This is a series of four one-shots, all about each of the BB Corps members after the events of mgs4, under the assumption that Snake didn't kill them. For those that are like "hey, in canon they die," sorry, but when you do a non-lethal kill, they are still breathing and everything when you leave them there. I consider that very much alive.

xxx Take a Bow xxx

Part 1: Octopus

Norway... how long now had she avoided this place? Every since that day, the day she killed her family, she stayed far away from Norway. From the entirety of the area known as Scandinavia, even. Even when her mind was broken and demented, her mind shuddered at the mere thought of this place.

She sighed as she walked along the beach, the sand beneath her bare feet almost soothing. It was almost impossible to tell where her village had been now. What once was a village of small wooden houses, cheery fishermen, and large boats for hunting the local octopus was now nothing more than a lot of sand and the occasional piece of burnt wood. It was the only sign that her people had once been there.

She sighed and sat on a rather large plank of wood and looked out at the ocean. She knew she'd have to go back to work soon, but for now she couldn't pull herself away. She didn't want to waste a moment of the life she, by all rights, shouldn't have still had.

She was surprised when she woke up on the floor of that clinic, curled up tightly on herself but still very much alive. Even if that man had been merciful, the girls had all learned the hard way that years of being inside those suits had made it impossible for them to live outside them. Light at all was uncomfortable and direct sunlight, they assumed, would kill. With the sunlight filtering in one of the windows and right onto her face, however, she was forced to believe that she really was alive and the light really wouldn't hurt her. Had it all been a lie? Perhaps Mantis's sway over their minds went deeper than she thought. Or maybe it had all been psychological. Maybe they were so comfortable in their personas, locked away from their painful pasts, that it hurt them mind, body, and soul to come back out.

Her past... somehow, it felt okay now to not laugh. She no longer felt that pain in her heart. She no longer needed to laugh to keep herself from screaming. Ocelot had told them that killing Solid Snake would cleanse them of their pain, but it seemed that her defeat had done enough. She had continued to hold herself then, well until nightfall, crying on and off as she came to terms and finally let her past rest. As the hours passed she laid there, watching as the black stains across the floor, signs of their earlier struggle, began to show signs of red. How long had it been for her since blood had looked red? It felt like forever to her. It was always black... like the ink of an octopus.

She had waited until nightfall to leave, leaving the tentacles behind and stumbling through the trees, finding her way back to civilization. She wasn't naive enough to think then that she was healed. The pain was still there and the scars were there, and now on top of everything else there was the pain of the last decade or so. How many people she had killed, how many families she had torn apart like her own... She now sympathized with how the other soldiers felt when they were robbed of the SOP system. It hadn't been the SOP system suppressing her emotions though but her own pain in her heart. Now that her laughing was gone, now that her barriers were down, it was like the weight of all her battles and all her sins were weighing on her chest. No... she was far from healed, but... the opportunity was there now. There were still scars on her heart, but they could heal now. She had time. Hopefully lots of it.

Luckily with the world in the chaotic state it was in, she was able to escape to her home, away from the war and away from prosecution. Sitting in a jail cell wouldn't atone for the things she'd done... there were much better uses for her. She wouldn't kill anymore, though. No, that was a choice she made for herself then. She didn't have to kill anymore. She didn't want to.

She picked an alias for herself and ran to Norway, posing as a victim of the various wars with no name and no home. It was so easy to do with the state of the world. No one questioned such a story nowadays. She got a job in one of the seaside villages there, fishing for whatever was there for the season. It was hard work but it reminded her of home, of how her father would come home sweaty, dirty, and smelling of fish but so happy with a day's work. It made her happy, too. Working with her hands, giving food to others instead of giving death. She found happiness here. It had been funny, too... to see the faces of the fisherman as such a petite girl asked for such muscle-driven work. It was true, too, that most of her battling ability was in the tentacles she wore on her head, but she didn't always have that suit. There was a time she was simply a soldier, using what she could to defeat her enemies. Even after getting her suit she was still rather toned. It took getting used to but soon she won the men over quick with what she could do.

She sighed and dug her toes under the sand, simply enjoying the sun a bit before she got a scolding for running off. She had just been thinking of home and needed a moment to herself. After a few moments, though, she got up and made for the village. After all, it wasn't like she hated her work. And today they were hunting big fish, maybe a few sharks, and that meant they were going far out in the ocean. She loved being surrounded by the sea. The ocean was probably one of her favorite parts of the job.

She had wondered to herself a few times what it would have been like to go back to being a soldier. She was certainly good at it and with the chaos of the new world she heard the pickings were pretty good. Still... she couldn't stand the thought of spilling more blood, watching as it turned from red to black again. No, no... she loved her life here and she wouldn't trade it for anything. She only hoped that the other three were doing okay and would be able to find the same peace she knew now.

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End.