The battle didn't last very long and was relatively one-sided. As good of warriors as they were, Pit and Dark Pit were out-matched by Snake and Bayonetta. They were defeated and restrained in a few minutes.

"All right boys, tell me where your goddess is?" Bayonetta asked after the two angels were cuffed and on their knees. They refused to answer, looking away with a sour look on their face. "She's here isn't she? How could she not be? There's a damn statue of the bitch."

Snake was quiet while he let Bayonetta have her turn at questioning, and he could tell that she must have something personal against the angels and the goddess. He became cautious of what she might do next, knowing that personal vendettas can often take a violent turn.

"Not going to talk huh? That's fine! I'm sure I can find her without you." She said and pointed her pistols at their heads. Snake quickly rushed to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hold on a minute! Don't kill them!"

She lowered her weapons and turned to face Snake.

"And why not? They tried to kill you didn't they?"

"Yes but it wasn't an unprovoked attack. They gave me a warning and I ignored it. They clearly are just trying to guard this place and I'd like to know why." He argued. "Let me talk to them…trust me on this."

She looked back to the angels scornfully, but eventually she conceded. "Okay handsome. Do your thing."

"Thank you." He said to her. He walked over to the angels, focusing primarily on the one in white. "Pit…"

"How do you know my name?" He barked.

"Because we've met before." Snake answered. He crouched to Pit's level so that the angel could look at him. "Look at me closely. Don't you remember who I am?"

Pit squinted his eyes as he looked at the man's face. He scanned the facial details, and attempted to identify it. Then the realization came to him.

"Snake?!"

"That's right."

Bayonetta was surprised as well. "Wait! You're Snake? Solid Snake? The one who destroyed the Committee and helped form the U.R?"

"Oh. So I see you've heard about me."

"Anyone who does a lot of travelling is always going to hear about you." She explained. "Though these hermits most likely haven't heard of your exploits."

"Pit. What is this place? Why didn't you want me to come in?" Snake questioned.

"This is Palutena's temple. Dark Pit and I are here to protect the place from outsiders."

"What are you protecting?"

Then across the room, a blast of light went off and a woman with long green hair emerged from it.

"Protect Skyworld, and me." She stepped in to answer.

"Lady Palutena!" Pit exclaimed.

"Well look who finally showed up." Bayonetta scowled.

"Are you two all right?" Palutena cried out in concern.

"We're fine…" Dark Pit answered.

Snake could tell the goddess was glaring at him. He decided to try to dissolve the situation.

"Don't worry lady, I'm not going to hurt them."

"Then why do you have them tied up?"

"It's just to restrain them so they don't attack me." He explained. Though the answer didn't seem to make anything better as she continued to look at him with the same glare. "Look I'm not lying, what the hell do you want me to say?"

"Oh don't mind her Snake. She's just racist, that's all." Bayonetta said with sass. The goddess was taken back by the accusation.

"What?"

"Since you're a human, she thinks you're too violent and self-destructive, and that you're incapable of mercy."

Palutena scoffed. "That's…"

"Oh please!" the witch cut her off. "Do tell me that I'm wrong. Can you look at him and say that I am completely wrong?" She challenged.

Palutena looked at Snake, who looked back at her with a curious expression. Could she say it? Could she say that there was no truth behind any of Bayonetta's accusations?

"…"

She couldn't. She looked away from him, hanging her head in embarrassment.

"That's what I thought." Bayo smirked. "And by the way, we could've easily killed your boys here. If it were up to me, they would be dead. The only reason they're not is because the human here convinced me not too."

"She's not wrong." Dark Pit admitted, grabbing Palutena's attention. "She had her guns at our heads…but he stopped her."

"Really?"

"That's right Lady Palutena! Snake saved us."

Snake had lost interest at this point. He felt it was a mistake coming here, and that he wasn't going to learn anything useful out of this. He took out his knife and cut the angels free of their restraints.

"That's enough, I get it. I'm not wanted here. I'll leave."

The two angels flew back to Palutena's side.

"You're letting them go? Don't you want to get some answers?" Bayo questioned the decision.

"Learning about angel racism seems like a waste of my time."

As he turned to leave however, he stopped himself as a thought came back to him.

"That being said, I'm curious as to what your stake is in this." He said to Bayo.

"Specifically?"

"Why do you hate her so much? What'd she do to get on your bad side?"

"Oh I'd be more than happy to tell you!" She said with strange delight. "It's not what she did to me. It's what she did to all of us, to the world! She turned her back on it." Bayo's tone became much more serious.

"Shut up!" Palutena's tightened her fists and they began to shake.

"Don't like hearing the truth, do you?"

"Come to think of it, a goddess could've helped a lot in rebuilding the world." Snake noted.

"This is the Smash domain! I don't have any power here. How could I have helped?" the goddess tried to find flaws in his statement.

"Skyworld is still fine isn't it?"

"Yes it is, but what's that got to…"

"You never thought about sharing resources with this world? It may not be your world, but I'm sure you had friends here. I know Pit did." He interrupted her.

Palutena couldn't find a retort for that.

"I'm sorry! But when I found out that this world was destroyed by the very people that were meant to protect it, I lost a lot of faith in other people. I wouldn't allow my people to make sacrifices for something they had nothing to do with!"

"Fair enough. I can understand where you're coming from." Snake said. "But I will have to tell the other fighters about this when I get back home. I'm not sure if they'll share that understanding. Goodbye."

He began to leave. "It was good to see you again Pit. Sorry it was under bad circumstances." He said as he walked out.

"That's okay. It was good to see you too." Pit smiled, something he hadn't done in quite a while.

After Snake was gone, Bayonetta glared at the goddess once more.

"You were wrong about humans…"

"What?"

"Sure they have flaws, but who doesn't?"

"I didn't say I was perfect!"

"Oh but you sure as hell act like it! One grave mistake, and you just decided to disassociate yourself from this world completely."

"I…"

"Just save it. Besides, it looks like we didn't even need your help. That man showed us that. He has been putting his life on the line for everyone. He goes through suffering so that others don't have to. And right now, him and his friends have been working their asses off to make the world a better place. What the fuck have you done for this world?"

Palutena simply stood in silence, filled with emotional conflict.

"Goodbye." The witch said and made her leave.

Snake had started his trip back home, one he had planned he would take alone. But he was surprised when Bayo caught up to him and began strutting alongside.

"Oh I hope you weren't trying to get rid of me, handsome!" She joked.

"Sorry. I just assumed that you had other places to be."

"I'm a wanderer sweetie. I don't have to be anywhere; I just go where I please."

"I get you. So what are you planning to do now?"

"Well I enjoy living on the edge, seeing excitement! And you seem like an interesting guy. I'm sure a lady wouldn't get bored travelling with you. So I think that's what I'll do. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah sure. I could use the company. Just don't get too excited though, right now we're heading back to see the other members of the U.R."

"Sounds good to me. I think it'd be nice to see some old friends."

"Well let's not waste any time."

After going through combat training with Snake, Princess Peach decided to take a more direct approach in assisting the wasteland. She traded her dress and crown for a combat suit and a gun. She began to accompany Snake's Nomad Squad in their missions. That's not to say she was abandoning her role as the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. It was only temporary, and she appointed her good friend Daisy to take her place while she was gone. Daisy was more than happy to.

Right now she was with a group of Nomad soldiers, tasked with eradicating mutants that had overrun an area, an old run-down wear-house to be precise. While they were all combat specialist, their real strength was their strategic minds and how well they worked as a squad. Their ability to come up with tactics, formations and attack strategies at a moment's notice. Using these advantages, the group was able to slowly pick off mutants with guerrilla warfare tactics. Popping out of cover, opening fire and then moving to another safe location.

The mutants couldn't get a fix on the location of their attackers. They'd look in the direction from where they got shot, only to get attacked by someone else. The Nomad Squad would continue to use this strategy until they were down to the last one. A mutant Fire Bro wearing heavy armor. Larger and stronger than pre-catastrophe Fire Bros due to the mutagen.

"Careful team! We've got a hostile in heavy armor!" The squad commander warned.

"Roger! I've got a frag grenade. Should I try that?" A soldier asked.

"Go ahead, we'll give you cover fire." Peach responded.

"Okay team! Focus fire!" The commader ordered, and three other soldiers and Peach fired on the Fire Bro. As expected, ballistic fire did little to the mutant.

"Frag out!" the trooper cried out and tossed it. It was a perfect throw, the grenade landed right at the enemy's feet. It went off, but unfortunately didn't kill the enemy. It did at the very least do some damage, but also enraged the Fire Bro, and it started lobbing fire balls at the team. The group quickly dug into cover to avoid being burned alive.

"Shit! What now?"

Peach peeked her head out of cover to get a visual on the enemy. She noticed that the grenade had knocked off the Fire Bro's helmet. A headshot would be able to put the creature down, but getting a good shot while it was barraging them with fire would be near impossible. So she formed a plan.

"I've got an idea!"

"Okay! What is it ma'am?"

"Its head is exposed so a well-placed headshot should kill it. But it's not making it easy for me to line up a shot. Can you get an opening for me?"

"Can do ma'am! Alright team, quickly move out of cover and lay down some suppressing fire! We need to get its attention away from Peach!"

"Yes sir!"

The squad got out of hiding and exposed themselves to the enemy, firing shots to make it focus on them and draw its attacks away from Peach. They moved from cover to cover until Peach was no longer in its field of vision. Peach quickly readied her rifle, aimed for the head, and pulled the trigger. The bullet went right into the creature's head and it ceased its attacks. It let out a deep shout before it dropped dead.

"Area secured!" The commander said.

"Great shot Peach!" The soldiers complimented her.

"Thank you, but I couldn't have done it without your help. We won this battle because we worked as a team. You all did fantastic!"

"I agree! You did fine work out there, soldiers!" The commander praised. "Now search the area for anything useful and then we'll head back home."

"Yes sir!"

The soldiers spread out to search the area, while the Commander turned to speak with Peach.

"Ma'am I'd like to thank you for accompanying my squad. You've been a big help in combat, and you've really boosted the troops morale."

"It's my pleasure. You're a great leader commander Dolph. The U.R. is glad to have your assistance."

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll let you know when we're ready to depart."

"Okay. By the way did you get any word about Snake?"

"As a matter of fact I did. He reported in that he's heading back home. And he's got someone with him, a surviving smash fighter Bayonetta."

"She's alive? That's wonderful!"

"I'll update you if I find out anything more."

Snake and Bayonetta did the old "walk-n-talk" routine, traveling together while trading stories to get to know each other better. Snake had just told her about his time in Smash Brothers.

"So you, a human with no extraordinary powers, entered a fighting tournament with magic users, super humans, and other creatures that your universe would only see in fiction?"

"That's right."

"And yet I heard that you were one of the top fighters during the third tournament."

"Yep."

"That's fascinating! What's your secret?"

"Secret?"

"Yeah! What did you do to be able to go toe-to-toe with the others?"

"I used my wits. I had to adapt to whatever situation I found myself in, and change tactics accordingly. Using traps, distractions, mind games, CQC. Basically I modified my fighting style to allow me to fight any type of opponent."

"Interesting."

"The mind is just as powerful as any sword or gun."

"I like the way you think."

"Thanks. By the way, those are some pretty fancy pistols looking pistols."

Before she could respond, they were interrupted as a group of three Moblins confronted them. Snake got into his fighting stance, but Bayonetta smirked and waved her hand dismissively at him.

"Leave this to me. Let me show you what these pistols can do." She said.

"Uh okay. If you insist." Snake said and stood down.

Bayonetta sauntered over to the monsters, not intimidated in the slightest. The Moblins roared and one attacked Bayo with its spear. She side-stepped away from the attack, and started firing at the group. They continued to attack, while she continued to dodge and shoot. One fell dead after getting shredded by bullets. Bayo fought the other two, maintaining her style and grace the whole time. The Moblins went to attack her at the same time. Just before the swords could cut her, she did a stylish back flip to dodge. Suddenly, she started moving at incredible speed in front of Snake. She was moving faster than the eye could see. All Snake could see was bullets hitting the Moblins, seemingly from all directions. Within a few seconds, the Moblins fell in a pool of their blood.

What the hell?!

Finally, Bayonetta reappeared in front of Snake, looking very proud of her handiwork.

"So? What did you think?" She asked.

"You didn't tell me you have super speed."

"Super speed?"

"Yeah! You just started going all over the place, attacking them from every side. I only caught some brief glimpses of you during it all."

"Oh I see! That wasn't super speed darling. That was Witch Time."

"Care to elaborate?"

"It's an ability we Umbra Witches have. It allows us to see everything that's happening in an instant. To me, it looks like time is slowed down…"

"But to everyone else it looks like your moving at incredible speed. Basically a second of Witch Time is like a nanosecond in real time." Snake put the pieces together.

"You are a smart one aren't you?" She said.

"That kind of power must make fights trivial. Can you always use it?"

"No, there is a limit. That kind of power requires a large amount of my magic. After I use it, I'll have to wait until my body restores that magic."

"How long is the wait?"

"A few hours."

"I see. Well we could have handled those Moblins without it. Why did you use it there?"

"Oh…I just wanted to show off a little." She said teasingly. Snake couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Well you did a good job. Just save that power for when we really need it from now on."

"Of course. Shall we continue moving?"

"We shall."