Megamind sat in his lair, tinkering with his creations. He refused to call it anything other than his lair, even given the fact he was no longer a villain, and he was no longer located on the outskirts of Metro city but now in the NEW Metro Tower, a pent house over his domain. Not even Captain Hair had it this good!
His green eyes gazed to the security camera's to spot the Mayor and a pair of Pol-ice officers buzzing for admittance to his Good Lair. The Mayor seemed distraught, however this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. He knew there were still some people quiet skeptical of his role as Metro city's new savior, the Mayor being one of them.
Sure, he wasn't fond of rejection, of the constant reminder from tabloids of what he once was, nor of the disapproval of his past cell mates, but all of that mattered little too him. So long as he had Minion at his side and the support of his fiancé, he would gladly take on whatever this world would throw at him.
Roxanne Ritchi. Her name alone brought him immense joy. His eyes lingered to a photo of her he kept in his station. And by photo, he obviously meant a mega poster to cover an entire window with. It was a photo taken on the day the Megamind; Defender of Metro City Museum was opened. Dressed in blue, with a honest to God gorgeous smile. It was one of his favorite photos of her. Well, one his favorite appropriate photos.
The buzzer came again, bringing the blue alien back to the present and into action. Pushing off from his desk he spun around in his premium faux leather chair across the floor in the direction of his custom display cases.
"Minion! Bring up Bob will you?!" He called jumping from the chair, it continued on without him as he began to survey which attire he should wear. He had his usual jumpsuit on, it was just a matter of adding accessories to it.
"Already on it, Sir!" Called the fish. The scent of blueberry muffins wafted throughout the complex of the tower.
"Good!" Replied the hero, opening the case for q more 'classic' look. He liked to be flashy sure, but the whole point for the other capes was for the big show stoppers. If he strutted around with a new cape each day it would give the citizens of Metrocity the wrong impression. Clasping the cape on Megamind smirked, hearing the elevator doors open.
"So! Bob- What is it this time? Prisoner escape, a fire down town, maybe a bus full of shool children are in peril?! I would really like that to happen! I mean, come on, Metro Man had dozens of those! Granted, I was the cause for all of them but just for once I would like to be on the other side of that scenario…" He boasted, pulling on his gloves and turned to meet the three men who entered.
They still kept that solemn look, the one he had caught from the screen, but now it looked more like... fear? Megamind frowned at the trio before him.
"Come now guys, I wasn't implying that I would actually set up a bus full of kids just so I could rescue them, why that would be cra-"
"Megamind, I think you should sit down." Came the portly Mayor. His voice stern, which set the alien back a bit. Aside from Roxanne, the only other person he had kidnapped was the Mayor, and he was far more feeble than Roxanne.
"Alright…" He mused, now searching for where his chair had spun off to, only to find that one of his Brain Bots had it waiting right behind him, to which he gave a curt nod to it before taking his seat. "How may I be of assistance to you gentlemen today?" He pondered with his notorious smirk, but still the mans expression hardly changed.
"Megamind, there's no easy way to say this-"
"Oh! I knew it!" cried Megamind dramatically draping an arm across his face. "I'm being let go! See, I knew by implementing Brain Bots out on patrols with the fine men in blue that I would no longer be of use! Darn my brilliance!"
"Megamind!" Shouted Bob, his voice more distressed now. "Please… We need you to come with us."
"Am I under arrest?" Megamind asked confused, the presence of the cops was a new touch, the first time actually.
"No- No Megamind it's just-" The Mayor was at a loss for words now, causing one of the officers to step up.
"Sir, we need you to come to the station to confirm a body."
"Well of course, let me grab my gear and I can take some samples-"
"No. Sir, we need you to visually confirm the identity of- a victim." The cop swallowed hard. Megamind inspected the man fully now. Brown eyes, brown hair, five o'clock shadow, his dialect was not of Michigan, but more so of Boston. O'Malley was written on his silver name plate.
"It's Roxanne." Said the Mayor, Megamind's eyes on him now. "She's dead."
Megamind blinked at the statement. Was this a joke? No, no, the Mayor was not a joking kind of man, and certainly not something so dark as this. His brain began to process the words critically now to make sense of it all.
'"It's Roxanne"'
It; contradiction of 'it is'.
Roxanne; a name given to a female, variant form of Roxane, the name of Cyrano's love interest in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, a play based upon a French dramatist and duelist who was portrayed with a regrettably large nose.
This was not what the name Roxanne meant to him though. He was working on a dictionary for the public libraries to publish. Names were not involved in this dictionary, however he was going to dedicate the work to her with a new definition for Roxanne.
'Roxanne' a name given to only the most beautiful and thoughtful women of earth. They see the good in everyone, and if it isn't there, they make it. Tend to be a person of great importance.
i.e. 'Roxanne is my universe.'
'"She's dead."'
She's; contradiction of she is.
Dead. –adjective, no longer living, deprived of life: dead flowers, dead animals, dead people.
Altogether now.
"It is your universe. She is no longer living."
His heart felt as though his chest had come into contact with a black hole. He wasn't sure if he felt his heart break into a million pieces, or if the feeling was simply the weight of a great void that he had only now discovered.
He couldn't breathe, couldn't hear the words coming from the men before him, or of the sound of the bowl which was dropped and shattered in the kitchen. He only heard his modified sentence over and over in his head.
"Take me to her." He rasped. "Take me to her now."
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Megamind led the whole way, with the exception of driving, he and Minion were told to ride in the van, to which neither had a scene to argue. Once the cars were parked outside of the station, Megamind was the first one out, sprinting for the building, the officers running after him, but the alien was to determined to be caught. He had to reach her first.
He put his whole body into each door, he knew this place far too well for his liking now. He pushed past an officer who tried to slow him down, but nothing would stand in his way. Making his way into the back of the station, the temperature began to drop. He was close now.
He didn't stop until he barged into the morgue. A doctor already on standby, four bodies laid out on slabs before them, covered only by thin white sheets. He picked her out immediately, her form in their bed sheets forever etched into his mind.
Now was where he failed to move. He stood over her, still hidden from his view, but it was her. The medical examiner moved to his side, but a quick flash from those luminous green eyes kept everyone at bay.
"I can save her." His said. "I can still save her."
"No, Megamind, you can't." Came the Mayor, "Not this time." Megamind clenched his fists, a rebuttal in the process. How many times had he heard that phrase and still proved this city wrong. His hand moved over the sheet, finally finding the courage to unveil his fiancé.
Removing the sheet just to the collar bone, the man could no longer support himself just from the sight of his beloved's form. Slumping over, tears began to rush surface now as his whole body began to shake. His hands running over her bruised face, to her cracked lip and then to her throat which had been sliced clean.
He whimpered her name as the flood gates were opened, and he clung to her lifeless form, unable to pull himself away, Minion now at his side.
"This is my fault." Cried the genius. He was the city's hero, she was his wife to be, he should have known better than to keep her on her own, but she was always so stubborn, and was a hero in the eyes of the city for her courage. How many times was she on the scene before him?
Had he imagined someone would do this to her, she would of never left his sight.
"How could I have let this happen, Minion?" He asked, his eyes never leaving Roxanne's face.
"Sir, you can't blame yourself… She wouldn't want you to think that way."
"Her final thoughts were probably why I didn't swoop in last minute and save her. Metro Man would have… He was really good like that." He spat in misery which made the fish wince.
"Megamind, we need to you to know that she was found in the museum and we have suspects in mind, but that you can't interfere." Came another cop, one of the detectives that followed them in he assumed. He didn't even bother to look back as he began to adjust Roxanne, wrapping the sheet so nothing but her face will show.
"We also need you, to stay. We believe that this attack may have been made to distract you from your duties. The press agreed to not let this information out so the city doesn't panic and think-"
"Think that I'll abandon them, or that I'll return to my old ways?" He asked, his voice now boding. He eyed the small group behind him now. The Mayor approached now.
"Megamind, it's nothing against you, for the past year you've been great! The crime rate is lower than ever, school scores are higher, we can't afford to lose you, not now!"
"Well that is a shame, because I couldn't afford to lose Roxanne." He spat looking to Minion as he rose to his full height again. "Minion, bring her back to THE lair."
"Sir, I don't think this is right, it doesn't feel right." He managed, but his master gave him such a look that made his gills shut tight and he obeyed the order. Picking up the lifeless body of Roxanne Ritchi. The medical examiner moved to interject, but found himself face to face with his infamous Dehydration gun, however, he had it set to Debilitate.
"I'm taking Miss Ritchi with me, and I'm going to find the one responsible for this. Don't test me gentlemen. "His voice sounding much like his former self. Only now he was truly a force to reckon with.
"Megamind, please! The city needs you!" The Mayor pleaded, but it was useless.
"The only reason why I bothered to try out for the role of the good guy was for her, and look." He pointed in the direction of Roxanne and Minion. "LOOK WHAT IT BROUGHT ME!" He shouted enraged, everyone jumped at the sound of his voice.
"I was nothing but a punching bag for this city before she came along! Before she made me feel like I could be something other than a freak show, an outcast, some big joke, and now- Now she's DEAD." Pain evident in his voice, no one in the room had the words to convince him to stay. "Come minion, we're leaving!"
The fish looked to the group, in search of something in their faces other than fear, he found shame and pity. He sighed heavily looking down to Roxanne, her head resting against his gorilla chest.
"Proceeding, Sir." He whispered following Megamind out of the Station.
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They did not return to Metro Tower, but to the Evil Lair they abandoned quite some time ago, but they still left many of their belongings behind. Megamind had planned to keep this place under lock down, just in case the worst were to happen. He just never imagined this.
Setting Roxanne onto a table, Minion watched as Megamind was already in construction. He was shocked at how short his grieving period was, here was the love of his life, and there he was, already working on what he assumed was his next invention to hunt down her murderer, but the fish was wrong.
Megamind did not have time to grieve now, because he was trying to stay true to his word. He would save her.
It took him only three hours to construct it, but Megamind had created a containment chamber for his beloved, to keep her fresh and to heal her wounds, it was a temporary solution at best, until he unlocked the key to bring back the dead.
He dressed her into her the gown she was to wear on their wedding day, veil and all. He wasn't sure why he did it, motivation perhaps, or for a bitter reminder. He couldn't say.
Minion lowered her into the water tank, the healing water's infused with regeneration cells, which he used constantly upon himself whenever he managed to escape Metro Man without prison time. He would come back to the lair with broken bones, internal bleeding and near coma concussions. These cells were really the only reason why he was able to stand today. It would not be enough to take on death however, he knew that much.
He placed his gloved hand upon the glass tank, watching as her skin was already being repaired. Within twenty four hours, not even a scar would remain. His eyes then looked to his friend who watched with concern.
"I can't let her go Minion." He whispered, to the fish who put a comforting hand upon his shoulder.
"I know Sir, but- your inventions have a way of backfiring sometimes… This may not be for the best, I don't think this is what Roxanne would want. Are you thinking about her, or yourself?"
"I don't know, Minion. She was taken before her time, and it's because of me... I won't be able to live with myself if I can't fix this." Tear's threatening to surface, but he refused to cry, it took much out of him, and he had many long nights ahead of him.
"If you think this is for the best, Sir." Minion replied, still not fully for this, but this was not a time he could abandon his friend. Their entire home solar system was sucked into a black hole, and he showed no signs of remorse for that, but this woman was his whole universe, anything was possible from the blue alien now.
"I do." Said Megamind, eyes still on his bride. "I do."