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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.

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I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I'd do it with 10 or 15 and have absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action. - Fidel Castro

The war room was a very quiet place in the early morning at sunrise. Habil and his brother were the only ones who seemed to work at such times, though Big Boss knew they had to have other support staff in place to coordinate the Algeirs bombing mission.

There was, in fact evidence of these other support team members. Some of the maps had detailed supply line information between Russia and the base that Big Boss doubted a command level officer would deal with. Logistics teams could be worth their weight in gold, and whoever had drawn up the map had been good. Some of the maps themselves were hand drawn, which implied cartographers. Around the room, satellite transparencies were placed carefully over underlying maps, numerous details written on them, many with dates and times of patrols.

The three leaders of the base were leaning over one of the maps when Arthur came charging in. He concealed his initial grin as the scientist caught his breath, instead looking up from the map with a questioning look on his face.

"Th-there's a p-problem in the l-labs," Arthur said, speaking directly to Kayin. Big Boss allowed himself the smallest of frowns. This stuttering problem of Arthur's was unacceptable.

"What is it this time?" snapped Kayin, already pushing himself away from the central table and towards the scientist. Arthur backed away as the other man advanced, but not fast enough to stop Kayin from pushing him as he passed. Apparently, the lieutenant wasn't willing to wait for a report from one of his men; he stalked out the door with the obvious intention of visiting the labs before giving Arthur the chance to answer his question.

"Always a problem, isn't there," muttered Habil with a shake of his head.

Big Boss was torn: should he encourage Habil or reassure Arthur? Maybe he could accomplish both... "Arthur, what's the problem?"

"Someone's... someone's..." Arthur face pulled itself together, crumpling up. Big Boss allowed himself a deeper frown, then pushed himself away from the war maps.

"Arthur..." Big Boss smiled in what he hoped was a comforting manner. He didn't have much practice at it. Arthur backed a step away. Big Boss gave a small sigh. "Have some water, Arthur." He pulled the canteen from his side and held it out.

Arthur's face cleared as he looked at the water bottle. "I'm okay. Sorry." Big Boss reattached the canteen to his belt. "Someone sabotaged the equipment last night," he said quietly.

Big Boss noticed that Habil was watching this closely. Good. He'd told the man that leadership by example was important: perhaps Habil, unlike his brother, was willing to learn. Big Boss nodded to Arthur, his eye fixed firmly on the scientist's face while keeping Habil in the corner of his field of view. "How did you find out?"

"I... I do a sweep of the equipment. I know I'm not supposed to, but it's for safety," said Arthur, a pleading tone entering his voice.

"Safety is a good thing," agreed Big Boss carefully. Even safety usually wasn't enough to find sabotage though. He knew that from some of his previous attempts with setting up a research facility on his own. And it especially wasn't enough to find problems when the sabotage had been so carefully set up during the night while the guardsmen were paying attention to nothing but each other. "So is security. What did you find, Arthur, and how did you find it?" The scientist's eyes wandered about the room. "Finding the sabotage was a good thing, Arthur."

Arthur's eyes found Habil and stuck on the man, who was too busy watching Big Boss to notice and move out of Arthur's line of sight. Big Boss stepped between them. "What someone else did isn't your fault." Arthur looked down. Big Boss moved towards him. There was something there... maybe the man was trying to protect the people who looked to him for guidance. He'd seen the leadership before, why not now? "You're not betraying them, you know," he said in a low voice. "You're saving them by making the right decisions."

Arthur gave a small nod at that. "Right," he said quietly. Big Boss put his hand on the scientist's shoulder, and Arthur looked back up at him. "Right," he said in a more decisive tone. Big Boss gave Arthur another small, tight smile. "They stopped up the air vents, that's the most important part. If someone had done one of the experiments on the sulphides or the carbon, we might have had to evacuate the whole..." Arthur paused and Big Boss knew he was thinking about the connecting tunnels he wasn't supposed to know about. "The whole lab. If we didn't catch it fast enough, there could have been casualties."

"The things you're working with down there are that dangerous?"

Arthur shrugged. "I told you, this is a weapons research facility. We're not working on pacifying the enemy, we're working on more effective means of killing them."

"Ah, but who are the enemy, Arthur?" Big Boss said it too quietly for Habil to hear, but Arthur's eyes snapped up to him and he took a step backwards.

Habil walked a bit closer. "Sir, I recommend we visit the labs."

Big Boss turned to face Habil. "You don't think your brother is doing a good job either, do you Major? It's all right, you don't have to answer. Come on. Let's go see these vents."

Big Boss put a hand on Arthur's shoulder to pull him along with them, but Arthur shook it off and led them instead. The man was either leading or terrified, as though there was no middle ground. In control, or completely out of control... A bit unreliable, but Big Boss could break him of that. All he had to do was make Arthur feel like he always had some control over what he was doing.

Arthur's pace was brisk, especially once they got outside and the sun began beating down upon them. "The ointment help?" Big Boss murmured as they entered scientists' lab building.

Arthur gave a curt nod and a softened, grateful look. A guard detached himself from the entrance to accompany them through the hall. "The problems were in the main lab," said Arthur. "I'm sure Lieutenant K-kayin is already there."

As a matter of fact, the Lieutenant wasn't in the empty labs. Habil went to find his brother while Big Boss had Arthur show him the damage despite knowing exactly what it was. Really, the only thing he was surprised about was the extent that Arthur had found. He hadn't only found the damage to the ventilation systems. He'd noticed the substitutions of the chemical compounds, the decalibration of the scales, and, most impressive, the ceiling tiles that had been loosened.

"I couldn't let anyone start working with all these problems," said Arthur, worriedly glancing at the door. "But what I can't understand is why someone would do all this. They're putting us all in danger. What if someone had a reaction and needed to quickly cancel it out? The whole place could have gone up in smoke..."

"Well. Maybe one of your researchers wanted to have a vacation today? I suppose they all know you do this check of the facility."

"They don't. I never even told K-kayin. We're not supposed to be in here without the guards." He glanced at the one who had followed them into the room. "If I hadn't, we might all be dead."

Big Boss nodded calmly. "There's no reason safety should be compromised for security. They're both important. If you-"

Kayin stalked into the room, an almost murderous glare being leveled at Arthur. "I'm going to have to talk to everyone. Broke into my own office. Since you discovered it, you can be the first man interviewed."

Big Boss didn't like the look, but there was nothing he could say as Arthur looked at him hopefully. He shook his head minutely. With a dejected puff of air, Arthur nodded and looked back at Kayin. "Y-yes, s-sir," he all but whispered. He walked towards the Lieutenant with his feet dragging, glancing over his shoulder at Big Boss before following after the angry steps. The guard followed close behind him.

"I wonder," said Big Boss quietly, "who might have profited from destroying this mission? The security is your responsibility. His is just research, and it isn't going very well." Habil stared out the door. "You shouldn't let any Lieutenant ruin your chances of promotion, Major."

Habil didn't move for a while. Big Boss watched him. This was the trick to a lot of spying: knowing when not to say a word, knowing when to fade into the background, knowing when to believe that someone else would finish your work for you.

When Habil decided to speak, it just was a quick "Excuse me, sir," as he walked out the door. Big Boss followed him out, but where Habil turned towards the building exit, he turned towards Kayin's office.

He opened the door to find a disoriented Arthur Emmerich being held up by his lapels against the wall. The guard's fist was speeding towards the scientist's face. Big Boss reacted. He twisted the man's arm up and around, felt rather than heard the snap as the blood rushed in his ears, saw the angry, abortive motions that Kayin was making as Big Boss pushed the guard back against the desk.

"I was questioning him! Don't you want to find out who sabotaged us?"

"What I want is the truth, you idiotic excuse for an officer!"

"That's why I gave him sodium pentathol! Sir."

"Do you watch American movies, Comrade? How else could you have such a foolish thought? Truth serums don't work, that's why the KGB and the CIA are both looking for real drugs to force it, you moron. You may have convinced your other superiors to give you promotions to stay with your brother, but I will guarantee you that I am not so easily moved!"

Kayin bared his teeth. Big Boss stared at him, challenging him for an answer. "I am well within my duties." The tone was more than insubordinate.

Big Boss' mouth turned up into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "And now, you are relieved, Lieutenant. I hope you will think twice from now on when speaking to superiors." Kayin's eyes narrowed, and he glanced at the fallen guard. "Dismissed."

Kayin shook his head, his mouth pulling into a scowl before he stood up, knocking his chair over behind him. "This isn't over. Sir." He gave a mocking salute. Big Boss watched him leave with no little distaste.

"You," he said, turning his attention to the guard, who still hadn't picked himself up off the floor. "You aren't responsible. You can get yourself to a doctor." The man still didn't move from his place on the floor. "Now." The guard scrambled to his feet, clutching his arm to his chest, then ran out the door.

Big Boss let out a breath and closed his eye while he tried to calm himself. "Boss?" Big Boss turned and watched as Arthur pushed himself up the wall. "Is everything okay?"

Big Boss turned around. "Yes. Things are fine. Are you all right, Arthur?"

"I'm okay..." He shook his head. "He didn't use much. And I was so keyed up that it's probably just calming me down."

Big Boss' eye ran over Arthur. His hair, which likely hadn't seen scissors since being sent to this base, was covering parts of his face. His eyes were dull and glassy, most likely from the effects of the truth drug. His arms hung loosely at his sides, and he truly was propping himself up against the wall. Oh, what he wouldn't give to know the extent of injuries Arthur had suffered under the command of that sterling example of military intelligence. "Can you walk by yourself, Arthur?"

Arthur shrugged and pushed himself away from the wall. Big Boss hurried to catch him before he fell. "Don't push yourself like that, Arthur."

Arthur looked up at him, his eyes blinking slowly. "I knew you'd catch me if I couldn't. I still don't know why." Big Boss looked at the scientist incredulously for a moment before he slung the other man's arm over his shoulder and started moving them out of Kayin's office. "This'll wear off pretty soon. I know more about sodium thiopental than he does."

Big Boss nodded and kept them moving towards Arthur's office. It was time for them to have another chat, and this time he wanted it to be on Arthur's home turf, somewhere he'd feel free to tell the unvarnished truth. His office was probably the closest they were going to get to that kind of place.

Once he had Arthur settled in his chair and had taken his own seat on the desk, he decided that some small talk would work best to get Arthur comfortable. He took one of the pictures from the desk. It was very familiar. "Who's this, Arthur?"

"Alek. Aleksandr Granin, I mean. He was a great man. He had the Order of Lenin, you know. He was..." Arthur took the picture. "He was a great man. I never found him," he said, more to the picture than to Big Boss. "Not even a grave."

"How did you know him?"

"We worked on things together. I know what you're thinking: an American and a Russian working together in weapons research? Well, we did. We had some great ideas." Arthur put the photograph down carefully beside Big Boss.

"What country would have had the benefit of those weapons?"

"Country...? Well, I don't know. It's more about the science."

Big Boss nodded slowly. Arthur, quite obviously, didn't think about the consequences of the science. "Do you know why you're here, Arthur?"

Arthur shrugged. "I was pretty stupid. I didn't get anything from Alek for... a while. We'd made some arrangements. You know, a meet in Geneva sort of thing, in case anything ever went wrong. He didn't come, and I didn't get any word from him. Years went by, and I got a note from him, from one of our mutual contacts. It said he'd been having troubles in Russia; he hadn't been able to get word out of the country because they thought he had too much contact with the West... I guess it was pretty stupid, but I thought I could help him out."

"When did you get this note?"

"Three years ago." Big Boss filed this away for reference. Granin had been dead for longer than that. "It took me half a year to plan getting into Russia. I wanted a way back out, after all. I thought I had it all planned. But when I got in, I couldn't find anyone who was willing to talk to me about Alek. And then, one night when I was in my hotel room... well, the end result was winding up here."

Big Boss gave Arthur a hard look. "Arthur, that's how you got here. It's not why. You're here because no one knows where you fit."

"What does that mean?" Arthur looked up at Big Boss' eye.

"Your citizenship says you're from America, but they don't trust you, Arthur. Because you have strong ties to Russia. That's dangerous. When you went to Russia, they didn't know what to do with you either. You aren't Russian, you're an American, and a weapons designer at that. So they brought you here. And that's not even considering Berlin and the claims the Germans have made on you."

"You're joking."

"I'm not. You're in a potentially dangerous situation, Arthur. Where do your loyalties lie?"

Arthur looked a little bit lost. "Why should it matter? I'm a scientist, not an ethicist."

"If you were working for me, would you sell everything to the Germans?"

"Of course not! You-" Arthur sat back in his chair and took the photograph off the desk again. "You're a lot alike. He worried all the time about who was going to get the technology, what was going to be done with it... He wanted the credit, but he didn't want just Russia to get it." Arthur put the photo back on the desk, face down. "The thing is, though... I don't see why the people who are paying for the weapons shouldn't be able to use them. It's about science and progress. And the whole world goes to the highest bidder. What's so wrong with that?"

"You're saying you're not loyal to anyone."

"Well, not to a country. Why should I be?"

Big Boss nodded slowly. "So what you need is a reason?"

"There's no reason for blind loyalty. You should always use your brain."

Big Boss considered this for a moment. The truth was, Arthur had displayed blind loyalty just a moment ago. Did he not see them as being the same thing? "You knew I would catch you, Arthur. How did you know?"

"You just broke a man's arm for me, faced down Kayin..."

"Those aren't things you got yourself into by being an idiot, Arthur. How did you know I'd catch you when you did that to yourself?"

"I just... You've got this... thing about you. I can't help but believe in you."

Big Boss smiled sadly. "Lots of people say that. Belief is a powerful thing, you know that? Some people inspire it just by existing." It was the same way with good countries. You protected them, and they protected you. They didn't betray you, leave you to become a war criminal for doing your duty... "Would you do something for me if I asked you to do it?"

"Yes," said Arthur, the hesitation audible.

"Why?"

"You're... special." His eyes, completely clear now, dropped. "You don't leave people on their own, you help them... you..."

"I'm loyal in return." Big Boss stood. "Germany, Russia, America... they all want you, Arthur. America thinks you're a traitor, and you are one. Russia thinks you're loyal to America, and it doesn't matter that Mother Russia is wrong. Germany doesn't know what you are, but they want you returned. What do you want, Arthur?"

"I don't..." Arthur looked around his office. "I just want..."

"I can protect you from them, Arthur. But to do it, I need your loyalty." Arthur stared at his sunburned hands, his face awash with confusion. "Think about it, then," said Big Boss. "I won't push you. But I'll protect you and I'll protect the people you're loyal to. You might not see it as loyalty, but I see it in your eyes. You're loyal to the people below you. That's the mark of a good man and a good officer."

"I'm not military," said Arthur sharply.

Big Boss smiled. "You may not know how to kill like I do. Your father might not have been a traditional soldier. But you grew up in it just like I did, and you still know how to kill." Big Boss walked to the door of the office. He threw the last line over his shoulder almost casually. "If you have any more trouble with the Lieutenant, you tell me. Got it?"

Arthur nodded.

Big Boss closed the door.

Author's Notes

Did you know... all the titles in this story are taken from music?

Thank you to those who gave responses. Everyone else who reads and doesn't review... shame on you for not feeding the author!
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Brothers in Arms