Fanfic: Behind the Facade: Chapter #8

[raggedpelt]

Title: Behind the Facade, Chapter #8
Authors: Raggedpelt and Yami Neko Tsuki
Summary: The sequel to Nemesis Theory. This chapter includes treacherous serpents and exhausted fish.
Wordcount: 2,170
Rating: This particular chapter is rated PG-13. Rating of overall story will range from PG to NC-17.

Other notes: Most of Minion and Roxanne's dialogue in this chapter was written by Yami Neko Tsuki.

Previous Chapters:
Chapter #1: The Reset-A-Ray
Chapter #2: Shackles Leave Bruises
Chapter #3: The Odd One
Chapter #4: Paternal Instincts
Chapter #5: Home Alone
Chapter #6: Day Jobs
Chapter #7: Porn Weekends (NSFW!!) 

****

"Oh, come on little guy, you can do it!" Karen crooned, clapping her hands against her thighs, "It's only five feet. You can go five feet." Two months had gone by since Megamind had been restored to his adult self, and neither he nor Roxie had remembered that their swarm was one Brainbot short. Fine by her! Karen had done about as much repair work as she could possibly manage.

Meanwhile, Smedley whined at her from his kitty-basket, tucking his prehensile eye under his body and clacking his teeth a bit.

"Don't give me that," she scolded, "You've been asleep for the past twelve hours. I know you're not too tired. Now come on! …If you do it, I'll let you have the remote back."

The broken Brainbot perked up at that, and started to struggle to right itself. A moment later, the poor thing was holding itself aloft on trembling graspers. Flight was impossible; Karen didn't understand how the anti-gravity doodad worked, much less how to fix it, so she'd just taken it out entirely. His little graspers would have to do. Maybe later she'd replace them with something a little more stable for feet, but she wanted to see how he did on them as they were.

"Good boy! That's it! Now come on, you just need to put one foot in front of the other. You can do it."

Smedley narrowed his eye, staring at the ground in concentration, then back at the graspers he was tottering on. Painfully slowly, he lifted one and put it in front of him, carefully shifting to make it support his weight. That accomplished, he stared at his graspers some more, before picking another one and taking a step with it. One carefully studied step at a time, Brainbot #505 walked over to Notdaddy, who was enthusing over every ounce of progress.

"Good boy!" she squealed, patting the little robot on the head, "You are so smart, you know that? You figured out how to walk all by yourself."

The Brainbot just narrowed it's eye at her, making an impatient sort of noise.

"Oh, right," she said, pulling the remote off the top of her TV and handing it to him. She could literally sit on the couch, and change the channel with her foot without getting up, so the remote was kind of superfluous anyway.

His prize clutched carefully in his mouth, Smedley made his slow, faltering way back to his kitty bed.

****

Elsewhere, a venomous intruder lurked quietly under "Missritchi's" dresser, waiting for her to return home. Servant had encountered a predator of some sort when she first entered the human's nest, but a flared hood and rattling tail was enough to send the furry, striped beast along its way. Missritchi's servant, probably, though what good the mangled, stupid thing could do for it's human she had no idea. Soon enough, she heard the apartment door open and close. Perfect.

"Exscusse me," she hissed when she heard the primate enter the room, "Misssritchi?"

"Who's there!?" the human's voice sounded alarmed.

" A friend, pleassse do not be alarmed. I apologize for the intrusssion, but I'm afraid I mussst ssspeak with you"

"What do you want?" Not so much fear now, just suspicion. A lot of suspicion. Servant was going to have to take this very carefully.

"You are aware of a fissh named Minion, yess? Well, othersss of Megamind'ss sspeciess usse ssnakesss for a ssimilar purposse. I am one ssuch creature. I would like to ssspeak with you face to face, but I underssstand that many humanss are frightened of reptiless, and I do not wissh to causse any disstresss. Would it be alright if I come out?" After all, the last thing she wanted was to be killed due to some ridiculous fear of snakes.

"Fine, what do you want to talk about?"

Moving quickly, so as not to stay in her vulnerable spot on the floor too long, Servant darted from the dresser over to the bed post, climbing up it agilely and arranging herself in neat couls on the bed. "Thank you. My name iss- well, I'm called 'Sservant'. I need to sspeak with you about the one you know asss 'Megamind'."

Missritchi narrowed her eyes, "He already said he didn't want to go."

"I know. Do you know why he chosse to sstay?"

"Because he has a life here."

"Actually," Servant replied, choosing her words with utmost care, "Hiss Majessty sstayss becausse he hass you here."

The human's eyes widened at that, "What did you call him?"

Servant did her best to feign surprise, "He did not tell you?"

Missritchi's eyes narrowed in annoyance. Not a good sign, "Because he didn't know, he doesn't know anything about where he came from, other than the planet was destroyed."

Servant gave a dismissive wave of her tail, trying to shrug the misstep off, " He wass informed of it all by the envoy who came to sseek him. Hiss Majessty learned of hiss true sstation two.. ah.. I am ssorry, what iss the word for one changing of your moon?"

"Month."

"Thank you. I apologize for my ignorance of the term." She gave a polite, respectful dip of her head, "He learned of it two monthss ago. However, it doess not matter. I wass left behind to keep an eye on the sssituation, and I am terribly afraid for hiss ssafety."

Missritchi frowned, "What, why?"

"You are aware of hiss arangement with the.. Po.. Poli... the keepersss of the peacce here, yess? He musst face the darker, more criminal elementss of the city, or be locked away."

"He's not exactly in much danger here," she replied, before looking a bit uncomfortable, "....And he thinks of the jail as home."

"And what of the ssscar on hiss chesst?" The look on the mammal's face made it clear she had no answer for that. Servant just shook her head and looked at the floor, "He iss brave to a fault, and you know as well as I that if he sstayss here, he will eventually enter a fight he cannot win. The posssibility of defeat jusst doess not ssway him."

"But… he doesn't want to go."

"That iss not.. entirely accurate. It iss not that he doessn't want to go, it'ss that he doessn't want to leave you."

"I don't want to go either."

It took a good deal of Servant's willpower not to snicker at that. Like they would take a lesser species along with him. That just wouldn't do at all. Instead, she just looked at Missritchi in silence for a long moment, then heaved a sigh. "I do not know if you truely care for him. I am a poor judge of mammalian emotion, even in ssspeciess I am familiar with. However... if you wissh to ssave hiss Majessty'ss life, you may need to break hiss heart."

"What will happen to him if he does go back?"

"He iss a member of the royal family. The lasst member of the royal family. It wass an adored lineage, and one that reigned in peace for milennia. Right now the council iss sstruggling to hold thingss together, but it iss a fragile thing. With their guidancce, he could be reinsstated as the ruler and reclaim hiss birthright."

"But wouldn't that put him in more danger, if someone else was trying to.. to take the throne or something? What happened to all of his relatives?"

"They died with our capital planet. He and hiss fissh were the only oness saved."

"But what about when he goes back?"

How many times would she have to explain this? " As I ssaid, he would have the throne returned to him, and the council would help guide him until he wass ssecure in hiss role."

Missritchi bit her lip, looking down, "I'll talk to him."

****

Still no sign of hatching! Months had gone by, and still nothing. Minion was starting to get very worried. Sideways was still tending to their clutch obsessively, not ceasing her fanning of the eggs even to sleep, and her colors had dimmed considerably from the physical stress. Rational conversation with her had ceased some time ago; unless it was him offering food, she just couldn't form a coherent response.

Several times, he'd offered to watch them for her while she got some rest, but the response to that had always been black scales and a hostile look. Most days she wouldn't even let him get close, let alone allow him to babysit. Still, it was killing him to see her look so exhausted. May as well try again.

"…Sideways?"

"Hmmm?" She gave him a vague, distant look.

"You should really get some sleep."

"They suffocate if I leave the nest," she mumbled, "Even if it's just one guppy and it didn't take that long at all it's still my fault and I can't leave."

"I could take over while you rest."

As usual, her scales turned so dark they were almost black, an she gave him a suspicious look. How she could turn so hostile so quickly was a mystery, but the thought of it killed him.

"Sideways, you haven't slept at all, you need rest. ...I'm worried about you."

"I don' need sleep they need me have to stay here."

"I know, that's why I'll take over. ...You look so tired."

She looked at him, hesitating for a long moment, then swam off the nest. Minion quickly zipped over, doing his best to fan them with his fins to create the current they needed. About ten seconds later, though, Sideways was roughly shoving him out of the way to resume fanning the eggs by herself.

"Your fins are too small."

"What?"

"Not enough current fins too small."

"Well, what if I just move them faster?"

"No they need me."

"But you need rest."

Sideways lunged at him, snapping her teeth at him in a threat display. She didn't bite, but the message was clear enough. Dejected, he swam back to the castle entrance just in time to see Megamind approaching the tank.

"Do you need anything, sir?"

"Hey Minion, Roxanne just called, so I'm going to be heading out. Still no signs of hatching, huh?"

"Not yet."

"Well, I should be back in a bit. I've got my cell on just in case you need me."

****

"We… we need to talk," Roxanne said, fighting to keep her voice steady. God, how could she do this? It was what was best for him and he'd be safe, but how on earth could she do this?

"About what?" he just looked at her with those innocent green eyes.

"I…" she swallowed hard, "I think you should go."

"Um... you realize I'm here because you invited me, right?"

Roxanne shut her eyes, shaking her head, "No, I mean… with what's-her-name."

"Galaria? Why?"

"Because…" Roxanne trailed off, looking at those wide green eyes. She didn't want to do this. But if she was nice about it he might not go where he was safe. But she didn't want to hurt him. The last thing in the world she wanted was to hurt him, but she had to. She closed her eyes again, trying to steel herself, to get enough venom in her voice to say what she had to.

"I want a guy I can actually go outside with. And honestly? The sex is kind of freaky."

Megamind looked crushed and confused at that, taking a step backwards. She'd wounded him. " You.. you said you liked it. And the holowatch-"

"The holowatch doesn't fix the problem."

"You said you didn't care about that." His voice was soft and broken.

"Well, I guess the novelty wore off!" Roxanne snapped, her heart aching at the way he flinched. Oh god I don't mean any of this I'm so sorry please forgive me.

"Roxanne, please, you know I lov-"

"I don't."

For a long moment, Roxanne thought he was about to cry, but he shut his eyes, fighting to regain his composure. When he spoke again, his voice was raw. "Did.. did you ever?"

"No," she lied, the word burning her as badly as it did him.

Megamind opened his eyes, the pain in them almost overwhelming to see. "I…I would appreciate it if… if you kept your knowledge of my lair confidential."

Shoulders quivering, the one person Roxanne loved more than anyone else in the world turned to go.

Chapter #9: The Fish and the Bees