KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
There was no answer from the room, but the door opened, shedding light into the dark, broken and burnt room. A disheveled Homelander was still in the center, still clutching the cold pale corpse.
"Father, I've brought you some food. You haven't eaten anything," Erasmus said as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Leave it." Homelander spoke without turning to him, as his hand slowly brushed a strand of golden hair away from the corpse's pale face.
"Look what they made me do to you," Homelander whispered gently to the body. "They hid you from me. All the horrible things they must have done to you to make you like this. They turned you against me. They forced my hand."
He slowly and gently rubbed the pale face with his hands, trying to force the warmth back into it.
"You know what's funny?" Homelander asked. "They all call him a monster. But look at him. Oh, how beautiful my boy is. How powerful. Did you see how powerful he was, Erasmus? He's my blood. He's a god."
His fingers lingered on the cold cheek.
"Just look at him," Homelander said, his hands rubbing the pale, cold face, trying to force the color back into his cheeks. "He's just resting now. He fought hard, that's all. Any second now, he's going to open his eyes. He's going to look right at me and call me Dad. And then he'll say he's sorry. It's just like you, Erasmus, when we first met, you punched me, too. Aldrich just... he did a bit more than punching. He's stubborn. You saw how stubborn he was. But it's okay. He was just confused and angry. Kids get like that you know. They get angry"
A smile broke across Homelander's face as the delusion completely took over.
"I-I just... I just have to keep holding him until he warms up. Then it will all be fine. Everything will be fine. We're going to be one big, happy family."
Homelander stopped rubbing the face and slowly turned his head to look at Erasmus, his eyes bloodshot.
"You know I had to do it, right?" Homelander asked, reaching out a shaking, blood-stained gloved hand toward him. "You know your dad is a good dad, right? Tell me you love me, Erasmus. Say it."
Erasmus set the food tray aside, took his father's blood-stained hand, and knelt right in front of him. He buried his face in father's chest, drawing him into a tight, comforting embrace.
"I will always love you, Father," Erasmus said smoothly, his voice a flat and serene. "I have absolutely nothing else in this world besides you. It doesn't matter what they say, and it doesn't matter what you do. Even if I have to burn this entire world down to ashes for you... I will. I always will. Because even then, the only ones left will be me and you."
"And Ryan? Don't you forget your little brother." Homelander added.
"I haven't forgotten him, Father. But I have never thought of Ryan as my brother or half brother. You may feel something for him, just as you feel sad for this corpse, but I don't. I never met them. I never knew them. To me, they aren't family. Only you are."
Meanwhile down in the damp underground hideout, MM stared down at the small tv screen. On it was the most news, the footage of Homelander and Vanguard killing the Leviathan, killing Aldrich.
Starlight had already came and delivered Aldrich's final messages.
Was it his fault?
Marvin couldn't stop the thought from looping in his head over and over. If he had just listened to Butcher about tracking the kid when they had the chance, maybe they really have stopped him from doing something so unbelievably...…stupid.
Starlight sat on the dirty couch, her hands around a coffee mug. Hughie was right beside her, holding her tight, while Frenchie and Kimiko stood together near the bench.
"Ah, he really went and done it, the stupid runt," Butcher said, walking over and slamming a box of beer onto the table in front of Starlight and Hughie. His loud words instantly grabbed everyone's attention. "Well, the good news is, that's one less supe to worry about."
He leaned forward, stabbing a finger onto the frozen images of the news broadcast. "Now we only have two left. The big cunt," Butcher said, pointing directly at Homelander. "And the little cunt," he added, shifting his finger straight to Vanguard.
"And what the fuck are we supposed to do about it?" MM snapped, throwing his hands up before pointing straight at Annie. "Starlight is in the exact same ditch as the rest of us now. And from what she's told us about Vanguard? The kid is just as dangerous as Homelander, except he actually has a brain. And the best part? The only supe powerful enough to even stand a chance against them was just fucking executed on live TV. So what the fuck is the play here, Butcher? What do you honestly want us to do?"
Butcher grinned as he took a huge gulp of his beer. "Ah, glad you asked, MM, because I've thought about it long and hard. Think about it. A supe powerful enough to actually put the fear of God into the big cunt? Vought hasn't been able to replicate that kind of power until..."
He pointed a finger right at Vanguard. "...this little cunt pops out. And the little cunt is the big cunt's son, and he has the same level of power. Now look at the runt. Don't you see the similarities? Look at the big cunt, the little cunt, and the runt. They all look like carbon copies."
"Wait, so you're saying you think Aldrich, the homeless kid I have been feeding, is Homelander's son? Are you insane?" Hughie asked. "He told us he had a family, and that Rufus something killed them. He never said, 'Oh, by the way, I'm Homelander's son!'"
"Bollocks," Butcher barked, cutting Hughie off. "Starlight told us herself, When Vanguard first showed up, they were acting like complete bloody strangers, right? Which means the big cunt didn't even know the kid existed, and Vanguard sure as hell didn't know he squirted out of Homelander's balls.
You say the runt told us he had a normal family? Of course he did, you daft bastard. That's how a corporate cover-up works. Vought dropsthe freaks off with a foster family, pays them a monthly stipend to keep their mouths shut, and keeps a distant eye on the asset. Then Rufus comes along, wipes out the foster parents, and Aldrich is left on the street, completely clueless that his biological father is the goddamn face of America."
He pointed a finger back at the screen. "Vanguard was just the first one Vought managed to track down and reel in. Aldrich was the one that slipped through the cracks. Now think about the math. Think about how many more mini-Homelanders are running around out there, completely off the grid."
"So what?" MM asked, rubbing his temples as the headache started coming back. "You want us to go running around the goddamn country looking for Homelander's secret bastards? And then what happens if we actually find one, huh? What's the play?
We just walk up to some super-powered teenager and say, 'Hey kid, your real dad is a homicidal lunatic, come live in a filthy basement with us and help us kill him'? Butcher, did you see what we saw? Aldrich almost killed Homelander twice.
He was that powerful. And Aldrich was a good kid, but he was completely fucked up in the head. What if they're all like that? You want to bring them in here with us? The only supes we have are Kimiko and Starlight, and they aren't going to be able to do jack shit if one of those kids starts having a murder episode. No offense."
"Don't you go wetting your knickers just yet, Marvin," Butcher said with a grin on his face. "I've got a plan."
Meanwhile, inside the velvet-lined walls of Manhattan's most exclusive underground lounge, Cerberus was experiencing a very different side of his new reality. He sat on a plush leather sofa in a private VIP suite, waiting.
Jimmy had been ecstatic when he set it up, practically shaking with greed.
Cerberus's face card had fast-tracked him past the entry-level gigs straight into the big leagues. His very first client was a heavy hitter, a prominent supe and Vought VIP called The Spider.
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