Free Web NovelChapter 53: Chapter 53: Meeting Ryan
Chapter 53: Meeting Ryan
In the end, Homelander still couldn’t bring himself to do it. Benjamin watched his son locked in a tense psychological struggle, and in the next second, face expressionless, he stepped forward and clamped his broad palm directly around Vogelbaum’s neck. Without a shred of hesitation.
Snap!
The crisp sound of bone fracturing rang clearly through the room. Vogelbaum was dead. For an old bastard who had single-handedly laid the criminal cornerstone of the Vought International empire, the ending Benjamin dealt him was honestly far too merciful. A snapped neck meant instantaneous brain death, completely devoid of any agony. Compared to the original timeline where his head was violently popped via superpowers by Victoria Neuman during a public congressional hearing, splattering blood and brains everywhere and leaving him physically mutilated, this version of Vogelbaum absolutely achieved a peaceful end.
Right after, Benjamin had Vought quietly arrange an exceptionally low-profile funeral. It was Benjamin’s way of throwing the dead old bastard a final scrap of dignity. As for Vogelbaum’s expression of relief in his final second on earth, maybe the old man felt genuine remorse rather than just regret over engineering a failed experiment—or maybe he didn’t, but who knew? Nobody gave a shit anymore.
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A drizzling mist fell from a gloomy sky. In a secluded private cemetery, Homelander stood silently beside Vogelbaum’s coffin like a mute statue. His eyes held a complex look as he watched the pitch-black wooden casket get systematically buried under the dirt. What they were burying wasn’t just Vogelbaum, but the vulnerable boy named John who used to shiver inside a laboratory, desperate for a hug.
"What are you spacing out for?" Benjamin’s heavy palm slapped down hard onto Homelander’s shoulder, the force making him sway slightly. "The past is in the fucking past," Benjamin’s voice growled.
Homelander felt the weight and warmth on his shoulder that belonged to a real father. He took a deep breath; the freezing rain cleared his head significantly, and the vacancy in his eyes gradually ebbed away. Homelander nodded, turned his head toward Benjamin, and said, "Yeah, it’s in the past. Now... should we go find Ryan?"
"Let’s go," Benjamin shrugged. "To be completely honest, I’m a little curious myself to see what my grandson looks like, since I’ve never laid eyes on him."
He claimed to be curious, but in reality, Benjamin was highly repulsed by the Ryan who grew up in the original timeline, bordering on pure loathing. Looking back at the later arcs of the original show, Benjamin felt that if Homelander was an affection-starved, warped man-child due to childhood trauma who went on to slaughter countless people, what did that make Ryan? Compared to Homelander, that little shit Ryan was a total monster.
Once Homelander discovered Ryan’s existence, he genuinely exhausted every possible avenue to make amends! His love for Ryan was clumsy. He even submissively wanted to keep Ryan by his side, desperately wishing to give this son the best things in the world, fighting to provide Ryan with a love-filled childhood he himself had never possessed. Even if Homelander’s methods were somewhat extreme, he had never once done Ryan wrong. But how did Ryan repay him? When Ryan blasted Stormfront, he couldn’t control his powers and accidentally killed his own biological mother, Becca.
In the series finale, during that ultimate showdown at the White House, Ryan chose to stand with Butcher, teaming up to fight his own biological father! In the end, Homelander’s death was inextricably linked to the betrayal of his dear son. The Ryan of that era was a complete ungrateful bastard. Anyone else had the right to kill Homelander, but Ryan didn’t. But it didn’t matter anymore. All of that could be changed, Benjamin thought silently to himself, glancing at the excited, expectant Homelander beside him.
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An hour later. A gated community secretly constructed by Vought International. The area was lush with trees, the houses immaculate, and the lawns manicured to such a perfect degree they looked fake; the entire neighborhood radiated a surreal, artificial dread akin to The Truman Show.
Benjamin and Homelander halted side-by-side in front of a handsome two-story house. As if catching the sound of heavy footsteps outside, the front door clicked open from within. A little boy around seven or eight years old came running out. He had a brilliant head of blond hair and crystal-clear blue eyes, his delicate features practically a carbon copy of a young John! This child was none other than Ryan.
"Mom, someone’s here!" Ryan called out loudly toward the inside of the house, looking curiously at the two massive, uniformed men before him.
At her son’s shout, a flurry of hurried footsteps echoed from inside. "Ryan, what’s going on? I told you, try not to open the door for strangers..." Becca said, walking out the door while tying an apron, her voice tinged with mild reproach.
However, the instant her gaze slipped past her son and locked onto the two men standing out in the yard, her mind went entirely blank. It felt like a bolt from the blue. The visitors were none other than Ryan’s biological father, Homelander! And right next to him stood a legendary icon even more imposing than Homelander... Soldier Boy! The internet was entirely flooded with rumors that Homelander and Soldier Boy were father and son. Meaning, Ryan’s dad and grandfather had arrived.
"Oh... look at this handsome young man." Homelander ignored Becca completely. From the absolute first second he laid eyes on Ryan, his gaze never drifted away. A look of profound tenderness surfaced in Homelander’s eyes. He slowly dropped into a crouch, straining to make his voice sound warm and approachable as he locked eyes with Ryan. "Hey there, buddy. Do you know... who we are?"
Ryan bit his finger, his gaze cycling between the two. Though kept in isolation here, he still watched television and read comic books. "I know," Ryan nodded innocently. "You’re Homelander, and the guy next to you... is Soldier Boy. You’re superheroes."
Hearing this naive voice, Homelander let out a smile, the expression carrying a hint of heartache alongside a massive surge of satisfaction. "Yeah, that’s right. Very smart. But... do you know anything else?"
Right in the middle of this touching father-son moment, Benjamin simply couldn’t stand it any longer. "You dumb kid! I’m your fucking grandfather! This grinning fool right here is your fucking father! How the fuck can you not see this?!"
Ryan was completely thrown by the cursing. The little guy froze in his tracks, his blue eyes flooded with pure bewilderment and shock, his small mouth slightly agape as his brain completely failed to process the information. A dad and a grandfather... didn’t Mom say he didn’t have a dad or a grandfather?
Homelander blinked in surprise, then turned back to Ryan, the smile on his face growing even more radiant. "Yeah... even though your grandfather’s way of putting things is a bit... direct, he’s not wrong." Homelander reached his hand out, wanting to touch Ryan’s cheek, his voice dropping into a low register. "Ryan, your father is Homelander, and your grandfather is Soldier Boy. The two of us are the most powerful superheroes on the face of the earth, and you carry our sacred bloodline. We’re... family."
The word "family" completely shattered Becca’s final psychological defense mechanism. Watching Homelander’s hand close in on her son, and seeing the look of escalating shock mixed with a subtle hint of yearning dawn in Ryan’s eyes... Becca’s face turned deathly pale.
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A/N: Want to know what happens next? You can read up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:
[email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).
