[ooc drabble; yun enabled me]
Now with musebox thread. Dammit Yun.
When Hal Emmerich awoke, it was with a violent start. Scarabs were swarming the Missouri with Metal Gear RAY, Snake was struggling to make it to the core of Outer Haven and the Patriots' AI-everything was going straight to hell and Otacon was absolutely certain they were all about to die. But his life didn't matter; putting a stop to the Patriots was the only thing that mattered anymore. And just as RAY stood onboard the ship and prepared its weaponry to obliterate Otacon, Sunny, Mei Ling, the entire Missouri..he woke up.
And there he was, on the floor of a perfectly calm and silent hotel room after having fallen off the edge of the bed. Otacon felt disoriented, as if he'd been asleep for days. What was going on? Where was Snake, the ship, the Nomad, RAY and the Scarabs? Where the hell was he and where was that music coming from?
Stumbling slightly as he got to his feet, Otacon made a quick list of what he had. Glasses, turtleneck, everything he'd been wearing mere seconds ago, Pokeballs on the nightstand, no laptop-
-wait, what on the nightstand? The engineer stared blankly at the red and white spheres sitting next to the alarm clock as if they belonged there. It had been five years for him, and as the disoriented feeling left him Otacon began to fully comprehend what had transpired. Had they really been waiting for just a week here? Had everyone been waiting for only a week-were they even still here? Otacon had no way of knowing for sure if it had truly been seven days in Johto since he'd fallen asleep. It could have been months or even the entire five years he'd spent at home.
Heather, Rise, his own father, Liquid...would they even recognize him? Hal Emmerich hardly even looked the same as he had when he last stood in this hotel room. Five years had changed him visibly as well as psychologically; as he sank into the nearest chair, Otacon remembered the nervous labcoat-wearing man he had been before he'd left. He wasn't afraid to face danger anymore, whether it was hiding from the authorities on the Nomad or facing death by a bipedal weapon. And then there was everything that had happened with Snake, Raiden...and Naomi.
He wasn't the same anymore. He couldn't go back to being the Otacon of five years ago if he wanted to, and if his friends-no, his family-didn't like the person he had become the he would definitely want to.
Shakily, his hand reached fr the nearby Pokegear and turned on the camera-taking a breath to steady himself and folding his arms as he did when taking to Snake from the Nomad, he spoke calmly.
“...Looks like I'm back.”
And Hal Emmerich knew now more than ever that life just wasn't fair.