Snake stood there, staring at the towering Hand deity in front of him. His current feelings were complex to say the least. He was not exactly brimming with joy after finding the long-lost god. He wasn't upset to see him either. He was just, conflicted.
"I see you haven't responded yet. That's understandable. I imagine this must all be very jarring for you."
"You have no idea." Snake replied. Jarring was one way to put it. He was standing in front of the being he had been searching for over the course of months, yet once he found him he was at a loss for words. He had so many questions, but he was having trouble asking a single one. So many questions swirling in his mind, he felt like his head was going to burst. Snake tightened his fists and breathed, calming himself down a bit. He'd need to relax if anything was going to happen here.
"Let's get the big ones out of the way. Did you put this in my head?" Snake asked as he pointed to the shrapnel.
"I did."
"What is it and why did you put it in me?"
"It's a small shard of a Smash Ball that gives a small power boost to whoever has it. It makes you faster and stronger than you were before among other things, but not to the level of a super human. I ensured your survival and gave it to you to aid you in keeping the peace in the wasteland." The Hand explained.
"You just assumed I would play the role of the peacekeeper of the wasteland?" Snake snarled.
"Yes. Was I wrong?" Crazy Hand challenged.
"Maybe I do that now, but for the first seven years after the Catastrophe I only looked after myself, focusing on survival."
Crazy Hand couldn't help but start laughing, confusing Snake. "Is that right? Maybe that was your intention, but you and I both know that isn't the truth. You were not the true survivalist you believed yourself to be. A survivalist is willing to take any means necessary to keep themselves alive, willing to abandon morality. But you never preyed on the weak and innocent to sustain yourself. You got your supplies from attacking bandits, raiders, gangs, and all the other groups that are a plague to the world." He reminded Snake. "And anytime you came across some good people being attacked or robbed, you could never just walk away. It was something you could have ignored; the safety of those people wasn't your problem. But you stepped in and stopped it regardless."
Snake couldn't say anything to dismiss these claims. Likely because you can't disprove something if it's true.
"Okay then. Can you remove it from my head? Because I'm starting to hear voices. I guess after seven years the brain damage is finally kicking in." He requested.
"Of course. You no longer have any need of it anyway. Don't worry. Your body has already absorbed all the power from it, so you won't lose it once it's removed."
"Wasn't really worried about that, but that's nice I guess…" Snake responded indifferently. Power or no power, he just wanted the damn thing out of his head.
"I should warn you. This is going to hurt. A lot."
With a snap of his fingers, Crazy Hand made the shard disintegrate from Snake's head, but true to his word, it was painful. Snake's screamed in agony and put a hand to his forehead.
"It's okay! It's gone!"
"Christ! Well at least you didn't lie to me and say it wouldn't hurt." Snake said between heavy breaths. He held a hand against where the shard once was. "So that shard was from a Smash Ball you said?"
"Indeed."
"So why did you infuse that with me? You know as well as I do that Smash Ball power is what led to the destruction of the world. The power that corrupted several men and women into power-hungry monsters. Did you ever stop to consider that could've happened to me?" Snake inquired.
"Believe me, I was aware of the possible dangers. I ran several simulations, accounting for several different factors. But after several tests, I was sure that you would not succumb to the temptations of power like others before you." Crazy Hand answered.
"What made you so sure?"
"It was the fact that you hate power. You dedicated most of your life to stopping people from abusing power. Whether it was powerful weapons like Metal Gears, or The Patriots who manipulated and controlled your world from the shadows. You knew all too well what the abuse of power looks like."
"What are you getting at?" Snake replied impatiently.
"You're a man of strong moral fiber. An unbreakable will. You refuse to submit to anything. When Revolver Ocelot strapped you to that electric torture bed, he offered you a deal. Endure the agonizingly painful torture, or submit to it and give up the life of young Meryl so that the torture would stop. But you didn't give up on that woman. You went through those torture sessions." Crazy Hand recalled. "And then your invasion on Liquid Ocelot's ship, Outer Heaven. The only way to the GW AI was through the microwave hallway. Your accelerated aging had kicked in at this point. You were a 42 year old man in the body of a 70 year old. There were so many other allies much younger than you that could of gone through that hallway. But you were the first to volunteer, and you stumbled, and eventually crawled through that hallway while it was burning you to a crisp. You could have just submitted, and get the sweet release of death that you were ready for. But through sheer willpower, you made it."
"Again, what the hell are you getting at?!"
"What I'm getting at is the key word of the problem. A word that perfectly encapsulates the reason that all those fighters' personalities just changed overnight! And that word is submission!"
Snake's eyes widened after hearing Crazy Hand's statement. Could it be that there were more answers for what happened? Answers that could reveal why things happened? "Elaborate." He practically demanded from the Hand.
"The fighters were not corrupted by the Smash Ball's power just by having it. The power could not forcibly corrupt any of them. What it did was impose an influence in the hearts and minds of the fighters. Whether or not they would submit to that influence was up to the fighter. Some resisted the temptation…some did not."
"Sounds like a form of vice. Like an addiction to drugs."
"A very good comparison. Power exudes such a strong force of temptation. And once that temptation sinks its claws into a person, they're hooked. The Smash fighters were some of the strongest and noble men and women I've met, but many of them submitted to the temptation of power." Crazy lamented. "And I thought of many of those people as pure of heart, as incorruptible."
"In my experience, no one is pure of heart. Many of the fighters were very kind and compassionate people. But there is always some darkness that lies in the hearts of us mortals. The capability to commit evil towards others. A thirst for power just happens to be one of the best ways to bring out that darkness." Snake mused out loud. "We're flawed creatures, but I think that's what makes us unique. A friend of mine once told me that people just aren't complete without a character flaw. And I've always believed that to be true."
"Very interesting." Crazy thought. "Well don't sell you and other mortals short. My brother and I may have been gods, but we were not perfect. If we were, none of this would have happened."
Snake just nodded. "There's just one more thing I don't understand about the Smash Balls."
"What's that?"
"How come this wasn't a problem in the third tournament? That's when they were first introduced, and they went off without a hitch. No one was corrupted. Why?"
"The third tournament's Smash Balls did not give fighters a passive power boost. They were only exposed to its power once they activated their Final Smash. And that would be roughly a few seconds or less. Not enough time for their bodies to crave that power." The Hand answered.
"Good. Now I can finally put that mystery to rest." Snake stated, a hint of satisfaction in his voice. But the questioning was not over yet. "Now for the next topic. Why are you here?"
"Why am I in Shadow Moses?"
"No. Why are you hiding? Why aren't you out on the surface, helping the world restore itself?" he confronted Crazy.
Crazy could only sigh sadly. "How could a Hand of Destruction be of any help to a destroyed world?" He said. Snake raised an eyebrow at that, signaling for Crazy to further elaborate on that. "There is an important aspect of the world not many people know of. The Balance. The world needs a balance between order and chaos, good and evil, creation and destruction." He began. "That's why there was two Hands that oversaw this world. My brother, the Right Fist, was the Hand of Creation. I, the Left Fist, am the Hand of Destruction."
Snake began to piece things together. "I get it. You and Master had a yin-yang dynamic going on." He guessed.
"Precisely! And if you know anything about the yin-yang philosophy you know that one part can't, or at least should not exist without the other. My powers only allow me to destroy, and we all know that the world has already suffered enough destruction. Without my brother, I will only hurt the world, and cause imbalance."
Snake folded his arms and shook his head. "You realize there's a great irony here, right?" He replied, confusing Crazy.
"What do you mean?"
"Master, the Hand of Creation, is the one that ultimately blew himself up. In his wake, he left the world in state of devastation. And you, the Hand of Destruction, during the days leading up to the Catastrophe, were coming up with different plans to preserve the world. If you can only destroy, then how were you able to create all these safeguards for the apocalypse?"
"Simple. I'm only the mind behind the ideas. I have others make them for me. Like the Miis for example. The only things I made personally were the shard and Deacon."
"You built Deacon?!" Snake blurted, his mouth agape and eyes widened.
Crazy Hand chuckled a bit. "Oops. Looks like I let that one slip." He joked. "Yes, Deacon is my creation, my favorite one in fact. I won't bother you with the details because creating him was a long process, so I'll just give you the gist of it." He stated.
"The Miis and I found him in an abandoned temple. Of course, he wasn't Deacon at that point, but he wasn't a violent Darknut either. He wasn't even a living being, it was just a suit of Darknut armor. We decided to retrieve the armor, as I wanted to figure out something to do with it."
"And what did you come up with?" Snake questioned.
"I wanted to create a guardian, a mentor of sorts. Someone who came across as a deity without actually being one. He'd be able to observe the situations that happen in the Wasteland, but not intervene unless it the circumstances are extreme. To give him life, I infused a portion of my own power into him. I also convinced my brother to infuse a bit of his own power into him as well."
"So that's how he knows everything that's going on." Snake deduced.
"Not everything. He's not omnipotent if that's what you think? There's a limit to the things he can know of If a big fight is going on, he'll know about it. If there's a lot of folks talking about something, like a vigilante hero that saved them from bandits and then disappeared then he'll hear about it. Anything that happened pre-Catastrophe he'll know about because I had a database with that information installed in him. But this conversation we're having right now, he can hear none of it."
"You said he's your favorite creation. Why?"
"Because he's the first thing I've had made that helps people rather than destroys things. He's helped you, he's helped your friends, and I've no doubt he will continue to be of help in the future." There was a tone of pride in Crazy Hand's voice. He truly was proud of what he had made. Snake decided to give him a moment. "Forgive me, I believe we derailed from your original question, one I didn't give you a clear answer to. Snake, I've been hiding away from the world because the world is no longer mine. Master and I failed our duty, so now the world belongs to you and the other mortals. I decided to let you dictate the direction the world takes. And I think that was the right decision. You and your friends have done a great job of restoring peace to this chaotic world."
That word stung Snake with a pang of guilt. The word 'friends'. "My friends…shit." He muttered, smacking his palm to his face.
"What's wrong?"
"I haven't been treating my friends as well as I should. I took off in the middle of the night to go after Deathborn when I was told by everyone to stay at home and get some rest. I completely ignored them and didn't think twice about it."
"Yes, but you saved Link, Fox, Lucina and Lucario when you got there."
"I also almost killed them."
"That was something entirely out of your control. Besides, that will never happen again now that the Mark has been removed."
"That's good to know. But they'll probably continue to hold me on a pedestal when I get back." Snake said, voice dripping with frustration.
"I don't understand. What do you mean by that?"
"They always under value their own importance, while they look at me like I'm a superhero. They seem to think I'm the most important person in the group. It's nonsense! Everyone in the group is of equal importance!" he insisted. "They don't even know what they mean to mean to me…what they've done for me. I wouldn't be who I am without them. I would've stayed the cold, bitter man that I was when I first arrived here. A man who didn't understand the value of friends. A man didn't know how to appreciate everything that life has to offer."
Memories of the past flashed in his mind. The comradery he formed with the fighters aboard the Halberd during the Subspace incident. The times where Peach would insist that he join the others for social activity, and even though he tried to brush her off and get her to go away, she never backed down and had her way in the end. And a time where he found himself reluctantly taking Lucas and Ness to a park, and actually ended up enjoying himself and the time he spent there with the two boys.
Even recent memories came to mind, like all the emotional reunions when he found his friends after seven years. Teaching Peach the basics of CQC and how to handle a gun. His intense sparring sessions with Ryu. Ike inviting him to his home for dinner and so he could meet his sister, Mist.
"It seems that you should let your friends know how much they mean to you." Crazy Hand concluded. Snake chuckled a bit.
"Yeah. I needed somebody to tell me that. Thanks Crazy." Snake replied, expressing genuine gratitude.
"You're welcome." Crazy simply said. "It was so good to see you, one last time."
Snake's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? One last time?"
"Like I said, there's no reason for me to be around anymore. I only chose to stay alive because I felt that one day someone would find me, and I would tell them what happened. At least one person deserved to know what really happened. Seems fitting it would be you." Crazy explained. "And now that you know, I am finally at peace."
Snake wanted to tell him no, try to convince him to stay. But he seemed so miserable being down here all these years. If he were to return to the surface, it would probably just be a constant reminder of failure to him. Besides, it seemed that his mind was already made up. "I understand. You're not going to go the same way as your brother though, right?"
Crazy laughed. "Don't worry. I'm not going to explode." He replied. Shortly afterwards, Crazy began to fade away. No words were exchanged, the two had said everything that needed to be said. Finally, Crazy Hand had erased himself from existance. He was gone.
Snake walked over to the spot he just was, his grave so to speak, and saluted for a good 30 seconds as a way of paying his respects. He headed for the exit of the room.
Time to go home.
It had been over a week since Snake had left the Capital. Everyone began to worry, it shouldn't have taken this long for him to defeat Deathborn. Some were starting to fear for the worse. However, a scout on watch saw a man slogging towards their direction through his binoculars. He recognized him immediately.
"Snake! It's Snake! He's coming this way!" He announced to everyone else. The others began rushing outside the entrance, with Peach leading the charge. Snake stood in front of them with an emotionless expression on his face. Not a smile, nor a frown.
"So…did you do it? Did you kill the bastard?" Link asked. Snake nodded his head as confirmation.
Peach walked up to him and slapped him across the face, earning a gasp from all the others. Snake barely reacted to the hit, his expression remained the same. He just took the hit. "So what if you killed him?! You still shouldn't have just got up and disappeared! One of us could have come with you! You had us worried sick you bastard!" Peach shouted with a tear welling up in her eye and went for another slap.
Snake caught her arm, startling her, and pulled her towards him and wrapped his arms around her in a firm embrace. She along with everyone else was shocked by this. Snake never was the one that started a hug. Peach slowly wrapped her arms around him to return the embrace.
"Snake?" She said, concern in her voice.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered.
"I…It's alright." She replied, flustered by what was going on right now. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked, wondering if there was something causing Snake to behave this way. Had he hurt his head? Was he drunk? Snake couldn't stop himself from chuckling.
"Yeah. Never better." He said with a smirk and released Peach. His expression became serious as he looked at the rest of the group, who were all waiting for him to address him. He stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I owe all of you an apology, that much is certain. I'm sorry for my actions. My behavior was out of line."
"It wasn't that big of a deal." Link tried to convince him.
"It was a big deal! Don't try to downplay what I did!" Snake said firmly. "This organization we founded was made on the basis of fairness. That each individual is an equal, no one is above or below each other. The general vote was that I stayed behind and get some rest. I disobeyed, and in doing so, put myself above all of you. I didn't follow orders because of selfish reasons. And for that I'm sorry."
Everyone looked to each other and nodded in agreement. "We forgive you Snake." Zelda said.
"And who knows? If you hadn't shown up, that situation with Deathborn could've turned out much worse." Lucina added.
"Maybe. But that's enough of that. The apology was the easy part. Now I have to get the other part off of my chest." Snake said, earning him puzzled looks from the others.
"I'm sure you all know it's difficult for me to talk about emotions and feelings, so please bear with me." He began. "I know a lot of you look at me with admiration for things I've done in the past. Defeating the Committee was quite an accomplishment, and now the defeat of Deathborn. But please, however highly you think of me, don't think so little of yourselves. I didn't and couldn't have done either of those things alone. You all had something to do with it. Each of you are good people. You're all damn good friends. And truthfully, with all of you, I'd be nothing." He admitted. The others smiled warmly at his little speech. It wasn't the best, but they knew he tried, and that's what they wanted.
"Welcome back Snake." They all replied, finally greeting him.
For seven years, I wondered about the events leading up to that day. The Catastrophe. And I had finally got all the answers I wanted straight from Crazy Hand himself. And it begged the question, how did I feel afterwards. To be honest, I didn't feel any different. All I felt was the realization that nothing had changed. The Catastrophe still happened. The people that died because of it are still dead. I can't go back and change anything. Now I wonder why I was so obsessed with knowing the truth, instead of just moving on. That's what everyone else did. They had the world they knew get ripped apart, and many of them didn't know how. But they picked their heads up, gritted their teeth, and kept moving forward.
I've made mistakes, but now I know what my path is. With the help of my friends, we'll work to rebuild the world into a much more peaceful place to live. I'm not so naïve to believe that one day we'll obtain true peace. Evil will always be out there. But when it decides to strike it better be ready, because I damn sure will be…