It didn't take the pounded behind his eyes for Hal to realize something had happened to him. When his focus slowly started to renew, he began to put together his surroundings. When he lifted his head, the pain behind his eyes crawled and distributed throughout his head like a released mist.

He was on a plane but he knew he hadn't gotten there voluntarily or peacefully. He could remember the cab ride halting in an open field because of car trouble. Jonas had gotten out and disappeared behind the open hood of the smoking car and soon after, his passenger side door had opened and he had caught glimpse of something heavy and black right before it came down on his head.

Hal tried to stand with the feeling in his head but it all rushed to one side and sent him crashing back down to the ground.

"You're finally awake. We were beginning to worry we had hit you a little too hard."

Hal quickly processed the voice as coming from behind him but couldn't turn fast enough to meet it in the haze. The figure walked into his eye line and yanked on his arm into a standing position.

"Jonas..." Hal mumbled when he caught the man's familiar green eyes and brown hair.

"I didn't think you'd ever shut up about that damn girl. 'She's an angel', 'She's the best thing that's ever happened to me'", Jonas laughed in a volume that drew a string around Hal's head in a painful contraction, "No one is that saint-like. Do you know how long it takes to run out of things to say about your dog that makes her sound like your daughter? Not long."

"What the hell is going on?"

"Don't you worry, Hal. You'll find out soon enough."

Hal didn't realize he was moving until his surroundings changed and he found himself the centerpiece of a room full of military like bodies. Jonas let go of his arm and he fell into a seat.

"Finally, we meet. I've been waiting a long time for this, Dr. Emmerich."

Hal used what little controlled he had regained of his senses to look up just as a figure was approaching him. He made out a thick build that could have belonged to a tank and a vocal range that suggested they had a few packs a day pass through them.

"Who...who are you?"

"We are the nameless, faceless bastard children of your so called revolution."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. This is crazy!"

The footsteps braked in front of him and forced his head up to look at his face. The man's features came to Hal through a filter of frozen ice but he made out enough of his arrogance and authoritative effect on the room to know that he was the leader.

"No! This is the day you get to redeem yourself, Dr. Emmerich. If you prove to be satiable, we won't touch the senior citizen...or the brat."

Hal's head fell back from the man's sudden release of it. "Sunny..."

"That's right. Sunny. She's pretty special to you, isn't she?"

"Don't touch her. She didn't do anything!"

"Well, according to the information we found, she's the one that created the little program that permanently took GW offline. Now, is that true Dr. Emmerich? Should we be going after your precious Sunny instead?"

"No", Hal steadied his voice as much as he could so that it wouldn't give away his fear, "The program was created by Dr. Naomi Hunter and myself. Sunny had nothing to do with it. We used her as a front to save our own selves from the public backlash of SOPS."

"You and Solid Snake are more twisted than I thought, using a child as cover for those day's events. You'd probably even get a kick out of seeing her here right now instead of yourself. "

The thought made the bile in the back of his throat rise. "Please. Just don't hurt her."

"Maybe we won't or maybe it's just like you said: you're just a little too gullible."

"No!" Without thinking, Hal clumsily lunged into the direction of the voice but was immediately caught by two holds on either one of his arms. Soon, he felt the inflation of his head space but in a slow, seeping motion that made him feel like it could accidentally pop. Everything being taken in from all senses muffled and eventually amalgamated into a white noise before silencing completely.

The dawn lights had barely broken over the tree line in the distance before Snake found himself opening the door for Mei Ling. Her eyes quickly drank him in and resettled at his.

"It's good to see you, Snake...although I wish we could have chosen the circumstances." She stepped in and searched around the living room briefly. "Where's Sunny?"

"Asleep still."

She nodded. "Of course. Well, maybe it's better she doesn't hear this anyway." Mei Ling fished a folder from out of the laptop bag in her hand and gave it to Snake. "I did a little more research on our guys. Turns out, just about all of them were part of the 10 that showed signs of SOPS, or SOP Syndrome, after GW went offline. They all met at a government camp where they voluntarily signed up to be used as guinea pigs to try out new drug therapy treatment for their condition." Snake flipped through a few pages in the folder, stopping on a black and white photo. "That's Rhino McCulloch. He's the ex commander-in-chief of a top PMC responsible for dismantling some of the world's most intense hostage situations. Kind of ironic, isn't it?"

Snake sat down in silence with the folder and Mei Ling continued.

"He's also the leader of this group. When he saw the goldmine of military elite he had been placed into the camp with, he used his savvy to brainwash six of them with his plans for revenge and a revolution. A few weeks later, they all signed the papers necessary to leave the camp and formed The Resistance."

"The Resistance? They weren't very original, were they?"

"Original or not, Snake, they have way more power than they should for an eight man army. In fact, they've been causing a stir in the higher ups from the beginning. I heard the government is working on a plan to rub out Rhino for good but it could be months before they actually do anything."

"You said there were eight members. I thought there was six excluding Rhino."

Mei Ling shuffled around some of the papers in the folder and laid another picture on top for Snake to see. "Trevor McCulloch. He's Rhino's son and the only one who wasn't affected by SOPS. He was only sixteen at the time and as far as I could find out, wasn't involved in any military activity."

"So how do we diffuse them?"

Mei Ling sighed. "If I had my way, we'd take out the Pied Piper but something tells me we're not going to get to him that easily. "

"Bebop and Rocksteady here don't look so tough."

"Those are Lucas and Lash and they are only part of our problem but I still wouldn't underestimate them. They're probably acting as Rhino's bodyguards. Our biggest threat right now is Jonas McCready. I think he's the one that broke my e-mail encryption key. Somehow, he's suppressing the signal from Hal's nanos making it impossible for them to be tracked. I know skills wise, he's light years ahead of me. But Sunny...she's another story."

"Who are these guys?"

Mei Ling slid the picture out of Snake's grip and stared at it herself. "These are the guys I think are having the most direct contact with Hal. Marshall Quernz, Uri Lonken, and Sophia Kaiser...all specialists in unique torture techniques. These were the guys the military called if whoever they needed to talk wasn't."

"What could they want out of Hal?"

Mei Ling rested her hand on Snake's arm. "Pain and suffering." She turned to face Sunny when she sensed her enter the room and smiled at her. "There you are. I was looking for you. How are you?"

"I miss Uncle Hal."

"Oh, sweetie," Mei Ling said caressing the little girl's arms, "I know you do. We miss him too. But don't worry...we're going to bring him home."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Not yet, but we will really, really soon. In fact, Snake and I want you to help us do that. One of the people who have Hal is really good with computers just like you are. I need you to see if you can find any clues in my email account that might tell us where they are."

Sunny nodded. "Okay."

"Good." Mei Ling glanced at her watch and then back at Sunny, "You know...it's pretty early. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah."

"How about we fix some breakfast before we start today? You like pancakes?"

Sunny showed the first hint of a smile since Hal had left. "Yeah."

"Yeah? Great. You go into the kitchen and start getting everything we need and I'll be right along, okay?" When she left the room, Mei Ling turned her attention back to Snake. Even though he had turned his back to her and Sunny, she could tell he wasn't in the room with them and perhaps not even in the same stratosphere. "Hey," she touched his arm once again and brought him back, "That goes for you, too. We're going to get Hal back."