Early the next morning.
In the underground apartment, the simulated sunlight came on right on schedule.
Leon walked out of the bedroom yawning, and just as he was about to head to the kitchen to fix something to eat, he caught sight of an extremely heartwarming scene.
John was sitting cross-legged on the carpet in that set of pure cotton pajamas.
Little Buddy, the golden retriever, was wagging his tail happily, clinging to John’s arm and licking his face for all he was worth.
John, meanwhile, was carefully holding a special puppy teething stick, patiently playing with the little dog.
The morning sunlight spilled over the blond boy and the golden puppy, the whole picture as pretty as a commercial for children’s milk formula.
“Good morning, Leon.” John looked up, flashing a flawless, sunny smile.
“Good morning, John.
Looks like you’ve been taking good care of Buddy.”
Leon ruffled John’s hair with satisfaction, quietly giving himself a pat on the back.
This pet therapy really was working.
The kid was looking more and more like a normal human child.
That satisfaction, however, didn’t last long.
Just as he finished breakfast, the top-grade communicator on Leon’s wrist started buzzing like mad.
“Leon, come to my office.
Now!”
Madelyn’s voice came through the communicator, holding back both rage and panic.
Ten minutes later, Leon pushed open the door to Madelyn’s office, thoroughly confused.
The office held not only Madelyn but Stan Edgar, on a live feed up on the big screen.
“Ma’am, what’s happened?” Leon caught the tension in the room right away.
Madelyn said nothing, just hit a key on the keyboard hard.
A piece of surveillance footage came up on the big screen.
The image was black and white, the location none other than the top-grade interrogation room in Sector D.
Leon looked at the little blond in the footage, in pajamas and barefoot, and for a moment he felt his heart stop dead.
The footage had no sound, but the image was disturbing enough.
He watched, helpless, as John blinked across to Takeda at a terrifying speed and crushed the old man’s knee with his bare hands.
Then, after the two of them said something he couldn’t make out, John, just before leaving, blew apart the old man’s other leg with a punch thrown from across the room.
Through the whole thing, the boy’s movements were smooth and fluid, without the slightest ripple of emotion, as if he were snapping two dead twigs.
The footage finished playing.
The office was dead silent.
“Mr.
Leon.”
Edgar, holding a cup of coffee on the screen, looked at Leon with deep, searching eyes.
“Is this the absolute discipline and restraint you promised me?”
Leon kept his face composed, but he knew he was on dangerous ground now.
His mind raced, scrambling for a response.
What was the kid doing not sleeping in the middle of the night, running off to the interrogation room to torture a prisoner?
Was it a bloodlust episode?
“Mr.
Edgar, this…
this was absolutely an accident.”
Leon forced himself to stay calm.
“He broke the prisoner’s legs, which actually fits the ‘no-kill rule’ I taught him…”
“Relax, Leon, I’m not trying to blame you.”
Edgar smiled, the cold smile of a man who had everything in hand.
“Madelyn, play him the audio and the micro-expression analysis report.”
The image on the screen scrolled again, this time with technically reconstructed sound attached.
When Leon heard John’s line, “How does an ordinary adult with no talent learn it?
I want to give this power to Leon,” he froze solid where he stood.
Was he touched?
A little, sure.
A child with the power of a god, running off in the dead of night to torture a dangerous man, just to find a charm to protect him, this weak human.
But more than that, deep fear.
Leon realized that John’s logic had completed a terrifying closed loop.
The rule Leon had set was: don’t go around killing people, be reasonable.
John’s logic was: if someone threatens Leon’s safety, then that someone has stepped outside the umbrella of the rules.
To protect Leon, he could ignore any obstacle, destroy any potential threat.
“Mr.
Leon, you’ve created a miracle.”
There was a trace of fervor in Edgar’s voice.
“That boy doesn’t care about Vought, doesn’t care whether all of humanity lives or dies, he doesn’t even care about himself.
Right now his only anchor is you.”
“Mr.
Edgar, I…” Leon opened his mouth but had no idea what to say.
“He wants that Yasakani Blood Jade.
No problem, I can give it to him.”
Edgar leaned back into the leather chair.
“Not only will I give it to him, I’ll have him hand that Blood Jade to you with his own hands.”
Madelyn looked up, startled.
“Boss!
That Blood Jade is an important sample for the company’s Japanese spirit-artifact research!
R&D was just about to slice it…”
“A pack of useless people won’t get anywhere with it.
Compared to one worthless stone, a Homelander who serves Vought with absolute devotion is worth tens of millions of times more!” Edgar cut Madelyn off without mercy.
He turned his head and stared hard at Leon on the screen.
“Leon, you’re a smart man.
I’m now granting you a spirit artifact that can save your life, and handing you that invincible boy.
You’ll hold a position at Vought that’s second to one and above all others.”
There was a pressure in Edgar’s words that left no room for refusal.
“But remember this: your life, and the boy’s loyalty, both belong to the company.
As long as you don’t betray us, whatever you want, I’ll give that boy.
Understood?”
Leon took a deep breath, knowing he’d been bound, completely, to this runaway war chariot.
He stood up straight, adjusted the tie of his suit, his tone calm and firm.
“Perfectly clear, Mr.
Edgar.
The company is my home, and so is John.
I’ll keep this sword in check.”
“Good.” Edgar nodded, satisfied, and cut the connection.
Madelyn looked at Leon, her expression complicated.
She walked to the safe, entered a dozen or so passwords, and took out a small lead box, which she handed to Leon.
“Take it.
The thing Black Noir nearly gave half his life to get back, it’s yours now.”
Leon took the box.
The box was heavy, and he could even feel a faint warmth seeping out from inside.
He turned and walked out of the office, and the cold draft in the corridor cleared his head a good deal.
Holding this Japanese relic that supposedly could stop armor-piercing rounds, Leon found it burned his hand worse than a branding iron. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Because he understood perfectly well that this was a bone tossed to him by Stan Edgar.
The big boss’s logic was simple: since John had gone after power in order to protect Leon, then Edgar would grant the power to Leon.
That way, John would come to believe, deep down, that it was “the company” that had come through for him, that it was “the big boss” protecting Leon.
It was the highest grade of psychological control.
“Damn it, these old foxes and their head games,” Leon cursed inwardly.
He pushed open the door of the underground apartment.
Hearing the sound, John dropped the dog toy in his hand and ran over.
“Leon!
You’re back.”
The little boy’s smile was very sweet, his eyes clear without a single impurity, nothing in them to suggest the savagery of a child who, just the night before, had crushed an old man’s two legs with his bare hands.
Leon looked at that delicate little face, sighed, and walked over to sit on the couch.
“John.” Leon set the lead box on the coffee table, his face very serious.
John’s heart skipped a beat.
His gaze fell on the box.
He knew what was inside, but what he feared more was that Leon already knew about last night, that Leon would be angry with him.
“Leon, I…” John twisted his fingers together, stammering a little, which was rare for him.
“Don’t talk yet.”
Leon opened the box.
A piece of ancient jade, dark red all through and shaped like a curved comma, lay quietly on the shock-absorbing padding.
The surface of the jade was shot through with threads of light like flowing blood, giving off a mysterious ripple of energy.
“This is a charm the company just issued me.
They say it can stop bullets and strengthen the body too.”
Leon looked at John, his tone unhurried.
“The big boss said it’s a reward he made a point of giving me, on account of how well you’ve been doing lately.”
John was stunned.
He’d thought Leon would scold him for going out on his own, scold him for hurting someone.
But Leon didn’t mention Takeda, didn’t mention the interrogation room.
He only told him that, because he had “done well,” Leon had been protected.
The little boy’s eyes lit up, an almost fanatical light flickering in those deep blue pupils.
So that was it!
Leon’s rules could not only protect the weak but also make the big boss happy.
And when the big boss was happy, he’d bring out good things to protect Leon!
As long as he kept being a rule-abiding, powerful, obedient “good hero” and solved the company’s problems, Leon would only grow safer and safer!
In that moment, the future Homelander’s brain was branded, completely, with a mad mark that read “Vought = Leon’s safety reserve.”
Leon watched John’s excited expression, a tangle of feelings inside him.
He picked up a small knife from the fruit plate beside him, made a light cut on his own fingertip, and let a drop of fresh blood fall onto the Yasakani Blood Jade.
A low hum.
The Blood Jade drank the drop of blood, gave off a faint buzzing, and then turned into a beam of red light that sank directly into Leon’s chest.
Leon felt a warm current sweep through his whole body.
The last faint ache left in his lungs from inhaling poison gas vanished completely.
His whole body felt as if it had energy he could never use up, and even his nearsighted eyes grew a good deal clearer.
“Incredible…” Leon clenched his fist.
“Leon!
You won’t be killed so easily now, right?”
John threw himself excitedly into Leon’s arms, his little hands gripping Leon’s clothes tightly.
“That’s right, I’m pretty tough now.” Leon patted his back.
He looked down at John in his arms, knowing that now he not only had to teach this little freak but also had to match wits with the schemes of the whole company, right under the eyes of that unfathomable big boss.
The real tightrope walk was only just beginning.