Homelander looked up at Soldier Boy, who walked toward him without a word.
His expression was ugly.
Disgust, anger, and something Homelander could not understand.
After losing his powers, he was actually less afraid than before. The worst had already happened. Flight, heat vision, his bulletproof body-all gone. What did he have left to lose now?
Homelander pushed himself upright on weak legs, his lips moving several times. The word was on the tip of his tongue, but he simply could not get it out.
Soldier Boy stopped in front of him.
"Have you fucking stared enough?"
Homelander's shoulders shook.
In the past, anyone who dared speak to him in that tone would have been sliced in half by heat vision. Now he could only stand there and take the abuse.
It was humiliating.
But the man before him was his father.
Even though Soldier Boy had just taken everything from him, that blood connection still stirred a little ridiculous hope in Homelander.
Maybe his father would accept him.
Maybe they really could become a family.
"Dad..."
His voice was quiet, even a little shaky.
Soldier Boy was just about to curse at him when his entire body suddenly went rigid.
Tears streamed down Homelander's face.
"I didn't know." He wiped haphazardly at his face, looking more pathetic with every swipe. "I didn't know you were my father. If Vought had told me sooner, if I hadn't grown up alone, maybe we..."
By the end, his knees buckled, and he dropped straight to the ground.
"I just wanted a family."
Soldier Boy stared hard at him.
The blond man kneeling on the ground, streaming tears and snot, disappeared. In his place was the young Ben in that laboratory all those years ago.
A cold needle pierced his skin, and the