Hughie rocked back and forth on the park bench, checking his phone every few minutes. He had 17 minutes left on his lunch break that he had practically begged Congresswoman Neuman for, citing extreme hunger and an inability to work as a result of it. But when Neuman had reluctantly granted him half an hour to get some food, Hughie instead rushed straight to the park bench where he was now anxiously waiting, without even stopping on the way to grab a bite to eat. As his anxiety grew, he stood up and looked around on to both ends of the path.
In a minute, his mind cleared up as the cloud of anxiety was lifted by the emergence of a familiar face down the path on his left. He smiled widely, as the person he was waiting for arrived closer.
Annie reached Hughie as the latter extended his arms out. The two of them hugged tightly, neither really wanting to let go of the other as they swayed in the embrace.
"It's so good to see you," Annie said with a smile to match Hughie's.
"You too," said Hughie, as the two finally broke out of their long embrace.
"How are you?" he continued as they sat down on the bench. "I've been worried about you ever since you asked me for Mallory's contact."
"Yeah, I've been okay. I've been keeping low and away from Homelander ever since he handed me Linda's severed head. The rage he's been in, going on a full-on killing spree, I've just been avoiding him as best as I can. I reached out to Mom to tell her to be safe, but I don't think he's going to go after her," Annie responded as her smile dimmed into a grim look.
"Yeah, he's gone absolutely crazy in the past few days. I just keep hearing about all the new murders he commits and my God, it's scary," Hughie sighed as he said this.
"But how are you?" Annie shook her head and asked Hughie, as if to move on from the topic of Homelander's brutality.
"Busy, y'know? The campaign with Neuman is really ramping up and especially with this recent spell of events, we've been working even harder to push for Superheroes being held accountable for their actions. Neuman has been making a lot of calls and I think today's rally might be a big step forward," Hughie responded, as he realized that it was impossible to keep the topic of Homelander out of the conversation.
"Well in a way I'm thankful for her protest today, because otherwise you would not have had the time to meet me," Annie said with a light smile.
"I'm sorry, Annie. Things have been really busy since I joined up with Neuman and I've really not had a chance to meet you," Hughie's apology was accompanied by a softness in his voice that Annie knew to be genuine.
"I know," she nodded. "I know how important this job and this new direction is to you, and you're working so hard for it. I'm happy for you, Hughie. I really am."
"Thank you, Annie. I already feel a lot better, even though I've only been at it for such a short time. I'm not just Butcher's canary anymore, I have a life of my own where I can effect change my way, the right way. And you know something? The other day, Butcher came to see me, expecting that he'd just wag his finger and I'd follow along. But no, I stood up to him and kicked him out," Hughie said that last part with an air of self-pride and a glow to his face.
"Wait, Butcher came to see you?" Annie asked, her voice betraying a sense of surprise.
"Yeah, and honestly, I was expecting it. I knew that he would be out for revenge against Homelander after you told me about Linda. But when he came by and asked me to get back in the squad, I said no. I held my ground, and said no. I'm done doing things his way," Hughie beamed as he stared forward.
"Did he say anything else?" Annie asked, cautiously.
"No, and I didn't give him a chance to. Why do you ask?" Hughie turned to face Annie, the cautious tone in her voice making him think she knew something.
"Nothing, never mind," Annie tried to change the subject again. "You know, we should go for a vacation, soon. I quite enjoyed the last time we took a trip together."
"I would like that, too," Hughie said, all thoughts of Annie hiding something vanishing in his mind as his face reddened with happiness of the memories. "Once the campaign is over, Neuman has asked me to stay on with her when she is in office. I bet I could get a few days off then."
"Oh, that's so far away," whined Annie. "Can we take this week and go?"
Hughie was confused by this response from Annie. In all their time together, he had never once known Annie to be a whiner about not getting things her way. His brows furrowed as he turned his body to face her.
"Annie, what's wrong? This is very unlike you, to request a meetup, deflect topics and now to whine about a vacation. What are you not telling me?" he asked, looking right at her.
Annie sighed, as she realized that her ruse was done. She looked at Hughie, and then down at her feet for a moment before turning her gaze back up.
"We need you, Hughie," she said finally.
"Who's we?" Hughie asked, growing more confused by the minute.
"Look, Maeve and I have been working out a plan to take down Homelander. For good, this time. I convinced her that we need Butcher and you and the rest of the old crew. She got through to him, but he told us how MM wasn't interested, and neither were you. But we need you too, Hughie. We need every help we can get against him," she said, a light sense of relief washing over her face as she could finally stop beating around the bush.
Hughie stared at Annie in silence, his mouth half-open in shock as he finally understood all of it – why Annie was so suddenly keen to meet him and why she said they should immediately go off for a 'holiday'.
"What the fuck, Annie," he slowly whispered.
"Hughie, I—"
Annie's words were cut short by a raised hand from Hughie. She swallowed her words, tilting her body backwards.
"I cannot believe you came out here to manipulate me, Annie. You knew about Butcher, you heard me tell you that I'm in a good place now and you went ahead and tried to trick me into joining your kill squad anyway," Hughie's voice was filled with disgust as he said these words.
Annie tried to interject with a soft "no, Hughie, listen," but to no avail. Hughie continued on his angry tirade.
"I told you, I'm done with the hunting and the killing. You, more than anyone else, know how much I hated that, how much I hated Butcher's way of doing things. And you came here to manipulate me anyway."
Annie looked down at her feet, unable to meet Hughie's angry eyes.
"Did Butcher put you up to this, or did you come on your own? Actually, you know what, it doesn't matter. Honestly, I don't know which of the two is worse at this point," Hughie said these last words and breathed out loudly. Annie looked back up at him, hoping that his rant was over. When Hughie spoke again, his voice was calm and measured.
"You know, Neuman's campaign is to hold all Superheroes accountable for crimes, not just Homelander. You better hope you don't do anything in this pursuit that will make us come after you."
There was ice in Hughie's voice as he stood up. Annie stood up with him, taking a step forward but Hughie put up his hand in protest once more.
"I have to get back to work," he said as he turned around and walked away. Annie stood rooted to the spot as she followed his frame with her eyes. When he had turned the corner, she slumped down on the bench with her face in her palm.
Not incredibly far away from where Annie was lamenting the choice she had just made, another Superhero sat near the waterside. As he stared into the waters of the Central Park Reservoir, the Deep wondered for not the first time in his life what he would give to live the simple life the fish in there lived. True, many of them have been subjected to several catch-and-release moments, but even they know that the feeling of gasping for air and trying not to die is momentary, that after a few moments everything would be normal. The Deep wished that he too could just experience life-threatening pain for just a few moments at a time, and not have to deal with a constant storm raging inside him.
"Wow, do you always look like shit these days?" a voice very close to him broke the Deep's trance. He turned to his left in a flash, as a hooded figure sat down on the bench next to him.
"Maeve?" he said with his eyes wide with surprise as he turned his head towards the figure.
Queen Maeve put down her hood and flashed a light smile at the Deep. As the sunlight shone in her flaming hair and reflected in the Deep's ocean blue eyes, he too shared her light smile. For a moment, he was reminded of his days in the Seven, the best of times, before it all went so wrong.
"I hear you didn't make the cut into the Seven, again," Maeve said with a coy look in her eyes. She no longer needed to pretend to like him, and her hatred of him was evident in her voice.
"I don't want to talk about it. I did everything he fucking asked, that Fresca-loving motherfucker. And then what, he fucking picked A-Train? For fucking snitching on that Nazi bitch? It's all so fucked up," the Deep's voice rose as he vented out his frustration. The fish that had gathered near the edge of the pond swam away quickly, not wanting to be around their irritated friend.
"Well, what can I say? It's not like they'd pick as big an asshole as you, anyway," Maeve was unfazed by the Deep's outburst.
"Why the fuck are you here, Maeve? Are you here to gloat, rub it in? Or are you just here to use me again for your own needs?" the Deep's anger was directed at Maeve this time, as he turned to face her.
"No, I'm here for you," Maeve said. The Deep rolled his eyes at her words, but she continued. "I'm going to take Homelander down, and I'm giving you a chance to get in on it."
The Deep's anger gave way to a burst of laughter at Maeve's proposal. He threw his head back and laughed out loudly for a whole minute. Maeve pursed her lips and shook her head, as she waited for him to stop.
"Oh God, Maeve. Your crack me up, you really do. That's gotta be the best thing I've heard all morning," he said between fits of laughter. He calmed down, and took a look at Maeve's steely face.
"Oh, you're serious? You're actually going to go after Homelander?" he asked once more, as he laughed out loud once again.
"Honey, let me tell you something," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder. In a flash, Maeve swept his hand off as her eyes burned up in rage.
"Touch me once more, and I'll break you in half," she said between her teeth.
Maeve's aggression was enough to wipe the smile off the Deep's face. He leaned forward and stared right into her eyes.
"Maeve, you know better than anyone else who you're talking about going up against. You don't stand a chance against Homelander," he said.
"I know, and that's why I'm not going at it alone. Starlight is with me, and so is Billy Butcher. That's why I'm asking you, too. Together we can finish this," Maeve said the laat few words with a sense of optimism more than firm belief.
"No, no, no," the Deep backed up as he shook his hand. "I'm not getting into this any more. I'm done with this, all of this. You, Homelander, Vought, the Seven, all of it. I gave Homelander what he wanted and that's it," he said with a sense of finality.
"Wait, Homelander came to see you? What did he want?" Maeve's interest was suddenly reborn.
"He wanted to know about some yacht and where it was. He threatened to kill me, as usual, so I asked around and told him," the Deep responded, as a sense of fear from the memory of the incident creeped into him.
"A yacht? Why would he care about some yacht?" Maeve was confused by Homelander's sudden interest in this.
"I don't know, okay? All I know is that it ended up in Washington DC. I met him at the Tower just now, and told him. That's it," the Deep tried to shake off the fear.
"Well, so that's where he's going to go, I assume," Maeve said to herself. She turned her attention back to the Deep and said again, "Come with us. Get your payback too."
"Jesus, Maeve," the Deep raised guys voice and stood up. "I'm done being fucking used by you or Homelander or the Church or some other fucking person just to get what you want. I'm a superhero too, I was a part of the Seven too, and I deserve to be treated like that. I'm not some goddamn errand boy, I'm the Deep and I'm done playing nice with all of you. So, stay the fuck away from me," he continued to scream at her, gathering the attention of passersby. With his last words, he jumped into the Reservoir in front of him and disappeared.
As people pulled out their phones and began taking pictures, Maeve put up her hood and stood up. She took one last look at the Reservoir's still surface and jogged off.
While the two female members of the Seven dealt with the failure of their recruitment efforts, Homelander was a man on a mission. Having recently learned of Ryan's boat being docked at Washington DC, he prepared himself for the journey and the subsequent search of it. He spoke to the people in the intelligence wing at Vought, most of whom he still held some sway over either by inspiration or intimidation, and asked them to look into DC's traffic cameras for any sign of Ryan. He got information on one of the Vought safehouses in DC, as he anticipated having to stay there for a few days in his search for his son. With his preparation complete, he just had one last task left to do before he could say goodbye to New York City for a while. As he sat on the armchair, waiting, he thought about what he would say to Ryan when they met again, how he would spend their days together and how he could be the role model to Ryan that he himself always wanted.
Homelander's thoughts were interrupted as the trailer door swung open, the giggling of female voices rushing into the confines of the small trailer. In a moment, the voices grew louder as two women entered, both with their backs to the door as they faced someone else, someone bringing them in to the trailer.
"Ahem, ahem," Homelander loudly cleared his throat from his seat. The women were startled at this sound from within what they thought was a dark and empty trailer, as they jumped up with a light yelp.
"Who the fuck—" said a male voice as the lights were turned on, but the sentence was left unfinished as the newcomers saw Homelander's wide smile from his armchair in the trailer.
"Ladies, would you please excuse us?" Homelander said in his trademark cheery voice. The women did not object, as they silently turned around and walked away. Even though Homelander was smiling and being cheerful, the underlying menace in his words streaked their faces with fear. As they left, their male companion moved to one side to let them pass and shut the door behind them, his face covered in surprise.
"Homelander? What are you doing here, man?" A-Train asked the leader of the Seven seated in his armchair. Safe to say, he was not expecting the trailer to be anything but empty.
"I came to congratulate you, my friend," Homelander said as he stood up from his chair. "I never did formally congratulate you on your magnificent return to the Seven, you know?"
"Thanks, man," A-Train laughed, a little uneasily. "Look, I'm sorry about your situation with Mr. Edgar and the Seven. It's really trash that they kicked you out, and I get it. I've been there and it sucks, and my heart aches for you," he continued.
"Nah, I don't want to focus on the negatives in this moment. This moment is about you!" Homelander seemed to brush off A-Train's comment as he opened his arms and reached for a hug.
A-Train looked cautiously for a moment, but Homelander's wide smile was cause enough for him to drop his apprehension. He smiled, and reached forward with acceptance. The two men embraced, as Homelander lightly patted A-Train's back.
"You know," he said almost into A-Train's ear, "I accept your apology about my circumstances with the Seven."
A-Train's smile faded away as he tried to pull out of the embrace, but Homelander did not let go.
"Thank you for your apology. After all, it IS your fault that all of this is happening," he continued as he increased his intensity of pats on A-Train's back. The speedster tried harder to break free of the embrace, but Homelander's strength was too much for him to break.
"You betrayed me, A-Train. You leaked the news about Stormfront, and that's what led to her being taken away from me. You did this, A-Train. You killed her," Homelander tried to disguise the hurt in his voice with raw anger as his pats on A-Train's backs turned into hard thumps.
"Please," A-Train whispered, his voice cracking under pain and fear.
"What was it you said? Your heart aches for me?" Homelander asked. "Well, let's see if that's true." He brought his hand down hard on A-Train's back, breaking through the skin and bone. He reached inside A-Train's bloody and broken body, and ripped out his still-beating heart. A-Train's body went limp in his arms, and dropped to the ground as he broke the embrace.
"Hmm," Homelander said as he held A-Train's heart in his hand, "I guess you weren't lying, it does probably ache."