I do not own Halo, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or associated characters and properties.
A New World
Early evening
As the Kyoshi Warriors escorted the Spartans to the village, Suki was deep in thought.
The armored pair had claimed they were from some organization called the "UNSC." What exactly was the UNSC, and why had she never heard of it before? The people on Kyoshi Island were fiercely isolationist, but they always made sure to keep up with what went on in the outside world.
On top of that, they each had last names. In the Four Nations, this typically indicated a status of wealth or nobility, like the Beifong family in the mainland Earth Kingdom. However, she hadn't heard of any Dinh family or Glenn family. On top of that, if they were rich, why did Dinh's armor look like it was made of scrap metal, and not refined steel?
Thirdly, if they were indeed from the same organization, why did they have wildly different armor? The Fire Nation had a penchant for dark red and spikes, Earth Kingdom soldiers were green and had conical hats, and Water Tribe warriors were blue and had wolf helmets. Even the Kyoshi Warriors were patterned off of Avatar Kyoshi, their namesake. But the Spartans' armor looked about as different as they could get. Dinh's looked as if someone had taken steel plates from a ship and strapped knives to it, while Glenn's looked like a gray and orange brick.
Resolving to ask her questions when they reached the village, Suki continued forward.
Kyoshi Island
Unknown date
Local time roughly 1800
Hieu's mind was going a thousand miles an hour.
He'd initially thought that they had landed on some remote planet that happened to be habitable, but then the women - the Kyoshi Warriors, as they called themselves - had shown up in gear that wasn't UNSC, Covenant, or Banished in origin. In fact, it seemed rather strange that they used hand-fans when even backwater colonies, like Gao and Venezia, had access to advanced gun models such as Sevine's M392 Bandit rifle, itself held to the ridiculously high standards of Misriah Armory. Then their leader had outright told them that the UNSC didn't even exist here.
It was beginning to look more and more like the pair hadn't even landed in their own universe.
On that note, Hieu wasn't particularly well-versed in the exact workings of slipspace, but he did know that it was some higher plane with different physics from the normal world, allowing people to travel faster than light. A good analogy he'd heard was that spacetime was like a piece of paper. When it's flat, like normal space, everything is a set distance from everything else, and you are forced to travel slower than light. But when it's crumpled up, like slipspace, there are a whole bunch of places where the paper is touching itself, essentially allowing you to "skip" large distances entirely.
If that analogy was correct, was it so big a leap to assume there were other crumpled pieces of paper touching each other, like some giant multiversal wastebasket?
Yanking his mind back to reality, Hieu noticed that the Warriors had taken him and Neil to a small village near the edge of the forest. They were being led down the main road, to a statue on a thick wooden post. Said statue bore a superficial resemblance to the women leading Hieu and Neil, as if their appearance was based on the person it depicted. As they reached the statue, a long coil of rope was produced by the villagers. Taking the hint, the pair shared a glance before Hieu spoke up. "That rope won't hold us, don't bother."
The villagers evidently took issue with his statement. "You wanna prove that?" one sneered.
Grabbing a short length of the rope, Hieu wound it around his elbow and hand a few times, removed the loop from his arm, and tore it apart in the middle with his bare hands. Sufficiently intimidated, the villagers backed off.
Hieu then decided that it was time to talk. "I understand that you might have questions. I have my own, but you can ask first."
"Who are you?" one of the Kyoshi Warriors demanded.
"Where did you come from?" another questioned.
"How did you find our island?" yet another pressed.
"Like I said, I'm Hieu Dinh, my companion is Neil Glenn, and we're both from the UNSC. As for how we got here, well…" he sighed, "...for now, let's just say it wasn't our choice."
Neil continued for Hieu, "If I'm going to be honest… I don't think we're in the right universe." His head sagged in the realization.
This elicited a significant reaction from the crowd. Most had skeptical expressions, others outright declaring their disbelief, yet one in particular seemed to at least be willing to hear them out.
The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors began to step forward, cautiously yet deliberately. When she was a few steps from the unlucky pair, she asked them, in a tone far less forceful than before, "...How?"
For a few seconds, Hieu contemplated simply not telling her, but eventually resolved that she needed to know. "We were thrown into a portal… by someone named Iratus. I could tell a story, but what you need to know is that he saw us as an obstacle to his plans. We didn't even get a chance to fight." His head sunk as he added, "We ended up here."
One of the other Kyoshi Warriors interjected, "That's a lot of stuff you want us to believe."
"I don't need you to believe it," Hieu responded aggressively. Turning back to the leader, he said, "If we're stuck here, I think proper introductions are in order."
The leader gathered her bearings for a second, before responding, "I'm Suki. It's a pleasure to meet you." She stuck out a hand.
"And I'm Hieu Dinh. Nice to meet you, too," he said as he shook Suki's hand.
Just before sunset
The revelation that the Spartans were well and truly lost had a profound effect on Suki. She had always wondered what it would be like to meet people from another world, but she had never thought that it would actually happen. But now that it was happening, it turned out to be far more depressing than anyone could have anticipated.
The otherworldly soldiers had gone off to a house that the village had allocated to them in recognition of their plight. They needed time to properly process their situation. Anyone would if they didn't know how to get home.
Now out of her uniform and makeup, Suki had decided to walk over to their temporary home to see if the pair needed anything. Turning the corner, she was surprised to see that the Spartans weren't inside, instead sitting just off the steps to the door.
As Suki approached, the duo noticed her and stood to face her. "Hello," she greeted. The pair nodded in acknowledgement.
Peeking inside the house, she noticed that nothing had been touched in the slightest. "Aren't you going to see your house?" she asked.
The gray one - Neil Glenn, she recalled - answered, "The floor wouldn't hold our weight. Unless it's somehow rated for people that weigh half a ton."
Suki briefly recoiled at the sudden statistic. "Half a ton?" she questioned in slight shock.
"Well, technically, outside the armor, we're more in the ballpark of one-hundred-fifteen kilograms, but getting out of it is a tad difficult without the right tools," Glenn answered.
"So…"
"So we're sleeping outside, not that we don't appreciate the gesture," Dinh said.
"...okay."
Suki turned to leave, but then Dinh spoke up one last time. "Since we're stuck here, some knowledge of this place would help a lot."
"...so there are people who can manipulate the elements, and one in particular can control all four?" Neil asked, not sure if he was hearing Suki correctly.
"Yes," she answered.
"And there's been a war going on for the past hundred years that started when the 'Fire Nation' attacked the 'Air Nomads'?" Hieu questioned.
"That's the simplified version, but yes," Suki again confirmed.
The armored pair shared a glance, before Hieu spoke up. "Thanks for telling us what we need to know. Now, I don't suppose you're at all curious about our world?"
Recognizing the cogs in her head that saw the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they knew Suki couldn't pass this up.
"...so your humanity has been in space for six hundred years, there are no benders, and you have met actual aliens?" Suki asked, not sure if she was hearing the Spartans correctly.
"Yes," Dinh answered.
"And your humanity was in a twenty-eight year war against these aliens because the ones in power wanted to keep a secret, and some of the other aliens switched sides near the end of the war because the ones in power tried to kill them?" she questioned.
"That's admittedly rather simplified, but yes," Glenn confirmed.
Suki sighed and leaned back in her chair. "And I thought my world was complicated."
"Trust me, that's only the public stuff," Dinh said.
Early morning
The ship was quiet.
Taking advantage of this quietness, Prince Zuko had decided to meditate in his quarters. A set of four candles was on the table in front of him. As he breathed in and out, the candles' fire rose and fell.
As Zuko meditated, his uncle, Iroh, entered with a scroll.
"The only reason you should be interrupting me, is if you have news about the Avatar," Zuko calmly stated.
"Well, there is news, Zuko," Iroh began. "But you might not like it. Don't get too upset."
"Uncle, you taught me that keeping a level head is a sign of a great leader. Now, whatever you have to say, I'm sure I can take it."
"Okay then," Iroh cautiously started, "we have no idea where he is-"
The candles flared angrily. "WHAT?!" Zuko yelled.
As the candles died down, Iroh pulled out a fan. "You really should open a window in here."
"Give me the map!" Zuko ordered as he took the scroll from his uncle's hand.
"There have been multiple sightings of the Avatar," Iroh began. "But he is impossible to track down."
"How am I going to find him, Uncle?" Zuko asked as he stared at the map, showing where the Avatar had been seen. "He is clearly a master of evasive maneuvering."
Morning
"You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Sokka asked.
"Well, I know it's near water," Aang replied, as he piloted Appa the sky-bison over the ocean.
"Well, I guess we're getting close, then," Sokka sarcastically remarked.
While Katara sewed, Aang decided to have a bit of fun with his newfound lemur. "Momo, marbles please."
Momo dove into Aang's shirt, before extracting himself with said marbles in hand and giving them to Aang. He turned to Katara
"Hey Katara, check out this airbending trick!" Aang said. He used his airbending to levitate the marbles between his hands, spinning them in a small circle.
"That's great, Aang," Katara said distractedly as she continued to sew.
"But you didn't even look," Aang said in disappointment as he put away his marbles.
Glancing at Aang, Katara said, "That's great!"
"But I'm not even doing it now," Aang pointed out.
"Stop bugging her, Airhead. You need to give girls space when they do their sewing," Sokka said in a disapproving tone as he waved his hand in the air.
Katara turned to face Sokka. "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" she questioned in irritation.
"Simple, girls are better at fixing pants than guys," Sokka began. "And guys are better at hunting, and fighting, and stuff like that. It's just the natural order of things."
"All done with your pants!" Katara said as she gave a mischievous smile. "And look what a great job I did." She tossed the pants at a very pants-less Sokka, hitting his face.
"Wait! I-I was just kidding!" Sokka attempted to apologize. "I can't wear these!" He stuck an arm through a tear for emphasis. "Katara, please!"
"Relax, Sokka," Aang started. "Where we're going, you won't need any pants!" The young Avatar directed Appa towards a small island with a lagoon.
AN: That's Chapter 4 done! Managed to break two thousand words on this one.
Anyway, first off, Hieu and Neil have met the villagers and explained their predicament. Should come in handy for boosting the word count slightly when we get to Avatar Season 2.
Next, Suki and the Spartans have exchanged brief histories. 'Brief' being relative, which you know if you've played the games. The big events of Avatar's history prior to the show as far as I can remember are pretty much the Four Nations living together in harmony, Avatar Kyoshi splitting the island from the mainland, and the Fire Nation invading. Meanwhile, Halo is far, far more complex. The histories of the Covenant, the Forerunners, and humanity are each deep dives in and of themselves, and that's before we get to the Human-Covenant War, the Flood, the Great Schism, etc.
Now, the next chapter is pretty much "The Warriors of Kyoshi" with the Spartans added in, which should be obvious given the last couple of scenes in this chapter.
Follows and favorites are very much appreciated, so please do so. Also review to tell me what I can do better.
This is Believer218, signing off.
Edit: New story title
