Disclaimer: I wonder, why do I keep repeating this if you guys already know what it's for?
Author's Note: Strong violence in this one, as well as a disturbing scene or two.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter Nine: Wolf in the Fold, Part Two
Location: Corridor outside Conference Room, Nirvana.
Sensing something wrong, Meia immediately followed Aidan out of the conference room. What confirmed it seconds before was when the power in the ship suddenly died. The emergency lighting came on in the corridors about a second later, backlighting them in an eerie red. It then occurred to her that the virus had caused this. She had begun to wonder why Reika would do this, until Aidan wanted guards to protect Maria. She was here to kill Maria.
She stopped as soon as Aidan did, in front of a pair of bodies. She knelt down and took a look at them, but she knew who they were. They were the pair sent to escort Reika. One was lying on her back, her throat shredded and a large pool of blood underneath her. If that didn't make her sick, what she saw next surely would. The other was laying face down, and when she turned the corpse over, she recoiled away from it and almost couldn't control her urge to vomit at the sight. The woman didn't have much of a face to make her recognizable. Only her bloodstained hair would give anything away. She looked away, and cold fear seemed creep inside her. Was that nightmare going to come true?
When she looked over at Aidan, he looked as though this didn't horrify or disturb him. His face was an impassive mask. Then again, he probably had seen his fair share of death, desensitizing him to it.
"Why would she do this?" she asked him.
"She's an assassin," he answered, thumbing off the safety of his gun. "There's not much time, let's move."
As he sprinted down the corridor, with her following she swore she heard him mutter 'I'll make that bitch pay.' What did that mean, did he actually know this assassin?
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Where is she? The assassin was not in a good mood, not having located her target yet. As she moved down the darkened corridor, she noticed another pair of guards making their way towards her. She squeezed the trigger of her needler twice, adjusting her aim on her second shot. Both of the guards went down before they could react. One of them was still moving, so the assassin moved over the wounded woman and fired once.
"These Mejaleans are too soft," she muttered to herself.
Satisfied that both of them were dead, she started to move on before a crack filled the corridor, and she felt the pain of a bullet as it grazed her side. She dove around a corner and returned fire, not taking aim, firing just to keep her assailant at bay. She glanced over the corner and noticed that it was a dark-haired woman who'd shot at her. She quickly inspected her wound, and wasn't serious, only a scratch. She didn't have time to fight it out with this woman, so she quickly snapped off a couple of shots as she ran into a different corridor to avoid any return fire. She didn't care if her shots found their mark or not, because she had a mission to complete.
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"Who is that bitch anyway?" Barnette muttered as she clutched her side, which was bleeding.
The weapon that the woman was using was unlike any she had ever seen before. It felt as if several razor-sharp needles had torn into her side. She was lucky that wasn't a precise shot, or she'd be in worse trouble. She winced as another wave of biting pain reverberated through her body. Her breathing ragged, she leaned against the corridor and slumped to the floor. This is not the way she wanted to die. She couldn't staunch the blood seeping out of her wound, and it ran down her side and started to pool on the floor. I'm not going to die this way!
"Barnette!" a concerned Meia said as she ran up to her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine… it's… just a scratch," she managed to say, her voice unable to conceal the fact that she was in a lot of pain.
"She's needs immediate medical attention," Aidan said to Meia.
"I told… you… I'm fine," she said defiantly, unable to hide her pain.
"No, you're not," he said sternly. "I'm familiar with the weapon the assassin is using, if you don't get help right now you're going to bleed to death."
"I'll call the doctor," Meia said, interrupting them.
"Where'd the assassin go?" Aidan asked Barnette.
"Assassin…? She went… that way," she said, pointing in the direction the assassin went.
"Good," Aidan said. "That bitch is mine."
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Maria sat at a table in the cafeteria, her face buried in her hands. She couldn't believe this was happening, but it evidently was. A lone assassin was on her way to kill her, and she'd heard several people had already died. All because of her, because of who she was. Even the presence of two personnel standing to either side of her, nor the one near the door comforted her. She didn't feel all that safe, and there was almost no doubt in her mind that she was going to die. Dita sat right next to her, trying to comfort her. It wasn't working.
"It's alright, everything will be okay," Dita said, trying to make her feel better.
"No it won't!" she shot back. "She'll kill me, and probably you while she's at it."
"Don't say such things," Dita replied, shaking her head slightly.
"Why not? It's true!" she fairly shouted back.
Dita's reply was cut off by one of the guards pitching over onto the floor. They turned their attention just in time to see blood spray from the guard to their left. The other one tackled both of them to the floor as another shot hit the table, shattering the corner of it. She opened her eyes to that the security guard had taken part of the shot, as she was holding her bleeding shoulder. Maria slowly gained the courage to stand up, if she was going to die, she would face it, not cower. Who she saw next sent a wave of surprise through her.
"You…" she stammered.
"So, we meet again, Maria," the woman she knew as Reika replied.
"Why Reika, why are you doing this?" she asked, trembling with fear.
"That isn't my name, but you can call me that if you want," the assassin shrugged. "As for why I'm doing this, that's my business."
"But… why?" she asked again, knowing that she probably wouldn't get an answer.
"I told you, my business," the assassin replied, leveling her weapon at Maria. "I'm going to kill you now."
"NO!" Dita shouted as she placed herself between the assassin and Maria.
"Move, little girl, or I'll kill you too," the assassin said.
"I won't let you kill my friend," Dita said defiantly.
"Suit yourself," the assassin replied as her finger started to tighten on the trigger.
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A sudden, blinding flash filled his vision, and an incredible force knocked him off of his feet. He felt a tearing, searing pain along his left arm. Once regaining his feet, he stumbled over to find Sakura lying on the ground, he dropped down on his knees beside her. He would never forget the life fading from her vibrant green eyes.
Aidan snapped out of it once he got sight of the entrance to the cafeteria. He saw the assassin walk in there after firing into it. He snapped off a couple of shots, and the assassin's response was diving further into the cafeteria, and into cover. He stopped right at the entrance and pressed his back to the wall, and Meia mirrored the action on the other side of the door.
He glanced over at Meia and nodded, and then charged through the door, gun at the ready. The assassin had already gotten behind cover, and he fired a few shots at the table as he ducked behind another table, intent on keeping her pinned down. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Maria standing there with Dita.
"What are you two still doing here? Get out of here now!" he ordered them as Meia started firing at the assassin with her ring.
"But-" Maria stammered.
"I said NOW, dammit!" he yelled at them, and Dita pulled Maria from the room. Satisfied that Maria was out of danger, he could finally exact his vengeance. He fired several more shots into the table, hoping that they would pound through and hammer the assassin. He slid back down behind the cover of the table and ejected the empty clip. It hit the floor with a hollow metal clang, smoke still wisping out of it.
"Do you have a plan?" Meia asked him as he slammed another clip into his weapon.
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"Hurry up," Barnette said sharply as Duero finished bandaging her wound.
"You don't rush something like this," Duero replied sternly.
"I have… to help them," she said through clenched teeth.
"You're not going to help anyone," Duero said. "I have to take you to the infirmary to properly treat your wound."
She picked up her gun and forced herself to stand. She felt Duero try to slightly restrain her, but she just shrugged him off. "I'm going to help them whether you want me to or not."
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It almost seemed to Aidan that he raised his head at the wrong time. Only the fact that she wasn't aiming prevented him from taking a shot to the face. As it stood, a few of the needle-like flechettes grazed his right cheek, creating a few small gashes. He hesitated for a second as the assassin got up. She was holding one of the security personnel, a knife to her throat.
"Both of you, get up slowly and drop your weapons," the assassin ordered them. "Or I'll open this girl's throat."
"Alright," Meia replied hesitantly, taking off her ring and tossing it away from her.
"Now you, soldier-boy," she said, bringing the blade closer to the woman's throat. "Drop it."
For a second he thought about refusing her threat, and just planting a bullet between her eyes, but when he glanced at her hostage, and saw her fear-filled eyes, he gave in. Briefly, it reminded him of the little girl he had slain, and slowly lowered his weapon, and dropped it. He then slid away from him with his foot. What happened next shot his anger to incredibly high levels.
"Thanks," the assassin said with mock sincerity and drew her knife across the woman's throat. In one deft move, she threw that same knife at Meia, who moved just at the time where it took her in the arm instead of the chest. She threw another knife at Aidan that no doubt came out of her sleeve, but he already ducked under it and drew his own knife from its sheath.
"I'll make you pay for that, you sadistic bitch," he growled. And everything else you've done.
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Meia clenched her teeth and grunted in pain as she pulled the knife out of her left arm. After dropping the blood-slicked knife to the floor, she grabbed a hold of her wound to try and stop the bleeding. Her vision trailed to the knife-fight between Aidan and the assassin. Both of them slashing and striking out with their weapons, drawing minor nicks and cuts from either of them.
Glancing down, she noticed Aidan's gun lying on the floor, not too far from where she sat against the wall. Reaching out with her uninjured arm, she gripped it in her hand. It felt heavier than it looked, although that might have been from her weakened condition. She brought it up and struggled to aim it at the assassin, and was about to pull the trigger, but somebody else had beaten her to it. A loud bang sounded as a bullet caught the assassin in her knife arm, forcing her to release her grip on her dagger.
The assassin backed away from Aidan and tried to draw another knife, but this time Meia fired. She felt the gun kick with recoil and create an even louder sound than the other one. The shot tore into the assassin's left leg at knee level. The ten millimeter round shattered the assassin's knee, causing it to buckle. The assassin started to go down, and Aidan took advantage of it. He lunged forward and pinned the woman down onto a table. Meia lowered the gun and looked over to see Barnette leaning against the doorway, with her gun wavering in her hand.
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This can't be happening! The assassin screamed that in her mind as she felt her leg collapse under her weight. She wasn't in any position to attack, and her opponent knew it. She barely saw him charge forward, and before she knew it, she was slammed onto a table. The soldier was directly over her, and she mustered all her strength just to prevent him finishing her with his knife. With an injured arm, and her position on the table, she knew she was going to lose this struggle.
But still, what happened? She had everything planned out, and if not for them finding out quickly, she would have succeeded. How did they find out so fast? She looked into the eyes of the man above, and they were filled with an intense hatred. With a clarity that only imminent death could bring, she realized it was this man who found her out. He had known, but how? Then suddenly, she thought back to when she had planted explosives at a military base.
She then saw a slightly younger version of him in her mind's eye, walking past her, and someone else was with him. A woman. That was where his intense hatred for her came from, she was sure. That explosion most likely killed that woman, and now it was his time for vengeance. She felt a sharp pain as the tip of the knife entered her throat, and he thrust it further into her neck. She felt like she couldn't breathe, and she started gagging and coughing up blood. She knew she was going to die, and the last thing her mind registered was his face, and the hatred burning in his steel gray eyes…
This wasn't happening!
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There, I changed it to where Aidan got to exact his revenge