in the quiet loop. (solid snake x reader)

07 - captured.

You chuckled and leaned back in your seat, heart still thudding, warmth curling somewhere between your ribs.

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The Kasatka hovered steadily over the designated LZ on the Manhattan Bridge. Otacon carefully brought the chopper down, its skids making contact with the concrete, just shy of the police barricades set up along the bridge. NYPD and emergency response teams were already on site, ushering civilians away and creating a perimeter.

You helped the last of them step out of the chopper, your hands firm but kind as you guided them onto solid ground. Emergency responders were already waiting, their voices calling out, blankets and medical kits ready.

Hal deactivated the rotors and joined you as the two of you stepped out into the sunlight. In the distance, smoke was beginning to rise from the far-off horizon — the Big Shell was no more. The artificial structure, and Arsenal Gear underneath it, had begun to collapse.

You turned to Hal, who was helping an older man with a bandaged arm. His glasses were fogged, his white coat rumpled, still stained with Emma's blood, but there was a steady clarity in his eyes now.

"We did it," you let out an exhale.

"We did," Hal replied softly.

Once the last hostage was safely in the hands of medical personnel, the two of you boarded the Kasatka again, rising above the city skyline, flying low and quiet until you reached the designated safehouse.

The safehouse was a nondescript loft deep in Lower Manhattan, shielded by dummy lease agreements and multiple firewalls in the digital and physical sense. Dimly lit, the space had been used before with folding tables set with laptops, surveillance tapes, open dossiers.

Otacon had set up his gear near a wall already peppered with photos and schematics. His laptop screen blinked with Pentagon leaks and archived FROGS data recovered from the Big Shell's servers. You leaned against the edge of the table, your expression sharp with focus.

"It wasn't just about Arsenal. The whole thing was a copy of Shadow Moses."

Hal nodded. "Same sequence. Same roles. Different names."

He brought up side-by-side mission logs with Shadow Moses on one side, the Big Shell on the other.

"The virus. Even the betrayal by the commander. Raiden was forced into the same path as Snake. Every step was part of the Patriots' S3 Plan."

You studied the overlapping mission layouts, the psychological conditioning notes, the AI-driven codec calls. You crossed your arms, watching the loading bar complete on Hal's screen as he decrypted another block of data.

"So the Patriots engineered the Big Shell incident to prove they could replicate Shadow Moses... to prove they could fabricate legends."

Hal sat down, leaning forward, exhausted. "And Snake and Raiden? They were just variables in the simulation."

The whir of laptops filled the safehouse, interrupted only by the sharp taps of Hal's keyboard. You hovered near him, headset on, waiting. Then Hal tuned in his frequency, calling Snake.

"Snake! Raiden!" Hal called out.

"Otacon! Y/N! You guys all right?" Snake replied, almost breathless.

"Yeah, so are all the hostages," Otacon answered.

"That's good news," you heard Raiden say.

"How's everything on your end?" You asked.

"All right for now. But there is something," Raiden paused, the continued. "The Colonel's transmission was strange."

You raised an eyebrow. "Strange? How?"