I do not own Metal Gear Solid, as it is owned by Konami and created by Hideo Kojima, nor do I own Rise of the Guardians as it is based off the work "Guardians of Childhood" written by William Joyce and brought to life by Dreamworks. I only own original characters unless otherwise noted. I am not making a single cent off this work either.

A special thanks to PhillyCh3zSt3ak for betaing this story.

Prologue

It all started from the wind brushing against the leaves of a huge tree standing on a Japanese garden in front of a large house. The house groaning as the wind pushed against its wooden walls and structure. In a room with a huge sliding door that faces the garden and the tree, there was a man who was sitting comfortably with its back to the door frame.

He was clothed in a red traditional Japanese shirt and white pants, and was holding a long smoking pipe with his right hand. He took a whiff of smoke and blew it to the air in a passive manner before he spoke. "So the stone has started to tumble…" his tone was serious as if predicting a foreboding event, "now all it needs to do is to stop, don't you agree with me, Man in the Moon?" he asked and opened his eyes, revealing his heterochromatic colors. His right eye was brown and his left eye was blue and both were thoughtful to the future event.

"Well then… shall we see the awakening of this new Guardian?" his eyes stared to the moon, a smile formed in his pale face, as the man waited pleasantly. A new Guardian was about to be born.

He began his new life within the darkness of the space where he was in. Everything around him was pitch black and empty. The place was devoid of nothing for he couldn't even felt coldness or heat.

The air that whiff passed his nose was odorless and the ground, he couldn't feel it, he didn't even know if he was standing or lying. The place was eerily quiet and disturbing and scary. Any man who set foot in this oblivion will consider the empty void as hell itself, which might be the place's true name.

'Hell...' it was only a thought yet as if he spoke it out loud, the words echoed throughout the void. He wasn't scared nor was he disturbed.

His memories then rushed from the back of his head and then he began to reminisce it. His life was worse than he thought, so dark, so corrupted and so sorrowful that he couldn't believe that this was his and that he had lived through it as a human.

He accepted it all, his dark memories. His memories were the reason why he was here, in Hell itself, and that's why he was only calm and let out a satisfying sigh.

"This was good… wasn't it?" he thought and he knew it was more than enough. He only closed his eyes and waited to be torn or to rot away in this sinister darkness.

"No, this isn't good enough," a deep embodied voice echoed and made the man opened his eyes. He wasn't startled or surprised; he was expecting more people in this void, in Hell. However, the voice was somehow familiar to him.

Before he could answer a bright light suddenly appeared in front of him. The light was white it radiated peacefully calming his eyes instead of being irritated by it.

"Come now…your new world awaits…" the voice said again before the light suddenly engulfed him before he could even speak again.

The man didn't know what happened next, he must've passed out because of the light. After a second of being engulfed by the light, he closed his eyes and the next thing that he knew was that his head softly hit something hard and then he felt cold.

He couldn't recognize it at first but then his mind gave him an answer. It was water, he felt lots of lots of water dropping and hitting his skin. He felt the coldness all throughout his body. Was he wearing clothes, he clearly wasn't for he felt the grass and the earth with the skin on his back.

Slowly, in a daze, he opened his eyes and saw thousands of rain droplets falling from the sky. The sky was black but not like the place where he was before, and it was raining.

"Rain?" he muttered confusedly. He only stared at above the rainy sky, as his mind began to work with his new surroundings. And then after a second, his eyes then caught a shadow to his right. He couldn't recognize the shadow, the rain had disrupted his vision, but it was a man.

He only stared to the man, unmoved to his presence who kneeled and looked back at him and then he heard his voice that seemed to soothe his muddled mind.

"Welcome, Guardian. Even though I already know your real name it seems that I've to call you by what your men used to call you before in order to ease confusion as to where you are or what happened. Would that be alright, Big Boss?"

Memories of events and names rushed past on his mind. 'Big Boss' was one of his aliases he used before, and he recognize it as his; however, the man's introduction didn't help him relax his mind, it actually puzzled him more.

Questions ran back and forth and made him groan. Pain had hit his head suddenly, muscles on his body swell and it added, agonizingly.

"Now let's put you in bed, Big Boss." The man said, in a calm manner. The man who remembered his name, Big Boss, didn't reply but only stare weakly before he eventually closed his eyes.

"For tomorrow a new war will begin." The man muttered, a smile formed in his face.

It must've been a couple of hours later that Big Boss slowly opened his blue eyes and looked through the wooden ceiling of his room. Pain had already subsided in his body; he can freely move now.

'Where am I?' he asked himself as his blue eyes scanned his room which composed of nothing except for the bed he was in, a table across from him, and a small brown fox pup sitting below him, it's brown eyes inquisitively stared at him.

Big Boss, puzzled to the presence of the fox, asked even though he wasn't expecting it to answer, "Hello little one. Where am I?" 'This is stupid. It will not answer.' Much to his regret he already asked the creature that doesn't have capabilities of speaking-.

"If I were to tell you you're in Hell, would that satisfy your curiosity?" the fox spoke back, his tongue sharp. Big Boss was wide eyed for a moment, startled at the fox who answered him back, but he didn't react. His gaze slowly returns to a normal one.

"So this is hell…" he merely breathed, satisfied to where he was right now. He wasn't bothered by the talking fox; it was a probably a demon in disguise… just like him.

Big Boss then notice that his vision was half, his right eye couldn't see anything except for blackness, his right hand touched the right side of his face, only to felt a warm cloth bandage wrapped around his head, covering his right eye.

'Am I injured?' Puzzled to his state he wanted to ask the fox but he saw the little one by the door.

"Clothes are on the table, get dressed." The fox said coldly before his little paws opened the door and got out.

'Why am I following a fox? What the hell am I doing?' Big Boss ran the questions on his mind, he could've disobeyed the fox and cooped up in that room and yet something pushed him to stand, got clothes on, and followed the little fox.

He looks around the hallway and observed it the wooden walls, the lights were dim and casted his shadow on the wall. He was still looking when he stopped suddenly as the fox in front of him faced large dual doors.

The door then slowly opened and the two entered silently.

Big Boss stared around the room, it was a dining hall with a large long table in front of him, wide bay windows on his right that welcomed the moon's light the bathe the room, from the outside. His eyes observed the window before he landed it on the other end of the table where a man was sitting.

The man was clad in a red shirt and white pants; his eyes were different colors, his right eye is brown while his left is blue, and he was staring at Big Boss with a placid smile.

"Good evening. I'm glad you're awake," The man said, his tone was light and almost welcoming. "Come and sit down, you must be confused as to where you are right now."

Big Boss left eye squinted at him, the man's tone wasn't welcoming to him. He was confused as to what he had said, but he only silently sat down and faced the man.

"I know where I am, I'm in Hell am I right?" he regained his strength to ask. The man, to him, wasn't a friendly one; he sensed something strange on him and he didn't like it.

He smiled as he fixed his glasses over his eyes and said, "This isn't Hell, you've been resurrected. My name is Kimihiro Watanuki and in case if you're still wondering, you're inside my shop, John," the man named Watanuki said. He explained but it wasn't well received, Big Boss was wide eyed; this time he was in complete disbelief.

'Resurrected…? Me? But why-?' he rummaged hardly. That wouldn't be impossible. He remembered that he'd died at that place, the cemetery, right beside that person who was dear to him. He'd remembered it strongly. And the man? His tone was truthful, John couldn't detect any lies, and he knew his real name which he didn't give to anyone freely. Who was this man who knew his real name?

And then an idea loomed on him and it was the only possible identity of the man.

"Watanuki… Kimihiro?" he was right from the beginning, the man has a funny name and Big Boss, as far as he could remember, didn't trust anyone who had a funny name.

"Yes John?"

"How did you know my real name?" Big Boss started, eyes vigilant as he stood up and walked slowly towards him.

"It's simple. You're not very hard to read, John's your real name; but Jack sounds good. No, how about Ishmael? Or better yet the classic…" Watanuki stood up from his seat, a smile drawn on his pale face, his eyes boring into Big Boss', "…Naked Snake"

Big Boss didn't wait for him to move. He quickly attacked and grabbed his left arm with his right hand and spun and twisted him on his back, as he locked his left hand around his neck his white shirt rustled as he tightened his left arm around his neck, earning him some grunts coming from the man.

"Who do you work for? You resurrected me through what? Cloning?" Big Boss scowled to his right ear, threatening Watanuki, the man must be working for them… Cipher, or any other group who bears a grudge against him, "It's Cipher isn't it? The Patriots? Who?!" Big Boss shouted, anger rising in his chest as he inflicted pain on the man, but to his surprise the man let out a chuckle.

"Cipher? Patriots? Please, those thing no longer exist. You're in a new world, John and you've been resurrected magically." More riddles, the man was whimsical and fickle, he didn't like it when he was like a toy being played with.

"I will kill you if you don't speak." Big Boss boomed in.

"Do you want to see for yourself, John?" Big Boss gritted his teeth; he didn't want to be called by his real name by strangers, especially those who were fickle and annoying. He wanted to kill the strange man, but he wanted to know more.

"I'm letting you go John, I'm letting you see for yourself, the world where you truly live in now." Big Boss shot an inquisitive look, the man was an enemy and he's letting him go, this puzzled him. "I assure there's no trap along the way," his voice was so sincere and filled with honesty, yet also secretive. As much as he hated it, Big Boss let him go and moved back, but his eyes were locked on Watanuki still, expecting counterattack from him.

Watanuki smiled at him and cleared his throat, "David, would you kindly show Big Boss around the city?" the little fox from earlier appeared on the table and approached Big Boss. The fox was calm and seemed to be careless with the man.

"Follow me will you, Big Boss?" the fox asked as the Big Boss hardened his eyes at the fox. 'So its name is David. Sounds familiar…' Nostalgic to the name of the fox, he walked away from Watanuki who lightly waved his left hand and with a smile he said, "Have a nice trip…"

Big Boss was stunned and couldn't move from where he was standing. Tall buildings surrounded him like spire cages and each of them were glittering in beautiful peaceful lights and colors, his ears were filled with the sounds of everyday activities, people chatting and walking around, cars honking irritably to the building traffic jam and Christmas music coming from the buildings which told him that today, or this month, was Christmas time.

Big Boss observed in awe in a middle of a four-way busy intersection, people whiz passed in front of him and he could just only stare in silent bewilderment.

'What is this place… where am I? Is this Japan?' Confusion to the unknown, he concluded he was in Japan after he saw some words written in Japanese language in one of the buildings.

Big Boss was appalled. "W-what year is it?!" he asked to the little fox named David who looked up to him and said. "2016, and three days after new year."

Big Boss died in the year 2014 and now he was standing here in the middle of an intersection in the middle of, probably, Tokyo. He only rested for two years. However, he also noticed something else.

The whole place, the whole city, it was too joyful and peaceful and it was as if there hasn't been any war that had happened…unlike his world that he had left. And then he finally noticed something else different. Even though the city was showing its technology, he hadn't seen, not even a familiar robotic structure, any Metal Gear.

"M-Metal Gear… do any of those things exist?" Big Boss rapidly asked.

David again looked up and said, "Metal Gear no longer exist in this world, same for the Philosophers, the Patriots, your…" he paused as he saw Big Boss eyes widening in alarm, "Outer Heaven, and your beloved mentor: 'The Boss'."

He wished that he hadn't asked that, it's all too late. He didn't saw any lies or deceit in the Fox's eyes, David was telling the truth. Horror hit him hard as the reality dawned on him. Big Boss was indeed in another world, not in hell, and certainly not in heaven.

Terrified and grief stricken his senses backed out as he kneeled to the cold ground. But then his left eye suddenly caught a figure of a car coming towards him. He tried to move but the car hurled towards him at great speeds and then it ran passed through him.

'It passed through… I passed through…' All throughout his life, he had never experienced much fear and confusion but tonight it begins to hit him hard and it felt very new to him. "I…I…"

"Yes, you'd just passed through, are you a ghost…?" Big Boss slowly turns to David who was staring at him as a lot of pedestrians were passing through him, if he had a human mouth he would be smiling at him, "let me answer that. No you're not, you're something greater."

The fox's words didn't help Big Boss, panic was storming through his mind, his heart beat rose as he was frightened as to what had become of him. He became something worse and he knew it, he could no longer contain the fear that filled his chest. He released it and screamed. And since he passed through a car, he was certainly couldn't be seen by anyone.

The journey back to Watanuki was vague for Big Boss, he was still locked in a state of shock, eyes down to the floor. The fox stepped on the foyer of the entrance of Watanuki's shop and watched Big Boss dragging himself.

David didn't even care a bit, he walked slowly towards the hallway as Big Boss slowly followed him.

The man didn't even know what to do anymore, he could run away and hide in a building until he rotted away and yet he didn't know why he ended up here, but now he doesn't care anymore, he didn't know if he still has enemies left who could've done something like this.

Big Boss entered into the long dining room from before and saw that the table was filled all sorts of food that looked very appetizing, but to him he felt nothing.

"Done with the tour? I prepared you a feast. You must be terribly hungry." Watanuki said in a pleasingly, he watched from the other end of the table, Big Boss sat down on the same chair before, stared down at his plate, and after a minute he took his first bite on the food before he eventually began eating.

Big Boss was lost in his thoughts, he was indeed hungry and his hunger had dissipated his earlier turmoil. The food was good and he didn't care if it's poisoned. He didn't care if he'll be killed tonight, after his ordeal he wanted to die again.

'This must be dream…' He denied his current adversity as he gulped down the food, 'It must be… it must be…'Big Boss continued in desperation however it was all clear to him. This wasn't a dream.

Big Boss sighed, he was finished eating all the food, and he felt relieved. The horror experienced a while ago was now nothing but a mere memory from long ago. He looked up with a straight face, still he wasn't happy about what happened to him.

"Now that you've calmed down you must have a lot of questions," Watanuki said with a smile, this made Big Boss frown. Watanuki's annoying, but John's dangerous to him.

"Yes, I have a lot," He said. He has a lot of questions in his mind and he wanted the answers to them immediately.

"What's this place… this world? Who are you and who 'resurrected' me? What had happened to me?" Watanuki chuckled earning a dark glare from Big Boss, to the mystery man he was like a child, full questions, curiosity and wonders.

"Well then, this… is my Wish Shop. I grant wishes here, and I am the Guardian of Wishes and Dimensions," Watanuki said proudly but Big Boss face didn't move, in fact he was not amused. He looked like a con man to John, not a bloody shop attendant.

"And?" he merely asked again, disinterested.

"And this world? It is your new home. It isn't an alternate world; your old world simply ceased to exist and was replaced by this." His answer made Big Boss feel uneasy again, his answer sounded plausible which made him shift in his seat.

"Who did it?" his eyes questioningly looked at Watanuki's, whose smile widened.

"By the same being who resurrected you…" he fixed his glasses before he moved away, "Come, I'll show you to him." Big Boss turned to him; eyes sharpened in vigilance and merely followed him.

He went inside of a room that Watanuki showed to him, it seemed to be just a normal Japanese room with a small table in the middle and a wide window which leads to an outside Japanese Garden. A mirror stood by the wall to his left made him turn around and look at it.

He saw the bandage on his right side of his face, he touched it, curious to know of what had become of his right eye.

"Do you want to see your right eye?" Watanuki suddenly asked, seeing curiosity again. The man nodded as he rips off the bandage and see his right eye for a long time.

"What the fuck is this?" Big Boss was rattled, his eyes were both blue before but now, his right eye was still blue but the white part that made him a human, was nothing but all black. Aghast to his abominable right eye, he turned to Watanuki.

"It was him who did that to you… for he turned you into a Guardian." Guardian that was the first time that he had heard the word Guardian in this world, and it sounds ridiculous to him.

'No…' "He turned me into a monster…" Big Boss countered, both of his hands formed a tight fist that made his knuckles turned white. Instead of terror, anger begin to envelop him, for now he wanted to kill whoever resurrected him.

"Where is he?" he glared at Watanuki, blue eyes glowing.

Watanuki walked towards the window and onto the garden, and said. "Come he's right over there…"

Big Boss saw Watanuki pointed upwards, towards the starry night sky. He slowly walked past the window, stepped onto the garden, and looked up as he bore his ever glowing blue eyes at the huge full moon.

His old self would've found this ridiculous, but he's no longer what he was before.

"He's the Man in the Moon, and he's God. He had turned you into a Guardian…" Watanuki explained as Big Boss asked again and this time his tone was grave and dangerous.

"What is a… Guardian?"

"The one who protects this world. One who gives hope, wonder, and light to everyone especially children. In short they're like… angels," Watanuki answered truthfully and this made Big Boss smile. And it wasn't a friendly one.

"So Guardian, hmm…?" he stared at the moon with ire. Fury was screaming in his eyes that began to glow brighter than normal. The Guardian of Wishes and Dimensions saw his reaction and smirked. His left hand went inside the deepest pocket of the red kimono that he was wearing and took out a large wooden box.

He opened it and reveal its contents to Big Boss who glanced it with plain, raging eyes. It was a pair of silver plated guns, its shiny metal shone brightly at Big Boss.

"The Man in the Moon made this for you as a token of gratitude that you've accepted your fate as a Guardian." Big Boss frown grew as more hatred began to fuel him. He had never accepted this 'Guardianship'. He was supposed to be dead and in hell, resting in peace, and now he was here, resurrected, and to fight for whomever the being who was, probably, controlling everything even without appearing to the people.

He hated it, being controlled, being manipulated by the unknown, this Man in the Moon wasn't any different than those back from his world. Controlling people, especially soldiers, like they were nothing but puppets.

"Man in the Moon…" he gritted his teeth, as his eyes glowed blue brightly and his body began to emit bluish aura. Watanuki bowed his head and stepped back, away from the raging man.

'Big mistake, Man in Moon… big mistake…!' His temper rising as his hands tightened around the trigger of the silver gun around his hands, Big Boss was outraged as to what the Man in the Moon did to him, he had turned him into a Guardian, forcibly and unwillingly.

No matter how good the meaning of it, a Guardian was the same as a soldier; a controlled soldier, stripped of dignity and freedom, and nothing but expandable.

"Man in Moon, I am not your pawn!" His anger burst forth and covered his whole body in a strong blue aura. Watanuki watched from behind and caught something with his eye.

He saw that the Boss's shadow that was dancing on the ground. As the man was enveloped in blue flames, and saw something that made his eyes widen. Big Boss's shadow was forming into something sinister, his silhouette was still there but this time he saw something protruding in his back and it was large and long and there are six pairs of them. And all of them appeared to be like wings.

'Oh, interesting…' he blew a short snort of air out of his nose and observed the violent Big Boss.

Big Boss then formed an idea in his head, since the Man in the Moon turned him into this he will, at least turn him, into something sinister. Slowly he raised his right gun towards the air and pointed to the moon.

"Man in Moon…" he uttered with resentment, "fuck you." and then he pulled the trigger of his gun. The gun was then bathed by his aura, and produced a single circle on the tip, that Big Boss didn't bother knowing what it was, before it released a powerful blast of blue beam. The blue beam travelled towards the sky and then it eventually hit the moon.

Big Boss watch antagonistically, the moon exploded and tiny bits of it began to fall back to earth. He didn't care if it will hit a major city, he would never care for anything anymore. In fact, he had liked to destroy this world. The power that he felt, which he possessed, was enough to destroy a world, that's what he thought, and it was true.

'Man in Moon, now do you regret waking me up?' Big Boss thought with enmity, he had showed him, the Man in the Moon, that he would never be a Guardian, but an unbeatable foe. He had shown him what he was capable of and that he wasn't a normal human but a devil who could destroy the world, which he had done before.

"I had once sold the world, but I haven't destroyed one… yet," he said as his memories flashed on his mind, the past life that was too cruel for a normal man. And he did remember how he almost conquered his previous world. Now that he had this power, he could easily redo his conquest. This time with ease.

"Impressive, Big Boss…" Watanuki said, amused to what he had done, as he looked up to the shattered moon. The man stared back at him, acrimony was written all over his face. "You really do know how to send a message," Watanuki added before his right hand fished something on his right pocket of his kimono and took out a small object. He showed it to Big Boss and it was a black leather eye patch.

"The man in the moon made this for you, your black leather jacket and green pants is in your room," he said as Big Boss took it from his hand, wielding it on his face to cover his right eye. He felt like he was back to his normal self once more, and he liked it.

The menacing and enigmatic Big Boss.

"Now then, would you like to thank the Man in the Moon for, at least, the eyepatch?" Watanuki asked teasingly to the man who paused his walk by the window.

Big Boss glanced at him and replied, "If he ever rebuilds his moon… I will shoot it down again as a sign of my thanks, and after that… I'll plant a bullet in his head."

The guardian of wishes and dimensions smiled in amusement, he had like the man's brutal spirit. "Your gun by the way, it doesn't require bullets, it requires your will and resolve as a Guardian."

Big Boss glanced at his silver gun and slowly formed a dark grin, "Then I'll show him how truly wrong he was on waking a devil like me…" his eyes reflected back to him and it was no longer glowing in blue but of deep, blood, red. Big Boss had decided he will live through this world, but not as a Guardian.

Watanuki watched the receding back of Big Boss before he looked down at David the Fox. David, who had witnessed everything, merely yawned, disinterested to what Big Boss had showed them both. "Hmph… he still hasn't changed." David said.

Watanuki replied to him, "Anger is an irrelevant thing, it can make a person do irrelevant actions."

"Yeah and Big Boss is full of it, so he's nothing but an irrelevant being." The fox said as he turned around and walked back towards the window.

"David… please watch over him not just for me, but for the Man in the Moon too," Watanuki said as his face showed worry and concern; the fox however snorted, irritated by his request.

"Sure." He replied before he resumed his walk, away from him.

"Anger is truly an irrelevant thing, so is hatred and vengeance…" Watanuki said in a sad tone. He looked up to the moon and saw its shattered state. And then he recalled the mission that he had received from him, and he had finished it. He sighed as he had nothing to do anymore except to watch Big Boss and his uncharted future to unfold.

Chapter End.

Watanuki Kimihiro is technically a character from xxxHolic, however I have only taken his appearance and skillset from the anime, his personality is mostly my own.