"You know I couldn't," John replies back matter-of-factly. As much as he wanted to, contact had been pushed off the table from the get-go. It was too dangerous to align himself with the Diamond Dogs, would've destroyed the foundations of Outer Heaven in the cradle. And that's what all of this is about, what it's always been about: the final solution to Zero's idea of world peace. No matter what John's personal feelings were, what he wanted, Outer Heaven was more important than all of them.

Ocelot had understood that, had been sacrificing to see Zero's antithesis be brought into reality for at least a decade. John wanted to believe that Kaz understood the situation, too, but from the looks of things, it seemed that he had been blinded by his pride.

The soldier's face betrays none of his thoughts, not the disappointment, not the confusion. He's impassive, taking the brunt of his friend's anger with the best poker face known to man. "I wanted to, Kaz. I wanted to be involved." After all, Diamond Dogs was as much his as it was Venom's. Those were his men, some of which who had been loyal since the first version of Mother Base, and, maybe it was vanity talking, they belonged to him. "You knew when you agreed to this, to stand by Venom, that I couldn't be in the picture." Miller could've walked away after after the helicopter crash, could've walked away when both him and the medic were still in comas, could've walked away after making contact with Ocelot.

But he hadn't. So what was the use of all this anger? This sense of betrayal?

"...Didn't you?"