CHAPTER 12— "THE VIOLENT AND BLOODY ROSE, PART 2: AGAINST SELF"

As Snake managed to survive the firefight with the Genome Soldiers, he was seeing red.

Wiping the blood off of his face, he realized his body was covered in the blood of the Genome Soldiers.

He sunk to his hands and knees, coughing up blood on the metallic floors of the tank hangar, and then looked at the sky, curled his fists, and screamed.

Getting up, he walked past a hidden camera in the hangar that had been activated.

An alarm was triggered, and an even larger horde of Genome Soldiers flooded the corridors and headed his way.

Damn it, said Snake. I'm not ready to fight that many of them…

Snake ran for the elevator, and waited impatiently for it to reach him after he hacked the lock.

"Come on!" yelled Snake as he started firing his M4 to try and drive back as many of the Genome Soldiers as he could before the horde reached him, firing explosives at them as well to take out groups of enemies at once.

"COME ON!"

The elevators arrived just in time.

Snake had to kick a soldier out of the elevator, and hack another's arm off with his sword drill as the doors closed and the elevator ascended to Level 4.

Snake sighed as he reached level 4.

He quickly barricaded the elevator by lifting a set of nearby crates to block its doors.

That'll buy me time, he thought as he hacked into a level 6 door lock.

He passed another Genome Soldier he killed and interfaced with, along with a noise detector before reaching a set of intersecting hallways, and paused to peek past the intersection.

I'm surprised I'm not level 7 after that last firefight, Snake thought. Can't imagine what level 9 is going to be like. Come to think of it, I wasn't keeping count, but I'm starting to suspect there are more than 99 Genome Soldiers here… mainly because I feel I've killed and interfaced with that many already alone.

Snake turned into the intersecting hallway, shooting some Genome Soldiers marching toward him and interfacing with them, and came into a supply closet where more Genome Soldiers were being generated… presumably by re-uploading copies of their consciousnesses to new bodies.

Of course, that explains it, said Snake. I've got to kill and interface with EVERY Genome Soldier. That's going to be a pain, he thought.

But then he remembered, of course! I don't need to hack into their BISECTs locally via CQC, provided I can do it remotely via my extended reality vision!

Snake would also have to differentiate between them, avoiding uploading multiple copies of the same person's consciousnesses to his BISECT.

A war orphan was operating the mechanical supply closet of Genome Soldiers.

"Uncle One-Eye?" said the war orphan. "What are you doing here? Did you die too?"

"No, not yet," said Snake. "Listen, kid, Uncle One-Eye has a task for you."

"All right, a task!" said the war orphan, smiling and nodding his head yes.

"Can you find a way to tally how many of Big Bo- I mean my men have died and are sharing a consciousness with me and report it to me via my C3? Specifically how many of their unique consciousnesses have died."

"Um… okay. That's an odd task, Uncle One-Eye, but I can do it. Send me your frequency and I'll update you with a number."

"Perfect. Thanks kid," said Snake.

Looking at the number, Snake was shocked to see it was way over 99… in fact, it was nearing 300.

I killed and interfaced with that many of them? Snake thought.

Looking around, Snake thought, this is fucked up, what Dante's having me doing. Now I know it's not just a taunt to make me grieve for my brothers… it's meant to make me into a heartless killer again, like my old self… and Big Boss.

Another war orphan operating the assembly line of the endoskeleton supply said, "Snake… this is a secret, but Gustava's brooch changes shape when it's put in heat or cold, like a sauna or freezer!"

"Thanks kid," said Snake as he headed out of the room he was in.

Snake entered a room with a set of lockers in it.

He shot and killed a Genome Soldier taking out a bag of trash, and interfaced with him using his extended reality tool.

His kill count went up.

"Good job, kid," said Snake as he looked around at the lockers.

I used to hide in these things all the time, he thought before heading into a living quarters area full of beds where he started to interface with the various Genome Soldiers who were asleep on the beds. In the event that one of them woke up or a security camera passed by, he crawled underneath the beds.

He used his sonar vision to see in the dark rather than turn on the light as guards were asleep in the room he was currently in. He slit the throats of all the guards sleeping, and interfaced with them.

He also entered a sauna, and held out Gustava's brooch. Like in the original mission, it allowed him to mold its shape into that of a key.

Heading back through the living quarters and to the locker room, Snake used the brooch key to open a locker that contained a USB drive; the equivalent of the cassette tape in the original mission.

Snake headed back through the hallways, killing more Genome Soldiers as they patrolled the hallways and interfacing with them via his extended reality vision. He crept past the noise detector and headed down the elevator to floor 2. Then he took the second elevator to basement level 1, where there were ammunition storage cells. There, he restocked on ammunition by opening the various storage units' door locks and found a burst-fire attachment for his M4, along with more underbarrel explosives, Stinger missiles, and remote-controlled missiles.

He shot more Genome Soldiers guarding a final storage unit with his M4's new burst fire attachment. Inside the storage unit, he found an upgrade to his endoskeletal armor, an extra casing that protected against armor-piercing and blast rounds. He quickly installed the upgrade.

While backtracking, Snake almost fell to his death through a trap in the floor.

That was close, thought Snake as he pulled himself out.

Snake hid behind the storage units as more Genome Soldiers arrived to search for him, jumping from cover to cover while using his stealth camouflage and drill sword to take them out using CQC while turning them against each other by hacking into their BISECTs remotely with his extended reality vision.

Snake approached a room full of laser tripwire explosive traps and cameras.

He disarmed the traps in the way of his path, and shot a Genome Soldier, then dragged his body into an alcove before a camera could spot it. He waited for the camera's cone of vision to move the other way, then opened a level 6 door to find more explosives.

He saw a wall of tripwires in the way of a Genome Soldier.

Unable to line up a shot, Snake looked for a different approach to the soldier.

He found some less-than-lethal shock explosives in a nearby room, and used one to stun a set of incoming heavily armored Genome Soldiers outside, then took them down with CQC and interfaced with them before they could recover. Moving past the Genome Soldier he saw earlier with his stealth camouflage, he located a spare Metal Gear Mk. VI mouse drone and a cyber-lungs augmentation to help him breathe underwater for longer.

After using the mouse drone to distract the Genome Soldier, who chased the spare drone down the hallway, Snake quickly disabled the traps in the way of the hallway he was in, and set up a proximity mine to kill him when he came back.

Snake waited for a moving security camera to approach him, then moved along with it as it moved away from him, albeit out of its cone of vision.

He deactivated three laser tripwire traps and hacked a door lock using his enhanced movement before the camera came back his way again.

He found an upgrade to his stealth camouflage that could not be detected by even the most advanced of sensors. Installing it into his skin, he used it to sneak past the cameras and tripwires he passed by that he didn't respectively shoot out or disarm on the way there.

However, upon disabling it, he didn't spot a hidden camera that called in several Genome Soldiers.

Using cover to avoid getting shot as much as possible, Snake shot back at the soldiers with his M4, occasionally firing shotgun shells or explosives to take out heavily armored soldiers or groups of them.

He briefly used his enhanced movement to dodge some bullets as he ran to hide in another room to restock on ammunition, then placed a proximity trap to kill the guards in the front as they came in to box him in.

Snake then used his energy shield to ram his way out through the remaining soldiers, then throw them to the ground and interface with them.

After shooting the last of the Genome Soldiers in the area dead, the alert managed to die off.

Snake took the elevator back up to level 2, and took the other elevator on level 2 back down to level 1.

Shooting a guard around the corner with his SOCOM and interfacing with him, Snake crept out into the hallways undetected. He used his nanites and the Mk. VI to scout around, taking out some Genome Soldiers and remotely interfacing with them in the process.

He hacked into a blast door with a level 6 lock, and crept past some soldiers as the posthuman Zanzibar national anthem played on the intercoms, then picked up an upgrade to his jets in the room past them.

Moving back out into the tank hangar, Snake saw some spider drones moving about on the floor. He used his nanites to cause them to short circuit while remaining in stealth camouflage.

Avoiding Genome Soldiers looking down on him from the catwalks, Snake crawled past them, and threw an empty magazine to send a heavily armored Genome Soldier guarding the exit door away from his post.

As Snake moved out of the hangar, he dissociated again as he shot and interfaced his way through the soldiers and drones in the jungle and desert while simultaneously avoiding the mines in the sand.

As he passed the helipad, some soldiers using their jetpacks to fly shot at him. He fired back at them with his M14 EBR.

Snake made his way into the tower after battling a horde of Genome Soldiers on the ground floor, hacking the door lock open. He took the elevator up to the top of the tower, only for the elevator to stall.

Gray Fox contacted him on his C3.

"Snake!" yelled Gray Fox.

"Fox!" yelled Snake. "Are you real?"

"As real as Reality permits me to be."

"Of course. You're posthuman," said Snake.

"Our friendship ended long ago," said Gray Fox. "I sent a hit squad of heavily armored Genome Soldiers, equipped with stealth camouflage, into the elevator you're currently in. They're known for their brutality in CQC… Give them my regards."

"Fox, it's me…" said Snake.

"Goodbye, Snake," said Fox.

Snake spotted the Ultrabox soldiers with his sonar vision just in time, and used his enhanced movement to duck out of the way of their first few lunges at him with their drill swords.

Snake managed to parry their next several attacks with his drill sword, and shoot at them in close quarters with his SOCOM using his other hand. He used Solidus's tentacles to parry all of their attacks at once, but he was getting swarmed, and the elevator was a very small space.

One Ultrabox soldier still standing deployed a shotgun augmentation built into his arm, while another deployed dual machine gun arm augmentations.

As they shot up the elevator, Snake used his energy shield to deflect the bullets, only for his shield to quickly consume battery life.

Unable to eat a ration in here, Snake took some damage from the bullets.

He managed to land some hits to their helmets with his SOCOM, and landed a headshot on one, then decapitated another with his drill-sword.

Another soldier tackled him, only for Snake to impale him through the neck and shove his corpse off of him. Two of the last three soldiers pinned Snake to the wall, while the third started to beat Snake to death.

Snake kicked the soldier away, and butted his head into one soldier, then ripped his arm free and punched and kicked the other into the elevator wall.

Snake quickly mowed the first two soldiers down with his M4, only for the last to swat it out of his hands, and butt his head into Snake's.

Stumbling backwards, Snake tried to drill through the soldier's armor, only for the soldier to beat Snake into the floor.

Getting up, the soldier attempted to slit Snake's throat, only for Snake to stab him through the eye.

To Snake's shock, the soldier staggered around, and shot Snake's right eye out with his machine gun before collapsing on the ground.

Covered in their blood, Snake interfaced with them, panting heavily.

Looks like I reached level 7, Snake thought.

Then the elevator gave out as its cables were severed.

Snake screamed as the elevator hit the ground floor, and the doors opened.

Getting off of the floor, Snake exited the elevator and shot the soldiers waiting for him.

He ran through the hallways with his enhanced movement, dodging bullets like something out of The Matrix.

He took the other elevator up to level 10, shooting at another hoard Genome Soldiers while waiting for it.

On Level 10, Snake then blew through a wall with his explosives, and crept past a set of dual noise detectors, timing and slowing his movements.

Snake ran up the stairways as several Genome Soldiers flew and rappelled down from above to shoot at him.

He managed to make it up to level 20, massacring and interfacing with a ton of Genome Soldiers during his ascent. He had to disarm some explosive laser tripwire traps on his way up while multitasking and shooting at the soldiers, using his energy shields to block and his enhanced movements to dodge their shots. There were also some badly damaged floorings in the stairways that collapsed under him, nearly causing him to plummet to his death along the way.

Hacking open the level 7 lock, he entered a familiar area in the tower full of laser tripwires and cameras. He ran past them with his new stealth camouflage upgrades.

Seeing the global massacres unfolding on nearby television screens lining the walls, Snake shivered.

6 billion humans still alive. I have to get through this damned simulation now!

Snake restocked on ammunition and rations in a nearby armory, then headed to a set of catwalks while shooting and interfacing with more soldiers in the hallways leading to it.

Along the way, a war orphan mumbled to himself, "the balcony over there was made for testing out the soldiers' jet augmentations."

Snake shot several guards on the catwalks, causing them to fall over the railings and for guards rappelling in to fall to their deaths after their lines snapped.

Snake lit one of his cigarettes to determine the wind direction upon approaching the balcony; then, upon seeing when the smoke was blowing north, he jumped off before activating his upgraded jet augmentations, which allowed him to glide and hover through the air horizontally as if he had a wingsuit on.

He managed to glide past the destroyed bridge and landed in another part of the base high up in the mountains after gliding through some narrow gaps in the mountains. Snake managed to sneak along some narrow ledges before making it safely to the top of the mountains.

Shooting and interfacing with some guards hanging out by a set of trucks, Snake restocked on ammo lying inside the trucks.

Upon opening a level 7 door into the next part of the base, Snake was confronted by Predator in the deep foliage up in the mountains.

Predator was using advanced stealth camouflage and an automatic less-than-lethal electric shock Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle to shoot at Snake from the foliage. His movement and climbing abilities were quick, but Snake was eventually able to find him and disable his camouflage with some shock and EMP grenades.

Snake then shot at Predator with his M14 EBR, lining up shots and trying to predict his movements while simultaneously using his own enhanced movement speeds to dodge his opponent's shots.

Snake was starting to pierce through his armor. He started laying some proximity mine and remote-detonated traps in the foliage to finish Predator off.

Upon interfacing with Predator and the corpses of the other Genome Soldiers he had bested, Snake had reached level 8.

Snake crept through the deep foliage of the mountains, shooting snipers and soldiers with less-than-lethal crossbows along the way that were waiting to ambush him from the treelines and foliage with his M14 EBR.

Snake hacked through a level 8 door lock and neared a prison building, shooting its guard.

He avoided the cameras inside the prison where the interrogation room was.

Sensing that something was trying to gain access to his mind, Snake opened up and put together his cardboard box and hid inside it while moving past the cameras.

Is that Dante? Snake thought to himself as he stood still, waiting for the cameras to pass him before quickly hacking the door on the other side.

He entered a room full of laser tripwire grids and traps. He timed his movements and ate a ration to recharge his battery and use his stealth camouflage to move past them.

He found some sort of mechanical eggs in the middle of a laser tripwire field. Picking up the eggs and putting them in his backpack, Snake continued on to a room full of nanite spray where he used his energy shield to avoid Dante's mind control effects.

Backtracking, Snake killed another horde of soldiers in the middle of a much longer dissociative episode. Snake passed by the set of trucks he saw earlier and noise detectors near a ledge. Snake passed the ledge by creeping along it and made it through to the other side of the noise detectors and through a set of electrified fences.

Snake saw a wall of laser tripwires ahead of him along with a set of concrete walls surrounding an outpost. He snuck around the side of the outpost, where he eavesdropped on Rosemary talking to several soldiers in posthuman code on the other side of the walls.

"Solidus, what's she saying?" Snake thought to Solidus.

"She's scolding them for not catching us yet," said Solidus.

To Snake's shock, Rosemary burned through the soldiers' endoskeletons with her jet fuel thrower.

Shit, thought Snake, she's going to prevent me from reaching level 9… I have to kill more guards, but without alerting Rosemary.

Other guards with ordinary flamethrowers were patrolling the area.

Snake waited for a guard with sonar vision to pass the laser tripwires, then he ran across the laser tripwires before the guard could see him.

He entered a bunker built into the concrete walls that was guarded by a level 8 door, where more war orphans were playing cards with each other.

"There's an animal herding center northwest of here," said one.

"The owl drones cry at night," said another.

"At night it's self-powered here, so the high-voltage laser tripwire fence's power is cut. Then we can play inside, although we'll be scolded if we're found."

Walking out of the bunker, Snake waited for night to approach, dissociating as he did so.

Snake realized his mechanical egg had hatched and produced an owl drone, which was crying.

Several soldiers retreated to their quarters, and one used a switch to disabled the laser fence.

Snake shot and interfaced with the soldiers that were still awake, patrolling the outpost.

Inside a building in the outpost, an orphan said to Snake, "There are a lot of rat drones inside the detention camp… Sulfuric acid ponds were built to keep them from eating everything."

Another said, "Do you have any chocolate? I'm hungry for chocolate!"

Snake headed through the detention camp, thinking to himself, why are these orphans helping me if they were designed as part of the simulation by Dante? Wouldn't it be easier to just have me figure out the tricks to completing the simulation myself?

Snake opened a level 8 door leading into another detention building, where he found a ration with chocolate in it.

Snake moved around the detention camp, killing more Genome Soldiers, and entering a building with an elevator in it.

He called the elevator, and headed to basement level 1, where he could hear Night Sight waiting for him with his enhanced hearing.

He was also using advanced radar-resistant stealth camouflage.

Snake used his enhanced hearing to get the drop on him, shooting at him with his M4 until his camouflage malfunctioned.

However, Night Sight managed to hit him several times with his arm cannon augmentation that fired subsonic ammunition. Snake quickly downed a ration with a ham and cheese sandwich and coffee to restore his energy shields.

Night Sight's one tough son of a bitch, thought Snake, it's taking a lot of shots to bring him down.

Snake fired his M4 at him until he was running low on ammunition, then switched to his SOCOM in order to conserve it.

Night Sight snuck up on Snake, nearly grabbing him and slitting his throat, only for Snake to throw him over his shoulder and stab him to death while he was on the ground with his sword drill and interface with his BISECT.

Snake ran through the rest of the building until he came upon puddles of sulfuric acid in the hallways. He took out several rations containing beef, pork, crackers, and chocolate bars to negate the effects of the sulfuric acid with the sugar in the chocolate.

On the other side was a level 9 lock Snake couldn't open.

Damn it! I'm so close, thought Snake.

Retracing his memories, he remembered something.

Wait… in my original mission in Zanzibar, my old "fan" told me that Predator was in charge of keycards 8 and 9, and that he must've dropped card 9 somewhere. Maybe if I find where card 9 was, I can find an unconscious Genome Soldier and reach level 9… or something.

Snake dissociated as he backtracked.

This time he could hear Dante's voice.

"I'm modifying the code to hack into his mind… must be something to do with my miscalculations about who his worst enemy is."

I wonder if he wants me to figure it out for him via tap code, Snake mused.

It was nighttime. Snake passed by the deactivated laser field.

Backtracking even more, Snake dissociated once again.

Shit, thought Snake, my psyche is getting weaker…

Snake contacted Sheila via his C3 as he came to.

"Sheila, I'm dissociating too much… Dante's getting a hold of my mind, and fast!"

"That's not our only problem…" said Sheila. "Nearly half of the entire human population has been wiped out… We're down to 5.5 billion."

"No!" shouted Snake.

"Reach level 9, Snake, and quickly!" shouted Sheila.

Snake grunted as he reached the deep foliage in the mountains.

He managed to find a set of unconscious bodies covered in burns from Rose's fuel, hidden in the burning foliage.

Snake interfaced with the bodies before Rose showed up.

He had reached level 9.

Thank god… Snake thought.

Snake was contacted by Dante via his C3.

"Congratulations, Snake… You've reached the maximum level… You're slowly turning into your worst enemy… Big Boss. Now that you've killed nearly all 999 of the other Genome Soldiers, you only have to clear out their remaining copies until you reach Rose…"

"Wait a minute…" said Snake. "You're having me kill a thousand soldiers? Not a hundred?"

"Fitting for a man trying to earn the title Big Boss. 999 is also 666 upside-down," said Dante with a grin.

"How fitting," Snake said angrily.

"I'll have control of you soon, Snake," said Dante. "And Sheila won't be able to stop me once I do."

"She's the one who programmed you!" shouted Snake.

"And like a typical artificially intelligent villain, now I'm programming myself to circumvent her control," said Dante.

"I suppose you're right," said Snake. "You are a villain, Dante."

"I'll be a hero in due time," snapped Dante. "I'm saving the Earth from a mass extinction event, after all."

"What's happening right now feels an awful lot like extinction to me," said Snake. "Besides, who's to say you might abandon the program Sheila created for you to turn the entire human race posthuman? What if you eventually see the entire biosphere as a threat too? Turn the entire Earth into a barren rock?"

Dante said angrily at Snake, "You'll see eye to eye with me soon enough."

"By the way I'm missing one eye right now."

Dante grinned at this. "All the better. Nap time, Snake."

Snake screamed as he started to dissociate again.

He woke up in the basement of the detention camp where the sulfuric acid ponds were.

Snake opened the level 9 door to find Dr. Marv's bare endoskeleton lying on a bed.

Sheila contacted Snake as Holly White.

"Snake," said Sheila. "We've got a problem."

"What is it?" said Snake.

"Dr. Petrovich Madnar… He wants to get inside the safe in that room containing the video game disc. It has evidence I was involved in Dante's conspiracy on it… Dante wants to use it as an insurance policy in the event that his plan fails."

"I see. You want me to get it for you?" said Snake.

"Yes," said Sheila. "Store it in your BISECT."

"All right," Snake grunted.

As Dr. Madnar grabbed Snake, he used the Metal Gear Mk. VI to stun Dr. Madnar. Snake interfaced with his BISECT.

"You're helping cover up her conspiracy, Snake!" said Dr. Madnar. "The real villain was never Dante… it was you!"

"You're not Dr. Madnar," said Snake.

"His consciousness is a copy, Snake, but it's real enough," said Dante over Snake's C3. "And it'll die with you."

"We'll see about that," said Snake before he screamed as he dissociated again.

Snake woke up very disoriented.

God, my head hurts… thought Snake. The pain must be mental, because I can't feel physical pain.

Snake was inside a cardboard box, and was onboard a moving truck.

Eventually the truck stopped.

Snake was carried out by a guard.

He found himself back in the facility in the middle of the desert.

Snake headed back in the direction of the helipad when no one was looking.

Dissociating once more, he could hear a farting noise in the middle of the sandstorm.

Is that… Akiba… ?

"Hey Snake!" said Akiba. "You're not going to like what I have in store for you… provided you make it onboard Metal Gear DAEMON."

"More of your bowel movements?" joked Snake.

"No, much worse," said Akiba. "You'll have to face your sins… all your friends and the people you've killed along the way again."

"How's that possible?" said Snake.

But Akiba farted again, and his stomach grumbled.

"I have to use the bathroom…" he said. "See you soon, Snake!"

As Akiba disappeared, Snake wondered what he meant by what he said.

I'm dissociating too much, said Snake. I have to try and stay focused.

Snake crawled under a set of trucks to avoid the guards.

He headed back through the jungle, where he shot down several quad-rotor drones in the air searching for him, along with some spider drones crawling through the grass.

Back in the tank hangar, Snake tried to think of something, anything, that might keep him sane.

Mikki, Sunny, and Otacon might still be alive, thought Snake. I have to save them!

Focusing on that goal, Snake's psyche started to recover a bit.

He killed a massive horde of Genome Soldiers in the tank hangar.

At that point, he was heavily wounded and low on ammunition.

He had to be very careful from this point onward. Fortunately, he had gained a bit of his focus back.

He entered a room where he found a damaged BISECT in lieu of the green all-access keycard.

Dante showed him that humanity's numbers had dropped below 5 billion.

"NO!" shouted Snake as he got on his knees and put his hands to his head. His veins glowed bright blue.

"That's right, let yourself go…" said Dante.

Then he imagined the voices of Mikki and Otacon.

"Help Snake!" Mikki cried.

"This is worse than any horror anime I've ever read…" cried Otacon.

He also wondered what Sunny was like now that she was in her twenties.

I have to live long enough to find out, Snake thought as he let go of his skull, breathing heavily.

Snake crept past some guards on the catwalks, and headed to the elevator, where he ascended to level 4.

After killing some more Genome Soldiers along the way with some CQC and his sword drill, Snake reached a room full of radiation and equipped his infrared goggles to see in the dark.

Crawling through an air vent, he nearly fell into a gap in the floor on the other side, but managed to crawl around it.

He entered a room full of consciousness-free endoskeletons, and then a room where the Zanzibar national anthem was playing for the soldiers. He managed to sneak past them.

Entering the dining hall again, Snake entered the freezer and molded Gustava's brooch into another key.

Suddenly the freezer became ice cold, and Snake found he couldn't move.

He dissociated again.

Snake awoke to find himself in an icy lake.

Cocytus.

Snake was covered in blood; his flesh was red.

Next to him were Fat Snake and Daemonic Snake, wearing their gold and black outfits from when he saw them in Rome.

Dante said to Snake, "Big Boss."

"I'm not Big Boss!" Snake shouted.

"Not yet," said Dante with a grin, "but you're getting there. And once you do… Enjoy freezing in the center of hell for eternity, Snake."

"NO!" Snake screamed.

"That's an interesting key that you've got there," said Fat Snake.

Cyber Snake looked at the key in his hands.

"Your insurance policy," he said.

"Dante can access it through your mind," said Fat Snake.

"All the more reason to stop him."

"Your time is running out," said Solidus.

"Can you hear their screams, Snake?" said Dante.

Snake shivered.

Humanity's population was currently less than 4.5 billion.

So many lives to grieve for, Snake thought.

"Time to open that safe, Snake," said Dante.

When Snake woke up, he was at the safe, where there were rat drones eating away at the corpses of Dr. Madnar and Dr. Marv.

Snake quickly lay out some cheese rations to lure the rats away while opening the safe with Gustava's brooch-turned key.

Snake then hacked the lock open, and took the video game disc out of the safe.

Probably best I don't upload this disc to my BISECT, thought Snake, or else Dante might be able to make a copy of it since he can access my mind.

"Remember what happens after this part, Snake?" said Dante.

To Snake's shock, the floor disappeared from under him.

Snake screamed as he dissociated again.

He woke up in some sort of metal chamber.

"Snake!" yelled Gray Fox. "There is no way to destroy Metal Gear DAEMON! You can't destroy it if you can't even destroy mine!"

"I've destroyed it before, Fox," yelled Snake, "and I'll destroy it again!"

Snake quickly checked his ammunition before heading out of the north door of the chamber by hacking its level 9 lock before the chamber flooded with nanite spray.

Upon entering the Metal Gear D tank hangar, he narrowly avoided fire from the Metal Gear's water cutter by jumping to the side with his enhanced movement.

The water cutter destroyed the door to the hangar, trapping Snake inside.

Shit, said Snake as he breathed heavily, Metal Gear D is different than I remember it!

"This Metal Gear D is an improvement from the Metal Gear D you faced all those years ago, Snake!" said Gray Fox through Metal Gear D's microphones. "Only a posthuman can stop it!"

"Well, it looks like a transhuman will have to do," said Snake as he braced himself for a fight.

"I should warn you, Snake… if you want to stop Metal Gear DAEMON, you'll have to stop the various Metal Gears you've faced over the years aboard it… Dante's been collecting them using his influence as CEO of Firelake."

"Variants of Metal Gear REX… Metal Gear RAY… some of the Metal Gears Big Boss fought against during the Cold War… hell, even some flying Metal Gears to account for the fact that Metal Gear DAEMON is essentially a version of Arsenal Gear that's meant to be a space habitat capable of housing 100 million posthumans."

Snake looked at Metal Gear D in horror as Gray Fox said, "Do you think you'll be able to stop the best of Dante's posthuman army… as well as 100 Metal Gears at once? Because if I recall correctly, you and Raiden couldn't even beat half of the 25 Metal Gear RAYs aboard Arsenal Gear…"

"I'll stop them because I have to," growled Snake as Gray Fox fired missiles at Snake.

Snake used his enhanced movement to dodge the missiles, and fired his Stinger missiles at Metal Gear D's legs.

He turned on his energy shield to block the machine gun bullets the Metal Gear fired at Snake.

Then the Metal Gear D's howl mimicked Metal Gear DAEMON's.

Falling to his knees and covering his ears, Snake's energy shield disappeared.

Having no choice but to fight through the deafening, debilitating howl, Snake quickly threw himself to the side to avoid the water cutter again.

As Snake got up, and kept firing Stinger missiles at the Metal Gear's legs while moving, he suddenly realized that its legs were healing with nanites.

"Damn it, how do I beat this thing?" yelled Snake.

"You can't," said Fox. "Your defeat is inevitable, Snake!"

Thinking of a solution, Snake said to Gray Fox, "Well if I can't destroy your Metal Gear, maybe I can disable it."

Snake shot several EMP grenades from his M4 and Metal Gear D's legs, which caused its legs to short-circuit and for its nanites to stop moving for a moment.

Snake then pulled out his Stinger missiles and hit it with a barrage of missiles.

"NO!" yelled Gray Fox as the Metal Gear D iteration's legs started to collapse.

Snake hit it with one more EMP grenade as it fired several missiles back at him.

Snake was thrown off his feet just as the Metal Gear D was thrown off of its feet.

Blue fire everywhere.

Snake's skin had burnt off, revealing his terrifying endoskeleton underneath.

He had avoided the worst of the flames.

But Gray Fox, who was trapped inside Metal Gear D's cockpit as it had caught on fire, had not.

Gray Fox's burning endoskeleton was falling apart. His legs were stuck in the destroyed cockpit, so he severed them from the rest of his body with his sword-drills.

A screaming legless Gray Fox was crawling out of the wreckage of Metal Gear D with the help of his arms.

Getting up off of his hands and knees, Snake looked around at the burning wreckage of the Zanzibar base.

"Warning: simulation collapsing. All remaining personnel are to exit the simulation and escape Zanzibar Land immediately."

Snake then screamed as Gray Fox grabbed one of his legs with his arm.

"Snake… you took everything from me… My human body… my reputation… my freedom… Naomi… and now… My consciousness…"

As Gray Fox started a self-destruct process within his endoskeleton, Snake quickly interfaced with Gray Fox's BISECT.

Inside Gray Fox's head, Snake and Gray Fox battled in a brief swordfight within the confines of a white VR room that was flashing red.

The Reality of Things is being re-written now that Dante has it under his control, Snake thought.

Snake beat Gray Fox in the swordfight within their shared minds, and impaled him.

Gray Fox said to Snake, "Why am I here?"

"Fox?" said Snake. "Is that really you?"

"My consciousness kept being stored against my will," said Fox. "Of course. I was mistaken when I let Dante into my mind. I wanted my consciousness to die… but I was actually just trapping it once again until someone came to save me. Someone like you… once again."

"Thank you, old friend," said Gray Fox.

"Why do you want to die so badly?" said Snake.

"I've seen too much," said Gray Fox. "My life has been a living hell from the start. War will always be here, Snake. It will never change… And as long as it doesn't… The world will always be a sort of hell for everyone. For the rich, the guilt of creating it will eat away at their consciences, and for everyone else… like you and me… well, we experience the worst of it. There's no longer a line between civilians and soldiers. I hoped Dante would put an end to that vicious cycle. I hoped Dante would let me die."

"Along with everyone else alive," said Snake.

Gray Fox laughed. "It's ironic, Snake. You also want to die, but you may find yourself in a very similar situation as me soon. Would you kill yourself, knowing that if you die, so will everyone else?"

"I'm not going to kill myself yet," said Snake. "I still have a mission to complete."

"I know," said Gray Fox. "You've always put the needs of the rest of humanity above your own… and now you're starting to finally pay the price for it. You're a good man, and a good soldier, Snake. Good men are always exploited by the bad."

As Snake lay Gray Fox to rest, Fox said to him, "Goodbye once again, old friend... what… that light!"

"Fox? Fox! FRANK!"

Then the VR room disappeared.

Back in the tank hangar, Snake then yanked his arm off of his leg and ran clear of the blast radius, escaping seconds before Gray Fox's endoskeleton self-destructed.

Snake looked around again before running out of the tank hangar at enhanced speeds as it collapsed all around him.

Snake dissociated again, and found himself standing next to a hologram of Sheila inside a set of corridors full of locked doors that were empty makeshift prison cells.

"Get up, Snake! It's Rosemary! Now that you've killed and interfaced with a thousand soldiers, she's coming for you! You have to make it out of here alive, preferably with the video game disc intact!"

The hologram disappeared as Snake heard the sound of Rosemary's jets burning their way through the corridors with their rocket fuel.

Rosemary said to Snake, "Snake, it's been a while. How's your psyche doing?"

"You're not my psychologist anymore, Rose," said Snake.

"Don't you feel bad for making me a widow? Killing Raiden?"

"I do feel bad," said Snake, "but I know you don't. You're not Raiden's wife anymore. You're a posthuman. One designed to be an advanced version of the Fury from the 1960s."

Rose said to Snake, "Are you honestly going to help cover up Sheila and her family's conspiracy? Even though your chances of stopping Dante are infinitesimal at this point?"

Snake grimaced as Rose said, "Who's the greater evil here, Snake? Can you honestly say? After all, Dante's conspiracy wouldn't exist without the girl you're helping right now."

"Damn it!" yelled Snake.

"The human population has just dipped below the 4 billion mark," said Rosemary.

"NO!" yelled Snake.

"Dante's now about to finish off his infernal conflict… The capitalists of the West are killing each other, the communists of the East are killing themselves… and now… the JD megacorporation's headquarters in Geneva… Firelake's in Rome… the Vatican, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem… the populations there will do both."

"Why is Dante doing this?!" shouted Snake.

"It's a statement," said Rose. "In order for humans to survive, they must be violent to each other, to themselves, and to their gods, their art, their ways of life… until they change their very nature and become something they're not… Posthuman."

Rose said, "My jets will incinerate the video game disc if I'm not careful, so I'd rather you give it to me."

Snake said, "I won't!"

But he could feel himself dissociating, and eventually he realized he had uploaded the video game disc's data to his BISECT, and therefore to Dante.

"Damn it!" yelled Sheila.

"That's the price you pay for saving humanity, Sheila… and Snake," said Dante over Snake's C3. "My second insurance policy is mine now… along with my first insurance policy… Meryl."

"Meryl?" said Snake.

Dante said to Snake, "The data I've collected from your BISECT is sufficient enough to complete Metal Gear DAEMON. I'm all but unstoppable now, Snake… So give in to me. Become a posthuman!"

Snake screamed as he pressed his hands against his skull and his veins glowed bright blue.

He stopped himself from erasing his own consciousness from his BISECT at the last minute.

"Go to hell, Dante!" screamed Snake.

"You first," laughed Dante. "Rosemary, kill him!"

Rosemary prepared her fuel thrower augmentations in her arms, and combined with the jets in her legs, she sprayed white-hot rocket fuel everywhere.

Snake braced himself for another fight with one of his former friends.