Disclaimer : I still do not own Megamind.

Noire et Bleu
Black and Blue

WARNING ::: Contains graphic smut, gore, evilness, shadows, torture and demented fluff.

Here we go, next chapter. Not entirely happy but it will do. I changed evil lair a fair bit and I'm not sorry about it x3 I know i have more to tell you about this chapter but don't have the time, I'll be updating again in the next five days. Will reply to reviews for this chapter in next chapter! Love you guys! x3

Chapter 07 : Her Lair Within the Lair

Song: None

Megamind's driving was questionable at best and with the bonus of being invisible there was no need to stop or even slow when he took some of the sharp corners. If it were anyone else Roxanne might have been worried but she could see the villain was not only relaxed but his eyes were locked forward, a smile on his lips and his hands were moving the car so flawlessly she could only guess how fast his mind was ticking away. His reflexes were flawless, she'd love to see a human attempt this.

"Close your eyes." He instructed, turning with a wink.

"Make me." Was her amused reply, folding her arms across her chest like a rebellious child.

"Suit yourself." He smirked, rounding another corner. Roxanne was sure the two should be flying into the doors considering the speed but the genius must have considered this and somehow remedied it. Another thing she would have to ask how he accomplished. The car began to slow now, not really slow considering its original speed but it was now spinning down to sixty when she saw the villain sliding off the road and down an alley. Down an alley and right for a wall. At first she just nodded internally, yes a wall, his lair was probably down this empty street but when the villain didn't slow she knew something was amiss. It got closer very quickly and though her trust in the genius stopped her from screaming as the last few feet enclosed she still unhooked her arms and gripped her seat.

Fwoomph.

They had driven right through the wall and remarkably, come out the other side.

"Ah…" was the best she could manage, blinking as the car slowed to a stop in what looked like an over packed garage but with far more machines.

"Ah indeed." He chuckled, turning off the car and swinging his door open. It took her a few seconds to regain her fully coherent thoughts before her door was swung open too and a blue long fingered hand entered her vision, asking for hers. She didn't take it and instead pushed it aside. He smiled and stepped back, as though impressed with her decision and she slid out of her seat, still blinking at the area around her.

The walls were lined with wires, coils, screens and parts of various machines. Stacks of wheels and robotic chips, glass domes and boxes of assorted junk. It reminded her of a mechanics garage, she could even spot the grease stains on the metal grated floors. What little you could see of the walls were simple red brick though some of the bricks themselves looked out of place and Roxanne found herself wondering how many hidden buttons and levers where in the room alone and more importantly, what would they do. She crushed the idea of sprinting off and randomly pushing bricks.

"Sorry about the mess, been awhile since I've had visitors" he chuckles, resting his hand on her back a guiding her forward. He leads her over to the furthest wall from the entrance, again you can't see much of the actual wall but when the villain steps around the hulk of what could only by a giant spider bot she easily guesses it's another hidden door. She follows; testing the space ahead with her hand just in case she misjudges the size of the opening but in moments she's standing in a lengthy corridor composed of brick, metal boards and the occasional black screen.

"I imagine that took a bit of getting used to."

"Not really." He shrugged, taking the lead.

Leading the two past several doors he turns to the only double door she's spotted too far and pulls the door open for her to enter, she sees a brief glimpse of redwood but doesn't slip by him, instead she pulled the other door open and let herself by, just to be difficult. She didn't want him opening all her doors or going out of his way to make her comfortable. Again it looked to be another corridor but it was so drastically different from the last two rooms she stopped and looked around again. The floor wasn't metal but a polished horizontal red wood slats that continued up the sides of the wall to her knee. The remainder of the wall and roof looked like white plaster but she tapped it with a knuckle to make sure. Of course the sound of metal greeted her and the genius gave a simple wink before she took a step forward, he moved his arm in front of her, stopping her mid step.

"Unless you really want to see my room, in which case we'd certainly miss lunch, I'd advise you to step back."

She did as she was told but knew she must have looked a little confused. Megamind turned to the doorframe and flicked what looked like a light switch, for a very brief moment she forgot this was his lair and expected the lights to go out. Instead a small part of the frame just below the switch pushed forward and flicked open, exposing a tiny monitor and several circular buttons, some labelled, others not. He pushed the first two, flicked a switch that read automatic then pushed a button near the bottom. The tiny black screen flicked to life and an orange loading bar turned on only long enough for the two to turn back to the corridor.

She heard the grunt of machinery under her feet and thought they were standing on an elevator only to her surprise the first slat in front of her sunk down, then the second a little further, then the third. Then she waited but nothing more happened. She turned to find those mocking green eyes boring into hers, which she rolled for good measure, and took a cautious step onto the first sunken panel. The fourth sunk. The second panel, the sixth sunk. It struck her as odd that the genius would put all this effort into a staircase but this was Megamind, if anything he didn't wasn't overly flashy he'd be ashamed to show them to anyone. Either way it was actually very nice, it still smelt like polish so she guessed it must be new.

"Finished it only two weeks ago. Before that we had to get down from the other hall. Not a big deal but I hated having to get up and go all the way around."

"It must have been a lot of work." She said in awe, she knew it wouldn't have been much work at all for the genius but it served its purpose, his chest puffed and he continued on about how he accomplished the feat. Pressure pads, weights, lots of little knick-knacks and a whole lot of saw-dust. She found herself schooling her face of the smirk that threatened to cross it until another panel slid down just ahead and another hall came into view, and standing in the middle of it was minion.

"Miss Ritchie!" he exclaimed, waving his big gorilla hands like mad along with his little fishy fins. "I heard the car pull in, I hope sir didn't scare you with his reckless driving, I do try to make him slow down but you know how he gets when he's on his own."

"I wasn't that bad! That old lady should have been more careful where she was going."

"Sir!" Minion exclaimed, looking completely shocked and appalled.

"Don't worry, Minion, he was very careful." Roxanne said kindly and Minion slumped with a sigh.

"Don't tease me like that, Sir, you know I worry."

"Well then don't." he replied in monotone but she could see the quirk of his lips as he stepped past. Roxanne on the other hand was wrapped into an almost bone crushing hug.

"It feels like forever, Miss Ritchie! I was so worried and then when Sir told me how you were handling it and then all those things on T.V. Oh it was terrible!"

"I'm fine minion." She said, comforting the fish instead of herself, which was an odd and amusing scenario.

"Are you sure? When I saw them push you into the police vehicle and you looked so detached and then when Metro Man started telling everyone about your mental break down I didn't know what to think, then Sir told me you save his life and I couldn't believe it! Not that you didn't save him, always knew you were a good one but couldn't believe the awful things and oh, Miss Ritchie, they were awful as awful gets!'

"Minion, care to detach yourself from the reporter any time soon?"

"Oh! I'm sorry!" he squeaked, releasing Roxanne from the death grip that had been steadily growing tighter, locking off her air. She coughed as subtly as possible and shot Megamind a grateful glance which was greeted with that sly grin of his as he motioned the two to fall in step behind him. He led them to the second door on the right and pushed it open, not bothering to let Roxanne pass him first but still holding it open as the two followed and the door swung shut. They were standing in a kitchen at least twice the side of the one at home. It was dark but not overly so, mostly lit with flickering orange lights that mimicked candle flames and a large grey stone fireplace blocked with a wire fence. The floor here looked like flecked black marble and matched the counters laid out like a large U in the corner of the room, redwood cupboards above and below.

Close to the fire sat a mahogany dining table surrounded by four high-backed chairs, several black plates and crystal glasses already laid out in front of two and though she could smell food she couldn't see it on any of the benches. The walls down here were made of the same dark grey stone as the fireplace but she could still spot a few switch boards and even a small section of wall that was undoubtedly a hidden wall. All in all it seemed almost out of character, the Villain certainly had taste, there was no mistaking it, but it seemed to clean, no inventions littering the floors, no blueprints on the walls. It was very much Minions room, and of course he began flitting about merrily looking incredibly proud with the maintenance this room would require.

"Take a seat, take a seat, lunch will be ready soon." He practically sung as Megamind drew his chair and slid in, the one closest to the fire. When she took her seat across from him she couldn't avoid the idea of him looking almost angelic, or demonic. Maybe a splash of both. His blue skin looked dark, green eyes brighter and all the while the flicker of orange yellow and red flickered in the background, silhouetting him in warmth. She smiled and he returned it.

"So, where is it you planned on moving to? You have the watch, we can scan anyone you like. Your choice."

"I'm not sure," She confessed. "I hadn't put much thought towards it. Someone easily forgotten I guess because I don't want to have to maintain relationships with people I don't know."

"You'll be taking up a new life Miss Ritchie?" Minion asked, leaning from behind her to pour her a glass of wine before leaning further over to do the same for the mastermind.

"If possible." He answered for her and Minion looked down from his fishbowl with an expression of concern before heading back to the counters.

"You'd need something more permanent than her watch, wouldn't you, Sir? I know the hair doesn't always sit right and sometimes your fingers sink into the projection."

He nodded, his eyes gazing into the distance while he was lost in thought. Roxanne had switched off her watch in the car but felt the need to flick it back on, just to take another look at all the things still wrong with it but she decided against it. "It would need to be someone closer to my body shape." She finally added.

"Not necessarily, we could just make the projection more solid but it would need a bit of working. I've never considered using them on an almost permanent basis before giving you yours, mostly they were used to get me out of jail" he confessed with a chuckle and wink.

"Miss Ritchie could stay here with us while you work, Sir?" Minion said excitedly. "We can give her one of the cells, decorate it, make it comfortable, she could use your old bed! I loved that one."

"Cells?" she asked, raising her eyebrow to the genius.

"I'm not having her live in a cell." He replied flatly. "We still have that old work room, it would take some fixing up but only if you'd like it." He added, turning to her.

"Oh! Say you will!" Minion exclaimed, the sound of more pots being shifted around behind her as the smell of savoury food filled the air.

"I wouldn't want to impose-"

"Oh nonsense! Sir would adore you're company! And quite frankly this place could use a woman's touch, I try to get Sir to clean up after himself but, well, you've see the main room."

"It's not 'mess' so it doesn't need to be cleaned." Megamind protested but Minion just began telling him off for all the abandoned projects now collecting dust. Roxanne smirked and received quite the fake glare before Minion gave up and began serving. Her plate was filled with a large scoop of sticky white rice before another much larger scoop of cubed meat covered in light brown sauce. It smelt amazing and her mouth started watering instantly.

"Beef stroganoff" he declared proudly, slapping his 'sir's' hand when he tried to finger out a piece of beef. "At least wait for me to finish serving, sir! Really, you have no manners."

"I don't need them, I'm a super Villain."

"Of course, Sir." He agreed with a chuckle, shaking his head as he ambled away to start cleaning up.

The two ate in silence, it all seemed very formal, sip of wine, bite of food, yet it felt completely natural. The smile from the man across from her, the chatter of Minion as he discussed how they would decorate Roxy's room, the eventual serving of the two little slices of creamy desert. It was lovely and by the time the two were done Roxanne fault no issue with propping her feet up on the chair beside her as Meagmind leant down to stoke the fire, such a simple action yet she was surprised he hadn't built a machine to do it for him, or at least had Minion do it.

"I suppose if you'll be spending the next few days here-"

"Maybe longer?" Minion interrupted hopefully.

"Maybe longer, so I guess I should show you around? Minion will get your bed ready; see if he can find you some furniture for your clothes."

"I have just the thing!" He squeaked excitedly, making his way from the room looking remarkably like he was skipping. Roxanne couldn't help but smirk as she pushed herself to her feet.

"I guess I'll show you down to the end of this hall then head back up?"

"Okay."

The two headed down the hall as he pointed to various rooms. Some had symbols on little silver door plaques, others didn't and all were either wooden or metal.

"Kitchen, door across is storage, this is Minions room, door across is the library. This is one of my workrooms, so is that one. Door at the end is the heated pool." He said, pointing from door to door and only smirking towards the library, which she guessed was another one of his pride and joys and she couldn't wait to get in there, see the books, the inventions, and the extra pieces of the genius she had saved. The headed back upstairs and he flicked some switches, pressed some buttons and turned to the hall to his room.

"Door at the end is my room, to the right is the bathroom, and left is my primary work room." He said grinning and winking, another room she'd love to get into. He started forward and for a moment she thought she'd might get her wish but instead he opened the door to the bathroom and forced her to step in first.

The bathroom was massive and much brighter than the kitchen, lit by a massive fire in the middle of what looked look a tiny pool. The floor was the same as the kitchen but more grainy, probably so he wouldn't slip. She got the brief mental visual of the master mind naked and it was enough to make her avoid his look a moment. Not something she wanted to think about. The walls were mostly empty, a massive screen on one side, counters on the other but it all looked very clean and open. She noticed the four shower heads suspended on the roof high above the bath as well as several indents and she could only guess that the roof either shifted or things slid down from above. By now he had moved to the far side of the room, drawing attention to another door and she quickly made her way over.

"And this opens into your room. It used to be my room, then my work room, now it's yours for as long as you need it." He said with a grin "I'd let you in but I think Minion's already in there so we'll come back once he's done."

She followed him out into the first hall, the once composed of dreary metal, brick and cement but he didn't lead her down either side, instead he just gestured to a few doors.

"That there is my lab, there's a few more down the end. Work rooms, storage, and office and the big double doors lead down to the lowest parts of the lair. Cells, torture chambers, evil workings and another bathroom."

He said it all so casually, right up to the cells and torture chambers as if it were the most normal thing to have in your home. She blinked for a moment, unsure how to respond. She found it didn't really bother her as she knew it should, nor find any reason why he wouldn't have told her. She considered it a moment, if the roles were reversed and sure, she'd tell him. In fact she'd even tell Janey without worrying if she'd freak out. It was just normal, well maybe not normal but not anything to put much thought into.

"We can head into the office to discuss the plan and anything else you like, or the library but I think it might be a bit distracting. I think the dog bots were in there last night too."

"I find it hard to imagine you needing an office."

"You never know when the situation might call for one. Now, for example?"

"Makes me feel like were about to discuss business." She joked.

"Well we could always go to my room?" he said with a suggestive smirk.

"Why not mine?"

"Yours isn't ready yet."

"It's still got a floor."

"Temptress."

"Thought I was a seductress?"

"Well pin me then and we'll restart this conversation."

"Don't get your hopes up."

"Again I say Temptress."

He took the lead and she followed, crossing her arms across her chest as they passed doors that contained all manner of secrets she longed to uncover. She wanted to add the lab to a list of places that took her interest but was fairly sure whatever was locked away in there wouldn't be for her eyes, not yet at least. She heard odd noises from one of the work rooms, the sound of water from another until the door at the end of the corridor swung open of its own accord and she found herself facing Minion again, only with his arms were bundled with wood.

"Hey, Boss! I found your old bed and had the dog bots move it in but there's still a lot of trash I've got to clear out-"

"I hope you're not doing any inventing without me?" he said sternly, though it was more like a kid who had found out he was missing something fun.

"No, of course not, Sir. Just fixing up some of the broken furniture. You really should be more careful were you store destructive bots, one almost took my arm off again." He laughed merrily. Again huh? She briefly wondered if she should be concerned for her own safety, especially sleeping in an old work room probably filled with dangerous inventions.

"Nonsense, Minion." He chuckled, taking one of the planks and hoisting it over his shoulder. It was understandable that Minion could with his robotic arms but seeing Megamind do it seemed uncharacteristically impressive. Megamind was always impressive and it's not like he was a weakling but seeing him actually do something Roxanne couldn't do was a bit of a shock at first. "I'll meet you in the office in a moment, Roxy." He said, stepping past her carefully and shooting a friendly smile over his shoulder. Minion beamed the entire time, even spinning around in his fish bowl to wave his little fins and it was all Roxanne could do not to beam back with as much enthusiasm. It was so impossible not to smile around the delightful fish.

Watching the two of them turn into the other hall she sighed and let herself into the office. This was much more Megamind. Entirely composed of metal, switches, screens, dials and tables covered in blueprints. His desk sat in front of the largest screen in the room and various images of Metro City flicked past like a slide, it didn't too long to realise in each seen was a frozen Wayne, circled with writing and goofy sketches, arrows indicating certain places and sometimes she could read things like 'weak spot, extra padding, bruise able' but for the most part the letters where things she couldn't place or varied languages she couldn't read, mostly Japanese. She slid into his high baked char, the only one in the room, before turning to his desk, also littered with notes, blueprints and an embedded screen he could draw and write on with a little black pen. It was amazing to think that every part of this room was made by him and him alone and for a moment she felt rather inferior. She'd never be a smart as he was and seeing this made her feel like she was playing god with suggesting the plan when really she was a child asking mummy to place spaceships.

She kept her hands to herself, not sure if it would be safe to touch more than half with switches or glowing buttons but when her eyes landed on a photo propped up against a pile of tools she had to reach out and touch it, unsure if it was real. There she was, Miss Roxanne Ritchie reporting on the farming chaos just outside Metro city. It was raining that day so she was standing with a black umbrella, her long her catching the wide. She couldn't deny how nice she looked in the shot, probably a freeze of the actual report but that's not what caught her attention. It was the outfit she had worn that day. Being relatively new to the news cast they hadn't started shoving her into green plaid dresses yet. Instead it was plain black jeans, a black top and a blue belt. His colours. He'd seen her wear his colours and kept this for all those years. Why? She had no idea. In fact, if she remembers right, the first kidnapping was the next day.

"Those colours suited you."

She set it back down were she found it.

"Sorry, just remembering how cold it was that day."

"I remember, I spent most of it outside adjusting the front door. You were on when I came in to check the weather."

She nodded, still lost in thought before she stood up to give him his seat.

"Oh no, you can stay there, I need to do some things first, make sure all is well in the world." He said with a chuckle, making his way to a pile of blueprints and shifting them aside to reveal a set of buttons. He pushed a few, checked some screens, sometimes voices would sound from speakers around the room but she never understood the language. Finally he came over to the desk and leaned over her, one hand on her shoulder as he tinkered with some buttons around the screen on her desk. She felt she should have been watching the files he was looking at but instead she was preoccupied with how warm he was and felt herself constantly looking up at him, his eyes focused on the screen and occasionally he'd mouth something as if talking to himself. It seemed so human…

"This is everything I have on Wayne. You can take a look, it's all in English but some of the files might be named a little mumbo jumbo. I tend to just mash the keys and save it as whatever." He said casually, turning his chemical green eyes to hers and smiling. She was surprised at how close he was and it caught her off guard. Thankfully she wasn't the blushing type but she was sure she got caught briefly looking at his lips. Which she should have had no interest in, but being this close to anyone tended to make that happen.

"Thanks" she said, returning the smile and leaning over the screen, already tapping at folders with his pen. He lingered for a moment longer, as if debating something before stepping away and heading back to whatever it was he was doing.

Weaknesses, strengths, arms, legs, torso, impervious, bruises, current health, lifetime injuries. This is how his folders were labelled and considering how many times he had failed to take the 'hero' down such a vast amount of knowledge seemed unusual. She needed only to remind herself who she was sharing the room with, for Megamind there was no failure, just new knowledge and he had categorised all of it. It was fascinating and the sheer amount of information had her feeling like a kid in a candy store. Most importantly, all of it seemed useful in one way or another. Things like weakness, not physically but that he hated enclosed spaces, didn't like being underground, didn't like to hurt people but oddly enough had no worry about hurting the criminals he apprehended. Then there were folders that contained an all manner of things that could be used as blackmail, things he wouldn't want the world to know. Silly things like once stealing a bag of sweets for him and his friends but Roxanne knew with his sense of justice that it would feel worse than robbing a bank to him.

"Could you press the button labelled with what looks like an umbrella?" he asked while standing on his toes reaching about on a shelf. She glanced to her side and spotted it fairly quickly, a Japanese symbol, maybe, or something else entirely. She pressed it and one of the screens near where he was standing folded around to reveal a small cupboard filled with papers. "Thanks" he said quickly, reaching in and scuffling around. She quickly found she loved it in here. The more she read the more excited she was, it was like sitting down with a fun movie and a bunch of snacks. Sometimes Megamind would come and play around on 'her' screen, other times she'd be asked to push buttons and even once key in some words in the command window on screen.

"If you head into the folder labelled 'X32_5L' just out of your current directory there should be a file in there with some numbers as a title, could you open it for me?" he said, scooping up some sketch pads and putting them away. She did as she was told but didn't have much chance to see what was on screen because he came over and pushed another button, switching it to the screen behind her. She turned to take a look and was greeted with the recording of an old fight, in fact the two looked to be only just out of high school. Megamind wasn't doing much at first, not even talking to Wayne who was standing their trying to look impressive. Actually, they weren't fighting, it looked like they were staring each other down.

"I needed some footage where he wasn't moving around." He explained, sitting on the arm of her chair and tilting it slightly. "I just wanted to show you something… There." He says, pointing to Wayne, it takes a few seconds for her to see anything but then there it is, plain as day, the invincible Metro Man is bleeding, a snake of blood curving down his wrist.

"But how?"

"No idea, I've never figure it out."

"I thought it wasn't possible."

"Me too but I want it."

"Imagine what you could do with it."

"Eliminate disease maybe? Weakness?" it doesn't sound like a question, more a conversation with himself.

"That's why you're showing it to me. Even if we didn't want to control him, we still need him… Wait, this is why you fight with him so often?"

"Not at first, but now it is. I could destroy him emotionally, very easily, but I need to wound him. Not enough to kill him, not enough to make him weak-"

"Just enough to make him bleed."

"Exactly."

"Does he know what his blood could do?"

"He does, I've discussed it with him on the battle field. He won't confess he can though."

"It's an eyelash in our Mona Lisa, isn't it?"

"Possibly an entire eye. If you want the plan to work we'll need that blood and while I know I'm smart I also know we think very differently, I want you to find out how to do it."

"Me? How on earth could I do that? You've spent years-"

"I'm not human, not even close. He's almost human, his brain structure is similar."

"I see…" she didn't really, not entirely. She knew how serious he was though, knew that he believed this was something he couldn't do and if that amazing mind of his was sure she could than who was she to argue? She turned back to his desk, keen to drink in all the information he had, now sure it was meant for her eyes all along.

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Chapter End

Notes on the Criminal Mind / Contains Spoilers

Nothen

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