The vampire|| Billy Butcher

17

Butchers pov
I'm worried about her. She was weak. I mean I've only ever seen her be so when she's impaled by something. But she was weak and was just dirty. She was holding kimiko like she was her lifeline and her eyes were dead. Like she was way passed turning her emotions off. Like there's a step farther than that and she was living it right then. The deep knew her. He saw he's seen her being held in vought. But when we found her she was far away from vought. Memory hazy, bloody, injured. What else happened?

She dresses in a hoodie of mine and jeans and we head out to meet Mallory. We see the memorial for the people and she clenches her jaw. Anger running through her veins no doubt. We stand beside her and she speaks "I ever tell you about my recurring dream? I'm on stage, alone at Carnegie hall. The audience is made up of every poor bastard, who got killed by the superheroes."

I ask her "what are they doing?" Mallory responds "nothing. They're all just watching me. Waiting for me to do something." I tell her "we hit a dead end on Raynor. I'm sorry" she replies "Christ I don't want to hear sorry. Sorrys not an option. We can't have anonymous skull exploding assassins walking around. What if they hit the speaker next? Or the president?"

She hands katherine a envelope and she opens it and says "liberty. You mentioned her before." Mallory nods "second tier supe active in the 70s. She was all over Susan's private server. Get Marvin to talk to this liberty. Address on the back. North Carolina." I nod "alright. We'll see what we can find." We go to walk and she says "wait." Making us turn around. "I found something about you Kat." She tells us. What? She takes it and opens it and it's a pamphlet. Her name and birthday and project immortal and her subject number. 66. They did it to 65 others. I say "we had a deal. We didn't come through" "Jesus I'm just giving it to you. It's my fault katherine was on that mission. It was my fault we didn't get her right away. And it's my fault she is the way she is. Katherine" Kat looks at Mallory and Mallory continues "I'm sorry. For all of it. It was my honor to raise you though. I should've never sent you on that mission knowing of homelanders obsession and your pregnancy. And I'm sorry"

Katherine nods "you didn't raise me. You trained me. That's all it was. Every day, all day. I never got a life because you decided to steal me and make me a weapon." Mallory says "your parents weren't good people" katherine snaps "bullshit. I remember everything. They were kind...loving...everything that you never were" Mallory says "and I'm sorry. I should've given you a childhood" we walk away.

We head back and go to bed. Well I do. She reads that pamphlet. I wake and she's still up. "Did you sleep love?" I ask and she shakes her head "look at this" showing me a video on her laptop. It's of her in vought. In their labs. Whatever they give to her...it makes her scream and glow in agony. Homelander is there and shoots her with his lasers and for hours she screams. They give her more injections and soon...it doesn't bother her. She tells me "I don't remember that. At all. But it's me...it's me...and he" closing her eyes and a tear falls I wipe it "he what?" "Recorded him raping me" she says. My heart breaks.

"What else is there love?" I question "I...here" she starts and hands me the pamphlet. She can use a shield. It's what's inside of her but makes her immune to the powers. She can eject it from herself. There's a video of her doing so. "Why can't I remember?" She sighs. I touch her hand "we're gonna get to the bottom of this love" I promise my stressed wife. She says "what if I'm no longer safe and hurt people? What if part of what stormfront did was actually part of me?" I kiss her "love none of that is on ya" a file comes through on her laptop from Mallory. Secret server. She presses play on the video and homelander tries to get her to love him. And she refuses to. Bloody, bruised and worse. He goes to unleash his rage but Stan Edgar comes in and tells him to make her forget and set her loose to wreck havoc. To let a wild dog go so it's put down. That she was a success wrapped failure and that they must rid of the hopes for project immortal. Before she can react she's knocked out. Vervain most likely. She's set on a table and doctors come and electrocute her mind and I wince at the sound of her agonizing screams. It stops and she asks where she is and what they're doing. They shock her again into unconsciousness and homelander leaves with her. Back to the place where we found her. He shackles her and beats and has his torment with her. For days. Then we come with the rescue mission. Homelander is angry and he promised me that she'll be his again. But he let her go. Knowing what they've done and he had orders. Wow.