Transmigrated into The Boys, Starting as Soldier Boy

News that the hearing had ended spread across the United States that very afternoon.

Every major news network kept replaying footage of Homelander walking out of the hearing hall after his victory.

He wore his Supersuit, his blond hair gleaming under the flash of cameras, a controlled, confident smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

At his side were the expressionless Soldier Boy and the composed Neuman.

The image was clipped into countless screenshots and spread all over social media.

The captions were all over the place. Some celebrated a "victory for justice," some raged about "Vought manipulating the justice system," and others dissected every word and every microexpression Neuman had shown during the hearing, calling her "the most dangerous political operator of our era."

But no matter how public opinion shifted, there was one fact no one could deny.

Homelander had won. Completely.

The verdict was almost exactly the same as the proposal Neuman had put forward at the hearing.

Butcher was sentenced to ten years in prison for multiple felonies, suspended for five years.

Mother’s Milk and Frenchie were sentenced as well, with slightly shorter terms, but one hard condition wiped any trace of relief from all three of their faces.

The ruling stated in black and white that, during the suspension period, the three defendants were forbidden from seeing one another or contacting one another in any form. Any violation would immediately revoke the suspension, and they would be taken into custody to serve their sentences.

Butcher’s mouth twitched when he saw that clause.

The three of them had fought side by side for so many years, and in the end, they were not even allowed to sit down, have a drink, and say goodbye.

Becca and Butcher moved into a small house in the suburbs of New York.

The house had been arranged by Vought. It was neither too big nor too small, with a little yard planted with two maple trees. From the kitchen window, you could see a stretch of green space in the distance, not exactly lush, but at least open.

Of course, it was not some generous gift. It was a carefully calculated relocation plan, and it made surveillance easier.

From there, it only took forty minutes to drive to Vought Headquarters, which made Becca’s weekly visits convenient. Convenient for her, and convenient for monitoring.

Ryan finally accepted the reality of living with Homelander.

For an eight-year-old, "accepted" was not quite the right word.

It was more that, after the hearing and what had happened before it, he had started to vaguely understand certain things he could not yet put into words.

The adult world was far more complicated than he had imagined. Some things could not be solved just by spreading his arms and standing in front of his mom.

So when Becca crouched down, held his small hands, and told him with red eyes, "Mommy will come see you every week"...

Ryan did not cry or throw a fit. He just nodded hard, then wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck and held on for a long, long time before finally letting go.

...

Still, life with Homelander was not too bad for Ryan.

In fact, most of the time, Homelander was not even there.

The operation to hunt down the remaining members of The Boys was still ongoing. The Deep and Black Noir II were not exactly doing a great job, but at least they could take some of the pressure off.

The real problem was the Supervillains who kept popping up.

After Homelander dealt with the one in Russia, two more appeared in the Middle East, another surfaced in South America, and with Supe crimes breaking out from time to time on American soil, Homelander naturally had to handle those too.

So for most of Ryan’s days at Vought Headquarters, the person actually keeping him company was not Homelander, but Starlight.

Starlight had slipped into this strange family structure in a way no one had expected.

In terms of seniority, she was Soldier Boy’s woman. By the logic of family relationships, in a certain sense, she really could be considered Ryan’s "little grandma"...

Ryan did not care about any of those complicated relationships at all. He only cared that Starlight sometimes played LEGO with him and talked to him in a way that felt less like an adult and more like a friend.

Of course, Becca and Butcher also came to visit Ryan.

But for Butcher, everything about it felt painfully complicated.

Every weekend, Becca would carefully prepare Ryan’s favorite snacks, then get into Butcher’s car and ride all the way to Vought Headquarters.

Most of the time, Butcher waited in the car. Usually, he did not go inside or cross that security checkpoint, not because he was banned, but because he felt too damn conflicted.

Homelander was his enemy.

That fact would not change because of a court ruling. It would not be wiped clean because of the promise he had made to Soldier Boy. And it sure as hell would not become forgivable just because Becca got to see Ryan every week.

But he still had to come, because sometimes Becca needed him there, and because Becca wanted things between Butcher and Ryan to get better.

Every now and then, Butcher would run into Homelander in the hallway.

Most of the time, they simply passed each other, their eyes meeting for less than a second before both looked away. They had nothing to say to each other.

What could Butcher say to the man who had destroyed eight years of his life?

And what could Homelander say to the man who had spent eight years trying to kill him?

That was exactly why things between them were so damn complicated.

One day, Butcher did not wait in the car. He walked into the visiting area of Vought Headquarters and stood in front of the vending machine in the hallway, staring blankly at the colorful cans inside.

Familiar footsteps came from the end of the corridor. He did not need to turn around to know who it was.

Homelander stopped behind him, and the atmosphere between them turned complicated all over again.

"Ryan been acting up lately?"

Homelander was the one who finally spoke first.

After all, he knew Butcher came to see Ryan now and then, roughly once every few weeks. It pissed him off a little, sure, but that frequency was still something he could tolerate.

...