AN: A very merry Christmas to you all!
Here is the special I promised. There was a change in plans in making this partially canon to the actual story, so some things here will affect the saga going forward. However, there are other elements that will be changed or ignored.
Anyway, I don't own Halo or Avatar, all that mumbo jumbo, I'm running out of ways to say that, ho ho ho and off we go.
The Christmas Special: Winter Contingency
As evening approached, Fireteam Cobra was driving along in the Razorback. A tarp they found in the troop bay was propped up on sticks over the bay and canopy, helping to keep the cold out as the blizzard outside intensified. From her spot in the driver's seat, Sigrid could barely see fifty feet ahead of her, even with the high beams on, so she maintained a slow speed as she drove through a forest.
Gotta admit, this was not how the team envisioned their Christmas. Trying not to freeze to death in their reclaimed Razorback, a vehicle which wasn't designed with insulation in mind.
A perfect way to spend their time.
The storm suddenly picked up in intensity, lowering Sigrid's sightlines even further. Not wanting to risk further travel, she parked the vehicle, but kept the engine running to help keep warm and make sure the water in the fuel tanks didn't freeze.
Laurette, who was in the passenger seat, leaned her head back against the headrest and let out a sigh, her breath fogging up despite the heaters being on full blast. "This wasn't how I thought it would happen."
Sigrid cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"Ever since the Infinity went missing… everything's gone downhill. Iratus, the infection, all of it, the Academy went from one bad thing to another, and now we're striking it out on our own in another universe."
Nick, from his spot in the back, sympathetically laid a gauntlet on the commander's pauldron. "It's not all bad. Hieu and Neil are somewhere here. There's a reason Iratus sent for a Spartan Killer."
"And we have no clue where either of them are," Remy countered glumly.
"Neil's been my best friend since third grade. I owe it to him to find him," Nick retorted.
"How do you suppose we even start?" Remy hotly responded. "All we've got is a stolen Razorback, a tarp, some sticks, and exactly zero direction to go in other than forward!"
"You're right," Laurette admitted. "We don't have any clues. But Nick's also right that we need to find them."
"Well, when you know where we're going, let me know," Remy huffed. "I'm going to sleep."
Before the marksman could do so, however, a faint light appeared through the howling snow. It slowly glowed brighter over time, and the silhouette of a billowing cloak could be seen behind it as it approached.
Nick, doing his best to peer through the windshield, then turned to Remy with a smirk. "How's that for direction?"
"...fine, you win."
"Who goes there?" the stranger suddenly called in a deep baritone, his lantern still raised in front of him.
Laurette turned to the others. "Stay here until I say otherwise." She lifted the tarp just enough for her to climb out of the truck. As she landed, her boots sank a good six inches into the snow. She turned to the man and hollered back, "We're… travelers!"
"Travelers, huh? It's dangerous to be traveling in this weather!" the man said as he approached, allowing Laurette to get a closer look. Under his hood, he had a snow-white beard, pale skin, and a receding hairline. He got a closer look at her, too, and seemed to recognize something. "Follow me! And bring your… cart with you! I have a barn you can stay in!"
Seeing the man's hospitality, Laurette keyed her comms. "Sigrid, follow me."
Safely inside the man's barn, the four Spartans took some time to relax. Laurette, however, noticed the man gesturing over to a couple of nearby hay bales. She walked over and sat down, with the man following suit shortly after.
"I don't think we've been introduced," the man said. "I'm Tyro."
"Laurette," the commander responded. "My compatriots are Remy, Sigrid, and Nick. And I can't thank you enough for offering us some shelter."
"Think nothing of it," Tyro said. He then turned his gaze toward Fireteam Cobra, before looking back at Laurette. "I have to say, I wasn't expecting four Spartans to come here."
"You know who we are?" Laurette asked with a raised eyebrow.
"How could I not? Two of them passed through a couple months ago," Tyro responded. "Neil Glenn and Hieu Dinh, they're traveling northward with the Avatar and his friends. They helped to liberate my village from the Fire Nation while they were here. Last I heard of them was a Fire Nation wanted poster." He chuckled. "Figures they'd get on that scumbag Zhao's nerves."
"I think we're missing some context here," Remy said as he hobbled over, using his shock rifle as a crutch. He and Nick hadn't recalibrated his damaged prosthetic yet. "What exactly is the Fire Nation and why are they bad?"
Tyro's expression went dark. "A hundred years ago, Fire Lord Sozin began the war without provocation. His opening move was the complete destruction of the Air Nomads as a people, and there's only one known survivor. Since then, they've attacked hundreds of Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe villages, imprisoning waterbenders and earthbenders simply because they weren't firebenders."
He sighed. "I was one of those prisoners. Me and my men had held out for a good while, but we eventually had to surrender. We were sent to a prison rig out in the ocean, miles away from any earth we could bend. Everyone the Fire Nation caught earthbending was thrown in with us as they were rooted out. I began to lose any hope that we might have a chance at escape.
"But when my son Haru was found, a girl named Katara managed to find a way to get arrested and sent to the rig, and the Avatar, his friends, and the Spartans tracked her there. They managed to rally us and help break us out. I think Neil shooting the warden in the thigh was the tipping point. If they hadn't come… I'd still be there, slaving away at steel."
After Tyro finished, Nick slowly raised his hand. "That's a good story and all, but… what's a bender?"
"Right. A bender is someone who can manipulate one of the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air," Tyro explained. "The Avatar is the only individual in the world that can bend all four."
"So superpowers," Remy remarked. "Seems straight out of my comics."
"That's one way to put it," Tyro said with a chuckle. He then waved his hand, and some sand floated into the air from the floor and twisted itself into various shapes, drawing amazed gazes from the Spartans. "I'm an earthbender, as you can see."
"That's… amazing!" Sigrid exclaimed.
"Nice," Nick complimented.
Laurette quickly got her compatriots back on track. "You said that Hieu and Neil were going north, right?" she asked, with Tyro nodding. "How far?"
"The North Pole," Tyro answered. "The Avatar is seeking a waterbending teacher, and the Northern Water Tribe is their best option, given the lack of waterbenders in the Southern Tribe."
Laurette stuck her hand out. "I can't thank you enough. For everything."
"Don't mention it," Tyro said as he took the gauntlet and shook it.
Laurette then stood up tall, turning to her crew. "Spartans, form up!"
As the marksman, the engineer, and the infiltrator lined up at attention in front of her, the commander started pacing. "We came here knowing that there might not be any going back. We came here with no knowledge of the world ahead of us. But now we have direction. As we go north, we will find our lost friends. Petty Officer Granger, what did Commander Musa Ghanem say a Spartan's duty was?"
"'Spartans are what will see us through the darkness ahead and into the dawn beyond', ma'am!" Remy dutifully answered.
"Good. And Petty Officer Lee, what did I say a Spartan was when you came into the Academy?" Laurette asked.
"'A Spartan is a symbol', ma'am!" Nick recited.
"Correct," Laurette affirmed. "Neil and Hieu are heading north. Their continued survival will see this world through the darkness. They are symbols of hope for the people here. If this world is to survive the coming fire, we need to become more lights in the dark, more hope."
She stopped, and turned to her squadmates - no, her friends. "Spartans, are. You. Ready?"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am." they chanted in unison.
"I can't hear you!"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"
"Again!"
"MA'AM, YES MA'AM!"
"Good," Laurette said with a smirk. "Get some rest. We leave tomorrow morning."
As the four began to wind down, Nick made his rest in the troop bay of the Razorback. Before he laid down, he remembered something. Opening the hardcase on his thigh, he pulled out a small data chip, labeled "Best Friends Mixtape Vol. 1". He'd meant to give it to Neil for Christmas, but everything that happened at the Academy pushed it out of his mind. To be fair, those happenings pushed Christmas out of everyone's mind.
The engineer sighed. He missed Neil. He missed his jokes, his levity, his sassing to superiors (which landed him on mop duty at least twice a month back before they became Spartans). He wanted his best friend back.
But then he remembered that Neil was still alive. The Fire Nation wouldn't put up wanted posters of him if he wasn't, right? Plus, Neil had allies, and another Spartan with him. With newfound resolve, Nick decided, in honor of his missing best friend, that he would play the mixtape just this night. Plugging the chip into the back of his ODST helmet, he put it on and hit the shuffle icon with a command through his interface, and let the tunes flow as he fell asleep.
The knowledge that Neil was alive was the best Christmas present he could ask for right now.
"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelu-u-u-ujah
A thousand or so miles away, Team Avatar was camped out in a small cave. The snow piled up harmlessly outside the entrance, while a warm campfire burned inside.
It was here that Neil Glenn was taking some time to really think. He hadn't really done so before now, whether it be due to action or some other preoccupation. He'd tried to push those thoughts away by performing more maintenance on the Bandit, but there were only so many times he could disassemble and reassemble his rifle. So it was with nothing else to do that the cadet leaned his head back against the cave wall.
Where did everything go wrong?
That was the first question he had. Was it when he accepted the offer to join up with Spartan Ops? Or maybe it was when Hieu came to the Academy with Iratus in his head? Or perhaps it was when he'd followed Hieu into the secret basement. Ugh, it was so confusing! There were so many factors that he didn't know where it all started to go downhill.
To be honest, this was nowhere near how he envisioned his Christmas.
What's going on back home?
He knew that Mom and Lia were probably worried sick. He'd been gone for months at this point, so that much was obvious. Uncle Harry was probably saying that this was all meant to be, given the fact he was a devoted hippie. His best friend, Nick, was probably also trying his best to find him. The bearded man had been his best friend since third grade, and it pained Neil to not be able to see him.
There were also his squadmates in Fireteam Griffin. Mark Lee (no relation to Nick) was the slightly psychopathic marksman, having named his sniper rifle Snapback after the effect it had on enemy craniums. Despite outward appearances, however, he did legitimately have some compassion underneath. He was probably making cynical jokes about Neil to hide his grief.
Amanda Merrison was the team leader and comms expert, having made her armor into a literal walking antenna. She'd been more open to Neil than his other squadmates, stirring rumors that she was attracted to him. If he was gonna be honest, he kinda had that feeling towards her. If those rumors were true (he honestly didn't know), she was probably crying her head off.
Braydon Mack, or "Mack" as they called him, was the heavy weapons expert and HAZMAT specialist. The seven-foot-ten man was a firm believer that either a fine scalpel or brute force could solve any problem, though one too many close calls with unexploded ordnance led to him modifying his helmet with a special optronics package rated for flashes from (Neil held back a shiver at the thought) NOVA bombs. Despite his massive size, he was actually by far the most compassionate member of the team. It was probably only his teammates restraining him that kept him from tearing apart the Academy to find Neil.
Neil honestly hoped that Commander Agryna had found a way to contain Iratus again, and that she was prepping a search party. If he was gonna be truthful, he kinda hoped they would hur-
"Uh, Neil, are you okay?"
"Uh, wh-what?" Neil stammered as he was shaken out of his thoughts.
"You're being kinda quiet," Aang pointed out.
"Oh, sorry, it's just… I was thinking about everything that's happened," Neil admitted as he scratched the back of his neck. "There's a lot of stuff back home that I'm kinda missing."
"Like…?" Sokka preempted.
"My family, my friends," Neil said. "Mom's overprotective, but she makes the tastiest apple pie I've ever had, and my sister Lia's really good with words. Uncle Harry's big on being a hippie, always saying to go with the flow." The cadet chuckled affectionately. "You'd need to meet 'em to appreciate 'em, though."
"They sound nice," Katara said with a small smile.
"They are," Neil agreed. "And then there's my fireteam, back at the Academy. Mark's the resident cynic psychopath, but he's kind of a softie under that, and he's the best sniper you could ask for. Amanda's the team leader and comms expert. She's phenomenal at her job, and honestly kinda… anyway, then there's Mack, the team heavy and HAZMAT specialist. Big guy's great at either blowing things up or stopping things from blowing up, and he has a big heart to go with his size.
"Then outside the team, there's Nick. He's been my best friend since third grade, and we used to do almost everything together, and I mean everything. We went to each other's birthday parties, we buddied up for every science lab in school, he even went to the memorial service for my dad after he… you know. And Commander Agryna's my favorite CO since I joined the military. She's supportive, has a good sense of humor, best commander you could ask for. Plus, she doesn't assign me to janitorial duty whenever my mouth goes running."
He sighed. "Man, now I'm sad."
Aang leaned over and placed a reassuring hand on Neil's pauldron. "Don't worry. If I have anything to say about it, you'll find a way home."
Hieu finally spoke up. "Neil, you're not the only one who left a lot behind when we jumped down the shaft. I've got my adoptive family, Eklund, Agryna, a whole lot of people back on the other side. We will find a way back, I can promise that."
"Yeah, if you wanna get that girl, you gotta be able to see her," Sokka quipped.
"...thanks," Neil eventually responded, a small smile returning to his face. It quickly vanished when he processed what Sokka said. "Wait, where did you get that idea from?"
"Oh, come on, don't deny it!" Sokka replied with a smirk. "We all caught that pause when you were talking about Amanda!"
"I- what- wha-"
"That's all I needed to hear." With Sokka's quip, everyone except Neil (who was still blabbering nonsensically) broke into raucous laughter, with even Hieu sharing a chuckle.
While Neil was busy processing the fact that he accidentally gave away the fact that he had a crush on a squadmate, somewhere inside the super-myelinated recesses of his subconscious, he finally decided that this was a good Christmas.
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew a Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelu-u-u-ujah
AN: And that is the special done!
As I said before, this is only partially canon. This taking place on Christmas isn't canon, nor is the snowstorm, which will in the canon be a rainstorm. But the things that are canon are the dialogue, Nick's present to Neil, and our musical medic's squad. And yes, that does include the fact that Neil has a crush on Amanda.
Poor Neil, blissfully unaware of her true fate.
Anyway, next matter of business. I deliberately separated the verses to Hallelujah mainly because of the symbolism. And if you're not catching on (which you probably aren't), here's the explanation.
The first verse is about David offering a song to the Lord, kinda like Nick making the mixtape for Neil. The falls parallel the fall of the Academy, and the lifts are like learning that Neil and Hieu are alive and kicking. There's symbolism for the second verse, too. Neil followed Hieu into the ONI basement because he didn't know what was going on, and he needed proof of what was happening. Iratus "overthrew" Hieu and Neil with the beautiful (in the eyes of the beholder) cube. And despite everything that's been going on for the two since the Infinity went dark, Neil is having a good time ("And from your lils she drew a Hallelujah").
Now, onto the review response.
ijm102609: You're welcome.
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Anyway, that's all from me. Follow, fave, and review, and I'll see you in 2024. I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
This is Believer218, signing off.