Author Notes:

I've already been writing this story for a while, so I'm quite a few chapters in. It'll get epic. The following chapters contain spoilers to the Metal Gear Solid saga. So I highly recommend that you have played MGS1, MGS2, MGS3 and MGS4 before reading this if you're worried with spoilers. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy reading (and reviewing) this as much as I enjoy writing it.

THE QUESTION MARK

- Departure -

Snake lay against the dusty gravestone, the life's story of the corpse buried beneath him crumbling away on a slab of rock. This was his future. Eventually information fades, no matter how much you hold onto it. He held the gun in his greying hands. Just another death. No-one would understand, nor care.

Meryl. Where is she now? Not that she'd care for a man like David. Not now.

He brought the gun to his mouth and felt his jaw clamp down upon its cold metal. Eyes closed. He was ready. He knew what must be done. Knowing his next breath would be his last, David swallowed, tensed every muscle in his body, took a deep breath and pulled hard on the trigger.

...

He heard the gun's bang echo into the blackness. Nothing. Just nothing. His feeling faded, as did the sound around him. And then it happened.

Something glistened in front of him. It was so blurry that his quickly fading memory lost all hope of processing it. But it became more vivid. And he could see it. As it drew closer to him, he could make out blurred lettering. How was this possible? His hearing came back. A beep. An extremely loud beep. But it was drowned out by a different sound. The ringing of a telephone.

His vision came back to him. His sense of touch, smell and taste all returned. He could taste the blood in his mouth, the smell of chilled air. Was this death? He touched his ear, as a familiar voice recited familiar words. A new bodysuit? No, the colonel lied to him in his ear. Snake shouted back... until it struck him...

He was back on Shadow Moses Island.

"No..." Snake whispered down the codec.

But before he could think, an alarm sounded. Had he been spotted?

Snake threw himself to the ground. Looking up, an elevator ahead had swiftly reached ground floor. He soon crept past very suspcting guards, and hit the control pannel. The lift groaned into life once more and pushed him upwards into the chilling air.

Something was not right about this, and now David had time to realise. Removing his diving gear, flashes of what was, what is and what will be appeared infront of his eyes. The graveyard... Had he died? He had felt the bullet force its way through the back of the throat and out of the other side. He had fallen numb just as he slumped down, limp and lifeless on the slab. But now he was here. Back on Shadow Moses.

And those guards. That wasn't post 2010 gear... The genome soliders. Events can't repeat themselves can they?

Snake reached the top floor. A helicopter took off infront of him, leaving a snowy baron wasteland of a building's entrance. The codec rang. But Snake didn't pick it up.

He knew the way in.

After hearing a well known "Who's footprints are these?" Snake was soon back in the air ducts, along with the rats who showed him the way. It gave him a sense of comfort being in these dark tunnels. But they soon reminded him of resting in a coffin and he persued the rats without futher thought.

His ear rang. What a pain. He still had blood in his mouth, and his ear now felt as though it would implode. He opened the codec for a conversation. Master Miller. Snake soon felt at ease again as he fell into a running conversation with the man. But then he remembered. Sitting himself up inside the now claustrophobic tunnel, his hand started trembling. This wasn't Master. This was Liquid, one of David's clone brothers. What should he do? The man was telling serious lies in his ear, and Snake knew the real man would be found dead in a matter of hours. Snake made a quick decision.

"Liquid."

"I'm sorry?" Master sounded insulted after Snake had interupted him.

"I know who you are."

"What the hell is going on?" questioned Campell.

"Is Nastasha Romanenko there?" Snake asked.

"How did you know? That information was not released yet".

"Campell, may I speak with you on a private line?"

There was a short silence.

"I'm sure you can share it with all of us, Snake" Nastasha introduced herself.

"Can I ask someone to check Master Miller's house. Just to see if everything is okay?" Snake spoke, with slight panic in his voice.

"Snake, is everything okay?" asked Master Miller.

"No. No it's not." replied Snake.