CHAPTER 13:

METAL GEAR RISING

In the aftermath of Liquid's bombastic pronouncement, Ocelot eventually said, "What about the PAL being overridden? If the code is entered again, then it'll be deactivated."

Bullshit, Harry mouthed to Wolf. She smirked. Liquid and Ocelot were quite good actors when they put their minds to it. It was one of Liquid's undeniable talents. For Ocelot, it was the cornerstone of his character.

"There's no need to worry. Baker and Anderson are dead. Even so, did you interrogate Snake? Does he know of that card key?"

"He didn't say. And he didn't have any key on him."

"Then nothing can stop Metal Gear now," Liquid said.

Harry winced. He remembered an old Doctor Who episode Emmerich had roped him into watching. It ended with the villain, an Austrian-accented man called Zarroff, screaming "NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!" Harry knew that Liquid would emulate him if he had the chance(1).

"And the Silverburgh woman?"

"Let her live for now," Liquid said. "Campbell and Snake care for her. We need a trump card. Especially with Griffin and Wolf alive and against us."

Snake's voice came through on the Codec. Griffin, Wolf…I'm going in. Back me up, and bring Raven with you.

Harry nodded. He clapped Raven's shoulder. "Time to stop this farce, Raven," Harry said quietly.

The quartet then made their way into the control room, Snake and Wolf holding Liquid and Ocelot at gunpoint, Harry whipping out his wand. "Freeze," Snake said, perhaps a little redundantly.

"Or what?" Liquid asked. "Would you really shoot your own brother?" He seemed rather calm, considering. So too was Ocelot, but that was his default state, though he had his revolver out. Harry didn't like that one bit.

"I killed Big Boss," Snake said. "My father. So, compared to patricide, fratricide's a cinch. I know about Les Enfants Terrible. And I know you haven't gotten the PAL codes from Anderson. You were going to trick me into using the override key."

"I see that Griffin's been feeding you spoilers," Liquid asked, folding his arms. "Is this the part where I am supposed to surrender, or die?"

"I know you wouldn't surrender," Harry said. "Outer Heaven? You're just doing this to one-up Big Boss, both Big Bosses. Venom Snake and Naked Snake."

"You betrayed Saladin and his ideals," Wolf said quietly, though the undertone of her anger was clear in her voice. "He would not toss aside the lives of his people so carelessly."

"And you think you will escape FoxDIE?" Liquid sneered. "The Pentagon didn't think twice about killing Baker or Octopus with it. Without me, you will never get the vaccine, Wolf."

"I already got a dose for myself and Wolf," Harry said, not mentioning Ocelot's involvement. "I can get one for Raven, and for Snake. This ends now, Liquid. The only question is, are you going to die quietly?"

"Never." Suddenly, troops burst into the room, holding them at gunpoint. "I can multitask, hold multiple conversations, even by Codec, which is how I called in the cavalry. We're in a bit of a Mexican standoff, aren't we?" Liquid asked.

Suddenly, Ocelot began firing his revolver. The loud report was deafening in the control room, and it took a moment for the others to realise he was aiming at, and hitting the troops. But in the confusion as Harry and the others stopped the troopers, Liquid dashed out, though not before smashing a button on the control panel. A button that activated Metal Gear REX.

"After him!" Snake yelled. They dashed out, in time to see Liquid running for the now-open cockpit of Metal Gear REX. Harry fired spells, while Ocelot and Snake fired their weapons, but to no avail. Liquid closed the cockpit in time.

"You fools!" Liquid roared over the speakers of Metal Gear REX. "I may not be able to launch the nuke like I wanted, but I will crush you! You stole my chance for revenge on Big Boss, Snake! Both of them! Ocelot, Raven, Griffin, Wolf! You are all traitors! For that treason, you are sentenced to death! You will all bow, and offer yourself to this historic weapon as a sacrifice of blood! To this, the ultimate weapon, a demon that will drag the world kicking and screaming into a new era of warfare!"

A lift underneath Metal Gear REX engaged, with the quintet leaping off the now-shaking gantries onto the lift platform that was even now steadily rising. "Snake!" Ocelot yelled. "Contact Emmerich! He'll know of any weaknesses!"

Snake nodded, reluctantly accepting the gunslinger's help. "Harry, the broom!" Wolf yelled. "He won't be able to target us all at once, even with those instruments! We need to scatter! We'll take to the skies. You do the steering, I will shoot out any sensors that may be vulnerable to my rifle!"

Harry, bemused, nodded, pulling out the broomstick, and mounting it, Wolf mounting it just behind him, one hand holding onto him as they ascended, the other hand holding onto her PSG-1. As they did, Snake yelled, "Otacon told me that the radome is vulnerable! Once that is destroyed, Liquid'll have to open up the cockpit to pilot it!"

"Okay!" Harry yelled, knowing the radome was the large, dinner-plate like thing mounted on the left 'shoulder' of REX. "I'll hit it with Blasting Curses and Bombarda!" Snake had earlier given him the Stinger launcher and a supply of missiles to keep in his Mokeskin Pouch, where he had kept the broom and Cloak when he wasn't using them. He swooped down, and pulled them out. "Here, take them!" he yelled at Snake.

As he ascended again, Wolf clinging on, the lift they were all on, along with Metal Gear REX, reached its destination, a massive hangar. Ocelot and Raven dashed behind a storage container, only to find a second Stinger launcher in a crate. "Handy," Raven said, opening it up.

"Convenient," Ocelot mused as Raven loaded the missile launcher. "I'm sure it wasn't here before."

"Look the gift horse in the mouth later!" Snake yelled. "We need to stop Metal Gear!"

"Harry," Wolf hissed urgently. "Once the cockpit opens up…get me into position. I will shoot that son of a bitch."

"Got it."

Metal Gear REX rumbled to life, standing up, and emitting what sounded like the roar of some ancient and terrible dinosaur. Harry groaned softly to himself. Emmerich couldn't resist giving it the ability to roar like fucking Godzilla, could he?

What followed was a desperate dance, with Harry and Wolf weaving away from gunfire and the occasional attempt to swat at them with the railgun, while Snake, Raven, and Ocelot dodged missiles, lasers, and bullets. Even without the capability of firing nukes, Metal Gear REX was a formidable foe. Five people shouldn't have stood a chance.

And yet, as each Stinger missile and each spell hit the radome, Harry knew they were clawing their way to victory. He began to use other spells, fire spells and ice spells to weaken the radome's covering and make it more vulnerable to the Stinger missiles.

Finally, the radome spewed sparks, and began twitching spasmodically. And just in time, too. Raven had exhausted his Stingers, and Snake was down to his last one. "Did that do it?" Snake mused out loud.

REX, by way of reply, stomped over to Snake. "Nice try, Snake! NOW DIE!" Liquid bellowed over the loudspeakers. But even as it made to step on him, something got in the way. Harry only caught a brief glimpse of the blue, grey, and orange blur, but there was no mistaking it.

"Hurry, get to cover!" yelled Gray Fox as he held up Metal Gear REX's massive foot. He was no longer wielding the sword, instead, an energy blaster was mounted on his right arm. His faceplate was now open, revealing his scarred face. And his voice was no longer a metallic rasp, though it was still a rasp.

"Gray Fox!" Snake yelled.

Fox chuckled bitterly. "A name from long ago. But it sounds better than Deepthroat."

"You were the other informant other than Griffin. The one who warned me about the mines and the gas," Snake realised.

"Indeed. And you haven't aged well, Snake," Fox joked.

"I'll send you back to Hell, Gray Fox!" Liquid roared, before raising the foot of Metal Gear REX and stomping it down. Fox, as well as Snake, Ocelot, and Raven, took cover behind the container. Harry and Wolf landed nearby.

"The Stinger missile launcher," Ocelot said. "You put them there."

Fox nodded. "I did, Shalashaska. As a gift for Snake to stop Metal Gear."

"Fox…what do you want from me?" Snake asked.

"I am a prisoner of death. Only you hold the keys to my release."

"Jaeger," Harry said quietly. "Do you expect Snake to kill you?"

"Not anymore," Gray Fox admitted. "I have made my peace with Naomi. My sister, Snake. A sister who forgave my sins against her. I hope she has not perpetrated her vendetta against you. I made her promise…but even so, anger and resentment towards you still smoulders in her heart for my fate."

"Fox…she needs you," Harry said.

"No. She doesn't. Tell her…tell her how I died. And tell her that she should make her own way in the world, without me. Without a revenant, a shadow of her brother, dogging her steps." He looked at Metal Gear REX. "I'll stop it from moving. Call it a final present from Deepthroat." He then dashed out with blinding speed, ignoring Snake and Harry's yells.

Wolf nudged Harry. "Get the broom into the air again! If we're lucky, he'll destroy the radome, and I can take the shot."

Harry nodded, and they ascended into the air once more. They watched as Fox, in the middle of battling REX, got hit in mid-air with the electron laser. Fox screamed in agony as his left arm got sheared away. He landed on a ledge high up along the room, only for Metal Gear REX's cockpit to slam brutally into him, pinning him against the wall.

"In the Middle East, we didn't hunt foxes, but jackals! And instead of foxhounds, we used royal harriers!" Liquid boasted.

Fox laughed painfully, before raising his energy cannon. "Then you wouldn't know…" Suddenly, bolts of energy lanced from the cannon into the radome. "You wouldn't know that a cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!" he roared. With a final shot, the radome exploded, shattering into fragments.

Harry felt Wolf carefully take her arm from around him, before carefully getting her rifle ready. Then, the cockpit of REX opened. Liquid's gaze was only on Fox. "Impressive. You are indeed worthy of the 'Fox' codename. But your time is past, Jaeger! You're a relic!"

"Liquid," Wolf called. When he turned to face her, Harry was deafened by the report of her rifle as she fired it. A hole dug itself into Liquid's forehead, his eyes comically wide with shock as blood and brain matter sprayed out of the back of his head, hitting the cockpit. "Goodbye," she said.

They brought Gray Fox back down to the hangar floor. They laid him down gently on the floor, blood oozing out of his stump. As Harry raised his wand, ready to start trying to heal what damage he could, Fox batted the wand from his hand with his arm cannon. "No…please, Griffin. This…is what I want." He coughed up a gout of blood.

"To die?" Harry asked. It wasn't that he wanted to prolong Gray Fox's torment. He'd seen enough people die over the past little while. Good, bad, and ugly.

"He is a revenant, pulled from the world beyond by crude and cruel means," Raven said solemnly. "The spiritual balance has been upset by Doctor Clarke's work."

Fox nodded weakly. "After Zanzibar Land…I was taken from the battlefield. And now, I am neither truly alive…nor truly dead. An undying shadow in a world of lights. But soon…soon…it will finally end…"

"Jaeger, can we do without the soliloquy?" Harry asked. "I can understand you wanting to die, but…"

"Let me finish, Griffin. Please. I have words for you all. Especially…Snake." He coughed up more blood, and then looked at Snake, his eyes filled with pain, even the damaged, cataract-ridden one. "Snake…we're not tools of the government, or anyone else. That is why…I joined Big Boss…at Zanzibar Land. Fighting…it was the only thing I was good at…but I'd like to think…I always fought…for what I believed in. Snake…all of you…farewell. Shalashaska…"

Ocelot nodded, before walking over to Fox. "Say hello to Ahab and my parents for me," Ocelot said quietly, as he stood over Gray Fox, and aimed his revolver at him. As Fox closed his eyes and smiled one last painful smile, Ocelot said, "Do svidán'ja."

Once more, a loud report echoed throughout the hangar. And as the echoes faded away, so too did a tormented soul, finally released onto the next great adventure. Another soldier had gone on to his final resting place, whether that be Hell, Purgatory…or Heaven. Inner, or Outer.

And where to for the survivors? What would happen now? That, they would have to discover for themselves…

CHAPTER 13 ANNOTATIONS:

Well, here you are. The final battle. Just a couple of chapters to go now, the first actually wrapping up the events of Metal Gear Solid, and the second being an epilogue. I hope you enjoyed how Liquid died this time around. Okay, a bit anti-climactic, but I had this in mind for a while. And I presume Gray Fox would know of Ocelot's nickname from his association with Big Boss in Zanzibar Land.

BTW, sorry for the wait for this chapter, and these final chapters for this story.

1. I am referring to the infamous cliffhanger of episode 3 of Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace, which only has two surviving episodes, including that one. It's often considered one of the worst of that era. Joseph Furst, the man who played Zaroff, was not actually faking his accent: he was Austrian by birth. He would later play the role of Metz in Diamonds are Forever.