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It took Roxanne two cups of coffee to calm down enough to even think straight again. She couldn't believe it, couldn’t believe this had happened to her. Stupidly she'd let herself be fooled and had fallen in love.
It hurt to know that once again she had been used. But while before she'd always been the bait for Metro Man, this time the way in which Megamind had hurt her had been so much more personal.
Not that nearly dying so the city's hero would save you wasn't personal. Because it was. But she had always been able to see it as an occupational hazard, the danger a good journalist had to face once in a while to get to the heart of a story.
This was different, though.
This really hurt more than she wanted to admit even to herself.
But she had fallen in love with Bernard. She really had. Someone who made her laugh, who was interesting, who listened to her and wrote funny text messages at just the right moments. She'd thought Bernard to be someone who was crazy enough to share in her adventures, a partner who wasn't intimidated by a woman who was forceful and adventurous like her, but all that had obviously only been part of the act. (Had he really destroyed his own headquarters just to get closer to her? How crazy was that? Seriously?)
The supervillain Megamind, as she'd come to know him, had always been big on the theatrics, but she'd never thought him capable of this kind of acting.
Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe he'd been a masterful actor all along. She thought about all their little encounters and dates and shared stories, how real Bernard had seemed.
No, she hadn't been wrong at all. A lot of things made sense now.
Not all of it had been acting. Some of it had been purely Megamind.
But when had it all started? What had made him want to do it in the first place? And did he really think she would feel something for him?
Had he really hoped to be with her one day?
The thought alone made her angry again. That evil little shit! He'd selfishly made her care about him!
And she had imagined herself a future together with a man who could really keep up with her.
It was hard to believe it, but she still had feeling for that man even now. For Bernard. Very much not Megamind.
But that made it even worse. Bernard had never even existed and her heart was breaking anyway.
I never heard you laugh before, she heard Bernard's voice in her memories, although she had to admit to herself now that it was in truth the voice of Megamind. (Stupid! How could she not have known?) Just less frantic, less overblown, softer – more private? - than she normally got to hear it.
She felt like crying.
There was no Bernard. She was alone.
The city was even worse off now than it was before. And, of course, it was all the fault of one clever, but self-absorbed Master of Evil who once again was about to see all his plans turn against himself. What kind of highly-intelligent idiot built himself a replacement for his nemesis because he was bored, anyway? And who would chose someone like Hal of all people to be a hero and expect him to follow in the footsteps of Metro Man?
She remembered Bernard telling her about his childhood, and how he'd always been misunderstood, and scoffed at the thought. It was time to forget about Bernard.
Bernard had never been real.
==
When he turned up at her door, she tried to get rid of him by pushing the door into his face. She knew it was a bad idea to let him anywhere near her again at the best of times and right now her feelings were still a confusion of grief and anger. But he had come to her of all people for help, because he really had no where else to go. Metro City was already in shambles. And now that Metro Man wasn't there anymore to save them – somebody else would have to do his job.
A few weeks ago who would have thought that it would be her teaming up with him to do it.
And she would do it.
It still hurt.
And she was still angry.
But there were things to be done if they wanted to save everyone from the new super-powered criminal Megamind had created.
“Why do your plans always backfire?” she asked angrily, when they left the building together. “Everything is your fault!”
Something sad passed through his eyes then and he nodded. “I know. I didn't want it to be this way.”
He said it with that soft and private voice she'd heard him use so often as Bernard and didn't know if he meant the Titan mess, his tricking her, the death of Metro Man – or maybe even all of it.
==
Only when they found out that Metro Man was still alive, after listening to the hero's side of the story, after nearly bursting with anger for being played once again – and this time by someone who really should be better than all this – does Roxanne begin to understand something she'd never thought about before.
If Metro Man had felt caged by his hero persona, what had Megamind been feeling when he'd suddenly been without purpose? Why hadn't he just stopped and left like Metro Man when there had been no nemesis to fight anymore? Why had he been desperate enough to create a new hero?
Maybe the villain from outer space was really just a messed up man.
And maybe she saw another side of him for the first time when she met him as Bernard, because his villain persona had never allowed her to look at the real him.
Maybe Metro Man had the right idea and it was time for Megamind to start over, too.
“Our... your city,” he told the hero who quit, and Roxanne was surprised that Megamind really thought of this place as his home – although he had spend years trying to destroy it.
Metro Man was still out, though, not willing to return after staging his death. Roxanne knew she couldn't beat Titan alone. She needed a partner.
But Megamind looked at her like his heart had been broken once too often.
And, yes, his words made it perfectly clear: He was as locked into his role as bad guy, as Metro Man had been into his role as hero.
Well, if they weren't going to help her, she'd stand up to Hal on her own.
==
After the fight was over the town had to figure out how they were going to deal with a villain who had suddenly become their hero.
And Roxanne had to come to grips with her own feelings – because she was still angry and it was hard to just forget about years of supervillany, but she had come to really love this guy all over again. The man she'd fallen in love with really did exist.
He was just a little more different and a little more messed up than she could ever have known.
“You could have been good all along,” she said softly, looking out over the city from the window of her apartment.
A slightly banged up and nervous Megamind was pacing behind her. “I thought, being bad seemed to be the one thing I was good at. But I really failed at it, didn't I?”
“Well, you had your moments. But most of your plans ended in disaster...” She smiled. “This one actually helped you to come around, so the disaster wasn't all bad.”
He didn't laugh, but nodded at her, looking over at Minion who was happily splashing around in her kitchen sink. Strange how she could ever have thought him the evil pet of a mastermind who was bad to the bone.
“We should probably talk about some rules. I don't like being played. I don't like being lied to. I don't like being kidnapped either. So if you want to be the good guy who gets the girl, we'll have to start over. You have a lot to learn.”
He looked at her then. “Does that mean...”
She extended her hand: “Hello, I'm Roxanne Ritchie. You may have heard of me.”
Megamind looked at her hand for a moment, before extending his own. “Ollo, Roxanne. I'm glad to meet you.”