Maya Lin lay unconscious on the couch, her breathing shallow. Frenchie checked her pulse. "She's in shock. That bastard… he used her like a puppet."
The air in the safe house was thick enough to choke on. Homelander's offer wasn't just a threat; it was a masterpiece of psychological warfare. He'd backed us into a corner and given us a choice that was no choice at all.
"We can't possibly consider this," Hughie burst out, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and anger. "He's not offering a job! He's offering to put a collar on you, Alex! You join The Seven, and you become his pet monster. You'll spend the rest of your life doing his dirty work, or he'll kill everyone you care about."
"The little man's right," Butcher said, lighting a cigarette with a hand that was surprisingly steady. "It's a trap. A shiny, gilded trap. You walk in, you never walk out."
"But what's the alternative?" Annie's voice was quiet, but it cut through the room. She was staring at Maya's prone form. "He said he'd start with her. Then my mother. Then a city block. He'll do it. We all know he will. He's not bluffing."
"So we call his bluff!" MM insisted. "We go to the media, we expose him—"
"And how do we do that without getting everyone he threatened killed in the process?" I interrupted, my own voice sounding cold and distant, filtered through Graviton's clinical detachment. "He has the world's largest propaganda machine and the power of a god. We have a safe house and a handful of allies. He's not bluffing. This is a checkmate move."
I started pacing, the new gravity power making each step feel deliberate, heavy. "He's not just trying to kill me. He's trying to own me. He sees my power as a threat, but also as an asset. If he can control me, he becomes unstoppable. Vought becomes invincible."
"So what are you saying?" Annie asked, her eyes wide. "You're actually thinking about accepting?"
"I'm thinking about survival," I said, stopping to look at each of them. "Our survival. If I say no, he starts a massacre and pins it on me. We become the most wanted terrorists on the planet. There's no hiding after that. We'd be running until he runs us down."
"And if you say yes?" Frenchie asked.
"Then I walk into the lion's den. I get close to him. I learn his routines, his weaknesses. I play the loyal soldier while you all go to ground, completely off-grid. And when the moment is right… I kill him from the inside."
The plan was insane. Audacious. Suicidal. But it was the only move left on the board.
Butcher was the first to break the silence with a harsh bark of laughter. "You'd have to be the best bloody actor in the world. One wrong look, one slip, and he'll laser you in half."
"I have the memories and instincts of a dozen people in my head," I said. "Including a master hypnotist and a cold-blooded strategist. I can play the part." I looked at Annie. "But I can't do it if I'm worried about you. About any of you. You'd have to disappear. No contact. Nothing that he could use against me."
"No," Annie said immediately. "I'm not letting you go in there alone."
"You don't have a choice!" I snapped, the force of it surprising even me. "This isn't about what we want, Annie! It's about what we have to do to survive! If he has any leverage over me, the whole thing falls apart. You all have to vanish. Become ghosts."
The reality of the plan settled over the room. It meant splitting up. It meant absolute radio silence for who knew how long. It meant trusting that I could swim with the sharks without getting eaten.
"He'll test you," MM said quietly. "He'll make you do things. Terrible things. To prove your loyalty."
"I know." The words tasted like ash. "I'll have to cross lines there's no coming back from. But it's the only way to get close enough to end this."
We argued for another hour, but we all knew, in the end, that there were no good options. Only varying degrees of terrible. Homelander had seen to that.
Finally, we reached a grim consensus. We would play his game. But we would play to win.