Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

19

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Butcher grunted, "do I have to do your fucking job for you?"

Starlight rolled her eyes, "I fucking told you. He's glued to her all the fucking time. Give me a break."

Their plan had failed. The Boys tried to attract Nina, to talk to her. To convince her that Vought was evil and to talk about Homelander. Starlight asked them to be nice, because she cared about Nina, but to Butcher, someone who's with a Supe is as bad as a Supe itself. Not that they hadn't failed before, but it was tiring to knock Homelander's associates down, just for someone else to come in and wipe his image clean again. It was like someone was always there to clean the messy guts. Starlight kept asking for mercy, to be nice to the woman, to be kind... but Starlight was a Supe. What did she know?

"There must be another way...", Hughie interjected.

"Yeah and that way is there in the Tower, because your fucking girlfriend is too incompetent to bring her here." Butcher never measured his words towards Starlight.

"Hey!", Hughie felt offended.

"We can't fucking leave!", Starlight exclaimed. "Homelander ordered everybody to stay in because of the shapeshifters, if I didn't yank that microchip out of me, Vought security would be all over us right now."

"Now what?", asked MM. "Now what the fuck are we gonna do, Butcher? That was your plan."

"They'll shoot anyone in sight," said Starlight. "I have to go back without anyone noticing."

Kimiko poked Frenchie and signed to him.

I could go in. I'm fast and I would bring her here.

"But mon coeur, she wouldn't understand you. It has to be someone who she knows," Frenchie replied.

"What info do you have about her, Butcher?", MM suggested. "Something that could help attracting her to us."

Butcher had his laptop open. He stared at the screen, emotionless.

"Nina Oliveira. Thirty-years old. Curly dark brown hair, brown eyes. Black, light skinned. 5'7. Brazilian. Former English teacher, came to the States five years ago. I have her former address and the address of the Walmart where she used to work at. She was hired by Vought this year, part of their diversity hires. She's Homelander's assistant and she's always with him in TV appearances and events. She must know something we don't. We could turn her."

"We were going to a burger place she talked about once," said Starlight, standing behind Butcher and staring at the same screen. "It's her favorite place. It was close to that Walmart."

"You could just ask to meet her there," said Frenchie.

"Yeah, but she has a broken nose at the moment and Homelander would never let her leave with me," Starlight pointed out.

"What happened?", Frenchie asked.

"A shapeshifter attacked her," said Starlight. "It probably knew that she was close to Homelander. It's trying to destroy us with their group."

"Well... that would be a great idea, wouldn't it?", joked Butcher.

"Stop being a dick," said Hughie. "Annie is the closest person who could influence this woman."

"Yeah, and she failed miserably. I might as well go there and take the woman by myself." Butcher's annoyance knew no limits.

"Please do it," replied Starlight. "It would be a pleasure to witness security shoot the shit out of you."

"What happened?", asked Hughie. "I'm pretty sure that if she's influencing Homelander as you said, she would ask him to let her go."

"I didn't have time to convince her," confessed Annie. "I was almost there, but he came in and interrupted. He listened to my heartbeat and I had to lie and say that I was startled. I know he doesn't believe it at all."

"So...?"

"So it will be way more difficult to talk to her alone this time," Starlight sighed. "The look he gave me was proof that he knows I'm trying something."

"You should just give me her phone and I would convince her," said Butcher.

"You would convince her to never leave again," said MM. "Let Annie do her thing."

"I gotta go," said Annie. "If Homelander wakes up and sees I'm not there it will be worse for all of us."

Starlight decided to go back in the middle of the night, distracting the guards by popping lightbulbs. She snuck past them and went to her room. She thought about how she would distract Homelander enough that he wouldn't need Nina, it would be something very difficult to do. She wished she could ask for help. Maeve seemed to hate him as much as Starlight did, but she wasn't sure if Maeve cared enough to help. No one really liked him, but Maeve seemed to be the only one who demonstrated her disdain to his face. The Deep would probably blow Homelander if he was asked, which was ironic, considering what Deep did to Starlight when she first came in. Annie opened her door and tried to sleep as fast as possible, thanking God that Homelander didn't see her coming in.

-

"My man, you gotta chill," said MM, "you're so mad all the fucking time, give her a break."

"She's a Supe. She's a Supe and she failed at her job." Butcher was still annoyed. Hughie was side eyeing him as he spoke. "If she can't do it, she shouldn't be here."

"Your hatred for Homelander is clouding your judgement," said Frenchie. "You want to do everything your way. You'll end up being killed."

"By the way he's behaving, I don't think he cares," said Hughie.

Nina was merely a nuisance. Butcher would kill her if he had to. He would've blown up Stillwell if Homelander didn't fry her face first. He didn't care. His reason to care was Becca and Becca wasn't there anymore. He didn't know if she was dead or alive. Homelander was the source of Butcher's suffering. Even the most powerful Supe had to meet his downfall. At that point, if Butcher was ever dragged to hell, he would take Homelander with him. But hell was the Earth, hell was not knowing where his wife was, hell was seeing that blue eyed demon fake smiling on TV pretending to be the wholesome hero he never was. There was nothing worse than Butcher's fate, existing in a world in which modern day demigods were killing people left and right and not being punished for it. He thought that if given time, Hughie's fury would match his. His girlfriend had died to a Supe, and Butcher thought he could use that for the benefit of his plan. But Hughie never let himself be consumed by rage like Butcher did. Butcher had accepted that he perhaps wasn't that good of a person. It didn't really matter if he was. What mattered is that he was set on his goal and his goal was to bring Homelander to his knees. Even if it consumed his whole soul and killed him.