CHAPTER 8:

BARING YOUR HEART

It was when Harry heard the gunshots and screaming that he knew something had gone wrong. Hal was on his feet as soon as Harry was. "What's going on, Griffin?"

"I think someone's come to play," Harry said grimly. "Get behind me."

The door opened, and a shimmering outline strode through, the corridor outside bloodied and filled with viscera. Harry knew who the intruder was. He kept Hal behind him as he backed up. "Jaeger, he's not here yet. But I'm sure he's on his way."

"Is he? I hope for your sake, he is," rasped Gray Fox in his cybernetically enhanced voice. His cloaking deactivated, revealing the exoskeleton in all its glory. The helmet was shut, the cycloptic camera eye glowing ominously, the sword was dripping with fresh blood. "Jaeger…a name from the past…a name of a corpse…"

Harry put his hands up in a placatory gesture. "Frank…just wait a moment. Snake'll be here any second."

"Well, perhaps I will entertain myself with you first. I never got to test myself on you."

"What's going on here?!" Hal demanded. "Why has he got optic camouflage?"

"Ah, yes. Hal Emmerich, this is the guy I was talking about. The Cyborg Ninja, aka Frank Jaeger, aka Gray Fox. He's basically a cyborg zombie ninja with more than a few screws loose and a sword sharper than the tongue of one of my old teachers. Try not to piss your pants. Frank Jaeger, this is Dr Hal Emmerich, chief engineer for the Metal Gear REX project, and a pretty good friend, so I would appreciate it very much if you refrained from turning him into a shish-kebab. I don't have many friends, and I don't like them getting killed if I can help it."

Any retort Jaeger had on the matter was halted when the door opened, and Snake walked in. Harry waved, even as Snake raised his gun. "Hey, Snake!" Harry said. "Looks like we're all here."

"Snake…" Gray Fox said, turning to face his former comrade and adversary.

"Fox…" Snake said, his face forlorn, even as he kept the gun up. "What are you doing here?"

"I want a final battle with you, Snake. No longer am I enemy or friend. I've come back from a world where such terms are meaningless. It's not for anything as simple as revenge. Only in a fight with you can my soul find respite. Whether I kill you, or you kill me, it makes no difference."

Harry opened up a locker behind Hal, and pushed him inside. "Stay in there," Harry said to the shaking scientist. Then he turned to Fox and Snake. "So, your little fracas has room for one more?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Stay out of this," Snake snarled.

"Hey, in this, I'm on your side, Snake. I want to make sure Emmerich survives. You want to make sure Emmerich survives. Well, Jaeger, do you have any objection?"

Gray Fox looked back at him, before saying, "Hmm…why not? I've wanted to test your skill for some time, Griffin. So, Snake, Griffin, make me feel alive again!"

Harry dived out of the way as Snake fired some rounds from his SOCOM, which Gray Fox deflected. "There is no honour in a weapon like that!" he snarled.

"Okay, got it," Harry said, before yelling, "EXPELLIARMUS!" Both the sword and the SOCOM were ripped from their owners' hands, and ended up near Harry, who kicked them under a table. On Snake's glare, he said, pocketing his wand, "What? Just evening the odds."

"Yes! Hand to hand, it's the basis of all combat," Fox cheered triumphantly. "Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon."

"Spare me," Snake retorted, getting into a stance.

What followed was an almost balletic dance of close-quarters combat. Surprisingly, Snake and Harry fought well together, though Harry was irritated when Snake tried to get some cheap hits in on him, presumably trying to remove any obstacles between him and Emmerich.

Eventually, the three of them tired. Snake, panting, looked at Jaeger with sorrow in his eyes. "Fox…how could they do this to you?"

"Very easily," Harry snarled. "Well, in terms of ethics. Medically it was very difficult. And necromancy never works out well. Especially when he never wanted to come back to begin with. The people pulling your strings did this, Snake. What will they do to you and your corpse, I wonder?"

Snake glared at Harry, but suddenly, Jaeger began screaming and convulsing, energy crackling around him. "What's going on?!" Snake demanded.

"The…the medicine!" Jaeger howled. "I'm l-losing m-myself!"

"Oh, shit," Harry muttered. "Stay away from him, Snake."

Fox fell to his hands and knees, and began banging his helmeted head on the floor repeatedly. "Fox…" Snake said, almost helplessly. "Fox, snap out of it!"

As if heeding Snake's words, Jaeger ceased hurting himself. Suddenly, he lunged for his sword underneath the table Harry had left it under, and then dashed out of the room, screaming a banshee scream of agony.

Harry watched him leave, before turning back to Snake. The former FoxHOUND operative was glaring at him. "Why?" he asked. "Why are you helping them, Harry?"

"That's none of your business, Snake. Anyway, you can babysit Emmerich from now on. Though I don't think Liquid will have any use for him soon. Anyway, I'll leave you alone for now. Call it my mark of regard for you, Snake. But when we next meet, we will be fighting. Be seeing you." He gave the Village salute from The Prisoner(1), before he Apparated…

…And ended up next to Wolf (on that balcony just below the Communications Tower) with a crack. Thankfully, she didn't start much. "What happened?" she asked.

"Gray Fox happened. Snake and I had to fight him. He's gone off elsewhere. Meanwhile, Snake's now with Emmerich. Probably pumping him for any information on REX," Harry said. "I've left him alone for the time being, as per the plan."

"I still don't like this," Wolf said. She was standing, for the moment, although once she got word that Snake was on the way to this spot, she would lie down in a sniper's position. "Either Mantis or myself are expected to capture him, but Solid Snake has a tendency to kill any opposition that he can't sneak past."

"I'll make sure he can't, Wolf," Harry said firmly. "I told you, I won't let you die."

Wolf chuckled bitterly. "Griffin, I realised something recently. It was shortly before we came here to Shadow Moses. I thought I was a dog of war, a wolf turned mercenary. No longer the wolf I was born to be. I had shamed myself and my people by selling my body and soul, all in the name of revenge. But…when we came to be together, it's as if a part of me that has been missing for a long time has returned to me. I thought a wolf was supposed to be solitary. But…they hunt in packs, and the alpha pair is bonded for life. Only death severs that bond. We are not the leaders of FoxHOUND…but we are the alpha pair."

Harry looked at her for a time, before moving across to her, and embracing the buxom sniper. "That," he whispered into her ear, his voice heavy with emotion, "is one of the best things anyone has ever said to me."

She purred into his ear, "Well, as we probably have some time to kill before Snake is finished with Emmerich and finds Silverburgh, how about you transfigure our clothes into a sleeping bag, and I will give you one of the best things that have ever happened to you?"

"You already have, Wolf," Harry whispered. "You've given yourself."

"True," she said with a chuckle. "We haven't got much time left, though. Let's make it a good one…"

And it was a good time. A bit of a frantic, urgent, and rough time (especially as Snake could be on his way very soon), but a good time nonetheless. Experience with the bodies of each other meant that they knew exactly what to do to pleasure their partner, even when they were in a bit of a hurry. Their cries of pleasure echoed through the dim passage eerily, capped with the loud exclamations of their respective climaxes.

As they lay there afterwards, in post-coital bliss, Harry's softening length still within Wolf, he murmured gently into her ear, "I love you, Wolf."

After a moment, she said, "Yasmin."

"Sorry, what?"

"My name. It is Yasmin(2)," she admitted, quietly.

Harry blinked, before the gravity of what she had said caught up with him. It was the first time she had told him her name, her real name. He had gotten so used to calling her Wolf, he had all but forgotten that there would be a real name underneath it all. He felt remarkably privileged to know this from her.

An impish grin spread across his face. Not that it would stop him from teasing her gently. "Like the princess from Aladdin?" As she scowled, he said hurriedly, "Okay, okay…actually, your name is very nice, Wolf…I mean, Yasmin. Like the flower jasmine…it certainly suits your looks. You're as beautiful as the flower. Whereas I am stuck with boring old Harry."

"Harry?"

"Harry Potter. In the Wizarding World, that name is famous, despite being rather dull. But as Thaumaturge Griffin of FoxHOUND, I am not as famous. I like it like that. That's one thing you never had to deal with, Yasmin. It was the fame. The unwarranted fame of surviving where nobody else had before, even your parents. And the expectation that you would become the messiah of a hidden world. I wanted a normal childhood. I never got one. I don't even have a normal life…but without the life I lead now, I would never have met you."

Wolf…no, Yasmin smiled, and then hugged him even tighter to herself. "And I am so grateful to have met you, Harry. My life is complete with you, more than it ever has been." Her face fell, and settled into a serious mask. "We've had enough fun. Change our clothes back, Griffin. Soon, Snake will be headed our way. I want you to lie in wait in safety, until the time is right to intervene."

That dismissal was one of the coldest he had ever gotten from Wolf (whenever they were in the field, he would think of her still as Wolf, and only in private would he think of her as Yasmin), but he knew why. They were on the clock, and Snake would soon be confronting Mantis, if he didn't already.

As he moved away to his hiding spot, he heard the distinctive shrill beep of the Codec. Snake was calling. "This is Snake. Nemo, are you there?"

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

"I've talked to Emmerich, and I've made contact with Meryl. I actually discussed the railgun being used as a means to fire a nuke with Emmerich. Emmerich was horrified. The fool didn't even know he was creating a nuclear-equipped walking deathmobile. For a genius engineer, he was pretty gullible. But I think his heart is in the right place. Meryl's pretty green, but she's a good partner, I think. But you said Mantis might be controlling her, right?"

"Right. If she does turn on you, just knock her out. Hit her or use a stun grenade or something. Mantis is waiting for you up ahead…as is Wolf and Griffin."

"…You mean you and Wolf, right?"

Harry felt a chill, but he sent back, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"People who say that often do know what the questioner is talking about. I thought about the people in FoxHOUND who would be willing to be an informant. You were pretty good, but you said when we first talked that you were doing this to save the one you loved. And you're tight with Wolf. I know it's you, Harry. Something bothered me, why someone like you would join this revolution. You seemed like a good kid. And when we fought Fox, you had me at my mercy. And your leaving me there had more than your regard or this game Liquid is playing. But does Wolf know what you're doing?"

"…No." Harry admitted.

"…I can't promise not to kill her. Not if she's trying to kill me. But I will do my best not to."

"We're here to try and capture you and Meryl," Harry sent back. "If Mantis can't get anything out of you, then Ocelot might. We each have our own role to play, just like with Big Boss, back when he was Naked Snake, and the Boss. One had to fight the other, one having to play the role of a traitor. But thanks in advance, Snake, for trying to avoid killing her if you can. That means a lot to me."

"…Knowing you are trying to help means a lot to me. You've been more helpful than Campbell has been," Snake said. "I'll keep this quiet, even from Campbell. See you soon. Snake out."

As the call disconnected, Harry sighed. So, Snake managed to guess it. Even so, it wasn't an unreasonable guess. Even so, he was still walking along a razor's edge, and where a moment's carelessness could mean his death, or that of his love…or even both. He hoped things would turn out well, because he wasn't sure he could bear losing Wolf…

CHAPTER 8 ANNOTATIONS:

So, we've had some sex with Harry and Wolf (whose name in this story isn't canon, obviously), and Snake has found out Nemo's secret. Hope you enjoy. Next chapter has Snake in captivity.

1. This salute, from the original Sixties version of The Prisoner, has the saluter forming an 'A-OK' sign in front of their eye and bringing it forward while saying 'Be seeing you'.

2. I looked at a variety of Middle Eastern names, particularly those of Kurds. I wanted to choose a name that wasn't too far away from a Western name, either. I eventually settled on Yasmin, especially as it's the name of a flower (that is, jasmine). This, obviously, isn't the canon name.