The Grey Zone (Black Noir / The Boys Fan Fic)

Prologue - The Cleanup Job

"Noir, you know you've always been my favourite. You just get me. I can talk for hours and you just never interrupt."

The black-clad assassin simply crossed his legs and adjusted his posture. Sitting at the very top of Vought HQ in their rooftop meeting room, the morning sun poured in from the huge windows, bouncing off Homelander's extra white smile.

"I can trust you... of course." Homelander suddenly leaned in with a somewhat suspicious tone. It didn't last long before he started laughing, that press-trained, empty, Hollywood laugh. "Of course, I can. It's not like you'll tell anyone, Buddy."

Noir's shoulders bobbed a little as if chuckling back, or at least pretending to do so.

It wasn't often that they'd have these one-on-one conversations. Especially considering Noir was more of a solo mission kind of guy. However, today Homelander had asked Noir to stay behind for a chat after a group briefing. In true Homelander style, he had rattled on about his own exploits for about an hour before getting down to the nitty-gritty.

"Listen, I need to ask a favour. There have been some rumours floating around about some foreign exploits of mine."

He started to look genuinely concerned. Almost flustered.

"I don't remember my actions but I absolutely took no part in what is being suggested. But for the sake of my reputation and of course the company, I need you to do a little cleanup job. Off the record of course."

The 'foreign exploits' that Homelander was referring to comprised of the beheading and burning of a small village in Thailand. He didn't go into detail about why he was in Thailand in the first place, but Vought did have a weapons factory out there, near the Southern coast. "You know how it is, collateral damage." Homelander casually said rolling his eyes with disdain for his victims.

Noir didn't need to know more. He did indeed know about collateral damage and how that could impact Vought. So soon enough, Black Noir was on another rooftop, this time half the world away in Thailand. Not for Homelander, for the company.

Rumours spread fast. Especially for supes. Luckily there was only a shortlist of people interested in the incident, largely due to the fact that the village was rather remote.

Noir began his work by investigating the charred remains of the village. A smouldering mass of rubble remained. From a distance, he couldn't see much activity. The local police had taped off the area and even reporters were not allowed within a 5-mile radius.

That's why he was so surprised to see a woman walking through the village. Unaccompanied by police, she seemed to be looking for something or someone in particular. Black Noir shifted closer to get a better look. The woman came to what remained of home that had been lasered in half and layed down a bunch of lilies at her feet.

Noir was not too threatened by the police cleaning up whatever had happened, but a civilian that was personally affected could cause a complication for Homelander. Who knows how that would impact Vought on the whole. The jungle-esque terrain of the Thai countryside proved challenging for Noir to navigate as he trudged closer to take a glimpse of the woman's face.

As she rose back up from placing the lilies on the ground, she picked up a shard of rubble. It was scorched. This wasn't an earthquake like the newspapers had alluded to.

"Mam, I'm afraid this section is still off limits. We're not sure it's safe from aftershocks." A lanky police officer approached the woman.

"Aftershocks?" She responded, looking at the officer as if they both knew that wasn't true. The gentle breeze whisked hair across her face, but Noir had seen enough. It was The White Widow of BKK.

Not a supe, just an officer who had built up a reputation on tracking down and locking up the men who travelled from Australia, Britain and America in a bid to take advantage of Asia's sex trade underbelly. He regocnised her from an internal meeting Vought had held following the arrest of one of their investors. It was swept under the rug and away from the press, but this so-called 'White Widow' was placed on a Vought watch list from then on.

He expected the job to last no longer than a few days, but this complicated things. Noir would have to understand the nature of her interest in the scene. Was she there to pay respects? Out of curiosity? Or was she formally investigating?

Over the next few days he began to monitor the Royal Thai Police bureau in Bangkok.

He lay on a rooftop, within range of the recording bugs he had planted in the building the night before. Noir was patient, but even he began to notice the blistering heat battering him from above. Bangkok was a poor place for a stakeout when covered head to toe in Black kevlar.

Off the back of Homelander's own digging, Noir knew that this officer could potentially have evidence that needed to be destroyed. Everything else had been covered up already. Despite this, anti-Vought blogs had caught wind of whispers, describing a 'mysterious event' that took place near Vought's weapon's factory. Should this 'White Widow' feel like handing her information over to the blogs, the tide could turn against the company.

It felt counterproductive for Noir to be saving Homelander on this occasion, after waiting so many years for him to fail. But this was more about what damage could be done to Vought now that Homelander was their public golden boy. International relations would disintegrate if America's great superhero was seen to be committing crimes in a foreign country. Noir had originally been given the task of waiting on the sidelines in case Homelander ever turned on Vought, but there seemed to be no limit to what he could get away with. The bar was pushed on an almost weekly basis and it drove Noir mad to think he may never get the opportunity to put Homelander down. Yet here he was, on another cleanup mission for him. The hypocrisy was maddening.

Shuffling his chest on the flat steel roof, he peered through binoculars to get a closer look at someone hopping off the back of a moped taxi right outside the Bureau building. After hearing about his target and her position within the Thai military police, it wasn't the entrance he had expected. Someone of such high level in Vought would have been chauffeured everywhere in a 5 car motorcade.

He couldn't get a close look at her face initially, but after a few minutes, she had entered the building and stepped into the office where her meeting was scheduled. Noir sat patiently on the opposite rooftop, listening intently to his receiver. It was tempting to simply snipe both agents there and then, but Homelander wanted all loose ends cut so Noir needed to find out just exactly what they knew and how far the rumours had travelled before acting.

His earpiece came to life as the woman and another officer shuffled into the room. "I don't want to hear it Jess. We don't deal with supernatural..."

"A whole village was lasered in half, Sir. Mothers, children. There's only one person..."

"He's not a person Jess. That's quite enough. I didn't take an 8-hour flight to talk to you about the adventures of an American psycho. I have a target for you, Derek Haslam."

It was clear to Noir that the threat was only small. Her higher-ups were not listening to her and as the meeting went on, the superior officer dropped breadcrumbs for an alternative target, in a bid to distract her and put her on the tail of someone else. It was a common tactic that Vought would use on him. One of Homelander's other babysitters must have already spooked the higher ranking officer in the room as he wasn't paying any attention to her findings at all.

She was the only person who cared about the event and that would make his job a lot easier.All he needed was an opportunity to tail her back to her apartment, just to be sure that her colleagues had pushed her curiosities down enough. Noir had already ensured that the official report logs had been wiped from all government databases and the only two witnesses from the incident had been terminated.

Another hour passed by and she emerged from the building, hopping onto the back of another moped. It was the first time he had a good glimpse of her and she looked completely deflated. For the next few days, Noir followed her movements. Nobody from Vought checked in with him. Not even Homelander. They knew wherever he was he would be taking care of business. Usually, it would be a swift in and out, but on this occasion, he had to be a little more tactile. Another supe killing would raise suspicions again - especially one involving a high ranking target - but he also had his own questions about the case.

If Homelander had gone AWOL on a rampage, why would an international private investigator and glorified predator hunter be on his tail? Was this the case that would finally cause Vought to allow Noir to inact his one true mission? To put Homelander down once and for all?

As she worked from her apartment and barely left, it was hard for Black Noir to gain access without causing a scene. Any other target would be cut in half by now but Noir was still deciding if he could use the situation to his advantage. One particularly hot morning, she emerged with her laptop to work on the balcony of her apartment. Sweat beads congregated on her face, giving her a subtle glow. Noir watched through binoculars as a droplet rolled down her neck and into her shirt. He rarely let himself get distracted but he admired this woman's dedication to the job. He had hardly seen her away from her computer, working almost 20hrs a day with little to no sleep. Although there was part of him that was disappointed to see that the myths he had heard about the 'White Widow' were nothing more than a woman with a laptop. Or so he thought.

Days passed while he waited for the opportune moment and he saw her gather intel on multiple other cases, never working solely on one thing at once. Some jobs official, some off the books, some seemed more like charity cases: using her access to government databases to search for missing backpackers or stolen belongings. Boring stuff for someone like Noir.

One day, she received a parcel. In a bid to determine if it was potential evidence, Noir scaled one of the neighbour's balconies to get a closer look. He had become comfortable in his surroundings and was sure he would not be seen. He pulled himself up the thin metal bars and balanced elegantly on the balcony next to her apartment. That's when he first heard her laughter. Slightly maniacal, but more genuine than the press pleasing tones of his co-workers.

"Hey, do you have time to talk?" Noirs target managed to splutter between laughing. He peered over to see her making a video call.

"Safe to say Derek Haslam won't be harming anyone else any time soon." She announced while picking up the contents of the box between two fingers. Noir leaned in more as a cheer of voices roared from the end of his target's phone. He saw her grinning triumphantly dangling the dismembered hand of Derek Haslam in the view of her phone for her associates to see, whilst another purple hunk of flesh withered away in the box below.

Black Noir was transfixed.

"Come on then boys, my bank account is waiting and I seem to remember some pretty hefty bets being made against me."

She swapped the phone to her left hand, picked up a flip knife with her right and tossed it into a Polaroid of targets on her apartment wall effortlessly, striking an image of a man - probably Derek - right between the eyes. The group on the other end seemed to groan, with some abuse thrown back at her. Still chuckling to herself she suddenly paused, wondering if she spotted something on her balcony from the corner of her eye.

"I'll call you back, I want my money though." she joked as she slowly approached the balcony cooly, trying not to arouse suspicion.

The warm outdoor air crept in from the glass balcony doors as she crossed the invisible boundary limit of her air conditioning unit and she was met with the distant sounds of traffic as she peered outside. Nothing and no one was there to meet her.

Black Noir was already two rooftops away before looking back to see her peer out the balcony window. At that moment he knew she was a kindred spirit, one who acted away from the eyes of her official superiors. He was sure she wouldn't stop tailing Homelander, but she had nothing to use that could seriously implicate Vought in anything. No witnesses, no physical evidence. Just whispers of whatever he was up to - hell, even Black Noir didn't even have the full details. He had already been away from Vought for longer than anticipated having earlier chosen not to simply kill all involved.

Vought was safe, Homelander might not be. For what was possibly the first time ever, he was willing to compromise.

He would be patient, bide his time. Whatever this woman knew would be valuable and he welcomed the day he would see her again, as their paths would no doubt cross once more.