Lost and Found

So I find myself with a lot of free time. After reading a whole ton of the stories on this site I've decided to give one a go. I've been entertaining on where to set my story and have decided upon this cross over because I feel that the others don't do it justice. The potential is unlimited. This entire story will take place after the end of DA2 and with DA3 coming out who knows, I might incorporate some of it. The Halo part starts a little before Halo 4. This story will mainly be set in Thedas and features a female mage Hawke who is a spirit healer force mage along with being an elementalist. I am going to start with mainly original characters and eventually I'll have the rest of the dragon age cast join in when I am confident enough I can write them well. The first couple chapters will feature hops in between worlds while setting up for the eventual meeting with Hawke. Note: the passing of time before they meet isn't exactly synced. I'll try to update somewhat regularly.

**UPDATE** SO I finally got a beta and she is awesome. We spent most of yesterday fine-tuning this chapter, so without further ado here is the updated version.

DISCLAIMER: Bioware owns all things dragon age, while Microsoft owns Halo. MY characters are my own.

The Wounded Coast:

Gweneira Hawke was so very tired of being on the run. She was quickly losing each and every member of her family.

Five... She had lost five of them over the course of the day.

Anders' and then Sebastian's nearly simultaneous betrayals, swiftly followed by them abandoning her, had begun to weigh heavily on her heart. Anders had practically shoved her knife into his own heart. But when it came down to it, it was her unwillingness to kill someone she had once cared so deeply for that had stayed her hand.

Let him deal with Justice and his crimes on his own. THAT seemed to her to be a much more fitting punishment. Justice yammering on and on within his brain at how she had denied Justice the "justice", more like vengeance, he so craved. Yes, death would have been too easy of an escape for Anders. Gwen had allowed him to live., but she never wanted to see him again, ever. However, the constant reminder of the friend Gwen had lost and would never regain was too much pain for her to bear.

She had not expected Sebastian to be so outraged about her decision. She would not shatter his delusion that he was the only one to lose the woman who had cared for him throughout most of his adult life. Bitterly, she almost reminded him that at least Grand Cleric Elthina hadn't died in his arms while he watched, helpless to save her. She couldn't muster the energy to challenge his distraught mind's raging thoughts. Anders had broken something within her when he betrayed her and made her an unwilling accomplice in his crime. She also realized Sebastian probably did not fully understand that he was demanding her to kill a man who had once been one of her best friends. She knew she would breakdown even more if she had actually committed the final deed. At that point in time she had yet to face Meredith and Orsino in combat. Hawke, the Champion would take control for now. Gwen could cry later, when she no longer had to keep her Champion mask in place.

Killing was never easy for her; which was surprising considering how much killing she had done during the course of the past years. She could not even muster the energy to respond to Sebastian. She was in no condition to fight his raging outburst and if his friendship was tied with the choice to spare Anders' life, then perhaps they were never truly friends at all. When he swore vengeance and left, Gwen had said nothing, quietly thinking maybe she deserved it.

The fight with Meredith and Orsino were both mentally and physically exhausting. Fenris, Aveline, Varric, Isabela, Merrill, and Carver - who was a most welcome surprise to the team, had stood beside her in the final efforts to end Meredith's tyrannical reign over Kirkwall and Orsino's subsequent revelations. The battle had lasted hours. Her physical exhaustion had cracked her emotional defenses. She didn't know how much longer she could stay in one piece.

She had precious few companions to lean on emotionally, the people she could trust with her innermost thoughts. Merrill was too naive, while Fenris couldn't get past his instinctive hatred of mages, and Isabella was hard to trust with serious things due to her shifty nature. Carver was her younger brother and the last living remnant of her biological family*, and she would always treasure that she was not the only Hawke left standing in this world. Aveline was her rock to keep her Hawke "armor" firmly in place. While Varric was the shoulder Gwen always seemed to choose to cry on. That dwarf was one of the only people to truly know her, to understand her and not judge her moments of weaknesses.

Aveline was the first among the survivors of the fight against Meredith to leave the group during the aftermath, which - to her - was completely reasonable. Aveline had duties to Kirkwall's City Guard, and the chaotic city needed someone to keep it addition abandoning all of the effort that Aveline had put into building herself a new life in Kirkwall was something Gwen would not allow the guardswoman to sacrifice. She took care to not mention that she already felt the gaping hole Aveline's absence had created.

Gwen felt her one of her two crutches fall. She doubted her Hawke "mask" would ever be the same without the stalwart Guard Captain Aveline at her side.

Remaining thoughtful, Aveline went to Hawke's estate and sent Bodahn to her with some essential clothing, followed by Boomer, her ever faithful Mabari companion. After freeing Bodahn from her services and asking him to promise to take care of Orana, she sent him on his way. The dwarf's shoulders were hunched in despair, and Hawke forced herself not to acknowledge the desire to run to him and force him to remain with her, lest she dissolved into pitiful tears on the spot.

The next to leave her was her brother Carver, accompanied by Merrill. Carver had Grey Warden duties he had needed to attend to. This was only after he finally admitted to Merrill that he had been in love with her for quite some time. In return he was surprised to find out she harbored identical feelings for him. She thought it was cute how fast their relationship had taken off; before the fight they had barely managed to maintain eye contact without blushing. Though, just before they had departed from Kirkwall she had caught them staring and sharing stereotypical goo-goo eyes.

Together they had escorted Hawke outside the city walls, where she hugged both of them and said her farewells. Carver managed to extract from her a promise to write to him at the Grey Warden stronghold in the Fereldan city of Amarathine. Merrill had hesitantly hugged Hawke and said she would always be thankful for everything Hawke had done for her. The girl was practically crying. She forswore blood magic forever, and promised to watch over Carver to make sure the big oaf didn't get into too much trouble; then - hand in hand, they returned to the city to find a boat. After the loss of her clan, Merrill had been lonely and morose, so it was good to see her smile again. Hawke wouldn't have been able to stand between them even if she had wanted to.

With both of them gone, Gwen felt her Hawke "mask" breaking. She was about to burst into tears, her champion facade falling and shattering under the pressure of the day's events.

Just then Varric placed a steady and warm hand on her shoulder just as her sight began to blur from the buildup of tears in her eyes that were on the very verge of hand was an anchor. A little bit of the dam against her impending emotional breakdown was repaired, and Gwen was grateful for the strength he'd unintentionally lent her.

"They'll be fine, Hawke!" He said, smiling gently at her. "Junior is all grown up now, he and Daisy can keep an eye on each other. They sure took their sweet time."

"I know, Varric." She attempted a smile to cover her feelings, but the damned dwarf saw right through her with his keen eyes.

"So, then why are you so upset?"

Now she was practically crying! Curses, she never cried. She quickly looked away; burying her face into her hands to avoid is concerned gaze.

"Five." She said, barely a whisper, admitting to him in a roundabout way what thought continued to plagued her mind.

Varric's eyes widened slightly. He was pretty sure he knew what she was talking about, but he figured there was no harm in asking for some clarification. She probably needed to talk about it anyways. "Five what?"

"I lost five family members today.," she said as a tear slipped through her defenses and she dropped none too gracefully on her ass. Shoulders slumped, legs sprawled. Varric could guess that Gwen was letting her Hawke persona fall to the wayside. Standing nearby Isabela was beginning to grow uncomfortable; she could never stand to see Hawke cry. She looked at Hawke on the floor and made a quick decision.

"I'm gonna head back down to the docks and ready The Siren's Call," She glanced over to Fenris. "I could use an escort."

Fenris glanced at Hawke, and she nodded giving him permission to go.

"Where do you wanna go, Hawke?" Isabela asked, risking a quick glance at her weeping friend.

Hawke looked up, her violet eyes shimmering from all the tears she was fighting back. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out, just a choked sob.

Varric moved behind her and placed his hand once again on her shoulder, which she immediately reached up and grabbed in some futile attempt to ground herself to reality and prevent more tears from forming. Boomer, sensing his mistress's distress, valiantly moved in front of her in an attempt to shield her from whatever was bothering her. Hawke's free hand instinctively reached up and started scratching the Mabari's back. Her eyes glazed and unfocused, looking but not really seeing as she remained silent on the ground.

It was Varric who eventually spoke up. "Away in general sounds good."

"I have some business to conduct in Antiva," Isabela offered, "But we don't have to stay there permanently."

"We won't be able to stay anywhere permanently," Gwen interjected, her voice barely a whisper as she was lost staring at the ground. Her tone of voice nearly screaming for pity from her remaining comrades.

"ENOUGH!" A harsh voice interrupted before she could say anything more. Hawke straightened up immediately; the voice surprised her out of her dark and emotionally tumultuous reverie, and glanced over at the owner of the voice.

Fenris was glaring at her and furious. He took a few deep breaths to calm down, and then spoke again; his face schooled into a neutral expression, but his tone containing barely concealed anger.

"Hawke, you have come far and faced much hardship. You may have wavered in the face of difficulties, but you have never broken from their influence. THIS will not break you!" With that he turned around and stomped off, muttering Tevene curses as he went.

Bitterly, Gwen thought that it was probably one of the nicest things the Tevene elf had ever said to her, despite all their time spent together during these past years. Isabela shared a brief glance with Varric and then ran to catch up with Fenris.

Fenris' words managed to push Gwen's emotional storm back behind her carefully constructed mental armor. The Hawke persona was once again in control, but the real Gwen refused to remain silent. Her thoughts warred against one another within the confines of her mind. Hawke's need to be strong before her companions warring against Gwen's need to express herself emotionally, but neither side of her persona gaining the upper hand over the other.

Gwen looked up at Varric and whispered, "Does life ever get easier? Or does it only get more difficult?"

"It'll get more difficult and then it'll get easier," he said as he patted her shoulder. "And I'll be there for both."

Within the privacy of his own mind Varric desperately hoped he would be able to be there for her.

A Forerunner installation on an undisclosed planet:

Life was difficult.

Spartan-G197, Dominic, was in a tight spot. Plasma fire blazed all around him, those projectiles that managed to get past his cover scorching his shields; the two Elites across the room were not going to make this easy for him.

A plasma grenade landed next to him and he dove out from behind the low wall he was hiding behind, firing his MA5D ICWS Assault Rifle as he went. He primed two frag grenades and threw them over the Forerunner bench in the back of the room. The frag grenades landed at the feet of the two Elites crouched behind it, forcing them to also jump out of their cover.

The grenades exploded and their shields flickered. He emptied the last of his clip, shattering the remainder of their shields.

The gun chirped in his hands, signaling its need for additional ammunition.

The respite in the barrage of bullets on his part gave the Elites the chance they needed to return fire with their T-55 Storm Rifles. Dominic quickly rolled to the side and by the time he was back on his feet, his Magnum was already up, firing two bullets into each of their heads. He tensed and scanned the room, double checking to see if there were more than the two he had stumbled upon. His radar was clear.

Alone. For now.

Taking advantage of the lull in fighting he reloaded his weapons.

He almost let a sigh of relief escape his mouth from underneath his helmet, but reminded himself he was a SPARTAN and continued his scan of the room, making sure there were no additional entryways he had missed. He kept an eye out for his target, Jul'Mdama, but all the adjoining rooms turned out to be completely empty and devoid of life.

Jul'Mdama was a slippery bastard. Some last minute Intel from an extremist defector had placed him and his partner down here looking through a giant Forerunner facility.

The mission should have been easy, except it was turning out to be anything but. Jul had an entire cadre of like-minded Sangheili at his command. Hundreds of followers were wandering the halls of the massive installation, their purpose however, remained indiscernible to him. He and his partner, Arvo, had split up in order to cover ground faster and hoped to find Jul much sooner than if they had stuck together. 'Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies as well.' Arvo was very fond of reminding him of that saying every time he questioned the logic of leaving all of these enemies alive and waiting at their backs.

He took a brief moment to reflect on how the two Elites at the center of the room had surprised him. He had been carefully going from room to room, and had accidentally stumbled upon the two reading the inscriptions along the walls. They were neither speaking, nor moving; hence his lack of ability to detect them before it was already too late. He had foolishly hoped they hadn't noticed him, but that hope was dashed when they immediately began firing at him. He had barely had time enough to dive behind the low wall that was positioned next to the entrance of the room.

He scrounged through some of the Elites' gear: taking from their corpses two energy swords and all the grenades they still carried. He realized it was probably time to go; enemy forces would most likely be closing on his position soon, his firefight hadn't exactly been subtle. The good news was that Arvo would now probably not have too many enemies to worry about, as the majority would be sent to apprehend him., This was because one of the two Elites that he had just slain had clearly managed to send his description over the BATTLENET, the new Covenant's comm channel, before their fight, or at some point during the battle. Undoubtedly many of the guards would strike up a clamor with one another to vie for the chance to kill one of the UNSC's legendary "demons".

As much as he would have liked to stop and take the time to kill every guard that ran past him, he did not have that kind of time to spare.

He and Arvo had maybe an hour tops before the enemy would attempt to evacuate Jul and they would lose their ever narrowing window of opportunity.

He activated his customized invisibility tech, a gift from his partner, and sunk into the shadows.

"You have a fairly substantial amount of guards headed for your side of the installation, Wraith.," A deep gravelly voice informed him through his radio. Dominic could practically see that damn smirk in his partner's eyes as he said those words.

"Shut it, Arvo," He responded. "I've had no luck today. How about you?"

"Well it seems you may have made some for me."

God damn! Dominic definitely knew he was smirking now.

"Spit it out!" He snapped as he weaved in and out of the oblivious guards on his way to the yellow mark he could see at the edge of his radar.

"Most of the guards are headed your way, but I overheard a handful saying that they should probably go and reinforce Mdama's position. I am following them now."

"Alright. I see you on the edge of my radar. I'll catch up to you soon. Don't kill this one without me! You're making me look like a lazy SPARTAN who lets his partner do all the heavy lifting!"

"No promises…"

God damn, there was that smirking tone again!

Dominic quickened his pace, but was still walking slowly and carefully so as to not step on any of the guards numerous feet as they scurried past him on their way to his assumed position. He thanked whatever gods there were for the top of the notch gear Arvo was able to find.

Good. First chapter done. Dominic is my main spartan character. I might have Arvo join the dragon age world at some point. Scratch that I will have Arvo join in eventually, just not at the same time. His appearance might make Hawke and Dominic get off on the wrong foot and I wouldn't want that. I'll update soon! I probably won't reveal how Gwen and Dominic look until it makes sense in the story and I'll leave you guys guessing. I have some twists planned but hopefully my writing skills convey them the way I want to. If you guys have some ideas feel free to leave them in the reviews! I'll try to incorporate some of them.