Requiem's Gift

by Zues Killer Productions

Idoun was a woman who didn't know anything about her past life, and was always trying to find out what it was. Avril was a Spartan IV who just wanted to find something meaningful in her life. Neither of them have anything in common...until something goes awry, and they switch respective worlds. Now, they must find their way back, before a greater evil exploits this for his own gain

-Harvester 3-C, Requiem

The mission was like any other operation that we've had: do our thing, kill the baddies, and get out. The only thing different from the other ops we've had was the stakes: we either activated the Covenant Harvester, reactivated the artifact holding the Infinity down to Requiem, and get out, or we all died as the planet collided with its sun.

At this point, between the Remnant and the Prometheans, I've seen enough crazy shit to make even the Master Chief balk his helmet in confusion. But that's the hazard when you sign up for the Spartan Fireteams.

I just happened to go to the one with the highest mortality rate: Crimson, so named after their tendency to…lose allies while on ops.

If we don't get this right, we are all fucked.

"Hey, Av?"

I have to admit, despite my belief that I might've kissed my ass goodbye when I joined up, there were some really great veterans with me. Lt. Bradly Daniels was one of the best marksman I've ever seen, Michael Williams seemed like he knew every weapon inside and out along with how to use them effectively, and Samantha is…was one of the best tacticians that I have seen in the armed forces.

"Av?"

It's just a shame that….

"Avril!"

"Huh, wha?"

"Listen, I know we all need our beauty sleep, but right now is not the time!"

I looked up to see that the landing ramp was open, and Michael was beckoning me towards the final mission that I would have with this team, One Last Time that we would fight for our collective survival. I hefted my Assault Rifle on my hands, and went into the breach.

The initial path was clear, but over the hill, there was a reception party. Nothing unusual: a bunch of grunts, sniper jackals, and a few elites guarding the way to the Harvester. Honestly, it's like going through the motions at this point.

"Contact detected, opening fire."

"Come get some you alien freaks!"

As Bradly and Michael open up on the Grunts, I start firing on the elites, who roar in anger at me starting combat with them. The first one got a bashed skull for his trouble, while I ended up using an entire magazine on the second one.

The sniper Jackals almost have a bead on me, but the marksman that is Bradly ends up popping all 3 with expertly made headshots from his Battle Rifle. If it wasn't for the fact that he's such a great asset, I would've been frightened by his inability to express emotion in battle. "Kill Confirmed."

What do I say to this? Hell if I know. As we set upon the camp that the Remnant have in front of the Harvester, Michael starts with a Storm Rifle he "Acquired" from one of the dead elites. While he suppresses fire, I move to the turret overlooking the hi-

"JESUS!"

Fuel Rod Cannons. Able to melt through reinforced steel and titanium plating, and a lot of things. 5 Round magazine of rocket-like projectiles that are highly unstable, causing the weapon to be only handled by Spec Ops Grunts. And if that wasn't enough, the Hunters always have an arm that uses it as a support weapon.

"One Spec Ops Unngoy sighted, marking target now."

"Okay, Bradly, leave him to me. Michael, get on the turret and draw his fire."

Michael nods once through his helmet, and climbs on the turret to start suppressing fire on the enemy. While he manages to get the occasional Elite, I slip by the other end that no one is keeping an eye on, and manage to find the bastard. I sight him, and give him half a magazine of lead to express my distain with these damned weapons. I've seen too many comrades lose their lives to these things….

As the Elites start falling, one gets the idea to charge me with an energy sword. The fact that he was coming at me meant that I had to backpedal and fire my weapon till he di-click. Shit, I have to take my pistol and shoot him until he drops. Which…he does. Suddenly, the spector of death himself walks slowly, taking great care to ensure that the dying and mortally wounded are given a summary execution via lead bullets.

"Area Cleared."

I look around, and see that Michael is still alive, and silently give a thank you to…I don't really know who, but I give it nonetheless. Though he might be kind of occupied by the recent visitors we decided to give it.

"What's the status?" I ask my men.

"Well," Michael says, "the Harvester seems to have an entire company, including Hunters. There are two paths through, but from what I can recall, there's a path in the middle that intersects the pathways."

"We can use these paths to support each other to the control room."

"Okay," I say, "let's do this."

The opening reception had 2 Hunters at the end of each hallway, charging up their lethal weapons in preparation for our arrival. In between us and them, a few grunts and jackals that line each hallway, some of the jackals carrying sniper rifles. Bradly gets started on clearing his side while Michael and I have to make our side clear of hostiles, all while avoiding certain death from these damned Hunters.

Frankly, I almost feel sorry for the enemy on Bradly's side. Almost.

I have to switch to my pistol to save ammo on my rifle, while Michael uses a Carbine that he got outside to help with the assholes on the si-WOULD SOMEONE FOCUS ON THAT GODFORSAKEN DEMON?! Thankfully, my vision clears up, and it seems the Hunter has his attention occupied by something that's on his side, most likely Bradly.

'Thank Goodness for inattentive enemies,' I think to myself as I open up with my weapon on the back of the Hunter, and with Michael's help, manage to take it down. With the main threats out of the way, we can take care of the comma-never mind, Bradly just shanked the last of the Elite command team. Note to self: never ask Bradly to play a game of 'Hide and Seek' with you, it will end disastrously.

"Hey," Michael beckons, "I need the power source here."

I look to Bradly, who's usually our kill-happy psychopath of a superman, to see if he has it. He just shakes his head, and I then look at myself. Where would we store a power source…wait, found it.

I reach towards the power source that we "liberated" from a Lich transport, and toss it over to Michael, and sure enough there's a door opening at the far end. Bradly goes over there, and after almost half a minute, the Harvester sounds up, and there's this mini-earthquake that goes off below me before there's the sound of an advanced plasma laser boring itself into the massive rock face in front of us. I have to get out just to see what was going on.

"Well, I'll be damned. It actually worked."

I can't believe I'd ever say that to myself. The Rock face which had previously blocked out passage to the artifact now has a hole that looks like it had to be starting to cool just now. We haul ass to get in there, and find a surprisingly roomy cave where, if it wasn't for the time constraints we have now and the whole "other world" thing, it would've looked quite nice on some landscape portrait. The cave that leads even deeper looks like an underground cavern, complete with an eerie glow that says something is upon you.

But the place looks completely deserted.

I hate it when it's like that, it usually means that the resident security robots, otherwise known as the Prometheans, are either otherwise preoccupied with something else, are waiting in ambush, or are currently out of power.

We raise our weapons up, looking for any signs of the Prometheans in this place, but we've found nothing. I don't know why, but this is worse than getting a lot of Prometheans here, too damn quiet, not enough shooting to make feel relaxed.

There's this greyish metal hill-like thing that rises up to a door. If the artifact is going to be anywhere, it's going to be in there. It looks like a temple of some sort, complete with a giant-ass door that most people would just assume to be the result of the opulence of the builders who constructed it.

As we approach it, it opens. There's a little hallway thing that raises itself up towards an artifact similar to the one we retrieved during one of our first missions here, and behind it was a spinning set of wheels with energy going around it and driving it through some unknown means. But as we started approaching it, I started to realize something:

This was too easy for my liking.

"Okay, once we disable this thing, there's no telling what'll happen here," Michael warns us, "so stand back…"

Michael approached the artifact at a steady pace, until he was almost towering over it...I don't know why I did what I did, but I ordered "Michael, stand down. Let me take care of this."

I had to make sure that this wasn't a trap, I had to! I touched the glowing portion of the artifact…and it stopped glowing.

"Av," Michael starts to say, "are you okay? You seem kind of stressed."

"I'm fine Michael," I reply, I just had to make sure that nothing was going to happen.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just, I expected this mission to be a little more climactic. Lots of robot battles, hard earned victories that avenged Sam, and the sweet, sweet taste of victory."

"Heh…what?"

"Avril Okawa, I suggest that you see a therapist once we get back to the Infinity."

"I'm fine Bradly."

"No, you're not. You've been acting out of line the past few missions. I assumed that the leadership position you took, combined with the stress of the mission, brought upon a rise in your stress level. But now I feel it's something deeper."

"What are you talking about?"

"The part where you exploded in the Harvester where you said, and I quote, 'WOULD SOMEONE FOCUS ON THAT GODFORSAKEN DEMON?!' I think I have a theory as to why that is."

"This conversation stops now."

"Are you just afraid to admit that Samantha took the cannon for you?"

Ha, as if. Just because…just because I saw Sam take a Fuel Rod Cannon round that I'm pretty sure was meant for me, does not mean I'm…it's not like that! I know Sam's dead, and that I'll never see her again.

"Uh, Av?"

The damn thing that my hand is still on is glowing a tiny bit, but I don't know why. I don't know why I'm stuck in this position, I don't know why the Prometheans are missing, and I sure as hell don't know how to lead a squad.

"Av?"

…I…I failed her. She led us through thick and thin. From being trapped in Spartan Mountain and having to use Mantis's to repel and entire Covenant Armada, to breaking our way out of the prison they had on the other side of the planet. Hell, we'd even save the Infinity…until that damned Hunter got the drop on us. How was I supposed to know that she would be thrown into the freaking wall?

"Avril."

I heard her dying. I couldn't do anything as she was bleeding out from the inside…I couldn't tell her that I was just trying to make her feel better about herself. I had to comfort her. The artifact seemed to glow a little brighter at my thoughts…heh.

So what if everyone thinks that my helmet radio was smashed during the Infinity siege? So what if hearing voices is a thing that happens to people who…suffer deep scars? So what that the coroners say she died on impact, rather than internal bleeding?

"AVRIL!"

"HEY, I'M TRYING TO THINK HERE!"

The artifact glowed impeccably bright, and surrounded me. The only reason I knew that something was happening was the loud crank of broken machinery. Frankly, I don't know what the hell happened next, all that I do remember is that I ended up being surrounded by white light for what felt like an eternity. And then…I woke up.

Place looked too much like Earth for it to be Requiem. A bunch of trees, blue sky, birds flying, no weird earthquakes that I was aware of. I didn't really pay attention to my motion sensor, so it surprised me to see some white dots behind me, considering that I wasn't near any civilization as far as I could tell. I quickly turn around, and get sight on the persons behind me.

Three humanoid figures had robes on them, two in brown and with their hoods up, and the last in a purple robe with her hood down. From what I could tell, the leader (for a lack of a better term) was of a slender frame, had silverish hair, and had a very strange thing going on with her eyes.

Was it normal for eyes to be one color and the other to be a different one? Never mind, don't answer that.

The last person seemed to be a young woman with purple hair, eyes of a similar shade, and the looks of a person who saw a ghost. Everyone looked at me, wondering what the heck just happened (I think). It took me a couple of seconds to figure out the obvious reason why the set up here was what it was: some kind of cult was here, and were intent on murdering the poor girl, thank you, tactical genius.

I had to subdue the leader quickly, which was why I came up to her, butted her with my rifle, and threw her back into the portal that was right behind me.

Wait, how did that get there?

I point the Assault Rifle that was somehow still on me at the two remaining cultists. Interestingly, one seemed determined but scared, but the other just had no reaction to me pointing the weapon at him. Hey, why is there this flashing lig-OH GOD!

-The Village of Arcadia, Nabata, Elibe.

My life began when I woke up in the village of Arcadia. The villagers seemed worried at first, the reasons why eluding me, and outside of a few personal companions who included the legendary Roy of Lycia, the shaman Sophia, and the manakete Fae, I felt like I was an outsider. It didn't help that I lived a lot longer than everyone else: the villagers, Roy…Sophia.

To this day, I don't know why they were so reserved, but the children didn't inherit this trait from their parents, and they came to view me and Fae as their other…Grandmother, at least that's what I assumed an older relative who gives the youngest generation positive affection is called. But, not all the children lived as long as some of the others.

I guess this is Elmine's reminder that humans and dragons were never supposed to be friends, much less companions.

As for me…I never really had a full picture of what I truly am. I know I am a dragonkin, the elders told me that much when I started despairing over the fact that I looked the same year after year while my human companions kept getting older a lot faster than my dragon companions…and kept dying earlier. What I don't know is what happened to my powers that all dragons are supposed to have.

All that I knew was that I was able to cast Dark Magic with the skill levels of a prodgy druid without any effort. Back when Sophia was still walking Elibe, I breached the subject a number of times with her about my origins, but…she always seemed as reserved as the original generation that took care of me. Even if we were closer than most, she never told me what she knew, and she ended up taking whatever she knew about me before my new life down an early grave.

For over 1,600 years, I have helped the elders of Arcadia with teaching the values of cooperation and the ways to keep that cooperation intact. At first, it was done subtly and quietly, so no person or nation would track us down and attack us. Then…it happened.

I don't recall everything, I remember that I was bedridden at the time and was bedridden, but I know that things changed.

For one, the village was an open secret amongst the population of Elibe, thanks in due part for our efforts in helping a noble by the name of…Exalt. Or was that his title? Either way, his scholars documented the legends of Roy (and later his father, the noble paladin Eliwood), although they keep confusing several details as to what happened.

They also kept arguing about some weird thing called "Wife-Fu," whatever this martial art really was.

The other thing that changed was our contacts with dragons. For the preceding 600 years, the only dragons I knew were Sophia (who was half dragon), Fae (who was my constant friend and companion), and the various other faces that I've seen playing around in Arcadia from time to time. Now, there are also some Divine Dragons, some Great Dragons, hell, I may have seen some hybrids too.

But, despite all the excitable things I've seen in the past 1,000 years, I still don't feel like I knew what I was. And for some strange reason, the copy of Roy's legend that I usually had was somewhat different than the versions that I think everyone else has. I know that the Dark Priestess shows up once…but isn't she confronted? I never got another copy outside of Arcadia…

"Are you okay?"

After turning around, I find that the question was asked by my companion Fae. Ever since I first met her, she seemed like a positive bundle of joy…and one of the few who made an effort to know me. Now, being almost as tall as I am, as well as growing up a bit, it's hard to believe that she used to be a little girl who was so positive that she seemed to harbor no negative emotions.

"Oh," I said, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Your face says otherwise, and I just want to make sure you're feeling good."

I'm not really comfortable sharing my inner thoughts outside of myself, but Fae and I know each other almost like as if we were sisters. To hold something back from her would mean that I didn't value our friendship enough to be trustful.

So after hesitating for a few moments, I sighed and finally said "…To tell the truth, I've been rather…bored."

Fae was sporting a rather confused look on her face as she asked "What do you mean by that? Arcadia is one of the more diverse places in Elibe."

"And there is the problem: I have seen a lot all my life, but I never really know anything outside of Arcadia. I have read things, but these things make me want to explore the outside world even more…making my own memories."

"Iden-chan…"

"…I never really had any memories past when I woke up here. It's…it eats you on the inside, torturing you with the missed opportunities of life that you can't go through, all because you stay here.

"And yet, I can't leave, because if I do, I'm worried about what would happen if anything bad occurred while I was gone. I wouldn't be able to stand my own conscience if I knew that I could've done something to prevent a bad thing from occurring. Arcadia is the only home that I've ever known…I just don't want to see it in trouble."

"Idi…"

"…I'm sorry. It's just; I had to get it out of my chest, lest it consume me any longer."

"…Listen, if either of us kept secrets from each other, would it be better to tell them no matter what happened, or keep it to yourself for fear of ruining the friendship?"

To tell the truth, I was very confused by what she said to me. "Fae, I'm not like the Demon Dragon in the "Legends of Roy," whatever is on your mind, you can say it to me."

Fa looked confused for a moment, before saying "Idoun, I was…I was planning for a trip with a few others to see a few forests outside Elibe…and I was wondering…could you…go…with us?"

I think I stood for a few moments, before grabbing Fae, and hugging her, saying "Thank you" over and over again like some kind of crazed child. It took at least a minute to realize how inmature that sounded, putting her down, and saying "I'm sorry for that."

"Heh, it's no big deal," Fae replied, her face the color of a tomato, "we're best friends, we can do these things to each other and no one would pay any mind."

I would later learn that there was more to what she said than met the eye…

But I was excited about my first genuine outing in the outside world. Who knew what I would see over there? I packed the essentials for this: a few robes, some clothing that was known as a "casual style" (I only wore it a few times, and I didn't feel comfortable in it, but I guess Fae wanted me to try something different at the time), an elixir, and, for my personal defense, the Luna and Nosferatu tomes I've owned for a few…centuries.

After perhaps the most restless night I've ever had, I woke up to see Fae, along with two cloaked strangers in the middle of the plaza. Although they were wearing robes, their cowls were lowered and showed their faces.

One was a young woman with violet hair that went to her shoulders, which were staunched over in a relaxed position, but she looked like she had some experience with…something. The other was a young man with moppy blonde hair, and seemed to have an air of power that was difficult to describe. Fae had waved me over, and for a moment, I thought that the young man seemed to be withdrawn in my presence.

"So, you're Fae's companion?" the young woman asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"…if we're going with a friend of our friend, I guess we can at least be on a first name basis. My name is Myrrh, and my friend here is named Oerstead." She gestured towards the young man, who pulled his hood up.

"Okay, my name is Idoun."

"Nice to meet you Idoun."

Myrrh's personality seemed to be more open to me after she introduced herself, but Oerstead still remained a mystery to me…

"So, we should do this outside town?"

Wait, what?

"I guess that's a good option…"

Okay, how does Fae know more about this than me? Then again, they seem to know her already, so I guess that means that she already knows them…

After a few minutes of walking to the outskirts, we finally stopped at a hillside that looked amazing. It seemed like an Oasis of grass in the mostly desert country, and it had the look of a peaceful grove too. Myrrh ended up pointing at some things before taking out a small, disk-like object.

"Uh, Myrrh," I asked. "What is that thing?"

"Oh," Myrrh replied, "you mean this? It's a Rift Gate that we modified."

"Modified…how?"

"You know how normally, Rift Gates tend to summon one of the dozens of Anna's that seem to run their own business?"

"Uh…no?"

"Well, we forged this with the tags that summon Anna's off it so we can use it's warp properties to get around from continent to continent, hopefully without any of the merchants chasing us."

"Okay, I think I-wait, what do you mean by 'hopefully?'"

Myrrh looked a bit nervous for a minute, before just tossing it on a flat spot on the hill. The breeze was calm, the grass seemed to thrive, and the reflected sun seemed to be shimmering in the water.

But nothing was happening.

"Well," Oerstead started to say, "we could always just buy a Rewarp Sta-"

Then the strangest thing happened. The disc started expanding until it was almost big enough to fit us all in, surging with energy all the way through. Then, it…glitched, for a lack of a better word, until something came out of it. It was…I don't know if I can describe it correctly.

First, the…alien thing was covered in an exoskeleton which appeared to not only be a humanoid, but was also armored, even if it was a light shade of pink. Second, its face was only a orange mirror, which gave none of its features away…if it even had any. Finally, it had a strange weapon: it looked like a Spear, but the pointed end was taken out, the body was wider, the butt of the weapon was extended, and there appeared to be a series of tubes that the alien was holding in its hands.

Before I could react, it sped up and hit me with the butt of its weapon, grabbed me, and threw me into the hole from whence it came. I was in pain, and there was a white light that surrounded me and threw me into a voidless expanse. It felt like an eternity before I finally caught sight of…something. The room I was in seemed to be an altar of some sort…but it was as cold as the steel of swords, yet as strong as a well-built castle.

I didn't realize that I was sharing the room with two other ali…no, golems. The first that I caught sight of was bulkier than the one that had come out of the portal, had purplish armor and instead of an orange visor, it had three small circles where the nose would've been had it been a human. It also held a different weapon, but before I could get a look, it beckoned towards another alien.

The third was bulky, had mostly Ice-Blue armor, with red stripes in what seemed to be a symmetrical pattern, and instead of the faceplate of the first one, or the circles of the second one, it had…square plating covering whatever the top half of the face showed. It also approached with a gait that spoke of countless battles.

The third pulled me up, and put me in a curious hold. I'm not sure what they were intending to do, but I think they wanted me alive. Unfortunately, this also caused the tomes that I was keeping on my person to slip out of my robe. I wasn't sure what either of the two golems thought, but the second grabbed them, and hold onto them as if they were artifacts at a museum.

As the Nosferatu tome was somehow welded onto the third's back armor, the ground shook, and the two golems raced away with a speed unlike anything that a living being covered in that much armor could do. As they rushed, the ground seemed to go down, and then come back at us. The impact sent me on the ground, and the third grabbed me just as we were pulled to the side and crashed into a rock wall.

Behind me was the strange building, which looked like a temple of some sort. I'm not sure what happened here, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. The fact that the second pulled out a strange weapon and then started shooting…something, didn't help.

That was, until 'it' collapsed clutching something, and then I started to panic. So when more things came at the second, I was really spooked…until I noticed that the second seemed to have a better understanding of its own warfare, and killed all the strange things. The two golems raced up a hill, and through a blisteringly hot entrance towards…I'm not sure how to describe it.

It looked like what the end of the world was supposed to look like I guess. The sky looked like it was rotting away, the lifeless rock was barren, and the strange thing in front of us stood as a silent testimony to…something. The earthquakes didn't help matters at all, and I'm not sure how we're supposed to get out of here…

Until a giant metal bird showed up, and we got in. The third strapped me, and gave the second a hand gesture of some sorts, before the…mouth of the bird closed behind us. From there, I felt my stomach turn as we sped off into the unknown.

I'm not sure where I ended up, but I don't think I'll be able to get back home anytime soon…

Author's Notes: Well, I admit that this has been a long time coming. To tell the truth, I was looking forward to this a lot. Why? Because it was one of my old concepts that I simply didn't have time to write about before, but now I have more free time (of sorts) thanks to the new college schedule I have!

So, for those of you confused, this is going to be a HaloXFire Emblem Crossover fanfic. I admit that part of the inspiration has to be given credit to the fact that such a section actually exists, and I felt that it would be a good way to write a story.

I only stopped the first time because I was waiting for Halo 5 to come out, and see how the story would go.

Worst idea I've had in a long time. But since I'm not exactly waiting for the Halo 5 to come out now, that means I can just go ahead and start re-writing this fanfic.

So , as you can see, it does look at both sides of the crossover, with Avril being stuck in the Fire Emblem side, while Idoun is stuck in the Halo side, which I feel is something that adds to the story, rather than it just being about Avril's journey in a world where she can literally kill every mook in the game in a 'Rated M for Manly' kind of way.

So I hope you enjoy reading this fic as much as I like writing it.

Zues Killer Productions