What then?
1.2
Kirschtaria Wodime watched as the others stared at the being that loomed over the horizon. They knew, hopefully, in part, that his presentation was just a projection of some sort. A clever and creative use of Astromancy fueled by reserves that would make even the strongest Magicians, those that held the great Magics of the First, Second, and so on, feel in some way envious of. At the same time, it also relied on the spiritual component of his guests to be awakened, and that was what Astraea was here for.
The Goddess herself, inhabiting dear Miss Edefelt's body, was very helpful not just because it was from the orders of this world's version of Zeus, but some of the mind and soul of Miss Edefelt had carried over, and relatively speaking, they were on really good terms back in the Clock Tower.
Admittedly, much as he would prefer to explain the broader terms and complex jargon of what they were dealing with to his guests, he was advised heavily by both Astraea and even Medea herself to hold back on it. Mostly to allow those who were not part of the lives that they lived to understand it, but also to ease them into the reality that they would slowly share as more trust and time passed. Even the heavy-handed explanation alone of Gods and Magic being explained to them had been enough to push their minds to a feeling of being overwhelmed.
It was easy enough for them to imagine it to be something 'Superhero'-related as the enhanced were since they were exposed to it in 1943 but to know that the main reason why powers existed at all and all the context behind it, Wodime understood now would completely change and challenge every world view they had prior.
Even the crisis of his being misconceived as a Divine Figure had already taken its toll.
One that he blamed himself for primarily.
Yet now, he was more hopeful, as they closed in on their main point, albeit with some hiccups along the way, that they would listen to him on the more technical terms so that they could understand more the gravity of the situation they would all be part of in the near future.
A near future that they all had to prepare for.
"Back up for a moment… I'm already fucking tired of all of the magic bullshit, but why the fuck does Faith produce any such use to these… things… to be of benefit besides ruling over a bunch of powerless monkeys who just discovered fire?" William Butcher, the most troubled of the group, asked. From the psych profile Drake had given him a while back, he was a staunchly stubborn person with a very atheistic but also chaotic view of the world due to circumstances regarding his wife.
It was no wonder he was very confused, rattled, and dare he say it, scared of everything he was learning so far. It made him feel smaller than anything in life before. Even so much to the point that if it were not for his companions or the fact that he was controlling the circle they were all standing on, he would have bolted away with a possible meltdown that would occur later.
If it were not for Grace and Marvin, he would have already abandoned everything behind, trying to stomach everything he had heard.
"Because belief was central to humanity back when scientific understanding had no place in our more primitive societies and cultures. Belief was what shaped the world for early humans because it provided meaning, understanding, and reasoning for any event that they came across."
"That doesn't-
"Let me continue, Mr. Butcher. To make you all understand the broader implications of the energy that our world provides behind the scenes as well as the innate energies that we as living beings possess that are more spiritual in nature."
"So, a soul… it truly does exist, if that's what you're implying?" Marvin asked. "I know I wasn't the best at Sunday School that my momma took me to every week, but I'm not really sure I feel comforted or feel validated that there is something beyond when a person dies." He admitted, which Wodime acknowledged is a philosophical and existential thought that plagued even Magi themselves.
"But how does that work? If the Greek Gods are extraterrestrials, then… they could simulate what the beliefs are of the afterlife and such if they could harness and control primitive beings like us. Yet what of the others? What of the other pantheons, other gods, and other beliefs that stretch out to thousands, even millions, across the Earth? How does every cosmology fit at all in the great expanse if it's all real?" Susan Raynor asked.
"It's a tricky question, isn't it? One filled with uncertainty when looked at first glance. Yet the answer is both simple and, at the same time, broad in its context." Wodime supplied.
"Remember the energies that I mentioned?" he continued as he raised his cane. The tool hummed briefly until orbs of light manifested at its tips. "Its existence essentially fueled the imaginations of once ignorant humans to fill in the blanks. The limits of human imagination back then allowed concepts to form, and those concepts birthed the very myths and Gods that we see now. A birth of belief, oftentimes untampered by outside means."
"And because many people believed in it, they… wait, are you telling us some Deities were essentially created by Man themselves to fill the void of understanding?" Grace asked.
"Most of them, yes," Wodime confirmed.
"And others… were just concepts further given meaning and form because they already had the power and means to do so. So, they benefit twice, in a sense." Marvin continued as he remembered the 'ships' before.
Suddenly, William Butcher laughed. Almost in a painfully ironic way.
"Butcher," Grace warned, but ideally, Wodime was quite curious as to what he wanted to say that drove him to laugh that much.
"Now that's just pleasant innit? For as much as the bloody, arrogant, easily pissed off sods called themselves the most powerful fucks over humans…" he then continued laughing again, even wiping a stray tear as they all stared. "…they were still reliant on us to keep them powerful, huh? Is that what you're saying, Mr. Know-it-all, huh?"
"Butcher," Grace warned again, with a firmer tone this time. Mostly due to the fear of Wodime taking offense, but on the contrary, the man himself practically welcomed it. Even looking pleased at the conclusion that Butcher had just made.
"Yes. They are by and large, concepts of man still, so they still follow and fall into the lengths and imaginations of man both figuratively and literally. They are beings born out of thought, most of all, their existence created by the same group of people who believed them, and in turn, their faith fueled what in essence is their power. Belief, after all, has no limits; it is, by nature, abstract."
"But it's still fucking limited by what humans can only dream and think of. We aren't the be-all, end-all shit in the universe. Nobody's fucking perfect. Not Gods. Not you… and certainly… n-not me." He admitted himself, eyes almost downcast, as if berating himself over something.
"I agree." Wodime supplied, surprising the rest slightly with his declaration, but it was what he said after that that added another layer to his perspective and personality that Grace and the others were building off beyond the threat level he and his heroes possessed.
"To be human is to be imperfect. To dream of perfection, of unbridled prosperity, unbreakable peace, or even to dream that everyone and anyone would get along regardless of who and what they are… is fundamentally just that… a dream." Wodime admitted on his behalf, recalling the memories and words of all the people he had met and spoken to, with varying degrees of context in each conversation overlapping on top of each other like an echo chamber.
All of them reverberating, questioning the tenets of idealism versus the hard, almost painful truth of cynicism and, to some degree, pragmatism.
"That's simply what humans are and like the Gods that they believed in, no different." He then looked at them with a renewed smirk that fought against the dourness. "But it doesn't mean that we should all give up trying to at least steer it in a direction that would help the most people possible."
"And much as humanity needs gods, gods need humanity." Astraea suddenly said to further enhance Wodime's point.
"Indeed… but some examples were much more extreme than others. Case in point, the Hellenistic Gods, which were already mighty and powerful before they adapted themselves to be part of Man's world."
"But if they were already as powerful as you say then why do they need us? Surely they could get something more out of what's in space than here?" Marvin asked.
"The energy that fuels belief is practically harmless at first, addicting as they grow more exposed to it. I dare say that they might have planned to leave, but they themselves fell into the existential trap of being part of humanity alongside all its attachments." Wodime explained as he looked back at the shimmering projection of the white haze that had burned civilizations to the ground.
"Like an addiction." Susan blurted out.
"But how does it explain right now, today… that there's no schmuck in the sky or aliens roaming around trying to overlook us with their own asshole personalities? Fuck me, people still believe today of God for crying out loud. That dumb God that let his son or his aspect or fuck it, whatever hang on top of a cross to die." Butcher emotionally said as he took another step toward Wodime, the distance between them shrinking with each outburst, but he let it.
And Grace Mallory could see it with the way Wodime was treating him, so she stood her ground and waited to act before Butcher endangered them all with a single action, regardless of Wodime's altruism. It also helped that Butcher's question mirrored her own, sans the cursing.
"If they're so powerful then why are dealing with supes rather than fucking Buddha or something that's just sitting there while thousands die somewhere. Where the fuck are they? Why are these aliens just gone?"
Wodime then snapped his fingers.
The feeling of something deeper tugging within the chests of all those present who were not used to Mystery manifested. Their bodies glowed in an ethereal sheen of bluish-green once more. Wodime then gestured for Astraea to disembark from her post and walk towards them as Butcher and everyone else froze in fear, curiosity, and anticipation as the blindfolded goddess then presented her scales closer.
The Astromancer then motioned with his cane for the four wisps on Astraea's scales to appear again as they swayed back and forth as if awaiting judgment. The symbolism of the scales themselves scared all four of them while Wodime kept his gaze firmly on Butcher's, the neutral expression already making him scared shitless underneath all of his now crumbling bravado.
"Mr. Wodime?" Grace worriedly asked.
"Nothing wrong is happening, I assure you all. But I'm afraid the only answer I can give you, Mr. Butcher, is another question of my own." He then gestured for everyone to come closer as Astraea's scale finally stopped moving, showing the glowing orbs, each with their own hue of greenish-blue color, both fascinating and scaring them as Wodime continued to explain.
"Right here is the lifeforce, a manifestation of your individual being distilled into energy. The potential energy, hewn from each soul, per se, exists in everything, but humans nowadays leave such potential untapped. Completely ignored as they go about their days unaware of what they could do to harness it or use it." He then pointed at one orb, burning brightly in a greenish-blue hue at the same time. Butcher felt his own body flinch.
"So, my question stems from the philosophical thought of, do people actually believe in the religion they claim to be part of, or do they just believe or follow the idea of it?" Wodime asked him as Butcher looked confused.
"How are those different?" Butcher argued.
"An idea isn't anthropomorphized. It only holds onto the tenets, the rules, the morality, and the central idea of the belief. It doesn't directly or necessarily allow belief of such a being like a God to be true."
"Why wouldn't they benefit or receive some of that energy, as you said?" Susan asked.
"The best example I can give is something like Napoleon using the sacrifice and symbols of those who died in the French Revolution without actually acting upon the ideals of said Revolution. He merely used them for his own gain, because that's what pulled people to support him."
The example made everyone think hard about it as Wodime continued…
"I am not questioning the belief or sanctity of how people believe in the Abrahamic God or other religions nowadays, but conceptually, most people only believe the very ideas of it, not the beings themselves directly. Like putting all your cards on Abstract belief rather than something concrete."
"And with… how Vought and other people associate Supes nowadays with God, they don't… exactly represent or acknowledge the religion their tying themselves to." Grace mused as she crossed her arms on her chest.
"Like Homelander." Marvin supplied.
"Like fucking Homelander…" Butcher echoed.
"Don't get me wrong. The separation of Man and Faith for Rationality and Science is always an inevitability. Gods fundamentally are a primitive concept to make up the deficiencies in the knowledge that civilization possessed." Wodime then said as the scales that Astraea held onto disappeared, and she removed her blindfold. Her gaze made each of Wodime's guests flinch as if she were peering into their souls for sin.
"But essentially, the modern world for them is like looking at a desert, devoid of water to quench thirst and hunger. This naturally would force many to move on or just disappear entirely." He then smiled at Butcher. "That answers your question in part, Mr. Butcher. You ask why doesn't the Abrahamic God doesn't allow his presence to be felt? More than likely, he is gone, just like the rest of them. Just as more and more people through the generations accept rationality and science as what they believe in."
Butcher and Marvin looked at him as if the biggest question of Wodime bringing up stuff about Gods had been answered, yet…
"In part? Mr. Butcher? W-What exactly happened to the Hellenistic Gods and the other extraterrestrials that attached themselves to us?" Susan Raynor asked with fear in her voice about the implications.
Wodime and Astraea looked at each other.
"That right there is another visitor. One that is different, thus far from what we can tell compared to every single visitor that's come to Earth." Wodime left out yet in his sentence because he didn't want to scare them further in their already uncomfortable state. Yet even pointing to the entity, the white haze, had turned even Astraea uncomfortable, which spoke to the impact that this particular enemy of humanity had on all the Gods that once ruled over the Earth.
"As far as we can tell with various research, the Hellenistic Gods were ships, probably sentient ships with advanced AI indistinguishable from a living being, the Mayan/Aztec Gods were sentient microbes that had control over the elements sent here by the Chixclub Meteor…
"Wait… back the fuck up. The what now?" Butcher interrupted, yet seemingly Wodime just continued talking.
"…there's evidence to suggest the Egyptians in part had overlap with the Hellenistic Gods, and so on…"
"Mr. Wodime, we understand the Hellenistic Pantheon, but for the others- Grace started as Wodime paused, realizing that he was about to repeat his mistake again.
"Right… I apologize. But do understand that I'm summarizing to the best of my extent what we do know. All of the theoretical are in the drive I gave if you wish to read them, but I must tell you all now that the actual danger, the one I am asking for help, not just from you but from everyone is that." he said, pointing again at the ominous, white haze in the distance. Its red glowing eyes from the amorphous head invoked an uncanny feeling that crawled under his own skin and those of his guests.
"What the hell is it then?" Marvin said.
"Many cultures, surviving ones at least, don't have specific names for it, but they all describe the color it possessed, and that it was titanic. Larger in the sense of how they would describe giants or Gigantes in their specific languages and cultures." Wodime then recalled back in Atlantis a mural, once a very complex nanotech wireframe frozen with ancient-looking art of the White Titan. It spoke so much of the danger of the enemy due to the Gods and humans in the Lostbelt.
"Why is it a threat, if sufficiently powerful technologies, extraterrestrial ones, had made some Gods as strong as they are without counting Faith?" Grace dared to ask.
"How powerful do you think Gods are?" Wodime responded with a question. They stared at him, thinking about their own personal answers, ranging probably from 'very strong to incomparably stron,g given the myths surrounding them, but Wodime's frown only proceeded to develop.
"And how many Gods exist in human memory across multiple cultures, all around the world? Powers that make miracles, such as the one I'm doing now, are cute in comparison, and control over various parts of the local metaphysical universe that we can't fathom."
"But you said some of them aren't literal, given the limits of human imagination?" Susan worriedly asked.
"And that may very well be true, but for context, if you think the heroes that work at Olympia are strong, then those deities were far stronger. Quite frankly, it may not be comparable at all."
That amongst many other things, forced most of what little reason or bravery his guests had to plummet into nothingness as they digested that information.
Wodime couldn't blame them. It was that dire.
"Now, many Gods co-existed with others during what's perhaps the golden age for them. At the height of their power. At the zenith of what peak they achieved in their immortal lifetimes. Yet once this visitor arrived, they were all nearly forced to extinction."
"Extinction?" Grace said, not as a question, but nearly a curse in all but name, as it emphasized all her emotion over the gravity of the claim.
"It's why you don't see them now, those powerful beings that once ruled over humanity. Very little if at all exists currently. All because of that and everything it brought to the world as it laid a path of devastation that echoes even now." Wodime ominously explained until Grace perked up.
"The pictures. The… lab of Dr. Vought. The unnatural powers derived into a serum." Grace almost blanched in place, nearly losing her balance before Butcher caught her along with Marvin.
"Grace? You alright?" Butcher uncharacteristically mused over his superior as she looked at him. "What?"
"Do you get it now?" Wodime sadly said. "Pieces of the enemy, probably beaten back in a horrible stalemate, yet linger in the modern day. The destroyer still has its legacy living on just because one man decided to play God by creating the 'Super-Man'."
The reactions varied among them on a personal level…
…from Butcher's hate over Supes increasing another level more…
…from Marvin Milk's memory of all the Supes that had affected his family, whether big or small…
…from Susan's own fear of Supes back then,n becoming part of the Military and all, it entailed…
…and lastly, Grace's own nightmares of her experience of those in Soldier Boy's time, Lamplighter, and Homelander's actions.
"So is the remedy killing all of the Supes?" Butcher suddenly said out loud. His mind was adamant again, just like he was before, but with renewed context.
"No. It won't do anything at all, really. Compound V is merely a pretense, activated by circumstance and by accident due to a discovery. A discovery that mankind wasn't meant to find."
Butcher shook his head in disbelief. "How can you be so sure?!" he angrily shouted.
"Because the pieces of the enemy still exist. It wasn't destroyed, Mr. Butcher, and like it or not, we need all the help we can get." Wodime firmly said, which forced him to back down even for a bit. Yet his comrades focused on one specific slew of words in his statement that now made Grace Mallory and Susan Raynor vigilant yet concerned.
"How many, obviously, the dig sites you all operate on are part of the number, yes?" Susan asked, to which Wodime nodded.
"Indeed, at the very least, all major continents have pieces of the Enemy. All inactive as far as thaumaturgical instruments can detect, they're just inert, waiting for the right time to activate."
"All relevant continents?" Grace asked. "Is that why you have operations as far as the North Pole and in the Pacific Ring of Fire?"
Wodime nodded gravely again at Grace, who cursed under her breath.
"How sure are we that they would activate?" Marvin asked in a downtrodden voice as he and Butcher held Grace to steady her. "If… if Supes are the reason for it to stop being inert, then what exactly do we do about it, especially when you're implying that even freaking Gods weren't enough to destroy it?"
Wodime thoughtfully looked at each of them with different degrees of fear and concern in each of their faces. The hopelessness started to awaken in them, the futility, reminded him of Ritsuka Fujimaru at first when he made his dramatic and evoking first appearance against him in Atlantis. Yet despite it all, like every human, especially those who were the most stubborn, that glint of defiance remained.
Wodime hoped that specific observation would stave off the hopelessness to secure more trust and belief in their success. Even if in a more negative stance now, particularly with Mr. Butcher, he needed belief and faith in the cause to save humanity.
"Would giving up be a choice for you all then?" he dared them. His words surprised them as Wodime snapped his fingers, ending the flow of mana into the circle of Astromancy that projected everything around them. As the starry, cosmic backdrop faded around them, the ominous figure of the White Haze still loomed, even echoing the uncanny and uncomfortable gaze it had even as everything disappeared.
What now remained was the farm lent to them by Stand Edgar himself against the afternoon which was now approaching sunset by just an hour or less. The Sun slowly but surely crept to the edge of the horizon while the wind blew by them.
The heaviness of everything discussed and Wodime's final words kept them silent and uncertain.
"I am not here to scare you all. To tell you that there's no hope. If anything, it's the direct opposite. The cooperation I seek is to be one of equality. Olympia in every essence is built to make that a reality, if only to prepare us all for the inevitable."
"But Mr. Wodime… you said it yourself, humans are flawed by design, even with all the good you've done so far, what then? How sure are we that when that day comes, we can all stand up and unite? If such a thing could even be achievable in the first place." Susan Raynor asked with concern, filling most of her voice.
"Looking only into the negative aspects of humanity is why I made my most grievous of mistake. Yet looking into the positive as your only outlook is also foolish. Perhaps…" Wodime then paused for a second before looking at Astraea and every comrade he had on this journey thus far.
"…Perhaps I just trust in the thought that humanity can fight for its right to exist and protect everything that comes with it when it matters most." He finished as they looked at him.
"How can we fight back, though? If we're sure that not even what we have right now is enough?" Marvin argued, even if part of him didn't want to give in to the fear.
"It doesn't matter, MM… I… I've disagreed and felt pissed off about this entire shite, to begin with ever since you started yapping. But… but if the danger is actually real. Then there's no way in hell that I'm just going to let a white fucking fairy from another planet just kill everyone." Butcher suddenly said with a troubled voice, yet his words almost contradicted his tone entirely. A hesitation that surprised them all, even Wodime. "And hating Supes all my life has been basically what I live for if it means that I have to fucking fight the one that started it all… then I ain't cowering from it. Not one bit."
"That's suicidal rather than defiance, Butcher…" Grace then said with a frown and a sigh. "But… he's right. You wouldn't have brought us here if you knew we'd just throw in the towel… as absurd and horrendous as all of this was." Uncrossing her arms, Grace then looked straight at Wodime closely. She bit her lip before continuing, "What you envision, though, Mr. Wodime, even if it's just the energy sector or the health sector, and every sort of innovation you're trying to push the world into, I'm afraid it's just not gonna cut it. Or at least not as perfect as you'd want it to be. Even with the threat of extinction, people won't listen or care until they've seen and felt it themselves."
"I'm not expecting it to be, with all due respect, Madame Mallory. But with you here and possibly many more that we can trust with this information, perhaps… we can come to a middle ground that greatly benefits everyone." Wodime offered.
The cogs in Grace Mallory's head started turning as plans and many more started to form. "Alright then, but in order for this trust to be strengthened, I'm expecting cooperation and relevant information on everything."
"Done," Wodime said with an affirmative nod and appreciative smile.
"And lastly, Mr. Wodime… if you don't mind, perhaps some degree of coordination with some of your operatives and resources," Grace said with finality to seal the deal. Wodime continued to appreciatively grin with thankfulness at her words. A fact that surprised Susan and Grace with how open he was about it. Even if by this point, they should have expected it from him.
"We have a deal, Madame Mallory." He said as he offered his hand forward. Grace then took it, shaking it with firmness, knowing what was at stake. This now grew beyond that of Supes, beyond that of Vought and Homelander, beyond just the fear of existentialism when it came to those with powers and those without.
This was of survival now, and both sides knew deep down that they would need every advantage they needed to make sure Earth would remain intact.
For Kirschtaria Wodime, he then heard Daybit Sem Void's words in his head again…
What then?
The answer was still a mystery for him, but for now, with the cooperation he fostered, perhaps such an unknown future had hope. A reasonable hope of a future where humanity could survive and live on with progress and certainty.
For now, he would look at the present first, just like Caenis said, to ensure such a future would be realized.
Butcher's head was still trying to cope with all of the things that Kirschtaria Wodime of Olympia had dumped on them. The headache, already at full mast ever since they started, was already an omen for things to come as his beliefs were basically tarnished…
…maybe broken through every possible piece due to the existential weight of it all.
And that was something coming from him.
The man who pretty much let rationality… or better yet, Chaos, be the forefront of all his beliefs. A man who once flirted with vengeance for nearly all his life and detested anything remotely related or attached to the very idea of Supes.
The experience had both strengthened his hate for everything regarding a schmuck that has power but also scared him to the likes of no other knowing where powers came from.
And that this world had been a victim already of one cataclysm.
A cataclysm that he himself could not imagine due to how much he denied anything regarding the divine or written on those damn crusty old books teaching people about faith and morality. To learn that part of them were true, and some were even aliens of all fucking things, reframed his perspective immensely.
Especially when Wodime himself had admitted that there was more behind everything he had told them. As if what he told them already wasn't nuts to begin with. Apparently, what he explained to them was just the bare bones of it all, with the important fact being pressed upon them was the invader itself. That White Haze that stood above them high into the sky…
Even if it was just a projection, Butcher himself felt the very real danger it posed.
Even from just its gaze and the description of how it burned (as Wodime put it best), both God and Alien alike, with almost everyone scattering to the four winds, being nearly extinct as they were. Those Gods that in those old books controlled divine forces of heaven and earth underneath their palms as they trampled humanity, lost to this thing.
And it didn't even die.
It lay dormant across the world in pieces. Waiting for something.
With its legacy now written on the Supes that were crawling around the world trying to be heroes.
In part, he had been starting to accept… or at least acknowledge that good people were amongst those Supes. Many from Olympia that he had met personally as well as some Vought created fucks that were just doing their best amidst the shadow of the actually greedy and vile Supes like Homelander and the rest.
Deep down, he thanked Drake and some of her friends for culling the worst of them for the most part, but the gash, or dare he admit it, the trauma of all the dealings he had with Supes still remained. A gash that still had no remedy to this day due to…
"Becca…" he whispered as he stood at the side while Raynor and Mallory worked things with the Wodime fellow on some additional information and how coordination would be handled.
He didn't much care about it, he was more of a spontaneous thinker.
Reactive, possibly. Stupid, debatably…
But he was reliable to their cause, so to speak. How much use would he have for this threat, however, was beyond Butcher. Beyond most people, really.
I mean, what can people really do with all of the information dumped on them?
Most people would probably deny it, go paranoid about it, maybe even commit to murk themselves just from the sheer horror of it all, but to Butcher…
Well, he was at a strange impasse.
Just like his current, jumbled thoughts on everything he believed in, and the self-reflection behind it all due to the changing times. And times were a' changin' indeed.
He would have never seen himself in this spot barely a year ago.
He would have expected himself to be more destructive, more… chaotic, as his personality always was, just more pronounced and burned more bridges than he could handle.
Yet he was here. Just standing in a series of diverging paths, unsure of where to go.
All because he clung to the only reason he was in this mess in the first place.
Becca.
Butcher looked through the window of the house and watched as the two brothers tending to the Supe farm animals mocked about as the sun finally settled itself for the beginning of the night. The moon was already up as light from the sun became more melancholic.
Sentimental.
"Hey man…" a voice suddenly said, taking him out of his stupor. The heavy yet friendly clap of MM's hand rubbing his shoulder made him feel a bit comfortable as the man stood beside him. "…you doing okay?"
Feigning a much braver front than he usually did, Butcher grinned.
"M'fine. What about you?"
Hearing MM snicker was simply helping him to calm down much like Frenchie often did. Even that girl they tagged along on their merry quest gave him a bit of nostalgia despite her rather new addition to the team.
"I'll be honest with you, I kinda miss the old days when it was just about Homelander and Vought… but the world seemingly had other plans on that front," MM admitted.
"Would things have changed even if it wasn't? Even if there was no… Aliens or Gods in the equation… would we be any different?" Butcher suddenly asked.
MM stared at him, almost distraught and surprised to hear him say that.
"I… don't know, man. I'm not sure if I can even trust that we'd still be a team if it were just us and Vought. Things were just different a few months ago, and nobody could have predicted where it would take us now."
That was probably true.
"But when you think about it, it wouldn't have mattered what we could have done at all." MM suddenly said with an almost defeated voice.
"Why's that?"
MM sarcastically chuckled. "The whole Supes getting powers from an ancient god/demon thing that once nearly destroyed Earth, what else?" MM then frowned. "What could we have done to do anything against it when we were unaware of it for the rest of our lives until now?"
"We survive. Humanity always survives." Butcher stressed.
"Yeah… but to what extent?"
The sounds of crickets roosting outside the grass seemingly filled up the unanswered question MM had asked him.
What indeed?
Butcher had no answer himself; he only cared about Becca, to begin with, and even if she was still with him, what good would it do when he probably couldn't protect her at all for a threat as large as this?
It was almost like comparing their situation to a maniac pointing a nuclear warhead at everyone else without their knowledge of it. When said warhead detonates, it is frankly too late for anyone to stop or do anything about it.
There was no plan or strategy yet to do anything of note for this problem, and as much as Butcher thought Wodime was alright, his little speech at the end raised uncertainty in him more than anything. The man was similarly afraid as he was, and Butcher didn't know what to think of that.
MM was about to say something again, but chose to keep his lips closed as they let those thoughts sink in. They looked at the world outside and realized that sometime in the future, those fields of green or anything resembling human civilization could be burned to nothing.
It's a thought that served as a stark contrast to the usually stubborn and defiant William Butcher.
As they stood still beside each other for a few minutes more, he suddenly heard Raynor call out to him. Her face was already stressed out and exhausted, but there was one other emotion that bothered him.
Pity.
Raynor had urged him to follow as they went to Wodime again, where a similarly looking Mallory stared at him with concern. The atmosphere was almost suffocating as MM trailed behind him when Butcher finally looked at Kirschtaria Wodime, questioning what was going on.
The man looked at the young woman beside him as a medium-sized box was handed to Wodime. Butcher at that point seemingly could not remember what was being said as the box was handed to him and he opened it carefully…
"William. I'm…. I'm sorry." Mallory, no… Grace said to him with a shaky voice as she grasped his arm tightly when Butcher stared at the contents of the box.
A nearly burnt but familiar scarf lay inside. There was also a photo in nearly the same state as the other item and a small, sealed urn in the middle of it all.
William Butcher recalled shaking in place as he nearly collapsed.
He couldn't remember what the others said at that moment, only that he began screaming, not in anger, not in vengeance, but in anguish.
Or perhaps he didn't scream at all; he couldn't say.
The only thing he recalled was Becca's face in the photo and just the implications of the truth trapped in the urn in the middle of it all.
Whether MM or Wodime's assistant knocked him out in that moment couldn't assuage the grief and final realization of why he was asked to join in this little parade in the first place.
He just….
He just couldn't fathom or even believe…
That she was really gone.