Transmigrated into The Boys, Starting as Soldier Boy

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: They’re My Family

At two in the morning, the hallways of Vought Tower were quiet.

Madelyn stood outside Homelander’s apartment, clutching a manila envelope so tightly her knuckles had gone white.

Before coming here, she had injected herself with a dose of heart-stabilizing medication.

The stuff could keep her heartbeat steady even when her emotions spiked.

It was bad for her health, but Madelyn had no choice this time. She had to do it, because she no longer had Homelander’s trust.

Madelyn knocked on the door. When there was no response, she used her key and let herself in.

Homelander sat on the floor, his back against the base of the sofa.

His cape was crumpled beneath him. He raised his head, his eyes rimmed red.

"Get out."

Madelyn did not back away. She gently closed the door, her voice soft. "My sweet boy, I know you’re hurting. I came to check on you."

"I told you, right now, this instant..."

Homelander rose from the floor. His eyes began to glow red, two dangerous points of light appearing at the edges of his pupils.

"Get out!"

Madelyn felt her scalp prickle, but she did not leave. She could not leave.

If she walked away now, Vought’s self-sabotaging public opinion campaign would all have been for nothing. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

To drive a wedge between this father and son, Vought had gone so far as to stab itself.

It would rather let the push to get Supes into the military stall, rather let the company’s short-term interests suffer, than miss the chance to hammer a wedge between Homelander and Soldier Boy.

And tonight, she was the one holding the hammer...

"Homelander... have you ever thought about something?"

Homelander stared at her without speaking. freewebnøvel.com

"If it weren’t for Soldier Boy, your approval rating never would have dropped this much. Tonight, so many people wouldn’t have stopped supporting you. They wouldn’t have stopped loving you."

Homelander’s lashes trembled.

The red light in his eyes did not fade, but he did not fire.

"Think about it."

Madelyn took a step forward.

"Soldier Boy’s approval rating has stayed high the entire time. No matter how loud the public gets, his numbers haven’t moved an inch. And you? You saved people. You saved everyone. You flew back and forth, carried that little girl, placed her on a dolphin’s back, and then your approval rating dropped by six points."

"All of this is his fault. The reason he came back was to replace you. He wants to become the most beloved Supe in the world. Without him, if the plane had really gone down, all you would have had to do was abandon those hundred-plus lives, and no one would ever have known. Would your approval rating have fallen then?"

Homelander was silent for a while before he said, "What exactly are you trying to say... Soldier Boy is my father. He wouldn’t hurt me."

Madelyn raised the manila envelope in her hand. Her fingers paused on the flap for a second before she opened it and pulled out several yellowed pages.

In the dim light, the paper had an aged brownish-yellow tint. The corners were curled, and the pages were packed with black typewritten text.

"He isn’t your father, sweetheart... he’s only someone who shares your blood. That’s all. He never raised you for a single day. He never changed your diaper once. He never sat by your bed when you had nightmares. You and him are just strangers. Strangers related by blood."

She paused, then turned the pages around so Homelander could see the bright red "Top Secret" stamp printed on them.

"And besides, how much could a traitor really care about those hundred-plus lives? Haven’t you always wanted to see his real file? It’s right here. I didn’t want to give it to you before only because I was afraid you couldn’t handle it. Soldier Boy, your father, is a traitor. He defected to the Soviet Union. He betrayed the United States. His goal from the very beginning was to come back and destroy you. To make your approval rating fall, to make you lose everyone’s love, and then to replace you. That is Soldier Boy’s real purpose."

Homelander lowered his head and looked at the pages. The dense lines of text cast fine, broken shadows under the light.

They really did look authentic.

"Madelyn," he suddenly said, his voice becoming very soft.

"What?"

"So none of this was a stunt, right?"

He raised his head, his blue eyes fixed straight on her.

"It was only because I followed Soldier Boy’s arrangement that people misunderstood it as a stunt."

"Yes," Madelyn said, a trace of urgency slipping into her voice. "But Soldier Boy really did..."

"Was Vought involved in this?"

Homelander cut her off.

The corners of his mouth slowly curved into a smile. "For example... pushing the PR campaign, deliberately smearing me..."

Madelyn felt the heart-stabilizing medication starting to fail.

Fear made her heartbeat quicken. The medication kept the change faint, but it was definitely there...

It was fine. Homelander probably would not notice...

The expression on her face did not shift at all. That gentle smile remained unchanged.

"Of course not, sweetheart. How could Vought ever hurt you? You’re the most important person to Vought."

Homelander smiled.

"Madelyn."

He spoke softly.

"Every time you lie, the corner of your left eye twitches. Sometimes twice. Did you know that?"

Madelyn opened her mouth, and her heartbeat sped up again.

In truth...

How could Homelander possibly know that much detail? But the two subtle changes in her heartbeat had already told him everything.

Pfft.

Two red beams pierced through her eyes.

Two cleanly burned holes appeared where her eyes had been, the edges still ringed with dark red embers.

Her body froze. The pages in her hand drifted down and scattered at Homelander’s feet.

The yellowed pages hit the floor, and the accusations of "treason" and "defection to the enemy" were stained dark red by her blood.

She fell backward and crashed onto the marble floor, dying exactly the same way she had in the original show.

Except in the original show, it had been because of Homelander’s son.

This time, it was because of Homelander’s father.

Homelander looked down at her.

The red light in his eyes slowly faded.

He crouched down, picked up the pages from the floor, and tore them in half without even looking at them. Then he tore them into quarters, letting the fragments fall beside Madelyn’s body.

Homelander’s eyes were bloodshot as he stroked Madelyn’s cheek.

It was obvious that killing Madelyn had hurt him...

"Madelyn, do you know something? You’re the best liar I’ve ever known."

He continued speaking to those empty eye sockets.

"I thought you would never deceive me in this life. But in the end... you still lied to me... and there are some things you should never have touched... my family. They’re my family..."

He stood, stepped over the body, and pushed open the apartment door.

The door shut behind him with a heavy, muffled thud.