The inherent problem with writing thematic oneshots for Metal Gear is that the games are heavily thematic already, and it's hard to reflect these themes without making them a carbon copy of what's already been said. Here's an attempt at creating something familiar yet original.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Metal Gear series, nor its characters.

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Timeless

Saladin once told me that the flow of time is relative to each individual, how its speed does not necessarily remain constant throughout one's life. I didn't understand what he meant by this at first, but I began to achieve an understanding of his words when we were together in the Middle East, where he would sometimes use himself as an example. In response to my queries (and given the type of man he was, I had plenty of them), he would sometimes phyricly remark that time had slowed down drastically for him in 1964, but regained its usual speed in 1970.

Apparently, this was due to him losing a sense of purpose at some point in his life, only to regain it six years later. Not that I asked him for the details, or the nature of this transition. To do so would have gone against one of the most sacred rules that a soldier must obey, despite said rule being an unspoken. And what real reason would I have to do so anyway? We soldiers must live in the moment…

Which brings me back to the present; namely carrying out the act of looking through my scope from an advantageous position, waiting for my next target. Still, I can't help but reflect on his words, for they were, like many things he stated, were an absolute, undeniable truth. I'm experiencing such a truth now-time has slowed down, placing me in a state of limbo with time seemingly non-existent. From what I've been told, what felt like hours of waiting for a target had actually been a matter of days. It's hardly that surprising really, considering how, as a soldier, I must live in the moment…

I'm not the only object trapped in timelessness though. Looking through my scope, out into the world, I can see how it too is in a state of timelessness, part of an eternal and unchanging cycle. All due to the stupidity and short-sightedness of mankind of course-wars are still fought, entire nations are trapped in cycles of poverty…Mankind created a cage for himself long ago and has been trapped within it ever since. I too have fallen into this cage-part of a timeless cycle, a barless cage, from which death is the only escape.

I am a wolf at heart and two instincts drive me forward; the urge to hunt and the need to be independent. So while carrying out the hunt, dispatching my prey with pinpoint precision, I'm still waiting for the favour to be returned.

To be set free…