Race to the Tower of Babel
The Zanzibar Bikers raced towards them as the Hind D began to open fire at the group, Snake and Holly swerved their bikes away to avoid the gunfire from the Hind D's gun. Gustava turned around and began to shoot two of the bikers down. Holly noticed one with a machete approaching her left so she decided to lift herself using the handlebars then kick the biker into another then decided to shoot another down. More suddenly appeared from their sides,
"Snake! Slow down a little bit!" Shouted Gustava. Solid Snake did so and Gustava then jumped onto the back of one of the bikers. The bodyguard then snapped the soldier's neck and tossed them off to take control of the bike, Snake then aggressively hit the brake to launch the bike backwards and then swing it to knock a biker off their motorbike before landing and continuing forward. The pilot in the Hind D locked onto the three heroes and began firing rockets at them. Despite them avoiding it, the impact shook the road they were on, making them lose some control. Snake then grabbed his grenade launcher and fired grenades at the blades of the chopper, the shockwaves of the explosions caused the helicopter to swerve around and lose control of its balance.
"C'MON, JUST YOU AND ME, LET'S DO THIS!" Snake shouted at the pilot to get their attention away from the others. The FOXHOUND operative then gave a hand gesture at Gustava who understood what he meant and decided to slow down then adjust her position to be directly behind him. Snake gripped on the handles then increased the speed as the helicopter followed after him, Snake then made a hand gesture at Holly which she understood and began to get closer to Snake's bike. In just a few more miles, there was a cliff that had a long gap to jump. Solid kept building speed and firing grenades to distract the helicopter and to make the bikers disperse apart from each other. Snake then leaned back and popped a wheelie for a moment then with enough speed he jumped the cliff. In mid air, Snake flipped the bike backwards and waited until Gustava was right under him to do what he was about to do. Solid Snake pushed the bike towards the blades of the Hind D helicopter and then landed right on the back of Gustava's motorbike. Snake then threw a C4 at the bikers right behind them and Holly shot it to cause the bikers to lose control and fall into the cliff. The heroes landed safely as they saw the helicopter slowly crash onto the terrain. Then it came to Snake, he thought of Kyle and Steve who he killed. The paranoia started to rise internally and Snake was thinking about who was piloting the Hind D. Gustava, Madnar and Holly noticed Solid's relaxed face turned to one of worry as he began to run towards the wreckage and pull pieces of scrap metal aside, trying to see who was the pilot. Once it was mostly cleared, he saw the bloodied and mangled corpse of the pilot that once took him around the world, Randall Reigns Aka Eagle Eye. Snake fell to his knees in defeat and anguish,
"No…not again, NOOOOO!" Snake angrily yelled, the others were worried as they were confused by what was happening.
"I can't, I can't keep doing this, I can't, I-" suddenly Snake was struck by something in the back of his neck, he originally thought it was a bullet but it ended up being something he dealt with before, a paralysis dart from Gray Fox, who was standing behind them with a group of armed soldiers. Madnar got knocked out by a soldier whacking him in the jaw,
"You're learning, Solid Snake but it is too soon for you." Gray Fox emptily stated, Gustava looked at her ex lover and was in disbelief by what she saw in his once vibrant eyes.
"Frank…Frank please you don't have to do this…" she said to him as she slowly approached him,
"I know this isn't you, I know deep down you're still the man I fell in love with. The father of my child-" Fox then struck Gustava in the back of the neck to knock her out. Holly rushed in and was about to throw a punch, Snake was trying to desperately move and stop it but it was too late as Gray Fox caught her punch and slammed his elbow into her arm to break it. She screamed right before Fox knocked her out as all Solid could do was shed a small tear from his eyes. Then right there, a man was walking towards him, a man with white hair and a beard but noticeably was the eyepatch on the right eye. His uniform was a darker green than Solid Snake's own uniform, his red beret had the crest of Zanzibar Lands and a cigar was in his mouth.
"You are learning, boy, quite quicker than I expected. You killed three of your friends because of your natural instinct of survival but yet you feel so much anguish and pain because they were your friends. You can see now that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to save the world, the world will strip your soul piece by piece. At least with me, I rip that band aid off right now so you can see that this is reality, the reality is that they will never care about how much we've done for them, how much we cried and broke down for them." explained Big Boss, he crouched and placed a hand on Solid's head, gently rubbing his hair in a fatherly way,
"You still have much to learn, son. Many lessons for you to face before you begin your test, I know you will succeed me and once you see reality, you will lead my cause to the next generation. Jack Halley is a man but Big Boss is a hero, a savior, a father, a warrior and a symbol, a symbol you will carry into this new millennium." continued Big Boss, Solid continued to cry heavily in his paralyzed state, he couldn't make a sound or even move a muscle. He couldn't escape from him,
"Boss, what about these three?" asked Gray Fox,
"Leave Heffner with Snake and take these two to the tower." replied Big Boss, Gray Fox raised an eyebrow about why Big Boss wanted to leave her here,
"She is a part of your test, Fox. Can I simply ask you one thing, are you loyal to me?" asked Big Boss,
"I will die in your name, Boss." replied Gray Fox with no hesitation,
"We shall see…as for you, Snake, I am enjoying this quality time we never had. You are everything I asked for, everything I wished came true in you and I couldn't be any more proud of you in my entire life." Big Boss genuinely said, he began humming a tune as he sat Solid Snake up and gave him a comforting hug, the entire experience horrifying and making the young man cry without being able to do anything to get away.
"Fly me to the moon…Let me play among the stars and let me see what spring is like…on a-Jupiter and Mars. In other words, hold my hand…In other words, baby, kiss me…" Big Boss sang, trying to silence Snake's paralyzed voice trying to scream.
"Fill my heart with song…and let me sing forevermore. You are all I long for…All I worship and adore. In other words, please be true! In other words, I love you!" Big Boss finished as he tossed the still paralyzed Solid Snake aside,
"See you soon, son. I love you." Big Boss said with a cold grin as he knocked him out with a strong kick. A few minutes passed, Solid slowly opened his eyes and felt that he was being held up. He glanced to see Gustava was carrying him on her back,
"C'mon, Snake, this mission isn't over yet. We have to keep going and we have to save Frank." She said to him as he got off her back.
"There's no point, Gustava. He's so far gone from who you remember. Whatever is left of Frank Jaeger died a long time ago and all that's left is Gray Fox." cynically spoke Snake.
"You don't seem to understand, Solid Snake. He spared me, he doesn't have the cruelty to kill me which means deep inside he can be saved. No matter how deep of a hole a person has themselves in, even if there's a slight chance you have to try to save them and that's what we're going to do, that's what we're going to keep doing. Big Boss thinks he has him wrapped around his finger but I broke him away from it." optimistically said Gustava, she held her hand out to Snake and smiled the most optimistic smile.
"Now let's go, we have a mission to finish and a world to save." Gustava told him, Snake smiled back at her and held her hand, sealing their bond as comrades as they began to approach the Tower of Babel. Once they arrived in front of the tower, Snake and Gustava positioned themselves behind some crates, Snake took out the binoculars and began to observe the area,
"The doors are sealed shut. Do you see any openings?" asked Gustava,
"Yeah, over there on the left side of the tower, there's a vent and on the right side there's a conveyor belt. I'm thinking it's best if we go in the vents and crawl our way inside." suggested Solid Snake,
"Sounds like a plan, let's move." ordered Gustava as they began walking towards the left side, hiding from the nearby soldier behind stacked containers. The soldier then began walking away, giving the two the opening to quickly rush to the vent and infiltrate inside by crawling under. Once inside, Snake and Gustava got up and looked at their surroundings, Snake glanced down at his radar to see there was a soldier about to approach their area. Snake pointed to a wall which Gustava went up to and leaned against as he leaned against the parallel wall. As the soldier entered the room, Gustava and Snake aimed their guns at him,
"Drop it." demanded Snake and the soldier compiled by dropping his gun.
"The prisoners, where are they?" questioned Gustava,
"The scientist is on the 30th floor and the female is in the sewer cells." the soldier frighteningly spoke, Snake then whacked the guy out cold.
"Well, who first?" Gustava asked,
"Madnar won't last long, besides this building probably has a trash chute we can use to go downstairs." explained Snake,
"Lead the way, Snake." She said to him, Snake looked at his radar to see how to get to the elevator and noticed the floor they're on looked like a maze.
"C'mon and stay close." Snake told her as they began to maneuver themselves toward the elevator. Carefully and stealthily moving around the patrols of soldiers to reach the elevator. Snake pressed the button to call the elevator and it eventually came, they both entered and waited until they reached the 30th floor. Once they stepped outside, Solid and Gustava noticed some tripwire lines placed in front of them. Solid turned around to even see there were also tripwires right behind them, he held his M16 rifle up and Gustava did the same as they leaned against each other, back to back. A voice's laughter echoed through the room,
"WELCOME TO YOUR DEATH, SOLID SNAKE! I AM THE EXPLOSIVE FURY, RED BLASTER!"