A/N: I couldn't wait to write this chapter. This is what I had in mind from the very beginning, as this one explains the cause of everything in the fic. I would greatly appreciate reviews for this chapter above all others, so could you please? You'll get…uhhh cookies?
Chapter 15: Enigma Untangled
Heero emerged from the ladder, onto what appeared to be the roof of Arsenal Gear. He instantly noted the weird floor pattern. Suddenly, a booming voice erupted from seemingly nowhere.
"Hello, Heero Yuy. I am impressed you've made it this far. Clearly, you are a worthy warrior. I admire you greatly. I wonder if your killing ability is one of the S3 plan's proud achievements."
"Where the hell are you Solidus?!" Heero growled.
"It came as a complete surprise when Ocelot discovered the S3 data from GW. Not a bad idea though-using fire to fight fire, bringing a Gundam pilot here to retire Solid Snake's brother. S3 stands for 'Solid Snake Simulation.' It's a development program to mold even 'Perfect Soldiers' like you into something even greater- Solid Snake, the ultimate warrior! I'm sorry to see you again reduced to one of the Patriot's puppets. But I've made use of you...and their plan too. Solid Snake's emergence from the dead-his alliance with the Peacecrafts and you Gundam pilots- it was obvious that the Patriots were among my ranks. I had to smoke out the agent before the mission entered the final phase. You came in handy- as bait. Heero, for warriors like us- every day is absolute, split between life and death. You attempted to run from it, and now you've been lead back to war by something less than real."
Heero's eyes darted to his left as Solidus suddenly emerged in front of a trail of fire.
"Solidus! Where's Relena?!"
"What are you talking about, kid?"
"What did you do with her?!"
Solidus laughed. "You think I was the one who kidnapped that annoying girl?!" He laughed again. "Sorry kid, she isn't here."
Heero went white.
"No more games Heero, at least you know. There's no reason to keep you alive now."
Heero glared and pointed his M4 at Solidus, but was soon interrupted by loud bangs.
"I've given you a worthy opponent at least." Solidus pointed as Heero stared at the incoming Metal Gear RAYs. "But now, its time for you to die."
Heero realigned his sight back to Solidus but he could not fire as he slipped away.
The RAYs looked down upon him and Heero stepped back as the central one bent down and opened its rather large mouth.
Heero's instincts instantly kicked in and he fired a Stinger into its mouth. The Mobile Doll RAY controlled by GW staggered back. Heero then fired into the RAY's leg and hit its face-sending it staggering back in severe damage as another RAY came to replace it. The RAY on the left fired it machine gun, Heero flipped and rolled to dodge the bullets, the tracer fire making his danger much more apparent. Heero looked up to see the RAY in the center launching missiles. He ran and jumped, narrowly avoiding being hit by the explosion.
This was intense.
Heero steadied the stinger and shot at the RAY on the right's leg. It knelt and Heero then hit it in the mouth. Then his targeted RAY jumped into the center right in front of him, with the other two RAYs flanking him on the left and right. The center RAY shot at him with its machine gun while the left RAY launched missiles at him. Heero jumped and dodged, managing to avoid them all.
He was never more grateful to Dr. J for his flexibility training.
The center RAY then fired two missiles right in front of Heero's face. It was pure instinct and adrenaline that allowed him to dive through the center and allow the missiles to explode behind him. Heero got up on one knee and finally finished this troublesome Metal Gear off.
Heero could swear that these Metal Gears were crying like living beings would, and he swore that they were leaking blood.
Heero fired the Stinger seemingly innumerable times; his latest target stumbled back and fell into the sea. He could see a troop of RAYs walking to surround him. At this point he knew something had to give.
"I wish I had Wing Zero..." Heero stated with exhaustion.
"I expected a little more fight from a Gundam pilot." Solidus' voice boomed condescendingly.
Heero stumbled to his feet as a RAY attempted to step on him. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the air.
Olga.
"So you've decided to show yourself." Solidus boomed again as the RAY retracted its foot.
"Olga! What the hell are you doing?!" Heero growled.
"I'll hold them off, give you time to get away."
"You're gonna hold them off with only a Beretta?!" Olga...are you crazy?!"
"The Patriots are monitoring everything. If they see you die, they will kill my child, don't you understand?"
"..."
"I see, so that's why you sold your troops out to me. So many dead... and they all died trusting you! Weren't they your comrades?"
"Not just comrades, family! ...I know I'm going to hell, but at least my child!"
"I applaud your attitude." Solidus boomed again seemingly from thin air. "If you have a death wish-" Solidus appeared again in a trail of fire. "I'll be happy to accommodate you! See you in hell!" Solidus yelled as he moved a tentacle-like arm attached to the back of his armor, knocking Olga's pistol out of her hand and grabbing her throat with the other tentacle. The sitting President of the Earth-Sphere Unified Nation then slowly, deliberately, spun a P90 compact assault rifle using the trigger guard.
"Live kid..." Olga choked at Heero. "You...have to."
Her head then exploded in a crimson supernova.
Heero's eyes widened as Solidus tossed her aside like a rag doll.
"Now, let's pick up where we left off, shall we?" Solidus raised his arm, commanding the RAYs to continue.
They didn't.
"What's going on?!"
Heero smirked. "The RAYs are malfunctioning." He stated, causing Solidus to glare.
"What's wrong with it?!" Solidus did not heed the former Zero pilot.
"The AI-GW, it's out of control." Ocelot said via radio.
"What?!"
Heero's smirk grew. The virus worked.
"I'm reading an abnormal impulse cascade throughout the neural network." Ocelot continued. "I can't shut it down."
"What happened?!" Solidus asked impatiently.
"Maybe...some kind of virus..."
Heero began to laugh. The joke was on Solidus. "Looks like your plans are cut short, Solidus."
"The Patriots?!" Solidus asked Ocelot, trying to get Heero's mocking laugh out of his mind.
"I don't know."
"Ocelot! What have you been up to?!"
"It's too late! Arsenal's system control is going haywire!"
The RAYs beeped, their cockpits flashing red.
"Stupid machines!" Solidus growled. "RRRAHHH!!"
Heero's laughing stopped as Solidus rocketed up to level himself with a kneeling RAY's cockpit, firing his P90 rounds directly into it, causing the RAY to kneel defeated, its cockpit aflame. Solidus angrily turned his gaze toward the next one. It began to shoot at him but Solidus skated by the rounds, jumping on top of its cockpit and then firing downward, destroying it. The last RAY approached Solidus, but he casually shot into its cockpit with astonishing accuracy, destroying it as well. It thundered down to the ground.
"Damn the Patriots!"
Solidus rocketed down and grabbed Heero by the throat with his tentacle. Heero struggled to break free as it constricted his air intake. He raised Heero up and pointed the P90 directly at his face.
Was this the end?
"You still have some use..."
"I've captured Snake." A female voice came from the other side of Arsenal. Heero took a glance to see Snake handcuffed behind his back, being pushed by Fortune.
"Bring him in." Solidus ordered.
Heero couldn't believe it. Then he went down into unconsciousness.
"Heero, are you awake?" Solidus asked him.
He was surprised that he wasn't handcuffed.
"GW, the Arsenal AI is corrupted beyond repair. I admit that I underestimated you." He turned to face him. "I'll squeeze the answers out of you instead, my worthy opponent!" He stated condescendingly and then began to strangle Heero with those damned tentacles.
After a minute of struggling to hold his breath, Solidus relented.
"What are you hoping to hear? You know he doesn't know anything!" Fortune hissed.
"It's not him I want the answers from."
Solidus threw Heero down. He grunted when he landed on the hard ground. Even though he wasn't handcuffed, he couldn't do anything to fight back at the present moment.
"What do you mean?" Fortune asked skeptically.
"That isn't your business."
"Well, I have my own business to attend to." Fortune began to walk away.
"Planning to hijack Arsenal?" Solidus asked arrogantly.
"Huh?!"
"You were going to screw me over weren't you?"
"Who talked?! Ocelot?!"
"Not exactly, I was the one who used Ocelot to suggest the idea to you in the first place." Solidus pointed toward the man in question.
"What?!"
"I was planning to give you Arsenal to begin with."
"Why the uncharacteristic generosity?"
Solidus gave an amused laugh. "I'm no philanthropist. Arsenal is far from impregnable. It needs other mobile suits as guards, a huge payload of warheads, and full land, sea, and air support to function efficiently. Against a large attack force without support, Arsenal is nothing more than a gigantic coffin! The seizure of Arsenal Gear was never the real objective!"
"What was your objective then?"
A list of names...OF THE PATRIOTS!"
Fortune gasped.
"They were planning to extend their control to digital information flow with GW and Arsenal. That means the information they want to filter out is contained in GW, including a list of their names."
"And once you knew who they were you would cross out their names one by one while we, with our useless Arsenal drew their fire." Fortune finished.
"Very good." Solidus applauded.
"You were using us all along." Fortune accused.
"Were you any different?"
"But your plan's hit a snag with GW destroyed hasn't it?"
"No- there is another way."
"Really? But we have our own plans to carry out. We'll take the Arsenal since you don't care for it anyway; the purified hydrogen bomb is ready to go."
"A nuclear strike won't stop them."
"It will damage their power source- the mindless masses that they control."
"Of course- that was what you wanted. I won't stop you. Good luck."
"Thanks, but I have quite enough of that."
Ocelot cackled maniacally, earning him a questioning glance from Solidus.
"What exactly do you find so funny?" Fortune hissed.
"Charades usually are humorous. I would have enjoyed watching a bit more of it, but we're running short on time."
Heero's eyes filled with questions as Snake glared.
"What do you mean!?" Solidus asked angrily.
"Everything you've done here has been scripted- a little exercise set up by us."
"Exercise?!" Solidus asked in even more anger.
"After the incident at Shadow Moses, we realized that the world was much more unstable and out of our hands than we thought. Therefore, the S3 plan was conceived as a means to remedy that instability. It was designed to create soldiers on par with Solid Snake- that's what I told you. You think this little terrorist incident is your own doing Solidus?" He asked mockingly. "Did you really think you could use the presidency to challenge its creators?!" He laughed. "Everything ends where it begins. THIS is the S3 training kernel. An orchestrated recreation of Shadow Moses."
"WHAT?!"
"Ames' death. The ninja. The computer virus that mimics FOXDIE. Did you really think they were all a coincidence? Ames' own nanomachines were used to shut down his pacemaker. I arranged for the appearance of the ninja as well. The virus was a digital counterpart to FOXDIE, designed to eliminate every scrap of information regarding the Patriots from GW. Your plan- years in the making, was invalidated even before execution, Solidus."
Heero looked on stupefied. He knew it- his hunch was right. Ocelot was working for the Patriots.
"The project has no room for failures- and this is its biggest success." Ocelot said as he took out a remote control and pushed a button.
About twenty seconds later, a mobile suit emerged from a hatch in Arsenal that no one had seen. Heero and Snake looked at each other and then up at the mobile suit.
Heero examined it further. It somewhat resembled the Epyon- it had a heat whip and sword attached to its power core, and was about the same height.
But then again it didn't resemble the Epyon at all.
It was painted cobalt, and while it had wings like the Epyon, the wings resembled those of an eagle, and this was augmented by its cockpit- shaped like an eagle's head with red eyes.
"The S3 plan was supposed to create the perfect warrior- both soldier and mobile suit pilot." Ocelot stated in triumph. "But the perfect warrior needs the perfect mobile suit. One that is capable of expertly fighting on land, at sea, in the air, and in space. Did you all REALLY think Arsenal was the new Metal Gear?!" Ocelot cackled louder than he ever had before. "Arsenal was designed to be the command center, but this is its enforcer."
Heero suddenly realized the metal- he had been trained to. This 'Metal Gear' was made of Gundanium.
"Yes, Heero Yuy." Ocelot gave an evil, triumphant smirk.
Had he said that out loud?!
"The proper name for this mobile suit is Metal Gear Gundam ZEUS!"
Snake and Heero looked at each other in shock. They had been chasing a phantom all along. THAT was the new Metal Gear, not Arsenal, and it was a Gundam as well!
"ZEUS! Named for the supreme ruler of all men and gods! And this mobile suit is the supreme ruler of the entire field of battle! It was a long way...getting here you know."
No one could say anything.
"The project to develop a new, unstoppable Metal Gear began after Shadow Moses- but we quickly realized RAY was not going to fit the bill. So we scrapped it- that's what the tanker was really all about. Within two years, we had a working prototype of the new Metal Gear...but before we field tested it...something happened." Ocelot pointed at Heero. "YOU showed up."
Heero looked on in shock- his mouth actually agape.
"The appearance of the Gundams set our work back by several years. We knew that even the new Metal Gear couldn't begin to rival them. We again had to scrap our project and go back to the drawing board to create a Metal Gear that could outperform the Gundams..."
Snake scowled. Metal Gear was never dead. It was all a deception. He had a lot of work to do.
"…but we needed to see their combat abilities and stretch them to the limit to find out just how far we needed to go..." Ocelot continued. "So we had the Romefeller Foundation build their mobile dolls and Libra. The Eve Wars, while being in part to create a World Nation...the real purpose was to fully test the Gundams." Ocelot paused for a second and directed a taunting smirk at Heero. "And then along came Relena Peacecraft..."
Heero was going to get up and attack Ocelot, but Snake quickly signaled with his eyes to remain where he was. Heero obeyed.
Ocelot cackled. "Her ideals of total pacifism were just what we needed! She helped to unify the fiery political situation, and thus make things much easier for us to control, but her advocacy of disarmament did us an even bigger favor. We needed a naive little bitch like her to keep unwanted eyes off the project! We even staged the Mariemaia-Barton coup to see if she was really serious or if she would relent and opt to keep defensive forces. But Relena is known for being stubborn...and she advocated further disarmament...just as we planned." Ocelot smiled in victory. "...and with the destruction of the Gundams and Solid Snake's continued self-imposed 'death,' there was absolutely nothing that could threaten our project from that point onward."
Heero growled, and Ocelot laughed at it.
"Of course, having a pacifist queen during the uprising of the White Fang that was to be the Gundams' final test was...problematic, and so, she was relieved." Ocelot smirked again. "Although Treize...realized what was going on, he had no choice but to play his allotted part. He couldn't let the White Fang run amok in space with Libra right?" Ocelot laughed mockingly. "And to think, he had to confront his friend, Milliardo." Ocelot continued to laugh loudly.
"Solidus, your Presidency gave us the legal, albeit executive authority we needed to finally finish Arsenal and ZEUS. The Military Unification Act gave us the finances, and the Military Science Act was just a joke that could easily be bypassed...and it was...despite Miss Peacecraft's valiant fight." Ocelot said the last bit with some mocking drama.
"The ZEUS cannot be rivaled! It is armed with an improved beam saber and heat whip adopted from the Epyon. It also has the vulcan cannons of the Wing Zero, a sizeable payload of warheads, and an improved version of Zero's Buster Rifle that we call the Thunderbolt Rifle. But its primary armament...ZEUS, like Arsenal, carries a purified hydrogen bomb. It also carries an improved version of the ZERO system, designed to work WITH a pilot's instinct to survive rather than against it. You see...people always fight harder and with much more ruthlessness when it's for their own survival."
Heero's eyes constricted. "No..."
"Which brings us back...here. This training Kernel will provide more than enough data to formulate a program to create the perfect warrior that is worthy of piloting this mobile suit. You!" He pointed at Solidus. "Dead Cell...Olga, you're nothing but pawns placed to create the perfect simulation to cement this project! Fortune, you and Dead Cell stand in for the FOXHOUND squad that Snake took on in Shadow Moses. You're the most impressive collection of freaks outside of FOXHOUND. Yuy, we brought you and the other Gundam pilots in to oppose us so we could see the extent of the training you were given to pilot the Gundams- they were the ZEUS' foundation, after all. Relena was the perfect bait to ensnare you."
Heero took it all in. Relena was abducted and being held by the Patriots- the very scenario he had vanished (and greatly hurt her in the process of doing so) to keep her safe from.
"We've gone to a lot of trouble to set you all up against each other. That story about purified hydrogen bombs is just the tip of the iceberg. Fortune, the sinking of that tanker along with your old man was all part of the project- throwing your husband in the brig was a part of it too. You were told that the eradication of Dead Cell six months ago was an act of the Patriots...we provoked and encouraged your hatred; and you opted for vengeance, just like you were supposed to."
"All...orchestrated?" Fortune managed to squeak out.
"All except for Solid Snake's sudden 'rise from the dead.'" He said the last three words condescendingly. "I wonder now...who sent for you."
Fortune raised her rail gun, eyes glinting with anger.
"All of our misfortune- all of that chaos and war and death was...just a part of their project?!"
Ocelot drew his revolver and fired into Fortune's chest.
Snake and Heero looked on in shock.
Fortune slowly looked down at her wound and fell to her knees. "H...how could...!"
"You're no Lady Luck. You have nothing that we didn't give you." Ocelot stated coldly, just above a whisper.
"What?!"
"Do you know why no bullet could hit you? It wasn't magic, or some New Age mumbo jumbo. Certainly wasn't your psychic talents. It was all staged by the Patriots!"
"Staged?!"
"You were being shielded by the electromagnetic weapons technology that the Patriots developed. Your Dead Cell comrades loved your father and husband. We needed a pathetic wretch like you to keep them focused. You've been our puppet all along- just like Olga."
"No!"
"You were hemming it up as the tragic heroine, thanks to the script that the Patriots wrote for you. Pure self-indulgence, absorbed in your own 'misfortune,' you couldn't get enough of the drama!"
"You mean I could have died whenever I wanted to?"
Fortune struggled to get up.
"Thought I got her in the heart?" Ocelot stated, annoyed.
Fortune fired her rail gun point-blank at Ocelot. The electric charge did absolutely nothing.
Snake and Heero merely observed that it missed...it was hard taking their eyes off of the ZEUS, that knelt, yet still towered over the whole scene like a marker of all of this chaos and violence, and all of the same that led up to this point.
"Ah! Now I remember...your heart's on the right."
Fortune fired again. Same result.
"A waste of metal my dear, your luck's run out! This is the little gizmo." Ocelot patted a rectangular object on his belt. "There's no such thing as miracles, or the supernatural, only cutting edge technology!" Ocelot grinned arrogantly. "Oh...I almost forgot...the ZEUS also carries this little piece of technology- preventing it from being hit by enemy fire."
As if Snake and Heero weren't already greatly startled by the deadliness of the ZEUS, this new information left them even more so. Now this thing couldn't even get hit?!
Solidus growled and emptied his P90 clip at Ocelot, every round missing.
"You bastard..." Fortune fell down, coughing up blood.
Ocelot jumped to the ZEUS' cockpit, opening it up and getting inside. The Metal Gear/Gundam came to life with the sound of a loud eagle cry, its red eyes glowing and glaring at the scene below as it stood on two feet.
Solidus roared and fired missiles within his tentacles at the new mobile suit. Not a single one hit, they exploded harmlessly a good distance behind it.
Snake and Heero stood up and watched the ZEUS with suspicious...even fearful eyes.
"Now that I have enough data all that I need to do is retrieve Arsenal...and clean up the refuse from the exercise." Ocelot's voice boomed toward the three men below.
"Just try!" Solidus challenged as he brought out his 'Democracy' and 'Republic' high-frequency blades. His armor closed over his mouth.
The ZEUS gave another eagle cackle as the vulcan cannons came out of its shoulders. They fired.
"RRRRRAAAAAA!" Solidus cried as he deflected the bullets with his two swords.
Snake observed that one of them kinked the chain of his handcuffs. He tried to break them as Solidus kept fighting off the spray of the vulcan cannons.
The vulcan cannons ran out. Solidus raised his swords in challenge.
"How's this then?!" Ocelot challenged in his own right.
"Damn!" Snake yelled.
Fortune stood up and put her arms out.
"You idiot! Get the hell away from there!" Solidus yelled.
"I told you- your luck's run out!" Solidus taunted. "Take your reward, except for the purified hydrogen bomb, it's the entire payload ZEUS has! DIE!"
"Everybody down!" Snake yelled in order.
Heero and even Solidus complied at once.
What began then was a barrage of missiles that would put even Heavyarms to shame. The cluster bombs came out first, filling the air and exploding in a New Year's worthy lightshow. The explosions rocked all over. Amazingly, they all barreled past Fortune's outstretched hands- which shielded all three men behind her as well.
"What?! Impossible!" Ocelot stated in surprise.
ZEUS kept pouring out missiles.
They all screamed and glided over the four's heads.
"She is Lady Luck!" Snake said in admiration.
"My name is Helena Dolph Jackson. The daughter of a proud and noble soldier..." She choked. "I can...see my family...again." She said as she fell to the floor, lifeless.
"Damn!" Ocelot said in disbelief. His face grimaced. "Try this instead!"
ZEUS raised its left arm. Something on top of its wrist opened up and a big, double-barreled gun swept out over its hand.
"NO!" Heero yelled. He knew what it was- a Buster Rifle, or as Ocelot called this improved version, the Thunderbolt Rifle.
Snake looked up and grimaced.
The gun didn't fire.
Ocelot's arm twitched.
"No! NO NOT NOW!!!!!" Ocelot yelled.
The ZEUS' cockpit opened. Revealing Ocelot without his ponytail and his right arm revealed with no clothing.
Heero looked up with curiosity and, by now, shock that could not be concealed. What was Ocelot doing?! But it was not Ocelot's voice that boomed out.
"Brothers!!"
"It can't be!" Solidus yelled in disbelief.
Snake's eyes narrowed. "Liquid!"
Heero looked at Snake and then looked back up at 'Ocelot.' What the hell was going on now?! Was that...Liquid Snake?!
"I've been waiting for this!" A loud British accent yelled in triumph. "I've been inside this arm all along waiting for the right time to awaken!"
"You were inside Ocelot?" Heero challenged for an answer.
"Yes- a sleeper in the arm of a Patriots' spy!"
"It was you this whole time?!"
"Exactly. I was controlling him. Snake it was I that arranged for Une's dismissal and got you out here!"
"What?!"
"You are the only one that can free me, after all." Ocelot...Liquid's face grimaced. "I'm off to bury the Patriots for good."
"You know where they are? How?" Solidus asked skeptically.
"Why do you think I chose Ocelot as my host?" Liquid asked matter-of-factly. "But before I go I have a family matter to settle with both of you." He swept his hand over the forms of Snake and Solidus. "There's room for only one Snake, and one Big Boss!" Liquid pointed and then got back into ZEUS' cockpit.
Solidus fired at ZEUS again with a few more missiles, but none of them hit.
"Time to say good-bye!" Liquid boomed as he slammed the control panel.
The ZEUS emitted an eagle-like cackle again and began to walk- it sounded just like the way the Gundams walked.
"Damn!" Snake yelled as he struggled with his handcuffs.
"Like gusts of wind? It's a good way to go." Liquid taunted as he reached the edge of Arsenal.
Snake continued to struggle and then finally broke the handcuff's chain. He ran wildly toward the ZEUS.
"Liquid! Stop this thing!"
"Hey Snake! You coming?!"
ZEUS jumped off of Arsenal.
"Hrrrrr-eya!" snake yelled as he jumped after it.
A few seconds later, ZEUS flew full force, around five seconds after that, Heero watched the all-too-familiar transformation of a mobile suit into an airplane, in the ZEUS' case, an eagle-like craft. It roared and quickly jetted away toward the horizon.
"SNAKE!!" Heero yelled as he struggled to remain upright from the huge gust of wind erupting from the ZEUS' engine.
Heero was then toppled to the floor by Arsenal's sudden movement. He found himself struggling to not fall off the roof right alongside Solidus.
Arsenal was speedily approaching downtown Manhattan.