CHAPTER 5— "THE GREEDY GOLDEN SOUP"
Snake was on the streets, hiding in plain sight among a crowd of civilians in his gray suit.
He was sitting outside at a local café, with a duffel bag full of his gear in the seat next to him; he was also wearing a colorful demon mask that obscured his face that he had nabbed from a stand while no one was looking.
It was Carnevale in Rome, so the mask was an appropriate disguise for the occasion.
Otacon called him briefly. "Hey Snake, where are you?"
"Nowhere important as of the moment…" Snake said as he watched the locals celebrate while blending in. "Why does it matter?"
"I guess it doesn't," said Otacon. "I just was wondering if you got lost in the crowd or were busy enjoying the local festivities with some of the civilians. You did enjoy being out in the world with me and Sunny before… you know…"
"Nothing happening right now is worth celebrating," said Snake. "Besides, that's not what we're here for anyway. All these civilians are completely unaware that a mad businessman has been kidnapping people from all over the world and trafficking them here to be brainwashed into his posthuman army."
"Dante's pockets are vast," said Otacon. "He's managed to convince most of the world that Western media outlets are making an enemy out of him with the help of his own media influences."
"Speaking of which, how did Dante become so wealthy in the first place?" said Snake.
"The official story is that he got rich after absorbing the assets of World Marshal Incorporated, and establishing it as his PMC based in the US, allowing for him to form a more positive relationship with the West… However, rumors are he managed to hack into the various Swiss bank accounts that the Patriots stored the Philosopher's Legacy in after he managed to find them with the help of some of his father's former followers… He is Zero's clone, after all."
"His megacorporation, Firelake, bought the assets of World Marshal, Inc.?" said Snake. Grunting, Snake said, "I didn't know that. World Marshal was the most powerful PMC in the world after Outer Heaven was disbanded, along with the war economy. Speaking of which… that Senator guy who died in the Middle East, the one responsible for reviving the war economy… didn't he own World Marshal, Inc.?"
"You're talking about Senator Armstrong?" said Otacon. "That's correct. Raiden was the one who assassinated him. But despite his efforts, the Senator's plans for reviving the war economy ultimately came to fruition."
"Right. So that's why Jack went rogue; it wasn't because he wanted to abandon Rose and his new kid… it was because he had to do so to protect them." Looking down, Snake said, "And yet it was all for nothing in the end. They're posthumans now."
Otacon said to Snake, "President Brady's a lot like the President that Senator Armstrong wanted to become in that regard."
"What do you mean?"
"She essentially started the war economy after public outcry from what happened in Afghanistan. Then she used her own PMC, War Machine Plus, to hunt down the criminals on Desperado Enterprises' payroll all in order to profit off of the war economy she started!"
"I should've known President Brady was crooked," said Snake. "I wonder what her endgame in all of this is…"
"Maybe you should ask that mole helping you," said Otacon.
"I suppose I should," said Snake.
"Speaking of moles… word is that Colonel Campbell was the real mole who turned the others in to Dante to be brainwashed."
"That doesn't make sense… I know Colonel Campbell- at least, I did before he was brainwashed…" said Snake. "How good is the intel?"
"It's pretty good…" said Otacon.
"Snake, this is Sunny," said Sunny. "I need to brief you on your mission. Otacon, if it's all right with you… this part n-needs to be discussed between me and
Snake only… President Brady's orders."
"Right," said Otacon, "I suspected she was keeping things from me as well. Hang in there, Snake."
Snake nodded to Otacon as he went offline.
Sunny said to him, "Thank you for not telling Otacon about Mikki, Snake," said Sunny. "It's n- not just that it's important to me… President Brady wanted to keep her identity as compartmentalized as possible since she's a mole."
"I see," said Snake. "Speaking of which, where is she right now?"
"On her way to meet you now," Sunny said to him.
"Isn't that risking her cover?"
"Yes…" said Sunny, "but it's part of the plan to get you into Firelake's headquarters in Rome. Remember, Snake, your orders are to kill Colonel Campbell and Dante's Apostles. Actually, you need to interface with Colonel Campbell's BISECT to kill him."
"What? That's a bad way to go… That'll fry his brain," said Snake.
"We don't have a choice," said Sunny. "He's our best shot at understanding Dante's plans. I've got to go now. Sunny out."
Snake looked out at the crowd in apprehension, when a waitress approached him.
"Are you all right sir?" said the waitress.
Snake looked up at the waitress as she smiled at him.
"I'm… fine… I'm just a little tired from my trip here."
"I understand," said the waitress. "Your plus-one is here, sir."
"Plus-one?"
"Her name is… Mikki Moskova… am I saying that right? She said she booked a reservation for you ahead of time. You must've gotten here before her."
"Ah… that's right," Snake said, trying to make it sound convincing. "Please bring her over."
The waitress returned with Ultra Mouse, who was wearing a similarly revealing red dress to the one she wore in Bangkok, and a gold Carnevale mask.
"Can I get you something to drink?"
"Can you get us some red wine?" said Ultra Mouse. "The best you have."
"Sure," said the waitress, "I'll be right back."
She's drinking again, Snake thought.
Snake said, "Mikki Moskova… I assume that's not your real last name, either."
"No, it's not," said Ultra Mouse. "Neither is Mikki Moscow."
"Mikki Moscow?"
Blushing, she said, "That's my um… other cover surname."
"Uh-huh… What's it for?"
"OnlyTraps. I assumed you'd discovered my profile by now while looking into me."
"Not exactly," said Snake, "although if it's that easy to discover your identity, that's a problem, Mikki."
"You're not still upset at me, are you?"
"Not upset," said Snake, "but I still don't trust you."
"Right… I understand."
"I can't be seen with you," said Snake.
"Seen with who, stranger?" Mikki smiled as she said, "I was told to brief you and have you switch places with my chauffeur. Figured we might as well do it over lunch."
"But Dante's—"
"—a mega-rich cartoon villain businessman cliché… I figured I'd play the part of my cliché as well and cheat on him while spending a little of his money during Carnevale."
Snake sighed, and sat back in his chair. "All right then. Brief me."
Ultra Mouse and Snake talked while they occasionally sipped from their glasses of wine and ate their respective meals of lasagna and spaghetti Bolognese.
"I hope you can forgive me for lying to you," said Ultra Mouse.
"You did what you had to in order to survive… at least I suspect so," said Snake. "Still, I don't like being kept in the dark. Try to be more transparent with me in the future, and I might trust you more."
"All right…" said Ultra Mouse, looking down at her plate for a moment. "Thank you, Snake."
"How do I get into Firelake headquarters?"
"My initial plan was to have you hide in plain sight. Dante believes you'll make your entrance during the night shift due to false intel Fat Snake fed him. To bend that to our will, you'll enter the lobby during the day when the civilian working staff are entering the lobby in droves, use them as cover while the backdoor I planted into the floor's security systems prevents them from spotting you once you're in."
"Okay, so why's that the initial plan?"
"Dante has invested in… more security… recently…" said Ultra Mouse. "He's hired some ex-members of the local mafia onto his security detail… more likely brainwashed them. And your friends are here too…"
"My friends are here?"
"Fat Snake said he's working on a way to get you past them. Given the limited capability of your current artificial body, you wouldn't make it two steps into the building without being killed by them. We're to meet him in the underground parking lot. Regardless, to get past the laboratory and top floor security… that's going to take some more doing for the both of us."
"All right…" said Snake. "What are on the laboratory and top floors that's so important?"
"The top floor is where the meeting between the Apostles will take place," said Ultra Mouse. "As for the lab, its servers contain data I need to complete my antivirus program, HUMANALIVE, I'm putting together to counter-hack Dante… he's working on creating an artificial superintelligence to rival the network of the Patriots."
"The Patriots?" said Snake. "He's planning on re-creating them?"
"Using modern tech, it's more like he'll create their true successor. Once we get that data, we might stand a better chance at stopping Metal Gear DAEMON, as it's powering that, similar to how GW powered Arsenal Gear… and Outer Haven."
"And the Apostles? Why do I need to take them out?"
"They're Dante's associates," she said, "but we also want to hear what they have to say… specifically about where Metal Gear DAEMON is going to be launched from. That piece of the puzzle was missing from even Dante's Infernal Conflict's Evolution files we stole. Hence why you're going to infiltrate their meeting by switching places with Colonel Campbell, and then take them all out in one fell swoop."
"Including Dante?"
"No, not yet. You need to avoid him if you can for now, Snake… If he sees you when you're not in disguise, he'll kill you," said Ultra Mouse.
"I figured as much," said Snake.
Snake sighed, and said to Ultra Mouse, "Am I going to have to kill the Colonel?"
"Yes, that was Hannah's other objective for you. Why? I heard you were already briefed about that."
Snake said nothing and looked away. "Did he turn the others in to be brainwashed?"
"That's what I was told," said Ultra Mouse. "It would make sense. He's the posthuman who Dante uses to organize his human trafficking schemes… taking innocent transhumans to be turned posthuman, often times from Third World nations, and the more impoverished populations of First World ones."
"That's not like him!" said Snake.
"You're right… I know this is going to be hard, Snake…" said Mikki, "but the real Colonel's gone now… His consciousness was erased, just like the others…"
"You said you would find a way to get his consciousness back though," said Snake. "You'd find a way to undo what Dante did to them… make them transhuman again."
"We don't have enough time to come up with a solution to undo the brainwashing process right now, Snake," said Ultra Mouse. "That's part of why I need access to the laboratory; I still don't have enough data for a working solution."
Snake looked away, and sighed.
"I'm sorry, Snake," said Ultra Mouse. "This is my mission as much as it is yours."
"Easy for you to say," said Snake. "You don't know the Colonel like I do. You don't care about him."
Mikki looked down at her plate. "Right…" she said, "I don't…"
Confused as Mikki's behavior, Snake grunted, and thought, I guess this is it, Colonel… either I kill you, or…
Snake shut his eyes at the thought of it as the waitress returned after Ultra Mouse eyed them down.
"Would you like your check now?" said the waitress. "The gentleman didn't eat very much."
"We're in a little bit of a hurry," said Ultra Mouse to the waitress. "We need to be somewhere."
"Of course," said the waitress. "I hope you both enjoy Carnevale."
As the waitress left the check, Snake thought while looking at it, sheesh, this meal is expensive.
"I'll pay," said Ultra Mouse. "Let's go get into the limousine, Mr. Chauffeur."
Snake looked at Ultra Mouse, and nodded back as they got up.
As Snake drove the limo through the streets of Rome toward Paradigm's main headquarters building, he occasionally glanced back at Mikki, who was sitting in the back of the limo in silence, staring out the window at the crowds with a sad look on her face.
"Mikki," said Snake.
Mikki looked up at him.
"I'm sorry if I was harsh with my words back in Russia," said Snake. "I get that you're probably just as scared as I am, if not more so… after all, you're not used to combat. Worse yet, you have to get close to that slimeball Dante and pretend that you love him."
"You said what you needed to," said Ultra Mouse as she looked at Snake. "If anything, it helped. It reminded me of everything I have to lose, and what I've lost already. Who I've lost already."
Mikki looked out the window. "All those years spent learning, getting experience… first in supercomputer science… then advanced mechanical engineering… then cybernetics and transhuman science… I thought I was doing the right thing. Now that I look back, I had my head buried so deep in my research that I realize there's no one left alive… no one still human… to care other than me."
"Mechanical engineering… Is that how you knew Sunny?" said Snake.
"Yes and no…" said Mikki. "I share a past with Sunny. We both were held hostage by the Patriots."
Mikki said to Snake while trembling, "You're afraid of losing your friends, Snake… That killing them by your own hand will be painful… As for me, I'm afraid mine are already gone."
Snake said, "Then… you've had to do things to people you cared about too?"
Mikki smiled slightly, and nodded as her mascara started to run.
Looking back at the road and the Firelake building ahead of him, Snake said, "We're here."
"All right," said Mikki. "Park in the underground parking lot."
Snake nodded, and started to activate his Soliton Radar as he drove into the underground parking lot.
Fortunately, the car with Mikki was registered for the parking lot.
As Mikki got out of the limo, Cyber Snake got out with her, only to find Fat Snake was waiting for them.
Fat Snake was wearing a gold-laced dinner suit and Carnevale mask while spinning a personal cheese pizza on one hand and eating a triple-scoop gelato cone in the other.
"You have urgent business with Dante, Mikki," said Fat Snake. "Where have you been?"
"Just out for a ride," said Mikki.
Fat Snake looked at Cyber Snake, finished his gelato cone, and wiped the gelato off of his chin with a handkerchief as he said, "I see… Picking up a side hustle are you, Mr. Loyal Firelake Employee? Well, you can ride the elevator up to the lobby with us."
Snake nodded quietly, and followed them to the elevator.
He looked at Mikki. She looked at Fat Snake, then back at Cyber Snake with a worried look on her face.
Snake tensed himself, and looked at his Soliton Radar augmentation.
The lobby was swarming.
"By the way, Mr. Loyal Employee… I have a new perspective on things for you," said Fat Snake while chewing a piece of his pizza, as he handed him a set of sunglasses.
"What are these for?" said Cyber Snake as he looked at the sunglasses Fat Snake was holding out in his free hand.
Ultra Mouse was still looking back and forth between Cyber Snake and Fat Snake as if she was confused.
"Prints containing the codes I obtained from Dante to access his servers in the lab. If you look into the eyes of a monster for long enough, they tend to look back at you."
"You're paraphrasing Nietzsche?" said Cyber Snake.
"The quote has a certain significance to me and the situation I find us all in, as it should to you… brother," said Fat Snake.
Snake frowned at this.
"Are you willing to kill your precious Colonel Campbell, or should I do it for you?" said Fat Snake.
Snake frowned, and tensed himself again.
"Leave it to me," said Snake as he took the sunglasses and put them on.
Snake saw there was a microscopic code tag planted on the inside of the glasses. He scanned the code with his eyes.
Suddenly he felt a cold, empty feeling gnawing at him inside his brain-computer.
What? What did that do? Said Snake. I can't tell!
"Did… did you give him what I think you just did… Ocelot?" said Ultra Mouse.
"It's the only way to access Dante's files…" said Fat Snake. "He's updated the biometric scanners in the halls leading to the meeting room and the server room. He needs more than just a registered member of the Apostles' eyes, fingerprints, and voice pattern to get through the biometric scanners without getting destroyed by the sentry turret guarding the hallway. It shoots white-hot spears capable of piercing through any endoskeleton easily that will explode shortly after."
Snake felt a feeling riding up this elevator, not quite sickness or claustrophobia, as those were sensations only felt by human minds... no, this was a feeling he swore he recognized from some dream… or perhaps a memory… of his.
"Liquid, what's happening to me?" yelled Cyber Snake as Fat Snake got off on another parking lot floor.
"I have to go get Dante from his parking spot, and distract him…" said Fat Snake, tapping his forehead. "Don't squander this opportunity, Snake… Dante is hoarding his wealth of information on those servers."
Mikki looked at him as she said, "Snake?"
"What the hell…" said Snake as he realized he was looking at himself from somewhere inside the elevator. "Mikki… I'm… having an out-of-body experience of some kind… I don't know what's happening to me… Did you and Liquid plan this?"
Mikki looked around the elevator, eventually looking at his perspective, where he could see that his skin was dissolving off of his endoskeleton. "No, I think Liquid did this on his own, under orders from Hannah Brady… They must've had access to recent intel that I didn't. But I think I know what's happening to you."
She grabbed his body he was looking at and stroked his endoskeleton with her hands while looking back at him as his consciousness slowly went out of the elevator doors into the parking lot with Fat Snake. "There's no time to explain. What's about to happen is going to feel very weird… Please, you have to be strong for me. You have to be strong!"
And as Snake's consciousness was separated from his body by the elevator doors as they began to close on him, he looked at his body one last time.
Oh my god… my body, it's… Mikki… my body's turning into- Mikki, is that… S…
… … … … …
Snake woke up to realize he was trapped under a red Porsche that had seemingly flipped over; he was also covered in his own artificial blood.
As the insides of the car caught on fire, Snake screamed as his skin burned off but his endoskeleton remained intact. He ripped off his seatbelt and crawled out of the car's wreckage and away from the red Porsche before it exploded.
Snake looked at his reflection on the pavement of the road outside Firelake Headquarters as it started to rain. Covered in blood, he looked like a demon.
"What do you think?" said Fat Snake as his reflection stood next to Cyber Snake's.
Snake turned to look at Fat Snake to his right; he was still wearing his matching Carnevale mask, and diamond-studded yellow-golden suit, only now he had a hat on as well.
"Like my hat trick, brother?" said Fat Snake. "If you look inside it, you'll find not one, two, but three snakes are there!"
"Three… snakes… ?" Looking behind him, Fat Snake must've crashed his yellow-golden-painted sports car into Cyber Snake's somewhere as he made a break for it out of the parking lot.
"Do you think we'll make a proper devil of him yet, brother?" said Liquid Snake.
"What?" said Solid Snake.
"No, he needs more time here," said Solidus Snake as his reflection stood next to Cyber Snake's and Fat Snake's.
Snake turned to look at Solidus to his left; he was wearing a black suit and tie, and an eyepatch over his right eye.
"Solidus!" said Snake.
"Glad you recognize me, brother," said Solidus as several tentacle-like arm augmentations ripped out of Solidus's back. "Do you know what's happening to you?"
"No," said Snake apprehensively as he tensed himself.
Fat Snake said, "I could feel something in him start to give, back in the elevator before the merge, Solidus… Perhaps he is ready to complete his mission of his own accord… We may not need to take over his body."
"You may have seen a change in him, Liquid, but I see more than you do right now. After all, my consciousness may be buried somewhere in his mind, but the reality of things is that I am the entity most capable of monitoring, processing, and interpreting human thought, and in its purest form."
"Right… so, what's your interpretation of him?" said Fat Snake.
"I think he's scared," said Solidus. "Scared at the thought of losing his friends. Someone like that isn't fit to kill them himself."
Snake suddenly looked around at the civilians that had stopped to stare at him, and saw the Colonel, Mei Ling, Raiden, Naomi, Rosemary, Otacon, Akiba, and Meryl, among the crowd.
Then gravity seemed to stop working, and Snake screamed as he fell up into the sky along with the other members of the crowd.
Snake smashed into the frame of a construction crane hovering several stories over the ground at one of the skyscrapers that was still undergoing construction adjacent to the skyscraper that was Firelake's main headquarters.
He grabbed onto it with his adhesive grip before he flew further up into the atmosphere.
He then managed to stand up upside-down underneath the crane, while he saw Solidus standing in front of him.
"Fuck…" said Snake as he shut his eyes for a moment and shook his head to try and snap out of it, "this isn't real… it can't be."
"But then again, brother, isn't reality merely an extension of our own perceptions?" said Solidus.
"An extension of reality…" said Snake as he stumbled and fell against the crane again, his adhesive grips failing for a moment because of some members of the crowd that hit the crane. He caught his balance. "You're telling me this is all just another VR simulation? Only it's happening inside my BISECT?"
Snake looked around, and asked, "Where am I in the real world?"
"Right now, your body is in the lobby of the Paradigm Headquarters. Your brain scan identified you as one George Sears," said Solidus with a grin. "You passed that scan."
"Solidus? Me?" said Snake. "I don't understand."
"This is the new plan, brother…" said Solidus.
"Like I said, Snake… Your friends and dozens of mercenaries sent from Dante's allies in the Italian Mafia were waiting to ambush you in the lobby," said Fat Snake as he was standing on the other side of the crane, underneath Snake's feet.
Snake looked underneath him.
"Liquid?"
"They were searching every single employee that came into the building. Even if you did have the will to overcome your anticipatory grief… you wouldn't have made it ten feet past the brain scan. You may be an experienced spy, but you're still a foreigner to this brave new world, Snake."
Snake looked down at Fat Snake, and frowned. "How do I get back control of my body?"
"I wouldn't advise trying to get it back, at least yet," said Fat Snake. "The biometric scanner in the hallway leading to Paradigm's central server room on the top floor is designed to penetrate your endoskeleton and BISECT with a probe… scanning your body down to the molecular level, as well as every thought, feeling, and memory you have. In order to pass the next scan, you don't just need to obtain the biometrics of a member of the Apostles, or disguise yourself as one, you need to become one… and that means obtaining a copy of his consciousness and uploading it to your BISECT to masquerade as yours."
"But Solidus is dead… Dante would know that!" said Cyber Snake.
"Actually…" said Fat Snake, "obtaining Solidus's biometric data through me and creating a transhuman version of his body and consciousness was a part of his plan… since he had trouble finding Big Boss's corpse. You can thank your old self, and your friends for protecting it. It's the key to unlocking the Reality of Things."
Cyber Snake breathed in and out heavily, and said, "All right… Things are starting to make sense… You disguised me as Solidus to bypass the scanner… and my friends… and you obtained his consciousness… somehow… through yourself."
Fat Snake said, "Between missions, you were taken to Geneva to receive an upgrade to your endoskeleton, Snake. Your eyes are equipped with state-of-the-art 3-dimensional analysis cameras that allow you to capture 3-dimensional pictures of people… Once you've covered their body and face with your eyes completely, you can print their entire appearance onto your endoskeleton like you're a human 3-D printer… right down to the textures, pigments, shapes, and layers. Capturing Solidus's consciousness was just icing on the cake."
"Why don't I remember that?" yelled Snake.
"Perhaps Hannah's the one keeping more from you than you realize, Snake…" said Fat Snake. "You were always a useful puppet to those pulling your strings."
"Right…" said Snake as he grimaced.
… … … … …
Back in reality, Snake felt an employee pass through him in the lobby as he was looking at Solidus while press conference associates hounded a nearby Dante with microphones and questions.
"Rumors are you have a mistress, Mr. Drakovich, is that true?"
"What do you have to say about the progress of your philanthropic efforts to repair Hong Kong, Mr. Drakovich?"
"Can you comment on the allegations that President Hannah Brady and other world leaders have made about you and Firelake Industries, Mr. Drakovich?"
Dante stayed silent, and waved his hand at the press while looking away from their cameras while getting into a limousine.
Snake saw a glimpse of Mikki heading his way as well.
Her hand went through Snake's body for a moment as well. She nodded goodbye to him.
"I'm still having an out-of-body experience," said Snake.
"And it's good that you are," said Liquid as the two of them walked next to Solidus.
Solidus was patted down by Meryl.
"She's patting me down, isn't she?" said Snake. "Solidus is me now… My disguise… Printed over my real body."
"Correct, brother," said Liquid.
"So, this is what you meant by the Nietzsche quote… In order to survive this mission, I had to become Solidus."
"Not entirely," said Liquid, "but you're getting there."
"I have to get to the Apostles meeting… and the laboratory Ultra Mouse was talking about… it's our best chance of stopping Metal Gear DAEMON."
"You'll have to do so then before the real Dante suspects something is wrong," said Liquid as they continued walking next to Dante when the receptionist spoke to Dante.
"Mr. Sears? Why are you here so early? The meeting you're scheduled for isn't until the evening."
"I'm here to handle some other business of Dante's in the meantime," Solidus bluffed.
"Um… all right, sir," said the receptionist, looking at Solidus confusedly. Solidus grinned, and nodded as he, Fat Snake, and Cyber Snake walked forward.
They went to another set of elevators within the skyscraper and called them.
A security camera next to the elevator looked at them.
"Your mouse friend better have hacked into lobby security," said Fat Snake.
"She said she did…" said Snake.
Ultra Mouse then walked to them as the elevator opened, nodded discreetly at Solidus and Cyber Snake, and she entered the elevator with them.
"Solidus," Ultra Mouse said as she wrapped her arms around Solidus and kissed him on the lips as they got in the elevator.
Snake looked at Ultra Mouse and raised an eyebrow, then said to Liquid, "It looks like she's kissing Solidus, but isn't she actually kissing…"
"You?" Liquid chuckled. "Don't worry, brother… you'll get your turn with her."
Snake said, "No, I—"
"What is it, Georgie?" said Ultra Mouse as she looked at Solidus.
"You'll let practically anyone lay their hands on you, won't you?" said Solidus.
Ultra Mouse stopped kissing Solidus. "Oh no…"
She looked at Liquid. "He's not the mole? Snake's worst enemy?"
"My worst enemy?" said Snake. "What does that have to do with you—"
She looked at Snake with a worried expression on her face.
Snake said, "Does she know where I am right now?"
"Why else would she be staring your way?" said Liquid. "There's no one else in the elevator but you… Me… Her, and Solidus... four, or rather… three individuals… I think."
Ultra Mouse looked at Liquid. "Who's Snake's worst enemy? It wasn't you, Liquid… was it Big Boss?"
"I don't think so…" said Liquid. "Does that mean the posthuman copy of Dante's code is incomplete?"
Ultra Mouse looked at Snake. Her faced looked sad for a moment.
"Uh… could- could you hear us this whole time Mikki?" Snake said, his face turning red.
"Yes, Snake…" Ultra Mouse said, looking away. "I've been monitoring your BISECT this whole time… Right now more than ever to make sure the copy of Solidus's consciousness doesn't go haywire… that, and… and…"
"Elevator conversations don't get more melodramatic than this…" mused Fat Snake.
"Oh God… I was wrong…" Ultra Mouse looked back at Solidus, then sniffled, and stifled a cry as she wiped a couple tears from her eyes, and walked over to the elevator's window.
"Start the elevator. We need to get to the laboratory."
Solidus chuckled, and had his BISECT scanned to get them access to the laboratory levels.
As the elevator rose, Mikki looked out at the Roman skyline and Solidus walked up beside her and grinned.
"Your grief, your pain, your suffering… Your guilt you're feeling because of Snake… You can suppress it, you know… with your vices."
"I'm not in the mood right now, Solidus," said Ultra Mouse.
"Perhaps this will help with that," said Solidus as he spun Ultra Mouse around with several of his tentacle augmentations, and forced her against the window pane by choking her neck with two of his tentacles.
Ultra Mouse yelped, and tried to grab Solidus's tentacles, only for him to use more of them to swat her arms away violently and pin them down.
She opened her mouth due to running low on oxygen and shut her eyes as he choked her.
"Solidus, stop it!" yelled Snake, who ran toward Solidus before Liquid stood in front of Snake to block him, and shook his head no.
"Look at me, mouse," said Solidus.
Ultra Mouse opened her eyes and frowned as she looked at Solidus.
"I may only be a partial copy you created of Solidus's posthuman consciousness, but now, I have partial access to the Reality of Things through this body. Now I know who you really are. An Apostle knows who you really are," said Solidus as he frowned and tightened his grip on Ultra Mouse's neck, causing her face to turn red. "Imagine what would happen if Dante found out who you really are, that you were standing in an elevator with Solid Snake and his two mole brothers as he went off to do a press conference before the big meeting… Don't you think he'd be mad at you? That he might kill you? You and the other two moles?"
Fat Snake and Cyber Snake now looked at Solidus now too.
"But I also find it amusing… how far you've fallen into desperation, Mikki," Solidus taunted. "While I'm not going to kill you due to the new parameters you've put in place to keep me in line, just imagine what Dante would do to you once he realizes who you really are? Maybe… something like this?"
Solidus hit Mikki in the solar plexus with an electrified tentacle, and released her grip on her neck. Mikki gasped for air, and sunk to her knees; her red dress was partially burnt through, and the skin on her neck and breasts were red from the effects of the electricity and Solidus's inhuman strength.
"That's enough, Fake Solidus!" yelled Snake. "That's my body you're forcing on her; I won't stand for it!"
"Your body?" Solidus laughed. "You really don't get it, do you, brother? It's our body now, and I have as much control over it as you would normally right now, so like Liquid here said… wait your turn."
Snake looked at Solidus and frowned. "Not to mention that thanks to what Mikki helped Dante build… it won't matter whose body is whose for much longer… There won't be any human consciousnesses left to inhabit them, only artificial ones."
Solidus walked up to Snake, and looked him in the eye. "I wonder if… once Mikki tells you everything she's done, that I know she's done now… you'll be so protective of her. Hell, you might just kill her yourself."
Snake looked down at Mikki, who looked up at the two of them while clutching her neck and covering her breasts.
Snake looked back at Mikki, and said, "Fine. We'll find out together if she's trustworthy… once you get us into your server room and show me what she helped create in the lab. It's about time I got to see Dante's files. We stole them from him and his Apostles fair and square in Hong Kong."
"You drive a hard bargain," said Solidus as he tried to do a crotch grab on Snake with one of his tentacles. "Damn… I thought that might work…" he said.
"The rabbit hole… or should I say mouse hole… runs deeper than that, Snake…" said Solidus as he burned a hole through Mikki's short skirt with another electric attack from one of his tentacles, zapping her inner thighs.
Mikki screamed.
"If you think my megacorporation, Firelake Industries, and I are solely responsible for the misfortunes of you and your friends… you're sorely mistaken."
Snake looked at Solidus as he continued. "Mikki, President Brady, and her own megacorporation, War Machine Plus… if you take a good look around, you'll find that the only people you know that you were able to trust are posthuman now, Snake… Maybe at some point, you'll see why Dante decided transhumanity needed to become posthumanity completely."
Snake grimaced. "So my hunch was right… Dante plans to erase humanity's collective consciousness... Why?"
"Ask your mouse friend here who made the mistake of not wearing undergarments underneath her dress."
Looking down at Mikki, who was breathing heavily on her hands and knees, Snake said, "Mikki, tell me everything."
"I'll show you," said Mikki. "Once we clear the laboratories of guards… I'll give you back control of your body."
Snake looked up.
Fat Snake said to Cyber Snake as the elevator stopped, "We're here."
Solidus smiled, and turned around as his tentacles folded back into the back of endoskeleton again and his flesh regenerated over them.
"Cyber Snake, Fat Snake… and Daemonic Snake. Quite the hat trick."
As Snake helped Mikki get back up, and he turned to face the laboratories, he dissociated again.
… … … … …
Snake woke to find himself surrounded by his friends in a VR simulation, the type he used to take part in where the environment was barren and digital, like he was sneaking through the innards of a computer.
Fat Snake and Solidus appeared in front of Cyber Snake again.
"I'm in a VR training sim…" said Cyber Snake.
"Inside your BISECT once again," said Fat Snake. "But if you ever want to get out, brother, you'll have to pass the sim. President Brady is concerned that you don't have what it takes to stop Dante and your friends, so she's putting you through a test. Kill your friends in this simulation, Snake… they're no different than what you saw that was left of them in real life… Their consciousnesses are nothing more than computer programs like these ones."
Fat Snake said, "Despite that she'd prefer that Solidus replace you after he blows his cover killing the Apostles during the meeting, I think you have what it takes… You've killed former friends… not to mention family… of yours before, Snake… and I can tell you're starting to move past the initial stage of grief… After denial and shock… comes anger."
Cyber Snake said to Fat Snake, "All right… They're just computer programs… I'll pass this sim, and then I'll kill the Colonel."
Fat Snake grinned. "Good. Time to get started. I'll be in the real, engaging with Dante's elite posthuman PMC soldiers guarding the laboratories."
Cyber Snake tensed himself as the simulation started.
"Use your stealth and combat skills, brother…" said Fat Snake. "Kill them!"
As Cyber Snake was engaging in the sim inside his BISECT, Solidus and Fat Snake were engaging the elite posthuman PMC soldiers guarding the laboratories.
"Solidus?" said one of the soldiers.
"And Mikki?" said another.
"What are you doing in the laboratories? Mikki's supposed to be with Dante, and Solidus… You're early for the meeting with the other Apostles."
Ocelot said to Mikki via his C3, "Is laboratory security disabled, Ultra Mouse?"
"It is," said Mikki. "Cameras are disabled, but we have a limited amount of time before their BISECTs have to send a status update to Dante's hivemind. Let's hope Snake has the will to pull this off."
"He has what it takes," said Ocelot as he pulled out his revolvers and started shooting the guards, while Solidus knocked out the scientists in the room with electric shocks from his tentacles.
Cyber Snake was fighting his friends by sneaking up to them and killing them with silenced weapons and CQC in the sim.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are, Snake!" said Raiden.
"What the hell? Why are you doing that?" yelled a Firelake mercenary.
Soldiers approached Solidus with electrified staffs, only for Solidus to swat them away and beat them to death with his tentacles.
Snake managed to kill Raiden by sneaking up on him and stabbing him to death with his sword drill while parrying Raiden's counterattacks with his own swords.
"My wrath is stronger than yours, Snake!" yelled Mei Ling as her fireflies descended on Snake.
Fat Snake shot several guards with in succession with his revolvers while they fired at him with their automatic weapons, only for their shots to bounce off of his energy shield.
Snake hid in a ventilation shaft to avoid them and shot Mei Ling from a distance with his M4 Custom.
"What the hell?" yelled a soldier. "Where'd Ocelot come from?"
"Ocelot?" yelled another. "I thought we were fighting Solidus!"
"Why would Solidus attack us? He's an Apostle!"
"They're onto us…" Mikki whimpered as she hid underneath a laboratory table as the massacre unfolded.
"Take cover!" yelled a guard as he tried to cloak himself using an optical camouflage augmentation of his and shoot Ocelot from a distance.
"You can't escape your fate, Snake," said Naomi as she tried to shoot Snake with her sniper rifle.
Snake managed to hide behind cover, and evade Naomi's shots while shooting at her with his own M14 EBR sniper rifle.
Ocelot managed to see the guard, and shoot him with and electric round from his revolver, disabling his cloak and killing him.
Snake managed to land a headshot on Naomi, killing her.
Meanwhile, Rosemary tried to burn Snake out of hiding with her flamethrower and jetpack.
"Burn in hell, Snake!" she yelled.
"We'll have to use grenades!" yelled a guard as he readied his rifle's underbarrel grenade launcher.
Ocelot's energy shield augmentation deflected the grenades launched at him.
"A dud?" yelled the guard.
Snake managed to burn avoid Rosemary's flamethrower and jetpack's fires, snuck around, and shot her jetpack until it exploded. Rosemary burned alive.
"Quickly, someone upload the status update from your BISECT! Raise the alarm!"
Solidus managed to electrocute several more of the guards until their skin burned off and their endoskeletons short-circuited before they could do so.
Akiba attacked Snake by taking control of several other guards Snake snuck up on and killed in the sim.
Snake screamed as he was discovered, and shot them all with his M4, including Akiba.
"Engage me in CQC, Snake…" said Dante as his fists crackled with electricity.
Solidus swatted several guards approaching him away with his tentacles, and killed them by strangling them all until they were decapitated.
Snake managed to stab Dante to death with his sword drill after beating him in CQC.
"Shoot him!" Dante said to Meryl.
"Y- yes, sir…" said Meryl as she readied her Patriot machine gun arm augmentations.
"MERYL!" yelled Snake, as he was now bloody, bruised, and had been shot and burned with fire and electricity several times.
A guard approached Ocelot wielding a machine gun with one hand and a riot shield with the other.
He tried shooting Ocelot's energy shield, which caused it to start to wear off.
But Ocelot managed to kill him with well-placed shots from his revolver.
"Oh, Snake… I'm so sorry…" yelled Meryl as Snake managed to cut off her arm augmentations with his drill sword and best her in combat with his M4 Custom.
As the last guard crawled away, leaving a trail of blood on the tile floors, Ocelot shot him in the head with his revolver.
As Meryl lay on the floor in a pool of blood, crying, Snake shot her in the head with his SOCOM pistol.
Breathing heavily, Snake sighed, and sunk to his knees as the simulation started to dissolve before his eyes, and he felt himself return to his body.
Solidus's veins glowed yellow as his appearance transformed back into Snake's for the time being.
Mikki peeked out from cover.
"You… you did it, Snake!" said Mikki.
"I did it?" said Snake. Looking around at the corpses of the massacred guards in the laboratory, Snake said, "What happened here?"
"Ocelot and Solidus took care of the guards while you were completing the simulation," said Mikki. "You should've gotten Hannah's trust back."
"For now," said Snake. "I still have to kill the Apostles… and the Colonel."
Mikki ran to the laboratory servers and started to hack into them with her BISECT.
Fat Snake said to Mikki as he spun and then holstered his revolvers, "Have you found a way to hack into their hivemind, Ultra Mouse?"
"Working on it…" said Mikki as her veins and eyes glowed bright blue while she held up her hands to the servers. "I'm using my know-how to try and find a way to develop a temporary workaround. This will allow us to breach Dante's local hivemind connected to the Reality of Things, and prevent Solidus's cover from being blown until we get to the meeting by putting their consciousness and sensory detail-sharing status report system in their BISECTs on a loop of old footage, not too unlike from how you do it with security cameras."
Snake tried to put two and two together for a second. "Mikki, I just realized based on something Otacon said on our prior mission… Is the Reality of Things Dante's… or is it just the new Internet of Things?"
"I'm surprised you didn't know," said Mikki, "but that's correct. This is public knowledge, Snake… The Reality of Things is the Internet of Things for transhumans… and now posthumans. Hannah Brady and some of her own conglomerate's subsidiaries focusing on supercomputer and transhuman technology were the ones who created the Reality of Things as a global operating system where people are connected to it through their BISECTs, not just electronic objects. Dante's just planning to hack into it with his posthuman software, HUMANDIE, that's a part of the supercomputer running Metal Gear DAEMON."
"Damn…" said Snake, rubbing his forehead. "I guess I still am too old to understand all this stuff."
"There, thank God," said Mikki. "I've managed to hack into his local hivemind. Our cover's intact. Now, I'm going to stay here and try to get enough of a sample of HUMANDIE so I can start working on HUMANALIVE… as well as see if I can figure out where Metal Gear DAEMON is being launched from."
"Make sure to send me a copy of the DICE files," said Snake.
"Of course," said Mikki. "I owe you."
Ocelot said, "We've got a problem, mouse… The laboratories may be soundproof, but for some reason, Dante is sending more guards to investigate. Perhaps someone heard my shots."
"Damn it!" yelled Mikki. "We're on a timer, then. Ocelot, you need to clean up the bodies in here. Snake… I recommend you turn on your Solidus disguise again until you're in the clear."
"Got it," said Snake.
"I'm staying here until I've got a solution in place," said Mikki.
"Will you be able to find a solution to save my friends?" said Snake.
"Maybe," said Mikki, "but it's very unlikely I'll be able to implement it before you face Colonel Campbell. You've got to kill him, Snake."
"All right," Snake frowned, and looked around at the bodies and gore all over the floors of the laboratory.
Avoiding taking the elevator, and not wanting to risk blowing Solidus's cover, Snake headed up the stairways to the top floor.
However, upon hearing more guards coming down the stairs toward him, he quickly headed to an office floor.
Snake used his Mk. VI stun gun to knock out any civilian employees or guards that he came across and hide their bodies. He avoided any security cameras and laser tripwire grids lining the hallways, and then hacked into a door lock with his BISECT to enter an office room.
Looking out the windows of the roof, he saw that guards had lined the skybridge that led to the part of the skyscraper that the Apostles' meeting was taking place at on the top floor.
Improvising, looking at how it was raining outside now, Snake carved a hole in the window, and climbed out onto the skyscraper's outer walls with his adhesive grips.
He climbed across the bottom of the skybridge underneath the guards with his adhesive grips while using his OctoCamo to camouflage himself enough to blend in with the rain, eventually making it to the other side of the building without being seen.
As the storm got worse and a bolt of lightning came down nearby, Snake yelled and nearly lost his grip as three of his four adhesive grips failed, leaving him clinging to the side of the building with one hand.
He looked down briefly at the colorful lights of Rome's skyline and the streets beneath him through the rain before looking back up again to avoid getting sick.
Seeing that the veins in his hand were flashing green and red, Snake looked around desperately for a solution.
Seeing an elevator going up nearby, Snake readied his grappling line with his free hand, and fired it at the bottom of the elevator car, and detached from the wall, swinging and then wallrunning across the skyscraper until he was beneath the elevator as it carried him up.
Grappling up to the bottom of the elevator car, Snake managed to climb to the top of it, and cut open a ventilation shaft above it with his sword drill.
He then crawled through the vent until he ended up in a closet somewhere on the top floor.
There, he changed back into his Solidus disguise, and felt his mind leave his body again.
It was nighttime now.
Outside the windows, the other Apostles were arriving via helicopters.
Cyber Snake watched Solidus from outside his body as he walked towards the vault door leading to the secret meeting room and complete the initial brain scan via his BISECT. Guards and security cameras were all around, watching him.
"Access granted. Please enter the biometric scanner hallway, Daemonic Snake," said a digital female voice as the vault doors slowly opened.
As the sides of the hallway lit up and scanned Daemonic Snake's body, Cyber Snake looked at the white-hot spear launcher turrets lining the hallways, and shivered.
Pulling himself together, Snake said, the disguise will work… And even if it doesn't, this can't be worse than being in a hallway full of microwaves.
As Daemonic Snake reached the end of the hallway, he looked at the last lock as it scanned his BISECT again. His fingerprints and retinas were scanned as well.
"Please respond with the proper password for the voice scanner," said the digital female voice. "Who are the Apostles?"
"01310011161," said Solidus.
The voice scanner was beeping for a moment.
The spear launchers above them were rotating.
Snake looked up at the spear launchers anxiously.
"Access granted. Identity confirmed. Welcome to the Vault, George Sears," said the digital female voice as the doors opened.
Cyber Snake sighed in relief as Solidus entered the Vault and the meeting began imminently.
Solidus looked around at the other Apostles, and quickly scanned their faces to confirm their identities, including the ones that had started to arrive.
"Where's Dante?" said one of the Apostles.
"He's dealing with the press right now," said a voice behind Solidus, "but he'll be here soon."
Solidus turned around, and Snake looked with him.
It was Colonel Campbell.
"The mole is here," said the Colonel. "Our own mole informed us that Solid Snake is here… in Rome. Planning to infiltrate this very room. It's likely the mole is in here, right now."
The Apostles looked around at each other.
Snake grimaced.
"Are you sure?" said one.
"I thought Dante said this meeting would be secure!"
"It doesn't matter," said the Colonel. "One of you is here to betray Dante. Either for the sake of gaining intel, or to kill the rest of us. Regardless…" said the Colonel, "…the others that Dante turned posthuman are searching for Snake as we speak."
"So… the meeting turned out to be all for nothing?" said an Apostle.
"We should get out of here!" said another.
"Not necessarily," said the Colonel. "We'll speak in code for now. Perhaps that will draw the mole out."
To Cyber Snake's surprise, the Apostles and Colonel Campbell started to speak in code, only it wasn't code talk… it was some sort of supercomputer code.
Of course… They're posthumans, thought Snake. This is their natural language.
Snake looked at Colonel Campbell.
You're posthuman too, thought Snake. Maybe you really are gone, Roy.
Solidus spoke in posthuman code as well.
Snake thought, that means… I've got a posthuman consciousness inside my BISECT... I'm part posthuman already.
The others looked at Solidus suspiciously, and looked around at each other while talking quietly in more supercomputer code.
Tensing himself, Snake realized, but it's just a copy of the posthuman consciousness. One Mikki created that can supposedly be kept under control… Maybe that's why they're suspicious. I need to act soon.
They continued conversing in code when a hologram of Dante appeared.
Dante looked at Solidus, and frowned.
"What is it, Dante?" said the Colonel.
"My press conference ended," said Dante. "And I'm with Solidus right now."
"What?" said an Apostle.
"Then that means…" said another.
Now all eyes were on Solidus.
"Who are you?" said Dante. "And how did you manage to disguise your consciousness as Solidus?"
Dante's hologram paced around the room, before he grinned, and said, "Never mind… I think I know. All is going according to plan. Apostles, a Judas is in the room. Kill the imposter!"
Snake said to Solidus, "Quick, kill them!"
"I would, brother…" said Solidus as his veins started to glow yellow and his skin and suit started to dissolve from his endoskeleton, "…but you promised you'd kill the Colonel yourself."
"Damn it!" shouted Snake as his mind returned to his body, and he now looked like himself.
The Apostles stared at Cyber Snake.
"You!" Dante shouted.
Snake screamed, and engaged in a massive CQC fight with the Apostles, stabbing them one by one to death in the Vault meeting room with his drill sword and also firing his SOCOM at them with his other hand.
Colonel Campbell managed to swat the SOCOM out of Snake's hand, and he body slammed Snake against a wall.
Two Apostles pinned Snake to the wall by his arms.
Colonel Campbell said to Snake, "Time for a shock, Snake…" as he readied a massive cattle prod shaped like a staff, and beat Snake with it, electrocuting him.
Snake screamed, and kicked Colonel Campbell away, then butted his head into one Apostle sideways, freed his arm, and punched the other.
He then used CQC to slam the two Apostles into the ground.
He managed to circle around the Apostles so only one could attack him at a time, slowly whittling them down with punches, kicks, and slices from his sword drill.
Colonel Campbell managed to get up, and grab Snake's SOCOM.
As Snake managed to stab the last two Apostles to death, the Colonel shot Snake several times with the SOCOM.
Snake screamed as his endoskeleton started to emit static.
The Colonel reloaded, and threw Snake to the ground with a CQC slam of his own.
Snake kicked the Colonel in the leg, tripping him for a second, and scooted away before getting back on his feet.
The Colonel said to Snake as he aimed the SOCOM at Snake. "Enough CQC, Snake… I know you don't want to kill me."
"You're right," said Snake as he breathed heavily, "I don't want to kill you…"
"Time to meet your maker then," said the Colonel.
Snake then quickly pulled out his Mk. VI stun gun and shot the Colonel as he started to shoot Snake again.
The shot managed to stun the Colonel, knocking him to the ground, and causing him to drop the SOCOM.
As the Colonel regained his ability to move somewhat, he crawled toward the SOCOM and grabbed it, Snake stomped on his hand, and kicked the SOCOM away.
"…but I need to," said Snake as he grabbed the Colonel by the skull and interfaced with his BISECT, slowly frying it.
… … … … …
Snake found himself with the Colonel in another barren VR simulation room.
The Colonel sunk onto one knee, and found himself stumbling toward a chair and a desk in the room. He managed to sit down at the desk.
"Where… where am I?" said the Colonel.
"Inside your head," said Snake, who was breathing heavily. "I killed you."
"What?" said the Colonel. "Why'd you do that, Snake? We're friends."
"Not anymore," said Snake. "You're a posthuman."
"Posthuman?" said the Colonel. Then several images from the Colonel's memories flashed around the VR room. "Oh no…"
Snake said, "Damn it, Colonel, stop playing dumb with me!"
"I wasn't," said the Colonel. "I didn't remember anything… up until… Little John!"
"Little John?" said Snake. "Raiden and Rosemary's son?"
"After Raiden went rogue, I was tasked with protecting Rose and their son again," said the Colonel. "Raiden knew there was a conspiracy of some kind happening in America… one to revive the Patriots. Dante and Hannah Brady were involved in it."
"What?" said Snake.
Colonel Campbell said, "Snake… I'll be honest with you. You deserve to know the truth… but you're not going to like it. I didn't like it either."
"All right," said Snake as he pulled up a chair. "I'm listening."
"Meryl was the one who turned the others in, including me, to be posthuman. She was either the first to be brainwashed against her will… or she agreed to give in to Dante's demands."
"No…" said Snake.
"The last thing I remember was her brainwashing me… here in Rome… after a mission she went on Saudi Arabia… We were all there. You were there too."
"Me… ?" said Snake. "Why can't I remember!"
"That's where we revived you from the dead, Snake," said the Colonel. "We were told to do so by Mikki. We thought Hannah was the one responsible for the conspiracy… We were wrong. It was Dante. His PMCs were there, and they captured us."
"I don't believe it…" said Snake.
"You were in Tokyo when you started to finally die from old age," said the Colonel. "That woman working with Dante, Mikki… She said she could heal you, turn you into a cyborg at her clinic in Saudi Arabia."
Snake looked around at the Colonel's memories. "You're talking like you're still human…" said Snake.
"I suspect how Dante's posthuman software works, is that while it still needs to mimic the human whose body it's inhabiting, it merely stores it away while attaching to it in order to learn from it… Like a parasite. But I'm no expert supercomputer programmer like Mikki is."
The Colonel began to cough up blood on the desk that was gold-colored.
Snake looked at the Colonel. His torso been impaled by a white-hot spear.
"Campbell!" shouted Snake.
"I was turned into my worst enemy…" said the Colonel. "One driven by greed… I remember now, but it feels like it wasn't me. I was the posthuman in charge of financing Dante's operations, recovering more of the Philosopher's Legacy for him… After I became a posthuman… I know Dante wanted me to give up Rose, and maybe Little John too. After that, getting his hands on Raiden was easy. Just know… I was trying to stop Hannah and Dante's conspiracy, not help it."
"Where does Hannah Brady factor into this?" said Snake.
"She and Dante used to work together," said the Colonel, "but they had a falling out. Firelake used to be several subsidiaries that belonged to her own megacorporation… but Dante took them over."
"I've never heard of her megacorporation's name," said Snake. "Is it a secret one?"
The Colonel looked away, and wiped the golden blood off his mouth.
"What's it called?" said Snake.
"The John Doe Conglomerate…" said the Colonel.
"The John Doe Conglomerate?" said Snake. "Wait a minute… John Doe…"
"That's right. JD," said the Colonel. "The framework within the higher echelons of society and the military-industrial complex that the Patriots used to enact their control… Capitalism at its finest. Hannah Brady managed to take control of it all, streamline it using her wealth and influence in Washington. She's one of the greediest capitalists I've ever seen Snake... If you don't stop her too, then humanity won't be safe. She and the elites are squandering and hoarding the world's already scarce resources in the middle of war, a global hyperdepression... and an impending mass extinction event."
"My god…" said Snake. "Then Dante may not even be the greater evil here… It's President Brady!"
"I tried to stop her using my own influence," said the Colonel. "I failed. It's no surprise that we flocked to Dante when he proposed his own solution."
As another white-hot spear lodged itself in the Colonel's shoulder, the Colonel screamed, and fell out of his chair, oozing golden blood.
"Campbell…" said Snake.
"Is… is Meryl going to be all right?" said the Colonel deliriously. "If you get the chance, Snake… if you save her, somehow… Tell her I'm sorry. For everything."
"I'll try, Roy," said Snake sadly.
"You're a good man, Snake," said the Colonel, "even if you're no longer entirely human… then again you never were to begin with…"
"Wait, Colonel!" said Snake. "Don't die yet!"
"What is it you need?" said Colonel Campbell.
"I need to know where Metal Gear DAEMON is launching from!" said Snake. "Hannah's mole… they said the DICE files didn't have the location. They thought you knew!"
"It's…" The Colonel looked away for a moment, and coughed up blood. "Inner Haven…"
"Inner Haven?" said Snake.
"Dante's private island… One that was terraformed by posthumans," said the Colonel. "It's off the coast of Colombia… the same coast where Big Boss founded the Militaires Sans Frontières."
"Right… The MSF… The Army Without Borders, and his predecessor to Outer Heaven. The world's first PMC," said Snake. "I know where that is. Thank you, Colonel. I'll see you in the next l-"
"Wait!" said Colonel. "Snake… what is that light?"
"Light?" said Snake. "What light?"
"My god…" said the Colonel, "…it's beautiful… I'm going to live after all… Thank you, Snake… for freeing me from this hollow shell…"
"Campbell!" yelled Snake in disbelief as a white-hot spear pierced the Colonel's neck. He finally lowered his head, and bled to death on the VR simulation floor.
… … … … …
"Campbell! CAMPBELL!" Snake screamed as the interface ended, and he found himself holding the skull of the Colonel's lifeless endoskeleton whose skin had been fried off of it.
"Roy!" Snake cried, as he lowered the Colonel's endoskeleton and shut its non-existent eyelids.
"I'm sorry… I couldn't save you… I'm so sorry…"
Snake then heard Dante laugh.
Snake looked at the hologram.
"You may have found out the location of my private island, Snake… and killed my Apostles… But seeing you grieve… really does put a smile on my face."
"Dante, you bastard!" yelled Snake. "I'm going to kill you for doing this to my friends!"
"Good luck with that," said Dante. "First though, you're going to have to get out of the Vault… and there's only one way out."
Dante laughed again, and his hologram disappeared.
"Damn it!" Snake yelled, smashing a part of the conference table to pieces that wasn't destroyed by the fight with the Apostles using his fists.
Snake then heard the doors to the Vault entrance closing behind him.
"No time to grieve," said Snake as he shook off his wounds from the fight, and his unhappiness with his situation. "I have to get out!"
Snake ran through the Vault doors before they closed, and desperately ran through the biometric scanner hallway as he set off the scanners, causing the doors ahead of him to close.
White-hot spears were fired at Snake from all around, and Snake managed to dodge most of them, until to his surprise, tentacles sprung out of his back and caught them, throwing them back at the turrets that fired them at him.
"Solidus's tentacles?" said Snake as he kept running through the hallway.
"You honestly didn't realize that the disguise wouldn't be complete without installing my tentacle augmentations into your back as well, brother?" said Solidus inside his head.
"I just- when were the augmentations installed?" said Snake.
"Sometime between your mission at the A-Nile-8 manufacturing facility in Siberia and this mission," said Solidus.
"But I thought I flew directly from Siberia to Rome!" shouted Snake.
"Wasn't it Nietzsche who opposed the idea of 'I think therefore I am', brother?" said Solidus with a grin. "President Brady is playing mind games with you, Snake… along with Ultra Mouse."
Snake screamed as he did a dolphin dive beneath the closing security gates and barely made it out of the Vault's biometric security hallway alive.
As the doors closed, guards surrounded him.
"Put your hands up, Snake!" yelled the posthuman guards.
Snake grimaced, and said to Solidus in his head, "How do I use the tentacles myself?"
"If you think they're yours, then they are yours," said Solidus. "Use your BISECT to connect with them."
Snake yelled as he used his tentacles to knock the guards away from him, all while he pulled out his M4 Custom and started firing a barrage of gunfire at the guards to kill them.
Snake blocked their own shots with more of his tentacles as well, and he made a run towards the stairway to the roof.
He kicked open the stairway entrance door, and as he ran up the stairs, he fired at incoming guards behind him with his M4, then guards coming toward him from the roof with his M4 as well before reloading.
"SNAKE!" yelled a familiar voice.
Meryl—and likely the others—were catching up to him.
As a helicopter fired down at Snake from the rooftop, along with guards all around him, Snake fired his M4 Custom's underbarrel grenade launcher at the helicopter to cause it to fall out of the sky.
Snake managed to throw himself out of the way as the helicopter smashed across the roof towards his position, its rotors threatening to tear him apart like they tore apart several of the guards on the roof.
Snake ran toward the edge of the roof, and jumped off, using his jets to help him fly across the skyline, and his OctoCamo to help camouflage himself through the rain.
Snake managed to start steering with his jets to perform evasive maneuvers as Meryl rained machine gun fire down on him, followed by Mei Ling's explosive fireflies.
Snake then nearly got hit by a grappling line Raiden fired at him, which landed on a floor of the parking lot building adjacent to the Firelake headquarter skyscraper.
To Snake's surprise, Raiden then started sprinting across the grappling line like it was a tightrope, using his ninja abilities.
Snake was then nearly shot out of the sky as Naomi sniped one of the jets in his legs.
Snake screamed as he struggled to maintain control, and ended up crashing through the window of one of the parking lot floors.
Snake rolled across the parking lot.
Getting on his feet and limping, Snake thought, damn it! Raiden's just a few floors above me… There's no way I can take him on, let alone in this state!
Snake then looked at all the terrified civilians fleeing and driving out of the parking lot after seeing the helicopter crash into the Firelake rooftop.
Maybe I don't have to, Snake thought as he limped to the stairways of the parking lot floor he was on, and used the jets in his wings to control his descent, along with the jet in his good leg.
Now on the bottom floor, Snake quickly hacked into a nearby red Porsche that was eerily similar to the one he crashed into Liquid's car in the VR simulation he had where he saw Solidus for the first time, and drove past the line of civilian cars out of the parking lot via the wrong lane.
He quickly tried to ditch the others, and eventually managed to succeed.
"Snake, where are you?" said Otacon via Snake's C3.
"Do you have the Nomad ready, Otacon?" said Snake.
"Yeah," said Otacon. "It's at the local airport. All flights have been cancelled due to the commotion going on at the Firelake headquarters. I assume your cover was blown. Locals are worried another 9/11 is happening right now."
"Good," said Snake. "The flights may be cancelled, but ours isn't. I'm on my way there."
"Hurry," said Otacon as he ended the C3 call.
Snake then called Mikki.
"Mikki, where are you?" said Snake.
"Onboard Dante's private plane," said Mikki. "We flew out of Rome from Dante's nearby villa half an hour ago after the press conference."
"Is your cover intact?"
"As far as I know, yes," said Mikki. "Dante said we're going to meet Fat Snake at his private island in the South Pacific. Fat Snake's flying there separately for… reasons. Until now, I hadn't heard of that specific private island of his."
"That's where he's launching Metal Gear DAEMON from," said Snake. "My next mission is likely going to be there."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. The Colonel told me before I…" Snake's voice trailed off.
"You… Oh," said Mikki. "I… I'm sorry, Snake. It must not have been easy."
"It doesn't matter anymore," said Snake angrily. "It's done. He's gone. I completed the mission."
"Right…" said Mikki. "You did well, Snake. I…" Mikki paused. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to come up with a solution in time to save the Colonel… but thanks to your help, I'm one step closer to creating the HUMANALIVE virus to help counter-hack its supercomputer, stop Dante from erasing the collective consciousness of humanity."
"I promised you you'd get a look at the DICE files," said Mikki. "I'm uploading them via a compressed file directory to your BISECT. Make sure not to open too many files at once, or it'll fry your BISECT. It's only right… Even though President Brady told me to keep the files from you."
"Speaking of which, I think I need to talk to President Brady myself," said Snake. "She's been hiding even more from me than you have."
"Do what you have to," said Mikki. "Dante's coming. I have to go now," she said as she hung up.
Snake sighed, and continued driving the Porsche toward the airport while lamenting about the Colonel.