(I'm really convinced. I'm going to ban whatever I write! I've been trying to change it all afternoon and it still doesn't work. I don't care. I'll repost it first. If it still doesn't work, I'll say it again!)
"Why stay away from him?"
"Don't you stay away from him? Do you want you to join him, or do you want to wait for you to be killed by him?"
At this time, the person Maeve was talking to had also become Elena, an ordinary woman without superpowers, and a secret existence that she least wanted Homelander to know.
Unfortunately, Homelander still discovered her and cruelly revealed the secret in front of the public.
It had already been an hour since Ryan caught up and stopped her.
Maeve is like a tired bird that doesn't know where her home is. When she was confused by Ryan's words, she couldn't wait to return home.
And Elena's gentleness can really calm her chaotic heart.
"What else did the child say afterward?"
Lying in her arms, Maeve's eyes were a little dazed. She recalled, "I was also very angry at the time. Love him? Why! I said to Ryan..."
With the memory, Maeve seems to have returned to an hour ago.
Still in that empty wilderness, Ryan stood in front of her, waiting for her answer.
She was so angry that she forgot that the person standing in front of her was an eight-year-old child. She shouted, "How do you know I didn't love him? We all loved him, but what did he do? He..."
"He is also a child. He gets angry when he asks for something but doesn't get it."
Ryan decisively defined Homelander.
Then he stared into Maeve's eyes and said sincerely, "I have a mother who tells me what is right and what is wrong. Maeve, who is the person who tells you what is right and wrong?"
"You don't need to answer, because no matter who that person is, there will always be such a person."
"But what about dad? No one has ever told him, you did this wrong, you shouldn't do this, what should you do?"
The wind in the wilderness is blowing gently on the summer night.
The wind hit Maeve's skin, giving her layers of numbness.
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
She desperately recalled whether everyone fled in panic under his scarlet eyes when facing the brutal Homelander.
The answer is yes.
Because he is so powerful, no one dares to face him.
"I'm very smart, Maeve."
Ryan once again emphasized that he must patch up his rhetoric and thinking that are not suitable for his age.
Personality must never be lost.
He continued, "Dad loved me very much, but I soon saw clearly the dark hard shell that he had built up under his heroic identity. But I thought, is that just his fault?"
"Maeve, you, Starlight, Black Noir, and even the dead Stormfront, you all got close to dad and then abandoned him without mercy."
"Homelander..."
Ryan's face showed sadness. "Yes, Homelander is undoubtedly powerful, but Homelander is also pitiful because no one really loves him."
Time returns to the present.
The soft bedside lamp cast a shallow halo of light, and the warm yellow light shone on the shadows nestled together.
The night outside the window is thick, and it seems that the whole city has fallen asleep.
The room was quiet for a while, and Elena was also thinking, is the Homelander that the child said really like that?
She didn't know, so she asked directly, "Maeve, if that child wants to love his father, then let him go. What does he mean by saying these things to you?"
What does it mean?
As soon as Maeve heard Elena's question, and thought of Ryan's whimsical but strangely consistent answer, he couldn't help laughing.
She wanted to stop her smile.
But she... failed, so she had no choice but to lower her head with a groan, and simply laughed heartily before talking.
Elena didn't know which of her words was funny, but she was soon made uncomfortable by the shock caused by the laughter.
She temporarily put down the answer, turned over and pressed Maeve into the quilt. "Okay, if you want to sneak attack me, let me tickle you too..."
"Ha... I was wrong, I say!"
"... chucky... listen to me..."
The two of them played around for a while, and when they calmed down again, they looked at each other and chuckled in unison.
"Okay, stop making trouble! Maeve, Ryan What does he want you to do?"
Elena immediately added after asking, "I may not necessarily agree, but I still want to hear it. That child is really smart."
"Yeah, Ryan really doesn't look like Homelander's son."
Maeve also sighed, and then announced the answer.
The smile in her eyes began to fill again, and she said, "Elena, Ryan saw my intention to escape from there completely, so he wanted me to return to Homelander."
"He wants me to join him and others in the future to put on a big show for Homelander."
"Wait, listen to me."
Maeve pressed Elena's brows that were about to frown and asked quickly, "Do you know Mad King Charles?"
"Ah! What?"
"Ryan told me the story of Mad King Charles. The king in the story has the typical characteristics of a cruel monarch, but his cruelty was sealed in the palace by the royal nobles, court jesters and personal attendants."
"In order to prevent his rage from destroying the order of the country, everyone followed his crazy words and accompanied him to immerse himself in his own fantasy."
"In this way, he will never have the opportunity to carry out large-scale tyranny as a king, and his uncontrollable evil deeds will be limited to a small area!"
After Elena listened, she immediately understood Ryan's plan. She was surprised and said, "So you are going to be a jester? Or a personal attendant?"
"Why not be a powerful minister?"
Maeve raised his eyebrows, unconvinced.
Elena was speechless and said, "Obviously that powerful minister is Ryan, you... forget it, it's quite good for you to be a jester."
"Wrong!"
Elena reacted as soon as she finished speaking. She frowned and looked at Maeve: "You, are you really persuaded by that child? Do you want to go back to Homelander?"
"But Maeve, if it's fake, it's fake. Aren't you afraid that Homelander will see through you?"
Maeve's smile faded, and she thought of Ryan again, so she said to her girlfriend, "I can't leave that child alone!"
"That is not a responsibility that should be borne by him alone. I am Queen Maeve!"
"Yes, you are Queen Maeve..."
Elena sighed, couldn't help hugging her queen, and whispered, "So you want to return to Homelander, you want to turn the fake into real, what about me?"
After this conversation with Maeve, I really cheered up again.
She straightened her back, looked directly into the other person's eyes, and then solemnly announced, "You will always be my Elena, and he is just Homelander!"
"I know this very well and will always remember it."
Speaking of this, Maeve's tone became brisk again.
She said, "Okay, don't worry about me. After all, Ryan is here, I will be fine."
"Well, yes, we will be together forever."
Maeve quietly pressed his hand on the switch of the bedside lamp and turned it off.
With a soft snap, the whole room and the city fell into silence.