Chapter Nine

On the day he had defeated Titan and began the change from Megamind the luckless villain to Megamind the much more successful hero, Roxanne had been introduced to the Lair's hitherto unseen living quarters. After the inevitable statements to the police, discussions with the mayor and other officials, and a just-in-case visit to the hospital, it had been discovered that her apartment had been trashed by Hal, who apparently had come looking for her while she and Megamind had gone to Metro Man's hideout, seeking his help. In a fit of generosity, Megamind had offered her the temporary use of a part of his fortunately intact home, to use until her apartment was repaired or she found more suitable lodgings.

Located on the topmost floor of the old warehouse, the place where he and Minion did their non-villainous living had come as a huge shock to Roxanne, not because it existed, but because it showed that the usually over-the-top alien actually had a thoughtfully classy side she had never suspected. Thanks to a teenaged fascination with architecture (which Megamind claimed had actually been a fascination with the engineering necessary to cause spectacular acts of demolition and destruction), every room on the floor had been done in a distinctly different style of architecture and decor, each suitably reflecting both an excellent sense of form and function, as well as some of the villain's carefully hidden quirks. The Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School style living/video room was one of her personal favorites (with the positively decadent Art Nouveau master bathroom a close second), but she also enjoyed the chamber they were now entering: a huge library that, as near as she could describe it, was a futuristic interpretation of neo-Byzantine styles. It was where the alien genius kept all manner of books, CDs, videos, blueprints, maps, and various other informative items and devices along with an equally impressive number of mementos and knickknacks that ranged from highly sophisticated to childishly tacky.

The library's lighting was mostly indirect, to give it an atmosphere well-suited to its design and function. Only a part of it came on as the couple entered, an energy conserving renovation Minion had suggested as something they ought to do, now that they were the good guys. Megamind hadn't objected, largely because Roxanne approved, but also because it gave the place an aura of mystery which he still enjoyed. They headed for the oversized curio cabinet in which the oldest artifacts of his childhood were kept and lovingly preserved, once they had been smuggled out of the prison. Roxanne was already familiar with his battered escape pod and the still glowing binky, as well as the now-empty and slightly cracked sphere that had been Minion's first habitat.

That sight prompted another thought. "By the way, where is Minion tonight? I wanted to thank him for the great leftovers he sent over to the office for lunch." The food, as always, had been excellent, but what she'd really wanted to thank him for was the inspiration of sending it via brainbot. The stir the little thing had caused trying to get in to see her had been priceless.

"Out playing celebrity," Megamind explained as he scanned the cabinet shelves, as if looking for something that was missing. "He was invited to participate in a seminar at the convention of some Great Lakes ichthyological society this afternoon, and he was asked to attend their banquet this evening as a guest of honor. I don't expect him home until the wee hours of the morning."

Roxanne's blue eyes widened. "And you didn't go with him?" She was frankly surprised.

But Megamind smiled, suspending his search. "Not this time. I know, he's always been there to root for me under similar circumstances, but I think he deserves a chance to have the spotlight all to himself, for a change. Not that I believe my mere presence would take that away from him, but you know Minion. He's so determined to make up for all the years I was feared and rejected, he'd insist on sharing the attention, if I was there. I didn't want that to happen. He didn't think it would, but I persuaded him to try it my way, just this once. If things go badly, I promised I'd go with him, next time — and I'm sure there will be a next time, just as I'm sure he's going to have a ball, being outside my shadow."

Roxanne's surprise melted into a look of affection. "You big softie," she teased, though she also kissed his cheek. "Minion does deserve that, and it's sweet of you to think of him that way. You may have a big head, but at least it isn't swelled — most of the time."

To his credit, he laughed. "Well, it is Megamind, not MegaEgo. There were reasons I chose 'Megamind' as my professional name, you know," he added as he turned back to the cabinet. "Aside from the fact that it was extremely cool and accurately descriptive—" He blithely ignored her dubious snort. "—it also happened to use the same letter — or equivalent letter sound — as my real name. That made the logo more useful, since it could double as a legitimate monogram, if I wanted. Wayne, the idiot, never thought of that."

Roxanne pondered that possibility while Megamind released her hand to open the glass-fronted cabinet. It was securely locked, but nonetheless recognized his touch and soundlessly unlatched for him. "I suppose it would've made sense," she reflected, watching him do something with the back of a particular shelf that suddenly made an invisible panel slide open. She had to hand it to him, he was amazing when it came to inventing invisible security, not to mention achieving outright invisibility. "Wayne never bothered to hide behind a secret identity any more than you did. But what name would he have used? Wonder Snob?"

Megamind chuckled. "I've thought of worse," he admitted. "I mean, really, why even bother with a hero name when you pick something as unimaginative as 'Metro Man'? It's like a hero in New York calling himself 'Bronx Man' or 'Yonkers Man.' No sense of presentation and style at all!"

He reached into the compartment behind the hidden door and pulled out a cube of gleaming black metal, about the same general size as a baseball. The door slid back into place, once again blending seamlessly with the back of the shelf. When his arm withdrew from the cabinet, it also closed, locking as silently as it had opened.

Roxanne shook her head in amazement. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to all the hyper-advanced technology you've got around this place. Could you imagine what people would pay for some of this stuff?"

The blue genius waved it off as a matter of inconsequence. "Yes, and can you imagine how badly it could be abused if some of it fell into the wrong hands? I, at least, have always had morals and ethics and a regard for the lives of others. You can't say that about the military and terrorist types or even the big business types who would want to exploit it the most. I've managed to patent enough harmless technology to provide for my needs. I don't need to risk having my inventions misused by people with no regard for anything but personal gain."

"You've got a point," she had to admit. "Better that you keep some of these things quiet, to use on the really dangerous villains when you need it. So, what's the deal?" she asked as he took the black cube to a nearby table and set it down.

He gave her a secretive little smile as he touched the cube and, like the cabinet and the hidden safe, it opened. In this case, its upper half popped back like the top of a jewel box, revealing its hidden gem: a faintly opalescent sphere perhaps two inches in diameter, nestled on a bed of electric blue silk. It reflected the various lights in the room rather prettily, but was otherwise unremarkable in appearance. But Roxanne knew better.

"Is this the ball you wrote about?" she asked, her head cocked curiously as she studied it. "The one Nick gave you?"

"The same," Megamind confirmed. From the lid of the box, he pulled out a piece of matching blue silk, which he then used to pluck the sphere from its nest so that his fingers didn't touch it directly. "Over the years, I've been able to examine both it and the pod more closely. Eventually, I was able to figure out that this is a very powerful data storage device, designed to hold and dispense its information in response to various stimuli. The pod didn't eject it because of an impending crash, like Nick had thought. It was designed to release the data sphere when the pod landed and the airlock seal was cracked. Though the door didn't pop open in that first bounce, the airlock seal did crack then, so the sphere was ejected at that moment of impact. It didn't go far from where the pod struck, as I was supposed to find it and pick it up, as any child would, as soon as I left the pod. If I was lucky enough to have a rescuer at hand, they would find it first, think it was my toy, and hand it to me. It would then scan my DNA and other identifying factors through contact with my skin, and activate. Since I was a baby, the presumption was that I would be handled by my rescuer, who would be able to see the sphere's message when in direct contact with me."

"That's very clever," the reporter approved, brushing back a stray lock of her dark hair to take a closer look at the thing. "Does it have any other secrets you've discovered over the years?"

His eyes glittered with a charmingly mysterious light. "A few," he said cryptically. He reclaimed her hand with his empty one and drew her to a dim part of the room that held several comfortable high-backed leather chairs. He guided her into one, then pulled up another so that he could sit facing her, close enough for their knees to touch. She raised one eyebrow to ask what he was up to; she got her answer as soon as he was seated.

"I don't know who designed this technology," he explained as he adjusted his legs and moved forward a little bit more so that when he took her hand and drew it toward him, her arm was still in a comfortable position, not awkwardly outstretched. "I like to think it was my parents, since they appear to have been the only ones on our planet with either the ability or the foresight to save their child. But it's possible others did, and I was the only one sent to Earth. Neither here nor there, in any case." He took her hand and turned it palm up, then slipped the sphere from the piece of silk to rest cupped in her fingers, his own palm cradling the back of her hand.

Her forehead crinkled with confusion, for the sphere remained lifeless and dark. "I thought you said it only activates if you touch it directly."

Megamind nodded. "That's right, but I found there are other things that influence its playback, for lack of a better word. Someone else may have invented the technology, but my parents definitely programmed these parameters for me, to provide me with certain... things."

This time, both Roxanne's eyebrows lifted. "Things?" she echoed. "Are you sure this isn't a weird metaphor for showing me your etchings?"

His answering expression was the most perfect non-verbal, "Puh-leeze!" Roxanne had ever seen. She shrugged apologetically, blowing him a small kiss for good measure. It wasn't much, but it worked.

"Anyway," the mollified ex-villain continued, "I always knew that my parents must have loved me, to try to save me rather than themselves, but at first, I thought it was a pretty raw deal. I needed them, not just to save me, but to be there for me when I wanted comfort when I was scared, when I needed soothing when I was angry, when I just needed to hear that I was loved, like any little kid does. They couldn't actually be there to do all those things, but I found out that they had tried, as best they could."

He closed his eyes for the better part of a minute, took several deep breaths that he released slowly, as if trying to achieve some kind of trance or rapport, then touched the sphere with the index finger of his other hand.

Roxanne gasped when instantly, the sphere began to glisten and glow, just as he'd described in his writing, tingling ever so slightly against her skin. Very quickly, the beautiful display of glimmering colors took shape, and settled into the forms of two people, clearly a man and a woman of Megamind's alien race, both blue-skinned, large-headed, and bald. Both were dressed in high-collared jumpsuits of shimmering white, and both wore expressions of deep sadness, and deeper affection. The man was brown-eyed, with a full black Vandyke style goatee and a long-featured face very much like the new hero's; the woman's only hair was her elegant black eyebrows, and her large eyes were a bright and oh-so-familiar emerald green. At first, they were no more than a still image; then they moved and spoke, their voices soft but clear.

"We love you, Mykaal. We will always love you."

The message whispered over and over, and was so intensely heartfelt, it brought tears to Roxanne's eyes. "Oh, Megamind...!" she breathed, unable to speak more loudly. "I understand them!"

He opened his eyes and nodded, smiling faintly. "Yes, now. The device apparently has a kind of intelligent translator as part of its function. The more it's exposed to a language, the more it learns. Earth has so many different languages, my parents couldn't have been sure which one would be used where I finally landed. Even though I think they'd planned for specific coordinates, there were too many things that might've happened to change them. After Nick found it, he apparently kept it someplace where it couldn't pick up enough English to learn it, so when I first activated it, it spoke to me in my native language, and I was already beginning to forget the little of it that I knew. In the crowded environs of the prison, it was able to pick up considerably more, and once I was out, I just happened to keep it close enough to things like televisions for it to learn even more. The first time it spoke to me in English, I nearly fainted!"

"But you did understand what they were saying, when Nick gave it to you?"

His answering expression seemed to simultaneously confirm and deny it. "Not immediately, but very quickly, yes, certainly before I fell asleep after he'd given it to me." His gaze focused on the familiar image, his face softening into equally familiar affection. "I suppose I heard them say this a lot, during those first eight days when we were together. I needed to hear this that night with Nick, and many times after. It's the first thing every child needs to hear from their parents."

Roxanne agreed completely. "It certainly is. Did the image start talking because you wished it could?"

"In a way. Its sensory capacities extend to picking up emotional stimuli, not just biological, and when it does, it reacts by playing other recordings my parents made, designed to offer comfort or support or certain information. Once, when I was upset and angry and confused and wanted to know why I'd been sent away, why I just didn't die along with the rest of my world, I triggered a recording of my father explaining why they decided to try to save me, and why our world was doomed. It must have required a very unique emotional stimulus, because I've never been able to get it to replay. I wish I could; there was so much information I couldn't remember because I was too upset at the time to give it my full attention."

"Maybe it's just as well," the reporter offered, gently, her blue eyes raising to meet his. "Not that you can't retrieve the information, but that you never were in that same state of mind. It almost sounds as if you were getting dangerously close to suicidal."

Megamind had started to protest, but what he had planned to say dissipated in the face of her compassionate reason. He closed his mouth, then nodded. "You may be right. I really don't have those kind of tendencies — the prison psychologist once called me obscenely and recklessly optimistic — but that was the closest I'd ever been. Things were... very difficult for me, then. And I suppose it may be for the best that I can't get it to play again. However I feel about it, that world is dead, gone forever. This is my home, now."

Her head having lowered to study the recording again, Roxanne glanced up at him through her eyelashes, with a look that reliably made his heart and knees melt. "It's not so unbearable, is it?"

Megamind's answering smile was endearingly sappy. "No, not any— oh!" His moonstruck expression suddenly turned to one of startled surprise. It took only a second for her to see what had caused his reaction.

The image of his parents had vanished, the voices faded to silence. The swirling ribbons of formless color had returned; they moved more quickly for several moments, then slowed, reformed, and shimmered into the image of his mother. She was alone, dressed in clothing similar to the white jumpsuit, but with a higher collar and made of some fabric in gleaming hues of green that complemented her eyes. She was smiling, a look that mingled relief and sadness.

"Mykaal, my son," she said warmly. "If you are seeing this message, you have managed to live and survive on your new world for thirty-six years, as time is counted there. This means that in the natural ways of our kind, you have now fully reached that part of our life cycles known as adulthood."

"WHAT?"

Megamind was so shocked by his mother's words, he leapt to his feet and clapped both hands to his head, causing the sphere's light to go out. Fortunately, Roxanne had reflexively closed her fingers around it, saving it from skittering off into the suddenly darker library. She couldn't restrain the smirk that tugged at her lips. "It sounds to me as if your mom was saying, 'Congratulations, son, today, you are a man.'"

The alien genius regarded his girlfriend with horrified disbelief. She chuckled softly then relented, taking his hand with her free one and placing a soft kiss on its back. "It sounds pretty shocking," she said in more reassuring tones, "but I have to admit, it explains a lot."

"Oh, does it?" he squeaked, not terribly reassured. "Like... like... like just what does this explain?" He flung his free arm wide, obviously at a loss.

Roxanne tugged on his hand, encouraging him to sit down again. He complied, but nervously, as if the slightest thing might set him off again. She took a deep breath, willing him to calm down. She was positive she could feel the pulse of his hammering heart through his slender fingers. "Well, maybe it doesn't explain much to you, but to those of us on the outside looking in... yeah, it explains a lot. I know you've always been offended by the way so many people in the media describe your behavior as childish and juvenile — but now, it looks like there's an actual reason for it. You have been a juvenile, for a lot longer than anyone expected, even you! But it's not something wrong with you, like people who act childishly because they refuse to grow up. Oh, I'm sure you'll always have a certain childlike quality about you because that's just the way you are, and it's part of what I love about you, your sense of wonder and your enthusiasm for all life has to offer, even your over-the-top dramatics. But some of your more genuinely childish behavior, the things the media likes to ridicule... Ever since you decided to become the good guy, you've been sort of... growing out of them. I noticed it a long time ago, but I was afraid that if I said anything, you'd be offended. But it's not a bad thing, not at all. It can help you win the respect you've always wanted, to get people to take you more seriously. It doesn't mean that you have to give up anything that makes you happy, or act any differently just because other people think you should; it just means that maybe you'll develop a better sense of how and when to use all the things that make you who you are to your best advantage, to get the most out of life in the way you want."

She paused, trying to gauge his reaction, which still appeared to be one of shock. "Am I making any sense?" she asked.

Megamind remained frozen for a moment, like a deer in the headlights; then he blinked, and his scared stiff, outraged demeanor relaxed. His mobile face danced through a series of indecipherable but interesting expressions, then settled into a sort of hard-thinking befuddlement. "I suppose," he finally allowed, then heaved a considerable sigh. "Yes, yes, you are, you're making perfect sense. It's just... I mean, I never had any idea about this! Minion never said anything, though I doubt he knew, and neither did any of the other messages my parents recorded. Gah, I wish they'd sent an encylopidia in the pod! It would've been so useful...!"

Roxanne smiled. "It's encyclopedia, hon, and maybe it's just as well they didn't. Like you said, that world is gone, and it wouldn't have helped you much if you'd known all there was to know about a place you could never go back to."

"I guess..." He visibly deflated, shoulders sagging as he slumped into the chair. "It's just... embarrassing," he admitted, managing to get out the last word after a huge pause.

Her smile faded. "Why? It's not like she called you her widdle bitty cutesie-pooh baby boy..."

He winced. "She might as well have. She said I've been an overgrown child all these years! And apparently, I was! How would you feel if our positions were reversed?"

Roxanne tried to imagine it, and saw his point. "Embarrassed, probably. I know I didn't care for it when my dad called me his 'pretty little princess' in front of my boyfriends when I was sixteen, and I would've strangled him if he'd tried that when I was eighteen or twenty. But I'm sure your mother wasn't trying to embarrass you. If what's bothering you is the fact that I was around to hear it, I can leave and let you listen to what she has to say alone. I'll understand if that's what you want."

Megamind seriously considered taking her up on the offer for about ten seconds, but in the end, he sat up straighter and shook his head, sighing. "No, I don't see any point in it, the damage is already done."

She squeezed his hand. "No damage done," she promised. "In fact, I find it... intriguing." He perked up at this. "After all, kids with any kind of an imagination usually grow up to be the most fun and fascinating adults. Given what I already know about you, I want to be along for the rest of the ride."

She couldn't have chosen a better response if she'd tried. His posture straightened all the more, and the brightness returned to his eyes. "So it doesn't disgust you to think you've been dating an... immature child?"

The gleam in her eye was anything but innocent. "You're no child, and you're anything but disgusting. I'd say inexperienced rather than immature, innocent in a way that I have a hard time resisting because it's not an act; it's just who you are. I'm actually relieved to know that this is real, that you aren't a perennial juvenile sleazebag like Hal and a lot of the guys who've hit on me over the years. Even when you were kidnapping me every other week, you were pretty much of a gentleman about the whole thing. You may have annoyed me and pissed me off, but you never creeped me out, thinking it was only a matter of time before... well, let's not go that way," she added quickly when she saw him paling to a rather sickly grayish-blue at the very intimation. "It didn't happen, and with you, I never thought it would. Not because it couldn't, but because let's face it, even as a villain, you had this obnoxiously stubborn streak of decency that just wouldn't go away!"

The color came back to the blue face, along with a slight blush. "It could be such a nuisance," he agreed with a laugh made weak from an excess of relief. "But what you're suggesting, it would never have happened. I just... couldn't. I mean, I could, I had the physical capacity for it, but I just wouldn't. Not with anyone, especially not with you. That kind of act is for real monsters, the ones who do deserve to be locked away in dungeons. And no matter how many people called me one because of the way I look, I was not about to prove them right by doing something so disgustingly inhuman. I couldn't even think it."

Her smile returned, filled with pride and affection for this proof of that nuisancy noble streak. "Then maybe your mother was wrong. I don't think she could've known how hard your life would be here on Earth, how it would force you to grow up faster than any child should."

Megamind pondered all these things for a time, then reached a conclusion. "Perhaps both of you are right. It's true, I didn't have a normal childhood by any definition, and while my physical growth rate appears to have been similar to a human's, I've always felt that something inside me wasn't quite right, something beyond the strange circumstances of growing up in a prison. It's as if I've been waiting for something to happen, something to... finish, is the best word to describe it. I've read studies that say the human brain doesn't reach its full cognitive and emotional development until the early twenties. With one like mine, it shouldn't be at all surprising if it would naturally take a little longer. That could explain my feeling of being somehow incomplete."

"It certainly could," Roxanne said most emphatically, glad that he had reasoned this out for himself. There were some things a person had to realize on their own. "Do you want to see if there's anything more to your mother's message? Or would you rather just skip it?"

"It may be academic, if it required certain emotional components to be activated," the alien noted. "My head certainly isn't in the same place it was five minutes ago. But yes, I'd like to try."

She began to offer the sphere for him to take, but he shook his head and indicated that they do this as they'd done before. "Is it supposed to tingle?" she asked as he again placed his hand below hers, but before he touched the sphere.

Megamind shrugged. "I don't know. I feel it myself, sometimes, but not always, usually only before it shows me something new. It might be part of how it checks for recognition factors. Does it hurt?" he asked, suddenly protective. "Because if it does, we can stop, or have you simply touch me and not the sphere..."

She chuckled mischievously. "Much as I enjoy the touching you suggestion, I think I'd rather do it this way. There's something nice about the thought that it might be getting to know me. It may be the closest I'll ever get to being introduced to your parents."

He hadn't considered that, but he found that he liked the notion. His smile back in place, he closed his eyes to center himself again, then touched the sphere.

The room brightened once more as the alien device came to life. The image coalesced quickly, as if impatient to resume its task. His mother reappeared, and spoke. To both their surprise, the message picked up where it had left off.

"I know that this may come as a shock to you, Mykaal, for it is the nature of our kind to achieve the simpler form of physical maturity long before our minds fully complete the same process. We celebrate this completion of mind and body at this time in our lives, for it marks the beginning of our ability to achieve our fullest and greatest potential, and to accept all that comes with it, both the joys and the pains, the freedoms and the burdens, the privileges and the responsibilities. This does not mean that among us, you would have been considered a true child until now, too immature to make your own choices and decisions—"

"Well, that's a relief!" Megamind exclaimed with a dramatic sigh. Roxanne shushed him, but gently.

"—it means only that what you have been and have done before this point has been a mere prelude to what you yet can be and achieve. Your father and I have both sensed the startling potential that you possess, the destiny of greatness that lies before you. There is so much that you might have given our people in the fullness of your adulthood; we could not allow such a light to be extinguished and lost with our world. There was too little time, so we made the decision that was our responsibility, as your parents and as adults who love both our son and our people. We saved you, our precious Mykaal, and now give to you this message of our love and joy that you have indeed survived to reach full maturity. We hope that you will share the great gifts with which you were born, and that you will do so wisely, for the benefit of all."

Her image began to fade, but a moment later reemerged, now appearing with Megamind's father beside her. His mother was wearing the same green outfit, while her mate wore something of similar design in deep blue and shimmering black. The combination looked good on him, as it did on his son, and Roxanne was beginning to understand this apparently racial fondness for high collars. The flare of that particular feature was an excellent complement to the long neck and large head that they all possessed. After seeing these other flattering examples of that fashion choice, she decided that maybe it was time to stop teasing her beau about his own similar habits. It was a harmless fashion statement, after all — within reason, of course. She really had to have a talk with Minion someday, and ask him just what he was thinking when he'd designed the Black Mamba.

All these thoughts were swept aside when the image came to life. This time, it was Megamind's father who spoke, in a cultured voice that was much like his son's, only deeper. He smiled, the warmth of the expression tinged with sadness, as were all the recordings, with good reason.

"Mykaal, we can only hope that you have found happiness in your new life. We did not choose the world you now know at random, for we wanted you to have at least the possibility of more than mere survival. Despite the differences in our appearances, our people and those among whom you now live are biologically compatible. When our probes first returned with data from those far reaches of the galaxy, it was speculated that at some point in the past, our races shared a common ancestor, and evolved in very similar ways. Natural selection and differing environs resulted in our unique appearances and abilities, but on the most basic biological levels, we are the same. Our needs are the same, not only in our requirements for sustaining physical life, but in our requirements for nourishing emotional life as well.

"Our fondest hope is that you will find someone to cherish deeply who will cherish you in return, so that you may know the joy your mother and I have found in each other. Although it may not be easy for our two peoples to bear children together, it is possible. But never think that we are laying upon you the onus of carrying on our race. That is too much for any one person to do, and too much for any parent to ask of their child. Our only wish was for you to at least have the choice of whether or not to begin a family of your own. There is no joy we could bear to deny you. Follow your own heart and dreams, whatever they might be, and our efforts will be repaid a thousandfold.

"All our thoughts and love go with you, Mykaal, until we meet once again in the Time After."

In the recording, his mother echoed those final words, then leaned her head against his father's shoulder. As they both smiled, the image froze, then faded.

Roxanne gasped as the forms dissolved into gentle swirls of soft light. She was surprised to find that she had been holding her breath in her efforts to catch every quietly spoken word, but she was not surprised to find her face wet with tears. They had started falling while Megamind's mother spoke of the reasons they had tried to save him, and hadn't stopped since. If anything, they had flowed even more freely while she listened to his father's speech — hitching only a bit when he mentioned the possibility of children. Rather than dwell on it, she finally tore her eyes away from the still glowing sphere to see Megamind's reaction.

She wasn't at all surprised to see that his face was every bit as damp as her own, since he had a refreshing tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve. But where she was using the back of her free hand to wipe away her own tears, he left his untouched, his eyes still fixed on the slow movement of the light. Not yet ready to speak, Roxanne turned her hand over so that the sphere now rested on his upturned palm, its glow only partially dimmed as it shone between their fingers.

When a brief eternity had passed, she finally felt the need to break the silence, if only delicately. "Megamind?" she said, her voice little louder than the whispered recording of his parents. "Mykaal?"

She'd made an effort to pronounce the name correctly, as he said it, as his parents both said it. She was rewarded with a response as he looked up, the half-shuttered light from the sphere creating interesting shadows on his wonderstruck face. "I — really wasn't expecting that," he admitted, also quietly, his eyes still distant, unfocused. "I knew that they loved me, but...!"

"It's a lot to take in, all at once," she agreed. "It's only natural for it to take time, for you to figure out how you feel about it."

"For some of it, yes. But not all." His eyes snapped back into focus so abruptly, Roxanne flinched, startled. "For a long time, I'd thought I wound up on Earth simply because it was the nearest place they could find with a suitable environment and sapient life forms that were similar enough to be able to take care of me until I could fend for myself. Obviously, I was wrong. They wanted so much more for me than that."

She frowned, not at him but for him. "And it was almost totally screwed up because of human prejudice," she said stiffly, feeling genuine disgust for her species, and for herself. "I'm so sorry..." she began.

But the ex-villain shook his head. "Don't be. You aren't responsible for the bigots in the world, or for my own mistakes. I'm grateful that you've been willing to try to put aside our past history and give me another chance, this past year or so."

"You earned it. And I'm glad you've given me a chance to get to know you better, the real you. Thank you for sharing this with me." A light squeeze of her fingers indicated the sphere still resting between their hands, and the information it had imparted.

His reply was completely without artifice. "There's no one else I'd ever want to share it with. I think..." he hesitated, biting his lower lip in a familiar mannerism that said he was searching for just the right words and feared screwing up. "I think maybe it's time we stopped dating."

Roxanne was genuinely shocked, those being perhaps the last words she'd expected to hear. "Are you saying you want to break up?" If he did, she wouldn't believe it.

To her relief, he shook his head. "No, it's just that 'dating' implies something casual, something temporary. Aren't there levels beyond that kind of relationship? Something more..." He bit his lip again, looking for the exact word. "...more consequenteeal?"

He was close enough and obviously trying so hard, she let the slight mispronunciation pass. "More serious, as in a stronger commitment?" The green eyes flicked away, as if afraid to light in any one place. He did nod, however briefly and nervously, and she smiled. "Yes, there are, and I think you may be right. But are you sure you're ready for that?"

She half-expected him to hedge, or say something like, "I am if you are," but once again, the alien surprised her. "I've been ready ever since I first met you," was his candid reply. "I tried to deny it, of course, but I always knew. There's no one else I could ever cherish that way. I don't even want to try. You're...perfect. For me," he added, afraid he was going too far.

When Roxanne let go of his hand and stood up, Megamind was positive he had gone too far, had said too much too soon. But she simply smiled in that way she had, telling him without a word that she was on to him. She took the sphere from his hand, set it down on her vacated seat, then settled herself in his lap and kissed him.

"That," she said breathlessly when they finally broke apart, though only by a matter of inches, "is the sweetest, most flattering thing anyone has ever said to me. Regular kidnappings may be the strangest kind of courting in history, but in the end, I guess it's the thought that counts."

He was caught in a strange state between regret for their difficult past and pure bliss for the present. "I never really intended to hurt you. But I did enjoy your company. Always."

Her laugh was not at all mocking. "To tell the truth, so did I. It's not every girl who manages to get the exclusive attentions of the only blue-skinned supergenius on the planet, even if it started off only because I was the perfect hostage."

He managed to chuckle in response, more or less certain that she was just teasing. "So, should we discuss exactly what comes next?" he asked, trying to be a gentleman about the matter.

Her expression turned wicked. "Later," she said, kissing his nose.

"Temptress," he accused, though with a grin.

"Got it in one," she congratulated, and gave him another kiss that left no doubt as to her intentions.

Megamind was happily allowing his brain to float off into a state of blissful nirvana to match what the rest of him was feeling as Roxanne taught him a few new pointers in the art of osculation, when the peculiar sound of rather tinny music floating above them spoiled the moment. Determined not to let that happen, he tried to ignore it, and was successful only until a very annoying spotlight shone down on them.

He was so annoyed by the interruption, Megamind nearly threw Roxanne off his lap as he reflexively stiffened. "What?" he demanded of the intrusive brainbot hovering above them. "Can't you see that Daddy's busy?"

The little robot bowged almost sheepishly as it dropped something small, then hastily took off with its proverbial tail between its equally proverbial legs. Roxanne, more amused than annoyed, deftly caught what was dropped. It was Megamind's ringing cell phone, and she recognized both the ringtone and the caller ID. "It's Minion," she said as she handed it over. "Remember, now, you wanted this to be a special day for him."

Her calmly-voiced reminder did wonders to cool the irked alien's temper, though he muttered to himself as he accepted the phone. "Code: No brainbots allowed on the LF during alone time." He took a moment to compose himself, then answered the call, much more cheerfully. "Ollo, Minion, what's up? Shouldn't you be sitting down to dinner right about now?... Oh, that was thoughtful of them, removing seafood from the menu, though you should tell them you have no problem eating those armored lobster and crab Neanderthals... What's that?... Oh, no, I don't mind at all, I think that's a splendid idea... Yes, I'm sure everything will be just fine here... Yes, I'll call if something important comes up... Of course. Have a good time, Minion. I'll see you tomorrow."

As he ended the call, Roxanne regarded her beau with a querulous look. "That was Minion, obviously," he explained, tossing the phone onto the vacated chair. "The people running the convention were so thrilled with his participation in today's seminar, they asked him to participate in a panel tomorrow morning, giving a fish-eye view about invasive species in the Great Lakes. He's been interested in that topic for years, and he was delighted to be offered a chance to air his opinions before such a distinguished audience. They offered him a room at the conference center for tonight, and he'll be back sometime tomorrow. He just wanted to be sure I'd be all right without him." He rolled his eyes in affectionate exasperation. "For a fish, he can be such an old mother hen!"

Roxanne clicked her tongue. "That's only because he cares, like I do." He harrumphed just for show, and she patted his cheek, amused. "So, I have to admit, you proved that you were right and I was wrong. Your name's Mykaal — for private use only, of course, not professional. But I don't think I want to go around calling you 'Megamind' all the time, either. What would you like me to use for a nickname? Mike?" His look of devastating disapproval made her laugh. "Okay, that's a big N-O. How about Myk?"

"Meek?" Megamind echoed the sound of the syllable accurately, grimacing. "Hardly appropriate, don't you think?"

She conceded. "Yeah, that's true, you may be a lot of things, but meek isn't one of 'em. How about..." She made a show of thinking. "...Bob?"

This time, he regarded her as if she'd seriously lost her mind. "It was just a suggestion," she said in defense of the obvious joke. "How about stud muffin?"

"Not terrible," he preened, as expected, "but also not suitable for general use."

"Agreed. We'll save that one for alone time. How about Meg?"

He waggled one hand. "I've heard worse, though I can just imagine what the media might do with it. It has an unfortunately feminine ring."

"Also true." She sighed, running out of ideas. "Well, then, how about just plain Blue?"

To her surprise, he smiled. "For a long time, I hated it," he confessed. "But writing that little story for you reminded me that not all the memories associated with it are bad. Especially coming from you, I wouldn't mind it anymore. Not at all."

"Then Blue it is," she said, sealing the deal with a brief kiss. "And by the way," she added before he could persuade her to resume any serious necking. "Just for the record, the kids at that lousy school were wrong about you and The List."

"Oh?" he wondered, curiosity piqued. "How so?"

Her grin was full of mischief. "I know from personal experience that when you're nice, you're very nice. And when you're naughty, you're even better."

It was an old joke, but still, it made him laugh. "Point taken," he said, surrendering to her logic. "So, Ms Ritchi, have I shown you all the interesting ways in which I combined Art Deco with late Victorian decor in constructing the master bedroom?"

She raised one eyebrow ever so slowly. "Now this time, I know you're inviting me to come see your etchings," she declared with absolute certainty.

He blushed, but was still smiling. "Guilty as charged," he confessed. "Is there any penalty for being predictable?" he asked in his best silky voice.

Her mouth quirked. "I'll think of something," she promised. She kissed him again, a token of the promised reward, then lithely slipped from his lap and stood up.

Megamind began to follow, then paused as he caught a reflection of the low light from the corner of one eye. As he stood, he retrieved the sphere from the empty chair and held it up between them, the sudden blossoming of its colorful glow wrapping them in a nimbus of soft light. "I want you to keep this for me," he explained to her puzzled reaction. "I know that there are some things we've been dancing around, avoiding out of fear — of our past, of being hurt. But I do love you, Roxanne. I'm not afraid to say it, anymore, I shouldn't be. After all, that's why I learned how to be who I always should've been: for you. I trust you, and I hope you can trust me."

The shimmer of the lights in his eyes made her feel weak in the knees, but she somehow managed to remain standing. "I do trust you, Mykaal," she answered honestly, the moment too precious for anything that wasn't completely real. "And I love you, too."

The brief kiss they exchanged was a promise of its own, and when it ended, he took her hand and placed the sphere on her palm, gently curling her fingers about it. To their mutual astonishment, it continued to glow, bright and clear, even when there was no other touch upon it but her own.

Reporter and reformed villain exchanged glances, hers perplexed but delighted, his one of smug comprehension. "I think we can take this as my parents' approval," he decided with impish glee, slipping one arm around her shoulders. "Welcome to the family, Ms Ritchi."

To be concluded...