Author's Note: As always, my sincere thanks to all who have been reading and reviewing this unusual tale of past and present. I hadn't expected the last chapter to evoke so many tears among the readers, but I'm touched to know that I was able to move people so with my humble words. I'm now heading into the home stretch of this story; there will probably be one more chapter and an epilogue to follow — and certainly more tales to come after that! And at least in part, this chapter contains something I know some readers have been waiting for: Roxanne's come-clean interview with Wayne. I hope I managed to pull off weaving it into the greater story half as well as I hoped to.


Chapter Nine
If Dreams Die

Less than two days before the predicted end to their system, those living on Glaupek saw the titanic struggle taking place in their system not as beautiful ribbons and curtains of brilliantly colored light, but in terrible, seemingly endless dust storms. While the increased flow of charged particles had turned Ayalthis into what appeared from space to be a globe of solid, shimmering blue, the plasma streams and howling solar winds had stirred up the atmosphere of Glaupek into such powerful winds, the choking storms made it seem to be a world of dusty, burnished gold.

Inside the Rii compound, a golden object of a brighter kind shone under the lights of artificial lamps as Koan and Lethai made the final preparations to their son's escape vehicle. In the months since he had stolen the probe from the storage facility on Ayalthis, the merchant prince had had to endure his wife's anger and the scorn of those from that other world who had rightly identified him as the thief. But by the time he had reached Glaupek with the small but precious interstellar engine, it was too late to return it, and while he'd worked on making it as perfect an ark for Zan as he knew how, Lethai's anger had eventually cooled. Even the outraged voices from Ayalthis had fallen silent after a time, as its peoples came to accept what he had done, though some did so grudgingly.

Most of the blue people were less angry with him, and had even grown to believe that his actions had perhaps been the work of Destiny. If Koan could not undo the wrongs he had done, then at least if his son survived, he might one day be able to serve another world as restitution for his father's thoughtless acts. Varaan — who had been the first to notice Koan's thievery after the merchant had departed Ayalthis — had been much more forgiving of his friend's duplicity than even Koan felt he deserved. The former ambassador had been willing to give him the missing piece of vital information Koan needed to convert the stolen probe into a suitable escape ship for his son.

The probes had not been built with artificial gravity systems, since they had never been intended to act as habitats for living things. The ships that the Glaupek used to travel and carry cargo between the worlds of their system did have such generators, but they were much too large to be used in the probe, and beyond Koan's ability to quickly reverse engineer and redesign to fit the limited space within the escape pod. It was critical if Zan was to be saved, for while a child of the Ayalthans could survive the journey in a vehicle with air and pressure but not gravity, a child of the Glaupek would die in a matter of minutes without both air and gravity. Recognizing his inability to provide the necessary system on his own, Koan had finally been forced to contact Varaan and literally beg for the knowledge and schematics he himself did not possess. He had been able to make Zan's escape vehicle comfortable and pleasing to the eye, but he couldn't give it the one system Zan would need most to survive the journey.

Koan suspected that if he had not owned up to his theft without any prompting, Varaan mightn't have been so cooperative — or perhaps he'd acquiesced because he knew, better than almost anyone else, that refusing to help the merchant save his son would serve no purpose. The probe could not be returned to Ayalthis before the end, and without functioning artificial gravity, no one from Glaupek could use the interstellar engine to save one of their own, and it would be utterly, senselessly wasted. Whatever the reason behind his largesse, Varaan had given Koan the information he needed, and had wished him luck in his attempt to save his son.

The merchant had finished that final but most vital part of the escape pod barely in time. With scarcely more than a day left before the vortex would consume their sun and destroy their entire stellar system, he at last got the pod's engine and all its life support systems fully up and running. Lethai had double- and triple-checked it with him, to make absolutely certain Zan would be safe and provided with sustenance for as long as the journey required.

It was at that point that it occurred to her that neither of them knew precisely how long that would be, since they had no notion of where to send him, or how to set the coordinates for a hyperdrive jump.

"I know how to pilot, but not an interstellar ship," Koan admitted as they both began to panic. "I can tell from how the engine is built that once the coordinates are input, it automatically takes the necessary steps to engage the drive, make the jump, then do whatever is necessary to arrive safely at the destination. But all I know about these other inhabited worlds is that they exist, not where they are or which ones would be suitable as a place for Zan to be sent. Varaan told me things about some of them, which is why I was so interested in finding a way for our ships to go to them, but actual coordinates?" He shook his head, full of remorse. "I don't have the slightest idea."

Lethai was silent for some time in the face of his confession, struggling to contain her rising feelings of despair. "Could you ask Varaan for this, too?" she finally suggested. "He knows what we're trying to do, and he didn't refuse to help before."

But her husband sighed. "I can try, but communications between here and Ayalthis haven't been reliable for the last few days. And... I'm not sure I should ask him. It's almost over, my love. This whole tragedy began because I was a thief and a shortsighted fool, and perhaps this final irony is Fate pressing my nose into the truth of all I've done. The only reason we have this little ship is because I stole it as well, and I couldn't even make the most necessary changes to it without asking the very people I stole it from to help."

Lethai's blue eyes flashed like fire. "So you're giving up? You'll let Zan die along with the rest of us because your pride can't stand to ask for help one last time?"

The scorn in her words stung him, and for some moments, Koan looked away, unable to bear it. He was trying to find a way to say what he didn't want to say — yes, I'm a coward — but before he could, she let loose a deep breath in a sound of regret. "I'm sorry, Koan, it was unfair of me to say that. We've asked so much of the Ayalthans, all of us, and have never given as much in return. This isn't the first time that we've gone to them, asking them to rescue from our own mistakes, but perhaps we should choose not to impose on them just once before we are no more. If we can't even figure out how to properly use what we took from them, then we truly have no right to use it. If Zan must follow us into oblivion, we should at least face our ends with courage."

Koan was about to say something about wishing that their son could follow them into something better than death when a part of his mind latched onto the word follow. Abruptly, he left his inspection of the escape vehicle and went to the nearest data terminal to call up the designs for the probe that he'd gotten from Varaan long ago, so that he could study the mechanics of the engine and understand why it couldn't be used for massive vessels.

"Perhaps we already have the answer we need," he said after he'd scanned a pertinent part of the probe's designs. "Varaan once told me that after an exploratory probe is sent to a new system, it isn't unusual for their researchers to send more probes to the planets where extremely complex ecosystems or more advanced civilizations have been discovered, to speed up the process of data collection and study. It was common for them to use that first probe to provide coordinates for any that followed, as a simple auto-navigation system. Those parts are still intact, and I think I can program them to follow his nephew's escape vehicle when it launches and acquire any coordinates we need from it. Unless they decide to send the boy to a world with little or no gravity, it should be a suitable refuge for Zan as well."

Lethai, who had been checking the escape pod one more time, searching for any flaw or any clue to solve their dilemma, turned to her husband, her angry, anxious demeanor softening even more. "Can you do that?" she asked, hopeful but afraid to give in to the lure of hope if it would be snatched away in a moment.

Koan scanned the data again, very carefully, and finally gave an emphatic nod. "Yes, I'm positive I can. The system that performs the function is an integrated part of the engine and wasn't touched during the modifications. It can scan and lock onto the navigational data of any other probe within an entire stellar system; it works most efficiently if it can be given the approximate coordinates of the probe it's to link with. We know these are the only two probes in this system, and we know the other will launch from Ayalthis. All we need to do is bring Zan here, make sure he's secured inside, then activate that system to let it automatically launch the pod the moment it detects the other probe leaving Ayalthis. If I program in a short burst of extra acceleration at the beginning of the launch, Zan should catch up with Varaan's nephew's escape pod before it makes the hyperspace jump, so they can travel together and arrive together at their destination."

His wife's eyes widened as the hope she had tried to restrain surged up inside her. "So wherever he finally goes, Zan won't be completely alone, the only outsider. He'll have at least one other child from the worlds of our sun to be his companion, his friend."

"We can but hope," the merchant said as he worked to do what was needed to give his son's escape vehicle a means of following the one to be launched from Ayalthis. "I presume that the boy's parents would want to send him to a world with ways of living similar to their own, so they probably will have it programmed to scan for and detect what appears to be a suitable home, with good facilities and a wholesome environment."

He snorted distractedly as he worked. "Of course, given the Ayalthan preoccupation with matters of the intellect and emotions, they're not likely to have it seek out a truly superior environment rather than a merely adequate one. I may be able to adjust certain parameters in Zan's vehicle to seek out the best home available and take over the guidance of the other boy's pod so they can both benefit from it. Ayalthan parents simply wouldn't think of such crucial subtleties."

Lethai considered all these things as her gaze drifted back to the golden pod, then to the dust storm hammering again at the windows of the large hangar/workshop where Koan had refashioned the probe into a vehicle that would save little Zan. "So long as he lives and is happy, that will be enough for me. Don't attempt anything you aren't completely certain you can do, Koan. Zan's life and his future are not worth risking to satisfy your ambitions for him! For once in his life, do something completely for him, and let Zan find his own path to his future."

"Of course, of course," the blond merchant replied, just a little too quickly for his wife's comfort, as if he hadn't really been paying attention. "While I'm finishing the programming adjustments, why don't you get Zan ready and bring him here? We don't know precisely when the Ayalthan boy's pod will launch, and we must be ready at a moment's notice."

Lethai wanted to say more, to force him to pay attention to her so that she could exact a binding oath from him not to do anything that might pose the slightest risk to either their son's ship or Mykaal's, which must arrive safely as well or Zan's would have nothing to guide it to whatever haven awaited them.

But he was right when he mentioned how time was pressing. All the best scientists in their system agreed that the end would come no later than tomorrow, and as the vortex grew stronger and stronger, that time could change from soon to right now literally at any moment. Rather than waste even one precious second arguing with her proud and stubborn mate, she hurried to ready Zan for his coming voyage, hopefully away from certain doom and into a brighter future.

She had just returned with the baby — who was wide awake and surprisingly cheerful, utterly oblivious to the tensions of his parents — when Koan completed his programming and modifications to the pod's navigation systems. He gave his wife a confident smile when she favored him with a nervous and querulous look. "It's ready, and it's going to work perfectly," he assured her, leaving the data terminal to come join her as she placed Zan in the pod. Though he was now old enough to be developing all his powers, he was a very biddable child, and appeared to consider all that his parents had been doing with him and this golden "cradle" some kind of game, the pod a new and interesting "toy."

Koan smoothed one hand over the thick black locks that were so like his mother's, smiling sadly when Zan laughed in delight. "He's my son, too, beloved," he told Lethai gently, "and the last of our kind who will ever be. I want what is best for him, in everything — and I know that now, the best thing is for him to escape what I've done, to reach a new world and live, without the weight of my mistakes shackling him. What he should find when he reaches that new world..." He shrugged, as if in surrender. "That is for destiny and the powers of the universe to decide. We've done all that we can."

"I pray that it's enough," his dark-haired wife said most fervently.

And as if in answer to her prayer, the shrieking winds of the sandstorm dwindled. The thick clouds of dust and grit that had obscured any sight beyond the windows thinned, and the light of the sun, hidden for days, shone through, pallid but brave. The couple looked up at this encouraging sign and smiled—

—until the light suddenly went out.

ooo

And at that same moment on Ayalthis, warning klaxons sounded. Eliaan and Kyrel, just finished with all their own preparations for Mykaal's journey, snatched up their son and little Tori, awake and aware in his new habitat sphere. Together, they raced to take the suddenly bewildered Mykaal and his piscine companion to the tiny ship that while not golden and sleek and shining like Zan's would nonetheless lead the last three survivors of their worlds to safety as the ravenous black hole finally reached out and swallowed their sun.


The next day, Megamind was sitting at home in the living room while he waited for Roxanne's interview with Wayne to continue. He barely noticed that they had gone to a commercial break as the first half of the interview concluded, the part in which Wayne had frankly talked about his past, about his life as a hero. The bombshell about his "retirement" — the fact that he had faked his death and was still in possession of all his powers and always had been — would come in the second half. To most viewers, the first part was riveting by itself, since many people didn't know much about Metro Man's childhood years, certainly not the fact that his rivalry with Megamind had begun because young Wayne had been a spoiled brat and a superpowered bully. But to Megamind, who knew all this and had already made his peace with his adversary, it was less riveting than the question still echoing through his mind.

"Do you want to begin?"

That was the question that hadn't left his thoughts since Roxanne had asked it. And since then, he had decided and changed his mind what seemed like a thousand times. The very idea of finally having an education far beyond anything available here on Earth, an education specifically suited to the exceptional brain and skills with which he had been born...! Oh, that was so very, very, very appealing, he couldn't imagine why he would want to say no to it! This was an inheritance that had been made to order, for him and him alone, and it was worth more even in the thought of what it had to offer him than an entire planet's worth of the most precious jewels in the universe. It was his legacy, his birthright, the final gift of his entire homeworld! How could he refuse to begin learning all it had to teach him?

But there were other things to consider. The amount of time and effort such an undertaking would require, for instance. Even if he was able to consume the contents of these data gems like candy, it would take years for him to go through them all, and much longer for him to assimilate all that he learned and actually begin to do things with it. In order to make that happen, he would certainly have to turn his back on his work as the city's protector — and even worse, he would very likely put a severe strain on his relationships with both Roxanne and Minion. Each minute he spent in learning was time he took away from them, something he wasn't willing to sacrifice, and between that and his obligations to Metro City, he couldn't see how he could begin this immense learning process.

And he didn't fool himself one bit about the fact that he was obliged to help the city he had once terrorized. Yes, he knew that the world owed him a debt for the horrible treatment it had given him during his young life, sending him headlong down the road of villainy because no other path was left open to him. But he also felt that he needed to contribute in a positive way to this place that was the only home he'd known for all save the briefest few days at the beginning of his life. He enjoyed being a hero, even when it was only in small ways, and he was particularly thrilled by it when he could stop the plans of people who truly did want to destroy and hurt and make slaves of innocent people. He'd done his best as a villain to strike fear in their hearts, but now more than three years since he'd given up that life, he knew that all he had ever really wanted was recognition, attention, some kind of indication that this world accepted him. He had that now, never mind the bigots who would always hate him for being different. And having it, he couldn't bear the thought of giving it up.

Nor could he give up any of the time he could enjoy with his wife and his best friend, not merely working together, but taking time to savor with them the simple pleasures of being alive and being loved. He wanted that, too, every single second of it that he could get, with a possessive ferocity that sometimes scared him, just a little — as the possibility that such an intense education in things far beyond the current levels of Earth's knowledge might irrevocably change him, into something highly educated but cold and emotionless.

The blue genius pondered all this, staring at the television without seeing it, and finally, he released an immense sigh.

He wanted all of it. Not the changing into an emotionless repository of information thing, but being a hero, being a husband and a partner and a cherished friend, and to be able to learn every last thing in that box filled with knowledge that his planet had given him as its last parting gift.

He didn't see how he could have it all, not without losing something — and whichever of these somethings might be lost, it was too precious to him to willingly surrender.

Groaning to himself in frustration, Megamind let his head drop onto the back of the couch, closing his eyes to try to help improve his concentration. He was glad that he'd told Roxanne he'd stay home and mind the store rather than accompany her to the studio, and though he'd claimed that it was because he wanted the focus to remain on Wayne — something Wayne himself wanted while he confessed his wrongdoings to the people he had once protected — she knew that he needed some time alone to consider his own potentially life-altering decision.

Minion had decided that morning to make use of the Teacher to see what he had forgotten or had never known about their lost homeworld; he was still in the teaching cycle and wasn't due to be finished until the early evening, so it was up to Megamind and the patrol brainbots to keep an eye out for anything serious that might require their aid. So far, things had been quiet, though the ex-villain suspected there might be some disquiet in the city following the broadcast of Wayne's confession. Hopefully, none of it would be violent or need his intervention, but he was prepared to go on a moment's notice, if needed.

So. He could begin at the beginning, with the information about the Natoshi'ana. For all that he had spent so much of his life boasting about his superior intellect, Megamind knew just how much of that had been pure bravado, a desperate attempt to bolster his battered and abused sense of self-esteem and self-worth. To discover that he actually was exceptional, so very exceptional that there had only been fourteen others like him to be born, live, and rise to prominence during the fifty thousand years of civilization in which his people had existed...! It stirred tremendous feelings of both pride and humility in him, along with excitement and fear. How could he ever hope to live up to such expectations?

Maybe he couldn't, no matter what he was. Maybe it was too late, maybe he had wasted too much of his life and his talents to be able to begin such an ambitious program of learning, even in part. Maybe it would be best not to begin at all, rather than to start and somehow fail, either in this education or in his heroic career or in his private life. Maybe he should just continue along the path he was already on, and not expect anything more of his life, or of himself. He had the love of a wonderful woman, the best friend and brother anyone could want, and the growing respect of the rest of the world in a job he loved. It was more than some people ever got in their lives, and he could easily be happy without anything more.

The only trouble was that though he was happy, he was still hungry. Not for more of what he already had, but for things he had long since believed were forever beyond his reach — answers to questions he had about a world and a people who had died when he was only eight days old. When he was a boy, he'd often entertained himself with fantasies about how someday, his parents would come for him, having saved their world at the last second, or how others of his people would appear, refugees who had miraculously found a way to escape their homeworld's fate. He'd concocted a thousand impossible theories for how a world could enter a non-traversable black hole and still survive, had postulated that some scout ships filled with blue-skinned explorers had been out in the field when the disaster had struck, and after discovering the tragic fate of their home planet had gone searching for any possible survivors, to eventually find him. He had wanted to believe that there would someday be at least a few answers to his most basic questions, the questions every child has: who am I, where did I come from, why am I here. And in the face of too many years of cold reality, he had finally given up those dreams, allowing them to die.

The fantasies about others of his kind ever coming to join him were truly gone now; any remnants of those dreams that had survived this long completely dissolved in the light of what he now knew about his homeworld and what had brought about its end. But the dreams of someday discovering more about his own origins and his people were more powerful than ever, because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that those answers were contained within the teaching stones. He could find answers to those questions, and answers to questions he didn't know he had, yet. It was possible, and it was literally within his grasp.

How could he turn his back on such an opportunity?

He couldn't, no more than he could give up anything he had gained after such a difficult life. But he had to give up something; of that he was certain. But what?

Megamind made another sound of intense frustration as he opened his eyes and stared up at the textured ceiling high overhead. "What should I do?" he begged of the universe, desperately wanting a way to resolve this quandary without the need to give up anything, what he had or what he wanted to have.

Perhaps he was being too greedy, too selfish. Or perhaps he was finally trying to find some true self-esteem, to acknowledge that he did deserve to be loved, to be accepted, to have dreams, and to have a chance to make at least some of those dreams come true. He needed...

"Welcome back, this is Roxanne Thejhan-Ritchi once again speaking with Wayne Scott, adopted son of Lord and Lady Scott and formerly the superhero known as Metro Man." The sound of his wife's clear voice coming from the television drew Megamind's attention back to it, and made him realize that what he needed now was to talk with her, and Minion. But since neither were available at the moment, he felt an odd reassurance just from hearing her voice. He listened.

"We've heard about the past, now," she said to Wayne, sitting in a comfortable chair near hers in the studio's tastefully decorated extended-interview set. "From what you know of your origins, to the history of your life as Metro City's defender. I think you've shed an entirely new light on what it's like to be a superhero, on call every day, day and night, for emergencies large and small, and how being in such a bright spotlight can leave nothing in the way of privacy."

"That's right, Roxanne," Wayne replied with a little smile that Megamind knew was forced. "I don't blame anyone but myself for that, since I was the one who taught people that this was how they should treat me. It was definitely what I wanted — but it was also wrong."

The reporter was convincingly sympathetic. "That seems a bit of a harsh contradiction. Would you care to explain exactly what you mean by that?"

"Yes, of course. It might come as a shock to some of your viewers, but I've been in professional counseling since shortly after I retired from being a superhero."

"Really?" Roxanne managed to sound genuinely surprised, though Megamind knew she wasn't. She'd suspected as much since about a year after Wayne's "death," since she'd been of the opinion that it had taken counseling to get him to finally recognize that he really did need to come out of hiding to clear Megamind of his supposed murder. "I didn't know there are any mental health professionals who take superheroes as clients." That was another fib, since she also knew that Mykaal regularly spoke with Phil DeVries, the prison psychologist who had been one of the few people who'd genuinely believed that he was a basically good person behind his Megamind persona, and that he was capable of profound change, once he finally made the decision to give up his villainous ways. But that wasn't common knowledge, and this interview wasn't about the ex-villain, anyway.

Wayne chuckled ruefully. "Not many," he admitted. "But yes, there are a few. And it took counseling for me to begin to really understand that the concepts of being a hero that I'd held all my life were unhealthy, both for me and for everyone else."

Roxanne maintained a perfectly professional neutrality. "I suspect many of our viewers will have trouble understanding that. After all, you've helped countless people and have been admired by almost everyone in the city. Could you give an example to illustrate how this could be wrong?"

The retired hero nodded and simply said, "Megamind. It's my fault he became a villain in the first place. When we were both five or six years old, we met at a small private school. My idea of being a hero was to show off my powers by defending people from evil. Because I had all these powers no one else did, I believed that one of them was to automatically recognize anything or anyone evil. And because he looked so obviously different from everyone else, I decided the moment I saw him that he was evil and therefore my enemy. I never gave him a chance. Anything he did, I made it out to be wrong, deliberately wrong. If he mispronounced a word, it was evil. If he made a mistake, it was evil. If he tried to defend himself, it was evil. And eventually, I forced him to accept that he was evil, even though he wasn't."

He stopped and shook his head with such profound regret, Megamind found a mist collecting in his eyes, even though he'd heard these things from Wayne before, when they'd decided to mend their fences and start over, as friends. "That's not a hero. That's a bigot and a bully, and no matter how many people looked up to me, no matter how many times I did heroic deeds for the right reasons, it couldn't change the fact that I'd started my life as a 'hero' by doing something very wrong, by ruining an innocent person's life because I wanted to be the good guy and picked him to be my villain simply because he looked different."

He sighed. "That's probably the biggest example of how my concepts of being a hero were unhealthy, but it's far from the only example. When people flock around you and tell you how wonderful you are every time you do something for them, each and every day of your life, it feeds something inside you and blows it all out of proportion. Your view of the world becomes seriously distorted. And if it starts when you're just a kid, as far back as you can remember, it becomes what defines you — but it isn't you. The real person you are never gets a chance to be recognized, not as long as you keep buying into this skewed reality."

"So if this started when you were a boy — a baby, am I right?" At his confirming nod, Roxanne continued. "If it started when you were that young, how long did it take for you to start recognizing that something was wrong? Was there any one thing that was your wake up call?"

"Not any one thing, no. I think I started feeling that something was missing in my life when I was in my late twenties. All of the people I'd become friends with in college had married or somehow moved on with their lives, and I hadn't. I don't think I'm the first person who's had feelings like that when they were closing in on thirty," he added with a small smile.

Roxanne chuckled. "Not at all," she agreed. "You studied criminal justice and business administration in college, correct?"

Wayne nodded. "It was what my parents thought I should study. My mother felt that if I was going to be a hero, I should know all I could about police work and the law, and my father wanted me to be prepared if I should someday need to take over the family business. Of course, I kind of thought he was planning to live forever, so I didn't really think I'd ever need to be that prepared!"

They both took a moment to laugh at that preposterous notion before turning serious again. "That was when I started to really find other things I love, like music. I took a few courses to fill the arts requirement for my major, but my father didn't want me unnecessarily wasting time on what he considered frivolities, so that was pretty much the end of it for him — but not for me. It became a dream, that maybe someday, I'd find a way to work music into my life."

"So it was natural that you turned to music when you had to retire from hero work and your father was still running your family's business."

There it was: the implied question that opened the door to the truth. Megamind, who had been watching the interview rather distractedly, now focused much more of his attention on it. He'd known what Wayne would have to say about their past, and how he would take responsibility for forcing young Blue into a life of terrible rebellion simply by refusing to be his friend, or to let him have friends. How he planned to confess to his abandonment of Metro City... Megamind didn't know, and he was admittedly curious.

There was a brief moment of silence in which the blue genius could see his former foe not struggling to making a decision, but gathering his courage. Him, the huge, strong, invulnerable, and invincible Metro Man was afraid. Wayne swallowed once, then performed the greatest act of bravery in his entire life. He looked squarely at Roxanne, then directly into the camera, making it clear that he wasn't addressing her, but all those who were watching.

"I didn't retire," he said bluntly. "I never lost my powers, or had any trouble with them. I gave up, I quit. I was tired of being at the world's beck and call, not for the real emergencies, but for everything. I was being asked to do everything people didn't want to do for themselves, even when they were things they should have done for themselves. Just because I can do so much, does it mean I should be expected to do everything for others? Not big, important things, but common little things, like taking out trash for people who are perfectly capable of doing it on their own, or opening pickle jars for people who can't be bothered to pick up the jar opener sitting on the countertop, two feet away.

"And then there's the problem of doing so much crime fighting and rescue work that the police and firefighters started to lose confidence in themselves. I know some of them actually resented me for it, and either left the force or moved and took a job in another city, where they could actually do the things they'd been trained to do, that they wanted to do. That's wrong, totally wrong. Nobody should end up feeling diminished just because I wound up here and had powers other people don't. There's a huge difference between shouldering responsibility, doing all you can to help within your abilities, and causing actual damage to people and a society because you're doing too much. It started with Megamind — with Mykaal, your husband — and it snowballed until it got completely out of control."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "On the day that the city dedicated the museum to me, something... snapped. I guess I finally reached my limits — and I do have them. My body might be invulnerable, but psychologically, I'm just as fragile as anyone else. I hit my breaking point. I can't tell you why that day was the straw that broke the camel's back, all I know is that it was. Maybe it felt like I was finally being raised on a pedestal that was too big, even for me. Something inside me suddenly realized that if I couldn't ever lose, I couldn't ever change, I couldn't do any of the things in life that I'd dreamed of doing. And as long as I was trapped in that endless cycle, so was Megamind, so were you, so was the entire city. That was wrong, it was so, so wrong.

"When that hit me and I tried to clear my head to think of what I should do, I came up with the idea of faking my death. I thought it would work out great for everyone. I'd get to try pursuing a new career, to choose my own future, Megamind would finally get to win, the people of Metro City would be free to take charge of their own lives. Yes, I knew Megamind would probably go wild for little while, but since he'd never, ever actually hurt anyone, I didn't think anything genuinely bad would come of it. I mean, he'd been kidnapping you for almost twelve years, and the only injuries you ever got were a few completely accidental scratches and bruises! I always knew he wasn't stupid, so I was sure he'd get tired of trying to run the city before long, and he'd finally figure out the same things I had: that it was time to stop our pointless competition and find out what he really wanted the most out of life. I never in a million years thought that he would try to replace me!"

"But he did," Roxanne said as noncommittally as she could manage. "And when you found out that he'd tried to create a new hero and that his experiment had gone horribly wrong, what were your feelings?"

Wayne was silent for a very, very long moment before he exhaled deeply. "My first feeling? Sheer terror. That sounds impossible coming from me, right? But it's true. In all my life that I could remember, I'd never been hurt, never felt pain — never, ever came up against someone who had anywhere near the same powers I did. And suddenly, here was this guy who not only had exactly the same powers, but he didn't appear to have even one millionth the amount of morals and integrity that Megamind did."

The ex-villain couldn't help but smirk at hearing this backhanded admission, that his erstwhile foe had always believed that he had morals and integrity, despite all the banter between them to the contrary. Presentation, Megamind deduced, nonetheless amused by it.

Wayne continued. "This Titan guy did want to hurt people, and he didn't have any qualms about using his powers to do it. When you and Megs came to my place looking for something to give you an edge against him and instead found out that I was still alive, it all came crashing down — and I don't mean all the stuff you clobbered me with, either, Roxanne. Here I was, thinking I'd been clever, finding a loophole to get me out of a lifelong rut that had long since become a noose around my neck, and all I'd done was cause more harm than Megamind ever did! I ruined his life all over again, and set things up so that when he tried to fix it, everything went wrong in ways I'd never imagined they could."

He paused for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck to ease his anxiety before forging ahead. "And I was scared that purely by accident, he might've come up with the one sure way to really kill me, by creating someone who had all my powers. So you know what happened. I stayed where I was and didn't get involved, told you that I didn't want to go back to the hero gig, and left the two of you to figure out how to stop this crazy guy with my powers. I was the biggest coward the world has ever seen, because I was afraid of getting hurt and because I was selfish, so selfish that I let the whole world think that Megs was a murderer for over a year before I finally came up with some nice, neat, new little lie that would exonerate him and keep people from asking me to come back and be their hero."

Wayne looked down briefly, his expression one of deep regret. "That's the most unheroic thing I can imagine, and I'm sorry for everyone who was hurt and all the damage that was done, and I want to apologize to all the people that I know are hearing this and feeling completely betrayed and disillusioned. But this is the truth, all of it. All I really wanted was a chance to hang up the cape and take a shot at doing something else I love, something that wouldn't have thousands of lives hanging in the balance. I've never had a chance to feel normal, and as badly as I wanted that chance, I should've found a better way to go about getting it."

He hesitated again, to collect his thoughts, and to summon the strength to look directly into the camera once more. "I shouldn't have lied, to anyone, I shouldn't have resorted to tricks, and I shouldn't have set things up to make Megamind take the fall for my selfishness; he didn't deserve it. I just wanted an easy way out, and when I saw an opportunity, I took it. That's when I really stopped being a hero: when I used another person to take the blame for my 'death,' when I walked out on everyone who had come to trust me, when I didn't respect them enough to tell them what I wanted to do with my life. There aren't enough words to say how sorry I am for everything that happened because of my mistakes. But I do take responsibility for them."

On the screen, Roxanne nodded even as Megamind did at home. "Personally, I think it was very brave of you to finally admit this," the reporter told the former hero. "Especially when you could have continued to let people believe the lie."

"But it was a lie," Wayne insisted, "and I had it weighing on my conscience every minute of every day since I finally, really understood what I had done. I perpetrated a hoax, and a terrible one at that. I'm very grateful to both you and Megamind for not insisting that I confess to it openly, but I just couldn't keep going on like this. After seeing everything he's done to make up for his past and to rebuild his life into something positive, something worth being proud of...!"

He shook his head. "I have to do this. I want my life to be an honest one again, not one where I have to pretend to be something I'm not. I suppose some people will say it's just that I want back the convenience of openly using my powers, but that's really the last thing I want. I want to do more than just apologize to all the people of this city; I want to do whatever is necessary to make amends."

"That might be more easily said than done," Roxanne pointed out. "While I'm sure that many people will be ready to forgive you, I'm equally sure that some will be very angry."

"I know. And if they want me to leave Metro City and never come back, that's what I'll do. But I want this to be done fairly. So two weeks after Thanksgiving, there's going to be a public hearing held at the county courthouse, where the district attorney and a group of local judges will decide how I can best pay for what I've done. They'll be taking input from the citizens between now and then to gauge the people's opinions and their demands, and I'll abide by whatever decision they make. If they want me to stand trial and go to prison, I will." He cast his blue eyes heavenward, seeking divine help to avoid that unpleasant fate. "I'm hoping that they'll decide that a financial settlement and a term of some kind of public service would be best, but I'm leaving that entirely in their hands — and those of the people. Even if I wind up totally disgraced and vilified, at least I want to be able to say that I owned up to my wrongdoings and took my punishment like a man, not a coward."

"I'm sure the courts, and many citizens, will appreciate that. Thank you for volunteering to do this interview, Wayne. The hardest things in life can only be done one step at a time, and this was the first — and I'm sure the most difficult — step, deciding to act on what you felt in your heart was right."

Those words so caught and held in Megamind's thoughts, he didn't really hear any more of the interview. The first and most difficult step is deciding to act on what you feel in your heart is right. He could hear Roxanne saying that to him, even though she hadn't. And he could sense that this was what she had been trying to tell him when she'd asked him if he wanted to begin learning from the things that had been sent with him when he'd escaped the death of his world.

He did want to use that gift, to make better use of his own gifts; he couldn't deny it. In his heart, he felt he would be disrespecting his parents and all the people who had worked to save his life and assemble this treasury of learning if he just said thanks, but no thanks. Especially not when he wanted to, oh, so very much.

The hardest things in life can only be done one step at a time.

Roxanne had said as much last night, but Megamind supposed he hadn't been listening as closely as he should've been, being in the midst of a spate of freaking out. One step at a time. That was only way anything could be done and he knew it, having always planned each step of his many devious plots. Of course, they'd failed in spite of his meticulous planning, but that had been before he'd given up on villainy, when he had been pitting himself and his abilities against an unbeatable foe. He had the superior intellect, but Wayne had invulnerability on his side, and when the battles were always physical, it had been like trying to stop a powerful hurricane by staring it down. It was impossible to win.

Well, perhaps not impossible, not now. In the things he'd already learned from the Teacher, he now knew exactly how to kill his former adversary — and how could he have ever guessed that a man capable of defying gravity needed the presence of gravity to live? It went contrary to apparent logic, though now that he had the information, he could easily see why it was a weakness. Even vulnerable creatures suffered from a prolonged lack of gravity, and for the hypermuscular Glaupek, it made sense that their systems had used the force of gravity to develop their bodies to the point that they required it to function properly. He hoped that among all the information contained on the data gems, there was detailed data on Glaupek physiology. Seeing exactly how such superhuman bodies developed and worked would be fascinating...

The green eyes blinked as Megamind caught the way his thoughts were going. Even though a part of him was still very undecided, another part was so eager to begin, he felt as if he couldn't wait for Minion to finish using the Master Teacher, that if he had to be patient for a minute longer, he might go and snatch the thing right off his friend's head, whether his session was finished or not!

But he couldn't do that to Minion, especially without knowing how a "student" might be affected if their "lesson" was forcibly interrupted. He was fairly certain it wouldn't cause any harm, but he wasn't willing to take the chance, not with his oldest friend, who had helped him to survive long enough to be born. It was a good thing the Teacher turned out to be waterproof, for neither it nor Minion had been at all troubled by its presence in his habitat. Somehow, Megamind had known this would be the case — he'd probably been taught as much during his own "lessons" — but it hadn't even occurred to him to question whether or not the thing had any issues with submersion.

As he reflected on this and resolved to keep his eagerness in check, the last Ayalthan found that he had finally made a decision. He knew what he wanted to do. He also knew what he had to do.


To be continued...