Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

Interlude: Madelyn Stillwell

She was everything. She was the prettiest, the most intelligent, the most interesting person. She was a fierce negotiator, she was the one keeping the company at the top. She was the strongest women he ever knew - didn't bend to any man that came to threaten her, always had a way to deal with the most difficult tasks, and with her guidance, things always turned out in Vought's favor. She was there when he debuted as a superhero, and she was the one who took care of him when he was down. He would give everything to make her happy, and he would do everything for her. She was always on the back of his mind, not as a second thought, but as someone he never stopped to think about. She was the Senior Vice President of Hero Management.

She was the closest he ever got to a mother.

It seemed like Madelyn was the only one that could put something through Homelander's thick skull. She knew how powerful he was and how one bad action by him could affect Vought's relationship with the public. He often had his heart in the right place, but he was also an impulsive brat, a ticking time bomb ready to take half of the United States with him. Stan Edgar had one mission for her in particular: to keep Homelander either happy or under control. Sometimes she managed to do both. But after a while he wanted more. When the main goal of the company switched to have Supes in the army, he wanted to do it as fast as possible, and he went about it the worst way possible, using force and manipulating the events that could have secured the deal. He didn't understand the concept of being wrong, and he was mostly difficult to deal with.

Homelander wanted something Madelyn could never give: unconditional love. Not a soul in the world would love him like that. He was a megalomaniac, childish murderer that lived in a fantasy world. He would only incite one feeling over anyone, and the feeling was fear. No one was strong as him, no one could stop him. No one dared to go against him, because like a kid who takes his toys away when upset, he would kill anyone who dared to say he was wrong. Everyone feared him, including the Seven. Even Black Noir. Nothing could ever stop him if he went rogue. No missile, no atomic bomb. He was like a plague, a botched Compound V experiment, walking around with his faking winning smile, blonde hair and threatening blue eyes. A beautiful package that contained a horrible monster. And she had to keep feeding him. Catering to his needs. It was insanity.

Madelyn's son Teddy was the one who Homelander envied the most. He wished to be loved like that by the woman of his dreams. Even when they were together, even when she seemed happy to please him, she never seemed as happy as she was holding that bald puke machine of a son. Homelander never had that. He was never held in loving arms, he was never nursed by someone who truly loved him. Raising him was a burden to everyone involved. It was their job, and he was never in their hearts to begin with. He never had a mom to help him with homework, a dad to drive him to baseball games. He had to lie in commercials, he had to swear that America's Superhero had the most normal childhood and the only thing that was different was that he could fly. He had little kid friends, he had a family. And even knowing it wasn't true, Madelyn pushed him to lie to everybody. And then she would sit on him and make him cum to keep him happy. That was the only happiness he knew, the physical satisfaction of fucking her. It was the only thing she ever allowed him to do.

It was about Vought. It was never about Homelander. It was about him doing what the company wanted him to do. He got sick of that and he got even more difficult to control. He would follow her around, he would question her. Once, he asked about the old Digital Marketing girl, the one from years ago, and Madelyn pretended not to know who she was. But she underestimated how petulant and stubborn he could be. He pressed Jonah Vogelbaum for answers, pressed him hard enough to break his spine. There was nothing that made him more furious than being played with. The woman was pregnant with his child, and disappeared. He had a child out there. A child he didn't know existed. It was unbearable to know that he could give a child the love he didn't have, but he was prevented to, because Vought separated the woman from him. But what hurt the most was that Madelyn knew it all.

She lied to him.

He trusted her with all his heart, or whatever was left of it. He had been hurt so much and so badly, but he believed that she was different. That she really cared about him. Every time she caressed his face with her soft hands, and every time she said he was special, and he was handsome... these were the times that made him somewhat happy. But it was all a lie. She didn't feel anything for him. Her love for her kid was genuine, but there was nothing for Homelander, except for disdain. And the only thing bigger than her disdain was the fear. In one faithful night, he found out that the person that mattered to him the most never loved him. He was nothing more than a continuous, annoying task that Madelyn had to fulfill, as part of her job.

He gave her one last kiss that day. Then he melted her skull with his laser eyes.

Killing her was satisfying. It was not fair and he knew it. He knew he could've done it sooner too. But he was burning with her any feeling that could be holding her down. The best of all was that she wouldn't get to be a mother to that little brat. Teddy would grow up without a mother, like he did, and it was what made him happier, in the most twisted way. Madelyn never loved him, and she would never get to see her son grow up either. He would have a lonely childhood just like Homelander did, and he would not remember her at all. That's what she deserved. To be forgotten, like the meaningless human being that she was. He would live on, and thrive, and be better than she ever was. She would rot over the ground like trash and she would leave no legacy behind, besides a son that she failed.

He was the Homelander, and she was nobody.