Author's note: This is a pretty old fic, I think I wrote it sometime in October of last year. It's still one of my favorites, so I'm posting it now. As you can probably tell, it's based off the Advance Wars 2 mission A Mirror Darkly, which introduces the duality between Sonja and Lash. Not much else to say, hope you enjoy it!

From the Battle Log of Sonja, Princess of Yellow Comet

June 25th, 2067

Midwest Coast, Region 22

Mission: "A Mirror Darkly"

On June 18th, intel reached the main HQ about Black Hole forces in Region 22. I convinced my father that I should take command. False intel was leaked to Black Hole that there were no Yellow Comet forces deployed in said area. Taken by surprise, Black Hole was forced to fight. However, their current Commanding Officer, Lash (CO Profile), offered a wager. Her offer: If any unit of hers invaded the HQ, I would have to yield. I accepted.

I took advantage of the canyon and deployed indirect combat units on the sides: 9 rocket squads, 3 artillery, tanks guarding the HQ: 2 light tank squads, 1 medium squad. Fog of War was present; obvious advantage. Lash's units rushed forward. Rocket squads eliminated them, tanks and mechanized infantry units moving into the valley to finish off her units. Battle ended after only 8 days, when Lash was out of units and was forced to retreat. Region 22 is currently safe.

Casualties:
8 soldiers
4 tanks

Enemy casualties:

20 soldiers
60 tanks (including recon and anti-airs)
15 mobile artillery
10 rockets
2 APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier)

Sonja slipped off her glasses and placed them beside her as she rubbed her eyes. She had just gotten back to the main Headquarters after her last battle. As was her habit, she immediately typed up the information on the battle into her computer. She was organized. She liked to keep records of and study previous battles. One did not become known as the Queen of Intel by not being efficient. Yet there was something about the mission that not even the facts and figures of the analytical report could summarize. It was nothing about the actual battle…No, more about Sonja's feelings. The battle had gone just as planned, with Black Hole falling for the false intel, getting trapped in the valley and being sniped out by unseen units. But one thing that Sonja had not planned for was what the opposing Commanding Officer had said when she was defeated. "Oh well…at least I'll have plenty of pieces to play with!" How could someone take the loss of their soldiers so lightly, so, dare she say it, optimistically? Sonja was revolted at how Lash seemed to take joy in the fact that she had lots of pieces of scrap metal from her totaled tanks to build new things with. But this was not the worst of it…

Sonja sighed as she reached her hand back to undo the band holding her hair back into a ponytail. Her dark shimmering hair fell down her back in one fluid motion as she leaned forward, resting her face in hand. She sighed again.

As Sonja sat lost in thought her father walked past her. Kanbei was the emperor of Yellow Comet. Well liked by his friends, feared by his foes, and sometimes a bit of a buffoon, he was nevertheless a source of comfort to Sonja.

"Daughter, are you alright?" He leaned over her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Sonja looked up at him and smiled slightly.

"Yes Father…I'm fine."

"You seem troubled. Ever since that battle earlier this day…are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes…yes, I'm fine. Thank you."

Kanbei smiled, patted his daughter on the shoulder, and walked out of the room, blue cape drifting behind him.

The sound of heavy boots pacing back and forth echoed around the polished lab.

Clink, clink, clink, clink.

A young girl in a bulky black trench coat and thigh-high platform boots walked back and forth across the room. Lash didn't care about the loss of her units, but her superior Hawke seemed displeased about losing the foothold in Yellow Comet. Oh bother, thought Lash. The old fuddy-duddy needs to lighten up! He never has any fun. Not like me. I know how to have fun. She giggled.

You and I…we're the same, Sonja.

These were the words that had haunted Sonja ever since her return to the main HQ. She clearly remembered Lash, standing amid the smoking wreckage of her army, grinning as she talked to Sonja, who could only gape in shock at the small genius's words.

You enjoy war like a good game of chess. Thinking over every piece…deciding which move will bring you victory…you'll feel it soon one day…the joy that war brings.

No, we're nothing alike.

"How can she not see it? We're the same." But on the outside, the two COs looked nothing alike. Oh, they both had black hair and brown eyes. But those were the only similarities. Sonja's hair was held in a simple ponytail, where Lash's exploded into an immense afro. Sonja's eyes were calm yet alert, full of intellect. Lash's had childish glint to them, as well as a fraction of madness.

They both were child prodigies. It was another similarity. And it was where the main difference was. "She's willing to sacrifice her units like pawns…and I'll send my stuff to blow up! Anything for victory!" Lash stifled a girlish giggle with a black-nailed hand.

Next to Sonja's computer there was a chessboard. She reached over and picked up one of the pieces, the white queen. She turned it over slowly in her hand. The piece was made of polished wood that was golden in color, ornately carved by an artisan. You enjoy war like a good game of chess. Sonja shook the words out of her head. No, I don't. I don't enjoy war at all. It's something I must do. I may view it in an analytical sense, thinking which move will bring victory…but I do not revel in it.

"Oh, she may think she's better then me, she may think she has compassion for the troops she sends to their death, but she'll see one day. She'll see that we're the same." Lash stopped pacing around the room. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her trench coat and wrapped her fingers around something small and metallic. It was a chess piece, made of bits of metal of destroyed tanks and ruined experiments, painted black. The black queen. "She'll see it soon…we are the same."

We may have similar tactics, but our morals are so very different. Sonja whispered as she tightened her grip on the chess piece. "I won't become like you, Lash."