Ninety-ninth floor, the superhero meeting room. Homelander stood alone at the window, looking out with a face stripped of its usual sunny and approachable demeanor. Instead, he seemed cold, as if nothing in the world mattered to him.
Suddenly, the door to the meeting room swung open, and Jon stepped inside.
"What are you here for?" Homelander said flatly.
He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. As the most perfect product of Compound V, his human senses were honed to the extreme. With his super hearing, he could identify people by the sound of their footsteps.
He could sense that Phoenix Warrior was carrying something, though his perception couldn't quite tell what it was.
"I'm here to make peace," Phoenix Warrior said with a smile. "And this... is my gift."
Homelander turned around, clearly taken aback. He had expected Phoenix Warrior to be looking for a fight, thinking that maybe he could finally get their tensions out in the open. But instead, Phoenix Warrior wanted to make peace.
Phoenix Warrior placed the object he was carrying on the table, and Homelander's face changed dramatically.
It was a head, covered in blood. It was Black Noir's head.
"What did you do?" Homelander stammered, momentarily thrown off by the unexpected nature of the gift.
"I cleaned up for you," Phoenix Warrior said coolly. "He betrayed you. At a time when we should stand united against Soldier Boy, that coward ran away."
Homelander looked from Phoenix Warrior to Black Noir's severed head. He shook his head slightly, then smiled. "You... did well on this."
He picked up Noir's head, his eyes narrowing, and suddenly fired his heat vision. The head disintegrated into ash within seconds.
"But you've misunderstood something," Homelander's tone suddenly shifted, his eyes glaring at Jon with a sharp edge.
"The Seven is my team. Everything about this team, including the actions of its members, should come through me first. Acting without my permission is a blatant disrespect to me, understand?"
Homelander stepped closer, his eyes glowing red once again.
Phoenix Warrior deliberately put on a panicked expression, raising his hands. "Oh, of course! You're the boss. I'm just the new guy, and I didn't know the rules. I've learned my lesson now. It won't happen again, okay?"
Homelander paused, the redness in his eyes gradually fading. He didn't quite understand why Phoenix Warrior's attitude had shifted so quickly.
Jon then pulled out a document. "By the way, I just remembered, I have one more gift for you. I said we should work together against Soldier Boy, but that may not be necessary. Take a look at this file, and you'll understand."
Homelander hesitated, then took the file and started reading.
Moments later, his expression changed again. Clearly, the content had a profound impact on him.
He was breathing heavily. "Is... is this true? Where did you get this file?"
"You know where it's from. This isn't something that can be faked," Jon said calmly, stepping closer. "The key question now is, do you want this to be true or not?"
For a moment, Homelander felt his world spinning. As he had said before, his body might be made of steel, but his heart was not.
"He's my father... Soldier Boy is my father!" Homelander whispered, his voice breaking. "I have a father... I have family."
"That's right. You have family," Jon told him gently. "And now, you also have a friend... that's me. I won't run away like Noir. I'll stand by your side and fight with you until the end."
Homelander looked at Jon in disbelief. "But... why? Why were you always provoking me before?"
"Why? Isn't it obvious?" Jon said. "It was my own insecurities. I felt that everyone loved you. You were the best of us. Nobody compared to you. I provoked you because thats my nature."
"But now!" Jon's tone shifted. "Now, I see there's no need for that. The fact that I'm here, standing beside you, is enough for me. No one endures more than you, and I'm ready to share that burden with you."
Homelander was silent, his emotions in turmoil. In one day, he had lost his most trusted friend but discovered he had a father. And now, he gained a new friend.
This kind of emotional upheaval dragged him from his ambitions of stripping away his humanity to become something god-like, back into the emotionally fragile Homelander who just wanted to be loved.
Homelander stood there, looking bewildered, and after a long moment, he stepped forward and hugged Jon.
And that was Jon's plan. If he couldn't make Homelander fear him, the only way to control him was to make him a friend—someone Homelander could trust.
Of course, getting Homelander to completely trust him would take more than just a persuasive speech. He needed to take concrete actions to show Homelander that he was truly a friend.
And there was an opportunity—helping Soldier Boy accept Homelander.
Jon remembered from the original storyline that when Soldier Boy found out Homelander was his son, he was extremely disappointed. Homelander had shown him nothing but the traits of a weeping child, not the man Soldier Boy had hoped for. Jon planned to help Homelander earn Soldier Boy's respect.
Jon was already looking forward to it—the moment when Homelander had everything he ever wanted, only for Jon to destroy it all. He wondered what expression Homelander would have then.
Jon couldn't help but smile wickedly.
Jon patted Homelander on the shoulder. "By the way, Homelander, I have something else I need to confess."
Homelander wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "Go ahead, my friend. Whatever it is, I'll support you."
"No, you might not like this one," Jon shook his head. "It's about that Gravity ability user superhero."
------------
(A/N: If you want to see more chapters, go to my Patreon to see more chapters ahead.
patreon.com/TheMightyZeus
------------