I hope this is a good story. It's not meant for anything political, economical, or stuff like that. The little political or economical situations that I presented in this fanfiction are FACTS, but if you disagree with me, then by all means state your disagreement, but be polite about it please. Sorry if any characters are not in character, but I hope I get this right.

As for Snake, he'll go by Old Snake for this story.

"I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated it's completes abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes."
General Douglas Macarthur

Debriefing

In the not too distant future…

"Senator O has lied about his association with William Ayers."

"Senator M supported cutting Social Security benefits in half;"

A TV was quietly glowing in an apartments small living room as a debate between two senators of the republican and democratic parties discussed different questions posed in their race for presidency. The American economy had suffered badly after the war economy had been destroyed. The stock market had gone down so badly that another Great Depression seemed like it could be a reality.

Old Snake sighed a bit as he continued to watch the TV. Snake never cared for politics, but times in America were tough, and it seemed that the next president would likely determine the fate of the country. Not only that, but there was still the matter of warfare in the Middle East, and all sorts of other crap in this world. Snake mused on how so many years ago he should've been officially retired from the military, from the government, and from his days of fighting. He'd have probably spent the rest of his days just living like a hermit in the cold Alaskan wilderness.

It was probably the one place he could truly call home, where he could live in peace without having to fight Metal Gears, terrorists, clones of your "father", and definitely without FOXDIE. The FOXDIE in Snake's body, coupled with his advanced aging was now in it's final stages. The medications he was being given were simply to control the pain that would come, and soon his time would be up. Snake sighed and muttered to himself, "I should've been dead a long time ago" He had been shot, stabbed, beaten, burnt, blasted, crushed, tortured, cooked by microwaves, and suffered in so many ways it was nothing short of a miracle to him. But Snake wasn't one to believe in miracles; even though he had witnessed and lived through some. It simply was kill or be killed, and Snake had desired to live longer, so he did what he had to do. A voice spoke to him as he continued to think, "But you didn't die Snake. You lived and because you lived this long, you saved the human race more times than what I'd ever have thought possible." Snake turned his head and saw one of the few people he'd call, "friend". Hal Emmerich, or "Otacon" as he preferred to be called. Snake grinned a little and said, "So what did the doctor say? How long until I go for good?"

Otacon looked down and said with sadness in his voice, "An hour at best. Your body's organs will be shutting down in about in hour, and then…" Otacon couldn't bring himself to say it, so Snake finished for him, "I'll die, I know."

"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times. And a very small number really."
Brandon Lee

Otacon walked to the vacant seat next to Snake's hospital bed and he said, "I'm gonna miss you Snake, I mean, we've been through a lot of things, but I can't believe you're so…I don't know, calm about dying." Snake shook his head and said, "Otacon, when you've stared death in the face as many times as I have, it stops bothering you." Otacon agreed, "Yeah. I guess I wouldn't understand, seeing as how the first time was the worse." Snake remembered that time well. It was when his former ally but still friend, Frank Jaeger (Gray Fox) scared Otacon so badly that the guy had pissed his pants. Otacon looked at the TV and watched the presidential debate with Snake for a few minutes.

As the senators started talking to each other on a certain issue, Otacon sighed and said, "Jeeze, with all the things going on in the world, it looks like one of these guys are either going to make America better or just make it fall further…" Snake said in agreement, "Yeah. Not that I'll be around long enough to see how all this ends." "So you're just gonna duck out and leave me with the state the world is in? And with Sunny's eggs?" Otacon joked. Snake could only grin and retorted lightly, "You could just throw some ketchup on it Otacon." The other laughed a bit and said, "She gets annoyed if I try to change her eggs around, according to her, "It ruins the fortune." Snake didn't reply as he started to reminisce on Sunny. The daughter of Olga Gurlukovich was a computer whiz smarter than many people much older than she was. She had a thing for serving sunny side eggs and the getting irritated with Snake every time he smoked.

Halfway through the debate, Snake asked, "How are Meryl and Akiba? Jack?" Otacon looked at him confused for a second, "Akiba…? Oh you mean Johnny! Well, they're alright. Meryl was still trying to get over her father's passing. Right now though, Johnny and Meryl are back in the Middle East with their teammates. I hope they'll be ok…" Snake answered, "Meryl will be fine, she's got Akiba." Colonel Roy Campbell had passed away almost a month earlier. Snake attended and was grateful that his old friend had been given a veterans burial. He was one of the few people Snake could openly call "friend" and indeed, he would miss his commanding officer, even though it wouldn't be long before he would die too. "Raiden is doing good. He and Rose have a son together. They're both in New York, starting over." Memories flashed through Snake's mind as he remembered Raiden from the Big Shell, to him as a Cyborg Ninja, like Grey Fox. He had also had been through hell, but at the least, he was given a chance to start over with a clean slate."

The presidential debate finally ended and Otacon readjusted his glasses as he said, "I hope things get better, now that there's no more Liquid, Metal Gears, or Patriot systems… but there's still the issue of getting the economy back on track."

Suddenly Snake felt a great pain on his insides and groaned as he doubled over. Otacon stood up and said worriedly, "Snake? Is something wrong?" Snake coughed and coughed as he fell out of his chair. Otacon yelled his name, and tried to bring Snake into a sitting position, but Snake was coughing so violently that it didn't look like he could even breathe. In between his coughing fits, Snake managed to choke out, "On the…. cough…table… The pills…! cough cough" Otacon immediately spotted the pills on the table next to his ailing friend and immediately opened the bottle. He read the instructions and rapidly took out three pills from the bottle.

Otacon moved over to Snake and the other snatched the pills from his hand and shoved it down his throat. After a few tense seconds, the pills started to take effect, and Snake felt the pain subside. Snake took a few deep breaths before Otacon handed him a cup of water. Snake drank the refreshing liquid and as he looked at his reflection in the water, he saw his hideously scarred face. It had given him many a strange looks whenever he went outside in the world. Before he had died, his "brother" Liquid Snake said that both he and Snake, "Are beasts created by man." And whenever Snake looked at himself, he couldn't help but think that the burn on his face not only made him feel like a beast, but look like one too. Otacon looked at Snake and said, "Do you want to go to a hospital?" Snake shook his head and said, "No. There would be no point to it. Besides, it's getting late; the sun is coming up."

It was true, the very faintest bit of light was appearing through the city's tall buildings. Snake and Otacon looked at the twilight rising for a bit before Snake spoke, "Otacon, when I die, I want my body to be cremated. I don't want any chances taken of my genes being reborn. This world doesn't need anymore Snakes." Snake thought of his twin Liquid, their "brother" Solidus, and Big Boss/Naked Snake as he said that. Otacon felt a great pang of sadness at the prospect of losing Snake. He had lost his sister, his lover, and now he was going to lose his friend. Snake put a hand on his shoulder and as if reading his thoughts, "You haven't lost everything Otacon. You've still got Sunny to look after, and you've still got time to live." With that, Snake turned and walked away down the hallway, and passed Sunny's room. He opened the door as quietly as he could, and saw the little girl peacefully sleeping with a "chibi" doll of an anime show that Otacon had gotten her for her birthday a year ago. It was dressed in a red Japanese outfit with a Japanese katana sheathed on its hip, the hair was long and silver, the eyes were a gold color, and dog-ears sat on top of his head. Snake quietly walked over as he always had done in his life, and retrieved his navy blue bandanna with the words, "Infinite" etched on it. He gently tied it to the doll's head without waking Sunny and rubbed her head once before leaving, and as he did, he saw a smile on Sunny's sleeping face.

Snake turned to go to his bedroom but before he went in the ex-soldier turned to Otacon and said, "Hal, when Sunny wakes up, maybe you and her can figure out how the hell this piece of cloth produces infinite ammo." Otacon took the bandanna with a shaking hand and he said a bit emotionally, "Sunny found it out yesterday…David. Its surprisingly simple Snake…this bandanna is full of nanomachines. They go from your bandanna into your weapons… and when they recognize the type of caliber or bullets needed, they combine with each other, producing an infinite number of bullets." Snake smiled a small but genuine smile and said, "So that's how it works… Funny how things in life are, aren't they Otacon?"

With that, he turned into his room and closed the door. Otacon walked into his room and took off his glasses. He looked at the glowing clock and according to his clock; it would be only another 10 minutes before Snake's body would give out. He didn't know what to think, but he knew it was pointless to try to cry about it. So resigning himself to sleep, he lay on his bed and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile, Snake pulled up the blinds from his bedroom and watched the sun rise. A new day was beginning. If the sun rose whenever Snake was on a mission, or on the battlefield, he would wonder as a soldier often would, "Is this the last day that I get to see the sun?" It was a little frightening, knowing that today really is the last time he would see the sun. The light shined through his room and as he gazed through the light, Snake could almost see a ghostly image of several people, standing in front of him, waiting to welcome him to death. Ocelot (MGS 3 Ocelot), EVA, Roy Campbell, Frank Jaeger, Naomi, The Boss, and Naked Snake/Big Boss… Old Snake suddenly felt very tired and as the sun rose more, Snake felt pain inside again, but he was too tired to care, and he knew Death was by his bedside. But it was all right… he had been long overdue for this.

And he couldn't put it off any longer.

A small hand on tapped Otacon's shoulder and he turned around to see, "Sunny!" She was holding her doll and Otacon spotted the bandanna wrapped around his head. He knew what was coming and he sat up, looking at Sunny The girl's eyes were scared as she said worriedly, "Uncle Hal, I…I went to give Snake his medicine... But he's not…waking up or doing anything." Otacon sat up and a tear did drop from his eye as he put both hands on Sunny's shoulders. But he didn't look directly at her, and simply walked out into Snake's room. Sunny followed Otacon to Snake's room. Snake looked as though he was asleep, despite the fact he wasn't moving or even breathing. Otacon shook his shoulder and said with a shaky voice "Snake are you alright?" There was no response from him, only a chilling silence. Otacon shook him a little more and called louder, "Snake!? Answer me!" A dawning realization came on Sunny and Otacon as he placed his hand on Snake's neck to feel for a pulse. Only a cold death was on Snake's body and no pulse signaled an eerie finale. Tears started to fall from Sunny's face as Otacon shook Snake a little more and yelled in horror, "Snake answer me please! Snake?!"

" SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!"

"There's something a friend of mine once said, "We are not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing I was good at. But at least I always fought for what I believed in..."
Solid Snake