As It Was

At a small tavern in downtown DC, Frank was at the bar drinking shots of whiskey and thinking about his childhood. David then walked into the bar and looked around before spotting Frank at the bar. He approached Frank and sat next to him,

"Glad to see you, Frank." greeted David.

"You too, come and sit." Frank gestured at the bartender to serve David a round as he sat down.

"What's the occasion, David, why did you call?" asked Frank,

"Just needed someone to talk to…felt like you were the only one who can understand what I'm going through." David explained,

"You mean Outer Heaven? The nightmares still get to you." Frank nonchalantly said, David nodded and took a sip from his drink,

"Does it get to you?" asked David,

"David, I have my own nightmares and demons I face. I'm used to these things like Outer Heaven…" Frank took a shot of his whiskey and sighed,

"Have I ever told you about my childhood, David?" asked Frank,

"You rarely talk about yourself."

"For good reason. I'm a 'Nam Baby, I was born and raised during the early days during the Vietnam War. My mom was a Viet-Cong and I saw firsthand the evil men like Big Boss can do. My nightmare is plagued with helicopters flying over and shooting, the smell of napalm and bodies everywhere." said Frank in a very empty tone.

"Geez…I'm sorry to hear that, Frank….it must've been hard to escape from that kind of…place." David replied,

"I got used to it, why do you think I do these missions? I can tolerate it more than the usual soldier." Frank then took another sip of his drink,

"Did you ever have a taste of a normal life?" David asked,

"There's no such thing as a normal life…but I was close to having a happy one."

"You're talking about Gustava right?" asked David, Frank nodded,

"You may consider it embarrassing but there's times when I go to this ice rink because she loves skating. I showed her the most beautiful skating rink, the one in front of the Capitol Building. I would skate like how we did on that first day with her, it was just so…blissful. I can't compare it to any other feeling but I can't have that moment again…all I have is work now. Moments like that come and never come back again." emptily expressed Frank,

"I think sometimes moments like that don't go away. A part of you is keeping it alive so maybe you still could get it again." reassured David with a pat on the back,

"I don't think so, David…nightmares like the ones we have, they never go away, we just have to endure it. Our scars will heal but it will never fade, not as long as we still have demons that will haunt us…" Frank replied, David took a sip of his drink and thought of what he just said,

"My demon is my father…just thinking about it all, how he just wanted to be just like him, it makes me wonder how far he would've taken his agenda, what else would he have done if he didn't die." David rambled,

"Best not to think about things like our own pain for so long, David." Frank replied, David then heard his phone ringing and reached into his pocket to answer,

"Hello?"

"David! Thank god, I need your help please, it's an emergency!" said Diane in a panicked tone,

"Slow down, Diane. What's going on?" asked David worriedly,

"It's dad, he hasn't been responding for a couple of days and I just got something in the mail and…David they sent his ear! Someone kidnapped my father!"

"Ok stay calm, I'll be over soon." David hung up then got up from the bar,

"I gotta go." David said to Frank,

"What's going on?" asked Frank,

"Dr Madnar has been kidnapped." Frank then got up and left money for the drinks,

"I'm going too." David nodded then both rushed out of the bar and got in their cars to drive to Ellen's house. Later, David and Frank both arrived at Ellen's house, they wasted no time and hurried to her front door then Frank knocked on it. Ellen hurriedly opened the door and hugged David with tears in her eyes,

"Oh thank god you came David, you don't understand how paranoid I was." exclaimed Ellen,

"It's ok Ellen, I'm here. Just try to collect yourself ok?" David said to her, she nodded and wiped the remains of tears in her eyes. She walked towards her living room table and grabbed the bloody envelope then walked back to the two men,

"They sent this letter alongside his ear…" she said as she handed David the envelope. He opened it and saw the constructed note, glued together by different scraps,

"'If you ever WANt tO see THe Scientist alive Once aGaiN, Place Ten thouSand dollars under the GatEs at the AirPort in three days.' Frank, you see what I see?" asked David,

"Not just that there's numbers on the bottom. From the format and order of the numbers it seems like date numbers but what are these individual ones?" pondered Frank, David got a piece of paper and began writing out the letters that were capitalized.

"'Washington Post, Page' I'm assuming these numbers are lines and these right here are words." David pointed out,

"That's the thing, these are specific dates of the Washington Post, we would have to dig through their archives for these." Frank informed,

"Don't worry about it, I know a person who can help." David reached into his pocket to grab his phone and the note with Holly's number then dialed it,

"Hello?" She answered,

"Hey it's David, you want a lead on your story?" asked David,

"Wait really?" optimistically asked Holly,

"Yeah, I need to look at some archives the Washington Post has." David replied,

"What for?" asked Holly,

"I'll explain when I see you, are you at your office?" asked David,

"Yeah, I'll meet you soon." David hung up then left with Frank. An hour later, David and Frank arrived at the entrance to the Washington Post. Holly was waiting outside near the front door and spotted David and Frank.

"Great to see you again, David. Who's your friend?" asked Holly,

"Frank Jaeger, he was in South Africa with me." David replied,

"Wait, the Gray Fox?" asked Holly to clarify,

"Yeah the one and only Gray Fox, now where are your archives?" asked Frank,

"Come I'll show you." Holly put her ID on the scanner and led the men to the archives. Once they got there, Holly sat in front of a computer and logged in to the server,

"Alright, we need you to find these specific issues and pages of The Post." David showed her the ransom note, she immediately noticed the blood stains and turned to David,

"What exactly is going on?!" Holly asked,

"I'll explain after, just find these dates of the Washington Post, please…" pleaded David, Holly nodded and did so. As they were going through story after story, David couldn't help but notice that the specific stories are from tragedies in the past and war stories. It was strange to him that they were those specific stories, why those stories? After a couple of minutes, Holly finished deciphering the code for them,

"Here it is, 'THE WORLD WILL REACH OUTER HEAVEN'." Holly said. It hit David and Frank like a freight train, the name, "Outer Heaven".

"Outer Heaven…the Outer Heaven Army…" David quietly said in disbelief,

"That's…impossible, we destroyed Outer Heaven. Their army should be dead!" Frank said,

"Wait what's the Outer Heaven Army?" Holly asked, David gave Frank a look if they should tell her and he simply nodded,

"It's a long story…but four years back I was sent to rescue Frank and the missing operatives. During that mission, I found out that America has been secretly developing a weapon so powerful it rivals the Atom Bomb. A bipedal nuclear armed tank known as Metal Gear, we also found out that the man responsible for all this was Big Boss." David explained,

"Wait, Big Boss the legendary soldier?" asked Holly, David couldn't help but hear that maniacal laughter once more once he brought up his father,

"Yeah…Big Boss wanted to use the bipedal machine to destroy everything in sight and plunge the world in an endless paradox of war." further explained David,

"The creator of the Metal Gear is the man whose blood is on that letter, Dr Drago Madnar. He was kidnapped and they left this note, just to figure out who it is." chimed in Frank,

"But wait what happened to Big Boss? Everything was written that he went AWOL?" questioned Holly,

"He wasn't…I killed him…" David said in a very empty tone, Holly raised her eyebrows in shock,

"Wait you?! You killed Big Boss?!" asked Holly to confirm. David nodded,

"Woah…this all sounds too insane." Holly replied,

"Yeah, we lost a good comrade in the battle. Kyle Schneider was killed by Big Boss but his death helped David fight and kill him." Frank informed her. David never forgot that moment, it still felt like time was frozen when Kyle died, the prosthetic just teleporting Frank's sword and stabbing Blackbird in the abdomen, even seeing how Big Boss carelessly tossed his corpse away like a ragdoll. It struck a raw nerve David still couldn't heal from,

"I see, well guess now that you told me, I'm involved now, too. The public deserves to know what really happened in South Africa and what kind of monstrosity our country hid from us." Holly told them,

"Wait a while before publishing the story. If the story gets out in tomorrow's paper, they could kill Madnar. Till then, we will keep in contact closely." Frank suggested,

"Noted, as long as you keep me in the loop, I'll keep you guys in too. I have some connections in the MPD so I'll see if they could investigate it more." Holly replied,

"Sounds like a plan, we'll call you tomorrow." Frank replied as he and David began walking away. They eventually left the building, David pulled a cigarette out and decided to smoke to destress himself,

"Well now what?" David asked,

"Now we wait for tomorrow. Campbell is inviting his niece and a new recruit to a football game, Washington Commanders vs New England Patriots. We'll tell him what's going on at the game, the Outer Heaven Army doesn't know that we know we're on to them, let's keep it that way to have the element of surprise before we figure out what the hell they're planning." said Frank. David nodded and inhaled more of his cigarette,

"You need sleep, Dave. Get some rest or at least try to." Frank replied.

"Maybe I do…I wish sleep could just magically take it away…" David said to him,

"Me too, Dave. I'll see you tomorrow." Frank told him as he left, walking towards his car, David then went to his car and sighed, he flicked the cigarette out the car then started his car.

" Haven't come home right…no…guess I haven't. Just when I thought things were bad…they were getting worse. Maybe he was right… no matter what I do…no matter how hard I try… " he caressed the area where the Snake Scar was, closing his eyes and shivering as he flashed back through everything in Outer Heaven.

" I'm forever bound to the battlefield… "