Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sunny had always been an unusual child.

Even as an infant she was typically quiet and subdued, seemingly content to silently watch everything with her large brown eyes. She was hardly fussy and while Hal didn't know much about babies Sunny's almost solemn air concerned him at times. Dave seemed less bothered by Sunny's behaviour, pointing out they still didn't know the extent to which the Patriots had experimented on her and even as an infant she could've been aware enough to be traumatized from the process.

Hal hadn't liked that one bit.

Bad enough the Patriots had done something as abhorrent as hold a baby hostage but the idea they'd traumatized the little girl was more than he could stand. Because of that Hal devoted large amounts of his time just being with Sunny, reading her books despite still being too young to speak or singing songs to her. He was a slide shade off tone deaf but Sunny seemed to be fascinated by them. Dave was less involved but Hal knew the soldier had even less idea about what to do with a baby than he did.

So the two awkwardly fumbled their way through caring for an infant and a part of Hal deeply relished the experience despite all the crying, sleeplessness and foray into dirty diaper changing. Sunny had remarkably strong lungs as a baby and her screaming sometimes made his ears ring when she wouldn't calm down. While it was incredibly rare for her to throw such livid tantrums, as she would usually just whimper or cry silently, when she did throw a tantrum she made sure everyone knew about it. Whenever she worked herself up into that state- just a small bundle of shrieking indignation -Hal would foist her off to Dave, even though the super soldier had more sensitive hearing than he did. But he seemed to be the one out of the two of them who could calm Sunny down from her tantrums when she was like that, even if all he seemed to do was carefully rock her back and forth while stoking her face and mumbling to the infant under his breath in his gravely voice. Sunny would usually scream a few more times before quieting down and falling quickly into slumber, tiny face streaked with tears.

Once Hal came across the two, Dave slumped back against a wall fast asleep and snoring with Sunny snuggled up against his chest and throat, her silver hair sticking up in tuffs above her pink baby blanket. The whole thing was intently domestic and something had seized Hal's heart with such intense feelings he couldn't breath momentarily. He was also struck with how lucky he was to be there and so immensely grateful to be able to see such a thing. He really wouldn't have seen his life turn to such a thing if someone had said so a decade ago but with that all said and done he was so grateful for everything- even all the suffering and hardships -that enabled him to be witness to it.

Dave didn't understand why Hal seemed almost fragile and overly emotional for the next week and Sunny was still too young to comprehend so he just waved off the soldier's concern.

But as time progressed and Sunny slowly grew from a baby to a toddler Hal began to notice that, along with being solemn, Sunny was extremely easily distracted.

Hal could still remember the first time she did it; it was when the girl wasn't even two years old, the anniversary of the Big Shell incident marching by, and Hal was showing her a fat soft toy of pikachu. The little girl seemed fond of the electric mouse and was giggling along with Hal's fairly bad impression of the pokemon voices when she suddenly stopped, expression shifting into one of comical surprise as she fixed her large brown eyes onto a spot next to his shoulder. Hal turned around, expecting Dave to be standing there but instead there was just empty space. Hal tried to reengage Sunny's interest but whatever the child saw, it was clearly ensnaring her interest and she refused to look away.

After that it became extremely common for Sunny to abruptly loose interest in both him and Dave, instead her eyes would suddenly slide past them and focus on something else or she'd cock her head to the side as if she was listening to something they couldn't hear. Once Hal heard Sunny giggling and when he went into her room he saw the girl sitting upright in the crib, playfully swatting at the air.

Like with Sunny's usual withdraw demeanor Dave wasn't bothered. Hal was more worried, internally fretting that Sunny could have psychosis or hallucinations brought on by her time as a test subject but Dave just snorted when Hal tried to talk to him about it. 'Either it will become a problem or she just likes staring at walls' was all the soldier would say. Hal was still unsure, but then again neither of them had any real gauge of how to be 'normal' so as long as Sunny didn't seem adversely affected, Hal didn't worry.

Much.

Sunny said her first word just a few weeks after her second birthday. All three had been in the living room of one of their many safe houses, with Dave absentmindedly reading through an old magazine, looking immensely bored, while Hal typed away on his computer. Sunny was sitting in the middle of the floor, on the plush carpet and playing with some building blocks when she suddenly stopped and made an odd noise which caused the two to look at her. With uncertain movements Sunny stood up, tottering in place before stumbling towards Dave who immediately tossed aside the magazine to reach out and steady her.

As soon as she reached the soldier and gripped his calloused hands with her small ones she looked up at him and suddenly spoke her first words, just a short 'Dobrý den!' in her sweet voice and leaving the two staring at her in shock as she smiled clueless.

It wasn't English.

It was Czechoslovakian.

"It's her first word, Hal. I figured you'd be over the moon with it."

"I'm- I mean, I am but what language was that again? Polish?"

"Czech."

"Okay Czech. How does she even know that? Why did she say that?"

"Maybe she messed up saying something else, you keep on reading her weird stuff."

"It wasn't a made up word, Dave. You said it yourself."

"She basically just said good day, or hello; it's a common greeting."

"It was in another language."

"So? She's smart, she'll probably end up bilingual."

"Dave, do you even know Czechoslovakian? Did you speak to her in any other language besides English?"

"..."

"So you don't."

"I know enough."

"But have you ever spoken it around Sunny?"

"...No."

"So what happened then? How does she know it?"

"For all we know one of the scientists who messed with her was Czechoslovakian or Russian or something, and so spoke that language around her. Imprinted on her, or something. I don't know. Doesn't seem a big deal to me."

"Her first words were in a different language."

"Yeah and you're acting as if it's some terrible omen."

"Well um..."

"It's not that big of a deal, Hal. Just let it go,"

"...Fine. But I still want to talk to Sunny about it."

"She's two years old."

"That doesn't matter. I still want to talk to her."

"Ugh."

Of course, trying to get information out of a two year old- even if said two year old was very intelligent -was a failure from the start. The girl just got confused and upset which caused her to withdraw into herself so after some more heated debates Dave convinced Hal to just let it go. Hal was frustrated, but considering Sunny's shyness and gentle nature he guessed she was picking up on his mood which in turn distressed her. After that Hal finally gave up, not wanting to upset the toddler any further.

It was still fairly odd though.

Then again, Hal read some articles where people woke up from comas and could perfectly speak a language they'd never known before so Sunny's random language skills could be a side effect from her time with the Patriots. After all, the human mind was a complex thing and an enigma at best. Hal was an engineer with machinery and Metal Gear, he didn't know the first thing about how brains can shift under trauma and experimentation.

Hal hated the Patriots.

But after that Hal put more effort into teaching Sunny English. It became apparent that Sunny already understood a frightening amount for an infant, she was just oddly reluctant to talk. It took Hal nearly a week to realize that Sunny had a stutter and she was somehow self-aware enough to become upset whenever she messed up a word from it. For a girl just over two years old to be aware of such a thing was a little unsettling for Hal, especially since he knew he and Dave made sure that Sunny never felt threatened or pressured over anything but she was still self conscious somehow. Then again, it could just be a Patriots thing again, with her having such an advanced mind even if it seemed her shyness meant she didn't feel comfortable fully showing it.

He heard her practicing on her own more often than not when the two of them were busy however, with her using colourful cards labeled with names of the brightly drawn objects. The little girl was so smart and Hal was felt so proud when she first asked in, in slow hesitant tones, if he was having a good day. It was the first full sentence in English she'd spoken and Hal spent the rest of the night geeking out over it.

Dave tried to hide it behind a stoic face but Hal knew he also felt proud of Sunny.

After those first two incidents Sunny's speaking skills grew in leaps and bounds even if she still retained a persistent stutter. Her English vocabulary quickly expanded and to both their bemusement she still retained the ability to speak Czechoslovakian and- weirdly enough -some scatterings of Russian. That last one seemed almost normal after some contemplation from Hal, as he remembered that Sunny's mother, Olga, had been Russian. He was unsure of the time frame that followed Sunny's birth and her being stolen from Olga, so he didn't know how long Sunny's exposure to her mother's tongue was but after some thought he asked Dave to teach Sunny more Russian, to which the soldier agreed. Dave tried to fob it off as a way to alleviate his boredom as they bounced around missions but Hal knew he wanted to spend more time with the girl, it's just the clone was even more socially inept than both Hal and Sunny. Hal thought it was sweet.

Still, Sunny's odd behaviour continued. Once he walked past her room to find the girl sitting on the floor and slowly reading from a picture book, voice clear and steady. However this time she wasn't speaking in English and unlike Dave Hal wasn't well versed in other languages- well, he knew enough Japanese by ear but he couldn't really speak it. Curious, Hal hovered near the doorway just out of sight, listening to the girl as she spoke. The words, even if he didn't understand them, were done with obvious hesitance and he could hear her stop at one point before repeating a word several times until she apparently got it right.

Was Dave in there with her?

Curious, he fully pushed open the door and Sunny immediately stopped talking, blinking up at him from where she was sitting on the floor surrounded by colourful cards and picture books.

"Sunny?" Hal's voice was gentle as he approached and sat down next to the girl. She twitched slightly, wide brown eyes shifting back to the page with a picture of a cartoon dog sniffing a smiling flower. Hal lightly touched her small shoulder, asking, "Sunny, were you practicing talking?"

She nodded, "Y-yes, I was reading and saying t-the words."

"But they weren't in English?"

The girl averted her gaze from him, "N-no. I was talking as w-well."

"Talking to who?"

I'm talking..." she started slow, voice so quiet he could barely hear her before she swallowed and looked up at him. Her features were still round from baby fat and her silver hair hung around her face like a fluffy halo.

After a moment of persistent silence Hal cleared his throat and gave Sunny what he hoped was an encouraging smile, "It's alright Sunny, I won't be mad."

"I'm t-talking to my friend. He t-talks to me in that l-language sometimes," the word sounded odd coming from such a young girl.

Hal blinked, "A friend?"

"Yes, h-he's standing over t-there," Sunny's voice was still feather-soft and Hal glanced inquisitively at the corner she was pointing at; it was empty, with only a worn desk and rubbish bin sitting there.

"Are you sure? I can't see anyone."

"Y-you really can't see him?" Sunny asked, the two year old blinking curiously.

"No, but I guess that means you've very special if you can," Hal smiled at her. An imaginary friend, he thought. It made sense, in a sad way; due to their nomadic lifestyle Sunny couldn't make friends with anyone due to their extreme caution in meeting anyone else from the outside; even contact with civilians was kept minimal, just in case. Of course even while barely more than an infant Sunny was lonely enough she decided to make up an imaginary friend to keep her company due to their constant moving and forced subterfuge.

Hal swallowed down the apology that lodged itself into his throat, suddenly realizing just how isolated Sunny would grow up; they couldn't risk letting her live a 'normal' life, at least not while the Patriots were out there. Once they finally dealt with the Patriots Sunny would be safe but until then she was in too much danger for them to let her socialize in the way every child should get the opportunity to do so.

A small hand grabbed onto Hal's, dragging him from his broody thoughts and Sunny smile up at him, showing an assortment of small teeth and pink gums as she said, "It's o-okay, he'll k-keep me company when you and uncle Dave are b-busy."

Wincing Hal said, "I'm sorry Sunny, we don't mean to-"

"You're busy," Sunny interrupted, her brown eyes filled with far too much knowing for one so young, "To s-stop the bad guys from hurting us. From h-hurting me."

"...Yes," the conversation seemed too dark to have with a two year old, even if the child in question was immensely intelligent so he just nodded before squeezing her fingers gently as he said, "Alright, so what's your new friends name?"

It was a blatant change of conversation and Sunny paused, lips forming a thin line as she thought it over before shaking her head, "He hasn't t-told me yet."

"Oh? He's shy?"

"N-no, he talk's a lot. But won't tell me his n-name."

Hal snorted before tickling Sunny, causing the small girl to let out a shriek before bursting into giggles.

"S-Stop it! I'm trying to remember all these w-words!" Sunny yelped, squirming out of Hal's reach and giggling as she wriggled about on the ground.

"Oh, so you were just talking up your friend hmm?"

"No! H-He's funny, his voice i-is so scratchy and h-high pitched," Sunny said, all gap-toothed smile and messy hair, "T-That's why he doesn't mind my s-stutter. He says if people mock me I s-should throw stuff at t-them. And other m-mean things."

Hal quickly stifled a laugh with his hand, struggling to suppress his mirth; however the mental image of a tiny Sunny yelling and hurling things at people who've insulted her was too hilarious for him not to. Sunny pouted and reached out to tap a tiny finger on the page of her picture book. Hal quickly took the hint, scooting closer to her and tugging the small girl up on his lap before picking up the book.

"So, how about we give your friend a break from tutoring and I can help you?"

Sunny beamed up at him, "Okay!"

After that, incidents involving Sunny's friend quickly grew. Hal came across more times where Sunny would be talking to thin air and her language skills increased in leaps and bounds. Her stutter remained but Hal wasn't too bothered- it was like REX's radar dome, just a little character flaw. Her involvement with her 'friend' however grew to the point that she would engage in conversation with them whenever she thought Dave and Hal weren't around.

Dave didn't seem to care that much, stating that an imaginary friend was another one of the more harmless things Sunny could conjure in her spare time.

After some thought Hal had to agree with him. Sunny had social needs neither Hal nor Dave could fulfill so an imaginary friend could simply be Sunny's way of coping with the isolation of her upbringing. Honestly he preferred a friend over her gaining depression from their recluse lifestyle.

While she was chatting to her friend when she wasn't aware that Dave or Hal were around, trying to grill her on information about said friend was quite a different story, however. Sunny still refused to name him and Hal's attempts to get her to elaborate about him more usually hit a wall but he wasn't deterred. While Sunny had no qualms about bragging about her friend she was evasive about who or even what he was.

It wasn't until Sunny was four that Hal learned a little bit more about her elusive 'friend'.

Shortly after Sunny's fourth birthday the trio were hiding in Florida, tracking a lead on supposed Metal Gear activity after a tip off from Natasha. After spending two hours messaging Mei Ling and trying sort through various rumours and speculations surrounding the supposed Metal Gear they were tracking, Hal switched off his laptop and went hunting for Sunny, since he already knew Snake was holed up in his room cleaning his various weapons in preparation for the upcoming mission.

After some looking he found Sunny in the small office room, sprawled out on her front with a box of crayons and colourful drawings. The little girl looked up when Hal poked his head around the door and smiled at him, to which he returned before entering the room.

"So what are you making pictures of?" Hal settled down next to Sunny, taking care not to accidentally sit on any of her drawings.

"Of different s-stuff and my friend," Sunny said, not looking up from where she was determinedly colouring in a sun with a smiley face.

Hal hummed, trying not to seem overly eager as he carefully shuffled through the many sheets of paper littered across the floor. There were quite a few pictures of himself and Dave, along with Sunny and various cameos of assorted animals but to his surprise there were quite a few pictures of two people he didn't recognize. Hal picked up one of sheets of paper, noting it depicted two children holding hands. Despite that it looked as if the background was on fire and one of the boys had a very exaggerated scowl drawn on his face. Hal squinted slight, studying the crayon drawing; one looked normal enough, with peach skin and yellow hair, along with wearing what looked like army fatigues that was carefully coloured in a camouflage pattern. The other boy was dressed all in black with bright red hair and a strangely scarred face.

"Are these two your friends?" Hal asked, putting the picture down. Sunny had always been cagey about describing her 'friend' to the point he was partially convinced he'd been some strange animal creature instead. He'd read up on some previous stories of people who'd posted online what their children had described what their imaginary friends looked like and some were profoundly odd or even nightmarish. He was unsure if he was pleased or slightly disappointed that they were humanoid.

Sunny answered him after a beat of silence, "No. Um, w-well I mean one of them is, b-but the other is his friend. And it was l-long ago, when he was just t-ten."

Hal was a little bit impressed to Sunny's dedication to making up a history for her imaginary friend as he guessed she had some time to spare and building up a story including what seemed like a tragic history wasn't that farfetched since despite her age Sunny wasn't oblivious to the very real threat of the Patriots out there.

"Have they got names?"

"Yes, but it's a s-secret," Sunny said seriously, "So I'm not allowed to t-tell anyone else. It's just us t-two. He made me promise."

"So your friend trusts you a lot?" Hal was fairly curious about Sunny's imaginary friend, especially since she suddenly seemed more willing to speak about him.

Sunny paused in colouring what looked like a giant flaming whale, her expression thoughtful. After a moment of considering silence, and she said "I'm not so sure. I think he's unhappy I'm t-the only one he can to talk to, but now he knows I'm the only one who can see him so I'm the only o-one who can l-listen. He likes to t-talk and...I think he's l-lonely even if he'd never say s-so."

"A chatter box, then?"

The girl nodded, silver hair bouncing up and down, "Yes. He t-talks a lot. I don't always understand it but I like his company. He's...kinda r-rude but he pays attention t-to me and tells me stories about when he was alive."

"He's a ghost?"

"Yes, he died. He got shot t-to death."

"Oh. That's um, unfortunate," Hal said awkwardly, unsure what to say. Sunny knew about guns, since how couldn't she considering the arsenal Dave lugged around with him but they made sure to take extreme cautious with it and to stress to Sunny how guns were not toys and she was never to touch them. But because of that she knew how dangerous they were and a part of Hal was saddened that she'd integrated the violence of guns into her imaginary friend.

"Oh! And I d-drew a Metal Gear my friend told me about!" Sunny leaned over and carefully sorted through the drawings before pulling out an A3 sheet paper and holding it up to Hal. Unlike any Metal Gear Hal had studied or heard about the one Sunny had drawn was standing upright and was holding a long, flaming sword in its hand.

The design seemed eerily reminiscence of REX, just with the general shape of the thick wedge head and powerful legs. Hal felt goosebumps ripple down his spine as he eyed the picture of the Metal Gear, at the oddly specific details the girl had added to it; it even had chain-guns attached to the throat and what looked like a massive rail gun jutting up from one bulky shoulder. A tiny smudge hovered in the air above the tip of the rail gun and Hal squinted, unsure of what it was before he went back to studying the whole picture.

"I...that's amazing, Sunny," Hal managed to say after a beat of silence.

She smiled, "Thanks! I gave it a sword, so it's l-like a shining knight. My friend said it was a w-whip but I like the idea of a s-sword better."

"Does it have a name? Your Metal Gear, I mean," he was quite proud he managed to keep his nervousness out of his voice.

"I mean, it's not really mine but it's name is Sah-" Sunny abruptly went silent, wincing slightly.

He waited for a few moments but the girl made no effort to continue so Hal reached out and gently touched her shoulder, "Sunny?"

"S-sorry," Sunny gave him a smile but it was weak, "My friend just g-got angry. I wasn't supposed to tell you its name."

That sounded strange so Hal asked, "Does your friend get angry with you often? Is he here?"

"Well, it's not like he gets shouty-angry," Sunny said, frowning down at her half finished picture, "He just gets all...h-huffy or sarcastic-mean, t-then he won't talk to me."

He gives her the silent treatment? Hal inwardly thought, baffled. He wasn't too sure if imaginary friends were supposed to fight with their creator, much less ignore them. Or it could potentially be Sunny 'punishing' herself for breaking a promise she made to herself. She did favour loyalty fiercely, despite being so young.

"Does he forgive you, though? If you say sorry."

Sunny nodded, "He s-said he makes a...allowances for me, because I d-don't know better. But he says I can only make a-a mistake once, then not do it again. Because he says I'm s-smart, a lot smarter than lots of a-adults so I shouldn't do s-stupid things," a strange note of pride entered her voice at the end of the sentence, at odd with her young cherubic face.

Hal swallowed a tinge of unease, inwardly reasoning confidence was better than a battered, beaten self image- something he himself had suffered through his youth and adolescence and still would feel painful echoes of throughout adulthood. However hearing a four year old call herself stupid, or at least some of her own actions, was concerning. She was four, barely more than a baby despite the maturity her innate intelligence. She shouldn't be saying such things, instead just drawing her pictures in peace and playing with snails in the garden or making mud pies like normal children did. Then again, she never should have been stolen from her mother in the first place to be used as blackmail and experimented on by a group of immoral people with disgusting ethics. She, of all people, deserved a normal life but like so many the Patriots stole that chance.

"Sunny," Hal's voice was serious enough Sunny paused in her new picture- a flaming unicorn -to blink up at him.

He leaned down so he was eye level with her, expression earnest, "I want you to know, no matter what your friend says, you're a wonderful person and I'm so proud that I've met you. Even though you're still four, I just know you're going to grow up into someone who'll change the world," it felt almost preachy but Hal felt the overwhelming need to say it, still so profoundly grateful to have Sunny and Snake in his life.

Sunny blushed, face going a boiling scarlet, before turning her attention back to her picture which hid her face from view but Hal could see her ears were bright red.

"Sunny, you understand what I mean don't you?"

"Yes, uncle H-Hal. I know," Sunny mumbled, soft voice flustered even as her tiny fingers clenched around the orange crayon, frozen in the middle of adding wings to her flaming unicorn.

He gently rubbed her shoulder, before rising and leaving the room.

Hal ended up putting the picture of Sunny's Metal Gear up on the fridge. It was a moot point, considering how often they moved so he'd had to tear it down in a few days, but there was something endearingly domestic about the whole thing. And while the overall design gave him a weird sense of unease, it was very good for a four year old and he knew Sunny was proud of it as he caught her smiling at the picture every time she walked past it.

Dave remarked that a four year old somehow made a cooler Metal Gear design than a self-professed otaku and Hal should rethink his hobbies or at least let Sunny take charge of picking the anime they watched from now on.

Hal hit him with a wooden spoon.

In one of the safehouses they lived in for a few weeks Sunny found a box of old toys in the attic, mainly Barbies and a very old and chewed up Furby. Sunny wasn't interested much in the old Furby but she did seem rather fascinated by the various Barbies. It was fairly cute and held a level of normalcy to see Sunny playing with the dolls in the living room, changing her voice pitch to match various characters and positioning their stiff limbs as she played house. However the next day the Barbies were all gone barring one and Hal, bemused, asked Sunny about them but the girl simply stated they'd gotten 'punished for i-insubordination'.

Later Hal found the decapitated bodies of the Barbies in one of the drawers in the kitchen, the bodies wrapped up in brightly coloured napkins and laid in neat rows. The heads he found in the bathroom, solely lining the windowsill. Sunny had made sure to keep their hair was neat and faces glossy but Hal found the severed head's sightless staring when he was trying to brush his teeth immensely disconcerting. He attempted to talk it over with Sunny, but that didn't get too far

"Sunny, are you- are you alright?"

The girl blinked, "Yes. w-why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of the um, you know what never mind."

One sunny afternoon Hal found Sunny sitting in her makeshift room in their new safehouse in Ecuador, having a small tea party. The table was covered with a brightly coloured cloth and several saucers, cups and a warm tea pot were resting on top. The four year old was holding court for the various stuffed animals and a few empty chairs, speaking in overly exaggerated tones as she poured a cup of tea for a teddy bear with missing eyes.

Hal, feeling worn out from a night toiling through various coding with Mei Ling, relaxed when he saw her playing with the toys. It was a nice break from all the paranoia fueled code-breaking and dealing with various agents from shady businesses sniffing around their safe houses. He rapped his knuckles on the door frame, smiling back at Sunny when she beamed at him.

"Uncle Hal! Do you w-want some t-tea?" the girl asked, raising her half empty cup.

"That sounds wonderful. Now that you mention it, I could do with some tea," Hal said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him. He made his way to the table, intending to sit in the empty chair opposite Sunny only for her to immediately let out a cry of protest.

"N-no! Don't sit there! That's my friend's spot," Sunny said, half raising from her seat and flapping her hands.

Hal immediately stopped with a, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know your friend was sitting there," before he settled down on the empty chair on the left.

"It's okay, he just doesn't like p-people touching him," Sunny's voice dropped to a stage whisper, "He gets c-cranky and breaks stuff when he's mad and uses bad words."

"Ah, my apologies then," Hal said, turning to the chair next to him; he felt a little weird apologizing to thin air but Sunny's smile made it worth it.

Sunny nodded, still looking pleased before carefully tipping the teapot and filling one of the empty cups near her elbow. Mindful not to spill it, Sunny carefully balanced it on a chipped saucer and offered the cup to Hal, who took it just as gently.

"Did Snake help you make the tea?"

"No, my friend helped m-me. It um, took really long and I might've broken some stuff in the k-kitchen," Sunny said, suddenly looking immensely guilty.

"Sunny, you shouldn't be playing with hot water- you're not even five yet. You could burn yourself."

"My friend will s-stop that," Sunny insisted, "He's cranky a lot b-but he says if I die he'll go mad from b-boredom so he keeps an eye on me."

"Sunny..." Hal grimaced, unsure on how to push it. He didn't exactly want himself saying he didn't believe in Sunny's friend, as he had little doubt that would upset the girl, but he didn't like the idea of her playing around with hot water.

"I'm careful!"

With a sigh Hal let the topic go, sipping from his cup of lukewarm tea instead of further arguing. Hal was was well used to gulping down cold coffee when he worked through nights so he bore it without any real complaint. Instead he quietly drank the tea, watching as Sunny cooed to the raggy elephant toy sitting to her right before directing her attention back to her imaginary friend, asking them if they wanted more tea. Judging by the annoyed huff she let out after a moment they'd declined.

"But anyway, how is your friend? Um, I mean, how are you?" Hal directed that last sentence to the empty chair next to him.

Sunny blinked, taking a gulp from her own cup as she gazed intently at the empty space above the chair before bursting into giggles, "He's okay, but he's annoyed you're h-here."

"He doesn't like me?"

"Um, not really. B-but don't take it personally, he doesn't really like anyone. He also really hates uncle Dave but he won't t-tell me why."

"Oh. He hates me?"

"No, not like that- he doesn't like you but he h-hates uncle Dave. He um, he just said you're stupid and n-naive and it annoys him."

Hal blinked, glancing at the empty seat next to him again and half expecting to see some humanoid spirit glaring death at him. Hal took another sip of his tea before jokingly saying, "Well if he hates Dave so much I'm a bit surprised he hasn't tried bashing Snake's head in."

"He's t-tried before and it d-doesn't work."

Hal started giggling, struggling to contain his mirth at the idea of Sunny's irate friend ineffectively punching Solid whenever they crossed paths. If there was one thing Dave wouldn't know how to fight Hal guessed it would be an angry imaginary friend. Well that, and ghosts. Hal paused in the middle of another sip of tea, suddenly wondering if her friend was inspired by ghost stories. Her friend had, after all, been murdered or at least shot so she could potentially be basing him off ghosts.

"Well uh, I would appreciated it if he didn't murder me," Hal finally settled for.

Sunny nodded seriously, saying, "I t-told him off when he did that. So he finally agreed to stop b-because if you t-two died I would die and then he said he'd be bored back t-to death again."

"Sunny!"

The girl looked confused, "It's t-true though, isn't it?"

"Well uh, well yes it is but you shouldn't be thinking about things like that."

"I'm nearly f-five."

"Exactly!" Hal said, "You're far too young to be thinking about those things."

Sunny gave him a look that aged her beyond years, wide brown eyes serious and calm, "But it's true."

He grimaced in response to her tone, "I know but you shouldn't..."

"I know," her voice grew softer, gaze darting down to her mug of lukewarm tea, "But I have t-to. Maybe when we deal with those bad guys I won't need to. But until then I will be w-watchful."

Blinking rapidly to dispel the sudden blur of tears Hal forced a smile onto his face, "We'll find a way to deal with the Patriots, Sunny. We'll find a way to stop them."

The girl nodded seriously, "Good, they need to be s-stopped. They hurt lots of innocent people."

"So um, more tea please?"

It was a blatant change of conversation but Sunny smiled all the same as she poured him another cup.

The next day resulted in a fallout between the two and Hal was once again baffled at to how Sunny would fight with a figment of her imagination. Or potentially she was creating an outlet for her own anger, to spare Hal and Dave from being targeted with it. Either way, when Hal was passing by Sunny's makeshift room he heard the girl's voice, raised and tense. Hal paused, awkwardly balancing a messy pile of paper in his arms and tentatively inched closer to the shut door, head cocked to the side as he listened intently to Sunny's one sided argument.

"I mean, I don't k-know. It seems...mean."

There was a shuffling sound and Sunny sniffed before saying, shock in her voice, "How can you say that? P-people don't deserve it," another sniff, followed by her muttering, "Why are you saying that? People aren't evil and w-we need to protect them, fight the Patriots. N-not all are bad."

A sharp inhale followed by a soft thump, like a book dropping on the floor, and Sunny made an angry noise like an agitated puppy, "Stop it, you're being c-cruel."

Hal leaned slightly against the door, listening as Sunny continued to lecture her imaginary friend, voice still soft and angry.

"No," Sunny's voice grew even lower, almost a hiss, "You're being mean and I d-don't like it. I'm not talking to you."

A strange grinding noise came from the room, like wood on the verge of breaking before Hal suddenly shivered, the air seemingly getting colder for no reason at all.

Then Sunny spoke, "You can come in, uncle Hal."

With a curse Hal jolted, banging his forehead on the door and nearly dropping all the paper he was clutching against his chest. Awkwardly he fumbled at the door handle before managing to stumbling into the room. Sunny was sitting on the worn mattress in the corner, blankets piled around her. Hal hesitated a moment before carefully putting the pile of papers on the dusty floor and approaching her. The girl tried to smile but it was marred by the tears swimming thick in her eyes and the white-knuckled grip she had on the blankets.

"You alright?" Hal asked, voice gentle.

As soon as he said that, the girl's brave face crumbled and she started crying. Instantly Hal reached out for her but she shielded away, rolling up in her blankets until she was facing the wall and started crying, a small sad bundle.

"What happened? I heard you arguing," Hal tried again, "Did something go wrong?"

Sunny sobbed, "We yelled at each o-other."

"Who did?"

"Me and m-my friend."

Ah, Hal thought, confirming his assumptions, her imaginary friend again.. Aloud he said, "What did you two argue about?"

She sniffed unhappily, "It was about people- about the i-innocents."

Hal nodded, trying to mutely encourage her to continue only to belatedly remember she wouldn't be able to see his face from her current angle.

"What did he say? Is he angry about something we did to someone? To a civilian, or something?"

"No, t-that's why we were arguing. We need to protect the innocents, to stop any u-undue harm," Sunny said. She shifted slightly, peering up at him with puffy red eyes and a determined expression, "We should always p-protect others, I kept on telling him. It's what you and uncle Dave h-have always d-done. But he d-disagreed. He says we shouldn't care, they're not w-worth the effort. How can he be so m-mean?"

Hal swallowed down the words clambering on the back of his tongue, rather disturbed. Why her imaginary friend advocated for such things was beyond him but Sunny was clearly upset and obviously wouldn't want a lecture in her current state. Instead he leaned forward and gently rested his hand on her shoulder, asking, "But you stood up to him, so that's good."

"But he l-left. He was really angry- what if he doesn't come back? He's my only f-friend. I don't want to be alone."

"Oh honey, I'm sorry. I'm sure he'll forgive you," Hal said, rubbing comforting circles in the girl's back from where she was curled up, "Friends fight sometimes. Me and Snake have fought a few times."

"I bet he b-beats your ass in a fight," Sunny mumbled.

"Language!"

A wet giggle came from Sunny, which was a nice change from her sobbing and Hal carried on with, "Now, I'm sure he'll come back- that's what friends do, they forgive each other when they sometimes accidentally hurt one another. It isn't a pleasant feeling, but I'm sure you'll both get through this."

"I hope so," Sunny mumbled, "I don't like b-being alone and I knew you and uncle Dave are busy a lot, so he keeps me company. But sometimes he just really m-mean."

"He's mean to you?"

The girl paused, shifting slightly and gnawing on her thumbnail before shaking her head, "Not really, h-he's just mean about um, people in general."

"Well, I'm sure you two will make up later. Friends argue, it just happens. I'm sure you can both work past it," Hal said. Truthfully he was sure if Sunny would, since she was essentially arguing with a part of herself but if it made her happy Hal wouldn't hesitate to be supportive.

"But you watch that swearing, young lady," he finished sternly, "Otherwise you won't be getting anymore of those little strawberry shortcakes you like so much."

Sunny nodded, looking up at him with a smile on her tear-streaked face, "Okay, I will."

The next day while Hal was making Sunny a sandwich for lunch he casually inquired if Sunny's friend had returned and forgiven her, since the girl had seemed in such high spirits after the incident yesterday.

"Yes, we're better," Sunny nodded, bouncing up and down on the stool, "He still says he's r-right but he doesn't trust you two to properly look after me so he says he came b-back. But that he's still right," Sunny giggled, obviously not too bothered by her imaginary friend's fairly hostile personality, "He always thinks he's r-right."

"I think your friend should learn proper manners," Hal said, slicing off the crusts of the sandwich, "If he insists on being argumentative."

Sunny shrugged, "I don't think he cares about t-that much. He says manners are for dolts with no s-spine. That you s-should say what you mean since he knows either way."

"Oh that seems a bit arrogant," Hal mused before offering Sunny the sandwich. The girl eagerly grabbed it and immediately took a bite, momentarily looking like a chipmunk.

"He is, but he's really s-smart and can read m-minds," Sunny said, chewing messily on her mouthful of sandwich, "I think that's why he's so g-grumpy all the time. It must be like standing in the crowd while everyone y-yells. I know I get um, overwhelmed sometimes by t-things easily enough. Must be so much worse for him."

"Oh? Are you sure he's not an alien?" Hal couldn't help but tease as he started cleaning up the bench after taking a sip from his coffee.

Sunny giggled, taking another bite of her sandwich before saying, voice muffled, "He does k-kinda look like one I guess. But he's a human. A uh, homosapian."

She looked so proud at correctly pronouncing the word without a stutter that Hal smiled, "Well as long as you two are getting along again. But I'm glad you didn't let him push you around."

"He argues about everything," Sunny said, "I think it's because he's so b-bored. He can't d-do much else and only I can hear him."

"Well, maybe you can try finding some creative outlets? Like drawing again? You made a lot but you stopped for a bit- maybe he's uh, getting a bit frustrated from that?"

"Hm, t-that could be," Sunny looked thoughtful, "He doesn't do much in his spare t-time. I think? I don't know, he still doesn't tell me m-much," she shrugged before jamming the rest of the sandwich into her mouth, nearly choking.

"Hey hey, you watch your bites- last thing we need is you dying via sandwich."

Sunny made an irritated face, still chewing rapidly before Hal suddenly hissed, nearly dropping the mug as it cracked suddenly, causing hot coffee to seep out and burn his fingers.

Sunny looked concerned, "Are you a-alright?" she said through a mouthful of sandwich.

He smiled at her even while dousing his hands in cold water from the tap, "I'm fine. Just one of the risks of all these old houses- everything is falling apart."

Nodding slightly, the girl accepted his comment though he missed her throwing an angry glare at the empty corner of the kitchen. Hal instead just cleaned out the cup and tossed it in the bin, fairly unconcerned. It hadn't been the first time he'd burnt himself on coffee and he doubted it would be the last.

Not even an hour later Hal found Sunny outside, in the small backyard of the safehouse. She was wandering around the overgrown yard, with various flowers tangled in her silver hair. It was a bit of a risk, having her out in the open but she was already smothered enough with their constant moving so Hal was loathed to ban her indoors out of risk of making her even more withdrawn. Hal sighed, squinting slight as he looked up at the sky; it was a wonderful day, with no clouds and just enough wind to make the heat tolerable. As it was he still felt like he was sweating, despite sitting in the shade of the rickety porch as Sunny went bug hunting.

"Look uncle Hal, a mantis!" a second later the gangly green insect was thrust into Hal's face and making him let out a strangled shriek.

"Ugh, Sunny don't do that!" Hal flailed, nearly falling off the chair he was sitting in.

Sunny stuck out her tongue, "Stop being rude! It's a handsome little b-beast."

"It's strange and stick-like and has little swords as arms," Hal said, trying to shoo the girl away to no avail.

She just giggled again, balancing the long green bug in her small hands as it carefully crawled along her palm and fingers. Hal made a face, not understanding why she'd let the alien-like insect just scuttle across her skin like that.

"It's pretty! They are m-mantodea and their phylum is arthropoda. I don't know i-if this one is a girl or a boy- girl Mantis's eat their mates, though. Isn't that neat?"

"That's great, Sunny."

Then the mantis twitched, pincers tucking up against its chest before the insect flared open its wings and flew right into Hal's face, causing him to scream and toppling right off his chair and onto the ground with a loud thud. Barely a second later Dave went literally through the door, gun at the ready, only to see Hal flailing on the ground with a mantis clinging to his glasses and Sunny giggling madly.

"Damnit, Hal!"

"Here, I d-drew some more pictures, like you told me!" Sunny later all but ambushed Hal when he left the bathroom, nearly knocking him over.

"Alright, let me see," Hal smiled, accepting various sheets of paper the girl thrust at him before waiting expectantly. Though Hal was fairly woozy from sleep deprivation, he made sure to carefully shuffle though the pictures Sunny gave him. The first few were rather typical, being more of the flaming unicorn and the whale. There was also a few of the Metal Gear she'd drawn previously, though this time she'd drawn it as bisected and overgrown with flora. The next few were fairly unsettling, mainly being dead bodies and things on fire. One in particular was a picture of a severed pig's head on a plate, with numerous scribblings of crimson around it to show the blood dripping down.

"That's...uh, that's wonderful, Sunny. Such good use of um, those bright colours."

"Can w-we put it on the fridge?"

"We'll see, honey."

Nearly a month later after Sunny's fifth birthday Dave tracked down the girl in the apartment building in Boston they were currently squatting in. She was sitting quietly in the living room, gazing blankly at the wall from where she was resting on the tattered sofa. Despite him lingering out of sight in the doorway, his movements subconsciously silent from his years of training, Sunny turned her head towards like him like a silver owl after a beat of silence. She said nothing, just blinked slowly at him. After a short staring contest Dave approached and sat down next to her on the couch.

"Sorry it's kind of late," the soldier said, offering Sunny an worn envelope without any fanfare, "Mei Ling helped me get it."

"For me?" Sunny squeaked, eagerly grabbing it.

"Yeah. Think of it as a late birthday present."

With a dry rustle Sunny carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the glossy photo inside, her smiling fading to a more pensive expression.

"It's your mother," Dave explained quietly, "Olga Gurlukovich. Or Ольга Гурлукович in her mother tongue. Your tongue as well I guess, since you can already speak it pretty well and you're uh, Russian I guess? I don't know, we don't have any idea who the father is. But I thought you might like to see you mother...even if it is just with a photo."

Sunny didn't respond, simply gazing at the picture with an unreadable look so Dave continued, "I know you've caught a little bit here and there about what happened to your mother, but I figured you're old enough to understand now. I don't want you growing up ignorant about what happened, basing everything off false assumptions."

The girl shifted her stare from the picture to Dave, brown eyes solemn and Dave wished he had a cigarette.

"You know about Solidus, right?" Dave asked and Sunny nodded, "And you know he's the one who killed your mother."

Sunny nodded again, expression still unchanging so Dave continued, "Of course, he was still under the influence of the Patriots, even if he was trying to rebel; they'd anticipated that anyway and he was still their puppet until Raiden killed him. Same with Olga- they stole you from her to force her to betray her family and do what they wanted. She gave up all her ideology and morals for you but was forced to do so because of them."

"They're terrible and need to die," Sunny said bluntly, knuckles white. Hal probably would've been concerned by the statement but Dave simply reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

"They do, and we'll find a way to do it. I just figured it was time for you to know- or at least be able to see your mother."

With a soft sniff Sunny touched the photo, tracing the lines of Olga's face with a pale fingertip. From the corner of his eye Dave could see hairline cracks inch up the dirty window plane of the living room window but he kept his attention focused on Sunny. After a moment the tense body language shifted and Sunny sniffed again, eyes swimming with tears.

Then Sunny leaned over and hugged Dave's side with one arm, saying, "Thank you."

He hugged her back, "Don't mention it."

At one point Hal and Sunny ended up marathoning the entirety of Inuyasha. Dave would sometimes watch, but only when he was bored, but Sunny would always join him. Some, he felt, were too violent but the girl never batted an eye and a part of him admitted that she'd already seen her fair share of gore and violence over the years despite how much they tried to hide it from her.

But she enjoyed Inuyasha and so did Hal- the soulful journey the group of friends braved while hunting the shards of the Shikon no Tama and trying to take down Naraku. Watching the characters interact was one of his favourite aspects.

"Well I think Kagome and Inuyasha are sweet together," Hal said, "They compliment each other so well," he gave Sunny a playful nudge with his elbow before teasing her, "Wouldn't you like to find someone like that?"

"I don't want romance," Sunny said seriously, still watching the screen.

Hal blinked, "You don't want to fall in love?"

"No. I asked my friend about it and he says that kind of l-love is dangerous, and painful. Also people are gross and get obsessed with-," she made a disgusted face, "-the uh psychical part of it too much and they g-get all obsessed and disgusting. So I don't want it. My science is enough f-for me."

"Sunny! Who has been telling you those things? You're much too young."

Sunny frowned, briefly glancing off to the side before looking back at Hal with a guilty expression, "I uh, googled it."

"Hmm, you and I are going to have a talk about what is and isn't appropriate for you to google."

"Aw, but I t-thought we were going to watch Akira next?"

"Who showed you that movie?"

"Uncle Dave."

"Ugh, of course."

Sunny quickly proved, despite her tender age, her intelligence was beyond anything Dave or Hal could've anticipated. The language of computers, coding and complex algorithms came to her as naturally as breathing and she soaked up all technically knowledge like a sponge whenever Hal devoted time to teaching her. She was a full blown savant, a computing prodigy that impressed Hal immensely despite how young she was. She was already capable of hacking through simple firewalls and creating her own basic programs and Hal knew with age she'd easily surpass him in skill and whenever he wasn't around to teach her Mei Ling happily offered her services as an online tutor.

Hal was also so inwardly glad that Sunny's talent lied with technology, rather than weaponry and physical prowess. While they needed soldiers, he'd seen what that kind of lifestyle led via his relationship with Dave and Hal would die before he ever allowed someone like Sunny to be led down that path.

As time passed Sunny grew- as did the influence of the Patriots. There were times when they were nearly caught, escaping only minutes- and sometime seconds -of the troops the Patriots manipulated into chasing them. While Dave took pains to shield both him and Sunny from violence, occasionally the soldier would be forced to kill someone in front of them. Hal always tried to cover the girl's eyes whenever that happened and Dave would try to kill bloodlessly when he was forced into that predicament, out of consideration for both Hal and Sunny.

Sunny's reaction to the deaths was concerning, however. While she seemed profoundly shocked and shaking the first time it happened, a mournful acceptance encompassed her whenever she witnessed it later was odd. A deep sorrow would envelope her, but the girl would hold back her tears which was something Hal still couldn't do at times when witness a death.

"They died," Sunny said sadly after the third such incident, gazing at the still body slumped in their kitchen, her brown eyes covered in a film of unshed tears, "They would've k-killed us, so that's why you had to kill them first. They didn't d-deserve to die, not really, but it had to happen."

Dave grimaced from where he was peering around the doorway, head cocked as he listened for any other threats. Hal carefully placed his hands on Sunny's shoulders, steering her away from the woman's body and the odd angle her head was at; courtesy of a quick neck-snap from Dave.

"Sunny, are you-"

"It's alright, Hal. I know this is the P-Patriot's fault. They're the ones who m-manipulated these people in chasing us- in a way they're the real cause of this. That's w-why we have to stop them," Sunny said, looking up at him with carefully blank features. A look profoundly odd and unnatural on the face of an eight year old.

"Sunny," Hal faltered, feeling goosebumps crawl up his spine, "Are you...are you aware of what just happened? This..." Hal felt like he was pushing it but something about Sunny's bland gaze was frightening him, "Do you even care?"

The calm mask Sunny was wearing shattered and belatedly Hal cursed himself for asking such an insensitive and thoughtless question to a traumatized girl. Judging by the annoyed look Solid threw him the soldier likewise shared that opinion.

"I know it's t-terrible!" Sunny said, tears beginning to stream down her face, "I'm just t-trying to cope! Do you really think I don't care?" the girl's voice cracked violently at the end of the sentence and she starting sobbing in earnest.

"Goddamnit Hal-"

"I- oh god, Sunny, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Alright we don't have time for this," Dave snapped, the harsh authority in his tone making Hal jump as Sunny started crying harder, "We need to leave, now."

The escape from the house was awkward, with Hal having to pick up a crying Sunny and Dave looking sufficiently standoffish. A car got jacked, and Hal was certain they broke various speed limits and traffic laws- including going twice the speed limit and driving on the wrong side of the road for most of it -with Hal inwardly panicking, though it was mostly about how Sunny hadn't stopped crying nosily. While Dave was focused on his dangerous driving Hal attempted to comfort the girl, to no avail. She would stop crying for five to ten minutes of a time before bursting into tears again.

Even when they found their next safe house, up in the Canadian wilderness, around a few days later Sunny was still having periodic crying fits and was refusing to speak to either of them. By the time they were inside the small, dusty cabin Hal was exhausted and Dave looked like he was moments away from murdering him and the look he shot the scientist clearly said fix it so after a moment of hesitation Hal chased after Sunny, who'd disappeared in one of the back rooms as soon as they arrived.

The girl was curled up on the lone bed, a sad little lump burrowed among the dusty blankets.

"Sunny?"

"What?" came the muffled reply from the lump.

"Sunny, I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. I...I didn't think it through."

There was a small shuffling noise before she stuck her head out from the pile of blankets, the girl giving him a reproachful look, "I know, but it s-still hurt. Did you really think that?"

"Of course not," Hal grimaced, "It's just...I don't know, I was a bit concerned over your reaction. You just, you just looked numb or indifferent. It...frightened me, I guess."

The girl looked away, digging her fingers into the tattered blankets as she quietly answered, "But, if I cry every time it happens it would just make a mess and everyone would get upset and d-distracted. So I try to just...just numb myself. So I don't t-think so much when it happens. My friend disagrees, but I don't agree with what h-he says during it anyway."

Hal blinked, keeping his voice neutral as he asked, "And what does your friend think?"

As time passed Hal had been convinced Sunny's imaginary friend had essentially become an outlet for Sunny's more negative emotions, as a way to combat her own loneliness and as a way to express her frustration and more vindictive traits. It still felt odd, however, referring to the entity as if it was separate from her. But if it let her cope, he would abide.

Sunny rubbed at her eyes, face still shining with tears, "He says I shouldn't get upset, that they deserve to die. He hates people in general, and keeps saying I s-shouldn't care when they die. He gets annoyed w-when I cry," Sunny's face twisted up, hurt thick in her voice.

Hal was disturbed, trying to process what the girl was saying. It was almost like a loop, feeding back into her earlier comments and cold justification then being challenged by her empathetic emotions. Inwardly Hal cursed himself again; it was childish, naive of himself to assume a little girl could live as she was forced to without having some mental breakdown. Hal and Solid were adults and he knew neither were immune to such things either so to push those expectations upon a child was cruel and unfair.

"I don't think that! He does," Sunny protested. Hal didn't really have the heart to point out her friend wasn't real; she probably wouldn't forgive him in a hurry if she felt she was ridiculing him while she was in such a fragile state. If her friend felt that, then most likely some part of Sunny deep down did as well even if she was struggling against that ideology. Carefully Hal sat down next to Sunny before pulling her, blankets and all, up onto his lap and hugging her tight to his chest.

"I know this is hard," Hal said, voice muffled against Sunny's hair, "It was unfair of me to say that to you and I'm sorry. It's just...ugh, I don't know, you just looked so numb and shut off I couldn't help but say something."

"I did feel numb. It's...it's how I think about it sometimes. I d-don't like seeing those people die, people shouldn't die so easily. It's wrong, but I know they'd k-kill us if they had the chance, which is why uncle Dave killed them first. If I think about it too much it gets so horrible I can't sleep, so my friend just suggested I try to um, d-distance myself from it..."

"Do...do you think that's a good idea?"

"What do you w-want from me?" Sunny sounded so genuinely distressed and confused that Hal winced.

"Sunny I don't want anything from you," Hal said, voice gently as he tightened his arms around the girl who immediately burrowed against his chest with a sob, "I just want you to live a normal life. I understand why you can't but...but I guess I just can't get that out of my head so every time you're exposed to the ugliness of the world I get so panicked and I just say stupid things. I didn't mean to make you feel guilty; you have your own way of coping with everything your life has turned into and I'm just being stupid about it. I didn't mean to imply you didn't care and I'm sorry."

The girl was silent for such a long time Hal started to think she'd fallen asleep, before she spoke, "I understand."

"Just remember who the enemy is, okay?" Hal said softly, "I don't want you forgetting who's behind all of this, who's pulling the strings and manipulating these people, who are the guilty in all this bloodshed."

"Of c-course," Sunny said assured him, pulling away from him and looking up at Hal a watery smile, "I always remember who're innocent, and protecting the i-innocents is important. I won't forget."

The next few years were a blur- most of it was dedicated to running, sneaking and generally keeping below the radar which was frustrating work. Still, the three of them survived and endured with only quite a few close calls. However some of those close calls got entirely too close and in once such incident Sunny was nearly shot.

They had been in New York at the time, hiding in a rundown apartment. Dave had left on an errand and Hal and Sunny were holding down the fort, with both them sitting at the rickety table; Hal typing away on his laptop and Sunny drawing. Sunny was the first one to notice something was wrong, freezing in place with a white-knuckle grip on her pen before her head shot up. Hal paused, reacting to her panic when the girl suddenly clambered up onto the table and flung herself at him. As Hal went crashing back on the floor with Sunny on top of him a bullet shot overhead, just missing his skull.

Instantly Hal's survival instincts kicked in and he crawled away from the open space of the kitchen and into the hallway, Sunny clinging to him like a burr. There were no windows in the bathroom, so they were less likely to get snipped through one. But when he went to pull them into the bathroom Sunny intervened.

"No, in here!" Sunny yanked on Hal's arm with surprising strength as she dragged him into the living room instead.

"Sunny-"

Before he could move someone darted into the hallway after them, clad in a sneaking suit with a silencer pistol raised. Sunny screamed and the window next to the assassin exploded, sending shards of glass everywhere and slicing into the invader's back. Hal instantly threw himself on top of Sunny, knocking the girl over and using his own body as a shield even Dave suddenly burst into the room, attacking the assassin without any hesitation. The fight was short and bloody, with the assailant dying from a slit throat with Hal making sure he kept himself between Sunny and the carnage.

Sunny shrieked, voice muffled against the floor, "Uncle Dave, behind you!"

Snake turned instantly with the girl's warning, intercepting a knife to the face. With an ease born of years of practice Dave used the assassin's own blade and drove it into his chest and deep within his heart, wherein he dropped to the floor next to his dead companion.

Dave looked at them both still on the floor, a frown on his slightly bloodied face, "Time to go."

Neither of them argued, but Hal made sure to cast a final confused look at the shattered window before they fled the house.

"What do you want for your birthday, Sunny? Maybe a unicorn- you seem to like drawing that one that's on fire all the time. I could ask Hal to whip one up."

Hal paused mid sip of his coffee, stalling in front of the half open door of the hallway when he caught his name. He could also clearly hear Sunny's reply.

"It's called a furicorn, uncle Dave," Sunny's voice was playfully scolding, "But not, I d-don't want that for my birthday. Here, I found a catalogue in the last house we s-stayed at and I want this jacket. My friend says it'll l-look good!"

"Alright, hand it over," Dave replied.

Hal leaned closer to the partially open door, hearing Sunny mumbling under her breath before there was the tell-tale crinkle of paper as Sunny handed over the catalogue to Dave and the ensuring silence as the soldier looked over the girl's choice.

"...You mean this one?"

"You don't like it?"

"It's...a bit military for you, isn't it?"

Sunny snorted, a sound odd for a girl not yet ten, "Well, you are military aren't you? And as are Meryl and Mei Ling. A-anyway, the coat is also fire proof and water proof or um at least resistant- it'll be g-good when we have to move back to cold places like A-Alaska or Norway again."

"Alright, so no uni- oh sorry, furicorn and instead you get something practical."

"Oh, now that you m-mention it can I get another packet of coloured pencils and a strawberry shortcake?"

"Go ask Hal, he's listening at the door."

Hal promptly choked on his mouthful of coffee.

A week later, Sunny cornered him in the kitchen to show off her birthday present.

"How do I look, uncle Hal?"

Sunny smiled up at him; she looked almost comical, swimming in clothing far too large for her. The large, tallow brown jacket she was wearing swamped her small frame, the hem hanging past her knees with the sleeves so long they were rolled over twice. They matched with her large boots and inwardly Hal felt they weren't doing a very good job of dressing a nine year old girl but Sunny never complained. The dark brown of the jacket and black leather of the boots made her white hair and purple-and-silver tights seem an even more vivid contrast.

She raised her arms and waved her hands slightly and Hal noted the numerous belts she had secured around her forearms for whatever reason, the leather straps hanging down limp like various snakes.

There was something oddly familiar about the over coat as Hal studied it further, just with it's rich texture and wide, splayed collar but he couldn't recall so after a moment he shook his head and gave the girl a smile, "It looks great, Sunny! I bet it's nice and warm."

"It is! It's a bit big, but I'll g-grow into it. Just like my boots," she lifted a foot in demonstration and jiggled a bit, the boot wobbling around and she nearly fell off balance.

"Well, as long as you're happy. I know it isn't the greatest birthday present, but-"

She cut him off with a hug, small arms wrapping around him and her head pressed against his stomach, "Don't worry, it's okay," Sunny's voice was muffled against him and he gingerly returned the hug, "Y-you guys can throw me a proper birthday party when we deal with the Patriots."

"You've got yourself a deal young lady."

"Where do you think you go after you d-die?"

"Sunny, what's this about?"

"I've just been thinking. I've s-seen people die before...when uncle Dave was defending us. What do you think happens t-to them? Not their bodies but uh, their souls?"

"I'm not quite sure. There's a lot of theories about the afterlife but I guess it's just one of those things you can't really know until it happens to you."

"I bet uncle Dave will tell us if he's able to."

"What do you mean?"

"He's getting old so q-quickly. It isn't normal- he's over forty but his h-hair is all white and he's all wrinkled. Something is making him age like that, so I guess I started t-thinking about what happens when he dies; when we all die. Will we meet each other? Or...is there nothing?"

"I can't really say."

"My friend says there is something but he isn't sure what it is y-yet. He has stuff to do first. Speaking o-of which, I drew you another picture! Here, do you like it?"

"It's great, Sunny. Let's go show Snake, okay?"

As time passed they learned about the slowly growing mercenary company called Outer Heaven. Dave found the whole thing immensely distasteful, as he did with the knowledge nanomachines were getting implemented world wide. He was getting too old for that kind of thing, his failing body constantly reminding him with aching limbs and sore joints about how little time he had left. However Ocelot- or 'Liquid Ocelot' -as he dubbed himself, was showing himself to be one of their only potential connections to the Patriots and finding a way to take down the massive AI system. Hal quietly panicked on the side but Dave had been around him long enough to know the man was incredibly distressed over the rise of the Private Military Companies and the horrific rise of the war economy.

Sunny was also immensely upset, but for an entirely different reason.

Hal noticed it first, seeing how all the reports they'd gotten about Outer Heaven and Liquid Ocelot had been edited to always state Ocelot's name as Revolver Ocelot. When Hal questioned her about it the girl immediately got defensive and enraged.

"He isn't Liquid! He's a liar!"

Dave watched impassively from the other side of the living room of their latest safehouse, watching as Sunny bristled. She was wearing her thick overcoat- Dave had only witnessed her take it off a handful of times ever since getting it as a birthday present -and oversized boots, with small hands clenched into fists at her side.

"Sunny, why are you so upset over this?"

"It isn't his name! Why is he s-stealing it?"

"Look, it seems unreasonable but I've seen Liquid take control of Ocelot, even back during the Big Shell-" Dave tried to explain, only for the girl to angrily interrupt.

"That isn't true! Liquid isn't possessing him. Ocelot is l-lying. He's lying and stealing Liquid's name. Didn't he d-do enough to him? To them both?"

"Did what to who?" That was Hal that time, voice gentle.

Sunny gave Hal an angry look before saying again, "He isn't Liquid Ocelot. He's just Ocelot, a lying old man. It's n-not his to take."

The venom in her voice was surprising but Dave was just caught off guard by how sudden it was. But he guessed it made sense, in a way; she no doubt thought Ocelot was attempting to evade his numerous crimes simply by taking another name. While he was still unsure just what was going on in Ocelot's head, as he still vividly remembered the scene during Big Shell of Ocelot's own body betraying him, he could understand Sunny's anger over the man trying to avoid blame for his actions via a new identity.

You have to pay for your crimes, after all. It seemed that Sunny took such a thing to heart. Dave understood.

"Alright Sunny, we'll only call him Ocelot from now on, alright? Regardless of what he calls himself," Dave's voice cut through the exchange between Sunny and Hal.

Sunny blinked, obviously caught off guard, before giving Dave a bright smile, "Okay!"

Hal looked bewildered at the sudden change in attitude and mutely cast a questioning glance at Dave who just shrugged. Sometimes it was better to just not argue.

"Sunny?"

Hal found her outside on the rickety porch. It was the fifth safehouse they'd had that month but at least this one was near the country side. Hiding in a city did give them the advantage of having such a dense population having so many people around made Hal a paranoid wreck. Dave was well used to it but the scientist was deeply worried for his friend. He'd augmented the soldier's sneaking suit to help aid with his rapidly aging body but otherwise Hal had no idea how to help him and he hated it.

Downtrodden he'd torn himself away from his computer until he noticed Sunny through the cracked kitchen window, simply standing on the porch with her silvery hair getting tangled in the wind.

"You alright out there?"

Sunny nodded in response, eyes distance. Most of her weight was resting on one leg with her arms crossed, stance almost casual. As always she was clad in her brown overcoat, which still had various belts strapped along the arms. After a brief moment she replied, "I like the wind."

"I'm sorry, Sunny," Hal couldn't help but apologize, "I know we're moving around a lot more, it's just..."

"Everything is more d-dangerous?"

"Yeah. Ugh, I wish we could just relax."

"I wish uncle Dave could," Sunny said, face falling, "He's...why is he getting so o-old?"

Hal let out a bone-deep sigh, "I don't know, Sunny."

"I can't help him with that," Sunny said, "I've tried and looked up everything I can, but there's n-no answers. Even reading upon the genetic influence on h-human lifespan and longevity didn't help," Sunny frowned deeply and Hal shared his concerns with the far-too-intelligent nine year old.

"I guess neither of us are geneticist, but...I guess all we can do is keep on trying to pin down the Patriots, to get an end to them. Then maybe Dave can...he can spend the rest of his days in peace, with us. Regardless of his aging."

Sunny nodded, brown eyes bright with determination, "And I'll h-help in whatever way I can."

Before long however, the Patriots reach was becoming so great that even staying in one place for a day- or even hours -was becoming immensely dangerous. Hal knew of how the influence of the Patriots was reaching almost obscene levels and after a great deal of debate with Dave they ended up getting a plane as a moving base of operations with help from Mei Ling. The Nomad, as it was dubbed, essentially turned into their new home.

Sunny adapted to the change surprisingly quickly, accepting their reasoning with a resolute expression and firm nod. Hal was relieved the girl was so agreeably but then again she was fairly introverted as it was. Potentially, her calm acceptance could change within months of being on board the plane but for the time being she was agreeable.

She did, however, request that they take three chickens with them. She was adamant there were three, and when they set up the cages in the holding bay Sunny made three name tags with Solid, Liquid and Solidus scribbled in vivid on small cardboard squares and pinned on top of the chicken pens.

Cooking clearly wasn't Sunny's calling- she burnt the eggs or set something on fire more often than not -but at least the girl had found a new hobby besides drawing gory pictures, hacking code or talking to her imaginary friend. Even if her slowly approaching ten and still having an imaginary friend was a bit odd, but then again their entire lives were odd so Hal left it alone. Though he did ask if Sunny's 'friend' had any issues with flying, to with Sunny responded with a negative.

"It doesn't b-bother him," Sunny assured Hal, "My friend can fly, so heights don't scare h-him."

"Well I'm glad he's comfortable," Hal said, inwardly relieved Sunny had no issues with heights, "Are you sure you don't need anything? We can do supply runs now, though we will need to buy things in bulk but I bet Mei Ling could help."

Sunny considered it for a moment before saying "You should buy something made from leather. He likes the smell and h-he likes wearing it."

"Why?"

"He said he enjoys being wrapped up in the f-flesh of the dead. It doesn't irritate his skin so m-much."

"Uh. Okay."

"H-here's your eggs, uncle Dave!"

Dave accepted the plate from the child who beamed at him. Unlike Otacon, Dave had no issues eating any of the eggs that Sunny messed up- they were hardly worse than field rations and he'd been forced to eat even worse at times while on missions.

"Alright, who was it?" Dave asked, knowing how much Sunny liked to talk about her three pet chickens. He was also sure he'd caught her trying to teach them tricks before but then again if anyone could teach a chicken tricks it would be Sunny.

The girl in question smiled, "It was Solidus this time! He's been a bit s-sick but I've taken good care of him and now he's laying eggs again."

"You figure out what was wrong with him?"

"He was sneezing a lot and wasn't eating," Sunny said, her smile shifting into a frown, "But I um, I think it happened when I started sneaking him some orange. Solid and Liquid wouldn't eat it but he did and apparently citrus is bad for c-chickens. So it was my fault he became ill."

"At least you caught it in time," Dave said, reaching out and ruffling the girl's silver hair until she giggled and jumped back out of reach.

"I know, but I still feel bad so I'm going to re-do their cages early and make some new name signs for them, so they know I'm really sorry."

"I bet they'll appreciate that."

"I'm going to make sure they all have their two names so I've b-been looking up info graphics on the computer and I've sketched some ideas. They need nice name boards. Maybe I-I'll draw some snakes as well for them."

"Two names, huh?" Dave absentmindedly cut up one of the eggs, orange yolk spilling across the plate.

"Yeah! Like h-how you're Solid Snake but also uncle Dave and how Solidus Snake is also George, and how Liquid Snake is also Eli."

Dave hummed, not really paying attention until that last part of her sentence seemed to register with him. He blinked before carefully swallowing a mouthful of egg and looked at Sunny who was still avidly watching him.

"...Sunny, who is Eli?"

Sunny gave him a look of admonishment that seemed far to old to be on her round, childish face, "That's Liquid's r-real name. He's called Eli, you're Dave and Solidus is George!"

"How do you know that? Did you break into Hal's computer again?" Even as Dave asked that he knew it wasn't true; even the two of them hadn't known Liquid's real name since it was so heavily classified and died along with the man on Shadow Moses.

"My friend told me, of course. He knows lots about Liquid Snake. T-they were best friends," Sunny's face grew solemn, "That's why he's so sad and angry all the time. B-but he's getting better. Though he doesn't like it when I say he's sad."

"Your friend was best friends with Liquid?"

The girl nodded, silver hair bouncing up and down, "They grew up together! But then they s-separated and bad things happened but they reunited and then they both died. That's why he doesn't like you. A-actually he really hates you. And um, other stuff but I promised not to tell."

"I...see," Dave in actuality didn't see at all and was fairly disturbed by what Sunny was telling him. He wasn't sure if she was creating elaborate backstories for her imaginary friend out of boredom or if she'd just made up what Liquid's real name was so all three of the chickens had matching tags.

"Enjoy your lunch!" with a last smile Sunny turned and flounced off, leaving Dave staring after her with a plate of cooling eggs resting on his lap.

"I think Sunny is a psychic."

Hal shoved aside the mechanical mess he'd been fiddling with to fix Dave with an incredulous stare, "Snake, you can't be serious."

Dave sighed, leaning back against the bench that Otacon was sitting at, "I am, it's the only thing I can think of."

"About what?"

"About how she knows so much," Dave said.

"We've already talked about that," Hal retorted, "You were right, she probably just got into the computer and looked it up, she's smart enough to get pass the firewalls-"

"Half the shit she knows is something we've never discussed around her. Also what about the weird phenomena that happens around her sometimes? Like those cups breaking or windows cracking when she gets angry?"

"What, so she's a mind reader and a telekinetic?"

"Not that far fetched."

"Oh come on Dave!"

Snake rolled his eyes, "I figured you of all people would be all over that theory, considering some of the stuff we've seen over the years- Psycho Mantis, Fortune. Those people were capable of some unnatural things and we know Sunny was experimented on while she was kidnapped by the Patriots."

"Well..." Hal faltered, expression suddenly becoming profoundly exhausted.

Dave knew immediately what the man was dwelling on again, "She'll never have a 'normal' life, Otacon. Even if we take down the Patriots."

"I know," the scientist looked at the tangled mess of wires and metal sitting on the desk before him and sighed, "I guess I was still just stupidly wrapped up in that idea. She's already lived a decade of this hard life, of constantly being on the run. I guess I just wanted her to still have a chance to grow up like everyone else."

"She's too smart for that anyway, a normal life would just drive her nuts."

Hal hummed in a noncommittal manner, still not looking at Dave, "But if she really is a psychic then...then she'll never have anything close to a peaceful life. Bad enough she's so intelligent- I've read about some of the horrendous things that have happened to children with any kind of psychic power; horrible experiments and all other awful things military powers have done to them. So even if we do get rid of the Patriots, others might try to steal her."

Dave reached for his cigarette pack in his pants pocket before giving an irritated grunt when he found it empty,"Look, can't you just watch her with the cameras set up all over the Nomad?"

"Snake!"

"What? I mean she probably drops her guard when she isn't around us since you freak out over everything- anyway, what if her 'imaginary friend' is basically an outlet for supernatural phenomena around her? You have to admit she's clung to that friend of hers for basically a damn decade, when by all accounts kids are supposed to grow out of it way before they reached ten."

"Well um..."

Snake rolled his eyes, "Look, I'm not saying spy on her all the time, just check her now and again in case anything out of the ordinary does happen. Then maybe we can...I don't know, maybe we can help her with it."

Hal still felt guilty essentially spying on the girl for the next few days but his concern and curiosity overwrote that. True to his word, he only watched her now and again and what he managed to piece together over the week was disturbing. The evidence was damning and reminded Hal of all those old horror movies which involved moving furniture and children acting unwholesome. While Sunny did occasionally act odd, he felt that lumping her in with The Children of the Corn was a bit harsh. It made him think back to what she did to the Barbies, though. But children were just naturally morbid, from all accounts.

But what Sunny was doing was hardly natural; it had been easy for Hal to fob off the psychic phenomena in previous instances over the year as simply him seeing things or misinterpreting something. However seeing it roll on tape, such blatant proof of Sunny's abilities, forced him to reevaluate that. A few incidents were just things moving, like when she'd made some eggs and reached for the salt shaker which was resting in the middle table and it slid into her hand. Or the egg timer winding itself without her touching it, cups would shift out of the way and in one instance she dropped the frying pan when trying to pull out the burnt eggs only for it to stop a few inches off the floor and avoiding splashing Sunny with hot oil, giving her enough time to move to a safe distance before it fell the final length to the floor.

She also talked extensively with her imaginary friend, switching between English, Czech and Russian with such fluid ease Hal could hardly figure out when she actually switched language. Hal knew Dave spoke regularly with her in Russian and such conversations went over Hal's head but there was a strange casual nature in which she spoke to thin air, such a strong level of familiarity, was odd and discomforting.

After watching the footage he ended up scouring the internet for any information on psychics; most of it was speculations or documentaries that were akin to those 'Finding Big Foot' programs but when he ended up digging through military records it changed, with him uncovering a plethora of information of psychics, or 'Extraordinarily' as they were classified as.

The Cobra Unit, the team of the infamous treasonous war criminal known as The Boss had apparently housed quite a few people with strange powers including one who by all rumours could speak and communicate with the dead. Finding information on The Boss herself was surprisingly difficult to the point Hal gave up after running into hundreds of dead end. Whoever wiped out most of the information of them clearly wanted it hidden, so he moved on and found some adjacent records of a man named Volgin, who could conduct electrical currents within his own body. A frightening and devastating ability as Hal knew how deadly natural lightning could be but it wasn't exactly the psychic power he was looking for. Sunny never exhibited any kind of elemental trait, instead seemingly focused on telekinesis.

Next there was Elisa and Ursula, a woman who'd been employed by a man named Gene in charge of a mercenary company called Army's Heaven back in the late 1970s. Her powers apparently manifested from the Kyshtym nuclear disaster in the Ural Mountains, as the nuclear fallout awakened her abilities. Her powers included psychokinesis, telepathy and apparent foresight into the future but she died in something called the San Hieronymo Incident.

While digging he found some fascinating information on parasite therapy- something which apparently laid down the ground work for nanomachines. Reading some reports of those who'd been infested with parasites led to some odd records, with people being capable of photosynthesis like plants, ability to cloak themselves naturally and exhibited immense strength and agility. While interesting, it didn't really have anything to do with psychics, so he moved on.

Next he found records of some psychic child which immediately interested him; the boy, called Tretij Rebenok had apparently surfaced for a few months in the Middle East and wrecked havoc before completely disappearing and never being seen or heard from again but the reports about the boy were disturbing, with his own mind apparently being enslaved by others near constantly which allowed him to unleash immensely powerful psychic attacks after manifesting the energy. This disturbed Hal, especially after reading how the boy had been a science experiment before his escape and he hoped that the boy had managed to get away, if his abrupt disappearance was anything to go by. Hal knew it was more likely the boy died- or was killed -but it pained him to think of a psychic child and how Sunny could potentially go through the same thing if she was captured.

Next was a psychic Hal was more familiar with- Psycho Mantis. Having been kept captive at Shadow Moses Hal had occasionally run into the vindictive, eerie man and quite frankly he'd been scared witless every time. But the man's powers were similar, mostly focused on psychokinesis and mind reading. However he could levitated with ease, seemingly preferring to just float everywhere than walk and possessed intangibility which enabled him to pass through solid objects. While Hal had been deeply fascinated by the man his incredibly hostile behaviour had frightened Hal too much. Hal just hoped Sunny never turned out like that, just hateful, bitter and vindictive.

Then there was Fortune, aptly nicknamed Lady Luck. Hal remembered her from the Big Shell incident. Fortune's powers were probably one of the most curious Hal had looked up, relying upon luck or fate itself. Bullets, missiles would all miss the woman and even grenades would become inert in her presence. Sunny didn't display such traits, and quite frankly the concept of luck was fascinating and convoluted enough it would be difficult to gauge anyway.

The more recent psychics Hal could find were the Beauty and Beast unit, namely Screaming Mantis. But Hal wasn't convinced all that simply wasn't due to their high tech suits and various weaponry. With an annoyed grunt he shoved himself back from the computer, rubbing at his temples as he rolled over theory after theory in his head.

Sunny, as far as Hal was aware, had never been exposed to nuclear radiation but the theory of such a thing creating a psychic ability within victims was fascinating. It reminded Hal of the old comics he would sometimes read before his interest shifted to manga and anime, of Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining powers through that. Or psychics could be like X-men powers, some kind of natural evolutionary gene that manifested randomly in individuals. Or it could be a byproduct of her experimentation in her brief kidnapping by the Patriots.

Hal wasn't sure but from what he'd read psychics tended to have violent, short-lived lives and Hal didn't want that for Sunny. Unable to think on what to do further, he called up Dave and shortly after the soldier arrived showed him the footage of Sunny and the paranormal events that occurred around her.

"She's psychic," Hal said. His voice felt bitter.

Dave gave him a look, "It's something we suspected for years."

"But she shouldn't..." Hal flailed, unsure of how to respond, "Well, what can we do?"

Dave pulled a long drag on his cigarette; usually Hal would lecture him over smoking on the Nomad but quite frankly he was too distressed about the current events to bother. Dave replied after a long silence, "Not sure."

"But...she's psychic, what are we supposed to do? How can we help her with this? I mean, I read a few things online but most of them are...very unpleasant, especially with children."

"That won't happen, not on my watch," Dave snapped.

Hal groaned, burying his face in his hands, "This is such a mess. She deserved better."

"If everyone got what they deserved the Patriots would be dead already and the war economy would've never have happened," Dave pointed out.

"But how can we even help her? Neither of us have any idea on how to deal with psychics...even the ones we dealt with previously left a lot to be desired. I mean, neither of us really knew how to deal with children before Sunny but a psychic child?"

"She's grown up alright."

"She's ten years old and has an imaginary friend and breaks windows without touching them when she's angry."

"Actually her imaginary friend could be a ghost or something as stupid as it sounds," Dave offered, "We don't know if her abilities encompass that. It certainly looked like she was interacting with someone."

"Or she could...I don't know, be some kind of reality warper? Like...she was lonely when she was younger so she projected some kind of psychic manifestation to keep her company?"

"If that's the case, who knows what else she can do."

Hal felt so conflicted- a part of him felt excited, at knowing such a fantastic gift was now Sunny's but at the same time he was panicking. Sunny was different enough from other children her age even just from her upbringing and intelligence, but adding psychics to the mix would make her even more alienated.

Hal spoke, voice small, "So what can we do?"

"Be there for her, no matter what happens," Dave shrugged, "Not much else we can do."

The incident in South America escalated into a rescue mission, mainly focused on finding Naomi Hunter. It was tedious work and even more after getting examined by the woman and finding out his body had been genetically engineered to start breaking down when he hit forty; at least they now had an explanation for his accelerated aging. Though the news about FOXDIE and how it would turn into an indiscriminate epidemic was hardly good news but he already made up his mind over it.

Dave would kill himself before he could do harm to Sunny or Hal. They'd suffered enough from him, as had the rest of the world. As it was, he knew both Hal and Sunny would still be targets even if they take down the Patriots, Sunny even moreso being a prodigy and a psychic of unknown potential. He wouldn't inflict himself on them for his own selfishness.

But as it was he took Naomi from South America after dealing with Laughing Octopus, the woman being oddly compliant. He knew she'd been abducted and pleaded to them for help but he still expected some kind of hostility from her. Instead she followed him without issue, eagerly sharing how she could aid them in destroying the Patriot system. He guessed that made sense in a way; the Patriots had been the first to test upon Frank, to turn him into that gene-therapy fueled ninja. A chance for Naomi to get revenge on the ones who warped her beloved brother. Dave could respect that reasoning and knew they needed her aid.

However he was also wary, as he was unsure of how Naomi would react to a psychic child like Sunny, but he and Hal never mentioned the girl's gifts to the scientist when she chose to join them on the Nomad. Hal because he either couldn't remember or wanted to let Sunny feel normal and Dave because he didn't feel it wasn't any of Naomi's business. She'd been too close to Outer Heaven for his comfort and after seeing what happened to the Beasts he didn't want the massive mercenary company to get any wind about Sunny's powers.

Hal however mentioned it was around the time Sunny would be making her usual lunch of eggs in the kitchen and Naomi left without hesitation. Dave just sighed from where he was lying down on the cot, hoping that at least the two would get along.

He was wrong.

Naomi had wanted to meet Sunny as soon as she heard about her, knowing how Raiden had rescued her from the Patriots and that Snake and Hal had raised her for the better part of a decade. The girl was by all accounts incredibly intelligent and a computing prodigy and Naomi knew what it was like to grow up as a gifted child. And while she couldn't exactly relate to the isolated upbringing Sunny lived with, Naomi felt she could relate to the girl's dangerous lifestyle. She'd felt that through her own childhood in the battlefield before Frank rescued her she could at least offer Sunny some insight through that and she felt the girl could use a little more feminine influence in her life; being raised by two men, one of who was a legendary super soldier, probably wasn't the best of life styles for a little girl.

Naomi found Sunny standing in front of the stove in the Nomad's kitchen, just like Hal said she would. The silver-haired girl was standing on a wooden box while singing under her breath as she reached to the bench top and pulled an egg from a basket, before cracking it on the side of the pan and spilling the egg onto the hot metal.

"Argon...Boron...Silicon and neon. Ebrium...Fermium...Plutonium...Chlorine...Florine, gallium and xenon...Thallium, strontium...."

Something in Naomi ached at seeing the girl gently sing the periodic table, at seeing something so normal and innocent after all the violence she'd witnessed being a prisoner so after a moment of dithering Naomi quietly approached. She lingered a few feet away, noting at how the eggs were beginning to stick to the pan while Sunny half-heartedly tried to flip them over while her singing shifted into wordless humming.

Remember all those years of learning how to cook at home, and how Frank would eat her food no matter how burnt it was, Naomi said softly, "The trick is to keep the lid on."

Sunny stiffened, humming stopping as she froze in place. Her head was tipped down, so her silver fringe hid her features.

Underrated by her behaviour, and reasoning that Sunny was simply unused to anyone outside Emmerich and Solid, Naomi picked up the lid lying on the bench next to the egg basket and put it on top of the pan, saying, "Now, let it cook for one minute."

The girl still refused to move or even look at her, small fingers tightening around the spatula. Naomi tried again, a smile crossing her face as bent down slightly towards Sunny and asked, "You like cooking, don't you?"

Sunny flinched away from her that time, lips twitching up into what Naomi could only describe as a snarl. A shiver of unease settled up her, like a fine cloud of mist, but Naomi ignored it as she said gently, "Good for you."

For a long while the girl didn't speak, simply staring at the pan with the spatula held tightly in her grip before she finally spoke, voice soft, "This is my Sunny-side-up fortune telling. When i-it comes out good, it means something good is g-going to happen. My friend says it's s-stupid but he helps me sometimes."

Naomi smiled, glad the little girl was beginning to open up to her, "Oh, so that's why you don't cook them over easy."

She only responded with a hesitant nod and a sudden clicking noise pulled Naomi's attention away from her; the duck-shaped egg timer on the shelf above the stove activated, the timer setting for one minute without Sunny even touching it. Naomi frowned, goosebumps rippling down her spine. Something seemed so strangely wrong all of a sudden and her nostrils were abruptly filled with the scent of leather and odd coppery undertone, like the stale tint of dried blood. Naomi glanced over her shoulder, having the feeling of being watched intently, but from what she could see only her and Sunny were in the kitchen.

With careful moments she reached out to gently touch the girl's shoulder only for Sunny to jerk backwards, a fierce glare swarming over her features.

"Don't touch me," the words came out like the hiss of a snake and Naomi flinched back, completely shocked at how hostile the little girl sounded.

"I'm sorry, I should've introduced myself. I'm Naomi, Hal might have mentioned that I was coming aboard? I'm here to help-"

"No," the girl shook her head, looking at Naomi directly on for the first time and she involuntarily took a step back at the ugly expression on Sunny's face, "I know w-what you want. You're a liar and you hurt someone I l-love, and I don't forgive you for it."

"Sunny-"

"No!" Sunny shouted that and Naomi backed away further, completely bewildered at where the sudden rage was coming from, "You're a liar and you hurt D-Dave and I don't forgive you! My friend told me about what you've been trying to do with uncle H-Hal and if I catch you trying t-to touch him again I'll let my friend hurt you so you can't hurt him because you're a liar!" Sunny screamed.

The jug which had been sitting on the microwave next to the stove suddenly struck the floor and shattered, lukewarm coffee spilling across the floor while shards of porcelain went flying in all directions. Naomi jumped back, completely bewildered on how the situation had shifted so violently even as Sunny continued to stare at her, teeth bared and eyes narrowed while she held the spatula in a grip so tight her knuckles where bone-white against the skin.

Then a small ding! sounded through the air and the duck-shaped egg timer started quacking. Sunny gave Naomi one last vicious glare before yanking the lid off the pan and angrily flipping out the eggs, uncaring that she threw them down on the plate hard enough she ripped open two of them and splattered orange yolk across the bench top.

Naomi left without a word, feeling as if eyes were boring into the back of her head as she fled the room.

"What have you two done to that girl?!"

Hal fumbled with his half-empty cup of coffee, nearly dropping the mug in his surprise as he spun around to face the suddenly angry woman who'd appeared behind him, "Naomi, what- what's wrong?"

"What do you mean 'what's wrong'?! Sunny just threatened me! What have you two done to her? Raiden gave her to you two so you could keep her safe!"

"We have kept her safe-"

"Then why is she like that? What did you do to make her like that?"

"We didn't anything," Hal said, anger beginning to brew in his gut over Naomi's insinuation they'd somehow hurt Sunny, "But in case you haven't noticed we have exactly had a normal lifestyle over the years!"

"No, but I expected better from you two."

"Well I don't see how that's our fault, that you and your assumptions," Hal snapped. He usually wasn't one for arguments but Naomi's opinion they'd done something to Sunny had stung, badly, and his hands clenched around the coffee mug.

"So you're just going to ignore it?" Naomi retorted, just as angry, "Don't act as if I don't understand the trauma children can go through, about how it can warp you and make you so bitter. I thought you two would at least try and guide her through it, but instead she's like this? What else could have prompted such an action from her?

"She knows about FOXDIE," Hal admitted, "About...how you injected him with it back on Shadow Moses. So I think she's...she's angry about you doing that, about hurting Snake. She's still just a child, Naomi."

Something crossed over Naomi's face and her mouth snapped shut. Without any further comments Naomi turned and left, Hal staring after her.

"Alright, you want to explain what happened?" Dave and Sunny were in the cargo bay, Dave sitting on the floor of the dormant helicopter with the girl curled up in his lap. After overhearing the conversation between Naomi and Hal Dave had sought out Sunny and found her in the cargo bay, glaring at the wall. He ignored the smaller objects in the room which were rolling back and forth with the girl's fiery emotions and took her into her arms to which she immediately returned the hug, anger dissipating.

"It's not fair," Sunny said, voice muffled against Solid's chest.

"Life can be pretty unfair, Sunny," Dave said with a sigh. He was less inclined to shelter Sunny compared with Hal, knowing the girl was too smart for them to passably lie to her for long, "Naomi messed up, and yeah she intended to kill me with FOXDIE back at Shadow Moses but she switched that off when she found out what really happened between me and Grey Fox," he chose to exempt the fact FOXDIE would become epidemic, however.

"You mean Frank?"

Dave wondered just how bad Hal's firewalls were, "Yeah, Frank."

"Didn't he try to-" Sunny broke off, glancing to the side and frowning as if she was listening intently before she looked back at him, "Oh, so F-Frank never actually wanted to fight you, my friend says. He made him- anyway, didn't he nearly kill you though? From years back, before he became a n-ninja."

"Well, even if you're on opposite sides you can still be friends. I considered Frank my best friend, even when we fought back at Zanzibarland. Even after I thought I killed him. But that's besides the point; what I'm getting at is that people sometimes do terrible things for the ones they love and that's why Naomi did what she did to me back then. Just so you can understand why she did it. Not just out of senseless hate, she had a reason for why she acted."

"She forgave him for murdering her parents," Sunny mumbled.

"...Yeah. Love is a bit strange like that. Sometimes you can forgive even the most terrible things in people."

"My friend is like that. He's d-done lots of horrible things but I still love him," Sunny leaned back slightly, looking up at him with wide brown eyes, "And I've read about all the bad stuff you did before y-you met uncle Hal and I still love you. We both do."

Dave felt as if he'd been punched, but outwardly he showed no change, "So do you get what I'm saying, Sunny? Naomi is like that in a way- less hands on, sure, but she was taken by Ocelot. Now she's here to help and can potentially aid us in taking down the Sons of the Patriots system. She can't do that if you're throwing stuff at her."

"That was my friend, not me," Sunny said quickly, "Um mostly."

He grinned, "Well at least his aim was bad. But do you understand?"

"I don't care about Naomi. I still d-don't like her."

"Yeah well, we need her help even if you don't like her. So try to stop your friend from killing her or throwing anything at her for the time being. We need her intact."

Sunny giggled, "Okay. I-I'll let him know."

Snake smiled, pleased that the girl's black mood had seemingly passed. As he shifted in place, Sunny still attached to him like a koala, his eyes fell onto one of the lockers in the cargo bay where his field bag had been haphazardly stuffed into.

"Ah, nearly forgot- I brought you something. Just forgot to give it to you with everything going on," he said, gently dislodging Sunny and setting her down on the helicopter floor.

"What is it?" she started bouncing up and down excitedly.

He waggled a finger, ignoring the ache in his joints as he straightened up, "It's a surprise, so shut your eyes."

The girl nodded quickly before covering her eyes with with small hands, keeping them obediently covered while Solid bent down and rummaged through the bag, sharp pangs of pain radiating up through his spine at the motion. After a moment he pulled back, a small doll held in his hands; It was the doll he found of Laughing Octopus during their vicious fight after his first meeting with Naomi. Why he even picked up the thing while being attacked by a cackling, murderous woman he still wasn't sure but he had thought instantly that it would be a good gift for Sunny.

He carefully held it out in front of Sunny and said, "Okay, you can look now."

"It's O-octopus!"

Sunny's face was a mixture of pleasure and sympathy as she held the doll gently, running small fingers over the curves of Octopus's tendrils before stroking the doll's head in a surprisingly affectionate gesture.

"She was in such pain- it's good that you k-killed her."

Dave frowned, "Sunny."

The girl blinked up at him, "It's true; she was suffering everyday. My friend told me about them, b-but I never really knew what they looked like. But s-she was in so much pain and all she could see were her l-loved ones, when she was forced to kill them and laughed. She was so b-broken and some things c-can't be fixed. At least no one can hurt her e-ever again."

After a moment of staring at her Dave sighed, coming to the conclusion Sunny had hacked into his conversation with Drebin after his fight with Octopus. The girl did have a bad habit of snooping, but honestly Snake didn't blame her. If anything he and Hal had cultivated that trait in the girl with all those years on the run. Besides, the manner in which she was regarding the doll made him fairly pleased he'd brought it back as a gift. He just had to keep an eye out if he could find anymore for the rest of the Beasts.

"She's safe," Sunny murmured, hugging the doll to her chest.

"Yeah. Just remember what we spoke about or I won't bring you back anymore of them, alright?" Dave said.

She nodded, "I promise."

True to her word, Sunny didn't scream at or try to fight Naomi again. Despite that the woman was still clearly angry over the incident earlier, but she was evidently blaming Sunny's hostile reaction on Hal and Dave.

It didn't stop Sunny from giving her dirty looks every so often, usually when the scientist was interacting with Hal. Dave probably shouldn't have found it so amusing but he couldn't help it; seeing Sunny's wide brown eyes narrowed into an uncharacteristic glare with her nose screwed up and an angry furrow to her brow was immensely entertaining.

Naomi was distressed by the obviously restrained rage the girl was exhibiting while Hal was equal parts concerned and clueless. But Dave had to give Naomi some credit; despite the blatant hostility- subdued as it was -she was still trying to befriend Sunny. Dave meanwhile was content to leave them alone to sort it out among themselves. He noted how Naomi was trying to get closer to the girl through her peace offering of a viral program she claimed could be built to shut down the GW and other Patriot systems. It did go some way of mollifying Sunny's anger; if there was anything Sunny could come close to hating it was the Patriots and she begrudging accepted Naomi's aid even if she remained cold and standoffish when the woman attempted to get a more personal connection with her.

Dave honestly found a weird sense of amusement over Sunny's behaviour that was probably inappropriate but it was a first seeing the girl so consistently angry. She'd shouted or had tantrums before but the personal vendetta she was holding was interesting. While Dave himself held no grudge against Naomi for her actions on Shadow Moses, as he understood her reasons, Sunny meanwhile clearly wasn't going to forgive; she lacked the experience and maturity to understand all the black, white and greys in between of life yet despite every she'd endured so far hence her simply putting Naomi in the 'this person hurt someone I loved and I don't forgive it' box and was refusing to back down even if she slid on a wooden, professional mask whenever they worked on the viral program. But it was easy to see in her tense posture and curt tone she was angry.

He did also witness a few more events of strange phenomena, mainly things moving or rattling ominously whenever Sunny got angry. There were also times where Dave could swear he could see something flickering at the edge of his vision or hovering near Sunny like a shimmering mirage with a weirdly ominous vibe but whenever he looked directly at it the shape would vanish. Dave was unsure if he was hallucinating or if it was a byproduct of Sunny's psychic abilities.

However she didn't turn that onto Naomi and Dave was relieved. They needed Naomi but if push came to shove he'd pick Sunny over her without hesitation.

Eastern Europe was where they got the rug pulled out from under them; Naomi betrayed them, Liquid Ocelot had successfully hacked the SOP network, and EVA died. the only upside had been the fact Raiden had gotten the aid he needed and was now on the way to recovery, even if he was still mainly unconscious. They ended up watching the footage from the Metal Gear Mk. II and learned of Ocelot's plan which involved stealing the rail gun from REX on Shadow Moses. Hal was upset over how the events had concluded from Europe and Sunny was angry enough Dave half expected her to start throwing things. As it was he could see some odd rattling from the smaller objects around her, as if she was subconsciously affecting them with her rage.

"I knew she was a traitor," Sunny growled from where she was sitting near the computer, after watching the footage with a stony expression.

"Sunny that's enough," Hal snapped, uncharacteristically short fused.

"Well it's true!" the girl immediately flared up, the cup near her elbow cracking in response to her anger, "I knew she was lying!"

"She was forced into it! Despite everything she might've thought we would lose and she's already seen what happened back in Europe. She-"

"Why are you defending her?" Sunny snapped, small hands curling into fists, "She betrayed us! And it wasn't a m-mistake! I knew we never should've trusted her after she hurt Dave!"

"Sunny, that was a mistake on her part-"

"Same with her betraying us?"

"That's enough you two," Dave barked.

Sunny blinked rapidly and Dave's anger vanished, seeing the tears swirling in her brown eyes. She was hurt, over Naomi's betrayal; Dave knew she'd been making herself cooperate with Naomi and a part of her could've potentially been letting down her guard with the woman, only for her to betray them and leave. It verified Sunny's original assessment of the woman and he knew Sunny was angry over it, over giving her a second chance only for the scientist to throw it back in her face.

Dave sighed, sometimes forgetting just how young Sunny was despite her immense intelligence. He needed to stop holding her up to adult standards and judging by the guilty look that was on Hal's face he was coming to the same conclusion.

"But did you see what they d-did to George?" Sunny finally said, voice quiet and upset, "Those people are monstrous. They couldn't even let him d-die with dignity."

The sudden change in topics caught him off guard and it took Dave a few seconds to remember who George was and he grimaced; the brief glimpses he caught of the biomort was indeed fairly grotesque, at seeing the still living mass of flesh which had been the late clone. Keep comatose and horrendously mutilated. He'd wished to keep Sunny away from that, but it seemed a moot point with all the monitoring.

"George," Sunny's voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked over at the girl from where she was sitting on the chair. Hal peered curiously over at her and Dave just blinked.

"What?"

"His name is 'George', not b-biomort."

The clone made a face, his suspicious about Sunny's abilities all but concrete now, "Alright, George. He's dead now, however."

"Good. He was suffering as well. I don't understand the P-Patriots, how can they do such h-horrendous things to people? What's wrong with them?"

Hal spoke this time, "They're doing this for various reasons, many they believe are worth all these lives they're ruining. Liquid-"

"Ocelot!"

"Ocelot," Hal quickly amended, "I'm unsure of his motivations but I have little doubt he's doing something for reasons he believes is just, that it's something worth ruining all these lives for. Same with the person who created the Patriot system to begin with."

Sunny's expression became ugly, "No reason is worth so much s-suffering and dying. Whatever r-reason it is it isn't worth it."

Hal nodded, "Which is why we still need to press on. Even with...even with all the current issues, we can't be deterred. We still have hope."

"Yes, I'm still working on the virus program but I k-know I can finish it in time."

"Good," Dave spoke that time, glad the sudden, bizarre argument between the two had vanished as quickly as it came. Keen to keep it that way, Dave pulled out something from his duffle bag and approached the chair Sunny was perched on.

"Here," without any fanfare he offered Sunny the doll he found of Raging Raven.

Instantly the girl's face brightened, living up to her namesake as she took the doll from Dave with careful movements. Small fingers traced the curves of Raven's wings, her expression tender as if she was holding a kitten instead of a doll of a murderous woman in a birdsuit.

"Don't worry, they can't p-peck you anymore," Dave heard her whisper to the doll. Without any comment, she slid off the chair and wandered out of the room, still mumbling to the doll in low, soothing tones. Behind her, the chair she'd been sitting on slid back into place without anyone touching it.

"Um, so I'll make preparations for us heading to Shadow Moses," Hal said in a fairly bemused tone, avoiding Dave's 'I told you so' look.

Shadow Moses had been an abject failure, with them being unable to stop Ocelot from stealing REX's rail gun. The only consolation had been finally dealing with Vamp and removing him from the equation but the rest had been painful.

Sunny had cried before and after the mission but when they tried to figure out what was wrong her answer had been vague and short.

"He died here," was her only response before the girl fled to her room and refused to leave until the mission of Shadow Moses had come and gone.

She refused to come out, spending all her time holed up inside working on FOXALIVE until Dave finally made his way into her rooms, a doll held in his hands. Much like the previous times, Sunny was overjoyed to be granted the figurine of a Beast, stroking the lean form of Crying Wolf with careful movements and cooing like a mother to her child before the Wolf joined the other two.

"She's safe," Sunny said solemnly, looking at the shelf where the small dolls of Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven and Crying Wolf were now placed, "She no longer h-has to think about her dead brother, o-or the little babies she killed. S-she can stop crying."

Dave said nothing and simply held the girl against him until she fell asleep. With careful movements he gently settled the girl down on her bed, covering her with a blanket. For a long moment he watched her sleeping peacefully, a deep ache in his chest that had nothing to do with his aging. Then he sighed and patted her silver hair one last time before getting up and leaving the room, seeking out Hal. The scientist glanced up from where he was tinkering with the Metal Gear Mk. II.

"Call Mei Ling," Dave told Hal without any fanfare, "It's time to end this."

Screaming Mantis dropped to the floor with a soft thud, beautiful features smoothing from her pained shrieking within death. Dave scowled, eyeing the motionless woman before accepting she was finally dead, even as a pool of blood began to silently grow beneath her. Before he could move on with his mission he heard a sharp scraping noise. With a grunt he swung around, gun at the ready only to stare as Screaming Mantis's discarded armour and extra limbs flew up into the air, hovering in place. Confused, he glanced down at the woman's form sprawled out on the floor, confirming that she was indeed still dead before redirecting his attention on the suddenly animated armour.

"Excellent, Snake," a raspy, high pitched voice hissed.

Dave scowled, wondering what trick was happening now, when suddenly a lean, transparent form consolidated into being just behind the hovering armour, the arms mimicking the movement of the specter. Despite it being a decade since Shadow Moses, Dave instantly recognized who was lurking there.

"Psycho Mantis."

"Ah, so now you can finally see and hear me," Mantis said, tone haughty as he leaned back slightly.

"What are you talking about?" Dave said, body tense. A crazed woman in power armour he could deal with; ghosts he wasn't sure of and had no idea on how to fight one.

"You want to me start by reading your personality like the old days? Well, I can't do that in this format," Mantis snorted.

Dave just grunted, confused as to what the psychic was rambling on about; for all he knew becoming a ghost meant loosing most of your reasoning. He wasn't sure and quite frankly he didn't have time for it.

"Fool," Mantis spat out with no prompting, just as voice shrill and high pitched as it had been back on Shadow Moses, "You know nothing about me or what I'm capable of."

"I killed you before," Dave retorted, unimpressed by the old FOXHOUND member's mind tricks.

"And did a lousy job, you useless dolt."

Dave blinked, unsure as to why the psychic was insulting him like a seven year old, "You were controlling the Beasts? I killed them all, you failed."

"I don't care for that lot," Mantis dismissed it with a wave of his hand, the armour following his movements, "All insane and broken. At least she is intelligent enough to carry on a proper conversation else I would've gone mad as well years ago."

"Who?"

"Someone who's very dear to you," the psychic said in mocking tones. Dave was tempted to try shooting him, despite the fact Mantis currently had no physical form that he could injure.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, what does it matter?" Mantis hissed, disgust in his voice, "Just hurry up and kill that wretched old man so I can be done with this mess. I'm tired of playing babysitter."

"What are-" before Dave could question the psychic further the shadowy form vanished without any fanfare, causing Screaming Mantis's amour to collapse onto the ground with a crash.

Then another voice spoke, voice soft and nearly inaudible, "The spirit of the warrior will always be with you."

Dave briefly caught a glimpse of another transparent figure lurking up high above, a shape strange and foreign before it too disappeared. His lips curled up in disgust at the thought of having to deal with ghosts but before he could ponder on it Drebin called him; the short conversation briefly pulled his attention away from the events that had occurred but as he left the room he glanced back at the scattered remnants of Screaming Mantis's armour and the odd conversation that had occurred with the ghost of a dead man. After a moment of thought Dave shook his head with a grunt and went to carry on with his final mission.

It was time for the Patriots and Ocelot to be taken down once and for all; he could think upon the strange, irrational words of a decade-dead psychic later.

The day after the fall of the Patriots Snake went to take the Mantis doll, knowing the strange figurine's ability to manipulate any soldier infested with nanomachines was all but moot now the Sons of the Patriots system had been killed but quite frankly the thing gave him immensely eerie vibes so he went to throw it out but when he went to his equipment locker on the Nomad he couldn't find the sinister doll anywhere. Asking Hal led nowhere, as the scientist didn't have any clue as to where the miniature Mantis had disappeared to but Dave had some sneaking doubts about where it had gone. Doubts that got confirmed into certainty when he checked the cargo bay of the plane and he found Sunny sitting crosslegged before the cages holding her three chickens, clad in her heavy brown overcoat with the Mantis doll hugged against her chest.

As soon as he spotted her Sunny's relaxed body stiffened, despite the fact he wasn't within her range of vision. He ignored that as he approached, his aging body slow and aching until he was only a few feet from the girl, the chickens soft cooing the only noise beyond the constant thrum of the Nomad's engines.

"Sunny, give me the doll," Dave's voice was calm.

The girl just clutched it closer to her chest, like she was attempting to merge it into her. A few loose bolts and screws that were scattered around the helicopter behind her began to inch towards them, producing near-silent scraping noises on the metal floor. Dave's body may be old, but all his instincts were warning him about impending danger, a sensation that spiked when the lenses of the doll's tiny gas mask suddenly shined in a brief flare of yellow light and the chickens started clucking anxiously. Then with slow movements she titled her head up to meet his gaze, eyes heavy with an emotion he couldn't pinpoint.

"He's safe here," Sunny mumbled, voice soft even if her stare was unyielding and steady.

"It's dangerous."

"He won't h-hurt me."

"Sunny, give me the doll," he repeated, offering a hand. Still, she refused to comply, small fingers wrapped tightly around the doll's midriff.

He tried a different approach, "Sunny...why don't you want me to have it?"

She mumbled something, momentarily looking away before saying, "You shouldn't have him. It's not...it's not right and he d-doesn't want it."

With a groan Dave knelt down next to her, belatedly wishing he'd thought to put on his sneaking suit earlier. Sunny's body language became more defensive at his proximity and a part of him was wounded to see her act like that towards him. He didn't want her last impression of him to be caution, apprehension. He didn't want her final memory of him being that but at the same time he wanted that twisted thing to be away from a girl who was finally free.

"That thing is dangerous- Screaming Mantis used it, it could hurt you."

"No," Sunny's reply was quick, "I don't have any nanomachines within me and he doesn't hate me, he won't hurt me."

Dave paused, thinking quickly back to his conversation with Hal about Sunny's psychic powers. It was very likely the girl could somehow sense Psycho Mantis's lingering presence through the doll, since Screaming Mantis had been but a puppet for the old FOXHOUND operative who'd materialized after he'd killed Screaming. Perhaps she felt some sense of kinship towards Mantis over it, knowing- or at least feeling -the residue energy within the doll from the psychic.

Sunny's eyes met his, eyes resolute and lips a grim line, "He's my friend."

With a sigh Dave decided to let it go as he straightened back up; if she wanted to keep the creepy thing then he guessed it wouldn't hurt her. After all, he'd given her the entire Beauty and Beast unit dolls and there seemed to be no ill effects from that. Though her calling it a 'friend' was a bit strange but then again Sunny was a strange girl.

Then Sunny's head jerked backed as if she'd been slapped, staring down at the doll with her mouth slightly open. Almost a blur she got up and flew at Dave, and he grunted as the small girl smacked into him, hands digging into his sides as she clung to him like a barnacle.

"Please don't kill yourself," the words were soft, muffled against the stomach of his sweater.

Dave felt a cold chill run down his back, "Sunny, I'm not-"

"Don't lie!" she pulled back, eyes swimming in tears but her expression was one of anger, "He just- I know you wanted to go visit a p-place, before we go to Meryl's wedding. But you don't just p-plan to visit, you plan to die. Why would you do this? W-we spent so long fighting and now we got rid of P-Patriots you want to leave us?!"

"That isn't why-"

"It's because of FOXDIE, isn't it?"

Inwardly Dave cursed the girl's psychics, as it seemed she was anticipating everything before he did it. Deciding to stop evading the girl who was smart enough to easily pick up on it, he looked her dead in the eye and said, "Yes. It will become an epidemic and it will target everyone regardless of their DNA."

"I don't care- neither will uncle H-Hal. We'll stay with you."

"Sunny, I will not be the cause of you two dying."

"So you would rather just leave and d-die and never say goodbye to us?"

With a sigh Dave gently pulled her away from him, wrinkled hands gentle on the girl's thin shoulders, "Sunny, I refuse to be the cause of your death- I've done horrible things in my life and spent years trying to make up for it. Now with the Patriots gone people can move on and you can finally be free to live as you wish- you and Hal, without having to look over your shoulder. I won't rob you of that, I refuse to do so."

Sunny watched him with an unfathomable stare, far too old for her young, smooth face and Dave had never felt more proud of her in that moment, of how composed and dignified she was, of how he could see her judge and reason his wording and accept it. She was far too mature and calm for her age and Dave both despaired and respected it.

Then she glanced back at the Mantis doll, which was sitting upright in front of the three chicken coops as if it'd been posed when neither of them had been looking. There was a long moment of silence before she faced Dave again and nodded once, "Okay, I w-won't tell uncle Hal about what you want, but you have to promise me you'll came to Meryl's w-wedding after you go to that cemetery. Promise me. Then you can...leave, if y-you still want. But you promise me you'll came to the wedding, even if you're late. Promise me."

Dave hugged her, ignoring the pain in his joints and back, "I promise."

The sun was setting over the runway, bathing everything in a soft golden light. A slight chill was descending in time when the vanishing sun but Hal remained sitting, watching as everyone celebrated Meryl's and Johnny's wedding. Well, not everyone. Snake still hadn't shown up but Sunny assured him Dave would. The girl herself was off in some distance, far enough Hal could see her but not enough he could hear her. A boy around her age, a local from the look of it, tried to approach her but Sunny was apparently more invested in speaking to thin air than she was to him and shooed him away. The incident made Hal wince; he'd hoped Sunny being outside would make her sideline her imaginary friend for real company but apparent that wasn't the case. He guessed it was a habit she couldn't just get away from.

Hal sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose and feeling tired. He was happy in a way, after the whole end of the Patriots but he still felt so tired like he could sleep for a year. A part of him was also lost; he'd spent so long running from the Patriots, fighting from the shadows, and now he was unsure just what he was going to down now. He wished Dave would arrive soon, or show up at all. He knew the soldier didn't really like social events but as far as a wedding goes Meryl's was extremely modest. As he gazed around Mei Ling waved at him from where she was still hovering near the buffet table and he smiled back at her.

Then Drebin nudged his shoulder and Hal glanced inquisitively at him only to follow the weapons dealer's gesture, seeing a familiar figure walking up to them.

"Dave!" Hal felt relief wash over him as the soldier appeared, slowly walking towards the party. Quickly he got up, briefly scaring Little Grey, and walked over to Snake with a bright grin on his face, "You made it!"

The soldier grimaced, looking uncomfortable in his tuxedo, "Yeah, made a promise to Sunny and you know how she gets if you break your word to her."

"Great! Anyway, we can go greet the happy couple," Hal grabbed Dave's arm and pulled him along to the party, ignoring the soldier's grumbling.

The next half hour was some fairly painful mingling but Hal was so happy to have everyone together he decided to just go with it. Mei Ling in particular was just as excited despite Meryl's good natured ribbing. Dave ended up gravitating towards the table of drinks, talking to Campbell for most of it. Eventually they separated from the group, moving to the fringes as they watched the party continue. Mainly with Jonathan and Ed dancing badly with each other while everyone else watched on in amusement.

Hal nudged Dave's shoulder, "I'm glad you made it. You were running pretty late."

"Yeah, had a...lot to deal with," Dave grimaced.

"It's strange, isn't it? To know it's all over. I wonder what everyone will do now."

"Patriots are all dead, so they can choose whatever they want."

"Finally..." Hal sighed. It still felt surreal, knowing the Patriots had been killed- both the AI system and the people. And that was mainly thanks to Sunny, who managed to strike down the Patriot system yet did so without destroying society in the process through her altered FOXALIVE.

Speaking of which, Hal glanced around, trying to locate Sunny. He blinked, noticing she was standing at the edge of the runway before the massive meadow with her head in her hands. A strange form with overly long, thin limbs like an insect was hovering in front of her, translucent and nearly indistinguishable. Despite that something nagged intently at Hal's memory, just something about the stretched out proportions but he was too far away to make out all the details. Then the phantom reached out and placed a hand on Sunny's head in a familiar, affectionate gesture before vanishing like a ghost on the wind.

Hal shared a look of intense alarm with Dave, a muttered, "Was that...?"

Dave just shrugged, looking just as confused as he was so Hal frowned before quickly approaching the girl, Dave following suit.

"Sunny? Are you okay?" Hal asked as soon as he was within a free feet of her, Dave by his side.

She looked up and Hal was concerned to notice the streak of tears leaving wet lines on her face, but she gave the two of them a watery smile, "I'm fine, I'm just saying goodbye."

"To who?"

"Psycho Mantis."

"You..." Hal thought he'd completely misheard her, "To who?"

"Psycho Mantis. He said it was time for him to leave so h-he did," she sniffed, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palm, "He warned me this would happen, but I-I'm still upset. But I'll be fine after a bit."

"But um," Hal fumbled at words, giving a helpless look at Dave who's expression was unreadable.

"So that's what he meant," Dave spoke, voice slow, "Back after I killed Screaming. When he mentioned someone dear to me. You...You spoke to him? Was it through the doll?"

"No, it's been for years," Sunny said.

"But, but how? How do you even know him?" Hal blurted out, feeling as if he'd missed something important.

Sunny spoke frankly, "Because he was my friend. My best friend."

Hal looked bemused, "Your friend? But you just..." he trailed, suddenly struck dumb by memories as they swarmed into his mind, recollection of every time Sunny spoke of her imaginary friend, of all the extraordinary phenomena that occurred, of her disjointed and aggressive mood swings, of all her knowledge of everything from Shadow Moses to Liquid Snake and the Patriots themselves. Hal felt cold, he felt so cold at knowing Sunny had been exposed to a pathological mass murderer for so long and neither he nor Snake knew anything about it.

"Psycho Mantis was your imaginary friend for all those years, wasn't he?" Hal said, tone dazed. He remembered hearing everything during and after Dave's fight with Screaming Mantis, at how Psycho Mantis had somehow manifested and his odd comments and him alluding to Sunny for some reason. No, not for some reason it was because he knew her. Had been following her for years, even.

Sunny gave him a reproachful look, "He isn't imaginary! But yes, he was my friend. But he didn't tell me his name for ages, he said you'd get mad so he made me p-promise. And it's important to keep your promises, he told me so."

"But...how?" Hal was flailing, still trying to wrap his head around the fact Sunny had been haunted by a homicidal psychic for near a decade, "Why did he stay near you? How did...He...he died back on Shadow Moses, years before the Big Shell incident! The only reason he showed up before was because he was connected to Screaming Mantis!"

Momentarily biting her lip, Sunny said, "We weren't sure- he didn't k-know why I was the only one he could talk to, or why I could see him and no o-one else could see him. I think uncle Dave could see him after Screaming Mantis d-died because he was...I think it's because they tried shoving his p-psyche into her head, but it didn't work. When we heard about Ocelot though, a few years back, and how he was calling himself L-Liquid, he left to see if he could see him. But he c-couldn't, so then we both knew Ocelot was a lying old man."

"But how would he know that?"

"Because he and Liquid had been friends since they'd been my age, I drew them before. A lot, actually. And other things he s-showed me."

Hal nodded dumbly, remembering all the pictures Sunny had drawn over the years, of the consistent art of two boys- one blond and one red -and Hal pressed a hand to his temple when he realized she'd been drawing Liquid Snake and Psycho Mantis as children. She'd been drawing them for years. How long had she been haunted by the specter of a murderous man?

All her life, a treacherous thought whispered in his mind and Hal felt nauseous. Raiden had given them Sunny to protect her and instead they'd completely missed the constant danger lurking around her, a literal ghost haunting her.

Dave meanwhile was continuing to question the girl while Hal internally despaired next to him, "How did you know about everything like that? We tried to dig up information on Psycho Mantis and Liquid Snake but found nothing,"

The girl looked confused, "He told me; he lived it so he knew everything about it. I think...he was lonely at first. Well, angry and c-curious would probably be better. He didn't know what to do, so he just...stayed around and then when he realized I was the only one who could see him he d-decided to tell me everything. But only after I understood the importance of a promise. Then he told me everything about his life, about h-how he grew up and everything he saw and heard and how he died."

"Sunny, why didn't you ever say something?"

Her expression slid from confusion to slight irritation, "He made me promise," Sunny stressed the word, as if frustrated they couldn't understand how special the word was, "B-but before he left he said he released me from the promises, that I can now tell everyone b-because I'm safe and he doesn't have to worry about me anymore so I can tell everyone anything I want."

"He...left? To uh, the afterlife I guess?"

"Um, I think so. At first he didn't know why he stayed, or why he couldn't....move on. So he just stayed with m-me. Then we heard about Ocelot, and how he was lying and stealing Liquid's name, so he thought t-that's why he'd stayed. He'd died for Liquid before, they were best friends, so he had to make sure Ocelot was really dead before he decided to completely leave. He liked revenge."

"So they grew up together? He and Liquid," Dave said. Hal pressed the heel of his palms against his forehead, feeling a headache brewing as the soldier and girl continued to talk.

"Yes. He loved him," Sunny said solemnly, "Even though he denied it w-whenever I said so and got mad about it. I know they l-loved each other and he died for Liquid even though he didn't care for what he was doing."

"He was a psychopath, Sunny. I doubt he felt such an emotion. He was probably just screwing around with you because he was bored for a decade," Dave wasn't convinced.

"You killed lots of people but you love us," Sunny replied without pausing to breathe. Dave jerked back slightly as if he'd been slapped and Hal stared at the girl who gazed back evenly.

"They're people," she stressed again, "No matter the e-evils they committed. And he cared about me and he cared about Liquid. He still felt those t-things, even after everything, even after all the hate he felt for everyone, everything."

Hal blinked back the sudden burn of tears, feeling inordinately upset at hearing Sunny vehemently defend someone like Psycho Mantis, a man who'd killed people for no other reason than he wished it, nothing more than he found gratuitous murder entertaining and an appropriate time passer. He could still remember the terror the gangly, other-worldly man and how he'd deliberately scare Hal or would riddle his sleep with night terrors simply for amusement. Hal knew the only reason Mantis hadn't shredded his mind or turned him into a bloody mess on a wall was because Liquid had needed him for REX but the man tormented him all the same and when he'd hesitatingly said as much to Liquid the clone had simply laughed as if it was a great joke.

But then countless memories surfaced in Hal's mind, of all the times across the years Sunny had fondly spoken of her 'friend', of how she'd repeatedly assured them that her friend would keep her company, keep her safe, whenever Hal and Dave had been busy. At all the times Hal had heard her laughing or talking when they were never in the room with her, at how she'd cherished the company of a ghost. It felt almost like a physical blow, realizing Sunny loved Psycho Mantis in the same way she loved him and Dave. That she'd held the guidance and company of a mass murderer without a conscious to the same level she did for the two of them.

Hal felt sick.

"-I remember back in Shadow Moses, when Psycho Mantis was dying. He said he didn't even care for Liquid's goals- he just wanted to kill as many people as he could," Dave's gruff voice pulled Hal away from his poisonous thoughts and without meaning too Hal leaned against Dave's shoulder, ignoring the concerned look the soldier shot at him.

Sunny gave an low hum, "Yes, h-he didn't care what Liquid was doing but he came back as soon as Liquid asked for him. Even though he was angry Liquid l-left him back when they would younger," an unhappy twist pulled down the corner of her mouth, "He...talked a lot about it. He was upset still or at least was angry over it."

"So?" Dave said, irritation in his voice, "Rather than just leaving when he figured out he was stuck here, he instead decided to haunt a little girl and complained all the time about how he died for someone who didn't care?"

Sunny shook her hair, silver hair swirling around her, "No, that isn't the point, uncle Dave," she said reproachfully, like a teacher lecturing a stubborn student, "The point is he was still a p-person, like us, despite all the terrible things he did. Same with the Patriots, despite all the horrific d-deeds they committed- EVA, Ocelot, even Zero and Big Boss. Even t-though the AI's got out of control, if we could understand why they did so, why they did all those terrible and horrific things, we would b-be able to anticipate it again in the future and p-perhaps stop it before anything like this c-can happen again."

"What..." Hal was fairly lost from the conversation, still reeling from the revelation Sunny had been haunted by a decade-dead terrorist psychic who she was defending and loved so he barely noticed when Sunny turned to Dave with an inquisitive look, though her next comment instantly snagged his attention and left him reeling once again.

"I know you met Big Boss at the cemetery and he died in front of you, uncle Dave. And FOXDIE isn't going to turn into a indiscriminate p-plague," Sunny said frankly.

"Wait what- a FOXDIE plague? What is she talking about, Snake?" Hal asked, distressed as he turned to Dave.

The soldier grimaced, wrinkles deepening as he frowned, "It's not a problem anymore. From what Big Boss said before he died Naomi was lying and FOXDIE wasn't symptomatic- or at least the new strain Drebin injected me with back in the Middle East essentially overtook the original and stopped it."

"He what?! And you met Big Boss?! I thought he was dead!"

"Look- I'll explain it later, now isn't the time," Dave said, looking exhausted. Hal glared at him, displeased at what the soldier had apparently been hiding from him but Dave was right; it wasn't exactly an argument he could start with Sunny in front of them and the rest only a few yards away still dancing and celebrating in front of the Nomad. Already a few were giving the three questioning looks but had restrained themselves from approaching the obviously heavy conversation but Hal had little doubt if they all started yelling at one another that would change.

Dave turned back to Sunny, "And how did you know that? You said as much earlier."

"Mantis told me," Sunny said simply.

"So that's how you knew so much all the time- he was reading peoples minds and telling you?"

"Yes."

"...But you can't read minds?"

"No," Sunny shook her head, "I'm glad I c-can't. From what he told me it was horrible and he couldn't stop it. Always o-other people and their thoughts clawing into his head all the time. He could n-never stop it. That's why he got so hateful."

"But what about everything else that happened?" Hal demanded, "The breaking cups, the windows, stuff falling off shelves...was that all him?"

"Mind, soul, spirit, breath, motion and movement," Sunny responded cryptically, "He explained a lot to me, as he said he'd been tested on a lot as a child. That might've been why he was drawn to me- we'd both been experimented on. We weren't sure though, as it was mostly theoretical s-speculations. But...at first it was. He said it was e-easier with children, especially when I got angry. Said it had something to do with my myelin sheaths being in development so it was e-easier for him to...reach through and use macro-psychokinesis. Um, like he was using me as a doorway."

"So he caused it?"

Her smile was mysterious, "Not all; He did teach me a lot of stuff, said it was um, easier for him to show me when he was...d-dead? It made things...clearer, I think, for psy p-phenomena because he couldn't do it when he was alive. But before he left he said h-he could give me the rest as it would weaken him enough to...untether himself from me and he could leave. Not enough for e-extrasensory perception, he said he wouldn't inflict that on m-me so he made sure not to. But enough he could open my latent cognitive abilities and b-bio fields. Because he said it would be dangerous for me e-even after the Patriot system was killed- that he didn't want all the effort he p-put into me be to waste after he left."

"What?" Hal felt completely lost, the entire conversation bouncing from so many topics he felt as if his head was still spinning. It sounded weirdly like Psycho Mantis had somehow exposed Sunny to enough psychic energy through his presence it'd somehow influenced her. Hal still wasn't sure and that, combined with everything else Dave said, left him feeling wildly out of sorts. Dave in contrast was looking increasingly disturbed, like he was coming to a distasteful conclusion.

"It would be e-easier if I showed you. Can I have your lighter?" Sunny asked Dave, holding out a small hand.

Sharing a confused look with Hal Dave reluctantly handed over his lighter from his jacket pocket, dropping it into the girl's open palm. She smiled before focusing all of her attention on the lighter, a furrow appearing between her eyebrows and lips becoming pursed. The hand not holding the lighter rose up, fingers twitching as she held it above the lighter like a claw.

For a long, silent movement nothing happened and Hal could hear the chatter and laughter coming from the after-wedding party behind him but both he and Dave remained intently focused on Sunny as beads of sweat appeared on her brow. Hal was about to ask what she was trying to do when the lighter began to twitch before very slowly rising in the air a few inches above her hand. Flexing her fingers like a puppeteer Sunny seemingly tilted the lighter in midair, flicking open the top without touching it and with a click it turned on, a small orange flame flaring to life and floated upwards, pulling free of the lighter and flickering in midair. With careful movements Sunny slowly moved her hands until both were palm up, the lighter hovering above one hand and the still dancing flame hovering over the other.

Sunny then looked at both them, strain showing on her features as she kept the two objects hovering from sheer mental will but she still broke into a brilliant smile, brown eyes glowing with happiness and pride as she beamed at them.

Dave spoke, voice faint, "Shit."