CHAPTER 13— "THE VIOLENT AND BLOODY ROSE, PART 3: AGAINST GOD, ART, AND NATURE"

Snake fired his M4 at Rosemary's armor, only for the bullets to bounce off.

He quickly used his own jets to run down the corridors and find cover as Rosemary sprayed jet fuel at him that moved around the corners of the corridor.

He quickly turned his new upgraded stealth camouflage on before Rose caught up to him, as her jets were faster than his.

"Where'd you go, Snake?" shouted Rose.

Snake took cover behind a set of crates, peeked over them, and fired some proximity mines from his M4's underbarrel launcher in an effort to trap Rose.

Upon detonating the mines after walking near them, the explosives' shrapnel hardly made a dent in Rose's thick metal armor.

"Nice try, Snake," Rose laughed.

Snake used his extended reality vision in an attempt to look for weak points in her armor while hidden.

But to his shock, using the XR vision gave his position away.

"We're hacking into your mind as we speak, Snake…" said Rose. "Your little computer tricks won't survive Cocytus!"

Snake nearly got burned alive as Rose sprayed jet fuel at his hiding spot; his last-minute sideways jump into an intersecting corridor, boosted by his own jets, saved his life.

Jesus, thought Snake, Rose is almost tougher than Raiden himself now due to what Dante did to her!

I wonder though…

Snake activated his nanites and moved them in Rose's direction.

"What?" Rose started to scream as the nanites stunned her, and created holes in her external armor shell.

All right, said Snake, so her armor can be invaded by nanomachines.

Snake screamed as he fired his M4 at the holes in Rose's armor, this time causing damage to her flesh and endoskeleton beneath her armor.

Rose sprayed jet fuel in random directions around her, almost hitting Snake in the process.

Snake quickly ran to another hiding spot, and activated his stealth camouflage again.

Rosemary had recovered, and she was looking for Snake again. She looked angry in an unhinged way now.

She booted up her jets, and blasted her way through the hallways, setting them ablaze with white hot fire again.

Come on, come on… ! Snake thought while waiting for his nanites to replenish.

Just as Rose was starting to turn the corner and enter the hallway Snake was in, his nanite augmentation came back online.

Snake launched the nanites at Rosemary again, and she was stunned and made vulnerable to attack once more.

Snake fired his M4 at her, this time firing both bullets and grenades at her.

This knocked Rose off of her feet, and while she managed to avoid hitting the wall with the help of her jets, her jets and fuel pack were starting to malfunction and leak a little bit of fuel.

At this point in his journey (and after fighting Metal Gear D), Snake was running low on ammunition. He had to stop Rose one last time.

Once she regained her balance with her jets, she fired her fuel launcher at Snake.

Snake activated his energy shield, but the fuel quickly overheated his battery for it.

Snake screamed as he caught on fire, and used his enhanced movements to roll until the fires went out.

Snake's flesh was completely gone, and his endoskeleton's armor was a mess.

Snake quickly launched his nanites one last time at Rose, then managed to sneak around her while she was stunned and unload his M4 at her fuel tank.

The explosion sent Snake flying, and caused Rose's armor to burn.

While Snake was crawling across the ground on hands and knees, trying to force himself back onto his feet, he could hear screaming.

He looked up from the floor of a moment, and saw Rose running around screaming as her armor, now destroyed had caught on fire.

She quickly ripped it off, and was trying to rip off her helmet that was burning on one side, but it was stuck.

She finally managed to pull off her helmet, and she threw it aside.

Snake looked at Rose's face.

The once beautiful Rosemary, now had her hair burnt off, and her head was steaming and covered in blood. Half of her face was gone, revealing her endoskeleton's skull and a glowing red eye underneath.

As Rosemary looked in Snake's direction, she let out a half-human, half-demonic-sounding howl.

Snake pulled out his SOCOM, only for Rosemary to block him from shooting her with her arm.

She kicked his leg in at the knee, and then kicked him in the torso, sending him crashing into a set of nearby crates, and slamming into the wall behind them.

"SNAKE!" she screamed as she kicked Snake's SOCOM away from his reach.

Snake tried to get up and run away, only to find he was limping.

He collapsed to the ground.

"It's over, Snake!" yelled Rosemary. "You can't make it back to Geneva if you can't even walk!"

Sitting up, Snake said, "You're right… It's over."

"It is over."

"Before I die…" said Snake while reaching for something in his inventory concealment augmentations.

Rosemary tensed herself.

"…would you mind indulging one last request of mine?" said Snake as he pulled out a cigarette.

Rosemary grimaced.

"As a being who doesn't care about human pleasures, I would mind," said Rosemary as she aimed his SOCOM at him and loaded a clip into it. "You die now."

Snake took out a lighter. "Fine, I'll light this last cig myself then."

As Rosemary cocked his SOCOM, Snake flicked his cigarette at Rose's eye to blind her for a moment, then took his lighter, held Mikki's perfume in the direction of its flame, and sprayed it at Rosemary.

The incendiary mix burned Rosemary's endoskeleton pretty bad.

She ran around screaming, and as she ran at Snake to try and burn him, Snake got up from a sitting position, grabbed Rose's skull, and interfaced with her BISECT, burning his hand in the process.

In the VR Room of Death, Rosemary clutched her stomach, breathing heavily as she crawled with one hand toward the SOCOM.

Snake stepped on her arm, and kicked the SOCOM away.

Rosemary cried, "Please don't kill me, I don't know why I did it!" Looking up, her facial expression changed from a scared to a confused one.

"Snake?"

Looking around, she said, "What's going on? Where are we? Where's Raiden? And Little John?"

Rosemary clutched her stomach, which was bleeding.

"Raiden's dead," said Snake, "and as for Little John… Given most of the human population just participated in its own near-absolute genocide… He may be dead too."

"Dead?" said Rosemary. "Who? Who killed them?"

"I killed Raiden," said Snake. "I'm sorry, Rose."

"No," said Rosemary, looking down as tears started to fall down her face. "NO!"

"They're gone… They're all gone—"

"PLEASE GOD, NO! WHAT HAVE I DONE!" screamed Rose.

"What?" said Snake.

Looking at Rose, he asked her, "What did you do, Rose?"

Hysterical, Rose cried, "I… I remember killing him, but I don't feel like I remember…"

"Who did you kill, Rose?" said Snake.

Rose cried, "Little John. My own son."

"You what!"

"Dante used us as leverage against Raiden… in an effort to capture him and turn him posthuman. He didn't even know we were posthuman too, and before I turned Raiden posthuman, and Meryl turned me posthuman?" Rosemary began to cry again.

"You turned Little John posthuman."

"Of my own free will. I was given a choice. Dante would torture him, a child, to death… or I could turn him posthuman peacefully, while he was asleep. I chose the latter. I didn't want my baby boy to suffer."

"Dante, you sick bastard…" said Snake.

"As my consciousness was trapped in this body, I could hear his voice in my head, haunting me day and night," cried Rosemary. "I became my worst enemy… my family's worst enemy. By committing violence against them, I committed violence against myself… and that's how Dante broke my will. He committed violence against the nature of who I was."

Snake said, "It's not your fault, Rose. You weren't given a choice. That was no choice at all."

"I deserve to burn… One last smoke…" cried Rose, as she shook violently while stepping into a pool of gasoline.

"Rose, no!" yelled Snake.

She screamed as she lit a match and dropped it, and her self-image burned alive.

"ROSE!" screamed Snake.

"OH GOD, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" screamed Rose. "OH GOD… THE LIGHT! THE LIIIIGHT!"

The VR room evaporated in smoke and fire.

… … … … …

"ROSE!" Snake screamed and pulled his hand away from Rose's burning endoskeleton as it fell to the floor.

Snake's hand was emitting steam.

Damn it… that was a bad way to go out. She was just a civilian; she didn't deserve that. That along with God knows what other horrors are happening to the consciousnesses of the entirety of humanity!

Getting up, Snake said, "I have to stop Dante…" as he limped away.

"You're in no shape to fight, though… brother."

Cyber Snake looked around after hearing Fat Snake's voice, and saw him standing next to him.

"Liquid? You were here the whole time?" Snake looked around. "Why didn't you help me?"

"I had to hide myself from Dante in an attempt to keep you alive. I can only help you in brief intervals because there's nowhere left to hide… If you're running out of willpower, then have some of mine," said Liquid as he grabbed Snake and did what seemed like a CQC slam into the floor, only Snake fell through the floor.

Snake dissociated for a while, and when he woke, he was in another Metal Gear hangar with a Metal Gear REX variant in it, along with another Metal Gear he had never seen before.

Extremely disoriented, Snake breathed heavily before looking at himself and his hands.

"I'm… I'm healed," said Cyber Snake. "I'm still me."

"Hardly," said Fat Snake. "The healing nanites in your heart only work if you have the will to use them. You're starting to lose your willpower, Snake, and I can't protect you if you lose all of it."

"Sunny gave me two messages for you, brother…" said Fat Snake.

"Sunny?" said Cyber Snake. "She gave a message for you to give to me, Liquid?"

"The first one was to be kept secret until the event of her death occurs. She's still alive, so I can't tell you that one right now. But the second one was this: Trust Liquid like your life depends on it."

Snake grunted. "How do I know the message was from her?"

"She allowed me to say the first part of message one in case you didn't trust message two… The first part of message one is, 'I cooked them right.'"

Seeing the message in Soliton Radar encryption format, Cyber Snake said, "This is an format she helped decrypt in a message from Naomi during the SOP incident… And despite that her cooking's been better for a while now… That message is from her."

"All right, Liquid… I'll trust you," said Cyber Snake. "For now."

"Good," said Fat Snake, "because Solidus is about to attack us with a Metal Gear RAY that had been stored here before. We can't fly to Geneva using Metal Gear ROT until we destroy Solidus's Metal Gear, else he might shoot us out of the sky."

"A flying Metal Gear?" said Cyber Snake. "Solidus? But I thought he was inside my head!"

"That was just a copy of his consciousness," said Fat Snake. "His real posthuman self is about to fight us with RAY."

"I see," said Snake. "We'd better stop him then."

"I'll help you pilot REX," said Fat Snake. "Just one moment though… I need a snack."

Fat Snake munched on a calzone stuffed with chicken, cheese, and eggs and washed it down it with a bottle of Soju.

"Where'd you get that calzone and Korean alcohol?" said Cyber Snake.

"From Sunny," said Fat Snake.

Cyber Snake said, "You've seen her?"

Fat Snake said nothing in response.

"Is she really in her twenties now?"

"Why wouldn't she be?"

"Never mind…" said Snake. "Last time I saw her, she was a child… What does she look like now?"

Fat Snake snorted. "Like herself, only now she's an adult… Why are you asking me this?"

Cyber Snake said, "I just… I've missed her… That and her eggs. I want to see her again, and how much she's grown up."

Fat Snake said, "If you want, you can have a bite of my calzone… Only one bite though."

Cyber Snake took a bite of the calzone, and took a gulp of Soju to wash it down.

"Time to pilot REX," said Fat Snake.

"I hope you're able to pilot a Metal Gear while tipsy," said Cyber Snake.

"Don't worry about me, brother," said Fat Snake. "My artificial stomach and liver are much bigger than yours now."

"Fair enough."

The two Snakes boarded the Metal Gear REX variant, and Cyber Snake hacked into its controls with his BISECT.

As REX booted up, they had it stand on its legs and ready its weapons.

They exited the tank hangar and entered a clearing in the jungle near the swamp, where Solidus's Metal Gear RAY variant rose from the swamp's surface and jumped onto the clearing to face REX.

"It's good to see you again, brother," said Solidus from RAY's cockpit.

"You're no longer my brother, Daemonic Snake!" said Cyber Snake.

Solidus chuckled. "I believe last time you battled RAY with REX, it was against Liquid Ocelot."

"This time I'm fighting with him," said Cyber Snake, "against you. And I have what it takes to win."

"I wish you luck," said Daemonic Snake, "as RAY's variant is more powerful than its predecessor… Not to mention it's more powerful than REX's variant."

Cyber Snake grimaced, and REX ran at RAY and the Metal Gear's clashed, grinding their surfaces against each other.

Cyber Snake managed to outmaneuver RAY with REX, and managed to hit it with REX's water cutter, only for RAY to bash REX sideways with one of its arms.

RAY fired its missiles at REX, but REX managed to move behind some wreckage from the now-destroyed towers of Zanzibar Land.

RAY started to cut through the wreckage with its own water cutter.

Snake used a barrage of REX's missiles to hit RAY, then moved around the wreckage and fired its machine guns at RAY.

RAY was starting to take damage, but Solidus used its water cutter to significantly damage REX.

"Come on, come on!" yelled the twin Snakes as they tried to pilot REX and keep it from collapsing. While Cyber Snake tried to steer REX, Fat Snake deployed nanites to repair REX's frame.

Solidus taunted them. "You may be able to heal your Metal Gear, but I can heal mine faster!"

"Listen to me, brother," said Fat Snake, "we've only got one shot at this."

"What do we do?" said Cyber Snake.

"Remember how you took down Metal Gear D?"

"With EMP…" said Cyber Snake.

"You'll have to launch a nuke into the upper atmosphere… The EMP from the blast will destroy RAY…"

"Along with REX," said Cyber Snake, "and all the posthumans within the blast radius."

"We don't have a choice," said Fat Snake. "Besides, we're high up enough in the mountains that casualties should be kept to a minimum."

Snake sighed. "All right… Launch the nuke from the rail gun."

"Starting the countdown," said Fat Snake.

Snake had Metal Gear REX take cover behind more wreckage until the nuke launching process began; after that, REX had to stand still in order for the nuke to reach the optimal coordinates and altitude for detonation.

As RAY jumped over the wreckage, it started to fire its weapons at REX.

"What are you doing just standing there, brother?" said Solidus. "Fight me!"

The twin Snakes braced themselves as RAY's weapons started to tear REX apart.

"Wait a minute…" said Solidus.

Cyber Snake screamed, "Fat Snake, launch the nuke!"

"Almost there…" said Fat Snake.

"Liquid, NOW!" yelled Cyber Snake.

"Launching the nuke!" shouted Fat Snake. "Abandon REX and head for shelter!"

"NO!" yelled Solidus as Cyber Snake used REX's water cutter to stun RAY long enough to trap Solidus in his cockpit.

As the nuke launched from REX's railgun, Fat Snake and Cyber Snake ejected themselves from REX's cockpit, and used their jets to land safely in the jungle.

Cyber Snake yelled, "How do we stop ourselves from being fried by the nuke?"

Fat Snake said, "Have you watched Indiana Jones?"

"What does that have to do with—"

"We're near a nuclear testing ground, brother!" yelled Fat Snake. "Run to it and find a lead-lined fridge!"

Cyber Snake grunted, and the two Snakes ran for their lives using their enhanced movement augmentations through the jungle and to the nuclear testing ground, where a nearby outpost building had a lead-lined fridge in it.

Metal Gear RAY followed them, and Daemonic Snake yelled, "SNAKE!"

Fat Snake stayed behind and fired EMP rounds from his revolver to stun RAY.

Cyber Snake entered the outpost, and found the lead-lined fridge.

Fat Snake followed behind him.

"I don't see another fridge nearby, and the nuke is about to detonate!" yelled Cyber Snake. "Squeeze in here with me!"

"There's no room, and no time!" yelled Fat Snake. "Get in by yourself!"

"But you'll die—"

"I'll be fine! Just trust me!"

"How on Earth will you be fine—"

"Oh, for Outer Heaven's sake, brother!" yelled Fat Snake as he used his energy shield augmentation to bash Cyber Snake into the lead-lined fridge and shut him inside seconds before the nuke detonated in the upper atmosphere.

The sound of the nuke was deafening, almost as much from this distance as the sound of Metal Gear DAEMON's roar.

I can't imagine what the sound of all Metal Gear DAEMON's nukes would sound like, Snake thought before he screamed as the fridge was thrown violently around as several aerial drones fried by the EMP from the nuke's blast radius crashed into the outpost roof.

Snake could hear RAY and REX being destroyed by the EMP, and their crashing into the trees in the jungle and the nearby swamp, respectively.

Waiting until it became quiet, Snake got out of the lead-lined fridge and climbed out of the outpost's wreckage.

Nearby, Solidus had managed to climb out of RAY just before it exploded.

But his endoskeleton and BISECT were fried.

Cyber Snake looked at Daemonic Snake's corpse as Fat Snake showed up behind him.

"How'd you survive?" said Cyber Snake. "Did you find another lead-lined fridge somewhere?"

"Don't worry about it," said Fat Snake. "All that matters is I'm alive… and Solidus is dead."

Looking at Daemonic Snake again, Cyber Snake said, "Should I have interfaced with his BISECT?"

"No…" said Fat Snake, "because you've got a copy of his consciousness in your head… That should be enough."

"Enough for what though?" said Cyber Snake.

"Don't worry about it," said Fat Snake with a grin.

Cyber Snake grunted. "Fine."

"The Metal Gear hangar containing Metal Gear ROT is EMP-proof," said Fat Snake. "We need to get to Geneva and reunite with the others, quickly. The Earth's human population just dropped below 3 billion!"

"Damn," said Snake. "You're right… If we don't hurry, soon there won't be anyone left to save."

Cyber Snake and Fat Snake headed back to the hangar.

As Cyber Snake and Fat Snake boarded Metal Gear ROT, Dante contacted them via their C3s.

"DANTE!" yelled Snake.

"Looks like Daemonic Snake's soul was eaten," said Dante. "No matter. Sunny's aboard Metal Gear DAEMON with me, Meryl, Akiba, and the rest of Rat Patrol 01, and we've already launched into space."

"Damn it! I swear to God, Dante, if you kill her…" Then Cyber Snake realized something as Fat Snake booted up Metal Gear ROT. "What about Sheila, Otacon, and Mikki? Did you leave them behind to die?"

Dante laughed at Snake as Metal Gear ROT exited the tank hangar and entered the air. "I left Sheila to die, yes… As for Mikki… and Otacon… They want to speak with you too. I'll let Mikki go first."

Snake heard Mikki screaming over his C3 as she was being tortured with Dante's electricity-emitting augmentations.

"NO!" yelled Snake. "Don't hurt her, Dante!"

"It's too late for that," laughed Dante. "She's been hurt so much that her will is starting to break… Now it's Otacon's turn."

"Dante…" said Snake as Metal Gear ROT flew across Zanzibar Land's airspace.

"Good to hear your voice again, Snake," said Otacon.

"Otacon?" said Snake. "You're okay?"

"Dante left me down here in Geneva to complete some unfinished business of his."

"What?" said Snake.

"You still don't get it, do you Snake?" said Otacon. "Did you ever wonder how Dante gained access to the Reality of Things? Sheila let him in before her plans fell apart right under your nose… You remember that I was the one you put in charge of accessing the Reality of Things's central server, right?"

A chill went down Snake's spine. "No… Not you too, Otacon!"

Otacon said to Snake, "You shouldn't have trusted me so much, Snake. Dante turned me posthuman as well. I'm his mole… but then again, who isn't his mole?"

"NO!" yelled Snake.

"Looks like you're going to have to kill me too if you want to save the day, Snake," said Otacon. "I'll see you in Geneva."

Breathing heavily as the C3 line went dead, Snake yelled, "OTACON!"

Fat Snake said to Cyber Snake, "Do you think you can kill your best friend, brother?"

Cyber Snake said, "I… I don't know."

"You don't have a choice."

"I know… I know."

Fat Snake and Cyber Snake looked below at the burning ruins of Zanzibar Land as the sky rained ash and they exited Zanzibar Land airspace.