The Ghost Woman and the Hunter

Summary: Machiko Noguchi is a deadly she-predator. Yassen Gregorovich is a lethal assassin. That makes them worthy opponents in anyone's estimation.

A/N: I'll be the first to admit that this idea is kinda crazy. It comes from me seeing too characters who I thought were, although unrivalled in their own canons, would be very well matched if they were brought together for a fight. Which is probably how the Alien vs Predator franchise was started in the first place, although I'll admit the way I've gone about combining universes makes much less sense than the way it was done for that.

So, to briefly sum up the background for this story: Machiko Noguchi is a character from the AVP novels and comic books who joined a predator clan after helping one of their leaders kill a queen xenomorph. After aiding the predators she hunted with one of their clans for a while, although this story is set when she's given that up and has begun re-integrating herself into human life. However, she's still got all her predator skills and weapons meaning could take on someone like Yassen if necessary. It may also be useful to know that she's Japanese, and an ex-employee of the Chigusa corporation.

Yassen is still a master assassin working for Scorpia, although it's a 22nd century version of Scorpia that has dealings with the likes of corrupt organisations such as Weyland-Yutani. My options for this story were to have an AU where all the events of Alex Rider took place in the 22nd century, or to have some weird kind of Yassen-clone thing going on like they did with Ripley in Alien 4 (but I didn't much like that) so I've decided I'm just going to write this based on the loose assumption that all events in the Alex Rider universe have been moved forward 100 years. However, they're not going to be central to the story so it hopefully won't affect things too much. The mismatched timelines mean that this will probably make no sense and have huge plot holes, but I'm afraid I have a bunny for for pitting Yassen against Machiko now and I can't make it go away.

I'm trying to keep them both in character since that's the reason I had the idea for this in the first place, but Alex Rider canon has (in the nicest way possible) gone to hell. AVP canon may be a bit flaky as well.

Title because of a Lacuna Coil Song I rather like and it seemed vaguely relevant. I'll change it if I can think of anything better.

Disclaimer: Apologies to Anthony Horowitz for buggering up his creation. I don't know if the comic book writers or Steve and Stephani Perry came up with Machiko, but I don't own her.

-oOo-

It isn't every day somebody turns up at your apartment trying to kill you, Machiko Noguchi thought as she walked into her kitchen one morning to find a man attempting to do just that. He was standing on the far side of the room opposite her, holding a gun that was levelled at her head. She thought she ought to be scared, but death seemed like a much less frightening prospect when she faced it at the hands of a handsome blond holding a pistol, and not at the jaws of a queen xenomorph. She still felt a little uneasy, but something told her she was unlikely to die today. When she spoke, her voice was calm and steady. "I take it you've been sent here to kill me."

"That is why I'm holding the pistol, yes."

His voice was deep with a slightly rough tone. He spoke with what sounded like a standard English accent, but there was just the hint of something else that Machiko couldn't quite place. "And are you going to at least tell me your name before you decide to shoot me?"

He paused for a moment as he considered whether or not to tell her, then decided it would do no harm. "Yassen Gregorovich."

The name sounded Russian, and that made sense to Machiko as it explained his accent. "Who was it who sent you? Someone from Chigusa?"

"Weyland-Yutani, actually."

She was surprised he'd actually told her, but she couldn't think why a company like Weyland-Yutani would want her dead.

"So why don't you just get on and do it, Mr Gregorovich?"

"Actually, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me." He was still holding the gun pointed at her, but he didn't look like he had much of an inclination to use it.

She frowned at his response. "What do you mean?"

"Well, my instructions are not to simply kill you. They are to hunt you. I'd hoped before I did just that, you might be able to explain to me why that is the case."

She gave a secretive smile. "I could certainly tell you, although it would no doubt be much more interesting for you to just get on with it and find out for yourself."

He switched to speaking Japanese, which surprised her. "I have no desire to make things interesting."

"That's not very sporting."

"I have no desire to be sporting either. I'm only interested in fulfilling the terms of my contract."

Now that she was certain he wasn't going to kill her, she found him quite amusing. "That's a shame. You seem like an honourable killer."

"Honour is irrelevant."

"You'll have a hard time hunting me then."

She knew she was managing to confuse him, and even though he was trying not to let it show she could see he was scowling slightly. "You know, Ms Noguchi, I usually make it my business to find out everything I can about my targets before I kill them. There is a distinct lack of information, however, on what it is you have been doing for the past seven years. Perhaps you'd be able to enlighten me?"

She avoided the question. "Your Japanese is very good. Not quite as impressive as your English, though."

"Thank you. I'll make a point of improving. Now will you please answer the question."

She switched back to English. "What's the point? We both know you aren't going to shoot me."

There was a pause during which neither of them spoke, and then Yassen lowered the gun. "Very well. It's not important. I believe it's only fair that I give you a head start, so you might want to consider leaving this place before the end of the day. If I come back later and find you've called the police rather than attempting to run, I can assure you it will only result in many more people dying needlessly."

He turned and headed towards the door.

"You really have no idea what you're letting yourself in for, do you?" she called out after him.

He paused at the door and turned back to look at her. "Neither, I think, do you," and with that he exited the room and left Machiko alone in her apartment once more.