The Boys: I Became The Soldier Boy

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: That’s My Family

Chapter 33: That’s My Family

At two in the morning, the corridors of Vought Tower were completely silent.

Madelyn stood outside the door to Homelander’s apartment, clutching a manila envelope in her hands so tightly that her knuckles were white. Before coming, she had injected herself with a heart stabilizer. The stuff kept a person’s heart rate steady even when emotions were running high. Though it was bad for her health, Madelyn had no choice this time; she had completely lost Homelander’s trust.

Madelyn knocked on the door. Hearing no response, she used her own key to let herself in.

Homelander was sitting on the floor, his back resting against the base of the sofa. His cape was crumpled into a chaotic heap beneath him. He lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"Get out."

Madelyn didn’t back down. She quietly closed the door behind her, her voice incredibly soft. "My baby, I know you’re hurting. I came to check on you."

"I told you—now, immediately—" Homelander bolted up from the floor, his eyes flaring red as a dangerous glow ignited around his pupils. "Get the fuck out!"

Madelyn felt a prickle of dread crawl up her spine, but she didn’t leave—she couldn’t. If she walked out now, Vought’s self-destructive PR war would be all for nothing. To drive a wedge between the father and son, Vought hadn’t hesitated to stab itself in the gut. They would rather stall the bill to get Supes into the military and take a massive hit to their short-term profits just to drive a stake between Homelander and Soldier Boy. And tonight, she was the one holding the mallet...

"Homelander... have you ever considered something?"

Homelander stared dead at her, remaining silent.

"If it weren’t for Soldier Boy, your approval ratings wouldn’t have taken a nose-dive like this. Tonight, you wouldn’t have so many people turning their backs on you, withdrawing their love."

Homelander’s eyelashes flickered slightly. The red glow in his eyes didn’t dissipate, but he didn’t unleash it.

"Think about it," Madelyn took a step closer. "Soldier Boy’s approval ratings have stayed sky-high. No matter how vicious the media storm gets, his numbers don’t budge an inch. But what about you? You saved people. You saved every single one of them. You flew back and forth trip after trip, carrying that little girl in your arms to place her safely on a dolphin’s back... and your approval rating drops six percentage points."

"Every bit of this is on him. The entire reason he came back was to replace you. He wants to be the most popular Supe on earth. Think about it—if he weren’t here and the plane crashed, you could have just walked away from those hundred-odd lives, and nobody would have ever known the truth. Would your approval ratings have dropped then?"

Homelander fell silent for a long moment before speaking up. "What the fuck are you trying to say? Soldier Boy is my father. He wouldn’t screw me over."

Madelyn held up the manila envelope. Her fingers lingered over the seal for a fraction of a second before she tore it open, pulling out several yellowed pages. Under the dim lighting, the paper had turned a brittle, aged tan with curled edges, packed with text printed in an old typewriter font.

"He’s not your father, baby... He’s just a guy who happens to share your DNA. That’s all it is. He didn’t raise you for a single day, he never changed a single diaper, and he never sat by your bedside when you had nightmares. You and him... you’re just strangers. Strangers tied together by blood."

She paused, turning the pages around so Homelander could see the vivid red "CLASSIFIED" stamp slammed across the top.

"Besides, a literal traitor... how much do you think he actually gives a shit about over a hundred innocent lives? Didn’t you always want to see his real file? It’s right here. I didn’t want to give it to you back then because I was terrified you wouldn’t be able to handle it. Soldier Boy—your father—is a traitor. He defected to the Soviet Union and betrayed America. His entire plan from the very beginning was to come back and destroy you. To drag down your approval ratings, strip away the public’s love, and take your place. That is what Soldier Boy is after."

Homelander looked down at the pages. The dense blocks of text cast tiny shadows under the lamplight. It looked incredibly authentic.

"Madelyn," he said softly, his voice suddenly dropping to a near-whisper.

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"So none of this was actually a stunt, right?" He lifted his head, his blue eyes locking straight onto hers. "It’s just because I followed Soldier Boy’s orders. That’s why the public thought it was a setup."

"Exactly," Madelyn said, a subtle hint of desperation creeping into her voice. "But Soldier Boy genuinely—"

"Did Vought have a hand in this?" Homelander cut her off. The corners of his mouth slowly peeled back into a smile. "Like... manipulating the PR to intentionally smear me?"

Madelyn could feel the heart stabilizer wearing off. A wave of raw panic caused her heart rate to quicken. Thanks to the drug, the spike was incredibly faint, but it was undeniably there. Still, she believed he wouldn’t be able to notice. The expression on her face didn’t crack, her gentle, soothing smile remaining perfectly in place.

"Of course, baby. Why would Vought ever hurt you? You’re the most important asset this company has."

Homelander chuckled.

"Madelyn," he said in a silky tone, "did you know that whenever you lie, the outer corner of your left eye twitches? Once, sometimes twice."

Madelyn parted her lips, her heart pounding violently now. In truth, Homelander didn’t actually know any such physical tell. But tracking those two subtle fluctuations in her heartbeat was more than enough to give away the entire game.

Sizzle.

Two beams of blinding red light pierced straight through her eyes. Two perfectly circular, charred holes replaced her sockets, a ring of smoldering dark red embers glowing faintly along the cauterized edges.

Her body went rigid, the pages of the file slipping from her fingers and drifting down to scatter around Homelander’s boots. The moment they hit the floor, the yellowed pages containing the typed fabrications of "treason" and "defection" were stained a deep crimson by her gushing blood.

She toppled backward, crashing hard onto the marble floor, dying in the exact same manner as the original show. Except in the original show, her death was triggered by Homelander’s son. But here, it was brought on by Homelander’s father.

Homelander stared down at her corpse, the crimson glow in his eyes slowly fading away. He knelt down, gathered the blood-slicked pages from the floor, and without glancing at them, tore them in half, then tore them into quarters, letting the shreds flutter down beside Madelyn’s body.

His eyes welling with tears, Homelander reached out to stroke Madelyn’s cheek, a genuine pang of grief twisting his features over having to kill her...

"Madelyn, do you know something? You really are the most talented liar I’ve ever known," he whispered to the hollow, charred sockets. "I actually thought you were the one person in this world who would never deceive me. But in the end... you still lied to me. And there are some lines you just don’t cross. My family... that’s my fucking family."

He stood up, stepped over her body, and pushed open the apartment door. The heavy door swung shut behind him with a dull, echoing thud.

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A/N: Next goal: 400 Power Stones = 1 bonus Chapter!

And if you want to read ahead and find out what happens next right away, you can get up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:

[email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).