A/N: My beta reader hasn't sent me back this chapter yet. She's four days past the point of return. I'm impatient by nature, though, and the spelling and grammar isn't bad as it is, so I'm posting this chapter, unedited, until I hear from her. I am also adding titles to the chapters so far, for your future convenience. They're not all interesting titles, but they get the job done. Love all the lovely reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters. I am making no money from this endeavour. Fanart is an excellent bribe, though...

Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 10

by danse

A regulation alarm clock ticked its way contently through the seconds, echoing a little in the silence of the small room. A young woman, barely out of her teens, with scruffy black hair and blue eyes that were almost purple, lounged on her bed in her PT gear. She wiggled her toes comfortably in her socks; her heavy black boots sat neatly side-by-side on the floor.

There was a stack of official reports and books on her desk that she really ought to have been going through, so that she could be well-informed on the expected conduct and activities of the personnel at her new posting. Unfortunately, it had been a very long first week and the only thing that she could bring herself to concentrate on right at the moment was the mystery novel in her hands. She sighed a mix of satisfaction and fatigue as she turned the page.

However, her fun was short-lived. An enormously loud bang was followed by one of the recruits doubled over in her doorway, red-faced and panting, while the door bounced off the wall. He collected himself and stood upright while she calmed her breathing. He'd surprised her so suddenly and loudly that she'd jumped and almost ripped her book in half.

"Jesus Christ!" she snapped irritably. "What is it, Private? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

The private blushed and saluted sharply. "I'm sorry to bother you in your personal quarters, Lieutenant Noin, but there's a problem." The words all came out in a nervous rush.

Oh, god. And it's only the first week, she thought tiredly. She put her book down and got up, glaring at the private as she stuffed her feet into her boots. He was still standing rigidly, sweating bullets. "At ease, Private," she sighed. "What's your name?"

"Lakhani, Lieutenant."

"It's after midnight, Lakhani. Call me Noin, please." She finished lacing her boots quickly and joined him at the door, noting that he looked very nervous. "What's the problem, and why can't your first senior officer handle it?"

"One of the sentries said that there's an armed intruder in the base. There's already three or four men down. Possibly two are dead. No one can catch the guy."

Noin's eyes widened. An intruder in the base! It was a secret location, full of new recruits for a future project, codename Zodiac, funded by a corporation called OZ. The compound had sprung suddenly out of the South African plain, and had filled with people in the last week. Noin was one of three organizing officers at the base, and she was told as little as possible about what they were trying to accomplish by the higher-ups. She did know, though, that whatever was going on now was probably a critical breach of security.

She grabbed her sidearm from the desk and stalked out into the corridor, all of her senses tuned to her surroundings. She couldn't hear much over Lakhani's nervous, ragged breathing. "Let's go," she said, gesturing with an inclination of her head as she crept towards the nearest corner. "Do you have a weapon, Lakhani?" she asked as she peeked around the corner.

"Yes, sir-I mean, Noin."

"Use it." She heard him swallow nervously but was too busy peering around the corner, listening for footsteps.

With the private covering her back, Noin advanced silently and quickly down the halls, looking for traces of the phantom intruder. One hundred yards from the empty mess hall, she found two sentries lying on the floor. They were both still breathing, but unconscious from a blow to the back of the head. They were as inexperienced as everybody else here and probably never saw it coming.

Gritting her teeth, she continued. Passing a door to the training yard, she saw that two of the yellow pot lights in the ceiling had been shot out, and another body lay in the shadows. This one was dead, with a bullet hole in the throat, and the pool of blood around it was cold. He still had his gun; it was an AK-47 rifle. Noin holstered her handgun and relieved the dead sentry of his weapon. She wanted to wound the prowler first, before she ended up with a twin hole in her own neck.

She broke into a run, trying to escape the feeling of dread. The other two commanding officers… no, they were at a meeting in Egypt for another two days. They would never get back in time. This was up to her. Lakhani was running just behind her, pale but still functioning. The corpse might have been a comrade.

Another light was shot out two corridors away. Glass crunched unheeded under her boots as Noin ran, seeing no one else around her. All of the doors that lined the corridor were closed on dark rooms. Her platoons slept behind those doors. Rooms full of men and women, innocent and off-guard while they dreamed. She rounded another corner at full tilt, and almost stepped on a sergeant who was sprawled on the floor.

"Lieu…Lieuten…" the sergeant gasped. Her hand was clutched over her stomach. Her name was Johnson.

"Don't talk," Noin ordered as she crouched on the floor next to the girl. "Are you hurt?"

Johnson moved her hand. Her palm was red. There was blood soaking her shirt. "It just… nicked me," she smiled weakly.

"Which way did he go?"

Johnson pointed down the corridor, where Noin had been headed. "You can still… catch him if you hurry…" She winced and whimpered a little at the pain.

Noin turned around, looking for Lakhani. He was right behind her, looking horrified. "Lakhani," she said in a steady, no-nonsense voice. "Stay here and help Johnson. Keep pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. Get her to the infirmary as soon as you can, without hurting her. I'm going on." Without waiting for an answer, she took off down the narrow corridor, looking a great deal more in control than she felt. He's getting closer to the centre of the base, where the power plant and boiler rooms are, she realized with dread.

Two minutes later, Noin reached the end of the hall. She was facing a door, slightly ajar, that said, 'High Voltage - Do Not Enter.' Her quarry had to be in there. She slid through the door and ghosted into the generator room, holding the rifle out in front of her with her finger on the trigger. There was a shadow crouched in front of the massive generator. Slowly, she backed up against the wall and felt around with her free hand until she found the button that powered the lights. Silently counting to three, she pushed the button and aimed her rifle as the lights ground into life.

The shadow was a person in black, who whipped around and stood up with predatory grace as the room illuminated. He was Asian and looked even younger than Lakhani; he wore a black hat pulled down over blacker hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Considering her, he raised his hands slowly into the air and backed up a step, jarring a metal plate on the generator with his heel and surprising both of them.

Noin's rifle jerked at the thump and his eyes widened as they followed the gun. She smirked, enjoying the feeling of control restored. She could almost smell his fear. "Lay facedown on the floor with your hands behind your head," she barked. He obeyed and she walked over to him, keeping the rifle trained on his head. He was so young. This was the person who had completely infiltrated the base and killed one of her guards? Maybe they needed more training than she'd thought.

The movement was so sudden that she didn't even have time to gasp before she landed flat on her back and winded herself. The rifle bounced out of her hands and skittered out of reach as the boy leaped to his feet and ran. Scrambling to her feet, Noin dove for the gun and tried to follow him, wheezing too much to form the angry words on her tongue. She gave chase as quickly as she could, trailing him by yards as the little bastard found a ladder to the roof and propelled himself up it and through the loose grate faster than she was running on the ground.

She clambered up the rungs with her gun slung over her shoulder and saw him just as he was approaching the end of the flat roof. Not bothering to think about anything anymore, she ran as fast as she could after him, closing some distance before raising her rifle to shoot. He hesitated on the edge of the roof, looking back to see how close she was. It was a fifteen-foot drop to the ground and she didn't think he'd try it. He would most likely break something when he landed. This was it.

Naturally, when he jumped off of the roof before she could shoot him, Noin was shocked. She flailed to a stop on the edge just in time to see him roll to his feet, wave at her, and take off.

"God damn it!" she yelled, not caring what image she presented. He was getting away. Noin looked down. Maybe it wasn't as far as she'd thought. He'd been able to do it, maybe she could jump without hurting herself. But the gun… Sadly, she dropped the rifle on the roof and made sure she still had her handgun before she took a running start and leaped. As she saw the hard African earth rushing up to meet her, she thought that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea. Now what? she thought. Almost instantly, she was answered. Roll! She tucked her head and let her arms and back absorb the impact, then was turned to the side and rolled like a log for ten feet down a small hill.

As quickly as she could, she staggered to her feet and reoriented herself. Her arm hurt and she was covered in dust. She pulled out her handgun and took off the safety. The full clip would be plenty, if she could catch him. She had to catch him. Unfortunately, the roar of a motorcycle reached her ears and she knew that she was finished. All of their vehicles were on the other side of the base. Swearing, she pursued the sound anyway. Perhaps he wasn't far away. Her body screamed at her that it had had enough but she pushed it as hard as she could, breaking into a loping jog and dragging in deep breaths that hurt. There was a stitch building under her ribs.

As soon as she saw the silhouette of the kid on the bike, she started firing. A few sparks flew as bullets bounced off of the bike but her arm had developed a tremor and she wasn't able to hit the boy. With two shots left, she ran closer. Why was he just sitting there?

When she got close enough to see him in the moonlight, he was smiling. Her fury roared back to the fore, holding back her fear. "What did you come here for?" she demanded.

His voice was deep and full of pity that only riled her up more. "You can't defeat us," he said. "Not like this."

"Who is 'us'?" she snarled.

He ignored her, examining something that he held in his hand. "The just will always win," he said. "Your rage and your arrogance blind you. As hard as you try, you can never defeat those who believe in justice."

"Why is that?" she asked as calmly as she could.

"Because," he said, holding up the small device, "I have all of the power." With a devilish smile, he pressed the button on the top.

Noin had a second to turn around in horror before the entire base became a fireball. As the thunderous explosion drowned out her scream of rage, the boy roared away on his bike. Rolling waves of heat singed the hair on her arms and she dropped to her knees, staring at the roiling column of fire and smoke that climbed towards the moon. Ash and sparks and bits of debris fell around her but she didn't notice it and didn't move. One of her ears was ringing.

All of those people, sleeping peacefully in their barracks. Lakhani. Johnson. But how? Then, like a slap in the face, she remembered the boy backing up, jarring the plate on the generator. Kicking it closed, she realized now, so she wouldn't see the bomb he'd just wired. Your rage and your arrogance blind you…

If Noin cried as she knelt there in the dirt, the tears were dried by the heat of the fire.

A/N: All those poor soldiers... In other news, the war on the review board about Duo's love life is quite interesting. So far, it's pretty even between het and slash shippers, with one person saying that I shouldn't hook him up with anyone. The truth is, Duo's path has been decided, and it is an interesting one, I think. You're not gonna find out what it is yet, though. :P I'm mean. A blizzard struck my town, and I got the next 2 chapters done before the power went out! All rejoice! I'm going to try to post two weeks from this past Monday (May 12), if I can find out what's going on. We shall see thee then.