a/n: This has been an interesting ride for me, starting in late November when I began writing this story and through the worst case of writer's block I've ever had, despite the times I just gave up on other stories. I guess that would mean this was the worst because I actually tried to overcome it and finish instead of giving up. I am so happy you all have been here to experience this journey with me. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! You guys make me so happy when I get a Review Alert email, and celebrating 152 reviews as I post this last installment, I hope I continue to receive your comments. This story by itself, with no author's notes or disclaimers, etc., is over 80,000 words now and is officially the longest thing I have ever written and successfully completed.

Anyway, I hope that I have done the story justice with this ending. As always, please let me know what you think about this chapter, the story, my writing, whatever you want to comment on. It all feeds my muse, positive or negative. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Megamind other than my DVD, my soundtrack and my obsession! Nods to Dreamworks for this excellent addition to my collection.

Summary: Pre-movie AU. Something goes horribly wrong with one of Megamind's battle suits and he and Roxanne wind up stranded in the middle of a desert with nothing but each other to aid in their survival. Will they make it?

Stranded

Epilogue: And They All Lived

Roxanne's wounds had been mostly superficial and Doctor Weatherby – James as he'd instructed them to call him – had released her with a clean bill of health the next day with the order to take it easy so her pregnancy would not suffer any possible future complications. Megamind had arranged delivery of a holowatch for her and they'd left the hospital in disguise. The talk with Roxanne had gone remarkably well in his opinion, as she'd agreed readily with his proposal. They had asked Ryan as well, since she was an adult and had the right to choose for herself. She'd looked at Minion briefly before declaring that she could not stay here without her sister, so she had no intention of being left behind. All of Megamind's inventions had been dehydrated and placed in a lockbox for safekeeping. An envelope with several thousand dollars was delivered to the good Doctor as thanks for his service and discretion. An even larger sum was donated to the prison in the name of Naren Aakil. Only the Warden knew the significance of the donation, and made sure to use the money to upgrade the prison's educational facilities and library in honor of Mr. Aakil. It did not take long to dehydrate and pack up their belongings and they left within seventy-two hours of the incident.

Before they'd packed up that particular equipment, the news monitoring network had picked up on a report concerning the keywords Megamind and Roxanne Ritchi. Metro Man, it seems, was finally shaken out of silence by the violence that had been perpetrated against Roxanne. He'd seen to it that the entire mob had been charged with attempted assault and the ones that had actually attacked her had been brought up on attempted murder charges. It was fairly easy to reconstruct the scene since he had seen where she'd been laying, so he'd known exactly which cube had contained those that had been intent on doing physical harm. Roxanne had given authorization to the hero to proceed on her behalf when he'd shown up at the hospital and begged for the chance to make amends for his callousness. Megamind was not happy with the idea but Roxanne had agreed and he and his family were well on their way to being settled in their new home when Wayne announced that he was quitting the hero game since there was no longer a super villain to fight. Metro Man became simply Wayne Scott, the mediocre Music Man. His life was a lonely one, until he met a remarkable single mother named Julia Stone. She was a waitress at a club he frequently performed in who not only liked his music, but also happily excited feelings in his heart that he hadn't felt since the first time Roxanne had turned him down so many years ago. He'd fallen quickly in love with Julia and married her, adopting her two sons, Michael, an infant, and Nathan, a two year old, as his own and making them the heirs to the Scott fortune. He lived in his parent's mansion with his new family and ignored the critics who said he was irresponsible for not continuing to use his powers to benefit the city.

Roxanne, Megamind, Minion and Ryan arrived on the recently-named island of Heima, meaning home, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean by boat that had been purchased in Hawaii when they'd arrived in disguise via a chartered jet. The island itself could not be seen for the constant ring of clouds that surrounded the place, courtesy of one blue genius who had installed the protection as soon as he had acquired the island so many years ago, in an attempt to create a place of solitude for himself. As a villain, he'd missed the attention too much to spend any time there, but now that he had a family to share it with, it seemed to be the ideal of perfection. The funny thing about it was that once you broke though the cloud wall, the sun shone brightly on the clear blue water and white sandy beach. A small hut-style house was set under the trees just off the beach and the sparkling water seemed almost magical. The clouds which concealed them from above were merely a holographic projection, so from underneath, the sky was visible and the sun shone through because the vegetation needed sunlight to survive. The projection device and cloud machine were installed at the top of a tall tower in the middle of the island. The area was only about twenty thousand square feet but there was a small jungle with lots of trees, a few edible species of small animals and plenty of fertile ground perfect for growing their own food. He had invented a machine to filter water in order to create Minion's habitat a long time ago. The technology had easily been converted to provide an unlimited supply of fresh water for the new residents of the small island.

Roxanne had been so impressed when they'd arrived at the island. She was grateful they had a place to be together free from persecution. She knew they were somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, but she had no idea where, and she didn't really care to know since everyone that mattered to her was right there. She'd settled into her new life with remarkable ease, finding ways to stay busy by making the small house a little homier and keeping a detailed record of their time. Minion married them in a ceremony on the beach with Ryan as a witness, and they lived happily together as husband and wife for many months in the small hut as Megamind constructed a larger sturdier house deeper in the small but lush jungle. Once they moved into the large house, life became vastly more comfortable. The bond she shared with her husband and soul-mate only grew stronger with the passing of time. He'd constructed a generator that ran off of the same mysterious perpetual energy that powered the De-gun, the binky, and every other invention he'd ever created, so they had electricity; and with the water filtration and waste recycling system he'd created, he had managed to install indoor plumbing for them as well.

As Roxanne's pregnancy progressed, Minion, who had downloaded several e-books on child birth prior to leaving in order to refresh the studies he'd done as a youngster, having been fascinated by the entire human reproductive process from a young age, prepared himself with diligence so he was able to serve as a mid-wife. Megamind studied the same materials himself in detail, doing his best to keep Roxanne comfortable during her pregnancy and before long, it came time her to give birth to their first two children. Minion did not trust Roxanne's health surviving a double birth the natural way, so they'd opted to do a cesarean section. Megamind had assisted with the delivery because there were two babies and because Minion's fingers were not delicate enough to perform the task. Megamind took care to stitch up her incision himself so that it would heal with minimal scarring if possible. Their baby girls both had no hair and larger than normal craniums, but one looked like her and one looked like him. They called the blue eyed baby who looked like her father Harmony and the green eyed baby who looked like her mother Melody, because each was the perfect blending of their two souls. They were spoiled children with four adults devoted to keeping them happy and healthy. They were so loved, however, that they both became genuinely nice people anyway.

The binky presented a bit of a problem when the girls were very small. They learned from Minion that the energy from the binky helped the developing brain of a child of Megamind's race, and although his children were only half him, they still needed the energy both to alleviate growing pains and to help their brains develop to their fullest extent. Fortunately, the daily dosage required was not so much that they couldn't let the girls alternate which one got the real binky and which one got the fake pacifier he'd made that lit up a green color, but otherwise looked just like the original; it just didn't have the same effect for some reason and Megamind could never figure out why. It did accomplish the task of placating the girl who didn't have the binky, so it served its purpose. Once the children were six months old, the need for the binky had passed and they were able to put them away.

At first, Aunt Ryan wanted nothing more than to dote on her nieces, content with her life for a time. Over the years, she and Minion became as close as a fish and a human could and she found a deeper love than she'd ever experienced in a typical human relationship. Megamind had constructed a smaller, softer robot body with more delicate fingers and sensitive tactile sensors for the fish so that he would be able to be gentle when handling the infant children. It came in very handy when he began to realize his feelings for Ryan were returned in kind. Their relationship was never a sexual one, but he could hold her without fear of hurting her, and most of the time, that was enough. At times when they wanted to be closer, to actually touch each other, they would go for a private swim in the small lagoon on the opposite side of the island. Megamind constructed the house in the woods with enough space for them to all live together, and time alone was not always the easiest thing to get, but they were content to only escape once in a while, allowing Megamind and Roxanne the same privilege occasionally as well.

When Harmony and Melody were five, Roxanne got pregnant for the second time. This time, there had been no real way to tell what she was having until their third and fourth children arrived. They had ascertained there were two babies growing in their mother's womb before the delivery, so they were again prepared for the cesarean section needed to safely deliver the two large-headed babies. The two beautiful blue baby boys, each of whom had their father's intense green eyes, were cleaned up and presented to their mother. Roxanne was overjoyed and Megamind was lost in the overwhelming emotions of love they shared for each other and the four children they'd created. After a few days of talking about it, they named their boys "Riley," meaning 'courageous' and, "Rylan," after the 'island meadow' the twins had likely been conceived in. Rylan's name had actually come first when they were discussing it and she'd agreed before she'd known what it meant. Ryan liked it and Roxanne had fallen so in love with the name that when he finally did tell her why he'd suggested it, she had already decided that Riley would make a good complementary name and was too attached to the idea to change it. So, it stuck. She'd never gotten mad at him about it either, and he always wondered if she secretly found his little joke slightly funny, especially since the name was one she liked so much, and the two of them were the only ones who knew the real meaning behind it.

Minion was put in charge of the domestic side of the children's academic studies and Ryan took care of their creative artsy interests with drawing and music. Ryan had learned to play the piano as a child and was quite proficient. When Minion had learned of it, he, with the help of Megamind, had been able to construct one for her using materials he found on the island in conjunction with some more repurposed parts of one of Megamind's formerly evil inventions. An acoustic guitar was also constructed as it had always been the favorite instrument of Minion's. Roxanne and Megamind had learned to play as well as the children who wanted to, and they would sometimes entertain their children by playing made up duets together. Ryan and Minion would take their turn performing in their own way, he on his guitar accompanying her on the piano.

All four children were exceptionally brilliant and their teachers constantly had to put them to the next intellectual test to keep their interests piqued. Megamind, or Naren, as he was permanently called by Ryan, Roxanne and Minion from the time that Harmony and Melody had been old enough to talk at three months of age, handled teaching science, math and anything having to do with creative construction, and he vastly enjoyed playing with the boys once they were old enough to roughhouse.

Roxanne, with Minion's help, taught the children how to garden and cook to create food for the family and so they could take care of themselves. She also helped each of her children cultivate a healthy love for the written word, developing their imaginations which were already pre-disposed to be overactive. Minion's vast collection of e-books was very large and widely varied and Megamind had been able to repurpose some of his old inventions to create everyone their own e-reader. They spent time every day reading together as a family, sometimes out loud so everyone could enjoy the presentation of the same story at once, and sometimes in quiet, each of them reading what they wanted. She also loved to spend time with her girls, teaching them poise and grace and how to be strong women. They both developed her sassy attitude and no-nonsense outlook on life. The most important lesson she imparted on all of her children, however, was to never give up on finding the truth because you never know what you might gain. Harmony, Melody, Riley and Rylan all particularly loved to hear the story, the somewhat romanticized version – of course, of how their parents fell in love and came to live on the island with Uncle Minion and Aunt Ryan. Naren loved to interject and help Roxanne retell the story of their journey toward discovering the love they held for each other, sometimes taking over completely himself. The children all cherished watching how much in love their parents were, despite their obvious differences. Uncle Minion's and Aunt Ryan's very close friendship also helped to solidify the children's belief that true love could exist in any form.

When any of the children asked why they never left the island, as they all inevitably did, Megamind sat down with the one that asked and slowly explained that the world outside of their little paradise was not a happy place for different people. It did not accept people like them, with their blue skin and obvious intellectual advantage, their obvious differences. The three who had always dreamed about the outside world they'd only ever read about still wanted to leave the island to try their own luck at having a good life amongst the humans like their mother. They believed their father when he told them about the outside world, but none of them could ever figure out how a place so horrible could have been the same place that Mommy and Aunt Ryan came from. They had asked because being inquisitive the way they all were, they all noticed that neither of the women in their lives was mean and cruel the way Daddy had described the humans to be. Megamind had explained to his children that Mommy and Aunt Ryan were both very exceptional humans, and very few others on the planet were as accepting of their particular differences as they were.

Eventually, when the children were old enough to decide for themselves, Roxanne and Megamind, with the full support of Ryan and Minion, gave their babies the chance to fly away from the nest if they so desired. Harmony left with her brother Rylan as soon as they could get Aunt Ryan to take the boat to Hawaii. Melody left shortly thereafter in search of musical fulfillment with her singing since she had the voice of an angel. Riley chose to stay behind when the others left, perfectly content to live with his Mom and Dad on their secret little slice of paradise and continue working on his own personal development. Megamind and Roxanne had the three children who left each promise to keep the location of their island a secret, and made sure they all left with the knowledge that they were always welcome on the island of their childhood, no matter what.

Melody returned shortly after she left, having discovered that her father had been right about acceptance of differences in the human world since she'd found only rejection of her vocal talent despite its superior quality. She had, however, met and fallen in love with a young man by the name of Michael Scott. She came back only to tell her parents that her life had led her to him and she was going to be with him despite the anti-alien marriage laws that had been passed in the city. They never got married in the eyes of the law, but the unbreakable bond they'd formed when they'd become mates made the piece of paper unnecessary. After her brief visit, she'd left again and did not return to the island until many years later, and only then to let her three bald-headed strikingly green-eyed children, meet the rest of their family before returning to her life with her husband. Melody and her children, Wayne Jr., Megan and Timothy, were all welcomed with open arms and happy smiles by all, and when they left again, their loss was felt among everyone for days afterward.

Harmony was gone for several years and returned before Rylan, but when she did, she had someone with her. Her bond-husband, a young doctor by the name of Mark Weatherby, had not been able to let her go when she'd said she had to leave to go home once their relationship had become a public problem for them both. Their bond was solid but Mark didn't have the independent wealth to care for Harmony the way Michael could care for Melody, so they'd been forced to flee. Roxanne had understood immediately the situation the two had faced and welcomed the couple into their home with open arms. Megamind and Mark worked together with Minion to construct additions to the house for the new couple to live in and soon there was a grandchild on the way. Alexander was born without much fuss since Mark was there to handle the medical aspect and Minion and Ryan got another small child to fuss over. The baby had his father's light brown eyes but his mother's blue skin. He also had a mop of black curls like his father atop his smaller but still larger than human head. James, their blue eyed, bald son had followed after Alexander's third birthday, much to the family's delight.

Riley learned to seek out communications with others telepathically with his abnormally large brain. While Rylan was away, he'd managed to make contact with an olive-skinned human woman named Milada who lived on the island of Oahu and they had fallen in love without ever having met each other in person. When they did meet in Oahu, just after the birth of his nephew Alexander, the acceptance Milada gave to Riley was complete because the two of them had quite literally gotten to know each other from the inside out. She'd told him that the outside package, while striking and unusual, was just the outer shell to the man she'd fallen in love with. Of course, the longer she was with him, the more attractive she found him. She'd come to live with the rest of the family on the small island and she and Riley were married in the same manner as his parents had been before they began their life bond. A year later, they'd had had twin girls of their own, both of whom had their father's blue skin, but also had straight black hair like their mother: the one named Elaya had inherited the electric green eyes, and the other named Elora had inherited her mother's unique violet eyes. The names had originally belonged to two of Milada's aunts. Milada and Harmony became good friends being sisters as they were and although their lives were far from perfect, they lived as happily as they ever could have.

When Rylan came home the first time, it was after ten years of being away, and he only stayed briefly, to let his parents know that he had become a world-renowned biochemist and geneticist, and although he understood he could never be with a human woman without suffering the same kind of persecution his sister and mother had faced, he had a long and rewarding life on the outside, respected by his colleagues and well known in his field for being on the front lines of all the major discoveries. Although he did stay in contact with Melody since she was the only other member of his family in the real world with him, he still came home sometimes, to enjoy his time with his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews and all of his large family. They were always the happiest occasions for him and the older he became, the more frequently he visited.

The life-changing adventure Roxanne had begun with the man she now loved more than anything had started with the two of them being accidentally stranded together in a desert. As Roxanne Ritchi Aakil, mother of four, grandmother to seven more, and loving wife to the most incredible man in the world, thought back over the course of her life, she couldn't say that she minded the thought that the most of it had been spent and the rest of it would be spent with her perfect family, stranded together on their own private less-than-deserted island. The life she thought she'd wanted was long since forgotten, and the rewarding love-filled life she had never dreamed possible was the only one she could ever imagine wanting. Naren Megamind Aakil, loving father, doting grandfather, and devoted husband couldn't have agreed more with her on all points. Every day of the rest of their long lives was spent loving and being loved by the beautiful family they'd both helped to create.

THE END

a/n: Ollo everyone! So, I just had to have a happy ending for them. They all deserved it after what they went through to find each other. And then I got a little carried away with the details of the future. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you sooo much to everyone who took the time to review! You know, I may just keep up with this universe and write some 'Tales from the Island of Heima.' Let me know what you think about that idea, and of course how you feel about how I ended this adventure that took on a life of its own. I look forward to hearing from you!