"On your mark. Get set. GO!"

A man yelled as he fired a pistol in the air. As soon as the gun fired, several teams of dogs, each one pulling a sled, took off from a starting line. The Iditarod, the longest dog sled race in the world, had begun. It wasn't long before one dog musher and his team of dogs began to leave the other teams behind in the freezing cold dust that was Alaska. This team was led by a man named David, better known by his former code name: Solid Snake.

As he took a shot of whiskey he had on hand, he thought about how he had gotten to this point with a smile.

Just a little over a year ago, Snake had tracked down a shadow terrorist group known as the Patriots, to their secret base elsewhere in Alaska, known as Shadow Moses Island. While there, he finally managed to put a bullet in the head of one of their top agents, Liquid Snake, ending him for good. After that, he destroyed the Foxdie virus by uploading a powerful antivirus created by his friend, Otacon. Once the antivirus spread to all the Patriot's AIs and other machines, it effectively destroyed them for good. After blowing up Shadow Moses just for good measure, Snake decided to retire from the soldier's life for good and spend the rest of his days relaxing in Alaska, racing dogs whenever the Iditarod event came around.

After stopping his dogs to make camp for the night and continue the race in the morning, Snake couldn't help but think that his life was perfect. He had finally gotten everything he wanted. No more fighting, no more killing, no more threats to the US, or the world for that matter.

But just before he went to sleep for the night, he heard the crunch of snow beneath someone's feet. Snake peeked out of his tent and saw someone walking through the harsh blizzard toward him and his camp. Someone wearing a black trench coat and a mask. This was someone Snake recognized from the Smash Brothers tournament. This was a teenager known as Joker.

"Joker? Ren? Is that you, kid?" Snake asked.

"Y-yeah. It's me. G-got anyplace warm t-to talk? I'd rather get out of Jack Frost's personal playground. I-if you don't mind." Joker said while shivering in the cold.

"Sure, kid."

Snake stepped aside and let Joker enter his tent, which, luckily, was big enough for two. After getting sufficiently warmed up, Joker began to relax and took his mask off.

"So, where the hell are we anyway?" Ren asked.

"Welcome to the middle of Alaska." Snake said while taking a swig of booze he had.

"Alaska? I knew it'd be cold here, but damn. Why are you out here in the middle of a blizzard? And can I have a swig of that?"

"I live here, kid."

"Live here? Why? Do you like getting drunk with Frosty the Snowman?"

"Joke if you want, kid. But it's a peaceful life. Ever since the Patriots and Liquid Snake went down, I've been living the dream. This year, I'm finally gonna win the Iditarod."

Ren found himself confused for a moment as to what Snake was talking about. But then he remembered. He had heard Snake talk before about how a group called the Patriots had pretty much ruined his entire life in one way or another. And that all he really wanted was to race dog sleds in Alaska. Ren then realized what had happened.

When he crossed into Mementos, he must have entered some warped version of a palace. One where the inhabitant's greatest dream came true. This was something he had actually dealt with before. Now, he would have to do it again. But that could wait until morning.

"So, I take it we're in the middle of that sled race you were going on about earlier?" Ren asked.

"Yeah. I've made camp for the night, but I move out again in the morning."

"Care for an extra pair of hands to help you win?"

"Sure. Get some shut eye. we leave at dawn. I'm gonna win this thing no matter what."

"I'll make sure we succeed."

The next day, Joker and Snake took off on the next leg of the race. Snake was actually mushing the dogs while Ren was keeping a lookout for potential obstacles.

"So, what made you decide to move to this frozen over Hell?" Ren asked.

"After I took care of the Patriots and their threat to the world, I decided to settle down here and do what I always really wanted, raise huskies and race 'em. Plus, It's a quiet life. I miss having quiet." Snake answered.

"I miss having feeling in my fingers and toes." Ren mumbled.

"Anyway, what the hell are you doing out here, kid? I thought you moved back to Japan after Smash ended."

Joker knew this was the time to begin talking Snake out of his fantasy. The sooner he did, the sooner he'd have another ally on his side (and the sooner he'd get out of the cold).

"Oh, well, I spent some time there. It's nice, but I decided I wanted to visit some old friends, see how they're doing. I decided to start with you. So, aside from racing and freezing your ass off, what is there to do here? Doesn't seem like much. Don't you miss being a soldier, even a little? Protecting people and taking down bad guys?"

"Not really."

"Is that so? You're happy just living the dream? Even though things almost never turn out picture perfect?"

"Yeah. Being a fighter had its perks, and helping others was nice, but I'm done."

"If you say so. I just think living without a little risk in life and not helping others if you can is a a bit unfulfilling. I like doing it, like the time we tried to fight that creepy ball of light."

"Creepy ball of... wait a minute."

Snake suddenly had flashes of a giant ball of light with multi-colored wings shooting beams of light at him and the others. One of them struck him.

"We did fight that thing. And..."

"Keep going, you'll get there." Joker encouraged.

Snake thought about it some more but then he saw something up ahead.

It was a lake that had been completely frozen over. Snake was about to go around it, but Joker stopped him.

"I think the quickest way forward is across that frozen lake," Joker said.

"Not happening, kid. That ice isn't thick enough for us to travel over. Last guy who tried fell in and froze to death."

"Just trust me on this."

Against his better judgement, Snake went over the frozen lake. Despite his earlier claim, the ice didn't so much as crack as they went over it. Once they made it across, Snake realized he had not been afraid the whole time.

And that is what startled him.

He stopped the sled in its tracks as Ren looked at the former soldier.

"Why stop? Too far ahead of everyone and want them to catch up?"

"Y'know, I've done this race plenty of times. Each time, I was always scared to go across that lake. But not this time. I didn't feel any fear at all."

"Why's that?" Joker asked.

"Because it isn't real, is it? Something happened after that fight with the ball of light, and that's why I'm here, isn't it?"

Joker nodded and proceeded to explain the situation.

"That's right. During the attack, some of us, like me, got away. But a lot of the others, like you, were captured. And made to live in a bizarro world where you live out your greatest dreams. No fear, no worries, none of that."

"You were right, kid. Living in paradise isn't all it's cracked up to be. No fear and no regret isn't all that great."

"Trust me, I know. I've dealt with something like this before."

"I have to go back, don't I? Back to the real world?"

"Yep. It's time to be a soldier again. Fight Galeem with us and the others. Save people, just like I said earlier."

"A soldier's job is never done. It's time to get back in the fray. But how do we get out?"

"Leave that to me. Just keep moving forward, and I'll get us out."

Snake did as Ren asked and mushed his sled forward. As he did, Joker pulled out his phone and opened a portal out of Mementos, which the pair swiftly went through.

As Shulk and Byleth sat around a fire they had set up after Joker disappeared, they made idle conversation.

"So, you said you had a goddess living in your head. How is that?"

"Not too bad, actually. She can get kind of annoying at times, acting like a brat. But she's helpful more often than not, and has granted me some interesting powers. What about you? You told me about how you killed a god. But you never said how you did it. It couldn't have been easy."

"It really wasn't. First thing we did was..."

Before the conversation could go further, Joker suddenly reappeared out of nowhere.

"Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me." Joker said.

"I miss not being in the cold for so long. Valak Mountain seems like a hot spring compared to this." Shulk stated.

Before anyone could say something else, the statue of Snake suddenly returned to flesh and blood.

"Oh, God, my head. Where are we?" Snake groaned.

"We're in the north. Near the mountains. We were hoping to find one of our allies up here in the cold." Byleth answered.

"And we did. So I say we turn around. I've had enough of the cold, thank you. (Note to self, never visit Alaska. Ever.)"

"Wait, what is that?"

Everyone looked to where Shulk's finger was pointing. There were some faint lights coming from the top of the mountain. Snake pulled out a pair of high tech binoculars and looked toward the light.

"Looks like we have company. And I don't think it's the friendly kind. If there's a target up there, I say we take it out."

"As much as I hate the cold, I have to agree with Snake. The sooner we deal with this threat, the better. Plus, there might be others up there along the way." Shulk added.

The rest of the group agreed and they made their way up the mountain. It was a long and tedious process, but soon enough, they made it. Then they were met with a sight that horrified all of them. A larger, upgraded, and more terrifying-looking version of Ridley.