Back on the Nomad, Storm lays unconscious on a table with tubes stuck under her skin, just like Raiden. Sunny hurries down the stairs and scrambles to the older girl's bedside. "W-what happened?" she asks with worry written all over her face "She got in a fight with Vamp." Snake grumbles.
"W-why was she out t-there?" "She probably heard Otacon saying that Naomi went missing, and decided to go after her." Otacon keeps his head down and continues working on Storm in silence. 'First Naomi, and now Storm. All because I wasn't paying attention.' he thinks guiltily.
Her eyes flutter for a moment, and her hand reaches out and feintly touches his. He lets out a quiet gasp and sees her eyes struggling to stay open. He says, in a voice so quiet no one else can hear him "I'm so sorry, Storm." and in response she smiles the faintest of smiles, letting him know it's ok, before she falls back into unconsciousness.
~Dream~
She sits on a large boulder, peering down into the dark, rushing water. The reflection staring back at her is horrible; dirty and bloody. Her new eyes frighten her. They're not the right color. They used to be a hue of shimmering silver with tinges of blue around the irises. Now they're an unsettling shade of dark grey, almost black. It's not right. None of it is. She pulls the glove off of her left hand and studies the sleek, silver fingers, curling each of them into a fist. She clenches her jaw and punches the water, causing it to erupt in a silver shower around her. "It's not right." she mumbles sadly. She's lived with her new enhancements for over a year now, but she's still not used to them. She closes her eyes and shuts the haunting thoughts out, focusing on only the whisper of the stream and the chirping of the birds. After what seems like minutes to her but was really hours, the sun disappears behind a cover of dark clouds and the sky darkens. Suddenly a new sound echoes through the air. Footsteps and heavy breathing. She opens her eyes and sees a tall, slim man with shaggy, blonde hair kneeling at the other side of the stream and peering into the water. She slowly and silently hides behind the large boulder and watches as he splashes water on his face. At first glance it looks like he's wearing strange body armor, but once she gets a closer look, she sees that they're cybernetic enhancements. Her eyes widen in surprise and he cups some water in his silver, claw-like hands, bringing it to his mouth. "Another cyborg?!" she gasps quietly. He whips his head in her direction and she quickly ducks behind the boulder again. "Let them come." she hears him grumble quietly to himself after a minute of silence. His voice is raspy and breathy. To anyone else it would be uninviting and entirely unfriendly, but to Storm, just seeing another cyborg is a huge relief. He looks up to the sky as silver raindrops start to fall. "Storm's on the horizon." he mutters lightly.
~Dream End~
While Sunny, Storm, and Raiden are all asleep, Snake and Otacon start talking. "Whose kid do you think she is, anyway?" Snake asks "hmm. I don't know. She said that her father was a great and powerful soldier. Maybe if we do a DNA test we can find something familiar."
Otacon takes one of her hairs and scans it. Both of them are eager to see the results. "Any idea who her father might be?" the otaku asks "Yeah. I've got one good guess." Snake grunts, folding his arms across his chest.
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Storm wakes up feeling very sore, but she ignores the pain as she hears Snake experiencing another seizure.
He pulls out a syringe and injects himself with it. As the coughing dies down he tries to stand up but falls down in a chair. Otacon then grabs the syringe from him.
"Enough is enough, Snake. You can't take any more of this." he scolds with concern for his friend.
"I'm not dead yet." Snake grumbles.
