Chapter 90: Love is a Two-Way Street

Hearing his father take the initiative to invite him to dinner, the slighted look vanished from Homelander’s face. He even eagerly straightened his cape, falling in line right behind Benjamin.

Stepping out of the trailer, Benjamin paused slightly as he passed Annie. "Wait for me at the apartment, Annie," Benjamin said. "I’ll come find you tonight."

Hearing the intensely aggressive implication, Annie’s face flushed slightly. "Alright, sir... I’ll be waiting."

Homelander shot a glance at Annie, his eyes betraying a hint of irritation.

Benjamin and Homelander quickly left the trailer.

Watching the father and son depart, Starlight turned back to look at Stormfront amidst the wreckage of the trailer, letting out a helpless sigh. "Well, looks like my job isn’t done yet."

Muttering under her breath, Annie stepped forward and hoisted Stormfront by her arms like dragging a dead dog. She needed to get this world-domination-plotting bitch to Vought’s secret hospital for emergency medical treatment as fast as possible.

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The New York night wind carried a bustling chill. Street neon sliced the city’s silhouette into a bizarre panorama.

Having just finished their tomahawk ribeyes at that high-end restaurant, the father and son were walking side by side down a relatively secluded street. Because of the violent clash that had just erupted inside the trailer, the atmosphere between them still carried a subtle trace of tension.

Like a child who had made a mistake and dreaded angering his parent again, Homelander trailed half a step behind Benjamin, his head lowered.

Walking ahead, Benjamin chewed on an unlit cigar, his brow furrowed slightly as his mind rapidly calculated a deeply vexing issue. How the hell was he supposed to completely eradicate his son’s morbid, affection-starved personality?

Benjamin knew Homelander’s nature all too well. In the original storyline, Homelander’s giant man-child syndrome and extreme craving for affection were practically terminal diseases cut deep into his bones. Even as the plot progressed into Seasons 4 and 5 and he repeatedly tried to cast off his humanity, he never succeeded in the end. Right up until the final moment, Homelander still retained his humanity and remained starved for love. It was exactly like Vought International said: he could never truly escape his humanity.

Late in the fourth season, Homelander had looked like he was on the verge of severing all mortal emotion and completely crossing over to the dark side. And the result? Some low-tier female Supe named Firecracker dragged him right back down with a squirt of breast milk radiating maternal glory.

Benjamin realized that correcting Homelander had hit a major bottleneck. The [System] hadn’t chimed with a notification for a successful breakthrough in a long time. It meant that forcing another psychological shift to make Homelander better would prove exceptionally difficult.

"John," Benjamin said, abruptly stopping. He turned around, his deep gaze anchoring onto Homelander’s visibly anxious face.

"Dad, I’m here." Homelander immediately straightened up.

Benjamin removed the cigar from his mouth, his tone no longer as freezing as before, replaced instead by a world-weary, piercing wisdom. "You need to understand something, John. This world is never black and white."

"If people love you because you save them, there will inevitably be others who envy you, fear you, or flat-out hate you for no goddamn reason just because you’re powerful. How else do you think internet trolls exist? I’ve been through all of it myself."

"You can’t anchor your self-worth to the polling data of a brainless public. You have to drop that morbid obsession with forcing the entire world to love you unconditionally."

Homelander stood frozen, completely silent, a lost light flickering in his blue eyes. Drop the obsession? Exist without everyone’s love? To him, the concept was as thoroughly incomprehensible as asking a fish to breathe out of water.

Benjamin didn’t care if Homelander processed it right away. Turning his back to the sprawling, brilliant night view of New York, he left his son with two parting insights. "Keep this through your head: love is a two-way street."

"If you want to earn genuine affection from others, you have to learn how to love them back and actually respect life."

Dropping those words, Benjamin paid no more attention to the brainstorming Homelander. Tossing his cigar into a trash can, he strode off with long paces into the darkness at the street corner. Back in his luxury apartment, a blonde, blue-eyed stunner named Starlight was waiting under the warm sheets in her white-and-gold suit, ready for him to burn off some serious excess energy.

"Love... is a two-way street?" Out on the empty street, Homelander was left isolated beneath a lamplight, chewing on those words over and over again.

A light breeze swept through his star-spangled cape. Throughout the three decades he spent growing up in that Vought laboratory, those white-coated scientists had trained him how to kill, how to command his powers, how to manipulate others into loving him, how to flash a fake smile for a lens, and how to preserve his approval ratings... But not a single soul had ever told him that love was a two-way street.

Homelander felt as though a rift had been torn wide open inside his brain. An emotion he had never experienced in his life was quietly sprouting within that fracture. Instead of flying straight back to Vought Tower, he walked with unguided steps along a dilapidated suburban highway like a regular mortal, deep in thought over his father’s guidance.

---<>---

The night deepened, and the suburban streets turned exceptionally desolate. Right as Homelander was thoroughly immersed in his father’s insights, a desperate scream pierced the night sky, cutting clean into his super hearing.

"Help! Please... stay back!"

Before his reunion with Benjamin, Homelander wouldn’t have even batted an eye at a mortal’s cry for help unless there were cameras or press coverage nearby. But now, he tracked the sound, making his way toward the location.

Two blocks away, deep inside a pitch-black, filthy alleyway. Under the dim moonlight, two heavily tattooed scumbags reeking of alcohol had pinned a pregnant woman dead into a corner.

"Run! You fucking bitch! Weren’t you running your ass off just now?!" One bald thug pulled a switchblade from his waistband, tracing it near the woman’s deathly pale cheek, his eyes overflowing with a sickening lust.

"Strip right now, or I will kick that little bastard in your belly to fucking pieces!" Confronted with such raw malice, the woman went completely limp with terror, clutching her swollen stomach in pure despair as tears poured down her face.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Boss, I gotta say, a pregnant piece of ass has a completely different flavor compared to those skinny little street girls," the other pockmarked thug chimed in, licking his lips with a sleazy chuckle.

The two continued to terrorize her as she sobbed helplessly.

"Psych, you fucking bitch!" The bald thug’s face turned completely murderous. "I think I’ll just stomp that kid out of your belly right now! Then we’ll break out some lube and have you serve us while you’re bleeding and screaming your head off! Hahaha!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

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A/N: Don’t forget to send Power Stones for more Chapters!!

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