John continued to run, a mixture of sweat and rain ran down his helmet. The dirt under his feet were quickly turning into mud as the ODST trekked through the beginning of a swamp. The Rookie heard a moan and took a quick glance up to see another ODST hauled over his shoulders. Loud malicious screams then made John look behind him to see only the shadows of his enemies.

He sprinted needing to get away from his enemies and get his friend help. There was another moan, this one sounded a lot more pain filled. "Don't worry Sarge I'm getting you out of here". The 33 year old vet merely moaned again in response.

A single plasma hole was embedded into the Sergeant's stomach. John blamed it all on himself, if he had been faster on the trigger then maybe he could have stopped his superior from being shot.

"Delta Frost this is Pelican Echo 515 does anyone read this?"

John felt his heart leap in his chest and a small relieved smile appeared on his muddy face. "Echo 515, this is Private John Oltz requesting immediate evac". John risked another look behind him and could start to see the dark outlines of Elites chasing after him.

The Female voice of the pilot quickly replied, "Roger that Private what's the payload?"

John felt himself start to choke up at the mention of certain 'Payload'.

(*8*)

John's eyes shot open. He was sweating profusely and noticed that his helmet was still on, along with the HUD. Looking at the Mission clock again this time it said 46 Minutes and 50 Seconds. Being entirely pissed off he tried to sit up but was held in his tracks.

Looking at his arms and legs he realized that they were tied to a bed with some sort of rock. Wiggling around a little in his armor he heard the bed start to creek and the rock restraints started to move a lot. John realized that he could easily break out and leave this crazy place.

Against his better judgment though he decided to let this go and see where this series of event leaded him. Watching these people just use water, air and fire against him in battle was breathtaking. John needed to study these people more and find out their secrets so people back home could use them against the Covenant.

Back home…

How the hell was he going to get back home? John didn't even know where the hell he was or if this was all a dream and his brain was just fucking with him again.

"Well, well, well. Look who is awake from his nap".

John looked up and saw a woman standing with her back leaning up against the doorway. Metal armor covered her well-built body and a quick glance at her face made John gasp. Her eyes were dead gray signaling the Woman was blind, but if that was the truth how the hell did she know if he had awoken.

Almost like she sensed his concern the Woman started to walk towards to the side of the bed. She had a weird smile plastered on her face and it was easy for John to figure out it was fake.

With lightning fast speed that would rival a Spartans the woman's hand shot out and wrapped her fingers around John's neck. Even with his armor on she was still able to put massive amount of pressure on his throat. "You think you can just waltz onto Air Temple Island, injure the Avatar's daughter and leave?" she started to laugh.

"You pieces of scum underestimate me" John started to feel light headed from the intense chocking and yet again like the woman read his mind she pulled her hand back, letting the elite soldier inhale much needed oxygen. "Now I'm going to ask this just once. What are you planning and don't lie to me, your other friend is back at the police station singing like a canary".

"I'm sorry but I seriously have no idea what you're talking about." the lady didn't seem to buy anything so another idea popped up into his head to gain her trust. "You mentioned that little girl".

John noticed the tough woman's eyes raised in curiosity, "I know how to heal her, you just have to undo these restraints and take me to her".

The woman just stared at him for a full minute. John felt a little weirded out and just as he was about to look away from her a slight muffled transmission came through his comm link, "Any- h- this tr-, does a- resp-"

John let out another curse under his breath and watched as the woman left the room through a sliding door. A minute later the bald man with the arrow on his head walked back through the door. He didn't look angry at all unlike his last visitor, no John noticed despair and a tinge of sadness and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

"Are you this Avatar the other lady was talking about?"

"My name is Aang and I can't believe you haven't heard of me before. I don't know if you're trying to trick me or you are telling me the truth".

"Aang I'm not lying to you at all. I meant everything I said to the lady before, I can heal your daughter and then afterwards I will tell you everything".

John watched as the bald headed man stood from the chair he was sitting in and with a wave of his hand destroyed the rock restraints. The elite ODST fixed the part of the armor that covered his wrist and swung his legs around the bed into a sitting position.

"I am choosing to trust you…"

"The name is John".

Aang nodded his head, "I am choosing to trust you John but if you choose to destroy that small part of trust then I will not hesitate to severely injure you and throw you in jail". John merely nodded and stood from the bed and noticed his bag full of explosives sitting on a bed side table. Putting the large pack on he walked towards the door and slid it open only for a fist to make contact with his face plate.

John merely staggered backwards due to his shields and the punch being a little weaker than usual. A Male groan of pain made John focus to the man in front of him dressed in a blue colored t-shirt and long black pants. The man also had a ponytail and was jumping up and down in pain like a small child.

"What in spirits name kind of armor is that" the man seemed to calm down and had a hated glare at the Rookie. "Aang are you sure we can trust him?"

"No I'm not sure" the Rookie felt much deserved hatred towards him. He did shoot this man's daughter and in some way all of these people were emotionally connected even if they weren't connected by the same parents. They were acting like a squad of Marines or ODST's would act around their squad members, brotherly and always looking out for one another. A big part of that was trust, without trust you had a dysfunctional squad and right now John felt like the Rookie again.

"What I am sure about though is he will heal Kaya". Without another word spoken the pony tailed man in front of him moved out of the way allowing John and Aang to move forward. The Rookie looked at his surroundings. The hallways they were traveling through were narrow and there was one of those sliding doors about every few feet, signaling that a lot of people stayed in this house.

The civilians that lived in the house were similar. They all had their heads shaved with a blue arrow on their forehead just like Aang. John came to the conclusion that whoever Aang was he is definitely a well-known and respected person.

Aang then led John into a short dead end hallway with one door in it. Once he was at the low tech sliding door he could hear small sobs coming from the other side of the door. 'Time to meet the mother' John thought to himself as his head started to hurt and he remembered to inhale.

Sliding the door open he saw three woman standing around a bed with the little girl he shot lying on the bed unconscious. Two of the woman were standing a good distance from the bed with their heads down. One of them had Auburn hair and was wearing a dress to match, a very cute young woman. The second Woman had black hair with the same red clothes that the man he saw on the beach wore, John also noticing that she had a baby in the oven.

Finally the third woman that couldn't control her sobs was practically on the little girl's bed. She had light brown hair and was wearing a blue like dress that was similar to the man that tried to punch him in the visor earlier.

John turned his attention to the little girl and saw that she was still bleeding through the entrance wound which meant the bullet was still lodged in her foot. While John started to assess his medical tactics Aang knocked on the door getting everyone's attention in the room.

All of the sadness seamed to leave the room as the Rookie watched all of the woman get into a fighting stance, hatred clearly in their eyes but the mom had the highest amount of hatred for him. The woman with the Auburn hair took out what looked like fans with daggers edged around them, the one standing next to her had her palms ignite with more fire.

The mother had water on her arms shaped like daggers and without any hesitation shot them forward at an intense speed. Using his training John rolled out of the way of the attack and came back onto his feet only for him to repeat.

Without noticing John accidentally rolled himself into a corner, he was trapped. The mom had a wicked grin on her face mixed with tears and some saliva. She threw her arms out again and John watched in awe as Aang jumped in front of the blast and caught the water. Moving his hands around slowly the water started to disperse until it completely vanished into the air.

"Aang what are you doing?"

Without a word being said Aang led his wife over to the opposite side of the room. They were having a very heated whispering fight and John decided to take this time to move closer to the young girl. John kneeled down and looked at Kaya's right foot, he could easily see the cloth they used to try and stop the bleeding.

John felt terrible. He knew the feeling of being shot both by plasma based weaponry and bullets used by the UNSC, an accident for the second one of course. Kaya was too young to experience a wound like that and wherever he was they had definitely never experienced a bullet wound before. If he had been smarter and kept his finger away from the trigger then that misfire would never happened and just maybe he would have gotten on better terms with these people.

"Fine!" John looked back at the arguing couple to see the mother with her hands in the air in an 'I can't believe what you said' manner. Slightly less angry she walked past Aang and stopped directly in front of John. "And you" water started to form around her body, "If you don't heal my little girl my Husband won't be there to save you again".

"I know exactly what to do miss". John shrugged the backpack off his shoulder and zipped open the top compartment. Reaching past the explosives on the top he felt the similar Kevlar touch of his medical kit. "Do you know what happened to your daughter?" John asked as a general question then to a specific person.

"No. All I know is her foot keeps bleeding and I have no idea why". That's what John thought, he zipped open the pouch and shook his head in confirmation. Everything he needed was in this kit. 8 cans of Biofoam, a few needles that contained Adrenaline, Medical gauze and all the tools he needed to stitch her foot closed and remove the bullet.

John took out a pair of tweezers, one for opening the wound to look inside and the other to extract it. John was about to apply pressure but stopped when he looked back up at Kaya's face. Something very important hit him and the ODST knew that it was something that the mother wasn't going to like.

"I've seem to have come across a slight problem".

"What do you mean a slight problem?" the mother's voice was penetrating through him. "You haven't even started to do anything ".

"I'm sorry to tell you this but a small projectile that comes out of my weapon has lodged itself into your daughters ankle" John looked at anyone in the room hoping someone would get what he was saying, but of course they all stared at him dumbfounded. Sighing John continued "The only way for the blood to stop bleeding is if I remove the projectile and close her wound back up".

"Then do it, I don't see the problem here" the woman with the Auburn hair commented.

"The problem is miss that I need special medicine to keep your daughter unconscious during that time and I don't have that on me. The pain will most likely wake her up and if that happens she is going to scream and jump around, I won't be able to get the projectile out if she moves around. I need someone to hold her down until I can finish."

The whole room was in silence as everyone stared at John in both confusion and shock. Then without warning "I'll do it" the mother stepped forward and no objected to it, John knew he wasn't going to say anything about it. He just hoped that she came through with her word. If Kaya moves around the slightest then hitting another vein could be easy.

John started the procedure and just as predicted about 30 seconds later Kaya's eyes opened fast. She started to scream in a high pitched voice as John moved around inside her foot trying to find the bullet. So far the mother was keeping true to her side and was successfully keeping her daughter still on the bed.

"Please sweetie stay still the man is getting the thing out of your foot and then you'll be fine. You could go back to playing with Bumi and Tenzin". John felt the bullet with his tweezer and successfully grabbed it. He started to pull back and then voila!

He placed the bloody bullet on the bed and felt himself relax immensely. "Kaya!" John looked up at the mother and saw that Kaya was yet again unconscious, which was completely normal. The ODST then again remembered where he was.

"Miss it's okay Kaya just went into shock, she'll be out for a little longer. The bleeding has already stopped, Kaya will be fine". John continued at his work but didn't notice the complete awe stare that the mother had on her face.

The rest was easy John filled the wound with Biofoam and then stitched it closed, 'Finished".

John felt a tap on his shoulder and saw the mom standing over him with tears in her eyes and a slight smile on her face. He couldn't believe what happened next she got down on his level and hugged him with superior strength he might add.

John merely patted her on the back and looked to see Aang smiling near the doorway, he gave him a thumbs up and the ODST returned it. "Thank you so much"

"I don't deserve any thanks miss. I'm the one that did that to your daughter, I admit it was a mistake but still I'm trained with this sort of stuff it never should have went down the way it did". John watched the mom pull back and sniffle.

"Please call me Katara. John I understand, the woman you talked to before her name is Toph and let's just say she knows when a person is lying or telling the truth. You have no connection with the Fire Nation loyalists and by the way you're talking it sounds like you didn't mean to do it on purpose".

John was shocked to say the least first Katara wants nothing more than to spear him with some magic water but now she was on his side in the matter. "It still warrants an explanation though". John merely nodded along with Aang and after one last check on Kaya the two happy parents escorted John to their next meeting point.

(*8*)

The morning sun started to rise as a loan figure stepped out of the brush, wiping some leaves and other excrement's off of their armor. The lone figure stood atop the hill now watching from a high vantage point.

The person surveyed the rather large city noticing Air blimps flying around the skyline. Looking around the landscape more a small island with what looked like a temple occupying it looked like a good place to find some help.

Doing the math quickly the figure found the hike to take about 2 and a half days including treading the water that surrounded it. Fixing the supplies quickly the hike began, the figure hoping that one of her friends would too be in that area, everything would be easier

(*8*)