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Brothers in Arms	By : ktatters Category: +M through R > Metal Gear Views: 3912 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Metal Gear, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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See-through

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own - Michael Korda

Night 2: Outside Bucharest

Big Boss waved his hand over his head and pulled over to the side of the road. It was almost midnight, but at least they had made up most of the time according to the new schedule. The border crossing had gone smoothly, thanks to Ocelot's knowledge of USSR military protocols. Even with that help, it had taken almost 12 hours of driving to even start to catch up, and tomorrow was going to be almost as grueling as today had been, especially since they were going to be camping out again tonight.

He kicked the bike up. "Arthur! Ocelot!" he called to his second and his... whatever it was Ocelot was acting as for him. Ocelot came over quickly, while Arthur was taking his time. Big Boss gave him an annoyed look when he finally deigned to come over. "Ocelot, I want you to oversee the camp setup. We'll need to move Sasaki outside too."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"We need to look at the maps, do some planning."

Ocelot nodded and started to move off. "Hold up, Ocelot," said Arthur. Ocelot turned. "I think Big Boss got the ordering wrong. He wants you to look at maps with him."

"What?" Big Boss stared at Arthur, annoyance warring with confusion on his face. "You're the one who knows the maps. Why would I talk about them with Ocelot?" Arthur glared accusingly at Big Boss, who shook his head. "Are we arguing about something?"

Ocelot nodded and waved his hands. "I'll just go," said Ocelot.

Big Boss grabbed Arthur's arm and pulled the other man away from the soldiers taking equipment out of the supply truck. "What is this about?"

"I don't know, John, what do you think it's about?"

"John?" Big Boss looked at Arthur. Now he really was annoyed. "Why the hell are you calling me that?"

"Maybe you should have thought about what you wanted people to call you before you told Ocelot, a man you pretend you don't even like, your damned name!" The soldiers were staring at them even from as far away as they were. Big Boss heard Ocelot bark out a command, and they pretended to turn their attention elsewhere.

"Lower your voice, Arthur."

"You've never even told me your name, and I sleep with you," said Arthur, more quietly but, if anything, with more indignation than before. "And you told him your damned name?"

When had Arthur found out about-- Ah. Ocelot had slipped. Or more likely, let it out on purpose to see if he got a reaction. "Fuck..." he breathed. "Arthur, it's not my name."

"You... you liar!" Arthur stared at him with his mouth open and his eyebrows drawn together. "How dare you lie to me!"

"Arthur, I don't have a name. No one has a name out on the battlefield." Big Boss shook his head and grinned. "No one except you," he said lightly, hoping it would ease the tension.

It didn't. "Everyone has a name," said Arthur. "You just can't be bothered to learn them."

"For God's sake... Arthur--"

"Don't you Arthur me," he growled. "And if you want someone to sleep with fuck tonight, you'd better just ask Ocelot, because I'm going to sleep alone." He shoved Big Boss aside angrily and began to walk back.

"Alone--? No you're not!" Big Boss grabbed Arthur's arm and spun him around. Alarm bells were ringing in his head. If Ocelot let it 'slip'... He was planning something. God damn it! Arthur could be killed, and for what? "There was too much damage, Arthur, think about it! All the damage to the supplies. Sasaki couldn't have been working alone."

"Let go of me, or I swear I'll-"

"Arthur be reasonable, you can't-"

Arthur pulled his gun out and aimed it at Big Boss. "At this kind of range, I can't miss," he said through clenched teeth.

Big Boss' reaction was immediate and instinctual. He grabbed Arthur's arm and twisted it up. The gun flipped away, but Arthur wasn't giving up: he grabbed Big Boss' gun from out of its holster. Big Boss kicked the back of Arthur's legs, causing them both to lose their footing. On the way down, Big Boss pulled the gun back from out of the younger man's hand. Then he concentrated on twisting around so that Arthur wouldn't take the brunt of the fall. By the time they landed on the ground, arms and legs tangled together, the gun was pointed at Arthur's left shoulder.

Arthur winced as he landed, but the fury and open defiance hadn't left his eyes. "Don't you dare question me on issues of security!" said Big Boss angrily. Arthur glared at him. "You aren't sleeping alone, and that's final. I'm not going to let you get shot to death because you're pissed off at me!" Arthur turned his gaze pointedly to the gun. Big Boss threw it away in disgust. "We're sleeping in the supply truck again tonight."

Arthur closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, his jaw moving back and forth. Big Boss rolled off of Arthur and stood up, then dusted himself off and offered a hand to his lover.

Arthur opened his eyes and pushed himself up off of the ground. "You're worried about security? All right. We'll deal with it for security's sake." Big Boss nodded, pleased with himself for winning the argument, even if it had been through a show of force. "I'll sleep with Ocelot tonight."

Big Boss' mouth dropped open and he shook his head. "You can't sleep with him."

Arthur smiled angrily. "You trust him enough to give him your name, you should be able to trust him enough to let him protect me." He laughed sharply. "Tell you what, I'll even let you threaten him, if it protects your fragile ego."

"But-" Big Boss gaped at Arthur. "I can't believe you'd want to sleep with him."

"I can't believe you think I'd want to sleep with you."

Big Boss couldn't seem to close his mouth. He just kept looking at Arthur, horrified fascination battling the urge to throw up. Really, were those feelings at odds?

Maybe Ocelot would say no.

"Ocelot!" he called out. He didn't take his eye off of Arthur. Arthur was staring at him too, the challenge reading loud and clear in his eyes.

What the hell was he supposed to do about this?

"Sir," said Ocelot. Big Boss broke eye contact with Arthur and looked at Ocelot. He had on his familiar sheen of bravado. The man so rarely took it off...

"Well, Arthur, this is your cunning plan. Go ahead, ask him."

"Fine, then, I will." Arthur took a deep breath and let it out. "Big Boss is afraid that Sasaki might have been working with someone, so he decided that we need to sleep in pairs. But I'm not going to sleep next to-- whatever his name is-- so. Any objections to sharing a tent with me?"

"Fuck," Big Boss turned away, his breathing getting heavy. Arthur's gun was still on the ground.

"Hm. Fine," said Ocelot. Big Boss could hear the smug smile in the tone of voice. It took almost everything he had to remember the spoiled, angry child he'd heard that morning, the boy who needed saving.

He walked over to Arthur's gun and picked it up, then went back to Arthur and handed it to him. The man had his own insufferably self-satisfied sneer on his face.

Big Boss turned to Ocelot. His mouth tasted sour, and he was quite certain it showed through to his face. "Anything happens to him, Ocelot... and I won't worry about whether you did it, or someone else did. You're responsible."

"Yes, sir," said Ocelot with a snappy salute.

Big Boss shook his head. The alarm bells were ringing louder in his head than ever they had before, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

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Night 2: Outside Bucharest

Arthur's pathetic whimper woke them both up.

Ocelot stayed where he was with his eyes closed as Arthur sat up and fumbled beside himself. His breathing was coming shallow and quick. When he turned on the flashlight, Ocelot opened one eye and fixed it on the other man.

Arthur's face was as pale as the moon, his eyes were as hollow as the sky, and he was shaking as though the stars were about to fall on him. "Are you alright?" asked Ocelot after a moment.

Arthur looked to the side. "I woke you? Sorry." His mouth was slightly open, and the light was making a very fast zigzag pattern against the side of the tent. "I'll be fine in a minute."

Ocelot opened both his eyes, took a look at Arthur, then closed them again. Arthur's shuddering breaths precluded sleep, but Ocelot had experience faking it. "Don't leave the tent," he said.

The other man was quiet for a while. The light was still on. "Ocelot?" Ocelot opened one eye again and looked at Arthur questioningly. "Are you really a torturer?"

Ocelot shrugged. "I do what has to be done to get information. Sometimes it's necessary."

"Why?"

"People don't want to give up secrets for free. Anyone can beat torture, but it gives them an excuse to talk about what they want to say anyways. It's not really all that bad."

Arthur crossed his arms, and the light moved to the top of the tent. "That's not true. They don't want to talk..."

"Hmph." No sleep tonight. Ocelot sat up and stared at Arthur. "They think that, but deep down inside, they do want to tell me their secrets. Torture can force the tongue to move, but in the end, it cannot force the truth. People lie to themselves all the time, Arthur." The other man shivered. Ocelot looked at the cut on the side of his face and the burn marks peeking out from under his shirt. "You were tortured and you broke," he guessed.

Arthur glanced at him. "No, of course not," he said confidently. His fingers twitched. Ocelot stared at him without moving a muscle. Arthur fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze. "It was more watching it," he faltered.

Ocelot nodded. "Squeamish?" he asked.

Arthur looked up at the light. "It was hard to watch," he said slowly, "because they were like family. But I-- it's not... They died for me. Willingly." Arthur shook his head. "I can't understand that."

"So you let them die for nothing?" Ocelot smirked at Arthur.

Arthur's mouth turned down and his brows drew together. "It's not that simple," he spat out. "It's not like I-" he cut himself off.

Ocelot smiled lazily at the man. "So how do you get information?"

"Logic, mostly." The change in topics calmed him minutely. "Plan out the questions, trip up whoever you're talking with, then threaten them. It usually works. And when it doesn't... well, I've made great strides in creating a truth drug that actually works without side effects."

"No side effects?"

Arthur smiled uneasily. "Actually, I haven't managed no side effects yet. It gets the truth, but there's an eighty-seven percent mortality rate."

"Sounds like a nerve agent."

"It's based on one," agreed Arthur.

Ocelot stared. Even he wasn't sick enough to use nerve agents. "How can you be squeamish about torture and experiment with nerve agents?"

"I don't test things on our own people." Ocelot watched him as his face went from annoyed to angry. "Usually." Ocelot raised an eyebrow at the muttered comment. "Well how would you feel," he asked in a louder voice, "watching Edik or Vitaliy being killed while you were chained down?"

Ocelot shrugged. "I wouldn't be happy. But I wouldn't blame giving information to the enemy on their deaths." Arthur looked down. "So how did they get to you?"

"I don't think I want to talk about this..."

Ocelot closed his eyes briefly and mentally calculated the risk. "Do you know--" He reached over and took the light from Arthur, pointing it into his face. The startled, almost frightened look on Big Boss' lover's face was mildly arousing. "I think you do."

"Give that back," he said urgently, but still quietly. Ocelot kept it pointed into Arthur's eyes so that the man couldn't see anything besides the light.

Ocelot moved to Arthur and put an arm around his shoulders to keep him from moving away. "Talk to me," said Ocelot, his voice dripping compassion while pouring the light into Arthur's face.

Arthur's eyes were glazing over and his breathing was getting faster. "I... Boss...?"

"Tell me what you told them," Ocelot said gently. Arthur shook his head. "You know what I'll have to do if you don't talk to me, Arthur. Don't make me do that."

"No, don't..." Arthur closed his eyes and tried to turn his head away from the light. Ocelot could smell the fear rolling off of the man suddenly. Hallucinations and flashbacks were common with the subjects of most of his best work. After a while, he didn't even need to touch them: their own minds started to attack them.

"What's your name?" Ocelot hissed it into Arthur's ear, pushing his head back toward the light and pulling his eyes open with the same movement.

There was barely any hesitation. "Arthur Emmerich."

Ah, this torturer had been good at his job, at least as good as Ocelot himself was. "What's your mission?"

"Nuclear... to Iraq... my fault, no... no, leave him alone... I'll do it, I'll do it... please..." The man was begging. Ocelot's lip curled up.

"Stop babbling, Emmerich. You're as weak as I thought. You're not good enough for him." Ocelot laughed a little. "I'll show him you're not," he whispered suddenly to himself.

He pushed the man to the ground, then turned the flashlight off and put it to the side quickly. "Arthur!" he said sharply. "Wake up!"

"What--" Arthur was gasping in air by this point. "I thought... you..." He seemed to make a decision to try to breath more normally, and his breathing lengthened into heaving shudders of breath. "Just another nightmare."

"Another?" Ocelot backed away.

"I--" Arthur clutched his head. "I'm sorry I woke you," he said distantly. "I think I'd better see Big Boss." Arthur sat up.

Ocelot put his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Hold on, hold on. Calm down, Arthur."

Arthur had lost his struggle with his breathing and was starting to hyperventilate. "It's never been that bad..."

"Arthur, look at me." Ocelot put himself in front of Arthur, capturing the other man's eyes. "In... Out... In... Out... Breathe with me, Arthur." Ocelot kept his breathing stable and allowed Arthur to follow his lead until he had stabilized his own breathing. "Tell me about your dream, Arthur," he said.

"No... I'm disturbing you..."

Ocelot shook his head at Arthur. "Unit needs to run efficiently. How can it do that if the second-in-command is having nightmares he can't talk about?" Arthur didn't look convinced. "Tell you what. You tell me about your nightmare, and I'll tell you about how he told me his name."

Something in Arthur hardened. Ocelot smiled encouragingly.

"It's not just the dream," Arthur said softly. "It started about a month ago. I was on a mission with a small team. We had taken on some extra men from the CIA. We usually refuse outside help, but the clients wanted these specific people on our team: a demolitions guy and... well, I'm not exactly sure what the other one was for. I know what he ended up doing.

"Big Boss-- he was off on a parallel track. The demolitions guy was with him, and the second man we had with us. He poisoned all the food one night, or at least, that's what I think happened. At any rate, we all went to sleep one night and were woken up the next night by screaming.

"They softened us up for... I don't know how long. Standard stuff, according to what I've read: siren noises blaring, hosing us down... eventually, they took the men away. I don't even know... it was like time lost all meaning... just like in dreams." Arthur laughed nervously. "When they came to get me, it was almost a relief.

"But then they put me in this room... I could see all of them. All the soldiers who'd fought with me. And then they asked me questions. That part wasn't too bad... It was painful, sure, but... They didn't want to really harm me. I was supposed to be used against him. Wouldn't happen if I was too badly hurt... I didn't say a word, so after a while, they started in on the men.

"It was worse. They didn't care if one of them died. I tried not to show any emotion, but I- I'm not good enough. One man they stabbed to death with pins. Another guy, it was nerve gas. He pleaded with me to make it stop. Another one was electrocuted. You know how much that smells? And all the way through, someone was whispering behind me: you're their leader, you'll have to stop the suffering eventually." His eyes were glazing over again.

"Arthur," said Ocelot quickly. "It's okay. Big Boss came and saved you, didn't he."

Arthur grunted a grudging agreement. "But not until three weeks had gone by. I don't even think he noticed anything was wrong. And by then it was too late."

"You'd given them what they wanted?" Arthur nodded. "What did they want?"

"Oh, you know, secrets," said Arthur evasively. "It doesn't matter what I told them, it matters that I opened my mouth at all."

"True enough," said Ocelot.

"The nightmare was basically that. The whisper. And then, somehow, it was you." Arthur laughed. "Imagine that. I thought you were the torturer... or is it the other way around?"

Ocelot nodded. "But, you know, I wasn't there," he stressed.

"Of course not." Arthur gave him a strained smile. "Well. Now you know about my nightmare. So how do you know his name?"

Ocelot smiled mercilessly.
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Brothers in Arms