Halo: Shattered Fate

The Fate/Grand Order and Halo series, along with all characters and elements, do not belong to me. Both works are respectively properties of Type-Moon and 343 Industries.

Writing Keys:

"Dialogue."

Special

Written Text

"Highlight/Supernatural Voice."

"Magic."

Behind his MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet, the Master Chief widened his eyes slightly after the girl had spoken, recognizing her name immediately. It was hard not to, knowing the historical period in which she had made her mark.

Marie Antoinette, born in 1755, was the Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XVI. She was an Austrian archduchess and the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa. Known for her extravagant lifestyle and lavish spending, she became a symbol of the excesses of the French monarchy.

Amidst the French Revolution, her perceived indifference to the struggles of the common people made her a target of public anger. In 1793, she was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by guillotine, marking the end of her controversial life.

And here she was. She looked... unexpectedly different from the way John had envisioned her. More cheerful. Taking into account the way her life had come to an end, he had anticipated her mood to be far more somber.

Inwardly John shook his head. He turned his attention to the man who was standing by the side of the supposed French monarch. Some doubts still lingered in his mind regarding the veracity of her name, but he pushed them aside for later.

The Spartan was waiting for the man to disclose his name without uttering a word. Fortunately for him, the man appeared to have realized that he was now putting his attention upon him, as he smiled broadly.

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Caster Class, it's a pleasure."

…If he wished to do so, John could compile quite an extensive list of many events that have caught him by complete surprise. Some of them were somewhat traumatic, though they were nothing he couldn't easily handle, whereas others were just pleasant memories that he recalled during his spare time.

This one would make it into the top 100, at the very least.

It was impossible not to recognize the man after he had clearly called out his name. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most influential and distinguished composers in all human history. Even in the distant 26th century, his music continued to be listened to by a vast amount of people, with several performances being arranged in his memory on several different planets.

And just like the controversial queen, he was currently standing before him, very much alive and breathing. If John had any lingering doubts about the insights Hope had given him prior to encountering them, then those had now gone away as he stared at the two people who ought to be more than dead standing in front of him.

Then, the Master Chief lowered down his assault rifle, although he maintained his index finger over the trigger just in case. He would give them a measure of his trust since they had clearly approached him without the intention of starting a quarrel, but if in secret that was what they were really looking for, then he would not hesitate to take them out.

"All right, I'm glad that we don't have to fight!" The queen was practically beaming with delight, as she and the composer at her side lowered their arms. Then, her smile seemed to tighten a notch. "Sorry, but could you please introduce yourself? It would be rude to have a conversation without knowing your name."

The Master Chief had no real issue with doing that, although he was going to leave something out. "Servant Archer, Master Chief Petty Officer 117."

"E-Eh. That's a rather long name, isn't it?" Marie said, cackling with a nervous laugh. "Monsieur, what should we call you?"

"…Master Chief, or if you wish, just Chief." John replied.

He never had any problem with people addressing him by his rank. In truth, he actually preferred that. Many times he felt somewhat uncomfortable when anyone other than Dr. Halsey or the other Spartan IIs would call him by his given name. That was one, and the primary, reason as to why John had opted to not provide the French monarch with his name given to him by his biological mother.

"Oh, very well Chief." The queen said, smiling brightly at him.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions."

"Of course. You haven't attacked us unlike the other Servants, so there is no problem."

The swift manner in which Queen Marie had agreed gave away how trusting of others she was. It was not surprising given that there was never a serious report of her participating heavily in politics during the time when she was alive, having only taken a more active role when the revolutionaries started raiding against her.

Although what she said in the middle lingered in the back of his mind. There were apparently more Servants besides the two of them. He would make sure to inquire with her about that later.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" John asked.

"Yes, we are in France."

That was already a good start. "Year?"

"1431 AD."

A thousand years before he was even born. Great.

John then focused on what he knew about that particular year. America had yet to be discovered by Christopher Columbus, so there was little of importance to detail about it. Europe was in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, and Jeanne d'Arc was being put on trial and eventually burned at the stake by the english.

All that information practically meant that he would stand out completely from the crowd. His best bet to avoid that would be to get something to cover himself, but his sheer size would already make him conspicuous, so it would be a total waste of time.

Anyway, he could look for a solution for that issue afterwards. For now he had a few other questions running through his mind.

"Chief, it would be wise to ask her if she has any idea as to why we are here." Hope whispered to him from within his helmet.

"Do either of you know why we are here?"

His question was met with one shake of the head, followed by a disappointed sigh. "Unfortunately no, both Amadeus and I were summoned without any Master, something completely bizarre."

"Why?" The Spartan asked, eliciting confused glances from both of them.

"Because Servants are always summoned to battle for the Holy Grail by the Masters." Marie replied, then she cocked her head to the side. "Are you alright? That is basic knowledge that is granted to you at the moment you are summoned."

He didn't know that, but it sounded like something he definitely should have known. Now the two Servants were looking at him with some degree of puzzlement, with Wolfgang appearing to be more suspicious of him than confused.

"Hope?"

"Sorry Chief, I was making a summary of all the information that was given to me for later, and the part about the Holy Grails was there." Hope explained.

It didn't bother John all that much. On the contrary, Hope had made a wise decision. There was no way of knowing that they would cross paths with other Servants, so the blame did not fall on her. But even so, both of them were now under suspicion, so he now needed to find a solution to lessen their concerns, and thus avoid a confrontation.

"I've got an idea." The AI said to him.

"I'm all ears."

"Let me talk to them, face to face. By introducing myself, you will be revealing one of your Noble Phantasms, something extremely valuable to know in a Holy Grail War."

Hope spoke quickly to prevent him from interrupting her, providing him with a good point that he was unable to refuse. It had a logic to it, and as much as he didn't particularly like it, he had to go along with Hope's idea if he was going to keep from getting into a fight.

John moved his hand out of the handgrip of his rifle, stretching out his open hand with his palm facing towards the sky. Then, the holographic emitters in the palm of his armor were activated, and Hope's holographic image was brought into view.

"Hi."

With a wave of her hand and a cheerful smile, Hope happily greeted both Servants, whose attention turned away from him and moved towards her.

They were both observing the petite holographic figure standing on his hand with indescribable gazes. A tense silence hung in the air, and John was now starting to doubt whether this had actually been a wise decision.

Then all of a sudden, the French Queen's cheerful smile returned to her lips, as she waved back at her. "Well, hello there. And who might you be?"

"It is a pleasure to meet both of you. I am the Third Generation Smart AI designated as CTN 0453-0, but you can simply call me Hope."

"Hope? What a beautiful name! And you're so cute!"

"AI?" Amadeus voiced out, not sharing his compatriot's excitement, although he no longer seemed overly suspicious about them, rather he appeared to be intrigued. "By any chance, do you happen to be his Noble Phantasm?"

"That's right. I am currently one of the Chief's Noble Phantasms. My duty is to provide support to the Chief in whatever he requires so that he may accomplish his mission."

"I see, but you haven't introduced yourself for nothing, have you? You have something to tell us."

"Correct once more. You see, for some reason, it was me instead of the Chief who received the data provided by the Holy Grail. I possess all the information about the Heroic Spirits, however, I lack the information about where we are and the current events."

"I understand, that's why he has been asking us these questions." Nodding once, Amadesus shifted his eyes towards him, before bringing his attention back to Hope. "All right, do you have any more questions?"

"Have you any idea of the current situation in France? As you said before, none of us has a contract with a Master, so we were not supposed to have been summoned, yet here we are."

Yet again, silence settled over the surroundings. The two Frenchmen, particularly the queen, were looking very uncomfortable, with their gazes far from him. Both of them knew something, there was no doubt about that, the issue was to determine if they were involved in whatever was going on.

His gaze dropped over to Hope, who, judging from her peering stare, had also reached the very same conclusion as he had. Then, he shifted his eyes towards the two Servants, in readiness to interrogate them as to what they knew. However, a moment before he had the opportunity to do so, Marie Antoinette's azure eyes flickered towards him, before she parted her lips to speak, sounding hesitant as she did it.

"A-Actually, we do know something."

A few minutes later, the French queen had finished filling him in on her knowledge of the situation. The three of them, alongside Hope, had made their way out of the outskirts of the town towards a small camp that Amadeus and Marie had assembled with a few supplies that they had obtained from supposedly destroyed towns.

Once they had settled into the place, Marie immediately began to explain to him everything she had encountered since she had been summoned. Having already arrived in France a few days before, Marie had soon encountered Amadeus, a so-called childhood friend of hers.

Since the two of them lacked a Master, they agreed that they would travel together to discover the reason for their presence here. She and the musician had traveled through a few towns, where she used her charismatic nature to obtain some information on the time period they were in, as she had instantly acknowledged that she had been summoned in France.

It was then that, in one of the villages they had previously visited, one of the locals had kindly filled them in on the ongoing disaster happening in France. Apparently, Jeanne d'Arc, one of the most prominent figures in French history, had resuscitated after she had been burned at the stake, and was now rampaging throughout the country in vengeance for having been left to her death.

Now, the people of France were nicknaming her as "The Dragon Witch", because as if that didn't sound crazy enough, she was apparently using an army of dragons to scorch down the towns.

John would have loved to comment that everything that he just heard sounded like madness, as if it had been taken straight out of those weird comic books that some of the Marines used to read, but the fact that he was currently sitting in front of Marie Antoinette and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pretty much forced him to keep his mouth shut.

"Talk about waking up on the wrong foot." Hope had sarcastically commented to him via his helmet's private communications.

The Master Chief agreed with her remark. He would have much preferred to have woken up in a cryotube while wearing the armor of a hundred Spartans on top of him. At least it would have spared him from the headaches he was feeling while trying to process what he had heard and encountered until now.

There was no question that he was going to come across a lot more insane things. It was just a matter of time. To his good fortune, he was already used to encountering inhuman beings that would perhaps try to kill him, so adjusting to them should be easy.

John shook his head in his mind. He was straying away from the main problem. He quickly turned his attention back to the ongoing conflict that France was undergoing, and the actions that he was going to take.

What would be his immediate objective? To determine what was actually going on, and to hunt down whoever was the cause of it. There was no record of Jeanne d'Arc having any relationship with any dragons, especially in an age where the myths of knights and dragons no longer occurred, so someone else would have to be behind it. If it turned out that Jeanne d'Arc was indeed responsible, then he would not hesitate to finish her off, regardless of whether she had God as her guardian.

Although there were a few issues that would hinder his investigations, the first one being that it would be virtually impossible to get any information out of the towns. Not only would he stand out amongst the crowd, but if for some reason he ended up tampering with something important in the timeline, then he had no idea what the consequences would be down in the future. Time travel was not something that was particularly a topic of discussion in the future, and John had absolutely no idea how it functioned.

It was a great problem, which fortunately, his mind quickly worked out a solution as he remembered with whom he was chatting a few seconds ago. As time resumed back to the normality of his perspective, John raised his eyes and glanced over at Marie, who was still sitting there with a slumped expression in her eyes. She was apparently an admirer of Jeanne d'Arc, since while recounting to him what was occurring, she had said on multiple occasions that this might be an impostor and not the real Jeanne d'Arc.

"What are you going to do now?" John asked them, cutting through the silence.

Marie took a brief moment to answer, casting a glance towards Amadeus who offered her a small smile and a quick nod of his head, and when she did, she spoke in a determined tone of voice. "We will continue to travel and help whoever we come across."

That was quite unexpected. Knowing how her life had come to an end, the Master Chief would expect Marie to hold some hard feelings against France and its people, so he didn't anticipate that she would be willing to help resolve the conflict. Instead, she seemed jubilant to be able to be of assistance to her former people. Such a strange woman.

Still he was pleased with her response. That would make matters much more simple with his next proposition.

"If you don't object, I would like to join in with you."

His sudden proposal garnered two bewildered blinks of the eye, right before Queen Marie repeatedly nodded her head excitedly. "Of course it wouldn't be a problem, in fact, it would be a great pleasure. Amadeus and I are hardly the strongest, whereas you look like you could take on hundreds of warriors and actually win."

"Hold on a second Marie." Amadeus suddenly said. "Although I agree with you about bringing this enormous brute alongside us, we still don't know exactly the reason as to why he wishes to accompany us."

"Oh, you're right." Marie replied. "If you don't have a problem, could you please state why you are interested in joining us?"

No, he had no problem with answering the question. In fact, he agreed with the skepticism that the musician showed, and it didn't annoy him one bit. He wasn't hurting anyone by being a little cautious.

"My duty, as a soldier, is to protect humanity… whatever the cost."

His answer was the exact same words he had given to Captain Lasky after he had returned back to earth, and after the battle against the Didact had finished. However, there was a difference in himself from when he had first spoken to the captain of the Infinity.

John had failed at that time, and he had suffered the loss of someone more than important to him. The sorrow he experienced was foreign to him at the time, and he tried to hide it by continuing to perform his duty, just like a machine. But now, he had rediscovered hope, and was fulfilling his duty not out of grief, but because he was proud to do so.

"Perfect!" In front of him, Marie had leaped to her feet, looking pleased after hearing his response.

Besides her, the expression on Amadeus' face changed towards one of acceptance, although John noticed something else. Intrigue, which was not present before.

"Well then, Chief and Amadeus, let's go and save our country!"

John was starting to take a liking to Queen Marie. Before leaving, though, perhaps he should clarify one thing to her.

"Queen Marie." The Master Chief called out to her, gaining her attention.

"You can just call me Marie, Chief." Marie told him, letting out a soft chuckle.

"Alright... Marie." It was slightly uncomfortable to address someone who was not a Spartan on a first-name basis. "I am not French."

Judging by the way the French monarch froze in her place, and the way the musician's eyes widened ever so slightly, it seemed that it was a shock what he had said. He figured that it would be a bigger surprise if he told them that he wasn't even born on Earth.

… He probably shouldn't even mention that. It would only bring more troubles and questions to him.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Second chapter finished, don't expect the third to come out so soon. This is a shorter chapter, because I wanted to finish it quickly and skip to the meeting with Chaldea. I'm very lazy, and I only finished it quickly because the comments gave me a lot more motivation.

I decided that John would not give his name, simply because everyone would call him by that instead of calling him Master Chief. As for the information that the Chief will give about the future, it will be very little. As I wrote, he has no idea what consequences could happen if he did it, so he would try to avoid it and be very vague about it, although obviously he would say something. It is inevitable, especially with the presence of a Universal Genius who would want to know everything.

All right, I think that's all. That's it for me, I'll be seeing you in the next one.

N.R