"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

- Edgar Allen Poe

This is the end. This is how I die.

Afghanistan was a not a nice place to see one's end, nor arguably it's beginning. It was a place almost ruled with continual fear and danger of violent death in all of its history... a place where the life of a man became solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

The sandstorm surrounding Quiet was seemingly never-ending. It had been hours since she had left her place at Big Boss's side - if only to preserve him from the curse she herself had brought to his doorstep. This was the only way, she reasoned with herself, I must die here. The parasites must die here. The world must become a better place without her.

Even though she kept a constant pace, she could feel every step getting weaker, her vision slowly getting that much dimmer. Even though her surroundings were bright, there was no sunlight. It had felt like an eternity since she had a drink of water.

She continued trudging forward, not knowing why, until her strength left her and she collapsed. She closed her eyes briefly as her body became very and very weak.

It was time.

"No." A voice in the distance said with disdain.

Quiet looked around, slowly getting back to her feet. A slight boost of adrenaline coursed through her body. Did she really her that?

In the distance, she could make out an opaque image shaped like a body. It vanished just as quickly as she saw it. Above her, the thunderous crack of lightning could be heard and the sandstorm raged even harder than before, knocking her to the ground in a seeming show of domination.

An inhuman roar slammed her every sense, forcing her to her knees. Something was wrong.

"Sad... so sad."

The figure reappeared, this time getting closer. The thickness of the storm refused to let up, but regardless if she was hallucinating or not, Quiet already knew she had to run.

"You are not long for this world."

A brief crack of lightning stopped her in her path as the figure was now in front of her. A hooded man wearing a thick raincoat and glasses blocked her path.

Quiet didn't hesitate as she summoned her last reserves of energy to prime her sniper rifle and aimed it in his direction, cracking off three shots before the weapon was forced from her hand, accompanied by an unearthly scream.

"An overbearing sadness has crippled you. Refusing to let you speak. Refusing you to weep."

The man uncovered his face, revealing a pale face.

"What was done to you was far from natural, my child. Yet you think your sacrifice here will make everything new again. You are wrong."

The lightning cracked once more, allowing the figure to creep even closer to Quiet's own face. A brief flash of Big Boss forced itself into her mind.

"Your story is only beginning."

With a wave of his hand, the storm had dissipated instantly. And just as quickly, he reached down and gripped Quiet's throat. She screamed fruitlessly as she felt her neck and chest begin to run cold.

"Man was never meant to toil with nature in this way!" The man exclaimed, removing his hand. A small collection of bluish matter levitating over it. And just as quickly, he began to crush it beneath his fingers.

The parasites. Quiet let out an unnatural cough while she rubbed her throat defensively. Slowly, the early symptoms of her transformation were beginning to disappear.

"A much bigger storm is coming for you, Quiet." The man said as somehow his feet began to float from the ground. "And unlike you, it will be the farthest thing from silent in this world."

The skies darkened as small drops of rain began to fall down and touch her skin. She could feel them one by one as her body took in the energy. Whatever she was experiencing was becoming more real to her by the second.

"I am The Sorrow." The man said as he observed her from above, the rain coming down even more rapidly. "And like you, he too is filled with sadness... even if he's still only a shadow."

She gave him a puzzled look. Was he talking about... him?

The Sorrow nodded. "A grave threat is approaching those with whom you have sworn your allegiance. A fiery inferno will soon sweep the world." The man formed an accusatory finger and directed it in her direction. "And you are the missing piece. The one can determine the outcome."

The rain began to dry up slowly, and all around her the sand that had turned brown was drying up at the same rate. She briefly stretched her muscles and gauged her well-being.

"But first... you need to WAKE UP!" The Sorrow waved his hand and enveloped the mute sniper in a white light.

Venom Snake awoke with a start, a small bead of sweat sliding down from his forehead, awaking from a dream that he had already forgotten. But at that moment, he was unsure if it was good or bad.

He sat up quickly and composed himself, a lifetime of instinct preventing any form of stress from overtaking him.

He got up from his bed and noticed that, even in the pitch blackness of the room, that something had changed. Clicking on the light, he focused onto the collection of photos pinned onto his wall. Some of them with Mother Base personnel posing for group photos, one with D-Dog as a pup, Kaz... Ocelot, even Chico from his days at MSF. He walked over and glanced at them closely.

One of them was missing, along with the pin that held it in place. Venom glanced down and saw the fallen photo hidden away in a crevice that the nearby nightstand had provided.

On it was a familiar face that shot a brief sense of dread throughout his being.

Quiet.

Without thinking, he picked it up and pinned it back to where it had fallen. It had already been a week since she ran from him in Afghanistan, becoming victim to mutated parasite that had used her as a carrier. She had sacrificed herself for him. She sentenced herself to die a slow death in the desert in fear of spreading it to others. She would die alone. He didn't like that. Like the loss of MSF, his hand, and the past nine years of his life... she was gone.

Snake quietly took the photo and hung it to its former position on the wall, pausing to remember the possibilities that Code Talker had given him to her ultimate fate. Without warning, a large buzz interrupted his thoughts.

"Boss, I'm sorry if I have to wake you, but we have a situation." Kaz Miller's voice echoed over the room's intercom. "We have an unidentified helicopter coming towards the command platform. I'm putting the entire base on alert."

Snake quickly made his way to the central command platform as squads of Diamond Dogs with full body armor and assault rifles quietly marched before him.

As the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, and Snake made out the figures of Kaz and Ocelot as they issued orders to surrounding troops. Above him, a team of snipers began setting up. The entire platform had eyes and weapons trained on the emerging black dot in the distance. Snake looked down to see that D-Dog had followed suit with everyone else, sitting at Snake's side in silence.

"We picked it up on radar a few minutes ago." Kaz said, breaking the silence. "All attempts to reach it over radio have failed."

The helicopter was continuing to get closer, becoming much louder. It was clear it was intent on landing on the command platform as it began to slow down.

"Want to shoot it down?" Kaz asked casually, motioning to a soldier manning an anti-air turret to his right.

"No." Snake replied, eyeing the helicopter approaching. "Whoever's in that chopper wants us to know they're here."

Ocelot nodded in agreement. "He's right. It's flying way too high and way too obvious."

"Well, it's here now." Kaz said as the helicopter began the final motions of landing on the pad. "Weapons hot!" He yelled as men around him began switching their weapons selectors from safe to semi.

The man known as Big Boss began slowly walking to the platform, shouldering past some of his soldiers who remained fixated on the landing helicopter. Right behind him, Kaz and Ocelot followed suit.

Just as the helicopter completed the final motions of landing, the door slowly slid upon as a woman with a familiar face exited.

No. Snake thought to himself as he recognized his new visitor.

"Easy boys." A prickly blonde in a brown pilot suit said as she exited the helicopter. "It's just me."

The woman quickly made her way to Snake as he expected she would. "Hello, handsome." She said as he stood in from of him, carefully eyeing the piece of shrapnel and his bionic arm. At Snake's side, D-Dog let out a brief confused whine.

Snake stared for a few seconds before breaking the silence. "Eva." He replied without expression.

The woman who had aided and later betrayed him during Operation Snake Eater nearly twenty years earlier let out a sly grin, making her much older face seem young again. "You mind?" She motioned to the dozens of soldiers with weapons trained on her.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, we do." Ocelot replied grimly. "Our little of Garden of Eden here already has a snake in it."

"Would that be you, then?" Eva snarked back, leaning over in a condescending fashion. The fact that both of them played the role of double agents during that same operation didn't escape her.

"Enough!" Another figure emerged from behind the chopper. Snake's attention centered on the new figure wearing the brand-new insignia of a lieutenant colonel on his beret. Roy Campbell took the opportunity to wedge himself between Eva and the Diamond Dogs command team.

"Snake. I'm sorry for the theatrics, but we don't have much time left." Campbell said. "A lot of lives are at stake."

"When it rains it pours..." Kaz said, shifting his weight off of his cane.

"Do what do we owe the pleasure?" Ocelot asked shortly after.

"Well, you owe me a new hospital, for one." Eva said sarcastically, referring to the health center that was destroyed upon Snake waking up from a nearly decade-long coma.

"But, more importantly..." Campbell said, angrily eyeing Eva in order to quiet her. "We have a much bigger problem. One that the government needs your help with."

"We already finished cleaning up some of the messes for the American government. XOF and otherwise." Kaz countered. "It would be in your best interests to get back on that chopper before we throw you in the water."

"This is not an official order by the President or the Pentagon." Campbell said. "We're merely customers here. And we'll make sure your very-well compensated."

"Find someone else. We don't need your money." Kaz sneered.

Snake took a second to regard the man in Special Forces uniform, along with the new patch on his shoulder.

"FOXHOUND?" Snake asked, shifting his gaze to Campbell's eyes.

"FOXHOUND." Campbell nodded, letting out a small shudder as the man known as Big Boss bore holes into him with his gaze. "Do you have someplace where we can talk?"

Snake paused for a beat, considering the two new variables that just entered his base. Both of these relationships didn't end well, but he knew that circumstance must be desperate to provoke such a visit. He gave a quick nod to Ocelot, who took the hint where this was going.

"All units, stand down!" Ocelot bellowed. Just as quickly, all the men lowered their weapons in unison. "This better be good."

Quiet awoke startled with an aroma of strange smells entering her naval cavity. She opened her eyes to see a patch of flowers cushioning her body.

Quiet rubbed her throat and gauged the entirety of her skin. She felt... better. A lot better. Did that man truly cure her? Was this her second chance?

She looked around to see the familiar ruins that had been the scene between her sniper duel and the man known as Big Boss. This was a very long way from where she had planned to die and it couldn't be a coincidence.

Quiet gazed into a nearby puddle to see that her face was no longer pale.

Strapping her sniper rifle back onto her shoulder, Quiet quickly leapt onto the nearest cliff and dissipated into the air above.

Standing in the same flower patch, a ghost-like figure observed her departure before slowly fading in its own right.