had on every mission. She welcomed the bang when she fired like an old friend, and the sound of it was almost comforting. Wolf knew her PSG-1 as if she'd been born with it attached to her and had grown up with it, both of them watching as her terrible life unfolded before her. It was almost as if Wolf and the rifle were one, always in tune with each other knowing what each was going to do next. It was a strange almost symbiotic existence between them.
Sniper Wolf waited, concentrating and focused, letting the howl of the snowstorm, icy snapping wind and the wails of her adopted wolf dogs wash over her. All of her attention was fixed upon what she saw through the scope, ringed in black and crossed by two broken lines pointing the way to her targets death.
Wolf couldn't help but worry if this Solid Snake was the legend he was in all of the stories she had heard. It concerned her that Psycho Mantis had failed to stop Snake, despite his powers.
"It isn't my job to doubt. If I question even my own skills then I'm already defeated." She thought, before dismissing all feelings of uncertainty from her mind to focus again on her view through the scope.
Sniper Wolf's attention was sharpened when the big, heavy double doors slowly slid apart, carrying in howls from the caves. At first there was nothing but darkness in the doorway. Wolf reached for her diazepam pills, swallowed one and settled again having barely moved. Somebody was there, and Wolf didn't want to take risks just incase it was indeed Snake. From the gloom stepped a young woman with red hair, dressed in combat fatigues, a Desert Eagle handgun in one hand. The woman looked forward in Wolf's direction before turning round. She was waiting. Wolf could see the orange glow of a cigarette. It brightened slightly as the smoker took a drag from it and materialised from the darkness. It was Wolf's duty to notice every tiny detail as a sniper, because it all added up to mean failure or success. The figure calmly but with reservation stepped into the open, and looked around.
"It's him!" Wolf thought. "Solid Snake." She said silently to herself and her PSG-1.
They both looked upwards at the tower, soaring into the sky above. Snake took the cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it before crushing it out under his boot. The woman turned to face him, her head moving as she talked; it was too far for Wolf to make out what was being said. She also noticed that neither of them carried any weapon with which to fight back with against her. That made her relax a little knowing that she would meet little resistance. But, now wasn't the time to make the call. Seeing that there was somebody else accompanying Snake, it presented all sorts of opportunities to Wolf to achieve her objective. She continued to watch as the woman walked round, Snake following round and picking up the Claymore mines previously set up to catch Snake out. Somehow they knew where they were.
"I wonder, did Mantis let it slip that there were mines here?" Wolf pondered and focused on getting her aim as she switched on the laser-aiming device on her rifle.
It was clear that neither Snake nor the woman who was with him were expecting any confrontations. Neither of them had any weapons which, had a firing range big enough to fire back. Sniper Wolf lined up the cross hairs on the woman's chest. Snake opened his mouth and said something to her, as Wolf aimed lower for her leg. The woman reacted, a hand to where she'd seen the red dot and touched it and looked at her hand thinking that it had been blood. Snake moved into Wolf's view an anxious look on his face as he tried to move the woman out of shot. She was too slow, Snake far too late. Wolf fired, her rifle shouted out loud and booming. The woman answered the rifle's voice with a scream as the bullet tore through her leg and she fell down onto her knees. Snake froze for a second, a look of horror on his face before running for cover. Wolf calmly aimed again.
"This girl is not going to go down easily." She thought as she fired and let her rifle speak again. The woman cried out again, falling over, the Desert Eagle out of reach. Wolf removed the magazine and quickly loaded another and chambered the first round. She watched as the woman got onto her front and wriggled forward to get the Desert Eagle, which lay uselessly on the concrete, in a worthless attempt to fight back at her assailant. Wolf lined up the crosshairs with the woman's arm.
"Sorry, but I have to do this." She whispered and her PSG-1 barked out its order to get down. The woman replied with another cry and stopped, obeying Wolf and her rifle's orders, and lay on her back. Blood was over the concrete, bright red against the pale grey. Wolf stayed where she was expecting Snake to make an appearance to escape or foolishly help his companion. However Wolf didn't expect him to help her, he was smarter than that and if the stories of him were anything to go by, he had enough battle experience to know that it was a sniper and his friend was just bait to draw him out. She waited patiently; faint cries from her victim invoked some feelings of pity and remorse in Wolf. Again she cast these from her mind. They weren't relevant. Snake poked his head round the corner before withdrawing back to his retreat moments before Wolf shot a warning shot. It hit the corner of the wall, which Snake hid behind, and dust and chips of concrete flew off. The woman was moving, just talking to Snake who made sure he was out of harms way.
"I can wait here for as long as I want Snake. The longer you stay there the longer she lies there and the longer it takes for me to get her some help to survive." Wolf thought as she watched where Snake was hiding. It was a few minutes before he reappeared and ran towards the door. Wolf lined him up in her scope, but he was saved as the doors closed behind him. The last thing Sniper Wolf saw was his face; he really didn't want to leave his comrade behind at the mercy of the sniper, but his survival and the woman's overrode any feelings Snake had for her. Wolf had discovered the fatal flaw in his defences, which to Wolf seemed to be out of the character painted by all of the tales she had heard about Snake; he had feelings for the woman.
Wolf stayed still in her sniping position for a while; just incase Snake made an appearance. She doubted it, since again she didn't think that Snake was stupid enough to try and be a hero.
Satisfied that it was safe to get up and down to where the woman was lying, Wolf stood up and stretched to ease away the stiff feeling from the cold in her body. She picked up her rifle and carried it with her. She called the boss on her Codec.
"Liquid, I've got a prisoner here, send along a couple of soldiers to pick her up. I think we've just got Snake where it hurts." She said plainly with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Liquid asked somewhat perplexed.
"It's a woman, probably that soldier put into the cell with the Armstech president." Wolf answered. "Anyway, it seems that our friend Snake has some sentiments after all. He cares about this woman."
"What did you do?" Liquid asked and signalled for two soldiers to go to Wolf's position.
"She's alive, but I had to shoot her to stop her from getting away." Wolf said now standing over Meryl.
"Well, good work Wolf. I'll deal with her later." He paused. "Wolf, Snake is heading to the armoury, so expect him to return. I'll send two soldiers along from the communications tower. All you have to do capture him. Just make sure you bring him back relatively unharmed." And he ended the call.
Wolf looked at Meryl who looked back at her, tears streaming down her face blood seeping from her gunshot wounds into small dark pools. She wasn't old, about eighteen maybe.
"I won't kill you. You're worth something to us girl." Wolf said simply ignoring Meryl's look of hate in her eyes. Wolf caught a glimpse of Meryl and it occurred to her that really what existed between her and Snake wasn't much different from the feelings between herself and Otacon. Wolf suddenly felt another wave of remorse overcome her.
"Don't think like that! It'll just lead to failure." Wolf thought angrily. It occurred to her that really she was no better than the murderers who killed her friends and family. They were defenceless, running from place to place, each day a struggle to survive just to exist for the next. It hadn't been a life at all. And her she was doing exactly the same thing they had done to her. She was causing hurt and pain and it wasn't really necessary. It wasn't helping in her conquest for revenge.
The soldiers arrived. They waited while Sniper Wolf continued to bury herself in her thoughts. One of them coughed.
"Oh, I...." she started. "Yes go on take her away." Wolf said turning round to face the soldiers. She turned away and returned to the walkway.
"What am I fighting for anyway? It just seems somehow that this isn't all about vengeance anymore, and just to kill the innocent. She had nothing to do with it, she's just a girl!" Wolf thought. She had reached her sniping post. "No time to dwell on the past. If I don't do this then I'll look weak in front of the others." Wolf concluded. She lay down prone holding her rifle still, the feel of it's weight in her hands reassured her as she rested the butt of it against her shoulder and peered through the scope. Back in her element, Wolf was now in control of her world and didn't worry about Snake's return. Her mind focused on the task at hand and waited for him to arrive.
It was a long way from here to the armoury and back again, but Snake appeared as Liquid had predicted. Wolf got ready, swallowed another pill and lined him up in her crosshairs. She wasn't going to miss this time and fired at Snake. He had expected an attack from her and moved out of the bullets way. Wolf saw the reserve PSG-1 in his hands and took the opportunity while he was getting down onto his front, to change to a different spot. She got up and hid behind a steel girder. She waited for a few seconds and peeped round lining him up in her crosshairs again and the rifle spoke out. The bullet whizzed past Snake's head and he froze for a second as he considered what had happened. She shifted again, and aimed from another place. She saw Snake just recovering from the shot as he got up and moved closer to the wall. He was more cautious this time. Wolf made it difficult for him to get a good aim by running and hiding. She knelt down and lined up for another shot, and missed. Wolf cursed at herself for missing; she never missed, ever, unless she wanted to. They continued to play this game of long distance hide and seek, waiting for the other to make a mistake. Wolf waited for the right moment to stop Snake in his tracks and allow his capture. She edged out again for what seemed to have been the millionth time, and aimed at Snake. Before she even caught sight of him in her scope she heard a bang and it wasn't from her rifle. A split second later she felt the pain. She'd been hit by Snake's shot. She cried out loud in pain and fell over.
"I don't believe it!" She thought angrily. " How can anybody outshoot me?" Wolf lay there considering the scene. There was still a chance to catch Snake. She signalled to the soldiers who lay in wait to get ready.
Snake was in so much of a hurry to find out where Meryl was being held, he just rushed in totally unprepared. He was armed only with a SOCOM pistol and didn't stand a chance against the two soldiers who stood behind him aiming their FAMAS rifles at him.
"Don't move!" one of them shouted. Snake put his hands in the air and slowly turned around. Sniper Wolf had made her way down from her post and walked towards him training her rifle on him.
"It's hard to miss when you're this close." She said and stopped in front of him. "Toss your weapon over here. Slowly..." she ordered. Snake responded and bent down still looking up and slid his handgun to a soldier who then picked it up. He stood up slowly and put his hands back up in the air.
"You are a fool to come back here... stupid man!" Wolf mocked.
"A lady sniper huh?" Snake replied.
"Didn't you know that two thirds of the world's greatest assassins are women?" she shot back coolly and continued to point the barrel of her rifle at him.
"Do you want to die now or after your female friend? Which will it be?" she asked sharply, looking him in the eye. Snake looked up.
"I'll die after I kill you!" He said defiantly, clearly not affected by the fact that he had three guns trained on him. Wolf was rather impressed by this show of bravado.
"I didn't expect anything less." She thought to herself.
"Is that right? Well at least you've got spirit." she laughed, lowering her rifle and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. "I am Sniper Wolf and I always kill what I aim at."
Confident that right now Snake didn't pose any threat to her, she moved closer towards him so that she was standing right in front of him. Wolf reached up and put her hand on his cheek, running her fingers down the side of his face.
"You're my. . special prey..." she said to him with a smile. "Got it?"
"He's better looking than I thought..." she said in her head still looking Snake in the eye. "But just to make sure the others know that he's mine..." Wolf thought as she stroked his cheek. Wolf dragged a fingernail roughly across his skin. Snake flinched at the scratch turning his face away.
"Aww, I've left my mark on you. I won't forget it until I kill you... you're all I'll think about." Wolf said the smile appearing on her face again. She was enjoying the control she had over Snake.
"Here you are, a Special Forces soldier, a lethal killing machine, and yet look at you, standing here and you can't do anything. Feeling helpless now are we Snake?" she thought watching him. Wolf nodded to a genome soldier who struck Snake on the side of his head with the butt of his FAMAS. Snake fell over unconscious onto the ground. Wolf watched him fall and signalled with a wave of her hand.
"Take him away!" one of them said harshly. The two soldiers took Snake's arms and dragged him away. Wolf followed and watched on as Snake struggled to stay awake. Eventually his eyes closed and he was out like a light. They carried him off back to the tank hanger down to the 1st floor basement, into Ocelot's torture room. Sniper Wolf despised his ways of forcing information out of people. In her eyes it was crude and didn't always succeed, the DARPA chief's death had proved that.
Liquid and Revolver Ocelot awaited their arrival.
"Good work, Wolf!" Congratulated Liquid with a smile, clearly satisfied that he finally had the one who was about to undo all of their plans. The two soldiers lifted Snake up onto Ocelot's torture machine. Liquid dismissed the soldiers as Ocelot continued to make preparations. All of Snake's equipment was taken from him, not even his cigarettes were left behind and his top taken off leaving him in only his boots and trousers. Snake still hadn't woken up and Wolf reckoned that it would be a while before he eventually came round. Liquid paced around for a while and stopped when he saw Ocelot at the controls of the torture machine.
"Don't kill him yet! I want him alive." He snapped holding his hand out to make his point clear. Ocelot stopped.
"Leave it to me." He said calmly.
"Idiot!" Wolf thought angrily. "Look what happened the last time he said that. We lost a valuable hostage."
"I don't want anymore accidents like the DARPA chief." Liquid continued.
"Yes. He's my target. Mine alone." Wolf said staking her claim on Snake's death. Ocelot always made a mess of things. At least she did them quickly and cleanly with a single bullet, frying somebody to death wasn't pleasant and Wolf thought that Snake deserved better. She did after all say that she would carry on until he died with a bullet from her gun. Sniper Wolf wasn't one who went back on her word.
Snake was showing signs of returning back to consciousness, but as yet he still wasn't fully awake and had no idea of where he was. Liquid saw this.
"Can you hear me, Solid Snake?" he said in his sardonic, cold English accent. Wolf was surprised that he was beginning to come round so soon.
"He's tougher than I thought." She put in and stood next to Liquid Snake, watching Snake.
"Do you know who I am? I always knew that I would meet you. The man who stole who stole what's rightly mine. The man who stole my birthright." Liquid said an edge of anger entering his voice. He paused and put his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat. "Me? I'm the man you stole everything good from. And now after the sacrifice of our brothers... after thirty long years... finally, the two of us meet. The brother of light and the brother of dark." He continued contemptuously. Snake realised that he was captured yet he tried to escape and wriggled about weakly. He stopped, discovering that he wasn't going anywhere. Wolf thought for a while before speaking up.
"Do you need his DNA too?" Remembering the objective of their mission to obtain Big Boss' DNA. Liquid pondered on the question.
"Yes. I want a sample while he's still alive. We need it to correct the genome soldiers mutations." He finally said.
"Then we'll be able to cure them?" She asked hopefully.
"No, we still need to get our hands on Big Boss' DNA."
Wolf spoke up again after a short pause.
"Have they given into our demands yet?"
"Not yet." Liquid said simply.
"They won't give in. They're all hypocrites, every one of them." She hated politics. It was because of them that her people suffered.
"Is that your opinion, as a Kurd?" Liquid asked. He might have been the brains behind this operation and seen the opportunity to get what they wanted, but he really was a little slow at times Wolf thought.
"They always put politics first." She stated.
"That's right. That's why they don't want any leaks about their new precious nuclear weapon." Liquid began about to begin on another talk. Ocelot interrupted him.
"Boss, it looks like our friend is awake." He said and the torture machine began to move so that it was lying vertically. Sniper Wolf watched on, as Snake appeared facing her and Liquid. Now that both of them were in the same room together and she got a good look at them both, Wolf's initial doubts over Liquid's claims that Snake was his twin brother were destroyed.
"There definitely is a resemblance, don't you think little brother? Or should I say big brother? I'm not sure... Anyway, it doesn't matter, you and I are the last surviving "Sons of Big Boss." Liquid said in an almost sarcastic tone. The ring of his cell phone promptly interrupted him. He reached into his pocket and answered it.
"It's me" he started. "Really?" Wolf looked round, hoping that the news was going to be about the government wanting to start negotiating over their demands.
"Then what?" Liquid continued. He frowned furiously. "Doof! Those idiots!" Sniper Wolf laughed to herself at Liquid's amusing mannerism when he got annoyed. Liquid looked round "Alright Raven, I'll be right there." He ended the call and put it back into his pocket with a sigh as Ocelot and Wolf waited to hear the news. But it was clear that by his reaction that it was not good.
"They're not responding to our demands." He announced and put his hands in his pockets. "We launch the first one in ten hours as planned." Wolf knew that this was not true however, since they did not have the codes to allow a launch but, because Snake was there and providing that he noted this false point, he'd report back when he had the chance and it might cause the government to get into action and do something to prevent the "launch." She continued on with the spiel.
"Damn Americans!" she spat, shaking her head in disapproval.
"Looks like you read them wrong." Ocelot pointed out, the Western twang matching his attire. Liquid thought for a second.
"Something's funny. Normally the Americans are the first ones to the negotiating table. They must think they have something up their sleeves..." he declared. Wolf thought that this was probably Snake, as he had been sent in to prevent a nuclear launch, and all of the governments hopes were riding on his success.
"So it's come to it has it? We're going to launch that nuke and ride it all the way into history?" Ocelot asked keeping up the pretence. Liquid crossed his arms, yet another peculiarity of his, which Wolf had begun to notice when he was bothered.
"I've got to take care of some launch preparations. You're in charge here Ocelot." Liquid continued, still with his back to Snake and arms folded.
Ocelot looked towards Sniper Wolf.
"What about you?" he said gesturing with his only other hand. "Wanna stay for the show?" At least to him torture was as much of a spectacle as sport. To him that was what torture was; just a game.
"I've better things to do than watch people suffer for your enjoyment, even if they are our enemy." Wolf thought. She spoke up and changed her thoughts so that it wouldn't offend Ocelot too much.
"I'm not interested." She said rattling her pill case, checking if she had to go and get more pills. "It's time to feed the family." She finished before gulping down a pill.
"So you prefer your wolves to my show, huh?" he said disappointed. Liquid wasn't up for Ocelot's arrogant attitude and didn't want him to make the same mistake again, even more so because Snake was a lot more valuable to them than the DARPA chief.
"Ocelot, don't screw up like you did with the chief!" he snapped. Ocelot as ever, just brushed this off and didn't listen.
"Yes, I know, that was an accident. I didn't realise that a pencil-pusher like him, would be so tough." He said casually as if it didn't really matter to him.
"Well his mental defences were reinforced by hypnotherapy." Liquid stated. Wolf wasn't paying much attention, as far as she was concerned this only really concerned them. Instead she watched Snake listening in on the discussion. He looked to be more alert than before.
"You have to be." Wolf thought. "You might be tougher than the DARPA chief but knowing Ocelot, he'll just enjoy making the pain worse for you."
While she thought to herself, Liquid and Ocelot continued talking.
"Boss, what about that ninja?" Ocelot asked.
"He's killed twelve men. Whoever he is, he's some kind of lunatic." Liquid said irritated that they'd lost some of their soldiers.
"Bastard took my hand..." grumbled Ocelot. "How could he have gotten in?"
" You deserved it." Wolf thought with a smile.
"Perhaps there's a spy among us..." Liquid said as a warning if there was. "Mantis is dead. We've also got to find out what killed Baker and Octopus. We're short-handed so make this little torture show of yours as short as possible." He retorted angrily.
"Torture? This is an interrogation." Ocelot said in defence. Liquid clearly didn't agree with Ocelot's hobby.
"As you wish." He barked. He looked round back at Snake. "See you later, brother!" he said with a cruel smile, before turning around and leaving them behind. Wolf turned her attention to Solid Snake, seeing that he had been ignored while Liquid and Ocelot squabbled on amongst themselves. It always seemed to Wolf that whenever they had to talk it always ended up with them coming to loggerheads over little trivial things to major problems like the passing away of the DARPA chief. Wolf strode up towards Snake. What happened to him now was up to Ocelot and knowing him, he wouldn't give Snake any respite. Wolf almost felt sorry for him. She put her hand on his chest. Close up, Snake was far better looking than she'd imagined. It was a shame that he'd have to be killed later.
"Your woman is still in this world." She said gently. Snake lifted his head up.
"Meryl..." he said, concern and hope for his companion creeping into his voice. The colder side of Sniper Wolf decided to show itself, and she reminded him that he was still going to keep on tracking him. She ran her fingers down his chest and over his stomach.
"Catch you later, handsome." She said with a smile and turned to leave the room. Ocelot made a low whistle.
"Once she picks a target, she doesn't think about anything else. Sometimes she even falls in love with them before she kills them." He said as Sniper Wolf left. The door closed behind her and made her way back to the caves where her wolf dogs were. She had arranged to meet Otacon there at feeding time, and was anxious to meet him.
Wolf entered the caves and the wolves rushed towards her, barking and howling their welcomes with canine smiles on their faces, happy to see her again. Otacon had brought along the food for them. He walked towards her.
"Where were you? I was getting worried Wolf." He said pushing his spectacles back up on his nose.
"It was nothing really, just that we had to deal with somebody. It doesn't really concern you Hal." She filled up the bowls with dog food for the wolf dogs.
"I guess that person was Snake, wasn't it?" Otacon asked. Wolf sighed.
"Look, Hal, you shouldn't try to get involved in this. This is between me, the rest of Fox-Hound and him. He might have helped you but I have a job to do. Snake has a job to do as well, but unfortunately it is my duty to stop him and I will do anything to make sure of that." She said simply. Otacon just looked at her, that same sad look on his face and not saying a word.
"But what... what if you..." he started. " You shot Meryl, Wolf!" he protested. "Snake..." Wolf cut him off.
"I know, I know. But that doesn't come into the equation when it comes to fighting." She said waving a hand at him.
"Does it really?" Hal said folding his arms. Wolf looked up and got his point. Here she was saying that feelings didn't matter and yet was contradicting herself again. She almost regretted shooting Meryl and felt sorry for both of them that she had to bring this upon them. She might have felt differently if she didn't have feelings for Hal, or even Snake, but she did and she couldn't help but think about how she'd feel if it were them instead. She got up and was about to leave.
"Wolf, I... I'm just... just worried if..." Hal started. "I don't want you to kill Snake, but I don't want you to die either, you know." He said finally. "He's my friend I guess, and he's been really helpful to me and couldn't thank him enough for that, but I really like you Wolf. I don't want to lose you. I just wish I didn't have to be in this situation." Wolf turned round to face him.
"Well, you just make sure that you are not there when me and Snake meet again." She said and reached into a pocket in her jacket. "Look, here take this." And she handed him a handkerchief and put it in his hands and left.
"Wa. . .wait! Wolf, wait!" he called after her as she exited the caves.
Wolf left Hal on his own to go back to the armoury to stock up on supplies and see if there had been any developments concerning the stand-off. She didn't have any intention on returning to meet Ocelot, unless of course Snake died because of him, then she'd have reason to have strong words with him, and no doubt Liquid would too. That aside all Wolf was thinking about was the next confrontation with Solid Snake. Arriving at the armoury being patrolled by the genome soldiers, she went to where she stored her sniper rifle and ammunition. She gathered up some magazines, and carried her PSG-1 while in search of equipment to clean up her rifle. It seemed over fussy to dismantle the rifle almost completely, but she knew that in her field it was essential for accurate shots, and she would need lots of it if she were to face him again. She sat down and proceeded to take it to pieces, cleaning every trace of dirt from every surface. The last thing she wanted was to be pointing a gun at somebody only to have it jam. Not only was it embarrassing especially for a sniper of her calibre, but it could mean death, but then she didn't really think about that. While she was piecing it back together she received a Codec call from Liquid.
"What is it?" she asked, continuing to put the last components back on.
"Wolf I want you to go to the snowfield and set up there." He said.
"What are you doing? I thought you were there at the underground maintenance base." Wolf said, and was deafened by the sound of helicopter rotors, slowly building up speed.
"Well, everybody else has had a go at fighting against him. Anyway, lets just see how he gets on against a Hind after torture and still wallowing in sorrow over that girl." He paused after speaking aside to a soldier. "Wolf you can go to the snowfield with some more soldiers I'm sending that way. They're meeting in the nuclear warhead storage building."
"Understood. I'm on my way." She said and ended the call.
"The snowfield... perfect!" she thought giving her rifle a final once over to make sure everything was right. " Plenty of trees and snow drifts to hide behind, and this snow storm makes it harder to see far." Wolf thought. She knew exactly what she needed; plenty of warm, white clothes for camouflage, ammo, a supply of her diazepam pills and a frame of mind to make the Alaskan climate look tropical. She got up and packed away the cleaning kit, filled a couple of pockets with five round magazines and left the armoury now in the search for more pills and the white combat gear. There was a supplies room near the mess and lockers for the resident soldiers before their invasion, so there was bound be something there.
When she got to the mess Sniper Wolf was surprised to find that the area behind the mess counter where the soldiers got their food had been turned upside down. Bottles of tomato sauce were scattered across one of the worktops and puddles of it were dotted about.
"Must have been a skiving genome soldier with a serious attack of the munchies!" she laughed to herself, and continued to go on and do some hunting herself. She eventually found what she was looking for in a store cupboard. It was unlikely that she'd have found a white uniform to fit her in the soldiers' lockers. She pulled on the thick white coat and zipped it right up to her chin, seeing as it was bitterly cold outside and she could be in for a long wait. Over her other trousers she pulled on a pair of dark grey trousers and opted for thicker socks under her boots. She pulled on a pair of gloves and tried them out for size to make sure she could hold her rifle comfortably and fire properly. She had emptied all of her pockets beforehand and found a couple of convenient pouches on the belt to attach a couple of magazines and put her pill case in her hip pocket. She sighed, it wasn't long before she had to rendezvous at the nuclear warhead storage building and with each minute it drew her closer to her next fight.
"I survived the first one and I'm not going to make the same mistakes this time. Snake will die this time." She thought picking up her rifle and quickly left. It was a short walk back to the tank hangar and through the canyon, the blackened remains of the M-1 tank still there with a dusting of snow and ice on it's painted surface, pockmarked where the grenades had hit home. Wolf carried on to meet up with the group of four soldiers wearing the same kind of white uniforms as herself, but they looked more like Michelin men, but less friendly, carrying their FAMAS assault rifles and grenades. They turned and saluted like they did with all of the other Fox-Hound members. Three of them hopped into the back of the truck while Sniper Wolf put her rifle in along with them and walked round to the passenger side and sat down in the front. The leader got in and started the truck and the drove off.
Nobody spoke in the truck, and that didn't bother Wolf. She enjoyed the silence, it gave her time to think and let her mind relax for a change instead of the constant, single mindedness and absolute concentration which was required of any sniper. But she was used to that, as a child she had to have this kind of tunnel vision to survive the day and it had made for excellent practice as a sniper, but at a terrible cost. It was too late to regret the past because it was after all, in the past and could not be changed. It just seemed that ever since then Sniper Wolf had just let herself be carried along and accepted whatever came across her in life. Yet, she didn't really feel ready to face what was coming next. Instead, she would have to accept it like he did as a child whether she liked it or not.
It was only minutes later that they arrived at the snowfield. Wolf couldn't hear the Hind at all. She looked around and got her bearings. The only way Snake could enter the snowfield was through the tower behind her and the maintenance entrance was the only way forward. So the logical place to dig in was to the north. Thankfully for Wolf, there was plenty of cover in the form of trees and snow-drifts and she had the advantage of being slightly higher up. Snake would have trouble finding her and fighting back. What was even better was the lack of cover on the south side. There were fewer trees and Wolf had a clear view of the door. On scouting out her surroundings Wolf felt a bit more comfortable knowing that she had the upper hand here and made her way towards the north and settled down to get a clear view of the south and some cover. The snow was falling heavily and her footprints would be gone in a few minutes so there would be no evidence of her presence until the last minute... She lay down and tucked her rifle up against her shoulder and looked through the scope, waiting, eternally patient. It wasn't long before she had drifted off into her usual state of total concentration and she totally ignored everything around her, except for what was in the narrow view of her scope.
The silence was shattered by the sound of many explosions, flashes of orange light from the top of the first tower and the faint judder of rotor blades. There was a groan of metal as it gave way and fell down hundreds of feet to land with a tremendous crash. There was a brief gap of silence and more explosions followed again and the snapping rattle as the machine gun spat out death. Wolf looked up at the noise and flinched at the boom as the mass of steel hurtled downwards between the towers. For a few second there was peace all but for the rapid budda, budda, budda of the Hinds blades swirling round and round, which got louder as it got closer to her. Wolf couldn't make it out with the flurry of snow appearing out of the sky and the Hind was painted in a dark colour. There was another short burst from the choppers machine guns then nothing. Wolf waited, looking up toward the sky; still nothing except for the Hind which circled round and round, much like vultures watching a staggering animal, willing it to die so the could gorge themselves on it's dead carcass.
"Maybe Snake is dead. If that was the walkway which got destroyed then how could he get here? Climb down?" she thought. Wolf was not certain as to Snake's fate, and returned to her rifle, still waiting for him to appear, religiously. She'd waited so long that the snow was building up on her back and made her some camouflage.
Her attention was caught again by more machine gun fire. What was different this time was that ever now and then, high up in the sky there was a dull boom and a burning trail would fly through the air and scream towards the Hind. It reminded Wolf of fireworks, but she knew all too well that this wasn't a display for crowds to "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" at. This was a display of daring and some lunacy. The trails were from a Stinger and no doubt the person firing it was Snake. Wolf took time to watch as she observed the battle from afar. The odds on Snake succeeding were paper thin, even if he was one of Big Boss's sons; it was an incredibly unbalanced battle. The Hind flew further away and fired a missile in retaliation.
"He's gone for sure now." Wolf thought as the missile made impact and sent more metal pieces flying down to the ground. There was a volley of more machine gun fire and... another Stinger missile? It hit the war bird in the tail and in the flash of light Wolf saw the Hind quake at the strike. It was still flying perfectly and continued to fire on spraying red-hot lead. There were a few more direct hits to the Hind, and it started to suffer for it. Smoke was belching from the tail, sparks shot out and it sounded different while it was flying. Liquid struggled along and managed to get far away enough to fire the last missile. It screeched through the wind and the whole roof of the tower lit up. Seconds later the Hind lurched and was spiralling downwards, completely out of control. The damage from Snake's last shot had been done and the Hind plunged down in flames. It hit the ground just next to the snowfield furthest away from Wolf's position and exploded into flames that stretched high up into the dark blue sky. Thick black smoke billowed out, choking and smelling strongly of fuel. Wolf was about to return to her view in the scope, but saw a shape in the air. She picked up her binoculars and saw a parachute. It was empty but it looked like Liquid had somehow escaped. How exactly, eluded Wolf, but he lived and that was what mattered. The question on her mind now was if Snake was still alive and if so, how many more lives did he have left?
The Hind continued to smoke, and fortunately the fumes didn't reach Wolf which would have made her nauseous and sick. She was focused again on the little circular view and her aim steady. It wouldn't be long before Snake would turn up, if at all. But Wolf had the patience and could stay as long as she wanted. She didn't have anything else to do and there was no rush.
Wolf jumped at the sight of the door moving, and in her nervousness, swallowed down another pill. Solid Snake was there, alive and reasonably well from the last time he'd seen him. Wolf followed him in her scope and took care to make sure that the laser sight was off; she wanted to catch him by surprise. At first he ran along to the side a bit and spotted the parachute. Wolf could see him cough at the smoke that drifted over the wall. He continued on after reporting back over Codec and headed towards the north. He walked along slowly, blinking at the falling snow. Wolf lined him up in the cross hairs and pulled back on the trigger. The result was quite satisfying for Wolf as he saw him spin round at the impact of the shot and fall down face first into the snow. She allowed herself a smile and continued to watch. The smile gradually twisted into a frown when she saw Snake haul himself up. He looked around tensely, and was receiving a call on his Codec. Wolf swore in anger to herself at missing. She had meant for him to go down with that shot, but it must have gone astray. Wolf took another pill to steady her aim even more, and called Otacon. Instead she overheard the conversation between him and Snake and listened quietly.
"Snake!! Are you okay?" he asked hysterically.
"Otacon!" Snake growled holding onto his arm where the bullet had hit him. "Were there an other stealth prototypes?"
"No... there were only five." Otacon replied calmly.
"So this isn't stealth camouflage then..." Snake concluded.
"What are you talking about?" asked Otacon dumbly.
"Someone's aiming at me, in the middle of this blizzard!" Snake barked again, not happy at being shot by someone he couldn't see. Wolf could see blood oozing from his wound.
"It's her!!" Otacon shouted in realisation.
"Wolf? Sniper Wolf?" Snake asked to confirm his fears.
"Yes it's her! It's definitely her!" he gushed not bothering to conceal his joy.
"Otacon..." Snake began. "You sound like you're happy." He said slightly worried at Otacon's reaction.
"No I'm not." Otacon said defensively.
"So then what is it?" Snake demanded. There was a pause.
"Snake... please don't kill her!" Otacon pleaded. Wolf rolled her eyes at him.
"I told him not to get involved! That fool!" she thought angrily. Now he'd interfere and make things worse.
"Are you insane!?" Snake shouted. Wolf had to agree that Otacon was crazy.
"Please." He started again. "She's a good person! You'd know that if you talked to her..." Otacon continued. How could he understand Otacon's views after what Sniper Wolf had done to him? She'd shot the woman he loved and taken him prisoner. Snake cut him off.
"Listen to me, kid." Snake said furiously. "She's a merciless killer." Wolf decided to make her presence known.
"I can see you perfectly from here." Snake didn't move. Wolf laughed at how helpless he looked in the scope. "I told you I'd never quit the hunt. Now your mine." She said callously.
"Wolf! No, you can't!" Otacon began, trying desperately to stop them from fighting.
"Don't get between a wolf and it's prey!" Wolf hissed to Otacon and he fell silent.
"You're pretty good if you can hit me in this storm." Snake said viciously.
"You see? Women naturally make better soldiers." Wolf shot back reinforcing her idea again, reminding Snake that many assassins were women.
"Wolf! Don't do this!" Otacon wailed. Sniper Wolf ignored him. She was so absorbed in taunting Snake like she had been doing ever since she shot Meryl. It was her way of flirting with him. She continued to torment him.
"Snake," she said softly. "I'm near. Can't you sense me near you?" Snake wasn't put off by her words.
"It's a mistake for a sniper to reveal her location." He shot back coolly.
"Is that right?" she drawled in a matter of fact tone. "Well I'm going to send you a love letter my dear." She watched Snake carefully to see his reaction. "Do you know what that is?" She paused to let him think. "It's a bullet, straight from my gun to your heart." She had done that already in shooting Meryl and had deliberately put that in to remind him of what happened to her. She watched Snake as he played the memory back in his mind and a look of quiet rage spread over his face
"Please! Wolf!... Snake!... No!" Otacon wailed again. His words didn't affect Snake or Wolf. Wolf snapped at him and forgot about the relationship between them. Wolf was focused entirely on Snake, and everything else didn't matter at all. It was between her and Snake.
"Quiet! Don't get in our way!" she roared.
"Now I'm going to pay you back for Meryl..." growled Snake as he took his sniper rifle and got ready to fight Wolf.
"You men are so weak. You never finish what you start..." Wolf said wearily. "And I'll make sure that you won't ever." She thought to herself as she finished the call.
She watched Snake hide behind a tree and waited for him to look away before she moved to another spot. The howl of wolves floated eerily on the wind as she ran through the snow. It was soft and made it hard to run quickly without stumbling or slowing down to regain her balance. She made it to a snowdrift and lined up Snake's arm in her crosshairs. The plan was to do exactly what she did to Meryl, but first she had to make sure he couldn't move about. She fired but instead the bullet splintered the bark of the tree he hid behind and Snake quickly moved away to another spot. Wolf lost him and ran to her right to find him again. She hid behind a tree peeped round and spotted him, his bandannad head visible and his rifle propped up on a snowy ridge. She fired again, the boom as it fired echoed over the whistle of the wind. She cursed at seeing snow from the ridge go up in a cloud in front of Snake's face. Wolf wasn't going to give up until she saw red and Snake drop dead with a bullet in his skull, but it just wasn't happening. She moved again and so did Snake, they each knew that the other was watching for a chink in their defences to show itself. Wolf behind another tree, swallowed down another pill, her whole body trembling with cold, nerves and anger. She looked round and tried to catch Snake while he ran along. He dove behind a snowdrift and the bullet hit the ground behind him in a puff of white dust.
"Two rounds before I change." Wolf thought, and felt for another magazine so that she knew where it was for later. She knelt down propping her front elbow on her bent knee for support. Snake fired first and Wolf jumped at how close it got to her. He was aiming for her torso and Wolf could feel it fly past her waist.
"Smart, easier to aim for a bigger target." She thought with a smile. That's why Snake was leaving very little of himself exposed, especially his shot arm. But it also meant that if Wolf aimed true, he would be killed instantly. Wolf aimed again, the crosshairs trained on Snake's head. He saw the red laser and ducked down. He ran along. Wolf followed him and fired at his feet to make him jump and hopefully fall. Instead he jumped and managed to land again perfectly. Wolf had forgotten that down where Snake was, the snow was slightly harder and he wasn't as tired as Wolf was. Wolf struggled to get moving in the snow and her legs were beginning to ache with the extra effort to pull each foot out of the snow. She eventually made it to a ridge and disappeared from sight. She waited and caught her breath to swallow another diazepam. Wolf got up and dashed out again. She stopped and saw Snake lying prone in the open. She lay down under the cover of a rock and fired the last round of her magazine. It hit Snake but just grazed his other arm and did very little damage. Wolf got up and ran for the ridge again.
"What is going on!?" she thought and threw away the empty magazine and slotted in the full one. "Why is this happening? This can't be happening to me, it mustn't!" she thought frantically. Her usual cool and calm manner had been lost. Keeping unruffled was essential to a sniper's survival, but now it seemed as if she was loosing at least on this. She dashed out again in the opposite direction and went behind a group of trees. She looked out and lined Snake up again in her scope. She was too late; he'd been waiting for her. Now it seemed that he had more patience than she did now. The bullet hit her in the arm and Sniper Wolf drew back into the trees. Bright red was splashed over her sleeve where the bullet had torn through and into her upper arm. Her arm went and she struggled to hold her gun up. The pain was terrible and he ran away to another pot blindly. The wind blew her hair in her face and she couldn't see. Wolf ran quickly. She heard another bang from the south and then a sharp, burning pain as the bullet tore into her stomach. She stalled and uprighted herself again, pain raging through her body. She took a few more steps forward running for cover.
"I'm not going to make it..." she thought, her feet felt like she was running in thick sticky toffee. Her heart missed a beat when a split second later after the first shot to her stomach, another bullet ripped through her coat and into her chest. Wolf made a choking gasp, trying to draw breath in shock. He dropped her rifle and took a few more steps. Another one followed it and burrowed its destructive path into her body. Wolf's eyes widened at the tearing sensation as she tried to breathe. Her vision blurred and her rifle was lying some distance from her. Wolf was numb with shock and the pain almost faded from her mind. She screamed out loud despite the hideous feeling as the bullets worked their way inside her and passed through her body. There was no way she could fight back now. She couldn't move quickly enough and her body was so weak, keeping herself on her feet demanded all of her attention.
"I shouldn't have underestimated Snake. Shouldn't have misjudged his rage." She thought, her mind foggy as she fell down to the ground. The soft, white snow rushed up to meet her and another jolt of agony ran through her as she landed.
Wolf lay on her back, staring up into the blackness as snowflakes fell and landed on her face. A breeze blew carrying the howls of the wolf dogs. It was silent and Wolf remembered how she looked up into the blue as a girl, wishing for better days, and for the constant sound of death to disappear. Wolf was alerted by the sound of footsteps, the wet crunch of snow got closer to her. Solid Snake appeared into her view and slowed down. He stopped and knelt down next to her. Wolf started to panic, but stopped. Snake was unarmed, except for his SOCOM, which was holstered at his side. Wolf didn't understand why he was here next to her. She looked up to him; he looked as if he were waiting for her to say something.
"I... I've waited for this moment..." she started making a colossal effort to speak. Her voice croaked unbearably. Snake's face was blank, neutral as he listened. "I am a sniper, waiting is my job... Never moving a muscle... concentrating..." she began to cough and blood came up. Her heart sank, and she recovered. It was a bad sign and confirmed her fears. She looked to Snake again, some compassion in his eyes.
"I am lung-shot..." she said softly to him. "you cannot save me... Please... Just finish me quick." She paused. Finally, she'd found her peace. Peace with herself, and peace with the world. It was going to be short lived, but at long last after hanging on for all these years, all the suffering as a child, watching mankind slaughtering each other in bloody combat in her early sniping days, Sniper Wolf had found what she'd been looking for. It seemed that she had only existed to reach this dream and then her life would be complete and there'd be no more reason to live anymore.
"I am a Kurd. I have always dreamed of a peaceful place like this..." Wolf finished. Snake noted this and Wolf could see that he understood her better.
"A Kurd? So that's why you're called Wolf..." he said quietly.
"I was born on a battlefield. Raised on a battlefield." Wolf began, memories returning, pictures in her minds eye of this little girl that just didn't belong there. Her sobs drowned out by bloody cries as people died. Always running and hiding, the time when she found her mother dead, still holding her to comfort her and shield her from the darker side of human nature. Death was served up along with dinner and it tasted sour. It wasn't living; it was just managing to exist on this Earth. Living was full of good and bad things, but it never was a struggle for survival. Wolf could hear the sounds of war raging on into the night, which she heard while trying to sleep as a child.
"Gunfire, sirens and screams... they were my lullabies... Hunted like dogs day after day. Driven from our ragged shelters... that was my life." Wolf seemed to look through Snake and she could almost see the cloudless skies above when she awoke each morning and the unrecognisable lumps of dead bodies scattered all around.
"Each morning I'd wake up and find a few more of my family or friends dead beside me." She remembered seeing brothers and her father going out to fight and never to return.
"I'd stare at the morning sun... and pray to make it through the day." Wolf's voice took on a harsh tone, showing her clear hatred for the way their suffering was swept under the carpet and thought of as just another little conflict in a far out land. People were being persecuted and it angered Wolf how once before, the world had jumped to stop the singling out of a people.
"The governments of the world turned a blind eye to our misery." She murmured bitterly. "But then... he appeared..." she said with a faint smile as if welcoming and old friend. "My hero..." she said and paused to think of their name. "Saladin... he took me away from all that..."
Snake's attention was suddenly drawn to that name and Wolf guessed that he knew them.
"Saladin?" he asked surprised. " You mean Big Boss?"
"I became a sniper... Hidden, watching everything through a rifles scope." Wolf thought of her PSG-1 that she had been given from Saladin, and it had seen all that she had seen in her new life. They had never been apart, her and her rifle.
"Now I could see war, not from the inside, but from the outside, as an observer."
Sights returned as she watched people kill each other mindlessly and it disgusted her. It amazed her how brutal and unforgiving people were.
"I watched the brutality... the stupidity of mankind through the scope of my rifle. I joined this group of revolutionaries... to take my revenge on the world." She wanted to show what war did to the innocent, and to show to the world what they didn't want to see. All of the greed, ignorance and stupidity which nobody would accept was in everyone's nature no matter how deeply buried it was, the potential for evil was in everyone.
" But... I have shamed myself and my people. I am no longer the Wolf I was born to be." She cried softly, as tears started to well up in her eyes. "In the name of vengeance I sold my body and my soul. Now I am nothing more than a dog." Her voice began to crack up in sorrow. She was no longer fighting for her own cause and to Wolf she felt as if he had sunk to the same level as those who had murdered her people. In her conquest she'd lost her goal in her resentment and desperation. It had been in essence, Sniper Wolf against the world. All of this time she'd been on her own trying to make sense of it all and chasing her hopes and dreams. Even now she couldn't make a head or tail of it all. She was confused and lost, just like the little girl in her memory, standing in the middle of the battlefield waiting for her parents to wake up. From the beginning, Wolf had given up all hope and had only really seeked one thing.
"Wolves are noble animals. They're not like dogs." Snake said gently. "In Yupik the word for wolf is "Kegluneq" and the Aluets revere them as honourable cousins. It's true we're all for sale at some price or another, that's why they call mercenaries like us "dogs of war." But you're different... untamed... solitary. You're no dog... you're a wolf." He continued on in a low thoughtful voice. Wolf thought she had heard somebody say some words of encouragement like this before to her when she was taken from her hell. She looked at Snake. There was something very familiar about his face, and he'd seen it before...
"Who are you?" she asked bluntly. "Are you Saladin?"
"Wolf," Snake began again. "you spared Meryl's life."
Wolf wanted to make her intentions clear before dying and get this weight from her conscience.
"She... she was never my real target. I... I don't kill for sport."
"Rest easy. You'll die as the proud wolf you are." Snake said as if he were forgiving her for hurting Meryl. Knowing her name now made it worse. Before she had not known the names of those she shot and the sight of their deaths just faded away. Meryl was not going to go quite so easily.
Wolf sighed taking a breath as much as her ruined lungs would allow. The cold air soothed the pain. Along with it Wolf slowly realised what was at the core of her quest. It was to find peace but not the flimsy quiet found in a place like this. Here even, she could not forget the things she'd seen and the sins she had committed to get here. The world had been cruel, fate had been harsh and the only way Sniper Wolf could escape the daily torture of her memories was to let herself go.
"I finally understand... I wasn't waiting to kill people." She started slowly. He took a breath. "I was waiting for someone to kill me." Wolf tried hard to focus her fading vision on Snake again. "A man like you... You're a hero. Please... set me free."
That was it. All these years, Wolf had accepted what she'd been denying all along. The only thing she had ever wanted was to die and forget everything. To go to a place where she could be happy. It just seemed right.
Snake slowly got up after a few seconds. To Wolf he had been a hero, much like Saladin; he'd taken the time to listen to her words. She admired him for what he did, impressed with his courage. Perhaps Snake was him, or... She watched as Snake stood by her side, slowly and deliberately upholstered his SOCOM and removed the suppressor. All the time his face was blank not letting her read what was going through his mind. Wolf couldn't decide if it was because he felt down or nothing at all. Snake took his time and raised his gun, both hands wrapped around it, his finger on the trigger as he levelled it with her head. Wolf closed her eyes, waiting.
"Why?!" a voice howled. Wolf looked over to see Otacon appear from nowhere as he deactivated his stealth camouflage. He dropped to his knees. "Why!? I loved you." He cried.
Wolf slowly reached out to him, asking for him to come to her side. Snake looked up and lowered his gun.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
"My gun..." she said simply. "give it to me..." and visions of how they had fought together appeared to the front of her mind. Her rifle had been the only true friend Wolf had ever had. It had never lied, it never deserted her. It had been there and was there to help her on her fight for freedom. Otacon picked it up in his arms and ran over to her. Wolf smiled weakly as Otacon bent down to let her cradle the gun in her arms. Sniper Wolf was only half of what she was without it; her name Sniper Wolf wouldn't be complete if he didn't have her rifle with her. Wolf hugged the cold gun, warmly.
"She's part of me." She said softly, clutching the gun. She took a look round. Solid Snake and Otacon were there at either side of her, hero and admirer. There was one party missing; the creatures that were part of her name and embodied the qualities she possessed. The only other thing she loved and cared about. As if they were sensing her passing away, the dogs sang their farewell in a haunting chorus of howls. Sniper Wolf smiled, they had not forgotten the kindness she had shown them, by chasing away the soldiers who were about to kill them. She sighed.
"Everyone's here now." She said quietly, blinking back tears. She didn't want to end her life as she had started it, crying. She slowly turned her head to look at Snake.
"Okay hero..." she said after a brief pause. "set me free." Wolf held on tighter to her PSG-1, and took another laboured breath. Snake raised his gun slowly. Otacon turned away, hands over his ears and tears on his face. Wolf shut her eyes again.
"Goodbye..." Otacon sobbed quietly. Wolf heard Snake squeeze the trigger. The sound of it as it fired rang out over the empty snowfield.
Finally Sniper Wolf had escaped and was no longer a prisoner of her own memories.
• Silver Wolf •
A little note.
Writing this fanfic has been very hard for me in many ways. Mostly because this is really my first one to actually be finished. First everybody is his or her worst critic, and at times I felt like giving up on this because I wasn't sure if it would be good enough. Secondly, I often find it hard to put exactly in words what I think, and this was a big obstacle for me to overcome which, had been before the main cause for stopping before. Nobody is perfect, I have tried very hard to get everything I wanted in here, but in the end what you think of Sniper Wolf is up to you. It has been lots of fun writing this fanfic and I never expected it to be so long! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.