#character: raiden

It had been several months since Liquid Ocelot’s uprising had been stopped and the Patriot AI’s destroyed, forever changing the direction the history of the world would take, but, despite the massive shock waves felt around the world from such an event, life went on. However, not everyone who had taken part in the world changing conflict was going to be around to see the long term changes brought about. One person in such circumstances was the reason Hal Emmerich and Raiden had gathered at their current location today, to visit a good friend to both of them, Snake.

Through the connections built up from Solid Snake averting world wide catastrophe on more than one occasion, Hal had managed to get Snake a really nice and fancy hospital to stay at for medical care as his friend’s rapid aging had gradually worsened in the months after saving the world once more. Said condition was his reason for coming to pay a visit today, having brought Raiden along as well. The cyborg wanted a chance to see his friend one more time while there was still the opportunity.

After going through the initial entrance to the building, the two made their way toward Snake’s room. Upon getting to his destination, Hal gave a slight knock on the doorway to announce the arrival, before opening the door and heading inside, followed shortly by Raiden.”Hey Snake, how are you holding up?”

The insanely outlandish plan, go back in time, make contact with Big Boss, and kill a base full of Snatchers, had gone off without a hitch, to Raiden’s mild surprise. Doktor’s inventions, even time travel, continued to be reliable as ever. However, even the best geniuses could screw up now and again, and that was the exact possibility Raiden had run into now. On his way back, he had ended up somewhere most certainly not in familiar territory.

“Dok....Your latest toy has a bug.” The cyborg dryly commented over codec, a holographic HUD visible only to his eyes, showing details and status of his call.

“I can see zat, but I don’t understand! Zee calculations vere all correct, perhaps...” The voice of an older german man began rambling in Raiden’s ear about complicated time travel theories and reasons Raiden had not ended up home, unhearable to anyone else.

As Doktor continued to ramble, Raiden picked up a presence on his radar.“Hold that thought, there’s someone here.” Raiden quickly dismissed the screen in front of him with a motion of his hand before turning toward the presence he had picked up on his Soliton Radar, perhaps he’d be able to learn a bit more about where he was.

Lots of it.

Now, he was used to pain. Child soldier, all that. He’d been through hell and back more times then he’d like to remember.

But this was different.

It felt like every nerve, every bone, every muscle, every molecule that made up his body was on fire.

But at the same time…it didn’t feel right. Didn’t feel…real. Like it wasn’t his body, but it was.

Strange.

He tried to move, but his body didn’t respond. He tried again. Nothing.

“What…?”

His voice came out strange. Tinny. Like he was speaking into an intercom, or into a microphone too close to his face.

That definitely was not normal.

Why couldn’t he remember what happened? There was just a big blur of nothing in his memories that hurt like a bitch when he tried to poke it.

Okay, stay calm. Don’t panic. Breathe, Ja- Raiden. What’s the last thing I remember? Snake and Otacon had asked me to go to…to a Patriots base. Right. To rescue Olga’s baby. That’s right. So what the hell happened to me?

Did I get caught-

Caught.

Fuck.

NOW he remembered.

He HAD gotten caught, like an idiot. Outnumbered and outmanned. One man with a katana could only do so much against an endless number of genome soldiers with assault rifles and other fancy guns, no matter how skilled he was.

So he’d been caught. Fine. He’d been in that situation before. What made this so different? He sure didn’t hurt this badly last time.

He tried to move again.

This time something happened.

A twitch. He felt his hand twitch. And white-hot pain shot up his arm and made him scream.

It sounded harsh, metallic. Unreal.

What happened to me?!

Struggling against the pain, he managed to turn his head to look at his arm.

He screamed again.

Steel. Iron and steel and wires, glowing faintly blue and buzzing with electric pulses.

“Oh, god. No. This can’t be happening.”

He forced himself to sit up, to look at himself.

It was the same. His whole body, crudely formed out of wires and steel and crackling with bursts of white-blue sparks.

He slowly managed to get a hand up to his face. He couldn’t feel, had no sensation of touch in his fingers. But his cheek felt cold steel, so…there was that.

So he was a head attached to a metal body.

He guessed his whole central nervous system was wired in, though, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to move.

So a head and a spine, then.

Great.

He wondered for a moment why the hell he was so calm about this.

It really didn’t take long for an answer.

It’s not like my life could get any worse at this point. Who really cares what happens to me now?