Part 4

It was late night in Megamind's lair and the blue hero was sleeping. Minion just ended washing the dishes and was going to prepare for rest, when suddenly he heard ringing of his cell phone. He was surprised to see Metro Man's caller ID since the former superhero was generally calling to Megamind, eventually to Roxanne. Actually he and Minion spoke to each other only few times. It were short, meaningless conversations, because Metro Man was more focused on defeating Megamind and rescuing Roxanne, and when he finally retired he spent most of the time on playing guitar or giving Megamind advices about being a hero (however, Megamind never asked for them).

So why Metro Man was actually calling to Minion at this time of the night? Maybe he didn't want to bother Megamind, knowing that his former archenemy was asleep. For a really long moment the fish wasn't clicking the green button. Was he nervous? Or maybe it was something else? But finally he forced himself and answered the phone. After all Metro Man might call with something important for boss.

"Hello, Minion is speaking." He said with his general formal tone. But why he felt so cold?

"It's Music Man." Metro Man replied.

"I'm sorry, but you're calling too late. Boss is sleeping and…"

"I wanted to talk with you." He cut him down. Minion quickly realized that Metro Man's voice was oddly serious and it made fish more nervous.

"With me? Well, what do you want to talk about, Mister Music Man?"

"It isn't a conversation on the phone. It's something we should discuss in private, sitting face to face, without witnesses. That's why I would like you to come to my secret hideout. Is it a problem for you?"

"A problem?" Minion asked quietly himself.

Was there any problem with that? Sure, Metro Man was Megamind's former enemy, but since the blue alien was the hero they were rather friends (not very close, but they didn't try to kill each other). Besides, why would Metro Man do something bad to him? He never actually hurt Minion. He didn't even arrest him. Like he was considering him as a pawn, who was only doing his orders.

Still fish felt uneasy. He didn't think that Metro Man prepared some trap, but he felt that way. But he also felt that he had to come and talk with former hero. Finally he decided to took – just in case – few brainbots that will help him get out and inform "daddy" about everything. Frankly thanks to GPS in invisible car Minion got to Metro Man's hideout.

Metro Man had read Minion's letter twenty times, maybe more, every time stopping on a different part of it. He knew this text almost by heart. Reading it was a painful experience, but somehow he couldn't reverse his eyes from black letters and stop looking. He contemplated it whole afternoon since Roxanne and Megamind had left. After first two readings the content of paper made him scared, because such quiet and kind fish like Minion could hate him so much. Next readings made him realize few very important things. Now he felt a lot of feelings – anxiety, guilt, confusion, shame, but most of all a desperate need of serious talk with Minion.

So he waited impatiently for fish, thinking how to start their conversation. He knew it won't be easy. He knew that Minion might get angry with him and he was going to take it. Still he felt that giving him a coherent answer for all things written in the letter might be difficult.

Finally he heard the knocking to his door. He left the letter on the stool beside his armchair, lifted himself into standing position and opened. On his porch was standing Minion, who smiled to him sheepishly. Metro Man had also a weird feeling that he was observed, but he looked for any intruders outside and he found none.

"You required my visit to discuss something, Mister Music Man." Minion reminded him.

"Oh, yeah." Metro Man moved aside. "Please come in."

Minion enter the hideout. Everywhere was relicts of Metro Man and Megamind's past, almost like in some kind of museum. He stopped staring, when Metro Man offered him to sit on the couch.

"Thank you." The fish said quietly and took the offer, avoiding hero's gaze.

Only when they both were sitting, Minion looked at his host. For a moment there was a tense, nervous silence between them. Minion was waiting for further explanation and Metro Man didn't know how to start. He gathered his thoughts, made serious expression and cleared his throat.

"I must confess that I don't know much about you, Minion. I do know, however, that you were with Megamind from the very beginning." He stopped and looked at fish. Minion still seemed to be nervous. Metro Man turned his gaze on his coffee table and continued: "Long time ago Megamind had a breakdown and it motivated you to write me this letter."

Minion's big eyes widened. Metro Man took the letter from the stool and showed it to Minion. Fish was staring at them with shock, but then his big eyes turned from paper to Metro Man.

"But how…?" He started.

"…it came to me?" Metro Man finished his sentence. "Miss Ritchi spotted the envelope, when you were busy with brainbots. She thought that it must be some important letter from Megamind to me, so she decided to deliver it. But on her way to my place she couldn't resist the urge and read it."

"Oh, my…" Minion placed his mechanical hand on sphere like it was his head. Then he looked at Metro Man. "Did she say something?"

"First she told me and Megamind to come here. So we've met and read your letter. Then she asked Megamind did he ever have any suicidal thoughts. And after short moment of thinking he remembered his breakdown and how he said to you that he wanted to die." He gave a fish a friendly smile and said: "But you really should see him, when he was reading your letter. He was very touched."

Minion remembered weird hug his master gave him and now he knew where it came from. The fish looked at Metro Man's smiled face. Suddenly the confusion in Minion's eyes changed into cold determination and he abruptly stood up.

"So why you called me over? You wanted to laugh at him as always?"

"No, no, no!" The ex-hero stood up too and attempted to calm his guest down. "I just thought that since you've written this letter and made few points, I should talk with you." Minion's gaze softened. Metro Man sighed with relief and said: "Sit, please."

They both rested on their seats. Metro Man put the letter on his laps and unfolded it. For a moment Minion thought he will read it, but then the ex-hero looked at the fish and began with clam, quiet voice:

"This letter is both bitter and sweet. It's filled with both burning hatred and pure love. In spite of venom that leaks from almost every sentence, I can't deny that this is the most deep and touching call for justice."

Minion was silently observing him with stern look. His fishy mind was recalling all the things his master had suffered from Metro Man. Now he didn't want to be polite to him, oh no! If Metro Man wanted to talk about it, then Minion was ready to say openly, how much he despised him all those years.

"You know, Minion," Metro Man continued. "during my long career of superhero I actually never wondered what you would feel about this never-ending battle between me and Megamind. I was thinking all these years, you're just his servant; someone, who's obediently doing the orders. Sometimes I imagined that he even beats you." He paused and looked at the fish. Minion was still shooting him a cold glare, while his fists were clenching and unclenching themselves. Metro Man knew that Minion could snap at him in any moment if he will decide that enough is enough. Still Metro Man continued: "When Roxanne Ritchi said after one of the kidnappings that you're, in fact, really nice and intelligent guy; that you were offering her homemade pancakes and making some remarks about your master, I was quite surprised. Many times after that conversation I was wondering why you are serving Megamind."

"Someone like you will never understand." Minion looked at him with boiling fury, his voice quiet, but shaking. "My sole purpose of life is to protect him from harm. His parents knew they will never be able to do it ourselves. They put me into his escape pod so their son could be save and happy."

He shut his eyes and shook his body harshly like he was going to cry, but wanted to prevent himself from doing so. When he looked at Metro Man once again, his eyes were full of pain and sadness.

"Come on, say it!" He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "Tell me that one thing I know too well!"

"Say what?" Metro Man gave him puzzled look.

"That I've failed!" The fish exclaimed, but then he added with, quiet, sorrowful voice: "I couldn't protect him, after all. Not from landing in prison, not from injustice he received in school, and especially not from you." Suddenly he clenched his fists firmly and shot Metro Man another cold look. "I was watching helplessly as you were hurting someone I should be taking care of. Do you know how it felt to see it? To know that no matter how much I wanted to help him, I couldn't even move from my sphere? To have no arms to embrace him, when he needed a hug?"

Minion's cool expression made Metro Man nervous and even more ashamed than he felt in the first place. But when he opened his mouth to say something, the fish cut him down before he even began:

"Right after we entered the school house and I saw you, I remembered. I recognized the punk that bumped into my boss' pod, pushing it out of course. I wanted to bite you in this moment in time. I somehow felt… knew that you will be his nightmare. What harm boss had done to you that you treated him this way?"

"He was causing havoc making all those experiments." Metro Man stated as a matter of fact. "He could hurt somebody. I couldn't let it happen."

"He wasn't doing it intentionally! He didn't want to harm anybody! Most of the time he just tried to impress others and something was going wrong! You supposed to fight justice and defend innocent, yet all those times you didn't even say a word in his defense, when the teacher were ordering him to stay in the corner."

"I… I…" Metro Man started, but then sighed deeply and massaged his temples, thinking intensively. Finally he put his gaze on Minion and answered his question: "Actually I haven't thought about it too much. All I have seen was a kid causing troubles. The teacher kept saying that he was a bad boy and I believed her. Parents tough me that I should listen to teacher."

Come to think about it, it did make sense. After all in some stage of life parents and teachers were the greatest authority for children. Metro Man always felt nice, warm feeling, when he was praised by teacher for his actions and when she was giving him those star stickers. And when she was calling Megamind a naughty boy, Metro Man just couldn't look at him in any other way than like on the bad boy.

Minion continued his speech, his eyes fixed on the floor.

"That memorable day, when he decided to be villain, I knew, he had found his purpose of life. To be bad. To show the world his greatness. To cause panic and havoc. But most of all – to defeat you. Someone may say that it isn't right to encourage such a brilliant child towards crime, but after all those years of seeing his pain, I knew what I have to do. As long as it was making him happy; as long as he was smiling and enjoying this little game you've played, my purpose of life was standing beside him and being his faithful minion. Wasn't it always like that? Him and me versus Metro City's citizens? But this time he was proudly getting up from his failures and moving forward. He wasn't that poor kid, forced to standing in the corner. He was the Megamind, master of all villainy."

Minion's eyes lit with pride and excitement even though his voice was calm and quiet. But soon his expression changed to sadness.

"But then that breakdown happened."

I failed, Minion! Just like I'm always failing!

"And this time it looked like he wasn't going to get up."

No matter what I'm doing, no matter how deliberated my evil scheme is this Goody-Two-Shoes will always win…

"He lost his will to fight…"

I'm tired, Minion. So horribly tired. I don't want to do anything.

"…and will to live."

I want to die.

Minion turned to Metro Man.

"He was saying many things like that no matter what he's doing to defeat you, he will always fail or that he's a pathetic excuse of villain, because you're stronger and have no weakness. But then he said something, which made my blood boil. He said that he wanted to die." The fish uttered, almost wailed. "He wanted to die."

"But he didn't mean it…" Metro Man began.

"How could I know?" Minion cut him harshly and added with his previous quiet voice: "I was so scared of this thought. The whole idea of my closest friend doing something to himself, because of one too many failure with you – it was scaring me. That was the moment, when I've realized how much I hated you for everything you've done to him. I wanted to scream into your face what I was thinking about you. So I sat at the desk and scribed this letter. All the anger, bitterness and hatred that was crawling in my heart from the moment you caused him to land in prison, through his school years to that particular moment, when he broke down, had quickly formed into sentences. I wanted you to read it, to feel what I was really thinking about you."

"And after all those years, this letter finally had been delivered to me. Guess, it's time for me to defend myself. Let's start from the beginning, then." Metro Man said and gave Minion the sad smile. Then he got serious. "Listen, Minion: I don't remember bumping into Megamind's pod. He does, because he has this eidetic memory of his, but I my intelligence isn't as brilliant as his. Therefore I can't recall this event and say what was motivating me."

"And that suppose to make you innocent?"

"No, of course not. Look, Minion, I'm sorry for making you both land in Metro City Prison. I'm sorry that Megamind spent his childhood with criminals. I'm also sorry for being too blind to stand for him in grade school. You see, Minion, the childhood is really specific period of time. People say children are innocent, but they often forget they can be also cruel. They can burn ants with magnifier or hurt badly the kid they find a freak. Children are learning the difference between wrong and right, and they may not know how horrible their actions are. It is until they will be scolded by adults or until few years will pass and they will realize it on their own."

Metro Man took deep breath and looked at his feet. He sighed and once again put his gaze up on Minion.

"Before I decided to fake my death and retire, I hesitated, because I didn't know if I should leave Metro City on Megamind's mercy. But then I thought: why not? During all of our battles he hadn't won even once. Something was telling me that he wasn't as evil as he wanted to be; that beneath all this leather and technology was – in fact – a scared, fragile kid. Besides, maybe his reign in Metro City won't be as bad as everyone thought? So I let him have what he wanted so badly: a victory. From now on I was observing turns of events from here. At first I regretted my act, seeing how he was behaving, but blue graffiti and few robberies, during which he didn't even harm anybody, weren't the worst thing one could do, having such power as he. And after some time he kind of stopped showing up at all."

"He was dating with miss Ritchi and he was also busy preparing for battle with Tighten. I couldn't believe that he missed those fights with you. I was thinking your death will make him happy."

"I was positively surprised, when Roxanne said that robbed money returned to bank, streets were cleaner than ever and generally Megamind had been 'tamed', as she put it. Then I thought: maybe it won't be bad idea if he will become a hero in my place. So when Roxanne and he have found my hideout and I explained them that I'm retired, I suggested him to become yin of Tighten's yang. And he did great job. Probably better than I would ever do."

Minion seemed to be unfazed. Metro Man cleaned his throat and added:

"Anyway, I'm sorry once again. I hope that you will forgive me all the wrongs I've done to Megamind and there will be no enmity between us. Can I count on it?"

For a moment Minion wasn't saying anything. He just stood up and took the letter from Metro Man's hands, still observing the hero with cold eyes. He folded the letter and finally spoke:

"No, Music Man. I can't forgive you, even though my boss might do it. And if you thought that your mere excuses actually make me forget all the pain you caused to him, you are either foolish or more insolent than I ever imagined. We were never friends and we will never be. Farewell, Music Man."

He turned back to his host and slowly walked to the exit. He opened the door and was going to leave, when suddenly he looked back at Metro Man and said:

"Oh, and one more thing: When I wrote that I hope you will die, I actually mean it."

He left, closing the door violently.

Metro Man was alone once again. He felt that he failed. He wanted to reconcile with Minion, but he only realized that fish was still hating him. But then he thought that maybe Minion just needed some time to think about everything he heard. Maybe, just maybe he will forgive him, but he needed time.

I wanted it to be last chapter, but then I thought that I might write one or two more, just to make you nervous, guys.

BTW - I've watched once again the scenes of Megamind and Metro Man's past and I've saw that in the moment, when Megamind walks in to classroom and sees Metro Boy, Minion's expression changes into anger.