The Arbiter

*"This is going to be a great relationship. I can tell."*
— The Arbiter
**The Arbiter** is one of the protagonists of *Arby 'n' the Chief* and its spinoff *Arby 'n' the Chief: Next Gen* alongside Master Chief. He is a Halo 2 series action figure of Thel 'Vadam manufactured by Joyride Studios.

The Arbiter is typically the self-insert for the writers, as both Jon Graham and Andrew Beam have stated that they modeled their writing for the Arbiter off of themselves. As such he represents their personal opinions and viewpoints on gaming products, politics, and the industry as a whole.

## Character History

### Arrival and Meeting Master Chief

It is unknown how exactly the Arbiter came to life or consciousness or why he had any form of intelligence. When the Arbiter first met Master Chief, he was delivered as a package to Jon Graham's apartment, which he broke out of before attacking Chief in self-defense.

Shortly after the two introduced themselves to each other, they would play online games with each other, usually Halo, which Arbiter usually being the superior player of the two before being subjected to taunts by Master Chief.

### Meeting Todd, Travis, and Cortana

Weeks later, Arbiter and Chief would meet Cortana, Todd, and Travis. While Arbiter got along well with them, Master Chief would constantly berate them and at on point even go as far as try to kill Todd and Travis. The Arbiter would put a stop to that and demand Chief make an apology, to which Chief would make insincerely before berating them again. Shortly after, Todd and Travis would vanish, captured by Lord Xanthar.

### Cortana's Disappearance and the *Halo 3* Wedding

A few months after Todd and Travis's disappearance, Cortana also goes missing, captured by Lord Xanthar and leaving Arbiter and Chief alone in Jon's apartment. Arbiter and Chief would meet increasingly villainous personalities online, such as Craig, an MLG player, and an unnamed hacker who gave some illegal modified software to Master Chief.

At one point, Arbiter and Chief would both attend a Halo 3 wedding that Master Chief would ruin by firing a spartan laser at the fusion coils set up as decorations. Arbiter recalled the entire debacle as being pretty funny, and even asked Chief if he'd like to do it again.

### Meeting Claire and Convicting Scott Loveheart

In the events of Endgame, Arbiter and Chief would encounter a hacker/drug dealer named Scott Loveheart who acted as Jon's roommate. Around this time, Arbiter would meet Claire Ferguson, and the two would have a romantic interest in each other. However, Arbiter would eventually let slip that he was an action figure, making their relationship difficult. Alongside this, both Arbiter and Chief realized they were deteriorating, and falling apart, leading them to the realization they could die at any time.

Upon discovering that Scott was a hacker and a drug dealer, Arbiter and Chief devised a plan to call the authorities on him. Once Scott discovered that the toys were alive, he attempted to kill them. However, before he could, Russian Agent Boris Smirnoff arrived and shot Scott dead, before snorting his cocaine and rubbing off Arbiter and Chief as being a drug induced hallucination. Days later, Arbiter and Chief would be shipped off with Jon's stuff to his new apartment in Canada.

### *Halo: Reach* Launch and Meeting Greg

Sometime in between the events of Endgame and Season 4, Arbiter would lose his helmet. During the launch of *Halo: Reach*, Arbiter and Chief would find themselves at odds again when Chief started his own clan of "n00bz" and challenged Arbiter to a match. Arbiter would singlehandedly defeat Chief's clan using only a magnum and sprint.

Months later, Arbiter and Chief would encounter a spider named Greg. Being arachnophobic, Arbiter (along with Chief) would hide in the bathroom and wait him out. However, because Chief clogged the still-running kitchen sink, they were forced out to prevent the apartment from flooding. They then realized Greg was actually not all that bad, with Arbiter and Greg actually becoming very good friends while Chief despised the spider.

### The Donnovich Wedding Incident

Weeks later, the CEO of Bad Games Inc, Trent Donnovich, would openly announce that he was getting married on Halo: Reach. Arbiter would recall how years earlier he and Chief ruined a Halo 3 wedding to Greg. Days later, Arbiter would find Claire again, only to discover that she was actually engaged to Trent. Arbiter's first impression of Trent wasn't very good, but after hanging out more with him, the two became friends despite the initial rocky reception. Trent even didn't seem to have a problem with the fact that Arbiter and Claire dated at one point, and invited him to the wedding. Arbiter agreed, and promised Claire that he wouldn't let Chief destroy the wedding. Of course, Trent said that he had accidentally made a typo on their gamertag.

After this, Arbiter would help teach Chief to get better at Halo after Chief challenged Trent's bodyguards, Cameron Jones and Cody Hammond, to a 2v2. They would lose the 2v2 due to Cameron and Cody camping on Sword Base.

Shortly after, Arbiter and Chief would work on a show called Hypernews, featuring Chief giving his radical opinions on classic games. It got popular enough that Bad Games Inc wanted to meet with Arbiter personally to discuss a possible sponsorship. They would meet and discuss terms at Trent's Stag Party. However, as Arbiter spoke with Trent's lawyers, Master Chief would crash the party and stumble upon Trent admitting to having an affair with a girl who worked on the church for the wedding, and discovered it had been going on for quite a while. Horrified by this, Arbiter would confront Trent.

Trent would retaliate by having Cameron and Cody boot Arbiter and Chief from the game before banning them from the wedding server and having all of their messages to Claire blocked. Soon after, Chief attempted to kill Greg after Greg tied him up in a closet, which caused the spider to leave the apartment.

With only hours before the wedding started, Arbiter felt hopeless. However, a former hacker named Timothy (who met Chief earlier) would find Arbiter and Chief, and offer them a solution to their problem. He would then bring Arbiter and Chief to an underground hacker group, who would frag Timothy before threatening Arbiter and Chief. After listening to their reasoning, the leader of the group would give Arbiter and Chief access to their hacks while also giving them access to the account that had the typo.

Just as the wedding started, Arbiter and Chief would arrive at the church, using their newfound hacks to distract and frag Cameron, Cody, Josh Butterballs, and a cameraman before they drove a warthog into the church. Chief then fragged Brian, the OMN Admin officiating the wedding, before he could ban them. Shortly after, Chief used the warthog's turret to frag all of the wedding attendees.

Arbiter and Chief then confronted Trent, and Arbiter apologized to Claire for breaking his promise before explaining that he did it due to Trent's affair. Shortly after, Trent's sisters would attack Arbiter and Chief in a falcon, while Claire would call off the wedding and break up with Trent. In a rage, Trent would attack Arbiter as Chief battled his sisters above. Trent asked why Arbiter went so far for this, and Arbiter said the reason was because he still loved Claire.

Shortly after, Chief destroyed the falcon before it landed on top of Trent. However, Trent wasn't banned from the crash, and managed to ambush Chief and steal his weapons before threatening to shoot Claire with them and steal her account info. As this happened, Brian would come back and prepare to ban Arbiter and Chief off of the network before Greg came back and stopped Trent and Brian. He then left a sticky note telling Arbiter to talk to Claire. Arbiter then spoke with Claire, who overheard Arbiter say that he loved her. However, both agreed that because Arbiter was a toy and Claire was a human, the relationship wouldn't work out. Thus, the two would agree to stay friends, before Arbiter and Chief were banned from Xbox Live for breaching the terms of service.

### In Between the Donnovich Wedding Incident and the Chaos Theosis Incident

With both Arbiter and Chief banned with nothing to do for days on end, Chief at one point became bored and trolled Arbiter with Microsoft Mary to make him think that Cortana had returned. In a fit of rage, Arbiter attacked Chief, and ripped off his arm. When he offered to help reattach it, Chief refused, and Arbiter tossed the arm at Chief and told him to fix it himself.

### TOSERS and the Chaos Theosis Incident

Months after the Donnovich Wedding Incident, the Online Multiplayer Network would start an initiative called the Terms of Service Enforcement and Response Squad (TOSERS) to police online gaming, which offered to reinstate previously banned players for serving time in TOSERS. Seeing this as an opportunity to play online Halo again, Chief would tell Arbiter that they should try out.

Arbiter, seeing gaming police as a stupid idea, declined, since he didn't believe there was a point in anything anymore. However, after speaking with Chief and pondering it, Arbiter decided to join in the middle of the tryouts match alongside Master Chief. However, during the tryouts match, a clan of hackers calling themselves Chaos Theosis invaded the match. Their actions were in response to the TOSERS initiative, and their hacks allowed them to ban any players they fragged in game. At one point, the Chaos Theosis members Adam McIntyre and Duncan Douglas would corner Chief alongside Trent's former bodyguards Cameron and Cody and taunt them before Arbiter came in and defeated both of them.

Now teaming up with their former rivals, Arbiter, Chief, Cameron, and Cody would fight against Chaos Theosis, using a scorpion tank to fight off Duncan and Kylie Fitzgerald before Adam would destroy the tank, forcing them to retreat. After finding a warthog, they would bicker about who would drive it before the Chaos Theosis leader, Clyde Marston, attacked them, forcing them to retreat into a corner before Adam and Duncan cut them off. They then forced the four to line up, before Clyde came up to intimidate them, telling Arbiter he was not funny for using a text-to-speech voice which Arbiter responded with the fact that he wasn't trying to be. After Cameron mocked Clyde for his use of hacks to make up for skill, Clyde shot Cameron in the head and fragged him. He then prepared to frag Arbiter before a group of TOSERS arrived and drove the hackers off.

After being saved by the TOSERS, Arbiter and Chief would be interviewed by OMN Sub-Administrator Leonard, who at first almost rejected Arbiter because of his voice. However, after some convincing, he managed to convince the Sub-Admin to allow both him and Chief in. Now a part of the TOSERS initiative, Arbiter and Chief would be put under the watch of Stephen, AKA Silent Strike, who was a level 3 moderator in the organization. After telling them the basics of the TOSERS ranking system, Arbiter and Chief would be briefed on the Chaos Theosis threat, before Arbiter would notice Claire Ferguson had also become a TOSER. However, due to Chief ordering a pizza, Arbiter didn't get the chance to speak with her.

Arbiter and Chief then worked with Silent Strike to help police the network, and eventually, Arbiter would become a level 1 moderator. He would do a couple of moderation sessions with Claire, before bringing Chief under his wing again. After responding to a player spouting out racial slurs and being called a hypocrite for allowing Chief to continue cursing, Arbiter and Chief were given a warning. After Chief continued with his insults, Leonard would fire Arbiter and Chief, and both would be removed from the online network again.

However, after speaking with Silent Strike about undercover moderators, Arbiter managed to convince Leonard to let them go undercover to find the hacks after telling him they were the ones that ruined the Donnovich wedding. Using a system link tunneling network, Arbiter and Chief would find the underground hackers again, and almost manage to get a transaction going before Clyde and Adam showed up.

After being saved by a 13-year-old TOSER named Kevin, a firefight would erupt, with all of the underground hackers getting fragged except Clyde and Adam. During the fight, one of the hackers would frag Kevin. Arbiter and Chief then cornered the hack seller, and forced him to give them the hacks before they fragged him. Arbiter then went to search for Clyde and Adam, and ran into Clyde, forcing the two into a standoff. Adam would come up from behind Arbiter and taunt him, with Chief following behind Adam for an attempted assassination. However, before that could happen, a storm caused the power to go out, which prevented Arbiter and Chief from killing Clyde and Adam. Using Jon's laptop, they would download the hacks onto a flash drive, and almost sent the hacks to the OMN admins before the laptop's battery ran out. As they waited on the power to come back on, Arbiter noted that after they took Chaos Theosis's hacks, they could see Adam and Clyde's gamertags, which could give them an edge.

After playing scrabble for a few hours, the power came back on. Arbiter and Chief would make their way to the TOSERS home server, and upon arriving, they would find it was under attack from Chaos Theosis. Arbiter would find Leonard in the midst of the carnage, and attempt to send him the hacks before Adam arrived and fragged Leonard. After a firefight that left all TOSERS fragged with the exception of Claire, Arbiter, and Chief, Arbiter managed to corner Adam. However, Adam revealed that he had planted a remote grenade at Claire's feet, and threatened to use it if he didn't back off. The rest of Chaos Theosis arrived soon after, with Clyde deciding to let Arbiter and Chief go because there wasn't any point in finishing them off. However, before Adam left, he would detonate the grenade and frag Claire's account, taking her information.

### Hunting Down Chaos Theosis

Arbiter, enraged, would set up a "Shit List" of the four, plotting to frag them all and stop their joyride, starting with Adam. Arbiter and Chief confronted Adam, before chasing him from Sword Base to a custom-made Forge World racetrack. Cornering Adam at the end of a bridge, they would overhear Adam's mother bringing in an officer to bring him to juvie, which Arbiter would enjoy listening to before shooting Adam in the face.

After marking out Adam's picture, ripping it, and flushing it down a toilet, Arbiter decided it was time to go after Clyde. However, Chief wanted to go after Kylie, due to him having a crush on her. Arbiter said no, before going off to bed. However, he would overhear Chief speaking with Kylie about fragging and banning Arbiter in exchange for Kylie's nude photos. After deactivating the hacks, Arbiter planned a trap using Chief's trap, before outing Chief's plan. Taking it upon himself to frag Kylie, Arbiter would fight her by himself, fragging her two bodyguards before getting into a standoff with her, as she was holding a sniper rifle right in his general direction. As she taunted Arbiter and Chief behind his back, Chief arrived, and used a hologram to fool Kylie before assassinating her and fragging her.

Shortly after, Arbiter and Chief tracked Clyde down and ambushed him, fragging his account as well. After using Clyde's account to look through his emails, Arbiter discovered that Chaos Theosis was hired by Trent Donnovich to force the OMN to shut down the online network. Arbiter and Chief then confronted Trent and his hack supplier, Justin, at the church, with the two getting into a standoff. Trent then told Arbiter that someone had offered him a position in a network service rivaling the OMN in exchange for crippling the current one in any way he knew how. He had recalled how Arbiter used hackers to take down the network and tracked them down, and using Justin to create a Permanent Denial of Service (PDOS) attack to cripple the network irreversibly. He also revealed that Silent Strike was Chaos Theosis's mole in TOSERS, and he let them into the TOSERS server. Trent then activated the upload process for the PDOS attack, before Justin attacked Arbiter. After a brief firefight, Arbiter managed to frag Justin before chasing down Trent. However, Trent would escape via a falcon, forcing Arbiter and Chief to track him down to Breakpoint, where they would run into Clyde again. After revealing he had fragged Duncan for being a rat, Clyde attacked Arbiter and Chief, allowing Trent to get away with the promise of more cash. After Trent escaped, Arbiter managed to use his DMR to frag Clyde again and take his account.

Posing as Clyde, Arbiter would confront Trent on Spire, which Trent didn't fall for since he could see Arbiter's gamertag. However, right before PDOS could activate, Chief arrived with a scorpion and ran Trent over, fragging him and stopping the PDOS upload. Shortly after, Arbiter and Chief tracked down Silent Strike and fragged him, before returning to the OMN with the hacks and being hailed as heroes. With her account reinstated, Claire told Arbiter that she was seeing someone after going out and speaking with people, to which Arbiter replied with the fact he was happy for her. The two would then go their separate ways again. Soon after, a package would arrive in Jon's apartment, before Greg appeared from it along with Cortana, who had escaped Xanthar.

### Joining and Leaving The Noob Trollers

With Greg and Cortana back in Arbiter's life, he could relax more and was much happier than he was with just Chief. However, due to his previous alcoholic problems, he still found himself drowning himself in booze. Eventually, while playing Halo, Arbiter would meet a player named Eugene Black, who would become friends with Arbiter.

The next day, Master Chief would accidentally burn Cortana alive as revenge for saying mean things about him, before lying to Arbiter that Cortana up and left, and implying he was part of the reason. Arbiter quietly leave Chief to go be alone for a while. Days later, Arbiter finds Eugene and meets his girlfriend, Michelle Harris, while they are in the middle of an argument. After playing with them for a bit, Michelle becomes offended by Chief's notion that anyone who doesn't like Halo is an "autistic hipster shithead." Arbiter apologizes to Michelle, and notes she is pretty skilled at Halo.

Later, Michelle and Arbiter meet up again, with Michelle asking Arbiter for advice on Eugene since she can't trust his other friends. Arbiter says that considering Eugene's sister, Madeline, has cancer, that is why he often acts cruelly to others to mask his own insecurities, before saying she just needs to give him time. Later, Arbiter is confronted by Eugene alongside Tyler King, his best friend and a member of his clan The Noob Trollers. Eugene angrily confronts Arbiter about what he said to Michelle, before revealing it was a prank and commending Arbiter for saving their relationship and offers both him and Chief a place in his clan, which they accept.

Meanwhile, due to Arbiter's neglect and the trouble with keeping Chief's dark secret, Greg decides to leave the apartment, putting Arbiter into a depressed mood which only worsens when he is taunted for his voice in-game later. Soon after, Eugene reveals that they have a new version of the fragban and offers it to Arbiter, who gets into an argument with him over the morality of it. Eugene leaves Arbiter to think on the proposition. After thinking on it, Arbiter and Chief decide to go accept the fragban, but not before being held at gunpoint by Colin Hunt, a self-proclaimed homebrew engineer who modified the fragban software. Eugene convinces Colin to let them go, before Arbiter and Chief take the software. Changing their armor colors, Arbiter and Chief along with the Noob Trollers would and attack players who wronged them previously.

Weeks later, as Arbiter's health continues deteriorating, he meets up with Claire again. However, their conversation turns sour, as Arbiter shoots Claire down regarding her friendship and accusing her of never being around to help him in his time of need despite always being around for her. Disgusted, Claire walks away, but not before Eugene "accidentally" snipes her and frags her. Months later, Arbiter and Chief along with the Noob Trollers attack an online funeral service, fragging both attendees and guards. Shortly after, Colin asks Arbiter why he took Chief as a friend, to which Chief responds that it was circumstances that brought them together. When Arbiter asked Colin why he spared them, Colin responded with saying that Eugene helped him out with legal trouble long ago, and he owed him a favor.

Days later, Chief would discover Colin was calling a young boy a "hot piece of ass" online, and would wake up Arbiter to tell him that he believes Colin may be a pedophile. Taking in this information, Arbiter goes to confront Eugene about Colin, but not before he sees Eugene tormenting and threatening the lives of two players he knew in real life. He calls Eugene out on this, but is told to mind his own business. Deciding they can no longer be associated with The Noob Trollers anymore, Arbiter goes to Michelle to tell them everything that had happened, before he and Chief went to confront the Noob Trollers. They attempt to ambush Eugene, who is revealed to be a hologram before Arbiter and Chief are both fragged by Colin.

Using Jon's credit card (hidden in a Legend of Zelda case), Arbiter and Chief buy a new Xbox and get new accounts, before tricking Colin into thinking they are young kids and sending the information to the police. Shortly after, they intervene on the Noob Trollers attacking a race. Arbiter and Chief battle the Noob Trollers, with Colin getting arrested mid-battle by the FBI and Tyler's dog attacking him after years of abuse. With his sister dead, his girlfriend no longer with him, and no one else to turn to, Eugene decides to move to a different game and invite Arbiter and Chief to it. Arbiter and Chief confront Eugene and ask him if he has any last words. Eugene then says his goodbyes and proceeds to shoot himself with a gun over the microphone, killing himself and leaving Arbiter and Chief in shock.

### Death

After Eugene committed suicide, Arbiter and Chief took in what had happened and pondered what the afterlife would be like. Arbiter regrets his last meeting with Claire, and saying he took it over the line. Chief told Arbiter it was better to be in the friendzone than not friends at all. Three weeks later, Arbiter and Chief are getting along with Chief broadening his horizons on games. However, while Arbiter searches for the Super Metroid case, he discovers Cortana's baseplate and confronts Chief on what actually happened. Chief reveals he burned Cortana alive accidentally, which results in Arbiter attacking Chief and nearly killing him by tossing him into a wall and shattering him to pieces.

Shortly after, Arbiter hears several knocks on the door. When Arbiter asked who it was, it is revealed that Tyler King had found their apartment by going on Jon's blog and using his IP to track him down. After talking about Eugene's suicide, Tyler asks Arbiter to let him in, which Arbiter declines. Tyler then activates a chainsaw and prepares to cut down the door before a police officer arrives and guns him down.

The next day, Arbiter plays a bit of Halo before he goes and puts Chief back together. He apologizes for what he did before he goes to a window and prepares to jump out of it to his death. However, before he does, he hears Claire's voice on the microphone, and decides to go talk with her. He speaks with her about Eugene's death, and apologized for how he treated her. The two then agree to try and play a couple of hours with each other every day, before Claire leaves the game. Arbiter then hears a hissing sound, before he sees Chief on the ground next to an active stove with a match, threatening to blow them both up. Arbiter accepts his fate, but calls the landlord to pull the fire alarm to evacuate the building. After the alarm sounds, the two ponder what the afterlife is like. Chief then makes one last request to Arbiter: if there is an afterlife, he should wait at the entrance so Chief can find him and then they can go inside together and "fuck shit up". Arbiter agrees, and Chief, smiling (with a tear under one eye), strikes the match and detonates the stove, destroying the apartment and killing both of them.

### Rebirth and the Ultron Incident

Months later, Arbiter and Chief would find themselves in a completely different house in completely different bodies thanks to the work of Samus Aran, Iron Man, and a seemingly resurrected Cortana. They reveal that an Ultron action figure has gone insane and wants to destroy all life on Earth, and has brought many other toys to his side and killed many of the toys who opposed him.

After agreeing to help them, Arbiter speaks with Samus about his past before Mario arrives and explains that Chief has left to go play the Xbox in Ultron's territory. Arbiter and the Toy Resistance intervene Ultron's interrogation of Chief, and fight Ultron's army. As the fighting continued, Ultron would attack Iron Man and prepare to kill him before Arbiter would intervene and attack him. Arbiter then distracted Ultron, luring him in before several clone troopers led by Captain Rex dropped a heavy hardcover Age of Ultron comic book on top of him, severely damaging him. Deathstroke then ordered the Constructicons to take Ultron's body away, while Arbiter reprimanded Chief for his actions.

Soon after, the Constructicons arrive and form into Devastator, attacking the Toy Resistance before Chief manages to decapitate him. John, another Master Chief figure, concludes that someone let the Constructicons in, and goes down a list of suspects before getting stabbed by Carson, an Elite Zealot figure, and becomes mortally wounded. Carson reveals why he has betrayed them, before Ultron returns in a more powerful body and leaves with him. John then tells Arbiter in his dying breaths to stop Ultron, before Arbiter decides to use Devastator's mind to unlock a locked weapons box that Shockwave had modified. Shortly after, Arbiter writes up a battle plan, and tells everyone that he would take on Carson and Ultron. He leaves Chief behind, before leaving with the Toy Resistance to attack Ultron's army. Carson and Arbiter duel with energy swords, before Arbiter manages to get Carson to trip and fall into the garbage disposal, killing him.

Arbiter then confronts Ultron, who attacks and nearly kills Arbiter before Caboose drives a warthog into Ultron, knocking him back before he gets crushed by Megatron, who was thrown by Optimus Prime. Arbiter and the Resistance then capture the surviving members of Ultron's army, while Arbiter searches for Chief. However, during a research mission in Ultron's utility room, Rex and the clones are attacked by Ultron, who has taken over the body of a Didact figure. Arbiter and Iron Man fight against Ultron alongside the Clone Troopers, Optimus Prime, Spider-Man, and many others. Ultron manages to overpower them all, however, and causes Arbiter's arm to fall off.

However, Master Chief returns in a Halo 2 Joyride body, and fights Ultron before killing him a third time by removing his head. It is then revealed that Shockwave had the bodies in the back room, and Chief coerced him into putting him inside the Joyride figure. It is then revealed that there is a Joyride Arbiter figure too, which Arbiter is put inside of. Soon after, Arbiter and Chief discover Ultron's AI has infected the online network, fragging players and assimilating their profiles. Seeing as it is seemingly impossible to kill Ultron, Arbiter is ready to admit defeat before Iron Man and Shockwave come and offer a solution to contain Ultron by imprisoning him.

With Shockwave's help and old fragban mods, Arbiter and Chief acquire modified Halo 4 weapons that will send Ultron to a Garry's Mod prison once they frag the "prime" one. They attack Ultron's drones on Halo 4, drawing out Ultron Prime, who sends an army after them. Arbiter moves to distract Ultron, and battles him one on one. However, during the fight, Ultron notices Claire and another player, and prepares to frag them before Arbiter calls for him to stop. Ultron realizes it's Claire from Cortana's stories, and taunts Arbiter about him loving her. Arbiter then tries to reason with Ultron, making comparisons between the two of them and offering to help him find a place in this world.

Ultron feigns appreciation before killing the player, and then threatening to torture Claire after he frags Arbiter. However, Chief comes in at the last second and frags Ultron with a spartan laser and sends him to Garry's Mod. Arbiter and Claire reconnect and talk with each other, before she leaves. Soon after, Arbiter and Chief are approached by OMN Administrator Jay Harrington and a reformed Duncan Douglas about joining the Hacker Removal Squad. Upon realizing it's Duncan, Arbiter gets hostile and threatens him before Duncan explains he is trying to do better. After listening to Duncan, Arbiter reluctantly agrees to join but warns him if he steps out of line, he'll frag him.

Shortly after, Arbiter visits Ultron in his Gmod Prison Cell, and tells him that he's wrong about humans and explains how emotions aren't bad. Ultron responds by threatening everyone Arbiter's ever loved. Arbiter tells hi him he'll be waiting, before leaving the cell. He reassures Iron Man that Ultron isn't going anywhere, before sitting down with Chief and Cortana to play some Halo 4. Sometime after Ultron's defeat on Halo 4, Arbiter, Chief, Cortana, Iron Man, Samus, Shockwave, Sub-Zero, War Machine, Rex, Carter, and Kat all moved to a new house.

### The Hacker Removal Squad and the Return of Chaos Theosis

In the events between the Ultron Incident and the Return of Chaos Theosis, Arbiter had been getting dreams and hallucinations of Eugene Black, which was affecting his productivity and sleep. When asked by Samus if he was having a bad dream, he quickly tried changing the subject. As Arbiter was playing Mass Effect with Chief at his side, he got a message from Duncan regarding the Hacker Removal Squad and their first mission. The two would go to meet Duncan at the OMN Administration's server on Halo 4, where Duncan would tell them about the other members on the squad and give them a tour of the base.

They would then meet the HRS members: Brandon Edwards, Nicholas Martin, Jason Burns, and Autumn Washington. After a briefing from Jay Harrington regarding the hacker threats of Speedzone and Deathlok, and how they took down two full clans of players with little to no effort, Arbiter would go to meet Claire again on Halo: Reach to reconnect, and talk about the past with Claire reassuring Arbiter that what happened with Eugene wasn't his fault. Soon after, Arbiter and Chief were called in on another mission regarding a hostage situation caused by a clan known as the Outlaws on Boneyard. Taking point on the mission and using Jason's ability to switch to any weapons, Arbiter and Chief would confront the clan.

The Outlaws leader, Jackson, though Arbiter and Chief were trolls, and even threatened the hostages. However, he was caught off guard when Arbiter and Chief pulled out their weapons and attacked them. Chief would go after Jackson, while Arbiter went after Rock as the others took the attention of the Outlaw sniper, Danny. Arbiter, Nicholas, and Duncan would fight Rock, who was extremely durable and hard to kill, before Arbiter would go and aid Chief in fighting Jackson. Jackson would run away from Arbiter and Chief and grab a scorpion, attacking the HRS. Arbiter would then set up a plan to distract Jackson, which allowed Duncan and Jason to destroy his tank and frag him. With Danny gunned down by Jason and Brandon, that just left Rock, who slowly approached them and was invulnerable to everything thrown at him. It was then that Autumn joined the fight, and was reluctant to help Duncan after misogynistic comments made earlier. After some convincing from Arbiter, she used an armor lock shockwave to instantly frag Rock.

Later, after getting yelled at by Autumn, Duncan would reveal to Arbiter that Autumn was going through a rough patch due to the suicide of Eugene, who she had a crush on. He also reveals that Michelle Harris is her cousin. Arbiter then tells Duncan that he may have been part of the reason that Eugene killed himself, to which Duncan advises Arbiter not to tell Autumn because of her temper.

Days later, Arbiter and Duncan respond to Deathlok's incursion at an OMN surveillance hub that left no survivors, which later was revealed to be a way to implant a virus into the OMN mainframe. Fortunately, Brandon was able to get rid of it. However, Arbiter felt it was a bit too easy, and that there had to be more to it.

Arbiter then went to meet Michelle and Claire to catch up before Speedzone arrived as a ploy to get all three of them together. After telling Michelle and Claire to let them have a one on one talk, Arbiter threatened Speedzone, to which Speedzone replied by mocking him and threatening Claire with sexual assault. When Arbiter threatened to frag him and said that he would kill him personally, Deathlok appeared and warned Arbiter not to. As the two taunted Arbiter, he would send a message to Duncan, who got the HRS together and ambushed Speedzone and Deathlok. Towards the end of the fight, the HRS corners Deathlok shortly before Speedzone holds Michelle hostage in exchange for Deathlok. After they let Deathlok go, however, Speedzone frags Michelle anyway before he and Deathlok escape. Arbiter would then head back to the OMN Administration base to speak with Claire after the ordeal, and apologized again for not being a better friend and always putting her into harm's way. She tries to comfort and reassure him again that none of this is his fault, and tells him she will always be his friend no matter what.

After this, Arbiter goes to check on Autumn and how Michelle's fragging affected her, but is scolded by her when he accidentally mentions Eugene. After she storms out, he speaks with Duncan about her, before asking Duncan about why he joined Chaos Theosis. Duncan explains it was a number of things, but the largest part was how many things were being censored, and too many rules were being put into place in all sorts of life, even MLG tournaments.

Days later, Arbiter is told that the OMN Administration wants to interview each of the HRS for a morale check, to which Arbiter unsuccessfully attempts to make Chief seem more mature. After getting some help from Shockwave, Arbiter manages to make Chief sound smart via a "Master Chief Translator" that turns Chief's foul and immature dialogue into mature and politically correct sentences. The translator works, and both Arbiter and Chief manage to convince radical feminist administrator Diana Marshall that they are both well-meaning people. Shortly after, Duncan notifies Arbiter and Chief that Speedzone and Deathlok have attacked another clan, to which the HRS gets back together to go after them.

Upon finding the seemingly empty Brotherhood of Gaming clan base, the HRS are ambushed by Speedzone, Deathlok, and the reinstated Outlaws. During the fight, the five hackers retreat and allow their leader, Lockdown, to take them on. Recognizing Lockdown, Duncan frantically tells the others to get to the Forge World water cave, as Lockdown attacks and pushes the HRS back singlehandedly. In the cave, Duncan explains that before Chaos Theosis, he was part of an MLG clan called Unrivaled Fury, and Lockdown was his partner. However, as the MLG rules got stricter and stricter, Duncan left the clan and joined Chaos Theosis, disbanding the team. He then reveals Lockdown is an insanely good player, and the team express doubts of getting out of this with their accounts intact. However, Arbiter reassures them they can make it out of this, and helps Duncan formulate a plan to defeat Lockdown, Speedzone, Deathlok, and the Outlaws. The HRS then fights the hackers, taking out the Outlaws directly and Speedzone indirectly, before they corner Lockdown, who fights them all by himself. However, he would retreat mid battle via a falcon, forcing Arbiter to tell Jason to EMP it out of the sky. Even though Jason EMPed the falcon, Lockdown would escape with Deathlok's help after a heated conversation with Duncan.

Days later, Duncan would take Arbiter, Chief, and Autumn to see Lydia Johnson at the Halo Harem: a strip club with female player models run by an all-female MLG clan. Duncan hoped that Lydia could help them find Lockdown due to her connections on the Dark Web. After an encounter with Lydia's bouncer, Shay, Arbiter, Duncan, and Autumn would go meet Lydia as Chief went to go hit on Erica. Upon meeting Lydia, she implied that she and Duncan had a fling, which Arbiter didn't really care to hear so he asked her for answers in an annoyed tone. Lydia expressed that she was intrigued by Arbiter's track record, which surprised him. She explained she was aware of everything from Trent's wedding to Ultron. When Arbiter asked her what she knew about Lockdown's employer, she told him that there was a price to pay. After making a deal with Lydia to allow her to meet Ultron, Arbiter asked who Lockdown's employer was again, to which Lydia told him that the name his employer went by was Brainiac. Shortly after, Chief got in trouble with the bouncers, which prompted Arbiter to leave with him after convincing Lydia not to frag him.

The next day, Arbiter and Chief were called in with the HRS to save Harrington after a hacker infiltrated an OMN server and took him hostage before having him demand that Arbiter, Chief, and Duncan come personally. After the briefing, Arbiter and Jason talk about Jason's upcoming wedding and Arbiter's own love life. Upon arriving at the OMN base, the hacker is revealed to be Clyde, who confronts Duncan about his betrayal and expresses animosity towards Arbiter and Chief for fragging his account before attacking them. The HRS manage to push Clyde towards one of the bridges before surrounding him and demanding his surrender. However, Kylie suddenly appeared out of camo and attacked them, forcing the HRS to retreat from the sniper. Arbiter and Clyde would get into a firefight, with Chief distracting Clyde before Arbiter moved to attack. However, Kylie would flank Arbiter and attack him before asking him if he remembered her. Arbiter recounts how Kylie messed up by not shooting through the walls back on Zealot before the two continue their firefight. After Brandon manages to hit Kylie and make her retreat, Arbiter, Nicholas, and Duncan went after Clyde who was in the midst of chasing Jason. However, when they attempted to cut him off, Clyde held Jason at gunpoint, mocking the HRS before fragging his account. In a frenzied rage, Arbiter fired at Clyde before Deathlok extracted him and Kylie from the game. Soon after, Jay Harrington would come to speak with the HRS, and reveal that not only had Jason been fragged, but a virus had caused his Xbox to overload and combust, resulting in his death. Saddened by this, Arbiter drank some alcohol in the bathtub, and explained what happened to Chief, who showed a rare instance of shock. Arbiter then said that Brainiac had to be stopped before he and his goons could hurt anyone else.

### Avenging Jason

After Jason's funeral service on Halo Reach, Arbiter spoke with his girlfriend, Sarah Jenkins, who revealed that she was also pregnant with Jason's child. Angered by this, Arbiter vowed to avenge his death and take all of Brainiac's people out. Shortly after, Duncan arrived at the funeral with Lockdown, who had gone rogue and offered his help to the HRS. After telling them Brainiac's plan to take over the governments of Earth by shutting down the Online Network and taking all of their secrets, he gives them the locations of Brainiac's own surveillance servers. The HRS splits up and attacks them individually, with Arbiter and Chief finding a hub that connects them directly to Brainiac.

Speaking with a large holographic image of Brainiac, it is revealed that Brainiac was the one who hired Trent and Chaos Theosis to take down the original network, and attempts to justify his reasons for doing so. Along with this, he reveals that he has figured out that Arbiter and Chief are indeed toys, and that he is intrigued by this discovery, albeit it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Arbiter then tells Brainiac he is going to take out his lieutenants one-by-one before he'll come after him, to which Brainiac ends the conversation and shuts off the hologram on his side.

The next day, Arbiter and Chief meet up with the rest of the HRS before Arbiter suggests that they go after Speedzone first. The HRS tracks Speedzone down, and follow him through Halo 4 and Reach before Arbiter asks Duncan if his friend can give him a version of the speed hack, to which Duncan says yes. Arbiter then confronts Speedzone on Halo 4, and the two have a speedster battle on a Hot Pursuit racetrack up until Arbiter's speed hack wears off. Speedzone then attempts to kill Arbiter with a SAW, but misses due to the alcoholic effects of moonshine affecting his vision. Speedzone then drank more of the moonshine, before his body succumbed to alcohol poisoning over the microphone. Out of anger, Arbiter grabbed Chief's controller and used his rocket launcher to blast him off the edge.

After the fight, Arbiter noted how Speedzone's demise was very similar to Adam's, and then comes to the conclusion that since they defeated Chaos Theosis, they had already beaten Brainiac once. And that meant they could do it again.

The next day, Arbiter learned from Lockdown that Brainiac was sending Deathlok to attack Harrington at a new OMN surveillance hub to replace the one he took out earlier. When Arbiter went to get Chief, he discovered Chief was hiding something on a computer. When Arbiter moved to see what it was, Chief attacked him, and the two entered a brawl that resulted in Arbiter overpowering Chief. Arbiter would see what Chief was looking at, and it appeared to be Asa Akira porn. Not buying it, Arbiter interrogated Chief unsuccessfully. However, due to how much time they had, Arbiter needed to get Chief on Halo Reach now. As Lockdown explained Deathlok's Death Squad and how the Outlaws were a part of it, he also explained that he had access to a version of fragban that Brainiac couldn't lift. However, he couldn't help directly, otherwise his cover could be blown. After listening to one of Chief's mom jokes, Arbiter suggests to Lockdown that he impersonate Harrington and lead the Death Squad into a trap.

Shortly before the fight, Arbiter decided to do some research on the comic book Deathlok as he downloaded the new fragban. Not finding anything useful, he and Chief would enter the OMN server secretly and wait for Deathlok to strike. Both Arbiter and Chief would attempt to ambush Deathlok in the same fashion they did with Clyde, but Deathlok managed to teleport before they could.

As the fighting continued, Arbiter would aid Brandon in fighting Danny, and distracting him by lowering his shields and giving Brandon a clear shot to take him out. Shortly after, Arbiter would hear Jackson's scorpion turret falcon fire out a warning shot before appearing, and correct Lockdown's notion that it was a tank. Arbiter would move with the HRS and moderators to try and take down Jackson's falcon before Deathlok ambushed Brandon. Arbiter would move to help Brandon, fighting Deathlok in a 1v1 before asking him what his deal was, to which Deathlok told Arbiter that who he was wasn't of any concern to him before teleporting out.

Later, when Deathlok took Jackson's falcon, Arbiter along with Chief and Duncan would attempt to move him towards Lockdown, who jumped on top of the falcon and disabled it. After revealing himself as Lockdown to Deathlok, Arbiter would suggest that Deathlok run, and offered to let him go and not come back until Brainiac was defeated. However, Deathlok refused, forcing Lockdown to frag him and lock down all of his accounts and internet access. Lockdown then revealed to Arbiter and the HRS that he managed to get to Brainiac via virtual console teleporters that can allow them to jump between games, and suggesting he go first before the others.

A few hours later, Arbiter and Chief would plan the attack on Brainiac's fortress, and split everyone up into two teams. They moved to attack the server, with Duncan, Nicholas, Autumn, and Brandon distracting the soldiers while Arbiter and Chief moved through the sewers to get into the fortress.

Inside of the fortress, Arbiter and Chief would find Lockdown's body after Brainiac fragged him, but pressed on anyway because they had a job to do. Arbiter would hallucinate Eugene again, but this time spoke to Eugene and told him that he wouldn't blame himself for his suicide before telling him to fuck off. Eugene would vanish, before Arbiter and Chief confronted Brainiac, who revealed he had sent Clyde and Kylie to get a datacore that had nuclear codes on it due to a Russian Hacker threat at the pentagon. Arbiter told Brainiac they could still kill him and stop it, to which Brainiac showed them a clip of Eugene's suicide, with them unaware that Autumn had followed them and saw it too. Enraged, Autumn blamed Arbiter and Chief for Eugene's death, which Arbiter tried to reason with her and explain to her that he didn't deserve the blame.

Brainiac attempted to try and convince Autumn to kill Arbiter, but in a surprising turn of events, she shot Brainiac instead, before telling Arbiter they weren't done with this. Suddenly, dozens of Brainiac NPCs would appear, with Brainiac's voice threatening them, as Arbiter, Autumn, and Chief stood their ground. They would continue fighting the NPCs up until Duncan, Nicholas, and Brandon joined the fight and finished them off. Arbiter then realized Brainiac wasn't there, and led the others to Halo Reach's Boneyard where Clyde and Kylie were fighting Iron Man and Samus Aran over the datacore. The HRS would corner Clyde and Kylie, and explain that Clyde was manipulated by Brainiac into killing Jason to try and reason with him. Clyde reveals he knew the hack would kill Jason, and that it was meant for Duncan instead. He then expressed pleasure that they were writing in pain from it, which horrified Arbiter and the others.

As Clyde continued to mock them, however, he was betrayed and literally stabbed in the back by Kylie, right before Brainiac would reveal himself and attack Kylie, Arbiter, and the HRS. Arbiter yelled at Chief to stop Brainiac before he got away with the datacore, but Chief missed, and allowed Brainiac to escape. Distraught, Arbiter would angrily yell at Chief, and frantically exclaim that Brainiac had won before Chief explained that he had fooled both Brainiac and Arbiter and that the entire nuclear codes thing was bullshit, and that it was actually a virus that would get Brainiac apprehended by the police. Later, it is revealed that Brainiac was indeed apprehended, and Arbiter commends Chief, Shockwave, Iron Man, and Samus on helping them defeat Brainiac. Shortly after, he goes to get Lydia and brings her to see Ultron, who has evolved in the past months. Ultron tells Arbiter a foreboding parable, before Arbiter and Lydia leave him.

### The Calm Before the Storm

Sometime after Arbiter and Lydia met with Ultron, Arbiter would stop Chief from attempting to open a Christmas gift too early that ended up being a copy of the Master Chief Collection. However, the servers kept disconnecting, annoying Arbiter while depressing Chief.

Sometime after, Arbiter and Samus would sit outside, with Arbiter expressing that for the first time in a while, he's happy. Chief then arrives and asks Arbiter if he wants to play the Halo 5 beta, which Arbiter agrees to. It is inferred they ended up realizing there is no split-screen.

### Meeting Zurvan

At some point before the Rise of the Cipher Syndicate, Arbiter would meet Claire on Forge World, and tell her his worries on how he felt like at some point there would be a threat that none of them could handle. However, it is revealed to be another dream as Eugene suddenly appears and kills Claire, before grabbing Arbiter and changing his color scheme to black, and revealing himself to be Zurvan, the God of Time.

## Personality

The Arbiter is a well-spoken, sarcastic gamer who enjoys a wide range of video games, with a particular fondness for the classics of the 1990s like *The Legend of Zelda* series. This stands in contrast to Chief's single-mindedness, ignorance and lack of common sense. Arbiter acts as the "voice of reason" in the show, and sometimes tries to improve Chief's skills and personality, with varying success. Although he openly criticizes Chief and has at times quite harshly pointed out ridiculousness of other people's ideas, Arbiter's general attitude is rather non-confrontational. He has been described as a "natural mediator", always trying to resolve conflicts when they arise. Arbiter would also often give in to the pressure of his peers, even Chief. He is also rather uncreative and a poorly skilled artist compared to Chief; he has at times acknowledged that fact.

From *Endgame* onward, he has been revealing a more flawed and emotional side to his personality. While initially not drinking alcohol at all, he later gains a taste in beer and whiskey, which later develops into full alcoholism. Arbiter tries to find a deeper meaning in his existence, and his failure to do so drives him into depression which further fuels his addiction. He is terrified of being alone, and was willing to sacrifice his moral integrity for the sake of the only company he could find. Arbiter is arachnophobic, which makes him feel uneasy when around Greg, although he tries to overcome this fear. He is also agnostic, and rather doubtful of the existence of afterlife.

However many times Master Chief proves to be untrustworthy, Arbiter displays a surprising amount of faith in him, such as when he made no effort to question the disappearance of Cortana. Though also keeping a decent amount of caution such as when Chief was convinced to betray Arbiter by a member of Chaos Theosis.

Despite their countless arguments, both Arbiter and Chief have demonstrated that they are still very good friends and will always watch out for each other.

Though having a grim outlook on life, Arbiter appears to understand the value of others and often attempts to express this strong passion such as when he stopped an argument in the latter portion of Season 3, begged Chief not to intervene in Claire's wedding, among many other instances. The monologue in the premiere of Season 6 is a clear example of what Arbiter is thinking when faced with the isolation and lack of contact with the outside world.

Towards the end of Season 6, Arbiter gradually becomes more and more suicidal and wants death as things fall apart and those close to him leave him. He contemplates suicide in Ignition, and ultimately allows Chief to destroy the apartment and kill them. This was called out by Chief in No Purpose during their fight, who knew that Arbiter genuinely wanted to die, and being denied that upon being revived in a new body is what compelled him to attack Chief out of anger and frustration.

In the Next Gen Movie and Season 1, Arbiter seems to be getting out of the nihilistic and depressed lifestyle, likely due to having more toys to talk to. It can be inferred that he is happy that he isn't the only toy, and it is likely that he has more than Chief for emotional support which has become a good thing for his mental health. However, he tends to lose his temper more often since being resurrected, and has even displayed some dark behavior at times. He never expected to be brought back, and a part of him feels like there is a higher power at play here.

## Trivia

* The Arbiter often uses English phrases like "Wanker" , "Chin Wag" , "Bugger Off" and "Twat" (The latter being said in "*The Reunion*"). This can likely be attributed to his creator, Jon Graham, being from Glasgow, Scotland and living in Vancouver, British Columbia for much of his life. In *Next Gen*, Arbiter retains many English phrases and pronunciation (such as how he says "garage" in "*Flash Fact*").
* In Master Chief Sucks at Halo 3, the Arbiter films the replay of Master Chief's Sniping Montage, however he does not speak. (This is likely to be a different Arbiter, as the canon figure was introduced later in the series.) However, in one episode, the Arbiter mentions "that sick montage we made" to cheer Chief up, reinforcing the possibility that it is the same Arbiter.
* In the *Next Gen Movie*, Arbiter's body for a majority of the movie is a McFarlane Halo 10th Anniversary Series 1 Arbiter figure. There are two of them used in the movie: one being completely intact while the other's arm is broken off. He does not use the Joyride body until Part 4.
* In the *Next Gen Movie*, a majority of Arbiter's text-to-speech dialogue was done in *Speakonia* until Part 4 due to his body being different. It should also be noted that *Arby 'n' the Chief in LA* series also utilized *Speakonia*.
* The Joyride Halo 2 Arbiter figure is used for Arbiter during it's live-action segments in Season 1.
* The fan-favorite ship in *Next Gen* is between Arbiter and Samus Aran.
* Both Jon and Andrew have used the Arbiter as a self-insert for themselves, which is another possible reason why the character's personality has changed between Season 7 and Next Gen.

## Gallery

Arbiter waking up in his temporary bodyArbiter meeting Iron Man, Samus, and Carson for the first timeArbiter talking with Samus for the first timeArbiter confronting Ultron for the first timeArbiter and JohnArbiter and Chief witnessing Caron's betrayal and murder of JohnArbiter rallying the Toy Resistance