[ Right, Eli. Snake can't ever think of him as anything but Liquid, though. Giving him a real name humanizes him too much, and he doesn't want to dwell on the mental image of a kid barely into his double-digits fighting for his life in Africa. Miller's told him a little about it, but Snake doesn't need to take on more guilt for someone who'd put him through the kind of hell that Liquid did.

Which isn't even touching on what he did to Gray Fox. ]

My guess is that he was already pretty far gone by the time that you came across him. [ Snake doesn't think that Venom needs to blame himself for how Liquid turned out. That had all been the Patriots. All of this goes back to them. ]

The Patriots... [ Snake pauses and shakes his head to himself. ] Cipher, I guess you'd call them. They had me under their watch through my entire childhood, set me on the path that led me to FOXHOUND. [ That led him to killing Venom and Big Boss alike, but Snake finds those words getting caught in his throat again. He'd regretted not telling Venom the first time, so he's not going to make that mistake again, but...

Not now. Not yet. Not when the guy is still wrapping his head around being in space and grown-up clones and everything else that makes no sense on the Moira. ]