Because Villains Need Love Too

Plot Synopsis: Lash has always had a rather big crush on Hawke. However, when she finds out that Hawke's been in a secret relationship with Sonja, she starts to plot revenge...forcing Hawke and Adder to flee the country. This gives the rogue Bolt Guard the chance they've needed to take command of Black Hole, and use it for their own diabolical schemes.

Hello thar, and welcome to my first ever Romance fic. I've never even tried to write one of these before, so bear with me. Please give me lots of tasty reviews, and don't eat my spleen. I like my spleen. nn;;

Chapter 1 – The Required Trip into Backstory Land

Sitting in the Laboratory, twitching slightly, Lash carefully added some more ingredients to her latest invention, muttering slightly to herself as she did. "That big meanie, thinking he can come in here, and destroy everything I thought Black Hole was about! And of course..." She paused. "No, that's certainly not the reason. No. This is all about him destroying what Black Hole is supposed to be! Well, I'll educate him on the fine points! Tee hee!" She danced around the table, adding one potentially dangerous ingredient after another, until she felt it was satisfactory.

Stepping back to admire her handiwork, she was rather satisfied with what she had created. In a glass test-tube, she had poured all of her most dangerous chemicals and liquids in, including the toilet cleaner. She had ended up with a liquid that looked a lot like water. Except water didn't fizz gently, and it didn't smell like rotten eggs. She grinned evilly. "Yes, this would teach him alright," she muttered. "How dare he do that to me!" She paused again, and frowned. "I mean, Black Hole. Yes. Anyway...he's changed a lot...a bit too much for my liking. I wonder what could have made him change so much..."

The change in Hawke had come about a few weeks after the Dual Strike wars. Hawke had returned to Black Hole, a surprisingly changed man. He had given no explanation as to what he'd been doing, or how he'd survived the events that had occurred inside the Grand Bolt. However, Lash had simply written it off to Hawke's pathological need for his doings to be wrapped in a cloud of mystery. Well, that's what Lash thought, anyway.

However, a series of odd occurrences began to...occur. For example, that emperor guy Kanbei and his brat of a daughter Sonja visited Hawke. After stiffly inviting them into his office, Hawke had bolted the door, and it seemed he had also shut off the CCTV cameras, as Lash could only see static. This greatly displeased her, and she spent the next hour or so fuming, storming around the laboratory, and shouting at anyone who got in the way of her tantrum. How dare he remove footage from her, the great inventor Lash!

More COs came to visit, and every time Lash got more and more frustrated. Even though she installed more cameras in the room, each more hidden than the last, Hawke somehow found every single one of them, and disabled them. This got to such an extent that Lash, seriously raging by now, stormed down to the door and tried to listen in when the scarecrow and that rich kid showed up. The door was a solid door, but she could catch some words. "Peace treaty" was one that cropped up quite often. This rather worried Lash. Was Hawke trying to settle a peace treaty between Black Hole and the rest of the world? If so, this would only be bad news for the pint-sized inventor. All she could contribute to Black Hole was deadly weapons. Every time she tried to put her mind to something peaceful, her mind quickly changed it into something capable of mass genocide.

However, that wasn't what had angered her most of all...

Lash spun around in her leather swivel chair, gleefully taking in all of the lovely CCTV footage. "I can see you, but you can't see me!" she exclaimed. "Tee hee!" She grinned, before raising a straw to her lips. Slurping on a milkshake, she was preparing herself for a new show. One of the new recruits had gotten lost and had wound up in the Oozium tank, and she was looking forward to what happened to the man. Usually, the death was rather long and painful.

Reclining, Lash let out a contented sigh, befo-

Knock.

Her sigh quickly turned to one of frustration, as she swivelled round. "Who is it?" she asked angrily. "Soldiers are about to go smoosh!"

"It's me..." a rather cocky voice drawled.

Lash groaned. Her superior officer, and second in command of Black Hole, Adder, had just decided to visit her and make her life a misery. His recent promotion had incredibly angered Lash, despite the fact that he'd always been considered an unofficial SiC. Hawke had never had a second in command beforehand, deciding that if they were anything like himself, he couldn't trust one. He'd finally decided to make Adder one, because he figured that at least he knew Adder's nature and could expect a backstab attempt from him.

Lash took another slurp of her milkshake, before settling it down irritably and standing up. Opening the door, she saw Adder leaning quite calmly against the doorframe, examining the state of his fingernails. "What is it, Adder?" she asked, letting him know via the tone of her voice that she wasn't in the mood for any of his games today.

"Heh heh heh..." Adder let out his trademark laugh, which, coupled with his drawl, sent unpleasant chills down Lash's spine. "Well, Lash, a little bird told me that Hawke has a visitor coming to see him, and I'm rather curious as to what these constant visits are actually about..."

Lash frowned. "How did you find out? Not even I know! And I've got all these!" She motioned to the CCTV screens to demonstrate her point.

Adder's smile widened. "Well, Lash...I guess only people of importance got to find out..."

"Ooh!" Lash snarled, picking up her cup and hurling it at Adder. He caught it easily however and laughed.

"Now now, my tiny brainbox. No threatening a superior officer." He winked, and took a drink of the milkshake. His face contorted into a look of mock disgust. "Ugh, raspberry!" He spat it on the ground, and tossed the cup back. Lash caught it, glaring at Adder.

"Just go away, you...you...MEANIE!" she yelled at him.

"No..." he said, his voice becoming preoccupied. "A plane's just touched down on the runway..."

Lash was worried it could just be another bizarre trick by Adder that usually ended with him pouring her milkshake on her afro, and her having to wash it off with several shampoos, cursing Adder's name the whole time. However, she took the chance and spun round. The initial surprise that it wasn't a trick quickly became a curious interest in who would be here. She groaned when she saw who it was. "Ugh, Sonja! That uptight little bi-"

"Now, now!" Adder said, jest still in his voice. "No swearing around superior officers either!"

"Humph!" Lash grumped, before her attention was retaken by the events of the runway. Hawke was there personally to greet her. Which was rather odd, she thought. Usually a soldier would escort the CO up to Hawke's office, where he would greet them there. Does this mean that the peace treaty is being finalised?

"Lash, can you get audio on this thing?" Adder asked, obviously curious too. Sonja's lips had started moving.

Lash nodded, cursing herself for having not thought of it before, and tapped a few buttons on the controls. Instantly, Sonja's melodic, calm voice filled the room. "-nd I cannot see why you will not visit the Headquarters of other countries, instead of forcing us to visit you. It's you who's requesting the peace treaty, after all."

Adder recoiled. "A peace treaty! The nerve of that man!"


"Shh, Adder! They're still talking!"

Now Hawke's voice was filling the room. Lash liked Hawke's voice. It was low, and surprisingly quiet for a man with the height and build that Hawke had. However, it was filled with an underlying menace, and Lash liked that too. There was a lot that Lash liked about Hawke.

"Sonja," he said, "If I happen to remember correctly, Orange Star built a small statue to me outside the main Headquarters. I would not like it. They have probably made me look dashing and heroic."

Sonja giggled. Lash and Adder exchanged glances, before turning their attentions back. "You actually look quite brooding in it. But still dashing and heroic..." She paused. "That's beside the point! It would really help improve relations with the other countries. I mean, out of all of the four main countries, you only visited our one, and that was when-"

Hawke put a finger to her lips. Another glance between the two watchers. "Quiet. There are many people who do not need to hear where I have been. Only myself, you and your father know the basics. And your father only needs to know the basics. I do not wish to be painted a hero." He paused in his words, although he kept walking. A brief smile suddenly flashed across his lips, as he added, "More than necessary."

Sonja giggled again. Lash's fists unconsciously clenched. Adder noted it, but said nothing. However, his mind did somersaults, all the new teasing possibilities! Heh heh heh...

"You should at least consider it, Hawke," Sonja said, her demeanour returning to a businesslike state. She took out a pair of glasses and, after wiping them on her sleeve, put them on. She then took out a rather large pile of scrumpled up paper from her jacket pocket and started sifting through them. They continue walking silently.

Aware that this may take a while, Adder couldn't help himself. "So, how long have you been crushing over your superior officer?" he asked gleefully.

Lash, getting the wrong idea entirely, laughed. "Tee hee! Adder, you're so optimistic. As if anyone would be attracted by a thirty-five year old man with sunken eyes!"

Adder sighed. "You're just jealous of my beauty, Lash. And it wasn't me I was referring to..."

Lash froze, and her eyes widened. Her brain started thinking, oshitoshitoshitoshit, what am I going to say! "Uh...shut up!" she said, employing all of her teenage wit.

Before Adder could retaliate with a response however, Sonja's voice cut through the potential argument. "There, I found it." Adder and Lash turned round to see Sonja finish reading through a paper, and handing it to Hawke. His eyes skimmed over the piece too, while Sonja continued, "See? Black Hole has lost its negative connotations. The people, not just the COs, see you as a hero. If you visited, it would really help the moral of the countries. You really have to."

Hawke paused, before, in a defeated tone, said, "Very well. What would be a suitable time?"

Sonja smirked, obviously pleased that she had broken through another barrier of Hawke. "Ahaha, I win!" Hawke raised an eyebrow, and Sonja coughed, blushing slightly. "I mean...anyway...any time would be good. The sooner the better, naturally."

The whole time Lash had been listening to this, she hadn't really been paying attention to where they were going. However, she could see now that they weren't heading towards Hawke's office, but towards Hawke's private room, where he did everything from eating to reading to sleeping. She had persuaded him to put a CCTV camera in there after she'd convinced him that soldiers could secretly be spies. And by that, I mean that she secretly put one in there.

They reached the door, and Hawke opened the door, and motioned for her to enter. Sonja remarked, "Such a gentleman..." before she entered. Hawke followed after, shutting the door behind him.

"Where's the sound gone, Lash?" Adder's voice brought her back to reality.

"Uh..." She tapped experimentally with a few keys. Damn! She'd been so busy making sure Hawke didn't find out, she forgot to install microphones in these ones. She wouldn't be able to hear what they'd be discussing! Damn damn damn!

"So..." Adder drawled, announcing that he was about to engage in a scathing taking-the-piss session. "You've even got a camera in his room? I bet he doesn't even know..."

Lash snarled, "Shut UP, you slimy snake!"

But Adder was on a roll, and no one was going to stop him. "I bet you zoom in on his face while he's asleep. You probably kiss the screen goodnight..." He grinned maliciously, and his voice suddenly became high pitched. "'Good night, my darling!' Heh heh heh..."

Lash snapped, partly because she had done that once. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed, launching herself off the chair at Adder. However, Adder was an incredibly fast person, and quickly ducked out of the way, allowing Lash to fall straight to the ground. Using this time, Adder leapt into Lash's seat, and put his feet up, to watch the spectacle. He decided to add his own voiceover, while Lash was recovering.

"Heh heh heh..." His voice became high-pitched and whiny, just like his Lash voice, probably symbolising Sonja. "'Oh, you big man-hunk! You know how I want to take you now!'" His voice suddenly became deep and gruff, probably symbolising Hawke. "'I know you do, but I'm afraid not.' 'Oh, but why? Do you not find my body incredibly attractive?' 'Well, I do, obviously! Look at my raging muscles shudder with desire! But unfortunately, I'm an anally repressed bastard who can't show his emotions, for fears that the truth about me will come out.' 'I understand, I have a friend who's gay...' 'Say no more! We mu-'" He froze, staring at the image on the screen. "Oh...oh my..." His face had the look of the terminally stunned.

Lash had finally recovered from her face-to-floor meeting, and was ready for Round 2. Standing up, she brushed herself down. "Right, Adder!" she said, turning round, "It's time fo-what the..."

What had gotten their attention was the sudden position change. From standing up, talking about something, they moved to a sofa that was opposite a TV that Hawke had. Lash had been quite surprised when she saw it. Hawke didn't strike himself as the kind of person who watched TV. But he did. However, not to her surprise, he mostly watched the Discovery Channel. They had sat down. And now, as they were seeing, Sonja had put her head in his lap, and Hawke was stroking, stroking her hair. He was doing it rather woodenly, and seemed to be cringing slightly. That shocked Lash even more. Hawke rarely showed emotion, and even when he did, it was usually of arrogance, as though nothing could shock him. To see him cringe, to look slightly embarrassed, made him look...human.

Lash moved closer to the screen. They were still talking, Hawke's rather large hands moving through Sonja's silky brown hair rather uncomfortably. Adder grinned. "Oh...Oho!" he exclaimed gleefully. "Hawke's gone and gotten himself a girl! Aww...ickle Hawkie's all grown up!"

Lash seethed, and Adder decided to really piss her off. His voice returned to the high pitched Sonja-voice. "'Um, Hawke? Why have you made me put your head so near your groinal area? I don't think Daddy would be pleased...' 'Don't worry, Sonja. I'm just doing this because I have a psychotic stalker who's watching this right now and I want to really annoy her. You know Lash?' 'Her? But she's so evil and skanky. And she smells bad. And her afro looks ridiculous!'"

Lash stormed out, Adder's laughter ringing in her ears. She would have her revenge...oh yes.

Adder wiped a tear from his eye, and, still laughing, took out his mobile phone. Searching through the phone book, he quickly phoned the number. His feet tapped off the floor anxiously. Finally someone answered, "Hello?"

"Flak! Come to the Security Room at once! You'll have to see this..."

And so it had spread. Flak wasn't exactly the subtlest of people, and Lash hated it when he lumbered up to her, and said, "Yo, Lash! How long you had the hots for Hawke, huh?" Unfortunately, his voice carried rather nicely, and soon everyone knew. No one knew if Hawke knew, although there were rumours that Adder had slunk off to tell him as soon as he saw that Hawke was back in his office. If he had, then Lash would probably have to flee the country. She wouldn't be able to look Hawke in the face again.

She returned to her room that night, sobbing uncontrollably. Flinging herself onto the bed, and hiding her head under the pillow, she cursed everyone. She cursed Flak for being so loud and inadvertently letting everybody know. She cursed Adder for being such a bastard, and teasing her all the time. She cursed Sonja for...well, stealing her man. Although he wasn't her man. That could possibly be the reason why she cursed Hawke most of all. And possibly that was why, the next morning, she strode down to the laboratories with revenge on Hawke the only thing on her mind.

And that brings us to just now. Lash grinned, as she poured a few drops of her latest wonder-chemical into Hawke's coffee. She had looked through her books trying to find a formula to something that would stop Hawke and Sonja's relationship cold. When she found it, she'd laughed, and started working. It had been surprisingly easy to make, and when it was done, she felt slightly empty. It had seemed almost too easy. But maybe that was a good thing. She wanted to use this as soon as possible.

She balanced the cup on a saucer, and began to take it up to Hawke. She hoped he would enjoy it. It'd be his last.

Tee hee hee!