Going off of Marth's personal letter, Snake traveled to Ground Zero. It of course was named that because that's where the battle seven years ago took place, the one Snake watched. Sure enough, he found the blue-haired swordsman standing in the crater created by Master Hand.

"So you've come." Marth said.

"I never turn down a challenge. Of course you already know that. You should've done this a lot earlier, save us both some time." Snake scolded him.

Marth chose not to dignify that with a response.

"That was very clever of you, the way you turned my men against me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh don't play dumb! The two soldiers. They claimed that you spared their life and revealed the truth to them. And they in turn revealed the truth to the other soldiers, the truth as to who was behind the mutants."

And then Snake remembered. The two soldiers he ease dropped on to get info on Robin's location. He remembered their doubts, their questioning as to whether they were doing the right thing. He revealed the truth to them and they felt ashamed. Snake refused to kill them, and told them to go and do something with their lives. He didn't expect to hear anything about them again, but apparently they chose to fight the good fight.

"The other soldiers became furious, and stormed into my room when they found out I had manipulated them. They ousted me from New Smashville, and told me to fend for myself." Marth further explained.

"And only then did you decide to challenge me, one on one?"

"I'm out of options it seems." He admitted. "Seven years ago, you witnessed the battle that led up to the Catastrophe. When you look at this place, what do you see?"

Snake took another look at his surroundings, brief flashes of the battle went through his mind.

"I think that this is the place where everything we once knew ended, but where everything we now know began."

"That's a good answer. But to me, I feel as though this is the place where Master Hand turned on us and destroyed our world! Destroyed everything we loved!" Marth spat, saying the Hand's name with disgust.

"No…no you're wrong Marth. Master Hand may have dealt the final blow, but even if he hadn't the world was slowly being destroyed by fighters with a bad case of megalomania." Snake retorted.

"So you think that he did what he did to rid the world of those dangerous fighters? To give whoever survived afterwards a chance to build a better world?"

"Maybe he did. But if he did he didn't get rid of them all, because I see one standing in front of me."

"You believe I'm mad with power?" The prince asked.

"I remember you being one of the many who couldn't get enough Smash Balls. So yeah, I think you are. Why don't you tell me the truth? What's your little group all about? Cause it sure as hell isn't about helping to make a better future."

Marth laughed with a sinister tone. "Looks like you can see through bullshit! Is that what my fellow members said this was about? Making a better world? Sacrifices have to be made?"

Snake growled in anger. "I knew it. You just wanted to play God. Looks like the real Marth is gone."

"With Master Hand dead, the world was for the taking. It should've always been in the hands of the Smashers. Only I was the one to see that. I wished to control things just as Master Hand could. I'd rule the people. I'd control history. I'd determine who was good and who was evil! But you…"

"Did I get in the way of your ambitions?" Snake mocked.

"Oh you did. Oh so much! The fact that you're even alive makes me wonder if there's another force at work here. Something or someone must have protected you from the blast!"

"Come on! Conspiracy theories?" he scoffed.

"Hear me out Snake. Did you ever wonder whatever happened…to Crazy Hand?"

Snake's attitude changed immediately. Suddenly Marth's crazy thoughts didn't sound too crazy.

"No…it never really occurred to me. Come to think of it I didn't see much of him around the time before the Catastrophe."

"Exactly! And he wasn't at the final battle! I think he's still alive! Still alive, and plotting against me. Maybe he wants full control of the world, but I'm in his way?" Marth thought fanatically. Snake then became hostile towards Marth again.

"If that's the case, then I'll finish the job for him." Snake said and drew out his elemental machete. Marth chuckled and equipped his Falchion for combat. Despite his smug demeanor, Marth was feeling something he hadn't felt in a very long time; Fear. He hadn't exactly been training all these years, and he was facing someone who's spent seven years braving the wasteland and specialized in one on one combat. The odds were not in his favor and he knew it.

The two charged at each other and clashed blades. They glared at each other intensely for a brief moment. Marth drew his blade back and began to attack. Snake blocked the attacks, and kicked Marth in the gut. While Marth leaned over in pain, Snake swung down to decapitate him. Marth rolled away just in time. Marth goes for a horizontal slice, and slightly grazes Snake across the chest. But it didn't stop Snake in the slightest. Marth went for a vertical slice, but Snake grabbed Marth's hand and stopped the sword from dropping down. Marth struggled to get his sword hand free of Snake's grasp, but Snake clearly was stronger than him. Marth threw a few punches at Snake's face, but Snake didn't flinch in the slightest. Then Snake struck Marth with a punch of his own and knocked Marth on his back. Marth quickly rose to his feet, knowing being grounded would mean death. He lunged his sword at Snake, but he sidestepped to avoid the attack and countered with his machete and cut Marth's arm. The elemental damage left a burning feeling on his wound. Now seeing Snake dashing towards him, Marth did a front flip, landing behind Snake and slashed him across the back. Marth had a smug smile after landing the attack, but that went away when he noticed Snake still not showing any feeling of pain from the attack. Before he knew it, Snake spun around and smashed Marth with a back-fist to the cheek. Marth staggered back from the force of the attack. When he recovered, he found himself floored by a roundhouse kick. As Snake approached Marth, the swordsman pulled out a throwing knife and threw it right at Snake's shoulder. Snake grunted in pain, but remained focus on the battle at hand. Marth got back up and the two clashed blades once more. Though this time, Marth was starting to overpower him, due to the damage that knife did to his arm.

"I can't win a sword fight with an injured arm." Snake thought. Then he did something Marth didn't expect. He headbutted Marth with the shrapnel in his head. Marth screamed in pain and grasped his forehead with his hand. He looked at his hand, it was smeared with blood. The attack was painful to Snake as well, his head ringing from the attack. Against his better judgement, he used the attack again. Crimson blood further spewed from Marth's head. And then he struck with another headbutt, both of them screamed from the pain they were feeling.

"God dammit! Stop!" Marth begged.

"Fine…"

Snake dashed forward and stole Marth's Falchion from him and impaled him with his own weapon. After the sword went through Marth's body, a colorful and mystifying aura released from him. Snake recognized it.

"Smash Ball energy…"

The aura formed into a ball before exploding and fading into nothingness. As it did so, Snake swore he heard demonic screaming. Marth fell to his knees, the sword still inside him. He was dying and he knew it. If he pulled the sword out it would only speed things up. He still had things to say so he kept it in.

"Seven years…seven years that…thing…has been inside of me. Controlling my thoughts, my actions, my morals. But I wasn't completely gone. A part of me was still there! I could see all of what I was doing, and I could do nothing!" He explained as tears began to drop from his eyes.

"Marth?"

"Yes Snake. It's me…the real me."

"What the hell happened?"'

"My Falchion, is a sword of divine power. It is a weapon to vanquish evil, and any force that would tarnish souls with evil."

"And the energy of a Smash Ball falls under that category?"

"Yes. But you…have freed me from its control. Freed me from that horrible nightmare."

"I wish there was a different way of doing that."

"I know you do Snake, but you did the right thing. All of us were beyond help."

"The Smash Ball energy really is that bad huh?"

"You were too right Snake. Master Hand should've listened to your warnings." Marth said.

"I can't say I'm happy for being right about that."

Marth began coughing up blood.

"Snake…you and I both know that I'm not walking out of this alive right?"

"Yeah…I know." Snake lamented.

"At the very least…I can die happily knowing that the Wasteland has someone like you to protect it." The Hero King smiled.

"Well, I didn't do all of it alone. I had friends backing me up along the way."

"Well, that's even better." Marth said with relief. "You've vanquished a great evil today Snake…but don't let you or your friends let your guard down."

"Yeah I know how it goes. You defeat one evil force, then another one ends up coming to take its place. I'll make sure we're ready for whatever comes next."

"I know you will." Marth confidently believed. "One last thing Snake. What I said about Crazy Hand. There's some truth to that. While I don't think there's a big conspiracy with me as the target, I do believe that he might still be out there."

"Yeah. I've got the same feeling since you brought it up. I'll make sure to look into it the best I can."

"Good! Thanks Snake."

Marth began to feel immense pain spread throughout his body. He knew what it meant.

"It looks like it's time for me to go." Marth stood up and Snake nodded grimly. "By the way…my wife…is she…"

"Don't worry, she's safe and sound. And I've got the feeling she knows that megalomaniac wasn't her husband." Snake assured.

"Good…thanks Snake."

And with that he pulled his Falchion out of his body, blood rapidly began to drain. He collapsed to the ground, but with the last bit of his strength, he threw the sword at Snake's feet.

"Take it Snake!" He pleaded. "Destroy it, keep it, do whatever you want with it. Just don't let it fall into the wrong hands!"

Snake reached down and picked up Falchion. He put it along with the rest of his equipment. This was a former Smasher's last request, and he would carry it out.

"Goodbye Marth."

"Goodbye Snake…"

After a few more seconds, Marth's life force had faded away. The Hero King was no more. After paying his final respects, Snake turned to leave, but suddenly he heard a large amount of footsteps, and it sounded like they were heading his way.

"I think he went over here!" He heard a voice shout. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a large number of Committee soldiers. They arrived to see him standing over Marth's dead body. With their leader gone, he wasn't sure what to expect from this leaderless army.

"He did it! He actually did it!" He heard a voice cheerful shout in the back.

"What? GAH!" Snake fell to his knees as the wounds he received from the battle began to kick in. He started fading in and out of consciousness.

"He's wounded! Get him to a medic ASAP!" He heard one of the soldiers say and could feel two people help him up to his feet and assisted him in walking.

Sure enough, Snake found himself escorted to a nearby camp, and was being attended to by two medics, one male and one female.

"I think we'll start with the most obvious injury." The male said referring to the knife in Snake's shoulder.

"If it's not too much trouble." Snake replied.

The doctor gripped the handle of the knife. "Ready?"

Snake took a deep breath and prepared himself for the inevitable pain that would come from removing the knife. "Yeah, ready."

The man swiftly removed the knife. Snake let out a low grunt of pain, while the woman almost instantly began putting pressure on the wound. Snake was surprised. The process was a lot less painful than he thought it would be. It was clear these two were very skilled in their profession.

"Thanks." He said as they closed up the wound.

"Your welcome. Now we'll need you to take off your upper layer of clothing. We need to stitch up those cuts on your chest, arm and back." The female medic said.

"Alright." Snake said and obliged to the request.

"Do you want some anesthetic while we stitch this up?" The man asked.

"No thanks."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm used to stitching up my own wounds so it won't be a problem."

"Very well then."

Several minutes later, the two medics treated and patched up Snake's wounds. Then two men walked into the tent.

"How's our man doing, Doc?" One asked.

"Oh just fine. We just finished, so we'll leave you two to talk to him." The doctor said and left with his colleague.

"Do you remember us Snake?" The second man asked. Snake took a moment to analyze the sound of his voice, going through his brain to see who it belonged to. He found the match.

"Yeah! You're the two soldiers that told me where to find Robin."

"That's right! But we never really formally introduced ourselves. My name is Victor."

"And I'm Macready." The second soldier said.

"Good to meet you two. Looks like the two of you took my advice and decided to fight the good fight."

"We never forgot what you did for us sir! You showed us the truth, and we felt that the others should know as well." Macready explained.

"Where are the others?" Snake asked.

"Follow us! We'll show you!" Victor said.

Snake stepped outside the tent, and was greeted to a wave of former Committee soldiers standing and saluting him.

"SIR!" The soldiers all said in unison.

Snake stood in front of them confused.

"Who are they talking to?" He asked Vic and Macready.

"They're talking to you, sir." Vic said.

"Me? Why me?"

"We are all eternally grateful to you for helping us to stop being a part of a mistake. We want you to be our Commanding Officer. Because we believe in you, and we believe that you will always lead us to fight the good fight!"

Snake was shocked. Here was an entire group of soldiers for him to command. He wanted to decline the offer of being their leader, but he couldn't. He sympathized with these men. They had been manipulated by their superiors as he had been numerous times in the past. He felt honored.

I don't have a good reason to refuse. These men want to right the wrongs they were tricked into committing. They just want to help. And I don't think anyone will trust them if they're not with me. They'd be perfect for helping the Unified Republic me and the others have been planning.

"All right! I accept!" He agreed aloud. First things first, we're going to New Hyrule. Everyone follow me!"

"Sir, yes sir!" The men shouted.

Snake headed to New Hyrule, along with the new men under his command. Several of his friends, new and old, were waiting for him there. Peach, Link, Zelda, Fox, Krystal, Luigi, Daisy, Ryu, Ike, Lucina, Rosalina, and Female Robin were all ready to congratulate Snake on completing his mission. Snake had arrived and they were filled with joy. However, they became suspicious once they saw a wave of Committee soldiers following him.

"Relax! They're with me." Snake said to calm his friends down.

"Who are they?" Link asked.

"Men and women who were fooled into fighting for a cause they don't believe in. Really, they're just like us. They just want to help."

And just like that they lowered their suspicions. They just trusted Snake that much.

"All right. If they're with you, then they're okay in my book." Luigi said.

Snake walked over to Link, Zelda and Peach. Peach gave Snake a tight hug, and he returned the embrace.

"You did it! You came back!" She cheered.

"I told you I had a pretty good chance didn't I?"

Once she released him from the hug, he looked to her, Link and Zelda.

"I think it's time we get this…Republic that we've been talking about off the ground."

To start things off, Snake was given the position of "Peace Keeper". With that position, he would act as the "checks and balances" of the Smash Republic, checking that governing officials weren't abusing their authority, and stepping in if they were. Of course he wasn't worried about having to exercise that power. He trusted the others enough to make the right decisions, and they trusted him with the role.

Then Snake would make Koopa Keep's alliance with the Republic official. With Snake being given a government role, the citizens felt safe with aligning themselves with the more Monarchy styled settlements. He would also create an alliance with Mewtwo and the Pokemon village, an alliance Mewtwo was more than happy to make.

New Smashville was also integrated into the Republic. With Marth gone, leadership of the city was shared between Snake, Zelda, Peach, and Murphy until an official leader could be elected in. The people of Smashville had no problems with this, especially with the idea of the legendary "Nomad" watching over them.

The former Committee soldiers became a part of the "Nomad Squad", a squad commanded by Snake himself. They were split amongst the different Republic settlements to serve as the protectors. They were actually given a warm welcome by the citizens, something they never got while serving the Committee. They finally felt like they were truly serving the people.

Snake kept his promise to Peach, and decided to stay around for a while, take a break from his perilous travels. She gave him a grand tour of the Mushroom Kingdom amongst other things. He helped her get some more practice at the shooting range. He enjoyed spending time with her. She helped to remind him of the simpler and enjoyable things in life.

He also trained the Hylian and Nomad soldiers in CQC. He was very impressed with their resolve. No matter how many times he'd knock them off their feet and on their ass, they'd get back up and were ready to learn some more. They were true soldiers, and he made sure that they knew that.

Ryu watched the CQC training and took interest in it. He challenged Snake to a sparring match. He barely won the first round, but it seemed that round was Snake sizing Ryu up. The next round, Snake had very quickly adapted to Ryu's fighting style and created multiple methods to counter him, and defeated Ryu. It took Ryu a few more matches to adapt to Snake's CQC, but afterwards they became evenly matched. Their fights would always end in a draw.

And of course, Snake gave Marth's Falchion to Caeda. Of all people, she deserved to keep it. He told her to always remember her late husband for who he really was, and not what became of him.

Snake enjoyed his vacation. He got to catch up with old friends, get to know some new ones, and watch as the Wasteland took a step forward towards becoming a better place. However, it wasn't time for him to retire. After a month of R&R, he was getting ready to get back in action.

"Snake! I'm glad I found you!" Rosalina said excitedly.

"What's up Rosa?"

"There's something I want to show you! Follow me!"

Snake walked with Rosalina as she guided him to her lab.

"I've been working on this for about two weeks, and I finished it just in time! I think you're going to like it."

"Well what is it?" Snake asked. Then Rosalina showed him her project. "Oh. It's my sneaking suit. Did you do something with it?"

"I did! It's not just an ordinary sneaking suit anymore. I've imbued it with Star power, so now it'll serve as a much better suit to keep you protected in the wasteland. Its durability is significantly improved and will provide much better protection. And that's just one feature."

"Are you sure about using Star Power? If I have Star Power in me, isn't there a chance that I could become power-hungry?" Snake asked with concern.

"Oh don't worry. The Star power is only in the suit. It won't put any of the power in you."

"Alright, I trust you. Thanks a lot Rosalina!"

"Anything to help you in your travels!"

He put on the modified sneaking suit. Despite the changes made to the suit, Snake didn't think the suit felt different since he last wore it. This impressed him, as he didn't have to worry about getting used to a new suit. With the suit now on, he retrieved the rest of his weapons and equipment. He had everything he needed, and was ready to go back into the wasteland.

The Committee is gone, but there's still so much that I have to do. There are mutants that need to be eliminated, slaves that need to freed, people and settlements that need to be protected. We need to be prepared for any force of evil that will inevitably rise up and take the Committee's old spot of the number one threat to the wasteland. It may even prove to be more of a threat then the Committee. But no matter who or what it turns out to be…I'll be on the frontlines to fight against it.

This adventure has ended, but a new one is about to begin…

The End…of this story arc that is. I'd like to title it the "Committee" Arc.

You thought this would be it for Wasteland? No sir/ma'am. There's still so many things that haven't been answered! There are so many characters whose fates remain unknown! I have a whole new story arc in the works that will continue the story of the Wasteland universe.

It'll be titled Wasteland: The Left Hand, so I hope you look forward to that.

Thanks to everyone who read, followed, favorited, reviewed for all your support. This is by far my favorite story that I've written on this site. I enjoyed making it, and I feel there's so much more that I can do with it.

Peace!