Help from afar is a fanfic by fulcrum101 that is a crossover between Fullmetal Alchemist and Avatar: The Last Airbender. It can be read here
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The Earth Kingdom is under attack from the Fire Nation, who are trying to find the Avatar. They contact Amestris and request assistance from Fuhrer Mustang. Due to his military being stretched thin, Mustang sends Brigadier General Olivier Mira Armstrong to the Earth Nation. Her mission? Protect that Avatar and assist him in stopping the invasion. As Olivier tries to find her target, Azula discovers the new threat to her father, and goes to destroy her.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: The generic Fire Nation Mooks get this as a product of the setting being a bit darker due to its crossover. They were genocidal fascists in both canon and here, but none of them did any Attempted Rape in the actual show.
- Attempted Rape: Olivier kills a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers who tried to rape an Earth Kingdom woman.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Olivier uses her four-star general status to bullshit the Gang into the Earth King's party.
- Berserk Button: Olivier refuses to abide by fascism and mistreatment of POW's, to the point of thinking any society that does such deserves to be exterminated to the man.
- Big Bad: Fire Lord Ozai masterminds the war, much like in the original.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Olivier and Katara somehow manage to argue about whether or not they should trust Zuko while they're evading Combustion Man's bombing of the Western Air Temple.
- Combat Pragmatist: Olivier is the most willing to kill of the Gaang, and the only one to bring up the issues with the colonists and citizens that would be left after the Fire Lord is slain, predicting that the war will go on for another 10 years. Also, her solution to Aang's stress-induced insomnia is knocking him out.
- The Comically Serious: Olivier is played as this to the generally more comedic atmosphere of ATLA compared to FMA, particularly Sokka's antics.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: Olivier is convinced that Sokka is gonna be killed when he starts snooping around Hama's house.
- Darker and Edgier: While not a full-on Dark Fic, it's still darker than ATLA due to the influence of FMA. They depict more war crimes and general violence, including Attempted Rape, and Olivier's perspective is much more cynical than any of the original show's POV characters. There's also swearing, which was absent in the original.
- Different World, Different Movies: The Amestrian counterpart to Nineteen Eighty-Four is titled 1935.
- Dope Slap: Olivier does this to Sokka after he loudly announces his sneak attack, which she had just told him not to do.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Olivier doesn't believe in the spiritual, despite the fact that she's literally fighting alongside a reincarnated hero and bending is clearly not the scientific Functional Magic alchemy is.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: Roy Mustang sent Olivier to help the Gang, but never gets involved in the plot himself and only shows up in the first and twenty-third chapters.
- Groin Attack: Olivier kicks Pandao in the balls to win their sword duel in Chapter 13.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Olivier decides to drink some after learning that the Misty Palms Oasis is a bar in the middle of the desert.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Olivier figures out early on that the Day of the Black Sun invasion is doomed, and literally walks away from the fight and waits for it to end.
- One Riot, One Ranger: Due to the Amestris military still being stretched thin from the events of FMA, only Olivier herself is sent to aid the Earth Kingdom.
- Parodies for Dummies: Among Olivier's books is Idiot's Guide to Utopias and Idiot's Guide to Dystopias.
- Predecessor Villain: The events of FMA are referred to on multiple occasions, making Father this due to his Big Bad status in the show.
- Shout-Out: The sixth chapter is titled "1984" to draw parallels between the secrets of Ba Sing Se and the famous dystopian novel.
- Supporting Protagonist: While Olivier may be the POV character, the events are the events of ATLA, so it's still Aang's story.
- Unscrupulous Hero: Olivier is so ruthless that she'd be willing to destroy the Fire Nation and all its colonies to end the war and would kill a child for self-preservation.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Azula finds Olivier fascinating, due to her complete lack of fear compared to everybody else Azula has fought.
