Hal awoke to the sound of gunfire. He was leaning up against a tree, paint still sticky on his clothes. Snake was crouched close to him, firing short bursts, reloading constantly.

"Snake?" What the hell was going on?

"Stay down!" Snake growled at him. Hal leaned farther back against the tree. "When I say, we're going to get up and run. Can you manage it?"

Hal nodded, then realized that Snake couldn't see him. "Yes."

"Good." There was a lull in the shooting. "Now, Otacon!"

Hal stood up and the two of them ran for almost five minutes straight. Hal was gasping for breath when they finally ducked behind another tree. "Wh- What's going on, Snake?"

"Something you hacked, I think. I heard them talking about metal gear information."

"Can't be... it's untraceable!"

"Apparently not. We have to find out who they are. We have to get rid of the mission commander. He's the only one who knows our names. He hasn't made a report yet. Hoping to get all the credit when this comes out, and besides, if he'd written a report, you'd have hacked it."

"We can't just kill someone! We're out of there, let's just go!"

"Do you have any family anywhere?"

"I..."

"If you have family, once they have your name they'll find them and use them to get at you."

Hal paused.

"Even if you don't, they'll go back through your life and find every person you've come into contact with. All your friends, old girlfriends... oh, sorry, you probably don't have any of that last."

"This is no time for jokes, Snake!"

"Relax. There should be only around 5 more guards around, plus the commander. I want you to stay put right here and I'll-" Snake cut off suddenly, head going up, eyes into the rest of the woods. He held his gun up and suddenly there was a flurry of gunshots.

When they stopped, a soldier fell out from behind a tree. Snake coughed. "4 guards."

Hal looked up to see a bright red stain spreading across Snake's chest. Snake fell onto his hands, his gun pressed to the ground.

"Oh God, Snake..."

"You'll have to complete this one, Otacon." Snake coughed again.

"But..."

"It's riding on you. Take the gun," said Snake, pressing the USP into Otacon's hands. "Get to the house and take them out, Otacon. You can do this."

"I..." Otacon nodded. "Just leave it to me."

"Remember, they aren't... they'll try to kill you... Otacon." Snake coughed again, and the strength in his arms gave out.

"I'll bring back help, Snake. I promise."

"Sure... kid..." Snake turned his head to the side. "Don't get killed." Snake gave a great heaving shudder, and that was that. His eyes just stayed open.

"Snake? Snake, stop kidding around. Snake? Snake!" Otacon bit his lip and pressed himself back against the tree. He took a deep breath, then closed Snake's eyes.

I have to do this. For Snake. Otacon closed his eyes. For Snake. He took a deep breath and held the gun close to himself, then looked around. This wasn't a game he was playing with Snake anymore. This was real life, and these guys were going to kill him if he wasn't careful.

He was going to have to find these guys and stop them. Maybe he could do it without killing them though... If he shot their hands, so they couldn't hold a gun again, and made sure they were unconscious...

Who am I kidding? I can't hit anyone that accurately! The only chance I have is to get rid of them one by one.

The very thought of actually killing someone was leaving a queasy feeling in Hal's gut. But... For Snake. The thought was still in his mind. His friend, dead. And it was their fault.

No, it was his fault. He must have let himself be traced. And Snake was dead because of it.

Otacon had to clean up the mess he'd made. He couldn't let anyone else be hurt: old family and friends weren't completely non-existent. He either had to die or kill this commander before he made a report.

Snake was dead. Otacon had to do this. For Snake.

He stood up and darted between the trees, trying to listen for any sounds. At one point he heard something: two guards talking to each other, murmuring phrases that Otacon couldn't quite understand. Otacon stood with his back against the tree as the voices got closer.

He was only going to have one shot. Well, two. He was going to have to hope that they passed him, and then he was going to have to shoot them both. Point blank.

For Snake.

He waited patiently as the two came closer and closer to his position, then they passed him. Swallowing hard, he took aim and fired.

BANG! BANG!

The blood sprayed back at him and the two men fell. Otacon felt sick, but there was no time for that. Snake had said four guards left, plus the commander.

So now there were three against one.

Otacon kept going between the trees. Hopefully, the other guards were on the other side of the house. Snake had said the commander was inside.

Once he'd gotten to the house, he tried peeking in the windows, but to no avail. There was nothing he could see. The commander must be in his room with his computers.

Otacon carefully opened the door and crept in. He tried to listen, but there were no sounds coming from any of the rooms, at least, none that he could hear.

Otacon took a deep breath to steady himself, then peeked around into his room. He could see the usual mess of computer wires, but nothing else. He crept slowly into the room.

He looked at his computer, which was scrolling through a thousand lines of code. He pressed a button to stop it, then felt something cold and hard against his head.

And then, nothing.