Hey everyone reading this! It's my first Fanfic for Halo at all, but I would LOVE feedback and any other constructive criticism you can afford.

Of course, all rights To Bungie (and now 343) for the universe I'm dabbling in. It really is a wonderful series, and this girl cannot WAIT for Halo 4.

Due to the reviews I've gotten, I've realized a few errors that have been corrected. 1.) the year is now 2552 2.) She's not quite a Spartan-II. This was a misnomer in the story, and NOT my intention when writing this. I'm really sorry the Blurb gave that impression, that was my fault entirely. Thank you all for those tips! They really helped. However, I would like to point out that a fanfic can't really be fully canon, so you hard core gamers out there might have to suspend belief in small ways. Otherwise, the ride should be nice. Do keep sending me feedback of course, because I really am listening and this story can be made better with fan help along the way. It already has, not 24 hours into its posting.
_

"You have got to be fucking kidding me" Amy breathed the words harshly as she ran, a myriad of footsteps behind her keeping pace.

The noise from the city drowning out the capture the people behind her were trying to prevail on. Exactly what they wanted. No one would be able to find her in the depths of the winding back alleys that her run had taken them into. The smell of new spray paint and tag marks would cover the rest. For maybe the hundredth time Amy cursed living in New York. Who the hell wanted to live in a city? She was positive she wasn't going to be on that list any time soon. When this was over, she was going home. Her real home.

"Now what are you going to do? Maybe you shouldn't have messed with us in the first place eh?" Thick New York accent sending chills down her spine. Amy knew who spoke without turning around. Jake was right on both accounts. The alley ended abruptly, two apartment buildings closing off the end of the alleyway for her and cutting off the intended escape route. She turned to face all of three of them then, and looked the biggest one, Jake, in the eye. He was probably 6" taller than her and muscled heavier. From what she could tell anyway, with his baggy clothes covering much of his body structure. But his breathing was relatively light for the amount of running they all had done so she assumed he was muscled well enough and his size came from strength, not laziness on his part. Which would not make for an interesting fight in Amy's eyes.

"Mess with you? Dude it's college, I pointed out you were wrong. This is the 21st century. Girls can be better than dead beats." Amy sneered then, or did her best to. Trying to provoke one without the other two getting involved was going to be tough, so she acted as if the other two weren't there.

"You slept with the professor to get better grades."

Amy clenched fists then, and growled despite herself. She was young to be in college she knew, but she got there because of her intellect. Not her body. Hell, she didn't find herself attractive. What weight she had on her was given to muscle and bone. She had a couple boys find her interesting since coming to college, but her father had forbade her from dating while she still lived at home so never thought about it. Was this seriously what Jake thought about? It was all work in school, and all training at home. Marine's made good CO she reasoned, but smiled, maybe not doting daddies.

"Smiling I see." Jake spat, heedless of her clenched fists "Must have been a good ride then" Smirking, the crude boy took a step forward, empowered by the knowledge of his two friends behind him, encouraging the looming beating.

Thinking quickly her head snapped up and around her, her long black hair impeding her vision slightly, and moving to reveal nothing. No escape, no doors, no sirens. The walls seemed closer than before, when all she was doing was running. The night sky also seemed a little darker, like the light pollution was avoiding this area on purpose. Calm down Amy, just calm down. "Better than anything you can do small fry. You gonna stay with your pretty boy harem or are you going to come give me that beating you keep talking about?" When she spoke she put a little more of the Southern drawl that was her birth right into her voice.

That was all it took for Jake to leave the other two and leap, snarling at her before throwing a punch. Amy pushed her right foot back and raised her left arm, put it forward and out, palm to the side. Her right fist tucked tight into her ribcage. When the punch came she had already reduced her target area to a small vertical line and figuring out where the taller boy was going to throw his right hook was a simple task. Pulling her head back instinctively, she struck out with her left arm while sweeping with her foot twisted around his forward leg. The resulting force of the pull of her leg and the push of her hand sent him tumbling to the ground. Unfortunately the boy was quicker than he let on and grabbed her on the way down. Her right hand came out to break her fall quickly, but a misplaced impact pushed Jake's head to the ground faster. Time slowed down for Amy right then. When they finally hit the ground she heard a dull thud. So did his friends. They stopped smiling then. She began to shake just a little, the adrenaline rush sweeping through her. Willing herself to stay composed in front of the others. This was a dangerous situation, and she was making it worse. Especially with no witnesses. Looking down between her arms, still on her knees, she saw Jake laying eyes closed on the ground. His eyes wouldn't open again, and she could already see his neck muscles moving for the last time, small movements as the electrical impulses died out. Could already smell blood.

An eternity passed before the two boys who had come along dared to move, and Amy stood then, stepping over his body and setting herself in stance once more, remembering with surprising precision what her father had taught her. If only she had thought about that seconds ago. Or maybe it really was an eternity. She didn't know, and the adrenaline had made her too numb to care at the moment. Stop the movement first, then the vision if they persist. If they continue to come, even in these weakened states, assume the worst. Assume drugs are in the system. Stop the breathing, if only for a little while. Incapacitation was a last resort on civilians, but it might save her life here. Her fathers voice was guiding her and she took comfort in that. If one leather neck was here for her, even in her head, she would be alright. She may not have made a living in the Corp, and being 17 didn't give her much of a chance anyway. But she had been raised by her father. Adrenaline still guided her thoughts. The boys were inching away, and all fight had drained from them. They wanted out, but were unwilling to turn their back on her. Had she had the presence of mind, she might have laughed at two 20 some college guys terrified by a small teenage nerd. She didn't though. So her stance stayed and Amy stared, silent as Jake at them. And continued. Until finally the adrenaline began to wear out and her body began it's break down of the unused chemical. Sweat and shaking started, and as soon as she drew her first labored breath, they bolted. Both turned and fled back down the alleyway.

What she didn't understand was how they could move with so much pressure around them and with how dark it was here, not even the lights of the streets behind them eclipsing the building made the darkness dwindle. It was almost pitch. The gray brick walls really were closer. Your adrenaline is gone Amy. This isn't a fight-or-flight thing anymore.

That was when she panicked. Her head hurting and her eyes were forced shut. Everything was closing in around her, she wasn't wrong. She tried to scream but either made no sound or couldn't hear herself. That didn't help. Running didn't help much either, with so much pressure holding her to the earth that moving her leg forward once took more energy than the fight had. The once slightly rancid smell of the back alleys of New York had taken a different smell. Now it smelled of her fathers old truck when it had been ran for hours. That smell of misused oil and burnt diesel fuel working its way through a hot engine bay. But there weren't any trucks around. Not that she could see at least, being effectively blind.

Stumbling again, she hit the cold ground and winced in pain as her knees hit the concrete with a clang. She let her body fall to the side in a loosely formed fetal position. Too tired to do anything else at the moment. Laying there, she didn't open her eyes, didn't dare breathe more than she had to. She wasn't scared. Not Amy Strongman; No she wasn't scared. Just tired. Besides, how would she explain to the police what really happened if she ran? No, staying here was a good idea. She could hear the sirens already, they would be here in a couple of minutes...

"There isn't a Doppler effect." Amy open her eyes and sat up quickly, head woozy from the pressure finally releasing her. She wasn't on concrete, she was on metal, and she wasn't in an alley she was in a hallway. Which meant those weren't sirens. They were alarms, and probably meant for her. Figures. Standing up unsteadily she balanced herself and looked around. This wasn't a police station, at least not any that she'd ever seen. Everything was metal here, and lit very well. No wood panelings, and no insignias anywhere stating this was LAPD. How did she get here if she didn't pass out?

When she heard sets of running feet around the corner behind her, she turned. Not knowing what else to do she stood there. Where was she going to run anyway? She wasn't even sure this was in New York anymore. Before she could delve any farther in that train of thought though, two women and a man entered the hallway. The first was a lady in a loose fitting lab coat with close cropped black hair, showing the early signs of graying. The man behind her was in some sort of black uniform and had a machine gun leveled at her. She could barely make out the letters ONI on his uniform sleeve. Who really had her attention though was an extremely tall blonde beside the older woman. Easily over 6'3" and muscled better than the man. Her arms were time and a half the other mans and scarred more than most. Amy was most scared of her eyes though. They looked at her unblinking and moving, even with that smirk on her face. So she was a soldier too then, and obviously protecting the lady in front. Amy hadn't realized she had taken up a defensive stance in response to her fear.

"She thinks she can fight us?" The words from the blonde in a thick Slavic accent.

"Get to your knees! Now!" The man with the gun yelled, walking ahead of the other two slowly, gun still pointed at her. Amy did what he asked without hesitation.

While the man stood behind her and patted her down the woman in the lab coat moved in front of her line of sight. "What do you have on you?"

Amy thought quickly, doing her best to alleviate the situation before it escalated. Her head still wasn't in the right place though, her thoughts foggy and coming in half formed and pressured to move quicker. "Cell phone and personal identification ma'am"

The older woman looked angry at the response "What else?"

Thinking harder she couldn't think of anything else, and the man had patted her down, taking both wallet and phone. "Nothing but my clothes...Dr. Halsey" She said, squinting to read the name etched into the shirt she wore. Hey, at least they spoke English.

The woman, Dr. Halsey, looked past Amy then and spoke curtly to the man who was holding her down by force. "Take her to my lab. We're going to need blood tests before we begin interrogation. I'll be there momentarily."

Amy could feel the man take out hand cuffs and begin to place them on her. When the first cuff attached to her left hand, she slipped her right one out of his grip and twisted around underneath him. Punching upwards while he was still taken off guard and off balance, she placed the heel of her palm underneath his chin and heard the audible slap of teeth hitting teeth. When his body came up this time she forced herself out from underneath him entirely and kicked once, sending his head around his neck and knocking him out. At the same time she was about to turn she felt a freight train hit her in the chest, knocking the wind out of Amy while her body sailed 8 feet before hitting the ground again. It didn't matter though and she knew the fight was life or death. The Slavic woman stood in front of the officer and held one palm out, the one that had struck her. The other was gripping the machine gun of the man who Amy had downed. That, too was pointed her way.

Amy put her hands to her side and out, showing she had no weapon and was making no fists. "I'll submit to your testing and your...questioning. I'll tell you everything I can without falsehood. But I will not be led away by some man while in handcuffs. You'll have to kill me for that, and then. No answers"

The Slavic woman, spoke next before Dr. Halsey could finish opening her mouth. "You know, there is one other way." Amy saw only a flash of blonde hair before the butt of the MA37 connected with her chest in exactly the same spot she had hit her before. The world went black then.

Waking up was not the most pleasant thing Amy had endured. Her chest hurt something fierce and she figured her sternum was cracked. That didn't bode well. Her hands were above her and attached to the wall by a set of thick metal cuffs while her feet were attached to the sides of the bed she lay in by similar cuffs. The room she inhabited was painted sterile white and smelled of anti-septic and alcohol. The wall beside her was made of the same steel the hallway she was in consisted of. A hospital room then. At least they were going to treat her wound before they interrogated her.

When the door to the hospital opened, up Amy noted, not sideways, Dr. Halsey walked into the room with another man in uniform beside her. This man was slightly larger than the last, and only carried an odd pistol. He looked more sure of himself though, and kept eyes trained on Amy at all times, even while sitting down. Amy smiled inwardly at that. He must have been informed of the last person in uniform she had knocked out. Dr. Halsey also required guards for chained children. "Amy Strongman is it? How did you end up on the floor of the only ONI super carrier in all of the UNSC? What was your intention?" The doctor spoke with her back turned, pulling out an assortment of medical supplies. She could hear needles there as well.

Looking over her chained arms she addressed Halsey's back. "Let me out of these cuffs and you'll have every answer I can give"

Dr. Halsey turned around and held up a needle with two glass vials "I'm taking some of your blood for testing" Amy nodded. At least she was telling her what she was going to do. "This does not mean I will just let you go if you don't end up in an insurrectionist database."

"I didn't ask you to let me-" Her words cut short as the needle found a vein and began taking her blood. "walk free. I'm a captive, I understand this. I asked you to let me out of the damn shackles. I don't even know who these insurrectionists are. Hell, up until just now I thought I was being held for a back alley fight I had last night" The soldier who was stationed to guard Dr. Halsey looked up and his eyes narrowed for only a second at Amy. Taking another step forward, he put his hand on his pistol slowly.

Dr. Halsey did not fail to notice this "Calm down Marine. She will be fine how she is" As the blood finished filling the fourth vial she taped off the hole and took out the needle, placing the vials in different machines on the table behind her "Your identification card said you were 17 years..."

"17 years old" Amy finished, nonplussed. "Georgia born, 1993. License number TL-935347. I know what my license says ma'am. Let me out of these shackles."

Dr. Halsey raised her eyebrow questioningly and looked Amy in the eye. "Even if I were to believe you were 559 years old, why are you here?"

Amy looked up at Dr. Halsey, finally lost for words. She thought about her words before saying them now, shackle questions aside for the moment. "You believe it is 2552 Ma'am? Why am I the one in chains?"

The soldier snorted then, and crossed his hands over his chest, showing off the size of his body "Don't play stupid, Innie. You can't bullshit your way out of this." Walking over past her bed, he hit a button on the wall, releasing a metal window shutter like that of an aircraft. The sight was all stars and lights. Amy saw from what she could on her bed a planet beneath them, covered in green and white gases.

"What...What the F-"

"Yes Amy, this is why you are the one in chains and not me. You have one more chance to change your story to something more believable. The truth perhaps? Why are your readings of radiation so high?"

Amy's head reeled, and she felt as though she had to put it back on the pillow, lest it com bust. There was a chance the stars and the world outside weren't real, she knew. But no one would bother putting on this act for her. She was in a New York alleyway before here. Nothing notable except maybe her intellect about her. She had never done anything of great importance. Not until the fight with Jake. Remembering suddenly brought on a flood of emotion. It was all she could do to will away the tears before they fell down her cheeks. Not in front of these two Amy. Not while you're chained like this.

"Whatever. You don't have to believe me. I'm going to die anyway"

She didn't die though. Not right away at least. For the next hour Dr. Halsey spoke with Amy until she opened up again. The Marine always in her line of sight. Eventually Amy began to believe she was in 2552. Maybe it was all a bad dream, maybe she would wake up from it. But for now, the facts were that she was in the future and she was a captive of circumstance.

Halsey also seemed to be entertaining the idea that Amy wasn't lying. Every once in a while when there was a lull in the interrogation the doctor would get on some kind of visual intercom and talk with another scientist on deck. Someone who was on the bridge, Amy learned. It irked Amy when she spoke on the intercom like this. Not because she was being ignored, or because she was exceptionally mean to her. In fact, Dr. Halsey had been curt and frank, but never once rude. What bothered her was that she couldn't understand what the doctor was talking about. Amy was unaccustomed with the idea of others knowing more than her. Or at least enough to believe they were speaking a different language. The only thing she could gather was that she was some kind of freak accident from a 'slip-space anomaly'. It was the only way Dr. Halsey could swallow the facts Amy had told her about the bend of light and the pressure.

"Your blood results will be done in the morning. For now, you will remain here, under supervision. Two more Marines will be posted outside of your door" Dr. Halsey got up then, and put her lab coat back on. Looking past Amy, she looked at the Marine "You will be staying here to watch her. Shift change at 0800 tomorrow, understood?"

The Marine looked at Halsey and nodded, his whole body turned toward her. No salute, no words. But Amy thought she saw a tinge of pressure in his hands, like he had thought about saluting her. Maybe he did respect her after all.

"Let me guess, I'm staying in the chains." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes Amy Strongman. You will remain restrained. Tomorrow may see your release from the chains, but not captivity. Not for a while yet while ONI decides what is to be done. That decision may well lead out of my hands." It was only when Amy heard the sound of heels hitting the ground sharply and the magnetic door close did tears fall down her face.

Suddenly she looked over at the tattoo on her left forearm, and smiled small. Tears still blurring her vision. Remembering how much her father had hated the thing. It was a tribal version of a unicorn head in purple, overlaying a deep orange flower. A little known species from a type of Ash tree. She had got it to rebel. Rebel from the soldiers life he seemed to be shaping her into. It had worked, and served as a reminder to her for a long time, but she paid the price for it in training the next summer with him. Smiling again, the second and final tattoo on her other forearm seemed to itch. It was the symbol of the eagle anchor and globe that represented the Marine Corp. The words 'simper fidelis' underneath it. That one she had gotten to appease him. 'if you're going to ruin your skin' her father said 'you mine as well get something with some dang meaning!'

Looking up, she saw the Marine staring at her quizzically, unsure of what to do now that she was crying. "Sorry about that. Call it daddy issues."

"No. No it's...fine" The Marine seemed lost for words. He was privy to a lot more information tonight than he usually was "Such contrasting tattoos. What's the girly one for?"

Amy laughed despite herself and her tears. "To be girly, actually. My father was a hard ass and I wanted to rebel. Teenage drama"

"And the other...You were in the Corp.? It's an awfully old Marine Corp. Logo. Changed since then" He looked genuinely interested. Amy decided that despite the fact he was guarding her that she liked him.

"No. My father was. When he got out...He didn't know how to raise me on his own. So he did it like he knew how. I may not have been a Marine in my time, but I was trained by one. Probably spent more time in combat training than I did studying. Ha."

"Your accent...Where are you from?"

Amy laughed again. Even 500 years in the future she was being asked the same questions. "Georgia. I don't know if it still exists but...A southern part of the United States. Very southern"

The marine smiled then. "I was born on earth too. Few here were. We have 'bout 300 planets worth of humans now."

They fell into a content lull in the conversation. She didn't mind him, but she needed time to think. To feel and to hurt. Jake, her father, her studies, her entire life was gone now. Probably never to return. And when sleep finally tugged at her eyelids, she didn't fight it. Quietly telling the Marine at his post she was going to sleep, she let darkness wash over her. She would worry about the rest tomorrow.
_

I'm hoping to update every 1-2 weeks. Chapters should be roughly the same length, but no guarantees.

Please, I cannot stress enough how much I want you to leave me reviews. I want to make this better each chapter, and your input helps that happen.

Thanks for reading! See ya next week!