Sorry for such the long wait between updates. But any of you who are familiar with going to college, you might know that time is sort of a commodity. But to make up for it, here's a big one.

It was very late at night. How late it was Snake had no clue for he had no watch. All he knew was that his body was begging for some rest. He carried on a little bit longer before obliging. Deathborn was missing an arm and even a cyborg has physical limitations. He can't keep running forever, so Snake thought a little rest wouldn't hurt. Deathborn wasn't going to get very far anyway.

Snake sat down and leaned up against a nearby rock. He had thought about what had happened to him over the past day. His blinding rage that seemingly came out of nowhere, his assault on Deathborn, and his assault on his own friends. That last one hurt to think about. Hurting the people he fights so very hard to protect. It angered him, making him pounce his fist to the ground. They tried to assure him that it was all right. How it wasn't his fault, how it wasn't the real him that attacked them. And from a rational standpoint they were correct. But Snake didn't care, to him it was his fault. He began to wonder why as of late, he was so incredibly concerned about the well-being of his friends. Sure he had his fair share of friends while he was in Smash, but he still tried to keep him at a distance. Yes he cared about them, but not this much.

Maybe it was the Catastrophe. The cliché of "you don't know how important something is until it's gone."; As cheesy as he thought it was, it was true. After the Catastrophe, he woke up and his friends were gone. And for seven years he wandered alone. He had given up on the chance of any of them being alive. He remembered how thrilled he was to know that Peach was still alive. How he took a chance and infiltrated a slave camp with armed guards to rescue her. And not long afterwards, being reunited with Link and Zelda. He guessed that what it all boiled down too was…

I won't lose them again.

Off the topic of Snake's friends, there was the voices. The hallucinations. That was still occurring, and it didn't look like it was going away anytime soon. Many people he met from his past, both living and dead, would speak to him. He wasn't really freaked out by them though. He'd seen what Psycho Mantis and Screaming Mantis could do. This was nothing to him.

"Snake?" a female voice to his left spoke. He turned and looked at her.

"Mei Ling." He acknowledged her. The young woman he met during the Shadow Moses Operation. A genius at such a young age that invented his codec and Soliton Radar.

"I'd like to ask you something." She requested.

"Go ahead."

"You're very adamant about finding Crazy Hand. Why is that?"

"I've got questions, and he probably has answers." Snake said simply.

"Right. But what exactly do you plan on asking him?"

Things went silent for a good while. Though he didn't visibly show it, the question had taken him off guard. It was something he hadn't given that much thought.

"Snake?" Mei Ling spoke out to him after he didn't answer.

"I don't know." He replied.

"Huh?"

"Maybe when I find him, then I'll know what to ask."

"Okay. I understand." She affirmed. There was something else he was thinking about, and this hallucination of Snake's could tell. "Is there anything else bothering you."

Snake couldn't help but chuckle. Of course, she knew there was something wrong. All of these "people" that keep showing up know, because they're projections coming from his mind. Regardless he humored these questions they asked even if they knew the answer. One arguably good thing about hearing voices and seeing people that aren't actually there was that it allowed him to get things off his chest, as the feeling of someone being around was present. He was used to just being alone. Any problems he had would just have to be bottled up in his mind and not talked about.

"It's about Deathborn." He said. Suddenly Miller showed up.

"Why's that bothering you. You've got the guy on the run, and he's not going to get away from you." Miller pointed out.

"I'm aware of that, but that's part of the problem." Snake replied, confusing his hallucinations. "It's just that it was so…easy to do. For months I had been making preparations. Yes we were living in a time of peace with the Committee gone, but life taught me that it never stays that way for long. Another conflict, another enemy will always be right around the corner. And I was ready to meet that problem half-way. I prepared for the worse, took action even though there wasn't anything to suggest a hostile force was approaching anytime soon. I had the Chaos Emeralds destroyed so that no one would be able to collect them and use their power. I traveled alone for weeks, destroying anything I felt would be a possible threat. I searched blindly for an enemy force and found nothing." Snake rambled.

"Well, Deathborn eventually showed up, didn't he?" Mei Ling said.

"Yes but now it's practically over. The first time I encounter him and I rip his damn arm off and send him on the run. I just need to find him and then it'll be over. I was expecting something or someone…I don't know…a bit more threatening I guess."

"Maybe he's not the threat. Maybe he's just somebody that was in the way, and the real threat is still to come." Snake thought.

"Well that's enough of me rambling. Now go away so I can get some sleep." He ordered and the illusions disappeared.

Link, Fox, Lucina and Lucario infiltrated Deathborn's Mute City base and practically took it over. They were met with little resistance that they easily dispatched. All of the non-combat personnel surrendered without a fight, willing to answer any questions asked of them. Lucario grabbed a scientist by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up.

"Where's the boy?!" He growled, raising his aura infused fist as a threat.

"He's in the holding cells!"

Lucario dragged the scientist with him. Upon finding Lucas in his cell, he was laying on the ground, looking as still as a stone. Lucario almost feared the worse, but he remained calm and closed his eyes, focusing his senses, clearing his mind. And then he felt it. A faint, but existent, pulse of aura.

He's still alive!

Lucario released the scientists and ripped the cell door off, not bothering with a key.

"I'm here, Lucas." Lucario whispered as he picked the boy up into his arms, even though he knew he couldn't hear him. Lucario turned back to the scientist. "What did you do to him?"

"Me? I didn't want this! Deathborn did!" The scientist claimed.

"Just tell me what happened!"

"Deathborn had us hook the kid up to a machine in the lab that drained his energy and transfer it into himself so that he could gain the boy's PSI abilities. He's not dead, but he'll be unconscious for a long time. A few months at least."

"Why didn't he just drain Lucas dry? Why would he leave Lucas alive?" Lucario wondered.

"He didn't intend to. We stopped the draining process while he was away." The scientist answered. Lucario's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? Why?"

"I mean…the others and I just couldn't watch it any more. Watching the kid have the life drained out of him was fucked up." He sheepishly admitted. Lucario snarled.

"If you don't like being involved in such abhorrent crimes, then why are you even working for this madman?!" Lucario questioned with an intimidating glare.

"It's because they didn't really have a choice." Link spoke up as he entered the room with Fox and Lucina. Lucario looked back at him with a puzzled expression.

"Turns out most of the people here are just a bunch of punch-clock villains, and they sure weren't working for Deathborn for the job benefits." Fox explained.

"They were taken here against their will, coerced into working for him. He threatened some of them with their life, and for those who would rather die, he threatened them with the lives of their families." Lucina elaborated.

"They were more than happy to give up the information we needed. They told us the exact location of the other two bases. One in the ruins of New Pork City, the other in your home; the Sinnoh region." Link revealed.

"Sinnoh? It's been awhile since I've heard that name, and almost a decade since I've been there." Lucario recollected memories of his home region.

"We should get going. We have what we need." Link said.

"Wait! What about the rest of us?" The scientist asked. Link smiled and looked at him.

"You do what you want from here. Consider this as getting your freedom back. Tell the others, and don't waste this opportunity."

The scientist smiled for the first time in years. "Oh thank you! Thank you!"

"And don't worry, we'll make sure that Deathborn won't follow you." Link promised. "Now let's get going."

As they made their way out, Fox pried Lucario for a question.

"Hey Lucario."

"What?"

"Before we came here, you blew up Deathborn's arm that Snake ripped off with an aura sphere. Can I ask why?"

"Because I don't want a single scrap of him remaining when Snake kills him."

In the morning of the next day, Deathborn continued moving, all the while cautious of being found as he covered his tracks. He had gotten this far, so he believed he had successfully escaped from Snake or any of the others. Unlucky for him, he was wrong.

"Freeze!" Snake ordered with a FAMAS assault rifle aimed at Deathborn.

"Oh, god dammit!" Deathborn cursed in frustration.

"Put that hand of yours above your head and turn around slowly!"

Deathborn did as ordered. "I must say, I admire your persistence. Chasing me down all the way here. I also hate it. You can't just stay away from me and throw a wrench in my plans." He said. "And where did you get that rifle? I didn't see that when we were fighting."

"You think I would just carry around something like this for the everyone to see? I know how to dismantle and gun and put it back together, so I carry the pieces." Snake replied.

"Interesting. But back on topic, what are you going to do now that you've found me? Are you going to try and kill me? Go ahead, I'll find a way to come back eventually." He laughed.

"No, I'm not going to kill you...yet." Snake said, earning a confused look from Deathborn. "I've got questions for you, and you're going to give them to me."

"And why would I do that? There's nothing you can do to make me talk."

Snake pulled out his combat knife, with Deathborn cackling at the sight of the small weapon. "Oh, is that it? You're going to torture me with a knife? Oh, please spare me!" He mocked, knowing that a mere knife would only hurt as much as a mosquito bite because of his augmentations. But Snake smirked regardless.

"You don't seem to be in too much pain for having your arm ripped off. You must have a really good pain receptor installed in that body of yours."

"Only the best."

"I wonder what happens when if I turn it off." Snake cryptically said, confusing Deathborn. He pressed a button on his knife and electricity started to emit from the blade. It wasn't just a knife, it was a stun knife, capable of sending jolts of electricity in someone's body.

"Joke's on you, I don't have pain receptors."

"Oh, yes you do."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I've had plenty of experiences with cyborgs. I know how they work."

All Deathborn could do was growl. It appeared that Snake called his bluff. And he sure as hell didn't want his pain receptors to get fried.

"All right! What do you want to know?"

"The Mark? What is it?! I heard you say something about it!" Snake demanded.

"You mean Crazy Hand's Mark?" Deathborn asked for clarity. Snake's eyes widened.

"Crazy Hand? How do you know anything about Crazy Hand?"

Deathborn laughed. "You didn't think you were the only ones looking for any information about where he is, did you?"

"Whatever! Just explain!"

"In one of the pages I found, he wrote about this shard that amplifies ones' abilities. He called it 'The Mark'. He said he would only grant it to a person he deemed trustworthy to protect the world after the Catastrophe. It seems that somebody was you."

Snake was needless to say surprised by that answer. Of all the fighters, Crazy Hand chose him to be the Wasteland's Champion?

"So what? Do I have super powers now?" he asked in a condescending tone.

"I don't think so, but I'm sure you're a bit stronger, faster, and durable than you use to be. Not to mention you've become an even more persistent son of a bitch. Like a cockroach that just refuses to die." Deathborn said in annoyance. "So congratulations, you're the Wasteland's hero!"

Snake further questioned him. "What about when you hit the Mark? Why did it make me act the way I did?"

"Crazy Hand said that the Mark could trigger a burst of power, turn a person into a one-man army. Though it has some…side-effects from the looks of it."

Snake thought about this power. It turned him into an unstoppable force. If he were to use it, he'd probably be able to eliminate any future threat to the Wasteland. But it would cost him his sanity, turn him into a berserk animal that attacked anyone around him. He almost killed Fox the first time, but if were to happen again, he might not be so lucky.

It's true, I can use that power to eliminate threats, but there's a strong possibility that I could become that threat! No. It's not worth the risk.

"Then why did you hit it when we fought?"

"He never wrote down how to trigger it. You think I would trigger it if I knew it would?"

"How does this shard of shrapnel give me power?"

Deathborn cackled. "You really think that's just a piece of shrapnel? No idiot, it's a piece of a Smash Ball."

Snake was dumbfounded by this revelation. "But why? It's the same source of power that caused the Catastrophe! And why did he shove it into my head?!"

"Sorry but you'll have to ask the Hand yourself…which is something I can help you with." Deathborn smirked.

"And how is that?"

"I know where he is." The villain claimed.

Snake was shocked, but he quickly had a scowl on his face. "Liar!" He shouted and brought the barrel of the gun closer to Deathborn.

"Am I? Am I really?"

Snake growled, frustrated. What was he supposed to do? He didn't have any clue on where Crazy Hand could be. He could be bullshitting him, but right now Deathborn could be the only lead he's got.

"Where is he?" Snake asked. "And don't bullshit me! Because wherever you say he is, you're coming with me to check!"

"He wrote in one of his notes that he would be hiding in an old abandoned facility, long forgotten by history, hidden by snow. And I think I know where he's talking about."

"No…" Snake muttered

"Shadow Moses Island." They said in unison. Snake couldn't believe it.

"How?! I used that place for shelter for years and there wasn't a trace of him!"

"You know the place better than I do, Snake. I've heard you could hide some big machines in that place. Crazy Hand is a large being. Where do you think he would hide in there?"

"Shit...the Metal Gear hangar." Snake muttered. "Already, get your ass up! We're moving out! And you're leading the way."

"You're really going to travel with him?" the voice of Otacon asked.

"Yes, but I'm not going to drop my guard around him. I know he might try something sooner or later. I'll be ready for it."

"If you say so."

With that, Snake and Deathborn began their trek to Shadow Moses. Deathborn lead the way while Snake followed, ready to retaliate if Deathborn tried anything funny.

"So out of curiosity, if you knew where Crazy Hand is, why did you choose now to look for him?" Snake asked.

"I planned on finding him once I got my plan underway. I'd tell him his world had finally returned to its natural state and then kill him. But after being defeated by you, I realized I am not strong enough for my ideal world. Before the Natural Order takes place, I need to be the most powerful being in the land! So I decided to find him and take his power and make it mine." He chuckled.

Snake shook his head. "You don't seem to realize that's your weakness."

"Excuse me?"

"Your power is not your own. Instead of working on your own abilities and improving them, you rely on your augmentations and the power you've taken from others. Even some of your techniques are not your own, they're stolen from other fighters."

"Hmph! Call it a weakness if you want, but it gets the job done for me."

Snake scoffed. "And you think of yourself as being an honorable warrior."

"You think I give a damn about what you think about my methods?"

"Just shut up and keep moving" Snake ordered.

Cloud Strife, the always troubled swordsman wandered the Wasteland. He had no destination, no plans, no idea of what he was even doing. Ever since he came across Snake and they spoke, what the mercenary said shook him to the core. Because it was true. If Cloud really didn't think there was nothing life could offer him, why hadn't he just offed himself years ago? He spent days trying to figure out the answer to that himself. He had believed since the Catastrophe that he had lost everything. Tifa, Marlene, along with his other good friends were gone. And yet he still kept going.

Now he sat here, in this baron desert under the light of the moon, wondering about his future. Maybe there was something for him to still live for, he just didn't know it yet. He was taken out of his thoughts when he heard screams. Screams of a woman and a child. He got up and went to investigate.

He soon found the source. A man, along with his wife and child were surrounded by a group of bandits. Five in total. The man had been beaten to the ground. Normally he avoided situations such as this since they didn't involve him, but this time it was different. He started walking towards the bandits.

"Please! Don't do anything to them!" The man pleaded as he struggled to get up.

"Sorry pal, but we don't like to leave any witnesses." The leader glared at the wife and child.

"You son of a bitch!"

As the leader readied to kill him, he heard the sound of something getting cut behind him. He turned around to see two of his men butchered, cut in half by Cloud's Buster sword. The other two grunts went to draw their guns, but Cloud quickly cut them down. The leader didn't seem to be afraid of Cloud though.

"You know if you wanted a share of what we'll steal from these folks you could've just asked." He said nonchalantly. Cloud just glared at him. The bandit took another glance at him and showed a sinister smirk. "Oh, I see! You must be one of those wasteland vigilante types that people keep talking about. I hear that most of you are really tough. You're probably thinking that you're just gonna kill me quickly, like I'm some sort of jobber."

"Enough talk!" Cloud said and dashed towards the opponent, starting with and hoping to finish this encounter with a single vertical slice. Surprisingly the bandit pulled out a sword of his own and blocked the attack. He chuckled at a rather shocked Cloud.

"You really thought it was going to be that easy?"

The bandit pushed Cloud back and swung his sword horizontally. Cloud blocked it and blocked another attack that followed. The bandit crouched down and leg-sweeped Cloud, putting him on his back. Cloud rolled sideways, avoiding his opponent's sword being plunged into his chest. He kicked the bandit in the gut, giving Cloud time to roll back and get some distance.

"You're no ordinary bandit, are you?" Cloud hypothetically asked.

"Of course not! We did fight in the same tournament after all." He replied.

Cloud's eyes widened at that statement. "Excuse me?"

"I was just one of the many Mii Swordfighters. There was a lot of us and we didn't really have any distinguishing features that made us stand out, so it's no surprise you don't recognize me."

"You got a name?"

"My name is irrelevant. You've got nothing to gain from knowing it."

"Fine then!"

The two rushed towards each other and clashed blades. Their battle went back and forth, neither man managing to get the upper-hand for quite some time. But Cloud eventually gained momentum, and overwhelmed the Mii fighter with a barrage of attacks the ended with him impaling the fighter with his sword.

"It's over for you."

Cloud readied to pull his sword out of the man, but the fighter held a grip on it, as if telling Cloud to stop.

"Wait!" The fighter said, coughing up a bit of blood as well. "Before I clock out, tell me something. You never were the type of guy that went out of his way to save random civvies. So why the change of heart?"

It was a good question; good enough that Cloud had to think about it himself. He actual wasn't quite sure what caused him to step in when he had ignored many robberies in the past.

"Because it better than doing nothing I suppose." Cloud concluded and ripped his sword out, causing him to begin bleeding out at a rate that would leave him dead within a minute.

The man and his family walked over to Cloud, wishing to express their gratitude.

"Sir! Thank you so much for saving me and my family." The man said. Cloud sheathed his sword, crossed his arms, and turned the other way.

"You were lucky this time." He responded. "Next time there might not be someone to save you. You need to able to protect yourself, protect your loved ones. Remember that." He said coldly and walked off.

He would never admit it, but something about stopping that robbery felt good.

Deacon stood atop his mountain, looking down and observing what was happening below. Not in the literal sense.

"Yes. Good for you Cloud. You might just find a new purpose after all." He chuckled, knowing what just happened with Cloud.

The truth of Deacon's "omnipotence" was that he wasn't actually omnipotent. He knew what went on in the wasteland using his unique ability. It was similar to Lucario's ability to sense aura, except for Deacon it was sensing one's energy, their life force. And unlike Lucario, the range of his senses was on a much larger scale. He could tell a lot about a person based on their energy, aside from just where they where located.

"Time to see what the loner is up to."

"Hey, Deacon?" A man called out behind him. Deacon turned around to see it was Alex, along with Peach and Bayonetta.

"Hello. I didn't notice you three were coming. How can I help you?" he asked.

"I guess you could say we need your valuable ability to know what's going on in the wasteland to help us find a friend." Bayonetta said.

"You mean Snake?"

"Exactly."

"Funny. I was just about to check on him myself."

"Do we have to fight you for this information?" Peach groaned, hoping that wouldn't be the case.

"No. I don't think something as simple as what Snake is doing is information worthy of a duel."

Peach sighed with relief. "Really?! Oh, that's great! So, what's he doing?"

"Right now, he's traveling with Deathborn, who apparently knows the location of Crazy Hand. So, Snake's forcing him to take him there."

The three of them were surprised.

"Wow! That's big news! So, where are they?" Bayonetta asked.

"I can't tell you that." Deacon said bluntly.

"What?! Why not?!" She demanded to know in an almost angry tone of voice.

"Because he doesn't want any of you following him. So out of respect for him and his wishes, I cannot just give you that information."

"Dammit Snake, why do you gotta be so hard headed?" Alex sighed, voicing the thoughts of most of Snake's friends.

"I understand your frustration and even anger towards him, but you must know he means no ill will towards any of you. This is just something he needs to do on his own." Deacon explained.

"But why? Why does he need to do it alone?" Peach pleaded for an answer.

Deacon sighed. It wasn't enough. He needed to explain it in a way to try and make them imagine themselves in Snake's shoes.

"Were any of you at ground zero? Did you see what happened?"

Bayonetta scoffed. "What does that have to do with-"

"WERE ANY OF YOU THERE?!" Deacon asked again in an uncharacteristically aggressive tone of voice, one that startled the three of them enough to make them take a step back.

"N-no." Peach sheepishly answered.

"Right. Well as you all know, he was there. He even got something lodged in his head to prove it. He was there before the explosion, he saw many people he knew, some he considered friends, fight each other to the death in a petty, destructive battle to try prove who was the strongest."

"We already know this, what's your point?" Bayo asked.

Deacon was silent for a bit. "Have any of you ever asked him if he still thinks about it? During the day? During the night? If he sees it again in his nightmares?"

They couldn't respond. They felt so uncomfortable, so guilty just by thinking of that possibility.

"Cause I'll tell you the answer! He does. He may never show any signs of it, but the man's always been good at keeping his emotions from others. Really strong emotional body armor that man has. But I can read his energy, and every time I do I see a man who even seven years later, still thinks about that day. He loses sleep over it. And every time he looks back on that day he always wonders the same thing…why? How? He has so many questions, and there's only one being who can give him the answers." Deacon sadly explained. "Trust him. He NEEDS this. So he can finally put the past behind him."

Peach frowned and looked up to the stars.

Snake...please be careful.

Even when the night's sky was at its darkest, Snake kept moving with Deathborn.

"You sure you don't need to sit down, take a break? Maybe get some sleep?" Deathborn gave him mock concern.

"Shut up and keep moving." He snapped back, not in the mood for any jokes or quips of any kind. Suddenly, the voices came back to question him.

"So how do you plan on dealing with him?" Otacon's voice asked.

"Oh, you're all still here." Snake replied internally. He wasn't going to talk back to these voices aloud in front of Deathborn. "What do you mean by that?"

"Please, don't tell me you're going to let this guy go when he gets you to Shadow Moses."

"Who do you take me for? Of course I'm not!"

"Have you been thinking on how you're going to eliminate him?" Mei Ling's voice asked.

"Of course, and he's definitely thinking of a way to kill me."

"Him kill you? Please, he's missing an arm." Mei Ling scoffed.

"Never underestimate your enemies. No matter what condition they are in, that doesn't make them any less of a threat. Only death makes sure he's no longer a threat."

"So did you've come up with anything?" Otacon asked.

"I've got something in mind, but it might be a bit of a stretch. I don't know the current state the rooms in Shadow Moses are. Judging by the second time I visited there, everything was pretty much abandoned and inoperable. But if Crazy Hand really did make some sort of base of operations down there, maybe he fixed the place up."

"What does the condition of Shadow Moses have to do with killing Deathborn?"

"If I told you, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it? Besides, you're in my mind, you should know the answer."

"Why don't you just shoot him in the head once you get to Shadow Moses?" the voice of Meryl joined.

"If only it were that simple. Deathborn's been killed three times already, but every time someone, or something retrieves what's left of his body and reconstructs him. The only to truly kill him is to completely destroy him, leaving no piece of him behind." Snake explained.

"Alright. So, once you destroy him and once you get the answers you want, what will you do afterwards?" Mei Ling asked.

Snake took a moment to think. "I'll join back up with the gang, get chewed out like I deserve, and then keep fighting the way I've always have."

The voice of Big Boss began speaking to Snake. "Fighting, fighting, fighting…" He shook his head. "Snake, don't you remember the request I made to you before I died in Arlington Cemetery?"

Snake remembered. Big Boss told him not to spend the life he had left fighting. "Yes, I remember Boss. But that was when I had six months left to live. Then I came back to this world to say my goodbyes, and Master Hand made me some miracle medicine that got rid of the accelerated aging modification in my body, along with restoring my body's health to that of a 42-year-old instead of a man in his seventies. He told me it was a way of thanking me for my help during the Subspace Incident, and for giving the world a good show during the third tournament." Snake recalled. Words couldn't describe how grateful he was towards Master Hand that day, and how grateful he is even to this day. "Even then, I gave up fighting. I did try to live like a normal person while the fourth tournament was going on. Then the Catastrophe happened."

The other voices went quiet for a bit. Mei Ling spoke up.

"Well, things are much better than they were a few months ago, you and your friends made sure of that. Have you ever thought of settling down?"

"Settling down? Like what? With another person?"

"That's the idea, yeah. Maybe you could settle down with a fellow fighter, that way you two can protect people when the time comes. You could be a battle couple!" She giggled, earning a growl of irritation from Snake.

"I'm a man in my early fifties with gray hair and scars all over. I don't think any ladies will be swooning over me."

"Aw come on Snake, it's not what's on the outside that counts. Besides, what about Peach? She seems to be pretty fond of you." Mei Ling giggled.

Snake's eyes widened as he gawked at the statement.

"Snake? Did your cheeks just turn red?" Otacon asked.

"Okay! This conversation is over!"