A long silence fell over the office.
Carol slowly exhaled, suppressing the bitterness in her heart.
She didn't defend herself further; she knew these rifts couldn't be smoothed over with just a few words.
"I understand, Fury."
Carol's voice was a bit low as she gave Fury a deep look.
"I will leave, but I need to know one thing."
"Where are those Skrulls now?" Carol's eyes were sharp. "If they truly did what you said, I will personally find them and settle the score."
"No need for you."
Homelander, who had been watching the show from the side, finally spoke up.
He put down his wine glass and placed his hands folded on the desk.
"My Sentinels are currently clearing them out on a global scale."
Homelander's tone was as flat as if he were discussing something trivial.
Carol's eyes widened as she looked at Homelander.
"Clearing them out? On a global scale? You're committing genocide!"
"Let me correct you." Homelander raised a finger and sneered, "This is called pest control."
"You can't do this! There are civilians among them, innocent people!" Carol said angrily.
"I gave them a chance to surrender, Captain Danvers. A full 48 hours."
Homelander met Carol's gaze with cold eyes.
"As long as they haven't harmed humans, and as long as they were willing to have that wicked shapeshifting ability removed. I thoughtfully designated a comfortable living area for them. There's food, beds, and air conditioning. They can live openly, with much more dignity than the days you had them hiding all over Earth."
Homelander spread his hands.
"And now, for those who didn't dare to report..."
"They are hiding in cities, in deep mountains. Every one of them has human blood on their hands. They replaced other people's husbands, wives, and friends; they are all thugs."
"So, getting their heads blown off by my robots is a death they truly deserve."
"That's a presumption of guilt! With indiscriminate killing like this, they don't even have a chance to defend themselves!"
Carol straightened her back, her tone stern.
"Once you get used to solving problems with killing, you'll be no different from the Accusers of the Kree Empire!"
"Accusers?"
Homelander let out a scoff.
He stood up, walked around the desk to Carol, and thought to himself,
"Equip... Arsonist of Hearts."
An invisible aura of charm immediately spread outward with Homelander as the center.
Homelander looked down at Carol and spoke softly,
"You fly in the Universe year-round, accustomed to seeing the sea of stars. Your moral standards are higher than the constellations."
"But have you looked down at your home planet? Looked at the blood in the dirt?"
"Those Skrulls don't need a defense. The moment they chose not to go to the Isolation Zone and chose to continue hiding in human society, they had already made their choice."
Homelander pointed out the window toward New York.
"You think I'm cruel? Fine. Go to the street and pull any Earthling at random, ask them if those aliens who disguised themselves as their loved ones and stole their lives deserve to die."
"You can't be everyone's savior, Carol. One cannot save both the wolves and the sheep at the same time."
Hit directly by the aura, Carol's body visibly stiffened for a moment.
Seeing the determination to protect humanity in Homelander's eyes moved her slightly.
Carol suddenly felt that this man's words... were actually damn well-reasoned.
He was just trying his best to protect his fellow people; what was wrong with that?
She hadn't felt it before when watching the videos released by the Sovereign Planet.
Now, standing face-to-face, she realized with a shock that this man called Homelander... was truly charming.
"Damn it! What am I thinking!"
Carol suddenly snapped out of it.
She stepped back as if struck by an electric shock, forcibly looking away to hide the fluster in her eyes.
"How... how do you prove everything you're saying?" Carol's voice was slightly unsteady, but she did her best to maintain a tough posture.
At this point, Fury, who had a strange look in his eyes, took over the conversation.
"He's right."
"Those Skrulls who didn't harm humans are indeed living in Alaska now. I served as the supervisor there for a while. Humans haven't mistreated them and have provided everything they need for life."
Fury added coldly, "But they cannot live by stepping on the heads of humans. That is the bottom line."
With Fury's endorsement, Carol knew this was most likely true.
"I will go to Alaska to verify this."
Leaving those words behind, Carol turned and strode toward the office balcony, her steps even appearing a bit flustered.
Boom!
She turned into a brilliant stream of light, streaking into the night sky and vanishing in the blink of an eye.
The office fell quiet.
Now, only Homelander and Nick Fury remained.
"Alright, the universal savior is gone." Homelander looked at Fury. "What are your plans next, Fury?"
Fury walked to the bar, unceremoniously picked up a bottle of whiskey, and took a swig directly from the bottle.
"What other plans could I have?" Fury put down the bottle and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Now that the Skrull threat has been resolved, it can be considered a conclusion to the mistakes I made over twenty years ago."
"What's left... there's still HYDRA..."
Halfway through, Fury stopped.
His eyes flickered as he looked at Homelander's half-smiling expression and shook his head helplessly.
"HYDRA... has probably been cleaned out by you long ago. Or rather, incorporated?"
Fury understood the man in front of him too well. He had terrifying strength and an even more meticulous mind.
How could an organization like HYDRA escape his purge?
Fury let out a long sigh.
Without S.H.I.E.L.D., without the Avengers, with the Skrulls defeated and HYDRA wiped out...
He suddenly realized that the World didn't seem to need him anymore.
"Perhaps it really is time for me to retire."
Fury leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling.
"This World changes too fast. My old-fashioned methods are no longer useful. The future is for you young people to toss around."
"Oh? Thinking about retiring?"
"That's good. Go enjoy the beach, the sun, and the babes."
Homelander responded flatly. But his next words made Fury's heart sink.
"Since it's a retirement, let's have a handover of work."
"The locations of all those secret safe houses you've built around the World over the years, and those offshore hidden accounts tucked away in the Cayman Islands and Swiss Banks—hand them all over."
Fury was stunned.
He thought Homelander would be like other victors, mocking him a few times or magnanimously letting him go.
But he never expected that Homelander's first sentence would be to directly rob him of his life's savings.