Yesterday, I have finally completed the original Metal Gear, the game that started the Metal Gear franchise in 1987. The franchise is well known for having one of the most long-running and complex storylines that revolutionized storytelling in video games, but if we're being honest, the original Metal Gear has a rather simple story, as it's merely about Solid Snake's infiltration through the Outer Heaven and the plot twist of Big Boss being the leader of Outer Heaven is pretty obvious. However, I think the Big Boss body double twist from MGSV, while leaving a lot to be desired, does a great job in explaining Big Boss' survival in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and adds to Big Boss' descent into villainy.

This is set during the final stage of the original Metal Gear, where Solid Snake runs into Venom Snake and fights against him.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Metal Gear franchise. It belongs to Hideo Kojima and Konami.

Outer Heaven, Galzburg, South Africa

1995

"Emergency! Emergency! The self-destruct sequence for Outer Heaven has been initialized! All personal are ordered to evacuate immediately!"

Having just destroyed Metal Gear TX-55, the bipedal tank created by Dr. Drago Petrovich Madnar that served as Outer Heaven's nuclear deterrent, Solid Snake realized that he had little time to leave the base upon hearing the self-destruction sequence and immediately rushed through the hanger's door. As he was about to make his way through the exit route, Solid Snake suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw someone emerging from the exit door, blocking him from escaping the base. The man was clad in green camouflage suit with a black beret with the Outer Heaven logo on it and an eyepatch and holding an assault rifle in his arms. The figure also had a black mechanical arm, which had replaced his missing right arm. Positioning his pistol at the person, Solid Snake immediately recognized the man as his commanding officer, Big Boss, and was confused as to why he was inside the base.

"Big Boss?" Snake confusingly asked.

"That's right," Big Boss told Snake. "I am the supreme commander of the FOXHOUD unit and leader of the fortress of Outer Heaven, Big Boss."

"It can't be..." Snake softly muttered, being shocked by the revelation of his commander being the perpetrator of the Outer Heaven incident.

"It wasn't easy pretending to be in charge of FOXHOUND and managing this place at the same time." Big Boss explained. "I had given this mission to you, a rookie, thinking I could use you to fool the US government. I was very close, but you ruined it all. You were too good, you've come too far, much further than I expected."

"But, why?" Snake further asked, determined to learn the truth. "Why would you do that? You're a legendary soldier. Everyone in the battlefield has heard of you."

Big Boss laughed. "Because we soldiers are nothing more than tools to the government. Disposable tools to be used and then thrown away as they see fit. Prisoners of our own calling, our worth changes with the times. By building this place, I had given us a purpose, a reason to keep fighting, without the control of government or anyone else. I had built a safe haven for soldiers, a country where we keep the flames of war ignited forever. No longer will we be submitted to the will of those intending to use us for their own purposes. No longer used. No longer disposed of. We will survive the test of time... by making war everlasting!"

"And that's how you justify genocide?" Snake protested. "I've never taken you for a hypocrite, Big Boss, but there's nothing glorious about war. Only pain and suffering."

Snake's remarks had caused Big Boss to let out a malicious laugh. "You're only a child, too pure for the battlefield, unaware of the truth. I've been waiting for this my entire life. Solid Snake, I'm not going down alone, I'm taking you with me." Big Boss then prepared his assault rifle at Snake. "Prepare to die!"

As the self-destruction sequence continued its countdown, Solid Snake and Big Boss commenced their final fight; Big Boss fired his assault rifle at Snake, who evaded from getting shot by running and hiding behind one of the room's crates. Preparing his Beretta 92F pistol, Snake got up and fired at Big Boss, who ran quickly and kept firing at Snake, avoiding from getting hit by him. Both Snake and Big Boss ran across the crates and fired their weapons at each other, but neither of them were able to get hit. While hiding in one of the crates, Big Boss reloaded his assault rifle and pushed the breech before standing up and shooting at Solid Snake's hideout. As he heard Big Boss' gunshots, Snake reloaded his pistol and pulled the slide forward before standing up and firing at Big Boss, who quickly ducked and avoided from getting shot.

"Is that the best you can do?" Big Boss taunted.

Solid Snake took some heavy breathes, inhaling and exhaling from the nose to the lungs, and figured out a plan to take down Big Boss easily. He had struggled in catching up with his former commanding officer, as he was much quicker and more agile than he was due to his reputation as a legendary soldier, and kept hiding himself in the crate to give himself some time while Big Boss kept shooting at him. Realizing he didn't have much time until the self-destruction sequence was finished and the fortress was destroyed, Solid Snake ran way though one of the crates and avoided from getting shot by Big Boss, before hiding behind one of the creates. Both Big Boss and Snake then emerged from the creates simultaneously and raised their weapons at each other, with Snake shooting at Big Boss twice, with the bullets penetrating though his chest and fatally injuring him.

Letting out a grunt of pain, Big Boss quickly dropped his assault rifle on the ground and began coughing blood out of his mouth as he quickly collapsed to the wall and slumped to the floor, with his blood painting down the wall. Upon watching his former mentor sitting on the floor, Solid Snake lowered his pistol and quickly rushed to check on Big Boss. Upon reaching Big Boss's body, Snake saw Big Boss' beret slipping from his head and quickly grabbed it and placed it on the floor, before noticing something he had never seen before from Big Boss; he had a small shrapnel placed on the right side of his forehead, placed near his eyepatch, as well as several scars on his face, including a large one on his right eye. Seeing the shrapnel and the scars across Big Boss' face had left Snake surprised, since he had never seen him like this before, before his expression turned that of horror, as he quickly figured out that this was not the same Big Boss he was familiar with.

"You're not the real Big Boss..." Snake muttered.

Coughing blood and struggling to open his eyes, "Big Boss" looked at Snake and clenched onto his wound as he focused his sight on the Boss' genetic son. "You... You were pretty good, just as..." "Big Boss" then coughed blood again before continuing to speak. "Just as good as the Boss told me."

"So were you," Snake told the fake Big Boss in respect.

"Now..." "Big Boss" spoke through the pain, realizing he didn't have much time to live due to his injuries. "Go, Solid Snake. Leave me here."

"No," Solid Snake insisted, refusing to let the fake Big Boss die in the fortress' destruction even after everything he had put him through. "I won't leave you alone here. I can save you. I cane get you some help."

"Big Boss" chuckled. "I've already done my part. No need for you to worry about me. I'm already dead anyway." the fake Boss then raised his neck and looked at Snake, glancing at him as if he was his own son.

Snake gave the fake Big Boss a saddened look, sympathy and hesitation wearing his face as he wanted to save him so he could help him in exposing the real Big Boss' plans in creating a country of never-ending war and genocide and felt bad for him as Big Boss had merely taken away his freedom and turned him into a decoy to take him out of the picture. However, as the two glanced at each other, Snake's expression quickly to turned to shocked as he realized that there was not much time left until the fortress was blown up by the self-destruction sequence, leaving no evidence of Outer Heaven's existence.

"Two minutes left for Outer Heaven's self-destruction."

"Just go," "Big Boss" told Snake. "You shouldn't die here with me."

Giving one last look at Big Boss' body double, Snake rushed through the exit door and wasted no time in escaping while "Big Boss" watched the young rookie making his escape. While Snake was making his escape from the fortress, "Big Boss" took out his cigar, placed it on his mouth and used his mechanical arm to light it up as he patiently awaited for his death. He didn't care that he had failed the real Big Boss by not stopping the young FOXHOUND recruit and fooling the US government and the Patriots, to him, he had finished his job and now he was ready to make peace with his death.

"One minute left for Outer Heaven's self-destruction."

As the fake Big Boss began losing his consciousness as he was unable to hold onto his wounds, his vision began to become blurry and a white light had engulfed the place he was slumping down. Suddenly, a young woman wearing a bikini top, scattered tights with a black thong underneath, combat boots and gloves slowly walked her way towards "Big Boss" and approached him, causing him to chuckle as he quickly recognized her as his former lover, Quiet.

"I see..." "Big Boss" remarked. "So, you've come to take me away?"

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."

"Quiet" then kneeled towards her former lover and caressed his face, with "Big Boss" letting out a small chuckle and smiling at her sight, as he had never moved on from her loss.

"Then I guess," Venom Snake, aka "Big Boss", softly muttered, having finally made peace with his fate as he closed his eyes. "My battle really is over."

"Five, four, three, two, one."

Outside the Outer Heaven fortress, Solid Snake watched as the base was engulfed by a mushroom cloud due to the explosion caused by the self-destruction sequence, taking Venom Snake and most of the mercenaries with them. Outer Heaven was no more. Solid Snake took a moment of silence to mourn Venom Snake, lamenting on the fact he wasn't able to save him, before hearing his transceiver radio going off. Snake then flicked the switch on his radio and quickly called to the FOXHOUND base.

"This is Solid Snake. Do you read me?" Snake communicated. "Operation Intrude N313 was a success. Metal Gear has been destroyed and the leader of Outer Heaven has been taken down. I'm returning to the base now, over."

"Can you hear me, Solid Snake? I'm not dead. It's not over yet. Someday, we will meet again. Someday, we will finish this!"

This was a message recorded by the real Big Boss, who had faked his own death by using Venom Snake's death and Outer Heaven's destruction to leave the United States and retreat to the abandoned site of Tslinoyarsk, where he had planned to re-established it as the military nation Zanzibar Land in hopes of keeping his dream of a military nation from from the Patriots' control alive.

And that's the end of the story. If there's one thing I would have like to see in the series was Solid Snake's reaction to the Big Boss he fought in Outer Heaven being a body double and how that would have changed his perception of the real Big Boss, so I wanted to convey that a bit and I hope I did my best with it. The scene where a vision of Quiet reunites with Venom Snake is directed taken from the incredible fancomic, "Last Day in Outer Heaven", which details Venom Snake's last moments before his death in Outer Heaven's self-destruct sequence, and the comic played a part in my inspiration in writing this one-shot as well as playing the first game.

I have a theory that supports the idea of the two Big Bosses in the original Metal Gear title; throughout the first part of the game, Big Boss contacts Solid Snake though the frequency 120.85 before telling Snake to switch to frequency 120.13 for further communications. I think that's where Venom Snakes takes over from Big Boss, which explains why Big Boss acts a bit off during the final minutes of the game, such as telling Snake to abort the mission and breaking the fourth wall by telling the audience to turn off the console.

Let me know your thoughts on this story and I hope you liked it. Until then, stay safe and take care.