Chapter Text
“Is this even possible?” Snake leans back, shuffling out a cigarette. Otacon instinctively slaps his shoulder, after a few years of living together, inside smoking has been banned. His poor lungs can't handle it.
“Yes, though you will be our first field operatives. As everything tested before has been purely theoretical.” Nastasha nods, crossing her arms.
“So what you're saying is,” Otacon speaks up, “We don't have any definitive proof this will work?”
Mei Ling winces as she avoids looking at either of them. “...Yes, we can't promise success. But you have to understand, this may be our only chance.”
Otacon does, he truly does. “How are we even going to get back?”
“You'll be provided with a pocket sized device, whenever activated, it will send us your signal. From our research, we should be able to receive it and then reverse our actions so that you will end up back here.” Nastasha taps her pen against the table, clearly nervous about the job herself.
“And if you can't?” Snake growls, biting his finger when there is no nicotine to take the edge off.
Seeing the uncomfortable and frankly tense silence, Otacon cuts in before it snowballs out of their reach.
“This is a very delicate mission,” the women relax slightly at the notion that they don't have to talk about their possible failure, “If something wrong happens, we will create a time paradox.”
Nastasha nods, hesitating for a second before taking out a cigarette and lighting it. Snake glances over at Otacon, as if to say: ‘Aren’t you going to say anything to her ?’
“Yes, so you must act carefully. This is bigger than just the fate of the country, it could be the fate of the entire world that we know of.”
“So,” Mei Ling exclaims with exaggerated cheer, “Will you do it?”
Otacon and Snake share a look.
The date is too smudged to make sense of.
After successfully infiltrating the enemy base, Big Boss has encountered two individuals hiding in one of the control rooms. Two males, one completely identical to Big Boss, and the other who bears a significant amount of similarity with one of the MSF’s employees, Huey Emmerich. Both approximately in their late 20s/ early 30s.
Big Boss has reported that, upon entering the control room, he briefly confused the lookalike with Dr. Emmerich. Using that slight pause, the young man has taken a gun out. Still confused, but nonetheless prepared, Big Boss has moved to disarm. A moment later, the second individual comes out and, using a CQC technique, throws Big Boss off balance. Which results in the latter passing out from blunt head trauma.
Successfully taking Big Boss out of commission, the two males cuff him around a nearby pole. Using unknown devices, they interfere with radio communication, rendering the headset and audio bug useless. It has taken exactly 12 minutes to reconnect, what the two individuals did during that time is unknown. The MSF recruits have tried to access the audio, even with the best on the team, they struggled to save but a small part.
Transcript of the audio:
[The doppelganger of Big Boss will be referred to as ‘One’, while the other will be referred to as ‘Two’.]
[Indecipherable audio]
One: “How long?”
Two: “Another three minutes at most.”
[A computer ping is heard]
One: “Is that it?”
Two: [Indecipherable audio] “- last thing. You clean up while I finish this.”
[Shuffling around the room, presumably footsteps.]
One: [Voice significantly closer.] “Do we leave him here?”
Two: “Probably for the best, we can’t risk waking him up before we’re out of here.”
One: [Humming.]
Two: “We could [Indecipherable audio] so that we can know what they’re up to.”
One: “You think they wouldn’t catch on?”
Two: “ [Laughing.] They probably will, but it would take quite some time.”
One: “We can’t risk leaving any traces.”
[Indecipherable audio]
One: “He’s waking up, let’s go.”
Two: “Got it!”
End of transcript.
“Can you recall anything else, Boss?”
“How many times do I have to tell you?” The man growls, glaring past Kaz’s sunglasses. “I included everything in my report.”
Kaz shifts in his seat, narrowing his eyes, even if the other can’t see it. Snake, or Big Boss, however the man wants to be called that day, has always been a terrible liar. Suppose it would be a nice attribute for a soldier to have, makes it easier for the higher ups to spot any false claims from their pawns.
Still, Kaz thought there was more trust between them. To at least share all details among peers, nevermind your second in command. From the way Big Boss keeps scowling at the ashtray, it seems Kaz has overestimated their bond.
Leaning forward, he braces his arms against the table. “I hate to do this, Big Boss. But surely you understand the severity of the situation. If there’s people out there impersonating you or other members of the MSF, we should have all the information possible to get rid of them.” Cold, hard facts. Just the way Boss likes it.
It clearly does something, Big Boss exhales smoke right in Kaz’s face, but nonetheless lowers his shoulders from their uptight position. “There was something that bothered me about the whole thing.” Eventually speaks out, “It never made it in the report because I thought it was irrelevant.”
Finally they’re getting somewhere. “Everything can be useful.”
Big Boss chews his bottom lip, “Right before I passed out, my…doppelganger called me ‘Old man’.”
“Tell me again how we almost forgot to pack the anti mosquito spray.”
“We were very close to leaving it,” Dave repeats for the third time today, throwing dry sticks in the fire. Hal continues to spray the stuff like it's a room freshener, left and right, on himself, the trees, and the bedrolls. “But we still would have had the mosquito coil.”
Finally sparing the ozone layer of Earth, Hal pockets the bottle and sits down. Today being called ‘intense’ would be an understatement. They managed to get access to the blueprints, along with some other intel and, ignoring the time travel part, it was a relatively average mission.
Still…
“It’s actually crazy how similar you guys look.” Hal addresses the elephant in the room. It hung over their, David's more so, heads the entire day. Distantly, he remembers there being similarities between them back in Foxhound. But Big Boss was old and grey then, he's young and fit now. Only ten years his senior, give or take.
“...Yeah.” Dave sighs quietly, staring at the flames. It's already hot enough outside, but the light source is necessary. Neither of them break the forming silence, only the birds and crickets filling in the pause.
“It got me thinking,” Hal says after some time, the fire is already starting to die out. “About my own dad. How I would react if I were to meet him again.” His eyes are fixated on the flames, never darting away for even a moment.
“It's not the same as you, of course.” Hal blurts out, as if worried Dave would take offence. “What happened to you and your…” He trails off.
“Our dads are bastards.” Dave concludes, “Great people but horrible parents.”
Hal snorts, “I wouldn't call war criminals ‘great people’, but that would be kinda hypocritical of me right?”
Always living in the shadow of a greater man, never growing out of the mold that your predecessor has crafted. Being cursed to have your destiny set out by people that only see him. Every action, every decision was made only with him in mind.
Hal knows what it should feel like, except he didn't experience it. Dave can’t blame him, it wouldn’t be fair. Except for all that Hal and Dave are partners, they couldn’t exactly relate to each other.
“I’ll take watch.” Dave says eventually. Hal stares for a few seconds before nodding, laying down on the bedroll.
Everything outside of the range of the fire is pitch black, even with the uncomfortable heat, it reminds him of Alaska.
“No, I don’t have any other relatives.” Doctor Emmerich doesn’t look up from his work, Big Boss doesn’t have the patience for this.
As if reading his mind, Kaz slams a fist down on the papers, scattering them across the room. Emmerich yelps, leaning back and for the first time today, glances at the two of them. The other R&D workers focus harder than ever on their own projects, no one moving a muscle.
“This is serious, Doc .” Kaz growls, leaning down to glare. “It’d be in your best interest to cooperate.”
Emmerich gulps, Boss can see sweat glistening on his forehead. Good, he was getting too comfortable.
Hauling off the doctor, they bring him to another office. Office would be an overstatement, since it’s mainly used to bring suspects in to interrogate, or rough up. The doctor seems to recognise it as well, since he bristles up.
“What do you think you’re doing? I’ve been working my ass off for you guys all this time and now you think I’m a traitor?” Emmerich sputters indignantly, and even if he seems mad, the doctor doesn’t make any move.
Big Boss leans against the door, while Miller sits down at the table.
“There’s been sightings of a man quite similar to you, Doctor Huey.” Well, only one sighting, but it doesn’t hurt to exaggerate, Boss supposes. “Now, if you value your work here at MSF, you will tell us all you know.”
Emmerich frowns, skittering his gaze from Kaz over to Big Boss. “I haven’t been anywhere outside the Mother Base since I was brought here.” Which, yes that isn’t a lie. Boss and Kaz have looked into him before this. The man hasn’t done much of anything except type at his computer and work code.
“I see,” Kaz nods. “Then tell us about your family, doctor. Brothers, cousins?”
Emmerich scoffs, shaking his head. “No, I was an only child. My father had a sister that died when she was a toddler.”
“Possible offspring?” Boss hums, tapping his chin. Huey moves to shake his head but freezes. Kaz is onto him like a shark to blood.
“Have you had any relationships in the past? Ones that could end up with children?” Kaz adjusts his sunglasses, letting a glimpse of his narrowed eyes to the doctor.
“I mean…” The doctor sweats, “I did have a wife at some point, but we don’t talk that much anymore.” Kaz’s mouth twitches, as if he wants to grin
“And?”
“Well!” Huey stutters, “Even if she did have a child without my knowledge, it would only be a few years old.”
Kaz’s mood dampens immediately, Big Boss can relate. Just when it seemed like they were onto something… Doctor Emmerich doesn’t have anything else to say, Miller grills him for another hour but they ultimately let him go. They’re left alone in the dusty office, contemplating.
“It could be that his father has had an affair.” Big Boss suggests. “Explains the age gap along with why Emmerich wouldn’t know about it.”
Kaz bites the end of a pencil, tapping his fingers against the desk. “Well, yes but that only leaves more up to speculation.” There’s a pause, before Kaz taps his ear piece. “Yes, Miller here.”
Big Boss lights up a cigar, puffing out the smoke when he sees the look on Kaz’s face. Eyes widened, something like anticipation glimmering. “Yes, don’t send troops. Me and Big Boss will check it out personally.”
Boss tilts his head, silently inquiring. Kaz grins like the cat who caught a rabbit.
“We found them.”
“This was stupid!” Hal– no, they’re technically on a mission now– Otacon anguishes. “Stupid stupid stupid stupid!” And falls down on a tree stump.
Snake only shakes his head, not taking his eyes off the clearing for one moment. They’ve been reckless, they managed to take another few sets of blueprints, but this time they didn’t realise the ATV would make that much noise. Just as they were making their escape, everyone in a mile radius was alerted.
They ditched the vehicle in the end, but the damage was already done. Even if the base they infiltrated wasn’t exactly affiliated with MSF, they still had informants on the inside. So, naturally, they’re now scouted by all neighbouring organizations.
Otacon groans, staring up at the bright sky. This is probably the most time he has ever spent outside uninterrupted.
“You know,” Otacon starts. Snake hums in acknowledgement, “This could probably be a good thing.” The rough man immediately sets his eyes on Hal. Leaving the other to raise his hands to placate,
“Hear me out! It was already established that by this point, Big Boss hasn’t exactly turned out all evil. And that Miller guy is with him! Maybe we could explain the situation, not the part where we actually kill him in the future. But only where we need some early blueprints of Metal Gear to find better ways to combat them!”
Snake’s expression clears at the mention of Miller, Otacon remembers how fondly Snake spoke of him. Maybe this can solve some unhealed trauma? Or form new ones, since it would be weird to see your dead mentor alive again.
Hal doesn’t even want to think about his father.
Snake stares at his boots, contemplating silently before muttering: “Alright.” He turns to face Otacon, “What’s the plan?”
“The scouts said they saw some human activity around here.” Kaz points out, walking carefully around the forest. “Tell me if you find anything.”
Boss grunts, already sneaking off to find intel. This was the best approach, having a bunch of troops would only alert their targets. Even if Kaz hasn’t been on a field mission in forever, it still is exciting.
“Kaz,” Big Boss calls out, Miller immediately walks towards him. There’s traces of footsteps, quite recent from the looks of it. It doesn’t match the ones from the MSF uniform, so the intel is correct.
Having a silent conversation with their eyes, Big Boss and Kaz follow the footsteps. It leads them over to a tree stump, around a clearing. There seems to be nothing of note around here, except for–
There’s some sort of tussle behind him, forcing him to turn around. He’s only met with the barrel of a handgun. “Don’t do anything.” Huey– no, the lookalike says, his finger is on the trigger. Either a stupid move, or a precaution.
A thud resonates through the jungle, drawing Kaz’s eyes away. He’s thoroughly confused for a few seconds, Big Boss is currently fighting… himself? It must be the doppelganger, but it’s hard to distinguish them. In the end, it seems Big Boss has the other… Or is that the lookalike?
Figuring out that the copy has two eyes, whereas Big Boss has one, is satisfying for only a few moments. As the copy has successfully wrestled the original to the ground.
The copy spits some blood, his nose already starting to bruise, there’s also some sort of wheezing. Clearly, it wasn’t exactly easy to win.
“I’ll keep this short,” Lookalike number 2 says, “You will listen to everything we have to say, and then comply. If you don’t –” Big Boss groans, number 1 has him in a chokehold.
“Fine.” Kaz snaps.
They tie Big Boss around a tree, sit Kaz on the tree stump and cuff him. After they’re done, number 1 winces, and 2 makes an aborted move to grasp his shoulder. Hm.
“So, you can call me Otacon.” The Huey lookalike says, “And my partner, Solid Snake.”
Clearly some sort of copycats, Kaz laughs mentally.
“Uh,” Otacon glances at ‘Solid Snake’ fleetingly. The man takes the que and clears his throat.
“How much do you know about the project ‘Les Enfants Terribles’?”
It stops the both of them short. Kaz looks at Big Boss, but the man’s focus is only on his copy. Did– did they figure out how to age them faster? Last Kaz heard, the children were around 2 years old. Or… He looks at Solid Snake consideringly, does he only look like an adult?
“But this doesn’t explain everything,” Solid Snake continues, “It’s only a small part. In short, we’re from the future.”
Kaz doesn’t even have the heart to laugh.
“Otacon is the son of Huey Emmerich, who currently works at your base. We are partners in this mission to gather early blueprints of Metal Gear, so we can know how to defeat them.” There’s clearly more to this story.
“You got any proof?” Kaz manages a scowl, Big Boss only stays silent.
Otacon and Solid Snake share a look, before Snake takes out a photo. Kaz doesn’t know what he’s looking at, only when he squints does he recognize his own face. There’s a lineup of soldiers, all in uniform. To the far right, he can recognise Big Boss, old and grey but still him. In the middle, there’s Solid Snake, standing straight and chin up high. On the left is himself. Hair longer, in a ponytail, wearing sunglasses and– two sets of prosthetics. One for his leg, the other for his arm.
Solid shows the picture to Big Boss as well, what the reaction to it is, Kaz doesn’t catch. As he’s currently… thinking. When did– how? Why? What happens to Kaz? Clearly, he’s alive. But is it even worth it when he’s like that?
“We’re… in need of assistance.” Otacon eventually says, “It would be far more productive to join forces.”
“Fine.” Big Boss says with finality, whatever he saw in that picture convinced him as well. “We’ll help you.”