a/n: Sorry I got tied up with work for the last two days. I didn't get to finish this until just now, so please forgive me for the delay. :)

****** RATED T: Discussion of a few disturbing things ahead, don't read if you are squeamish! A little strong language too, sorry.

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: Pre-movie AU. Something goes horribly wrong with one of Megamind's battle suits and he and Roxanne wind up stranded in the middle of a desert with nothing but each other to aid in their survival. Will they make it?

Stranded

Chapter Eight: Resolve

"No!" Megamind said angrily. "I protected him from this for all these years, and they get him now!" He raged and began to turn violently purple as he shook in place. It really scared her. It was the first time she could remember being truly scared in his presence. "This can't be happening!"

Roxanne knew exactly what the suit's presence meant. She'd seen news specials and documentaries about supposed aliens in government labs and the kinds of experiments that were done on them. "We have to get him back."

"That's the understatement of the century. Those bastards are sadistic. They will kill him just to find out what makes him tick. How he can control his mechanical body, why he can talk, all of it. He won't survive what they'll do to him. I barely did!" He stopped talking when he realized what he'd let slip in front of the nosey reporter.

"Megamind, what do you mean you barely survived?" her voice had nothing but concern in it. She knew she was walking a fine line in pressing him for details now that he was facing the potential loss of his lifetime companion. She was determined to help him get his friend back alive, but she had to know how he knew what Minion was facing. She had never heard anything at all about him having ties to any place like this before.

"It's nothing, forget I said anything." He looked away from her but decided that if she pushed the issue, he would be honest with her. He had nothing to lose at that point. He felt her put a hesitant hand on his arm and turned to look into her eyes, which pled with his.

"Please tell me. I won't tell anyone, I promise. But I have to know. Please?" Her heartfelt pleas were the only prodding he needed to slowly tell her exactly what had happened that caused his distrust of the government and his extreme sense of foreboding about Minion's prospects.

He began to tell her as he sank to his knees on the ground facing the sight of Minion's silent ape body. "Before I was old enough to go to shool, there were some men who came to the prison. They had an agreement with someone in some State office to take me out of the prison for some testing, or so they said." He broke eye contact with her and hung his head in shame as the memories came flooding back to him. She knelt down next to him and placed her hand comfortingly on his shoulder and rubbed his back in circles. He flinched but didn't cringe away from her.

"They took me to a facility they claimed was an academic think tank when I was four. They locked me up in a square white room and did whatever they wanted to me for weeks before the warden found me and saved me from their torture." He stood and started pacing in a small circle.

"Torture?" she stood and asked with shock in her voice and on her face. He stopped pacing and walked up to her, looking into her eyes intently.

"What else would you call operating on me without my consent or any anesthetic, removing tissues and pieces of bone from my body for tests like I was some kind of animal? Like I had no right to be feeling any pain from their brutal treatment." His voice reverberated off of the metal skeleton of the robot suit they kneeled next to.

"How could they do that to a child?"

"Miss Ritchi, they intentionally broke both of my legs to see how much force it would take to snap my bones. They didn't care how old I was. They didn't regard me as a child; they considered me an alien and nothing more. Then, they tried to wipe my mind of the whole ordeal when the warden found me so there would be no memory of their abuse. Of course, they underestimated my brain, because I can still recall the entire event with perfect clarity, no matter how much I want to forget it. Their supposed mind-altering drugs merely served to place a marker in my memory of the end of the worst months of my entire existence." Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized exactly why he had decided to become the supervillain later in his life. It was the only way he could protect himself from ever being hurt like that again.

She suddenly felt the need to comfort him and threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug. He stiffened and did not respond. After several awkward seconds of the one-sided hug, she pulled away from him completely. He was looking at her harshly. "I didn't tell you that to make you feel sorry for me," he spat, suddenly angry with her. She looked at him with hurt written all over her face. She couldn't help but feel bad for him and the things he'd had to face at so young an age. She didn't understand the sudden turn in his mood or for that matter why he had been pushing her away since she'd kissed him that morning.

Her reply bit out more harshly than she had intended, "Well then, why did you bother with all the details?" She knew that he was under an immense amount of stress now that the people he had good reason to hate had managed to capture his best friend. She needed to make him see that she wasn't concerned for their well being simply because she needed him to get home, but given their situation, the present was not the best time for such a conversation. However, she was not going to let him push her away in the meantime.

His voice and expression were still cold when he answered her, "I told you what I did because I wanted you to see the kinds of atrocities they are capable of. You need to see how serious Minion's situation is. We have to get him out of here, there's nothing more to it."

She looked into his emerald eyes, pouring her heart into them. She realized at that moment that she cared deeply for this man. "Megamind, I understand that completely. It does not change the fact that what you faced as an innocent child was so far beyond wrong that it made my soul ache for you. I don't feel sorry for you. It is in my nature to want to comfort my friend who looks like he needs it. I am sorry if that offends you," she said. He didn't miss the fact that she'd called him her friend.

She saw the anger in his eyes evaporate although the tense expression on his face didn't go away. He seemed to realize she had meant no harm and his attention focused back on his plans for rescue. That couldn't have gone any better if she'd tried. He needed to focus. They could deal with the emotions later. The tense expression fell soon too as they sat together for a long time in silence. When he finally spoke, his voice was small and tired. "Look, those bastards did absolutely unthinkable things to me back then and God only knows what they have planned for Minion. We have to save him."

This time, when she hugged him, he didn't resist her embrace. They both wanted and needed the comforting contact with each other. They each clung to the other and she rubbed his back as his hand found its way into her hair. His other hand held tightly to her waist as he buried his nose in her neck. She felt moisture on her skin next to his nose and realized his own tears had begun to flow. "We will get Minion back," she said softly but confidently. She felt him nod in their embrace but he didn't say anything in response. They stood next to the suit Megamind had constructed so his fishy friend could have the convenience of a bipedal existence, holding onto each other tightly as if the world was ending.