Pieces of the Puzzle

by SalemAnderson

Roxanne is a smart woman and a practical one too, so when she suddenly realizes that her Bernard is really Megamind in disguise, she decides to give him a chance to explain himself. How does that change the rest of their story? Long one-shot.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Megamind other than my DVD, my soundtrack and my obsession! Nods to Dreamworks for this excellent addition to my collection.

Summary: Roxanne is a smart woman and a practical one too, so when she suddenly realizes that her Bernard is really Megamind in disguise, she decides to give him a chance to explain himself. How does that change the rest of their story? Long one-shot.

Follows the movie up until Roxanne is in her apartment before the date with Bernard. Then, it's AU. Roxanne POV.

Pieces of the Puzzle

As Roxanne Ritchi examined the cards that hung from the numerous strings tacked to the ceiling of her living room, she couldn't believe the revelation she'd just had. She'd been thinking about her date with Bernard and that she needed to leave in half an hour so she wouldn't be late. She saw Bernard's face in her mind and then suddenly, everything flashed before her eyes, coming together in a neat little package, which pointed to one person. Megamind. It all made sense now.

She saw the eyes more than anything. His eyes. They were so unique, so beautiful in their own right; it was a contradiction to the way he behaved as a villain, but strangely not as Bernard. He'd been a perfect gentleman. Then there was the naïveté she'd found adorable about him. He'd never ridden a bicycle before, seemed awkward when it came to social interactions. And then there were the more subtle clues, like his occasional mispronunciations, just like Megamind. And last but certainly not least, he never changed clothes. Why had it taken her so long to see it?

She realized in that moment that it was because she had fallen for him, and she didn't want to see anything but the man she wanted. But who was he really? The man she'd gotten to know was certainly not the same villain who'd kidnapped her almost weekly for years, or was he? Sure, there were glimmers of a charming guy in her repeat captor before the end of Metro Man but not so often as to allow her to get used to that side of him, if that's what it really was, the way she had for the last several weeks.

But, why the disguise? Why go to all the trouble of deceiving her? What did he want? Could he possibly love her? She had to wonder if the disguise the only way she would have ever given him a chance to get to know him as a person, and not just the personality everyone saw. She felt sad at that, knowing now what was under the surface of the performer, or what she thought had to be the real him. Her brain screamed at her heart that no matter what his reasons were, why he'd deceived her, his deception was still a lie. It pled that he had just been playing with her that whole time, that he was just hatching another plan, that somehow perversely involved manipulating and most likely embarrassing her in some horrible way. Her brain declared that he was not to be trusted. And, what kind of relationship is there if there's no trust?

She stared at the cards a moment longer and then decided she would go on the date anyway, to confront him if anything. Perhaps he would confess and make it easier for her to ask him why in the hell he had done this to her. Her heart was in such turmoil. If he was just messing with her, then she was going to give him a major piece of her mind. If he did have actual feelings for her, well, then she would have to cross that bridge when she came to it, because at that point, she couldn't really say what her feelings were, but she was not going to let herself be played, no matter what he was planning.

She gathered her key and purse, tossing her cell phone inside before heading out, locking the door behind her. She never noticed the orange and red spandex-clad hero standing on her balcony. Tighten grimaced angrily at the closed doors, having just watched his love leave her apartment without taking any notice at all of his awesomeness. He flew off in a huff.

Roxanne approached the restaurant, her hair and makeup perfect, and saw him sitting at a table, looking around nervously. She was a few minutes late but this was not the date she thought she was going on. She slowly entered the restaurant bypassed the hostess and walked up to the table where he sat, "Hi Bernard."

He stood for a moment until she was seated, then sat back down, "Good evening, Roxanne. You look lovely tonight."

"Thank you," she said with a practiced calm. She studied him for a moment before inspiration struck and she picked up her glass of champagne. "A toast." He picked his glass up as well. "My life had been nothing but crazy before you came into it. To you," she intentionally did not say his name, "for being the most normal thing in my crazy upside down world."

He gave a small smile and said, "To being normal." He clinked his glass on hers and they both took a sip of their champagne. She still eyed him warily, not sure if it was a good idea that she had come since she knew of the deception. Still, she hadn't been able to keep herself away, having justified coming under the pretense of getting answers. She hoped that would happen, but…

"Roxanne?" his voice penetrated her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Say I wasn't so normal. Say I was bald and had the complexion of a popular primary color," she had to stop herself from laughing by biting her tongue. He continued, looking her in the eyes, "Would you still enjoy my company?"

Well that was only slightly less than obvious. Still, the way he'd asked made it impossible for her to be anything but honest with him. If not for the lie about who he really was, the answer was a resounding, "Of course." Then she heard her father's words come out of her mouth, "You don't judge a book by its cover, or a person from the outside."

"Well, that's a relief to hear."

Suddenly, she wanted him to squirm a little. He had started to confess but this was not the place for that, although she knew now that she was going to get the truth out of him tonight one way or the other. She couldn't resist taking a jab at him, though, knowing exactly who she was sitting across from, "You judge them based on their actions." Her eyes held his for a moment.

He looked stricken and said, "Well, that's kind of petty, don't you think?" This time she did not suppress her laughter. After a moment of simultaneous laughter, the waiter approached and they ordered their meals. Dinner passed relatively smoothly, as he was an excellent conversationalist, and she almost forgot she was mad at him. He paid for dinner and left a generous tip, which she noticed with some amazement. They walked out of the restaurant and were surprised to find that the weather had held out. The clouds were certainly still there, but the rain was being merciful for once. "Would you like to go anywhere else this evening?"

"Do you want to come back to my place?" She was being patient, and he seemed like he was leading up to a confession, so she decided to give him the chance to come clean on his own, in the privacy of her apartment.

"Yes! Uh, I'd like that. Would uh, would you prefer me to walk with you, or can I give us a ride there? My car is right around the corner."

She smiled at him and said, "Well, I don't know how long this rain is going to hold out, so we better take your car."

"Okay, follow me."

She did as instructed, not knowing what to expect from him, but curious nonetheless. As she rounded the corner of the building into the alley, she saw a black car with shiny silver fins and spikes on it. It was so him, "Nice car."

"Thank you." He held the door open for her and she sat down in the passenger seat, letting him shut the door behind her. She buckled her seatbelt and looked around the dark interior. The dashboard looked like any other dashboard she'd seen but she could see that there were hidden compartments where she suspected the gadgets he likely had in this car were located. A few odd levers and buttons were showing here and there. The driver door opened and he got in, looking nervously at her. As soon as he closed the door and started the engine, the bottom fell out of the sky. She was glad she had accepted his offer for a ride.

The rail poured down on the city in an endless torrent, drenching everything around them. The trip to her apartment building was a fast and quiet one, her not willing to speak lest she give away the fact that she knew who he was. He never asked where she lived and she never questioned why he knew. She never mentioned the oddities she'd noticed about his car. He pulled into the parking garage and they left the car in a spot. She led him up to her apartment and let him in, showing him to the living room where they sat down on the couch together.

"Roxanne?" he began again.

"Yes?" she answered as she had before.

"I have something I need to tell you. But, I need you to listen and let me explain before…" his voice trailed off. He looked miserable, poor soul, and she found herself concerned about him. "I don't really know how to say this, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning. Do you remember when we met at the museum that night, before it blew up?"

"Yes," she said expectantly. Her eyes were glued on his as she knew his confession was coming on. She wasn't certain what exactly made her want to hear him admit that he'd lied to her, but she was fairly certain it had to do with whatever reasons he might have for doing such a thing. She would listen, and reserve the right to pass judgment and sentence after being fully informed of the premises.

"Well, I uh, was there that night, and you were there, but I didn't know you were there until after it was too late. I heard you call out, and then I panicked and ran for it. I came across a convenient disguise and…" He sighed, "I'm not who you think I am, Roxanne. But, I swear that I never meant to hurt you or lead you on. It all started as just a way to get you out of the museum, and then you found the Lair and hugged me, and then I couldn't help myself." He inhaled deeply as if preparing himself for his next statement, "Once I started to get to know you, I was completely captivated." He let out rest of the large breath he'd taken.

"What do you mean?" she acted innocent. She wasn't sure yet if she was going to tell him that she already knew. She watched as he lifted his left wrist and pinched the watch with his right hand, twisting it. A light blue static appeared over Bernard and suddenly, Megamind was standing in her living room. She just smiled at him.

"You knew."

"I figured it out earlier."

"Earlier when?" he looked genuinely confused. She just smiled wider at him, almost laughing at the fun of confounding the genius.

"Just before dinner."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why did you not tell me before now?"

"I wanted to, but I never felt like it was a good time. You seemed so happy and I didn't want to spoil it, and then I didn't want it to end because I was happy. Wait. You figured it out before dinner and still came to have a meal with me?"

"I thought you owed me dinner at least."

"I owe you much more than that it seems. Look, I know I am evil and I don't deserve anything but hatred from you. But, I just can't keep pretending to be him anymore, for your sake and my own. I'm so sorry I lied to you. I don't expect you to forgive me, and I am sure you want me to leave now, but I want you to know how grateful I am to you for letting me explain." He seemed to shrink away and wait for her reproof.

She just looked at him with no expression for a moment, which completely unnerved him, she could tell because he started fidgeting with his cape. She was still mad at him, but years worth of ignored feelings and pent up sexual frustration directed at him had joined forces with her traitorous heart and were waging war on her reasonable mind, telling her to forgive him, or at least to not reject him outright. Don't let him get away, it screamed at her. It told her to take his lie only in the perspective of what she had realized earlier on; she understood now that he believed as she did - that they would most certainly not have been able to get to know each other as they had if he had attempted to legitimately spend time with her as himself. She would have spurned him for trying, no matter how intrigued she had previously been by him, especially after the Metro Man debacle. That was still a sore spot for her with him that she wasn't quite ready to just let go, but that was not the issue at hand, so she put it aside for now.

"I am glad that you told me instead of keeping up the lie any longer, Megamind. And, I think I can eventually forgive you for the reasons you just said, but I am still angry with you for deceiving me right now. That does not mean that I want you out of my life though." His expression changed from one of resigned hopelessness to one of hopeful optimism in mere seconds; it was so fast that it was comical and she couldn't stop the grin that split her face. He was so vulnerable and her feelings were so raw concerning him that she almost leaned in and kissed him. Almost.

Instead, she sat back and he said, "Will you let me make it up to you?"

Not sure what he meant but intrigued nonetheless, she asked, "How?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but I will think about it. But I know you deserve my penance, not only for my lying to you, but also because I owe you for not simply severing our relationship when you figured me out. Please?" he begged, his voice tiny, like that of a small child asking something off-the-wall of an overly-serious parent.

She took pity on him, "Okay, but don't beg, Megamind. It doesn't suit you." His brow furrowed, but his expression did not otherwise change and she grinned at him widely.

Then he laughed at himself briefly. Being uncharacteristically honest as he was, he responded, "You of all people should know by now that I'm only strong on the surface when it comes to you. You got beneath the surface long before Ber-nahrd ever came into the picture, so I am in uncharted waters here," he stopped short as if he realized he'd said more than he should have, but she just took his gloved hand in hers and smiled at him.

"I know the feeling," she said quietly. "And I do want to find out where this can go between us. But there are so many issues to handle before we can think about that. You know, we have already dealt with a few of the larger ones tonight, but I think…"

"Yes, I need to go home anyway," he said as he understood her leading statement. Then he added as an afterthought, "Thank you for not hating me completely, Roxanne." It pulled at her heart and even her mind had to admit to feeling a little sympathy for the guy. He stood from her couch and let go of her hand. She stood up behind him and followed him to her door. She undid the locks on the door and then turned to face him just as he was about to reactivate his disguise. She put her hand over his, covering his watch and looked into his confused eyes.

"Don't worry, I don't hate you. I'll see you later, Megamind. Good night."

"Good night, Roxanne," he said as he reactivated the disguise. She opened her front door and he stepped through the portal and into the hallway. With one last look at the back of the sandy-blond head that concealed the blue alien who had somehow stolen her heart, she closed the door behind her and smiled to herself. The evening had gone off remarkably well and although she was sad that her time with Bernard had come to a definite end, she knew she hadn't lost him, not really; the man with whom she'd begun to fall in love was still there on the inside, he just had a different appearance than she originally thought. It wasn't one that she minded either, and in fact, if she was being honest, she was glad the two men she liked were the same person. It made her feelings much less complicated.

As she walked through her living room toward her bedroom, she thought she saw a flash of something red at her balcony door, but couldn't tell what it was. She shrugged it off and padded to her bedroom to read for an hour or so before turning in for the evening. Tomorrow was Saturday and she was looking forward to a day off. She fell asleep with the light on and her book open on her chest.

She awoke the next morning with the book underneath her somehow, the pages bent but thankfully not torn, and the light on her nightstand blaring in her face. The sun had yet to come up but she was startled awake due to having the uncanny feeling of being watched. She rolled over and pulled the book, thankfully undamaged, out from under her body and after smoothing the pages back down, replacing her bookmark and closing it, she set it on her nightstand. She got out of bed and stretched her tired muscles, then looked around her room and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the silhouette of a muscle-bound figure floating ominously outside of her bedroom window. She stared at it hard until it floated off.

How could Wayne be floating outside her window when he was dead? She heard a curious tapping at her balcony door and instantly set off to find out what was going on. She flipped on the light in her living room and opened the door. Standing on the small balcony she hadn't bothered to decorate was a spandex-clad muscle-bound hero-type she'd never seen before. "Who are you?" she asked suspiciously.

"I'm your new heroic guardian of pure awesome. The name's Tighten. What's your name?" he waited only a second before laughing stupidly, "Just kidding, I know everything about you." Okay, so he was creepy too. Why did he remind her of someone? What was with all the disguises lately?

"What do you want?"

"I just thought we could go for a little flight around town, you know. Get to know each other," he grabbed her bodily and hauled her off of her balcony so they were hovering several feet above the roof of her building. He took off suddenly, flying her through the chilly morning air. Her light blue silky pajamas, which consisted of a short button down shirt and a pair of shorts in the same material, did nothing to keep her warm.

"What are you doing? Put me down!" she exclaimed as she held onto his costume for dear life. This maniac was going to get her killed. He'd already probably bruised several ribs grabbing her the way he had and he was not being gentle with her at all.

He laughed, "Oh, am I moving too fast? You're probably right. I should just rescue you a few times first. Whoops!" she felt the world rush past her as she was suddenly falling. She screamed as loudly as she could before she felt pain in her ankle as her 'rescuer' grabbed her and tossed her up into his waiting arms. The arrogant smirk on his face was enough to make her want to hit him.

"Don't you ever," she instinctively pushed away from him and out of his arms, forgetting momentarily that she was hovering hundreds of feet in the air. She felt her life flash before her eyes as she felt the world rush past her again. The scream that escaped her lips was terrifying and she knew she was going to die. She was grateful that there were hardly any cars on the street since it was so early on a Saturday and hoped that no one would run her flattened corpse over before someone managed to find it. Her resignation to death was cut short as another sharp pain felt like her foot was torn clean off her leg, but she was yanked up and tossed recklessly before being caught in the arms of the most horrifying person she'd ever met. She looked forward and saw that they were approaching a large building quite rapidly. "Aaaah, building!"

The 'hero' noticed the building and at the last moment, threw her up by her legs, turning head over heels and back again. She saw the antennae extending from the top of the building pass within inches of her face as she narrowly cleared the top of the building. Then, she saw the edge of the roof loom near her head as she started her descent on the other side. The early morning sun began to glint off of the glass and she saw her terrified face in the reflection.

She saw the manicured green grass and white concrete of the courtyard beneath her approaching rapidly. Abruptly, her movement was stopped as she felt what could only be a desk chair suddenly catch her. She was mostly dismayed but still thankful that this Tighten person had caught her, sparing her again from death at the unforgiving hands of gravity.

She grabbed onto his costume again as he tossed the chair out from under her, holding on for dear life, "Put me down, right now!"

"Okay, okay," he said as he took off up into the sky, toward the tallest building in the city. She felt her heart in her throat as he stopped next to the spire and put her down on the metal roof of Metro Tower. She was never afraid of heights before, but now she could honestly say that she would never willingly take her feet off the ground again.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, right!" He narrowed her eyes in what she suspected was supposed to be a smolder, but on him it was just creepy. "Prepare to have your mind blown, little lady." He pinched the back of his face mask and pulled it off with a flourish, letting it fly away in the breeze. He stepped toward her and she instinctively backed away, momentarily forgetting that she was so far in the air. "Ta daa!" She could not believe who she was seeing standing in front of her with unthinkable powers. She was even more terrified knowing who he really was. She planted her heel and leaned toward him.

"Hal?"

"Yeah! Isn't this great? Now there's nothing keeping us apart!"

"No, it's not great, Hal. We have to find out why…"

"Aww. This is so us," he said as he stepped forward and took her hand. "We're like an old married couple."

She backed away again and pulled her hand out of his meaty one. "There is no us, Hal. There will never be an 'us.'"

"But, I have powers. I'm the good guy now."

"You are a good guy, Hal, but we need to figure out how this happened." He smiled huskily at her and approached as if to take her into his arms. She backed away again, this time to rest her back against the spire.

"Oh, so you'll give that blue freak hours of your time but you won't even look at me twice."

"What do you mean?"

"You're supposed to be with me, Roxie! I'm the hero now. I'm the good guy," he repeated himself. "The bad guy doesn't get the girl, the hero does, so you have to be with me now."

"No, Hal."

"This isn't how this is supposed to work," he said as he got very aggravated and took off with a blast that blew out the windows on the tower for fifteen floors beneath her. The sun had risen completely and she could see the entire city enshrouded in the already thinning mist of the morning. She sighed to herself as she sank to the ground and crawled to the edge to look for the ladder she knew was there from pictures. She slowly made her way down to the first broken window, five stories down from the platform at the base of the spire. The silky pajamas she was wearing barely provided enough cover to be considered decent, let alone protect her from the early morning chill at this height. She was shivering violently by the time she reached the populated areas of the tower and found the elevator to take her down to the ground floor.

She hailed a taxi back to her apartment and was lucky that the cabbie was patient enough to wait for her to go get some money to pay him since she was most decidedly not dressed like had money on her, apparently used to seeing this sort of thing on a Saturday morning. She gave the guy a generous tip and thanked him before she hugged the long ankle-length coat she'd grabbed when she went upstairs around herself and headed back inside the building. She went back up to her apartment to recover from her latest trauma, and headed straight for the comfort of a warm shower.

As she emerged from her bedroom, dressed in blue jeans, a white tank top and her pink fuzzy house shoes, still towel-drying her hair, she saw the idea cloud that she had been studying the previous night when she'd figured Megamind out. The cards swung gently in the breeze and she walked over to close the balcony doors that had been open since Hal had taken her out for his idea of a spin around town. She stepped out of the doors onto the balcony and saw no sign of the red super. Sighing to herself, she turned to walk back into her apartment, looked up and was amazed at the picture she saw there. A heroic figure, looking remarkably like the man she'd just been exposed to, with that same orange 'T' emblazoned on his chest, and above the masked face, the word "Titan."

She gasped and placed her hand over her mouth before rushing inside the apartment and closing the doors, locking them behind her. Titan or Tighten, as he'd said, was Megamind's latest plan? At that moment, she heard a loud booming sound coming from a distance away. It repeated again several more times in a steady rhythm before she realized that she was hearing footsteps and the faint sounds of rock music that could only mean one thing. A sense of dread washed over her as she realized what was about to happen. She hurriedly kicked off her house shoes and put on her white sneakers, leaving the apartment to find Megamind. She had to stop him before it was too late.

She raced down to the news van that she had driven home the evening before because Hal hadn't been there to insist he needed it for whatever reason, so he had to take her home, which she always hated. She got in the driver seat and pulled out of the parking space so quickly, she almost hit the person who happened to be walking behind her. "Sorry," she said without lowering the window or stopping. She put the car in drive and took off, heading for the only place he would go for this battle. City Hall Plaza.

She knew there would be a crowd drawn by the spectacle of whatever invention he'd come up with this time. She had to wonder how in the hell he could have gone to all the trouble of creating a new hero just to have someone to fight. And then, why Hal? Of all people, he was the worst possible choice if it was a hero he wanted to create. The former cameraman was immature, uncaring, selfish and deluded about more than just her feelings toward him. What had happened to make Hal be the one? She pulled up to the site of City Hall and parked her van behind the building across the street from the public building. She got out and ran to the spot where the crowd had gathered to watch the battle, none of them expecting to see anything more than the harmless battles they were used to happening between their hero and the blue villain. She saw the giant battle robot hanging on the steeple above the recently-painted blue dome of City Hall.

"I hear there's a new hero in town. Bring me the one they call Titan, if you dare," Megamind's voice said as the robot raised its arm and launched several fireworks into the air. He always was one for theatrics. She shook her head at the spectacle he'd created, smiling at him unwittingly, until she saw the red and orange floating version of Hal approach from above.

"Megamind, I have some bones to pick with you."

"Naturally, I am sure," the villain responded haughtily. Some rocket engines fired, located in what could only be described as the butt of the robot and he soared off into the air with the other player in the game fast on his heels. Most of the battle took place away from the location where all the people had gathered, per standard procedure of the game and how she knew that he intentionally tried to avoid hurting people with his battles.

Before long, she saw the robot fly up into the air rapidly out of control before it began to fall quicker than it should have. She saw it crash into a building and couldn't help but feel worried for the blue alien who was surely inside the robot that had just crashed into a building with a crazed maniac pushing him through the concrete and rebar. She began to run before she knew what she was doing, heading for her van. Once inside, she put it in drive and headed to the area where she had seen him go down. The streets were not crowded as most people that had not gone to the city's center to watch the battle had chosen to stay inside. As she approached the area, she saw a huge plume of smoke erupt between the buildings. She stopped her van in an alley and got out, creeping to the corner of the building to watch as the villain ran away from a giant copper ball as the stronger combatant picked it up and threw it at him.

"You can run, Megamind, but you can't hide!" The crowd that had gathered in the vicinity included the mayor and she found herself inching toward the subway exit where the blue alien had jumped down to escape being crushed to death by the copper sphere. The mayor appeared from the crowd and approached Tighten.

"Thank you! Thank you! What's your name new hero?"

"Tighten," Hal said menacingly.

The short fat man who was little more than a figurehead for the city bureaucrats to do what they wished celebrated for his people. "We are freed! Tighten has freed us!"

The super approached the mayor, hovering over him in a show of power, and sneered, "Oh, I wouldn't say freed. More like 'under new management.'" He glared evilly and flicked the mayor between the eyes sending the short man flying backward, his nose bleeding and a bruise already forming. The man scrambled to his feet and took off running after the citizens who had all started running the moment the mayor had been attacked. Hal floated there for a minute, surveying the damage he'd caused with seeming pride and then he took off with a sonic boom.

Roxanne waited a few minutes before emerging from her hiding spot in the alley and approached the entrance to the subway. As expected, the stairwell was unoccupied and she was able to pick her way through the rubble of metal structure that had served as a roof for the entrance and down the stairs, hoping all the while that she would see some sign of Megamind. As she stepped to the ground in the subway tunnel, she saw a train stopped in the terminal but no one was around. She furrowed her brow as she heard muffled cursing coming from the direction of the train. She cautiously approached the half-way open doors and boarded the train. The cursing was slightly louder and she was able to determine that it was coming from the conductor's car in the front of the train.

She made her way toward the sound easily as there was no damage to the train at all. She smiled to herself when she saw a large blue head bobbing occasionally into view in the window on the door of the driver's area. A loud bang followed by another not-so-muffled curse startled her into moving again and she was standing in front of the door before she knew it. Her hand found the latch and she opened the door and stood there silently for a moment before his frantic motions halted as he realized someone else was there. He turned slowly.

"Roxanne!" His costume was in tatters, no cape remained and the spikes that had decorated the shoulder pads were mostly broken. The wide collar that surrounded his head was mostly infrastructure with shreds of cloth attached. He looked terrible.

"That's me. What are you doing?"

"I was trying to come see you," he gestured to the exposed control box for the train car. "I need your help!"

"Obviously. Wait. Why do you need my help? What can I do?" She crossed her arms in a gesture of disbelief.

"You knew Metro Man best."

"What does he have to do with anything? How did you create Hal, Megamind?"

"Wow, and you figured that out too," he said with reverence. "You are the smartest person I know."

"Megamind," she said sternly to hide the blush she knew had crept up her cheek. She knew a compliment like that coming from someone with obvious super-intelligence was not something to be taken lightly, but still. Now was not the time, "Thank you, but you didn't answer my question."

"Titan was created using Metro Man's DNA, so theoretically, he should have the same weakness. But he obviously doesn't because the copper didn't work."

"Copper? You're not making any sense!"

He sighed, "Look, if we don't find his weakness, he's going to destroy the whole city."

"But, I still don't see how I can help with this?"

"Like I said, you knew Metro Man best. Did he have a hideout or solitary fortress of some kind? Anything that could give us clues."

She studied him for a moment, wondering what he could possibly need from the lost hero now. Deciding that he was probably the only one in a position to do anything about the new supervillain in town, she looked him in the eyes and said, "Well, there is one place I know. Come on, I have my van nearby." She put her hand on his arm and pulled him away from the controls he had almost disassembled. He stared dumbfounded at her and then followed.

Once inside the van, she buckled her seatbelt and waited for her passenger to situate himself before she put it in drive and took off. She drove towards the outskirts of the city where she knew the former hero's hiding spot to be located. She snuck a sideways glance at her passenger and found him still staring at her wide-eyed. "What?"

"Why did you come find me?"

"Tighten paid me a visit this morning."

"He didn't."

"He did, just before sunrise."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" he asked abruptly, sounding almost furious.

She gifted him a funny look, wondering just when he had become so suddenly protective of her. "Nothing I can't handle, why?" She steered the van off the highway and merged onto the County Road that would take her to the dirt lane she needed.

"So, he did hurt you. He can't possibly really care for you if he could just hurt you like that."

"No, he doesn't understand what it means to really care about anyone other than himself. I don't understand why you chose him of all people to be the new hero."

"I didn't choose him. Fate did. And, you caused it to happen when you broke in to my Lair."

She gasped as realization hit her like a ton of bricks. "That weird gun. Oh no." Her eyes were wide until she thought of something, "But, if you gave him those powers, then can't you take them away? Couldn't you have then?"

"I can, but I have to get him at the infusion point. And my Defuser gun is back at the Lair."

As she drove and thought, suddenly, all of the pieces of the puzzle clicked neatly into place. This entire thing with Hal was, if not entirely, at least partially HER fault. How the hell did that happen? She remembered telling Bernard that heroes could be made, and then Megamind had literally made a hero; not really her fault but if she was assigning blame on herself, why not? She remembered accidentally pulling the trigger on the large glowing gun and the panic in the blue man's voice as he attempted to trace the projectile, which eventually hit Hal, in the nose. "Oh my God. His nose," she realized. "That was the bee?" She turned the van down the dirt lane that would take them to Wayne's hideout, lost in her own thoughts for a moment before she asked suddenly, "Why didn't you just take the powers back then, when you knew it was a mistake?"

"I didn't know it was a mistake."

"You could have asked me! I would have told you a thousand reasons why that idiot shouldn't be granted a free bus pass let alone super powers."

"I couldn't ask you that! And there was no reason to suspect that Hal wasn't as capable of being a hero as any other guy out there. Sure, he took a lot of training to make a passable hero, but he got the important stuff down."

"You trained him?"

"Yes, and boy did he need it. He was so raw when he first discovered he had powers. Minion and I taught him to be a hero, the right way, like Metro Man. And then you," he sighed, obviously hesitant to say what he was going to, "rejected him this morning. That actually explains a lot more than I knew at the time. Why he was so angry at me for 'stealing his girlfriend.' I had no idea what he was talking about, but then he said your name."

"Ugh! That creep never could take a hint!" She stomped on the brakes in her frustration at Hal as they arrived at their destination.

Megamind flew forward and smashed face first into the windshield, then fell into the foot well of the passenger side of the van. "Oww! My giant blue head!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you weren't wearing a seatbelt. Are you okay?"

"I'll live," he said as he opened the door and crawled out of the van. "So this is where he hid it. After all these years, my old shool house."

"Wait. What?"

"Oh yes, that is a little known fact the Scotts would prefer to keep under wraps due to the investigation."

"What are you talking about? The Scotts were under investigation?" Why did she know nothing about this? What kind of reporter was she that she didn't know something so sordid about one of her friends? The two walked into the building and Megamind began to look around as they conversed. Roxanne simply stood and watched him as he revisited a place of his youth.

He chuckled at her, "That little shool was closed because they had an unlicensed teacher who took money directly from the Scotts to maintain the status quo about the treatment the rich couple's super-powered boy received. Before that, however and for a very brief time, I went to school with Wayne Scott. It was, shall we say, a less than positive experience for me, and eventually led to my decision to become a supervillain."

Roxanne couldn't believe her ears. "How have I never heard anything about this?"

"Are you so surprised that the Scotts would cover it all up? They made it disappear like nothing ever happened, aside from one newspaper article about me 'blowing up' the shool." At her look of terror, he continued, "People never knew that it was only a paint bomb because that fact was not disclosed at the request of the Scotts themselves. All I did was turn all of those mindless drones and their fearless leader blue. Just like me."

She chuckled. It definitely sounded like something he would do. "Their fearless leader?" she suddenly asked.

"Wayne, who else?"

"Oh," Roxanne said, suddenly finished with the conversation they'd been having. She walked to the supply cabinet and opened it. Inside was a collection of dried pots of paint, old brushes and other art supplies that looked like they had seen better days. She found the jar of gold paint and tipped it forward the way she'd seen the hero do when she'd followed him here the only time she'd ever been here before. Megamind watched her in silence as the trap door slid open revealing a ladder down to a dark area beneath. Roxanne immediately began to climb down and Megamind followed suit shortly thereafter.

She waited at the base of the ladder, on the concrete landing atop a long staircase that led to the secret apartment Wayne had. She wasn't entirely sure why this was so important to Megamind, but she'd agreed to help him, and she was nothing if not true to her word. They walked along the plain polished concrete hallway and she noticed there were fewer lights on than the other time she'd been there. As they approached the heavy metal door at the end of the hall, she paused. "Well, this is the place. He lived here, before…" she trailed off, not wanting to create tension between them, although she knew that's exactly what she'd just done. Feeling that it was better to just get it over with, she began to approach the door, but stopped short when he beat her to it, pushing the door inward with seeming ease. She knew from experience that she had to use both hands and push with her whole body to move the door. So, Megamind was considerably stronger than he looked, she noted with pleasure before she snapped herself out of it.

Megamind rushed into the room as soon as the door was clear and was immediately enamored with the ostentatious fur-collared silk cape that hung on a bust against the left wall. "Oh. I remember when he wore that," he said.

"Shouldn't we try to stay focused here?" she asked sarcastically as she began an examination of the room.

"Yes. Right. Focused," he replied distractedly. This was just too weird. She shook herself out of her distraction and noticed something out of place on the low coffee table that was placed perfectly in front of the couch. There was a glass of water with ice cubes floating in it and condensation on the side. How could that be possible if no one had been here since Wayne died?

"Hey! Come look at this!"

He stumbled into her view and she was shocked to see that he had removed his own tattered cape remains and had donned the white fur cape he'd been admiring moments earlier. "Uh." She made herself focus. "Look, this at this glass. It has ice cubes in it." She bent down next to it.

He followed, "Yes, that's what happens when water gets cold." No, really? He was so dense sometimes!

"No, what I mean is: don't you think it's a little odd that the ice hasn't melted after all this time?"

"One of life's great mysteries." She was about to smack him for not understanding when she heard a creek in the floorboards that wasn't from her or Megamind moving. They both turned toward each other and then toward the noise.

The scruffy looking man in a bathrobe with unkempt hair and several weeks worth of growth on his chin flashed his trademark smile at the pair of them and said, "Hey."

"Aaaaaaaah," they both screamed in unison.

Wayne shrunk back away from them meekly. "Now calm down, please." How was it possible that Wayne Scott was standing there in front of her, very much alive? It occurred to her momentarily that she could cross that one major thing off her list of reasons to be angry with the man standing next to her. She actually felt relieved about that one part of the situation.

"You're alive?" they both said, together again.

"I'm alive," the former hero replied half-heartedly.

"But, but we saw your skeleton. You were dead!" Roxanne squealed at him.

"Are you a ghost?" Megamind seemed more distracted by the fact that the hero was actually alive than the fact that he'd been in hiding for the last several weeks.

"There had better be an amazing explanation for this," she said as she approached him with her accusatory finger poking out at him.

The blue man approached the taller man and stretched out his hand to use his fingers to manipulate the Wayne's face, "Speak, apparition."

The former hero sighed and gently removed his former nemesis' hand from his face before looking each of them in the eye for a long moment. "Okay, okay, okay. You both deserve the truth." He paused for a split second to make eye contact with both of them, "It all started that day at the observatory. Roxanne was kidnapped, I was gonna stop you. My head wasn't in the game that day." He shrugged, "We were kinda goin' through the motions." He gestured with his hands.

She noticed that he became more animated as he told the next part of his story. "So," he paused again to make sure he had his audience's attention, "using my super speed, I decided to go clear my head. Then I realized," he paused simply for dramatic effect this time, "we had done this same silly charade our entire lives! I tried to get my mind off how I was feeling, but I just felt stuck." The big man sighed and she saw Megamind tense next to her. The ex-hero continued, "And I started to realize that despite all my powers, each and every citizen of Metro had something I didn't: a choice. Ever since I can remember, I've always had to be what this city wanted me to be. But, what about what I wanted to do?" She saw the blue alien almost visibly darken as the stronger alien kept going with his explanation. She made a mental note to ask him about it someday.

"Then it suddenly hit me: I DO have a choice! I can be whatever I wanna be! No one said that this hero thing had to be a lifetime gig! But you can't just quit either. That's when I got the brilliant idea," another dramatic pause to add intrigue to his tale, "to fake my death!"

She gasped and put her hand over her mouth, noticing a similar posture in her companion. The hero then looked directly at Megamind, "Once your death ray hit, I've never felt so alive. So I borrowed a prop from a nearby nursing school and Metro Man was finally dead!" Pausing to let his statement sink in for a second, he finally decided to elaborate further, "And Music Man was born!"

"Music Man?" Roxanne was genuinely confused. The man she thought she'd known pretty well had just decided to quit being a hero, but not only that, he'd done it in a way so as to have his fake murder pinned on Megamind. That made her mad.

"That way I can keep my logo!" he explained further, and further elicited her rage. He was such a pompous dirt bag!

"Because of WHAAT?" Megamind asked at the same time that she asked, "Come again?"

"I was finally free to get in touch with my true power," she looked wide-eyed at Wayne astonished to see him pulling out a guitar. "Weaving lyrical magic!" He began to strum the guitar and sing, "I have eyes, that can see, right through LEEAAAAAD…"

She looked at Megamind and he looked back at her, both still covering their mouths in amazement at what they were seeing. Suddenly, she couldn't take anymore and stood up from the couch, "You're horrible!"

Megamind stood up next to her, "Granted you have talent," she looked at the blue alien disbelievingly, "but there's a madman out there destroying our…YOUR city."

She'd had enough and reached for the first thing she could find, grunting in anger as she threw the award statuette at him, "How could you do this?" She hurled another award at him, "The people of the city relied on you," she threw a speaker at him, "and you deserted them." She slammed a guitar over his head, shattering it into pieces. That was the only time he flinched. "You left us in the hands of him," she gestured to Megamind and then re-thought her statement. She looked at him and said quickly, "No offense."

"No, I'm with you," the fur-decked blue alien said to her, and then he turned back to the former hero with a sigh of resignation. "Look, we need your help."

"I'm sorry. I'm…I'm done," Wayne said to Megamind. "You know, little buddy, wherever there is evil, good will rise up against. It's taken me a long time to find my calling." The taller man straightened the collar on the borrowed cape that still hung on the blue alien's smaller shoulders. "Maybe it's time that you found yours." After that, Wayne almost impolitely pushed the two of them out the door. After they heard the lock slide into place behind them, they slowly walked back out of the building, neither of them breaking the silence that had settled over them.

"Hey. Who needs him? You said the Defuser gun is back at the Evil Lair, right, so let's just go get that and we can take Tighten out ourselves!"

He sighed and reached up to remove the borrowed cape from his own shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. "We can't."

"So, you're just giving up?"

"Roxanne, you don't get it. I'm the bad buy. I'm not supposed to win. I don't save the day, I don't fly off into the sunset, and I don't get the girl," he looked into her eyes directly as he said the last part. She felt an intense pang in her chest but didn't say anything. "I'm going home."

"Can I at least give you a ride?" Maybe she could talk him out of giving up in the van on the way back to the Evil Lair.

"No," he said as he walked away from her. She wanted to go after him, but something stopped her. So, both of the men in her life had just given up and quit their silly game. The problem was that a new player had joined and he didn't want to stop playing, but his rules were not safe for anyone. Well, if no one else was going to do something about it, then she was going to have to do it herself. She briefly wondered where Minion was in all of this mess his friend had gotten himself into. The fish usually helped save the villain from the worst of his foolishness.

She bent down and gathered the discarded cape before heading back to her van. She looked around briefly for Megamind and saw him boarding a bus nearby although there were no stops in this area. She started the engine and drive toward the Lair. She had to get that weird gun, he'd said it was the only way to stop the red-haired menace for good. She drove back into the city, noticing with dismay that most people were slowly driving or walking on the other side of the road, trying desperately to get away from the city but slowed due to the sheer volume of people trying to do the same. She pushed the gas pedal down further and picked up several miles per hour in speed, unafraid of being stopped by police for speeding given the circumstances. She headed straight for the Lair, remembering where it was from when she found it all those weeks ago.

Not hesitating at all, she drove straight at the wall she knew was a hologram and stopped the van several feet inside the entrance. She was slightly surprised to find Megamind was not there, but decided there was not time to wait for him. She remembered him saying that the gun was here, but he hadn't said where. A cloud of Brainbots hung nearby but seemed unsure if they should interrupt her. Any other time she'd been here, they'd been intimidating toward her, but now they seemed unsure of what to do in her presence.

She went to the large red curtain where she'd been when she found the gun before, but didn't see the large spiked canister anywhere. She looked around some of the other workspaces he had devoted to metalwork, chemistry, electronics, what looked like a medical station and a kitchen. The gun was not in any of those locations. Frustrated, she started to walk back to her van so she could sit and think.

On a whim, she looked in the window of the spiked Hudson he had parked in the garage. She saw it in the back seat of the car. Exhaling in relief, she opened the car door and retrieved the gun. She briefly thought about just taking his car, but it looked like it took special training to drive, so she decided against it. She took the gun back to her van and started the engine, looking around the Lair one more time, giving the Brainbots a onceover and wondering again where exactly Minion was.

As she drove back out of the disguised entrance, she decided to head toward the center of town, the old fountain. Once she arrived, she parked her van on the side of the street and pulled the gun into her lap. She examined it, looking for an on switch since it didn't look like it had any power running through it. She flipped the switch and saw an indicator panel flash the words, "Warming up." She rolled her eyes and got out of the van, leaving the gun on the seat. She looked up into the sky and almost immediately saw him floating high above. He was carelessly using his laser vision to carve paths of destruction through the city, damaging more property in one day than Megamind had in his entire career.

She left the driver door open so she could easily get to the weapon when he was close enough. There would be no way for her to hide it on her person long enough to attack. She stepped away from the van and looked into the sky. "HAL!" she yelled as loud as she could. Surely he could hear her, he had super hearing after all. "HAL!" she called again.

With a sound like a bomb falling from above, he arrived, landing so hard that he cracked the pavement. "Oh, so now you've seen how awesome I am, now you want me. Well, too late. I'm not taking sloppy seconds from that blue freak! Why are you here, Roxie?"

"I came here to stop you, Hal."

"Oh, that's rich! What are you gonna do, report me to death?"

"I was going to try reasoning with you."

"No, no reasoning. You dumped me for that blue freak. You have to pay," he said with malice in his voice as he approached her. She backed up toward the van and the still open driver door, knowing she just had to get him a little closer. She was almost there when she felt a rough hand close around her arm. She looked back to Hal with fear evident on her face. "It didn't have to be this way." He took off from the ground, his hand still closed around her wrist, and yanked her off her feet violently. She watched the van fall away from her with her only hope of survival, as she rose into the air. Involuntarily, she reached up and wrapped her free hand around his wrist to hold on for dear life.

The flight was not a long one, thankfully, and she found herself suddenly at the top of Metro Tower rubbing her wrist. She was pretty sure it was broken or at least severely bruised from the mistreatment Hal had inflicted upon it. "Hal, please don't do this. You're still a good person under all that anger. Please," she pled with him.

He sneered at her, "It's Tighten, for the last time." He landed on the small tower and stalked toward her, something concealed behind his back making her feel more afraid than she had ever felt before. He reached his free hand forward and placed it square in the middle of her chest, pressing her back against the radio antenna, then he brought his other hand out from behind his back and grinned evilly at her. He shoved the hard metal pole of the pilfered street sign into her stomach and bent the ends around the antenna so it pushed her against the metal as hard as he could, pinching her in places. She was sure to have bruises across her back and arms, not to mention her stomach and her injured wrist.

The menace stood in front of her after he had finished binding her to the tower. He reached forward and roughly grabbed her face in his hands, leaning forward and bringing his face to hers so quickly she barely had time to prepare herself before his lips smashed themselves against hers awkwardly, his grabby hands wandering down to her breasts and fumbling clumsily with them, squeezing much too hard to be pleasurable to anyone but him. She froze and pressed her lips together tightly, determined to resist him in any way she could. He realized a moment later that she was not responding to his kiss and pulled back from her with a look of disgust on her face. "I could give you everything!"

"I don't want everything, Hal; I'm not really sure I know what I want, but I do know that you will never be more than a friend to me. I'm sorry I didn't have the courage to tell you outright sooner."

"But, I'm a god, Roxie! What could you possibly not want about this?" he said pompously.

She didn't answer, which seemed to enrage him further. She looked distractedly into the distance, in the direction of the Lair. She could see the fake observatory and the only thought that came to her was to be sad that she would never have a chance to see what could have happened between her and the man beneath the villain she'd fallen for.

Hal's voice interrupted her, seeming to know what she was thinking, which was freaky in and of itself. "I could destroy Megamind once and for all, for you, you know. He'd never hurt you ever again." Or perhaps he had just noticed she was looking in the direction of the Lair.

"He's never hurt me, Hal." She refused to call him by his adopted name, no matter how angry it made him.

"Okay, so what does blue boy have that I don't? Why will you be with that freak and not me?"

"He's not a freak. He's a decent human be-"

"That thing is not human!"

Oh, that was it. She'd had enough of the insults. "He's more human than you are, Hal," she spat angrily before her brain could stop her mouth. When the angry redhead reacted to her words, he let loose a shower of laser vision, trailing through the upper floors of the First Bank building several hundred feet beneath them. The stone and glass cloud showered down and she regretted having decided to take this situation into her own hands. He stopped his tirade just shy of hitting her with his weapons.

"Hal, please don't do this." She pled into the air, but quickly realized she was alone. The cool air coming in off the lake made her shiver despite it being the middle of the summer. Her altitude did not help with the temperature either. Several minutes of fruitless shivering later, she saw SuperHal fly into her field of vision carrying what looked like a video camera. She looked at him uncertainly as he turned the camera on and then pointed the lens at himself.

"Megamind! We have some unfinished business. I'll be waiting at Metro Tower. Oh, and just so you don't get cold feet," he pointed the camera at her. She looked down, ashamed at having become the damsel in distress for real this time. "Go ahead, Roxanne. Call for your lover boy to come rescue you." Her heart hammered against her chest as she felt afraid. He was the only one who could save her now.

She looked into the camera and said with the most heartfelt voice she could muster, "Megamind. I don't know if you're listening, but if you are…then you can't give up. You never give up; it's one of the things I like the most about you. So, please don't give up now! The city needs you. I need you." She mouthed the words, "I love you," as she dropped her head again. Tears prickled her eyes and she saw one fall off the end of her nose. She regretted that she would not be able to tell him that in person.

Hal spoke up again, "You have one hour. Don't keep me waiting." She saw the camera fall away from them and then the menace disappeared, leaving her cold and alone on top of the tallest building in Metro City.

Her thoughts drifted back to Megamind as she knew they inevitably would. He was all she could think about since her discovery the previous night. She allowed herself to drift to a more comfortable place, ignoring the cramps in her muscles from the shivering and the pain in her arms, back and stomach, and imagined a warm day in the park, lying on a picnic blanket next to a large blue head and skinny blue body that belonged to only one unique person. She imagined snuggling against him in the sun and wrapping her arms around him securely. She felt his arms wrapping around her and his smooth blue lips meeting hers in a tender kiss like she'd dreamed of for more years than she was willing to admit.

Lost in her fantasy as she was, she didn't notice Hal's reappearance at first until she heard him snarling at his public again, no doubt having obtained another camera from somewhere, "Hey, Metro losers. They say this tower is supposed to represent our city's strength, but to me, it just serves as a reminder of the place where this woman," she looked up at him as he spoke about her, "ferociously ripped out my heart. And I hate reminders." Hal tossed the camera over his shoulder again and flew down out of her sight. She gasped as she felt a rumble beneath her feet that could not be a good thing. Time was up. She breathed again as the rumbling stopped almost as quickly as it had begun, but her relief was short lived as she felt the tower lurch forward suddenly.

"Hal!" the name ripped out of her throat in a feral scream. "Hal!" He appeared from below and landed hard in front of her on top of the tower. She locked eyes with him and begged, "I know there's still good in you, Hal. Please don't do this."

He snorted, "You're so naïve, Roxy. You see the good in everyone, even when it's not there. You need to wake up and face reality. There's no Tooth Fairy, there's no Easter Bunny, and there is no Queen of England. And Megamind is not going to come rescue you. Too bad it's too late for us, Roxie," he said and kissed her roughly again. She pulled her face away from him and spat. He raised a hand in a manner that indicated he wanted to hit her across the face. She braced herself for impact until she heard something completely unexpected. The first guitar chords of "Welcome to the Jungle" rang out loudly. She opened her eyes and saw Hal floating away from her looking at the blimp that was hovering in view and belching clouds, lightning and a laser show all at the same time. She smiled widely as she recognized the 'M' logo on the grey thing. He had come for her.

She felt a strain in the structure of the tower behind her that was worrisome, but it was holding steady for the moment, so she directed her attention to the display above her. "You dare challenge Megamind?" the shadow in the cloud said in his voice.

"There's only enough room in this town for one supervillain," Hal yelled angrily.

"Oh you're a villain all right," a giant copy of Megamind's head, made out of what had to be thousands of Brainbots, emerged from the clouds, talking to Hal. "Just not a super one!"

"Yeah, what's the difference?" he replied stupidly.

The mouth on the giant head of Brainbots suddenly opened and a red tongue extended toward them. Atop the tip of the tongue, there he was, his arms extended and a cocky smile on his face. She'd never been so happy to see him in her life. He waited for a pause in the music before he responded, "Presentation!" It all happened at once, Hal screamed in rage and flew at Megamind, Megamind dropped through the tongue of Brainbots and disappeared out of her view, and the giant head closed around Hal and began what looked like chewing. And then of course, she panicked as she felt whatever had been holding the tower suddenly give way.

She let out a terrified scream as the concrete and metal structure to which she was tied plummeted toward the ground at an alarming rate. The street sign pressed her tightly into the antenna as she strained against it, attempting to somehow free herself. Suddenly the speed at which she was falling slowed, if only a little, and she looked up to see her hero racing toward her on some kind of flying motorcycle. Part of her mind catalogued the bike as one of the more impressive inventions of his, but the rest was entirely focused on the dire situation she'd gotten herself in.

He slowed the bike to match the tower's rate of descent and, holding the left handle bar with his right hand, he pulled on the metal pole that imprisoned her. She smiled at him, "I knew you'd come."

He looked at her briefly and said, "Well, that made one of us." He drew his weapon from its holster and she looked away as he aimed it at the pole. Suddenly, she was free and floating away from him and the tower. She felt his hand close around her ankle and then she was sitting in front of him on the bike. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders tightly as he revved the engine and took off. He drove the bike through the city, heading down toward the center of town. She risked a glance back at the tower and instantly regretted it as she saw it was heading directly at them, Hal having tossed it like a giant spear.

"What's the plan?" She hoped he had a plan.

"Well," he said as he risked his own glance back at the projectile pursuing them, "it mostly involves not dying."

"That's a good plan," she said and wrapped her arms around his middle to hold on tighter. "I like that plan." She heard a loud crash behind them as the larger parts of the tower came into contact with the buildings along the street, and then the bike was hit by the spire atop the tower. Curse the tower's designers for thinking the spire, which had been intended to make the tower the tallest in the world, but which had failed because some design engineer had forgotten to carry a number, was a good idea. She felt the bike slam into the ground and her grip on his waist tightened. She risked a glance over his shoulder and was horrified to see that the tower was now gaining on them.

"Must go faster. Can't this thing go faster?" she shrieked in his ear.

"I can't control it!" he said with more panic than she'd ever heard in his voice before. She heard him growl and then she was airborne again. She saw the red awning just before she hit it, her momentum causing her to bounce across the three similar fabric window dressings until the last one gave way partially and she tumbled to the ground. She landed on her injured wrist and couldn't help the cry of agony that escaped her lips. The pain caused her to see stars, so she just laid there until the noise stopped.

A few minutes later, after what felt like an eternity, she picked her head up and looked around, despite the terror she felt in her soul. The maniac really wanted them both dead. She couldn't let that happen because she just had to tell Megamind what she'd realized, what she hadn't had the courage to say before. It felt like the most important thing in the world to her. It was a protective measure her brain had devised long ago; to take an unpleasant task, find the one desirable thing that could result, and work toward that goal, no matter what had to be done to get there. Keep her eye on the prize so to speak. It allowed her to get through some rougher times growing up and it was not surprising that her mind was relying on it again.

She felt a bile rise into her throat and a hole burn into her heart like acid had been poured there when she saw his limp form resting against the fountain, his body having stopped the tower's spire from moving. She got to her feet, "No!" There was no possible way he could survive an injury like that. She took off toward him, running as fast as she could until she felt a shockwave in the ground that caused her to look back.

Hal stood there with an evil grin on his face, "Well, that was easy. Only one loose end now." He stepped forward and raised his foot. She saw the overturned bus only a moment before he kicked it at her. She gasped and did the only thing she could think of, turning around and crouching down, covering her head with her hands. She waited for the inevitable, not wanting to fight it when she knew her hero was surely dead too. The end never came as she heard a loud groan of metal against metal before she saw two halves of the bus slam into cars on opposite sides of the road. She turned around and saw something she had not expected to ever see again. Metro Man stood there, clean shaven and perfectly coiffed, in his white and gold uniform.

"You came back?"

He turned around and looked at her, "You were right, Roxanne. I never should have left." He turned back to the red and orange clad super and said, "So, you're the punk I've heard about." He kept talking, but she didn't watch. She was more concerned about getting to her blue hero than watching the two supers duke it out. She climbed over the debris and knelt down in front of him, completely disheartened at the sight of the spire piercing him directly through his stomach. There was no blood, but she suspected that was because the tower was stopping it from leaking out, which was also probably why he was still alive.

She sniffled, grateful that fate had allowed her to at least be able to say goodbye to him. He coughed and she looked into his beautiful green eyes. "I'm sorry," he said and her heart wrenched in her chest. "I did the best I could."

She sniffled again. He was too much, apologizing. If she hadn't put herself in this situation in the first place, he'd still be okay. She put her hand on the side of his face, so smooth and warm, "I'm so proud of you." She started to lean down to kiss him, but he stopped her and reached for his wrist. As he turned the dial, she was stunned to find her hand resting against the broken glass dome of Minion's ape suit. "Minion?"

"Surprise!" the fish said, waggling his little fins with a nervous laugh. At her look of confusion, he continued, "He's the real hero." Then he pointed in the direction the two supers had just flown.

Comprehension dawned on her like someone had flipped a switch and she felt her heart swell as she realized her hero was still alive and well. The disguised alien chased after the mutated human and she couldn't keep her eyes off of them now. She saw him descend directly in the path Tighten was flying backward. He grabbed the other super's uniform and held his fist back in a threatening manner. She couldn't hear what they'd said, but she breathed a sigh of relief when the orange one flew off quickly.

She walked toward the spot where her hero was descending, smiling at him the whole way. She examined him closer and found what she was looking for. The eyes. His eyes, always so magical, that she looked into as she held out her good hand to him, were so expressive, so deep, and so telling of his true feelings. They looked worried and a little disappointed when he placed his hand in hers as he hovered there and she reached forward, ignoring the pain in her bad wrist and twisted the dial on his watch, wanting the people who had gathered at the sight of Metro Man to see who their real hero was.

He looked nervously at her and she grinned encouragingly at him, giving his hand a squeeze. Only then did he relax a little and return her smile. His eyes softened and the worry was replaced with what she thought was joy. The crowd around them made very little noise as they all stared in confused awe at the undeniable proof before them. She opened her mouth, intending to tell him how much she cared for him, but before the first syllable could escape her lips, she saw Tighten float back down into view.

"Pretty sneaky, sis. But you forgot one thing. Only one person I know of calls this town 'Metrocity.'"

"Oops."

He landed hard on the ground and Megamind turned around, putting himself between her and the maniac. "You." The blue alien grunted and rushed forward, landing what looked to be solid punches in the other man's side and jaw. The super barely moved and her hero cried out in obvious pain as his fist enhancement disintegrated around his real hand. She gasped as she saw him flung bodily against a parked car on the opposite side of the road. The van in the distance was a sight for sore eyes as she remembered the Defuser gun was sitting in the driver's seat. She started to run toward the vehicle but stopped short as the car several feet in front of her exploded. She flew backward and hit the ground, her head cracking against the pavement and making her see stars again. She got to her feet and shook off the dizziness. The ache in the back of her head continued but she forced herself to move past it.

She saw how close he was to her van now and said, "Megamind!" He didn't look at her, so she yelled louder, "Megamind!" That time he did look at her briefly before he had to dodge a sedan that had been hurled at him. "Behind you! My van!"

"Uh okay?" clearly unsure where she was going with her hint, he made his way toward the van, using his jet pack to get there until Tighten zapped it with his laser vision. He fell several feet to the ground with a painful groan and started to get up when the super landed with a foot in the middle of his back. She took off running toward the pair as she felt the absolute need to do something. Before she could get there, she saw the blue man go flying backward and slam bodily into the side of the van, nearly tipping it over with the force of his impact. The driver door swung open once the van righted itself and she saw him reach for the gun. Tighten reached for the door and ripped it off the hinges, tossing it to the side to approach Megamind menacingly. In the moment of distraction with the door, the blue alien struck, shoving the point of the gun up the nose of his assailant, he pulled the trigger and she saw the yellow glow return to the canister of the gun. Seconds later, the spandex-clad super shriveled into his pudgy former shape and crumpled to the ground.

She felt herself moving forward before she realized what she was doing. Still seeing stars in the darkening periphery of her field of vision and not quite able to shake the dizzy feeling in her head, she had only one thought at that moment. She had to get to him, to touch him, to hold him, to be sure he was okay after all that abuse he'd just taken. He stood in front of the van, bracing himself on the side of the vehicle with his hand. She collided with him and nearly knocked him off his feet, but wrapped both of her arms around his waist tightly to stop him from falling. She felt his arms wrap around her tentatively and once she was sure he was not going to fall over, and said in his ear, "You came for me."

"For you, always," she heard him say firmly as she felt herself slump in his arms, the blackness of unconsciousness taking hold of her despite her intentions to remain conscious and be with him in his moment of victory. "Oh, no! Roxanne!" his concerned voice in her ear was the last thing she remembered hearing.

When she awoke in the darkness, she recognized the room she was in as her own bedroom. She lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling for several long moments as she slowly became aware of herself. She noticed a plastic bag full of some kind of clear liquid hung over her with a long thin tube that she followed down to where it connected to her wrist. Her eyes followed around to the hand that Hal had mangled with his iron grasp. She looked at the cast that encased her hand for a moment before she remembered something her eyes had registered about her other hand. She returned her gaze to that hand and found a blue one holding onto her fingers gently. She followed the arm up to the large round head that was resting against the mattress next to her. Testing herself, she wiggled the fingers of the hand he was holding. His head shot up instantly, his eyes seeking hers out. She smiled at him.

"Roxanne!" he exclaimed and was a flurry of motion, all at once checking her I.V., the leads to the monitors that were keeping an eye on her vitals, her blanket, and her pillows before he settled back down and looked in her eyes.

"Hey," she said, but no sound came out. She moved the hand he had been holding to point at her throat and mouthed the word, "Water." He snatched a cup off the side table and poured some water from a pitcher into it before securing the top and gently placing the straw between her lips. The instant the water hit her parched mouth and throat, she felt much better. "Hi," she said with a clear although still raspy voice.

"Oh, Roxanne. I thought I'd lost you!" She looked at him with wide eyes, which he misinterpreted and began backpedalling, "Which is not to say that I had you in the first place. We were just all so worried about you. I'm so relieved you are awake."

"Oh? How long have I been out?"

"A little over three days," he replied solemnly.

"Three- what? DAYS! What happened?" Had he been here the whole time?

"Do you remember hitting your head at all? The doctor found a rather large bruise on the back of your head."

"No," she said automatically. Then she thought back and remembered, "Wait. Yes, I did," she replied slowly. "One of the cars blew up, knocked me back, and I hit my head on the sidewalk."

"That explains the concussion and resultant coma. Oh, if I had only been paying attention and seen you hit your head, I would have been watching for the signs of a concussion, you never would have slipped away for so long. I'm so sorry, Roxanne."

"No, you saved me. You saved us all." She tried to move and grimaced with the pain from having lain in the same bed for three days straight. "Can you please help me sit up?"

"Of course." He immediately leaned over her and wrapped his arms securely around her back, pulling her into a sitting position, and then he used one hand to adjust the pillows while the other held her against him to keep her steady. She still felt weak from whatever had happened to her and possibly the drugs they had given her for the pain, so she just let him take care of her. He seemed like he had practice anyway. He gently laid her back against the pillows and looked her in the eyes, "Comfortable?"

"Yes, thank you." He'd set the pillows up behind her to support her back while she sat.

"How do you feel?" his voice was laden with so much concern that she almost choked on the lump that welled up in her throat.

"Sore and still pretty tired, but mostly just happy to be alive, and I can't tell you how happy I am that you are alive," her voice sounded better and better the more she used it, so she kept talking. "You know when I was up in that tower, you are all I could think about," she told him matter-of-factly.

"I'm sure you were thinking about how much you hated me for creating Titan."

"No, mostly I was thinking about how much I regretted not telling you what I realized that morning when I had the chance."

"Oh? And what was that?" his question hung in the air for several long moments as she looked deep into his eyes and found the genuine light-hearted man she'd fallen for under the strain and stress of the ordeal they'd been through. She smiled and caressed his cheek with her good hand.

"I love you," she said simply.

"You. You love…me?" His eyes were so wide and innocent, the look of a child having just discovered something for the first time. She reached out and pulled him toward her.

"Yes." She leaned forward, cradling her broken wrist against her chest and placed her lips gently against his to emphasize her point. Her arm tightened around his neck so he couldn't pull away from her lips for a long while. He kissed her with his eyes closed and his lips firmly shut until she licked her tongue across them. She opened her eyes lazily as his shot open in surprise. She ran her hand up the back of his skull and his eyes fluttered shut. His mouth opened and she deepened the kiss, exploring his mouth as he did the same to her.

After a small eternity, he pulled gently away from her and looked into her eyes. The inextinguishable light in the eyes that she'd fallen so in love with had returned, the luminous green danced merrily for her once again, and she felt like the luckiest woman on Earth. He exclaimed, "Oh, Roxanne! I love you so much!" She captured his lips in another long sweet deep kiss and they were content to sit there, listening to the sound of her heart racing on the monitor as they expressed their mutual joy at having truly found each other at last.

THE END.

a/n: So, this started with just the question in the summary, and I was just going to write a little drabble about the date, but then I kept going and wound up re-writing the end of the movie! Obviously, I borrowed and blatantly copied some dialogue from the movie, but that's just because it felt like those conversations would have happened even with the plot twist, and I think I added enough content to make it not boring to read, at least that's what I hope I did. Anyway, I hope you'll let me know what you thought of my little endeavor. Reviews are like air to me. :o)