CHAPTER 6 (DEBRIEFING)- "THE OCELOT SOUL EATER"

Snake was in Geneva, being augmented again… but his consciousness had already been uploaded to his newer, inferior body.

This time he was being augmented with Solidus's tentacles.

At some point after his surgery was over, Snake headed to the top floor via the elevator.

President Hannah Brady was in her office of her John Doe megacorporation's cyber-care clinic subsidiary's main headquarters.

She was talking to a hologram of Mikki; sipping a drink.

Snake was walking into her office when he heard them talking.

Mikki told Hannah, "I'm in Rome, Hannah… I'm at one of John Doe's old subsidiaries' headquarters that Dante took over and repurposed to become Firelake's main headquarters instead."

"The AI monitoring your thoughts is telling me that you want to ask how long this schism has been going on between me and Dante."

"Tell me. I deserve that much," said Mikki.

"For longer than you can imagine," said Hannah.

"I had already known that the DICE project had been under development for much longer than the point I became a part of it…" said Mikki. "I was just the one who was able to help Dante finish it."

"Obviously," said Hannah. "Despite your genius-level intellect and impressive levels of achievement in your field… Entering multiple advanced scientific fields at a young age, all without a normal education… Spearheading the development of several of the latest full-body transhuman augmentation models… And taking part in the DICE project… You're only in your twenties, Mikki."

"But this… this damned project… and whatever caused Dante to betray you, it's not just a means to rid humanity of its collective consciousness… It's responsible for reviving the war economy to the extent that it's worse than that of when the Sons of the Patriots were in charge of it."

"In addition to that, Dante turned to the Russians and the Chinese for help, and caused society to regress to a second cold war… more like World War Three without nukes given the implementation of the war economy. The two sides of the war are using allied PMCs to brutally exploit each other's proxy nations for resources…" Mikki shouted angrily, "He's been plotting behind your back for over a decade after you cut him loose and you said nothing just because his plot is your plot, only worse!"

"That's correct," Hannah said, and sighed. "Your contributions to DICE merely helped Dante meet the deadline I wanted his subsidiary to meet all the way back in 2023 in order to help me ensure my re-election for a second term… That was eleven years ago. You would've been sixteen then. We had to undergo tremendous losses of profits due to the increasingly unhappy constituents of the world's governments we control since then."

"You pushed him into a corner," said Mikki, who was visibly trembling. "All the people that are about to die because of his experiments… The blood's not just on my hands, or Dante's… it's on yours."

"Why are you telling me this, Mikki?" said Hannah.

"I can't keep the truth from Snake… about what I had to do to him… forever, Hannah," said Mikki. "He deserves to know too."

"Are you considering telling him?" said Hannah.

"You already know the answer; you're monitoring my BISECT!" yelled Mikki.

"Not only would telling him the truth about what you did to him pose a massive threat to our operation," said Hannah, "but it would turn him against you as well."

"Snake's a hero," said Mikki, "and a good person. He used to be my friend, too. He'll understand what needs to be done—"

"Cyber Snake is a hollow shell of his former self," said Hannah. "He's changed now. You would know since you implemented the changes yourself, Mikki.

He may have been your friend in your past life, but in this one he already doesn't trust you very much. If you tell him the truth, he won't trust you at all, and never will. And if you somehow get him to trust you before you tell him the truth… You're seeing what's happening to his mind, knowing that his fellow agents, the only friends he's ever had, are gone. If you actually choose to seduce him for your own selfish reasons, you'll destroy him."

Mikki frowned at Hannah as she said to her, "You're not going to tell him. You're going to fall in love with him long enough to satisfy your lustful desires I designed you to have in this life… and then he's going to find out."

"We'll see about that," said Mikki, and right as Snake entered the office to confront the two of them…

…he woke up from his memory-based dream.

"You wanted to see me, Cyber Snake?" said President Brady via his C3.

She was aboard a private yacht, sipping a glass of tropical punch.

"We need to talk," said Solid Snake with a frown.

"I've been reading your BISECT," said President Brady, "along with Ultra Mouse. You're upset that I've been keeping things from you."

"I read the Dante's Infernal Conflict's Evolution files," said Snake. "The Colonel wasn't lying… You and Dante used to work together."

"He was one of my most trusted apostles," said President Brady. "But like the Devil himself… he fell from my grace."

"Cut the crap!" yelled Snake. "You're no Second Coming, Hannah. You're not a god, an angel, or a saint. You're a human, and a damn greedy one at that. Your megacorporation is the successor to the Patriots… You started the war economy again, doomed humanity all for the sake of a little short-term profit!"

"Not entirely correct," said Hannah. "Dante and I actually share the same goals… Dante's means to achieving them are just more… draconian than mine are. I originally had hoped to preserve the consciousnesses of 500 million transhumans while turning the rest into posthumans, all as a means to terraform the Earth so the impending mass extinction event from climate change and resource shortages would be averted."

"500 million… That idiot Bozeman, the CEO of the A-Nile-8 subsidiary, said the same thing…" Snake said furiously, "You just wanted me to rescue him in Siberia to you so you could get Dante's twisted posthumanist project for yourself!"

"And you failed to do that," Hannah snapped, sitting up from her chair and pointing at Snake. "Can you blame me for thinking you weren't as competent as the legends say you are, to the point that I had to test you in Rome?"

"But that's the thing," said Snake. "You didn't just test me in Rome… If it weren't for Mikki, you would've erased my consciousness before I even got there…"

"What the hell are you two talking about?" said Snake as he confronted Hannah in her office.

Mikki's hologram and Hannah looked at Snake.

"Snake?" said Mikki.

"You and Dante were working together at some point?" said Snake. "If Firelake was once part of your organization, the John Doe conglomerate… The successor to the Patriots… then the DICE project was never his, it was yours!"

Snake unholstered his SOCOM pistol and aimed it at Hannah.

"Watch where you point that thing, Snake," said Hannah as her guards surrounded Snake.

"You're not trying to save the world from Dante's plans… you're trying to clean up your own mess, salvage Dante's Infernal Conflict's Evolution, and use it for yourself!"

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Snake," said Hannah.

"Why should I continue to clean up your mess for you?" said Snake. "Why should I have to kill my friends!"

"The public sees them as traitors—"

"So what? You could convince them otherwise! You own everything!"

"And even I can't stop what's already been set in motion," said Hannah. "The working class were threatening to riot after the Hong Kong incident. We needed a scapegoat to silence the public outcry; your friends were an easy choice. Controlling the world from behind the scenes isn't as easy as it looks, Snake."

"Right," said Snake, "so you tried to make humanity controllable. Decided you'd turn the majority of them into a posthuman slave race. You just wanted us to hand Bozeman over to you so he'd give you access to DICE, didn't you?"

"It's a shame you didn't complete your objective of getting him into our custody," said Hannah. "I suggest you don't fail your objectives again."

"Oh, I'm not failing another objective, all right," said Snake. "I'm done working for you."

"You are when I say you are," said Hannah. "Anna, put Cyber Snake's BISECT in sleep mode…"

"NO!" yelled Mikki as she started to cry.

Snake fell over, and dropped his SOCOM as he lost control of his body.

"…and erase his consc—"

"WAIT!" screamed Mikki. "Give him one more chance… Don't erase his consciousness… Not yet."

"He already knows too much," said Hannah.

"Then erase the part of his memories where he found out too much! He likely read the DICE files after he and Otacon discovered part of them through Bozeman… Make him think he flew directly from Russia to Rome."

"He doesn't want to kill his friends," said Hannah.

"I know… But I believe he can do it… even if he doesn't want to," said Mikki.

"All right, Mikki," Hannah sighed, "you've bought yourself and Cyber Snake some time. Anna, put Cyber Snake's BISECT in sleep mode and rewrite his memories to make him think he flew directly from Russia to Rome."

"Ultra Mouse…" Snake muttered as he began to black out.

"You remember?" said Hannah, looking at Snake as if she was intrigued rather than upset for a moment. "Mikki must be becoming rebellious again… She must've thought that she could use Daemonic Snake as a way to get past some of my control over your BISECT."

"You've been manipulating my consciousness…" said Snake. "You're a sick woman, Hannah…"

Snake's eyes then went wide. "Wait a second… Are you saying the copy Liquid made of Solidus's consciousness is still sharing my body with me?"

"Yes. He never left you," said Hannah. "Mikki's hiding something from me… No matter. She can't hide it for long. I'll take a look at her secrets via access to her BISECT myself."

"So… Mikki used Solidus as a conduit to help me get my memories back," said Snake. "At least some of them. She's not entirely responsible for manipulating my mind… but you are. I suggest you earn my trust back by filling in the rest of the gaps in my memory."

"Nice try, Snake," said Hannah. "You'll never trust me again… but at least for the time being, you might trust Mikki somewhat. Have her fill in the gaps for you."

"Fine," said Snake.

Hannah looked over briefly at her three daughters sitting near the pool together on her yacht, all three of whom looked eerily similar to her due to her inability to age. Sipping her tropical punch, she said, "I want my children to experience a world where they don't have to worry about getting wiped out by superstorms constantly, or going hungry due to competition for resources between nations, Snake."

"Nations were once ruled by governments, whereas now the governments are merely relics of the old world. Corporations—especially private military corporations—are the ones that control the world's governments… and John Doe and Firelake control most of the ones on Earth."

"Despite that global climate change has been proven by scientists to be happening at an exponential rate due to human overpopulation and overconsumption, I believed culling humanity down to a sustainable population level was inhumane, and would only cause more pollution."

"So, you just decided to turn most of humanity into an army of soulless machines instead. All to save yourself and a few others," said Snake.

"It was the least evil choice to make," said Hannah, "given that it would ultimately result in the survival of the biosphere and the human race."

"You flatter yourself."

"There was plenty of pushback to my plans, though," said Hannah, "and the human race isn't exactly easy to control. Out of the various associates of mine that were onboard with the plan, Dante was the most loyal… His subsidiary, a transhuman R&D one called Paradigm, along with Bozeman's A-Nile-8 and a few others, were in charge of creating the posthuman consciousness models needed to carry out the Infernal Conflict's Evolution. The Grandsons of the Patriots, if you will… Perhaps I did push him too hard in the end… I threatened to have him replaced if he didn't give me results. That was likely what caused him to betray me."

"Right," said Snake, "and now that Dante has taken over the project, the entirety of humanity is at risk of annihilation. You really are just using me to clean up the mess you made, and I have no doubt you'll try to make it again once I'm done… all in the name of your sick vision."

"Progress is inevitable, Snake," said Hannah. "The way I see it, you have two choices. You could choose to let the lesser evil, the John Doe megacorporation, be destroyed by Dante, and likely humanity with it. Or you could work with me and stop Dante, Firelake, and his own evolution of the Infernal Conflict, the greater evil."

Snake sighed. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend… All right. I'm still going to work with you. For now."

Hannah said, "A wise choice, Cyber Snake."

"I'll learn the rest from Mikki," said Snake as he turned off his C3.

Snake was aboard a massive NATO military aircraft and naval vessel carrier working with the John Doe megacorporation.

To his shock, a familiar friend approached him, along with his pet monkey.

"Drebin!" said Snake.

"Good to see you, Cyber Snake," said Drebin as he downed a soda.

"But… I thought…" Snake looked around suspiciously. "Meryl… she shot you to death in Bangkok!"

"She did shoot my body, that much is correct," said Drebin, "but President Brady had a backup of my consciousness stored in the Reality of Things… Technically speaking, I'm unable to die anymore."

"I don't know what to say…" said Snake. "I'm glad you're alive."

"I suppose… even though I am just a copy," said Drebin.

"Don't say that," said Snake. "Just being able to contemplate about that means that you're you enough. I'm sick of people buying into a bunch of spoiled trillionaires' sick visions and eco-fascist justifications for mass genocide."

"Point taken," said Drebin.

Drebin's pet monkey was jumping around Snake, making monkey noises.

"Say, you got a cig for my buddy here?"

"Nope," said Snake, "I quit. Not much of a point if I can't even taste the smoke anymore."

"So much for your philosophical points about being human," said Drebin. "If anything, you can smoke as much as you want now that you're augmented. You could get augmentations so you can smell and taste again… Hell, you could even get augmentations so everything smells and tastes good."

Drebin pointed to Snake's heart, and said, "Who knows? It might actually be useful for your next mission, given food can help charge your battery that powers your augmentations."

Snake said to Drebin, "Do you have any more augmentations or weapons for me?"

Drebin activated some holographic schematics of Snake's arsenal for him to see using the connection to his BISECT. "I upgraded your existing weapons' magazines with interchangeable ammunition types, including blast ammunition to take down vehicles, drones… maybe even Metal Gears," said Drebin. "Kind of like how Solidus managed to take down all those Metal Gear RAYs on Arsenal Gear during the Big Shell incident with his P90 submachine guns. They should do more damage now."

"Your M4 Custom, SOCOM, and M14 EBR each have longer-lasting suppressors, and your M4 Custom's underbarrel attachments now consist of a multi-purpose grenade launcher, kind of like the MGL-140 in that there's interchangeable types of impact-detonated grenades, fuse-detonated grenades, proximity-detonated mines, and remote-detonated mines as well. You can even make 'em stick to surfaces instead of bounce. You can detach that and replace it with an underbarrel shotgun attachment with interchangeable shells, or a foregrip to control the recoil better, if that suits your kicks."

"Nice," said Snake. "Did you modify them while I was asleep?"

"Them along with your augmentations. Hope you don't mind."

Snake grunted. "I'm used to it at this point."

Drebin activated more schematics, this time of Snake's body to show his augmentations. "You can now lift heavier objects, like how Raiden can lift entire vehicles, drones, or last generation Metal Gears…"

"Holy shit…" said Snake. "That's a hell of an upgrade… I'm going to have to get used to controlling my strength calibers."

"In addition to the two sword drills built into your arms, you now have two more strapped to your back. You can detach and juggle the three sword drills using your arms… or your tentacles if you'd prefer it."

"Nice," said Snake as he played with the swords in his arms.

"Also, Mikki had me implement your eyes with a dual sonar and extended reality vision upgrade that helps you read the electronic world around you better, and interact with it like you would a computer's graphical user interface. Makes hacking objects remotely even easier. It works in synchronization with your Soliton Radar, too."

"Extended reality?"

"Think either augmented or virtual reality. Extended reality could be either," said Drebin. "To be honest, reality and simulation are kind of blurred nowadays. Call that the reality of things."

Snake rolled his eyes.

"Your hacker code in your BISECT is faster now, thanks to Mikki's discovery back in Rome. In addition to carrying her HUMANALIVE antivirus in case you make it aboard Metal Gear DAEMON, you've got her improved hacker code to disrupt the part of Dante's hivemind OS local to his island."

"Oh yeah, and this last part's from Fat Snake," said Drebin. "To be honest, I didn't expect you and him to be working together given what happened on our last adventure during the SOP incident."

"What did he give me?" said Snake.

"His shooting abilities," said Drebin. "Your arm enhancements give you better recoil, your improved eyesight and other senses make it easier to hit targets, and some sophisticated engineering allowed us to perfect your balance. Now, whether your climbing buildings, trees, sprinting, swimming, or jumping and flying with your jets… you should have a much easier time hitting your targets while mobile. No need for any diazepam meds anymore while sniping, either."

"That explains why my vision and hearing seem so clear right now," said Snake.

"Like your vision are 8K, and your ears are surround sound. Should be able to focus your attention on conversations or sounds in one direction, like a directional mic, too."

"Incredible."

"Your cyber lungs will allow you to breathe underwater infinitely, and avoid inhaling deadly gas or nanites… Your jets have been improved with larger fuel capacity, so you can boost your jumps or accelerate your movements even further… Your adhesive grips won't fail now… And your armor and OctoCamo's been improved to take even less damage and blend in even better. You also can repair yourself using nanite mesh once again."

"It's like I'm good as new," said Snake. "How was this funded?"

"You haven't heard?" said Drebin.

"Heard what?"

"After Rome, President Brady decided to de-classify the DICE files and show it to the public. She figured she'd wait to let the heat from Hong Kong die down before she really started to battle Dante's propaganda with her own. Dante's in a bad spot now because of you, Snake… and you know what happens when megalomaniacs like Dante get desperate."

"I know," said Snake. "I have to act fast… What does that have to do with my augmentations, though?"

"President Brady figured she could afford to reimburse you by funding your augmentation surgery… After all, unlike in Russia, your mission in Rome was a success."

"Right," said Snake, "but the larger mission isn't over yet."

"No shit," said Drebin. "Do me a favor Snake, and make sure Dante doesn't manage to destroy the Reality of Things with his posthuman mind control… If he does, I won't be able to make copies of myself to upload to a new body anymore… nor will I want to I imagine."

"I'll do my best," said Snake.

"Good," said Drebin. "Good luck, Cyber Snake."

"Thanks," said Snake. "Speaking of which, what number should I call you now?"

Drebin looked at Snake. "I suppose Drebin Number 893 is no more…" He said, "Call me Drebin 666, then."

Drebin's pet monkey made horns over his head with his fingers, and low-pitched monkey noises to mimic the devil's laugh.

"Spooky," said Snake. "I'll be heading to the armory to get my weapons… and see Otacon and Sunny."

Drebin briefly touched Snake's head with his hand, and for a second his eyes and veins glowed blue.

"What'd you just do?"

"Nothing… just a little insurance policy," said Drebin.

Snake raised his eyebrow for a moment, then decided to brush it off as nothing.

Drebin looked at his monkey as it held its fingers to its mouth and blew, and snapped at him.

"Knock it off. He said he ain't got no cigs, you little devil."

Snake laughed slightly before leaving.

Snake found Otacon and Sunny at the armory.

"Snake!" said Sunny as she waved at him.

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

"You sure did," said Otacon. "Sounds like this is it. Either we stop Dante here, or…"

"I know," said Snake.

"Can I speak with you for a moment… alone, Snake?" said Otacon.

"You mean… without Sunny?" said Snake. "Why?"

"It's about Dante's mole," said Otacon.

"All right," said Snake as he followed Otacon.

"I think it might be Sunny," said Otacon.

"What?" said Snake. "That's ridiculous. She's just a child."

"That's the thing though, Snake!" said Otacon.

"What is?"

"…I forgot…" said Otacon. "Something about her being a genius, I suppose. After I saw her trying to avoid President Brady, though… I don't know. I got a bad feeling. You don't think she was turned posthuman?"

Snake looked over at Sunny.

She was skipping rocks by throwing them over the edge of the carrier, while saying the elements of the periodic table in the form of a song.

"I don't think she's posthuman, Otacon," said Snake. "She just had a difficult childhood is all… I suppose I'm somewhat to blame for that since I never liked her eggs."

"Right," said Otacon. "Perhaps I'm being overly paranoid… The Colonel's death got to me."

"It got to me too," said Snake.

"Do you think you'll be able to kill the rest of our friends too, Snake?" said Otacon.

Snake looked out at the clear blue waves of the ocean.

"If I have to," said Snake. "My primary objective is stopping Dante and his plans though."

"They're reported to be on his private island though," said Otacon. "If you get discovered by them, they'll all hunt you down in a game of cat and snake."

"Don't you mean cat and mouse?" said Snake.

"I suppose…" said Otacon. "It was just a play on words… because you're Snake."

"Right," said Snake. "I forgot that you were never told who our mole was."

"What?" said Otacon. "Our mole?"

"Uh… nothing. Never mind," said Snake. "Nice joke, Otacon."

Otacon looked over at Sunny briefly, and scratched his head.

Snake went over to Sunny.

"Sunny," said Snake.

"Hi Snake," said Sunny.

"You seem… sunnier than before."

"I suppose it's because of the weather. I've never seen the ocean up close before, except from up high when we're on the Nomad." Sunny looked to the distance for a moment. "I'm sorry… I'm trying to distract myself from all the horrible things going on right now… I'm worried for my friend's safety."

"You're talking about Ultra Mouse?" said Snake.

Sunny nodded. "Dante's a sadist… and after his plans got leaked to the public in a way that wouldn't implicate President Brady's own wrongdoings… I'm worried he's going to take out his frustrations on her. I also can't shake the feeling that he knows that she's one of our moles."

Snake said, "But… I thought he was still trying to figure out the identity of the mole."

"It's Ocelot that I think he still trusts… at least as much as he trusts another human at this point."

Snake sighed. "You really are operating at another level, Sunny. My old mind is still having trouble comprehending all of this."

"It's okay Snake," said Sunny. "We'll help you figure things out. We'll be communicating with you via your C3 as you infiltrate the island."

Snake said, "I need to go. Take care, Sunny," before he looked back at the armory walls again, and grabbed his weapons.

That night, Snake was deployed via a two-person submarine from the carrier, and he navigated through a set of underwater caves next to a coral reef.

Snake looked at the cascade of vibrant colors of the coral as various fish swam by them.

I've never seen anything like it, he thought. Global climate change caused a lot of underwater species to go extinct… Dante's terraforming technology must've been what brought the reef to life… Are Dante and Hannah really right? Is a genocide of this scale—turning humanity into something it's not— the only way to way to save the planet?

As Snake navigated deeper into the underwater set of caves, he started to slow the submarine down, piloting it more carefully using his BISECT's links to the submarine's steering controls so as not to run into the blinking red smart mines that moved around the caves.

As he managed to barely steer clear of the minefield, he continued to move the sub through the caves until it could no longer fit.

After that, he donned his diving suit, and exited the submarine.

As he swam downward through the caves, trying not to fight any currents that blew through, Snake decided to contact Ultra Mouse.

"Mikki?" Snake said over his C3 as he swam.

"Snake?" said Mikki, breathing heavily. Her face was bruised, along with her neck. She was covered in sweat. "I'd rather not talk now."

"Did Dante hurt you again?"

"I'll be all right," Mikki sniffled. She looked up and trembled.

"Are you hanging upside down in a cage again?" said Snake.

"Yes…" said Mikki. "This time above the bottom of an active volcano!"

Snake said, "That piece of shit…"

Mikki tried to turn around briefly, only to swing back into place. Snake could see scars on her back. They were a lot worse than the last time he saw her like that.

She began to cry. "Even for a slut like me, pretending to love Dante is hell!" Whimpering, she said, "I suppose I deserve this… I was his accomplice, after all."

"No one deserves that," said Snake.

Mikki looked at Snake.

"Unlike President Brady, you're trying to rectify your mistakes, not cover them up. That counts for something."

Mikki looked away, and sniffled.

"Did President Brady manipulate your consciousness as well?"

"I suspect so," said Mikki. "But I also grew up… Realized I couldn't save everyone with my work. Just me, and the people I care about."

"You said your friends were all dead, though," said Snake. "Save for Sunny."

"I—" Mikki's voice caught, and she tried not to cry in response to this. "You're right."

"So are you just trying to save yourself then?"

"No," said Mikki. "I'm trying to save humanity… or at least buy it some more time."

Snake said to Mikki, "After you restored my memory somewhat, I started to get it. You're just like me. You're scared. We're both being used as puppets by Hannah and her megacorporation. Hannah doesn't care about the danger to humanity that the Infernal Conflict's Evolution presents. She's probably just going to start the project back from square one once the evidence of her involvement is gone."

"That's right," said Mikki quietly. "You're right."

"Look," said Snake. "I may not know you as well as I knew my friends… but I need your help. I can't let President Brady get away with this…"

"Snake, we've already got a big enough situation on our hands with Dante and Firelake," said Mikki, "but going against Hannah and JD is suicide."

"It doesn't matter," said Snake. "We have to do it, for the sake of saving humanity. JD is responsible for the DICE project."

"That's because they're responsible for everything, Snake!" said Mikki. "The JD megacorporation controls the world from behind the scenes. Destroying them would throw the world into anarchy in the process."

"Che Guevara would disagree with you," said Snake.

Mikki frowned, and bit her lip. "You're sure about this?"

"I don't know about you, but I want revenge for what she did to you, me, and my friends. Denial, shock, all the confusion I've had about the conspiracy… Now I'm at stage two of my grief: anger."

"That's still only phase two…" said Mikki. "Do you think you can kill your friends if you have to? They're here, on the island by the way… and they suspect you're the one who's disrupting the island's local hivemind and messing with their comms."

"Well it wasn't me," said Snake. "Was it you?"

"No…" she said. "Perhaps it was Liquid…"

"I see," said Snake, thinking for a moment. "He's here as well... He was the one who helped you obtain the posthuman copy of Solidus's consciousness for my disguise in Rome… Speaking of which, how's your work on the HUMANALIVE antivirus going?"

"I'm almost done. Almost…" said Mikki, "but we're running out of time. Dante is escalating his timetables due to the fact that the JD megacorporation's media subsidiaries are starting to convince the public of Dante's wrongdoings."

"Right," said Snake. "I read the DICE files you sent me. Hannah decided to wait for the controversy and public outcry about the killings in Hong Kong to die down. Ever since then, it's been Firelake's word versus JD's."

"Rome changed things," said Mikki. "I managed to obtain additional evidence from the servers you gave me access to that Dante has been trafficking people from all over the world, either to be turned into posthumans… or to live to see the fallout of the conspiracy once it's put into effect and after the smoke clears."

"Right," said Snake. "My first successful mission during Operation Snake Soul Eater."

"But this one is going to be crucial," said Mikki. "Dante says he's going to launch the posthuman virus, HUMANDIE, very soon. We're out of time. JD's private military subsidiaries are engaging in a joint operation with NATO to invade the island."

"Wait, NATO is about to invade the island?" said Snake. "That's crazy! Dante controls Firelake, and Firelake controls Russia, China, and several Eastern nations… that'll lead to a real world war, not just a bunch of proxy wars!"

"That's why we have to get to Dante and stop the signal first," said Mikki. "You didn't answer my question, by the way."

"What question?"

"Do you think you can kill your friends if they get in the way of stopping Dante?"

"We'll find out," said Snake, looking ahead as he swam up toward an opening in the cave, and pulled himself out of the water. He used his sonar vision to see in the dark.

"Well… if you need help, call me," said Trina. "Once my timeout's over, I'm going on a hoverbike ride through the island to clear my head a little. Maybe I'll see you."

"I doubt it," said Snake. "I'm a long ways away from the inner lair of the island."

"You underestimate how fast I am on a hoverbike," said Mikki with a smirk. "Good luck."

Snake nodded as he dove into another underwater tunnel, and eventually made it out of the caves and swam to the surface.

Swimming up through circles of glowing fish surrounding him, Snake broke the ocean's surface, and swam to shore.

As he put his feet in the underwater sand and waded through the water to the shore, he stripped off his diving suit and mask, revealing his face and body for a moment before the 3-D printers built into his skin printed his jungle "tiger stripe" camouflage suit and green and brown face paint onto his body. His eyes were now disguised as the eyes of a tiger native to the island.

He walked onto the hot white sands of the shore, stopped, and exhaled.

"Time for a game of cat, mouse, snake, and devil," Snake said as he commenced the mission.