Counting the Hours

Summary: Mega might finally have found love only to find out that he will loose it if he cannot prove his love by midnight. With other complications in the Mall, will he ever manage it?

Pairings: Mava, Rega, Slebony, Jady and Lex/Ram – some only references to though.

Rating: PG-13 for this chapter I think, there is some mild language.

Disclaimer: I own nothing; the Tribe belongs to Cloud 9 and Mr. Thomas. All I do is destroy their characters in fanfic.


Chapter One

The door to the computer room swung open to reveal Java's form to striding into the room, her dark eyes holding doom yet not the spark of fire which used to rage there in. There was no flaw to this woman, her confident tone rang through people's minds so that there was no escape from her message and her looks were of the darkness beauty matched by none, yet to one person she was not satisfactory.

"You wished to see me", she said in an almost board tone as she looked out of the corner of her eyes around the room before crossing her arms and pouting her lips slightly as she exhaled a breath, finally bringing her eyes back to her boss.

She no longer cared about anything, not the power that she now contained nor the hundreds of people at her mercy. None of it was important to her as she had lost the only thing that mattered to her … love.

Or at least, she thought that she had lost love. She was not depressed; she simply could not be bothered to do anything under her own steam. She worked as she was told to and got more power hoping that it would break her out of her numbness but nothing had worked.

Mega starred at the screen which he was typing at, even as he heard Java entering, determined not to show her that he had been waiting for her. He had spent too long trying to pretend that he did not have any emotions to let her destroy all of his hard work. Since the day that his brother had left him he had realised that he was too weak and that he needed to become stronger. Then he met Ram and things reached a whole new level …

Through Ram he learnt that by not showing his emotions he could get more out of life and as he began to notice how everyone around him was a slave to their emotions making them easy prey to his devious schemes he became even more proud of the fact that he could hide his so well.

As time past he began to view emotions as sickly things which must be stamped out, they were a disease, a weakness and Mega would have nothing to do with them.

He was strong - as he viewed it - as he now felt nothing … until it came to Java. He was angry at her, not a slight annoyance but true burning anger. Mega knew that Java was evil, her darkness drew him to her as he saw a divine evilness which might one day match his own yet she was wasting it.

For weeks he had noticed the way that her fire was burning out and the way that she was being smart with him, although she had lost her bite and he was determined to get it back. This was the last straw and he was going to let her know that she had crossed the line.

First of all he finished his work enjoying making her wait … yes he was going to make her sorry for her attitude of late..

Java huffed slightly and shifted her weight from foot to foot after a while, which had been about five minutes. She was used to getting everyone's attention when she walked into the room and damn it she would have his too.

She had wasted too long playing second fiddle to Ebony and then to Siva to let Mega start ignoring her now too. As she anger increased she opened her mouth to yell not caring that other Technos were watching but was cut off.

Mega noticed that she was about ready to explode just as he pressed save he swung around in his chair to face her smirking slightly before ordering his men, "Leave us, now". Once the last one had left, he raised one eyebrow at Java as if to say, "Is something wrong?" in a plain tone which he knew would infuriate her.

Java's blood pressure immediately, starting to soar at the way that he was acting although she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had got to her and so tried to keep her eyes from rolling as she said, "You wanted to see me?"

She could not stand the way that she only had to be around him for a few moments to start feeling something again, although that was what she had been wishing for a few short moments ago she would have preferred that her reaction to him was not so obvious.

That was one of the reasons that she had taken so long to come and see him, even though she had been informed that he wished to see her almost four days ago, yet she stood there and acted as if she had no idea that she had done something to antagonise him.

Mega felt like slapping her for that tongue of hers yet he kept his cool and answered, "Yes I wanted to see you four days ago. Which begs the question what the hell was so important that you did not come on time? Where you on deaths doorstep? Screwing Jay", he said, unable to keep the venom out of his tone.

He was not sure why but he could not stand anyone being near his side kick, she was his … did they not get it? She was his and only his no other male had any right to be near her although he knew full well that she attracted them like moths to a flame.

It was only a few seconds later that he realised that he had let his jealously show through, no not jealousy, he could not be feeling jealousy as he had no feelings he tried to convince himself.

Java was shocked, she was known for being able to read people and she was sure that she had just seen something like jealousy in Mega's eyes and voice yet she convinced herself that she must have been confused, after all Mega would have no reason to be jealous of Jay, unless he liked her which was impossible, was it not?

For all intents and purposes the idea of Mega liking her was ludicrous yet the very notion made her feel better about herself and all tingly. She was not sure if it was because he was powerful or because she just wanted someone to love her at that moment, but either way Java knew that she could not let it sway her as it probably was not even true.

Even her own husband had not loved her, she reflected, so what reason would Mega have to do so?

She felt stupid for even considering it a possibility but would not let Mega know that, no, she would keep it as her own personal humiliation and no one would ever know it. Therefore, deciding that the best course of action would be to be her normal bitchy self she asked, "No Mega, I was not ill and I do not remember screwing Jay, why would it matter if I did?" She taunted, this would not let him know that she wanted his affection somewhere deep down; he would just think that she was a bitch, or at least that was what Java hoped.

Mega clenched his hands into balls for a second trying to stop himself lashing out at Java as she always seemed to know just what to say to make him loose control. In some ways it was good that she was being this way with him, it meant that he might be starting to get her out of this funk that she had been in lately although that did not mean that he would not stop her attitude – even if it was his main source of entertainment.

"When I give you an order you will obey it immediately, not when you feel like it. Do you understand?" He asked menacingly staring at her, hard.

These words took Java by surprise although she knew that Mega did not like to be pissed off he had not really been going on at her too much since Ram's death and she could not fathom why he was all of a sudden as bad as he had used to be.

Yet, she was not going to allow herself to be bossed around by him, and so answered coldly, "I am not your property to boss around. We are partners in this and you have no authority over me so stop acting as if you do".

She had over stepped the mark. Before she got the chance to say another word Mega's blood began to boil and he stood up looming over her before grabbing her by the throat and pinning her to the wall.

"Partners are we? Funny because I haven't seen you do a buggering thing since the take over. Oh sure when you are told to you do a little bit of work and then that is it. You have lost that fire Java, that thing that makes you special and all you do now is mope around over Ram. Get over it Java because at the moment you are not doing enough to stay around here and I will get rid of you because I can. I will treat you as my partner when you start acting like it rather than like a stroppy brat", he almost growled.

Mega knew that he could not hold her by the throat for too long and so gripped her arms instead, holding them hard enough to bruise and staring at her darkly as if trying to see inside her soul.

Java winced in pain as he held her neck but it hurt no where near as much as his words did, he did not like her, not at all. He did not even think that she was doing her job properly, yet another person that thought that she was not good enough. Okay, so it was true that she had not exactly been on form recently but she did not think that she had been doing all that badly.

Then she felt his hands on her arms instead, and despite the pain the first thing that she did was scream at him, "Oh high and mighty Mega I am so sorry that I have not been doing as well as yourself your highness, but I was the one that had to kill Ram, not you. I had to kill the man that I loved so I am sorry if I feel bad about it".

Unable to hold back any longer she felt a tear roll down her cheek, her arms pinned she could not wipe it away so all that she could do was to look away although she knew that it would not stop Mega from seeing it. There was no hiding anymore.

Mega let out a sigh as he began to realise what was going on in her head and let go of her arms and signalled for her to sit in his chair, he knew that he had to get her over this to get his assistant back but more to the point as much as he hated to admit it he could not just leave her this upset.

"Sit down Java", he said gently guiding her to the chair.

She breathed a slight sigh of relief as he let go of her but it did not help the real pain which was in her heart. Her throat felt like she had dry swallowed a big pill and her head was spinning, yet she did not want to seem weak in front of him, which was why she did not sit down when he offered her his chair.

At first she shook her head no but then feeling him leading her over to it and being ordered she did as she was told feeling very small. Then she looked up at him with watery eyes wondering what he was going to do next.

Mega knew what the problem was with Java at that moment but also knew that he could not just jump in with it and that he would have to build up to it slowly and so asked, "Is that what this is all about Java? Do you feel guilty because you shot Ram?"

He knew that she could not feel guilt over it and that it must be something else but that was not important, the important thing at that moment was what Java thought that it was that was causing her problems although he knew that it had nothing to do with guilt.

Java let his words wash over her for a few moments and then answered, "Yes", although part of her could hardly believe that she was confiding in Mega there was just something about her which made her want to confide in him and it was not the innocent card that he had played with other girls, this was genuine and they both knew it.

"I am pure evil and that let me kill him without a second though, I gave up love for nothing. I will never find another person who thinks that I am worth something. I just want to feel wanted", she said looking down in shame as she could not bear to look at him after that confession.

"Do not be stupid", Mega blurted out after only having heard the words for a second, "Ram never loved you, he loved Ebony and maybe even Siva but never you. There is nothing about you that he even vaguely liked. You know that. When you shot him you knew that, that was why you shot him because you knew that he deserved it and that we both know that you would do it again if you had to".

He knew that he was showing emotion, knew that it was weakness but seeing Java like that made him want to kill Ram again and he could not stop himself from continuing, "You have got every single Techno man – and a few of the women - on this base running after you because they think that you are a goddess. I admit, when I was weaker I even thought of you that way, but not anymore. You are a perfect evil woman … but no goddess. You let your dreams mix in with reality to make you believe that there was more there than there ever was".

Mega took a breath to calm down before continuing in a calmer almost caring tone, "Open those gorgeous brown eyes of yours and look around you. You can see a lot in people that most people cannot and you are evil enough and cunning enough to make a great side kick. You just have to get over this. Java you have so much going for you, do not blow it all over one dream, because that is all that he will ever be. He was never the man for you". With that he turned his back to her as he could not take this.

Since the day that he had seen Java all of those years ago when he had first come to the Techno base he had been drawn to her knowing that she would be the perfect partner in crime but what he had not counted on was the fact that as he spent more time with her he started to care for her.

No one else in the world had an effect on him but her he cared for to some extent in his own twisted way. It had come upon him so suddenly that he had not even noticed in until that moment.

Java looked up at him as she realise that what he was saying was true, it had never been Ram who sorted out any problems that she had with any Techno men that she could not handle by herself – not that that happened very often.

Finally, she realised that everything with Ram had just been her way of dealing with the fact that things had gone down badly and that she wanted to believe that she was loved.

She did not know what Mega had done to her but he had some how managed to wipe all images of Ram out of her head so that she was not worried about him anymore. She stood up and walked over to Mega and walked in front of him lifting his head up with her finger.

Whatever it was that she had wanted to say to him was forgot as she noticed his big eyes and pouty lips, there was no reason to want Ram. Mega was everything that she wanted. Somewhere deep down she guessed that she had known all along but had not been able to admit it to herself.

She reached around to the back of Mega's head and pulled him down to kiss her sweetly on the lips, tingles shot through her body as for the first time ever, she felt truly cared for.

Mega's eyes grew wide as he felt her kissing him although he responded to the amazing kiss he had only just placed his hands on her hips when it ended.

He looked at her with big eyes, he could not deal with this right then, it was all too much for him at that moment, he had only just come to terms with the fact that he might be capable of human feelings let alone possibly loving Java.

Java looked up at him and knew that he could not deal with that yet and so pulled back and smirked evil, "Not bad, but you could defiantly work on that", she teased, although she was still licking her lips trying to retain some of the sweetness.

With that she turned and sashayed towards the door swinging her hips invitingly with her old attitude swiftly recovering.

"What?" Mega gasped in astonishment, "is that it?"

"Oh no, it is just the beginning, see you tonight lover", Java purred with a look at him over her shoulder as she opened the door and walked out into the light.

Smiling slightly at the retreating site he mused, "Damn that woman is going to kill me … but what a way to go".