"Becca!" He yelped as Rowan departed from his side, he fought with the passenger door to scoop out his wife.
All the while, she threw herself to her knees at the other side of the car and clawed at the handle. Tensing up her arms, Rowan clutched it and used her feet to push herself away. Despite the struggle, she managed to jam the door back open at the small expense of her hitting the grass with a small thud. She was greeted with a groan as she helped M.M. out of his cramped position. Admittedly, she wasn't able to haul him out as she first assumed, but the same concern was still there. "Are you okay?!" She panted as he whipped out his shot gun rather nonchalantly.
"Yeah..." He stretched out his arms and gave a look she couldn't quite distinguish. It was similar to surprise, but he had looked fine while crawling out of the car. "Thanks, Kid." He sighed,"You go help the others."
Rowan obeyed without another word and rushed over to the other side of the car, where Butcher was supporting Rebecca in his arms. As soon as the woman began to helplessly call out for her son, a tremendous stomach ache washed over her. It wasn't an injury or sickness, it was pure nerves punching her guts as he doubled over to scoop Ryan out of his seat. Once it had been established everyone in the car got out alive and well, M.M. returned from the other side and swung his arm in the direction of the woods as more purple crackles cut out the clouds.
"Go. We'll hold her off." He assured, clearly referencing Stormfront and her current terrorising of Hughie, Annie, Kimiko and Frenchie.
The bubbling inside her only worsened when Butcher nodded, only at him, and hurriedly led Becca and Ryan into the trees. Not a word. Not a fucking glance. Thoughts determinedly flying in and out of her head, Rowan followed her wobbling feet to the bunker. At first, she wasn't quite sure what had happened - all she could comprehend was that she was suddenly sat on the grass once more, and that Hughie was calling for her.
She squinted slightly, trying to push the images of fierce flames and intense heat from the huge explosion out of the way of her eyes. "I'm good!" She yelled back and clambered back upright, paying a dissatisfied glance to the structure now severely charred, most likely along with the vehicles and weaponry inside, all because of the Nazi mega-bitch, herself. By the time she had made it to where the men were panting, a blur of earthy tones and polished silver was flickering around Stormfront with Starlight and Kimiko. "That's not..." Rowan hunched her shoulders. The 't' at the end lingered there somewhat, as it usually did when she spoke.
"It is." Hughie grinned. "You don't wanna' get in there?" He questioned, watching the three of them beat the utter shit out of the recently more scrutinised member of The Seven. What was so surreal was that the only other females in The Seven, along with Kimiko, were the ones beating her up so spectacularly.
"They look like they're just doing just fine." She scoffed. The sounds of the screaming, kicking and awful swears were like music to her ears... but her legs were still trembling beneath her. Why wasn't someone telling her what to do? There was always someone. "Fuck." She sighed.
"What is it?" He turned his head.
Rowan opened her mouth to speak, pausing when Stormfront scrambled away from the real 'Girls Get It Done' team, and shot into the air. Cowardly bitch.
"Something's wrong." Hughie guessed.
"The quiet." She blurted out.
"Huh?"
"Uh, the-the voices."
"They're telling you to do things?" He guessed a second time. She hardly noticed him stepping closer towards her. But she knew that if it wasn't for North Carolina, or Pennsylvania (now she'd been made aware of her clinging to him in her sleep), he would probably be backing away from her. Hughie wasn't scared of her hurting him.
"No. I can't hear anything, she's left me." She shook her head frantically,"I-I need her to tell me what to do..."
Eyebrows furrowed in utter confusion, he glanced around the field and watched Annie jogging back towards him. She joined at his side, wrapping her arms around his waist happily after having bossed the bossy bitch. Stormfront had been getting all up in her fucking business, talking to her Mom, making the tower an even worse place to be. And she made that twat bleed.
"Says who?" Hughie suddenly said quite loudly - his voice almost leapt from his throat.
"Excuse me?"
"Since when do you need to be told what to fucking do?"
"Wait, what's going on?" Annie intervened.
He seemed rather annoyed by her cluelessness - as if one of her main traits had just deteriorated as soon as Butcher left her. "Isn't that your whole thing? Independence?" He pressed.
"It is!" Rowan snapped,"...It was."
"Ro," He bit down on his lip when the name made her flinch. It had never done that before. "You get this isn't..." Hughie struggled with his words. His instincts were to tell her that this was her choice to make, but he also had instincts which acknowledged that she was no-nonsense enough to stop listening if he came out with anything close to a cliche.
"You going or staying isn't just about him. You know that, right?" Annie finished for him after glancing around at Frenchie and Kimiko excitedly signing to one another. "It's about-"
She was cut off by howls and whistles from the trees as a whoosh shot between them, the gust caused her hair to fly over her face. The sound behind Rowan reminded her of a time when she fought the impulse to leap into Butcher's arms when she heard it. But now, it was like any other car horn on the street. "It's about him. Always has been, always will be." She sighed to herself. Her eyes icy shot up - icy in the sense that cold radiated from her gaze, the irresistible brown was of a bare, dead tree that had been frozen to the core for an eternity. The traces of limp hands falling down the sides of her back prompted a slight vulnerability to fight back for dominance on her face - but it's cruel intentions were misplaced, as the sensation she had only really experienced around seven years ago poured more deep red into her head.
"Wow, that was not what I meant by that at all." Annie mumbled,"What happened to you 'doing good shit'?"
Rowan could hardly control her evil smirking,"Whatever could you mean?"
"I mean, you saying Hughie looks like a happy, little frog."
"I look like a what?"
"God, I really fuckin' hate you." She hissed at her in a tone which couldn't have been less sincere if it tried, making Starlight purse her lips to hold in a chuckle.
Rowan's head instinctively went to M.M., who performed his signature contribution of a slight raise of his eyebrows and a perfect shrug. She figured he was only a man of many words at complete will. With another 'arm-shake' from Kimiko, and the more traditional alternative from Frenchie, she began to back away from The Boys, declaring sarcastically,"Well, do look after yourselves, won't you?" She tilted her head,"I'm gonna' go..." Perhaps it would've been a little more impactful if her voice hadn't began to tremble as soon as she uttered the word 'go'. "And-and fuck some shit up."
She made it about halfway to the trees before hurried footsteps caught up to her and a warm hand rested on her shoulder. She should've known getting away wouldn't be that easy. "Hughie-"
"Just please don't die." He begged, panting somewhat from the fast pace.
She continued strolling, gently taking his hand from her arm,"Well, wouldn't that be a tragedy, eh?-"
"No, Rowan, I'm serious." He staggered beside her, mainly facing the girl as she wandered into a den of danger. Homelander had landed in the direction Butcher, Becca and Ryan had fled to, after all. "Don't let him hurt you."
"Why would I? I've gotta' visit you, you're my human." She explained certainly.
Hughie paused momentarily to let the remark sit in his head,"You're... you're a human too."
Rowan gave the ground a miserable smile,"Sure feels like it around you."
Hughie's heart softened inside his chest so much he was almost convinced it was melting and instead of questioning her on it, he locked the statement away in a little box in the back of his mind to preserve before she could snatch it back from him. "And you'll come back? You'll come back and visit me?"
"You could visit me!" She cheered.
"Uh, yeah, not likely." He let out a laugh that had the texture of honey in her ears. Seeing those flecks of genuine good in people meant she borderline idolised them, because it was just something so unusual for her. "I'm not looking forward to finding teeth in my 'welcome home' beverage." He added.
"Hey, I can make tea!"
"Yeah, because I showed you... at about 4 in the morning."
"Because you're hilarious when you're tired." Rowan shrugged,"Fooled me, I seriously thought you were tripping." Their giggles faded as soon as their stroll came to a stop and an army of trees loomed over them.
Taking a deep breath of the natural air, Hughie dragged their conversation back into the deep end,"You know that night in North Carolina?"
"When I... hugged you?"
"It was nice."
She rolled her eyes, she'd hug him when she saw him again. Words would do for now. "I didn't wanna' do this to you again, Hughie. But I'll be back before you know it." Rowan assured, spinning so her back was facing the forest, and all her attention was focused onto him.
"Promise?"
"Of course." She agreed.
"Then say it." He demanded.
"I promise, Hughie. I'll be back before you know it."
___________________
There was something painfully familiar about this - the snotty nose, the sting in her throat, the crunching of all the warm colours surrounding her. It was like being that seven year old again, stumbling, screaming and pleading to the universe to put her out of her misery. She could recall every step, every tear frozen to the leaves beneath her:
Momma had a blood splash across her collarbones. She was definitely gone. And Daddy's head had been torn almost all the way off. He'd already completely bled out over the dining table by the time they could drag her out into the night. And Tee. The amount of his blood that had been in her mouth was pure proof that God didn't exist. If a child had seen the glow of life leave someone's eyes, there could be no responsible deity blindly watching over their blessed creations. Only people were capable of this.
"MOMMA!" You could practically hear the murder, itself, in her voice as it bounced from the frosted trees. She wasn't calling for Alice, as such, it was more of a mourn, perhaps on impulse.
Some screams weren't even words. They were raw expressions of primary horror. Her shrieks of terror were to the Earth, to the stars, to the branches which bowed over her.
Her feet dragged along sodden piles of leaves until she tripped to her knees, forced into looking her fate right in the eyes. One more petrified squeal rattled through the woods.
Rowan paused to catch her breath, clutch her knees and exhale the trauma. She was halfway through straightening her back when a scream passed her ears. It took her a second make sure it was legitimate, given her recent detachment from reality, but she reckoned she would be able to distinguish the words if something in her head wanted her to. Eyes narrowed, she deeply inhaled and began bounding towards the danger once more.
____________________
"Come here, Ryan." Stormfront eerily limped towards the child, clearly petrified of her dark eyes with a single, perilous glow sitting in the centre of them.
"Not on your life." Butcher snarled.
Dark hair hanging over one side of her face, she flung an arm at him, manipulating the lively sparks to swallow him for a moment and lift him into the air, before hurling him straight into a tree. Becca was sure she heard a blood-curdling clamour of 'you cunt' from somewhere in the sky, but the thought was put out of her head as soon as the supe continued to address her son,
"You're not like her, Ryan. You belong with us."
"Stay the fuck away from my son!" She spat.
"We love you, Ryan."
Rebecca bared her teeth so hard her jaws ached, reached into her pocket brutally jammed her blade into Stormfront's eye. She let out an awful scream and wobbled backwards before ripping the knife from her appendage, creating more blood flow and view into her brain in the process. "You fucking bitch!" Stormfront discarded the weapon and headed straight for Becca, pushing her into another trunk and taking firm hold of her throat.
"Stop! Stop it!" Ryan pleaded as Butcher began to recollect himself, still unaware of the current situation.
He squinted and barely made out the two figures - though it became even more confusing when another dropped from the sky. "Kiddo?"
Rowan let go of the branches and allowed the air impact from the fall sweep her hair out of her face. She landed right on top of Stormfront, used her right foot to twist her neck to one side until she heard a snapping sound and was able to force her into the ground, all the while howling another,"CUNT!" Next thing she knew, she was laid amongst the leaves, clutching the filthy, frayed cape of a certain Neo Nazi.
"Fucking maggot." Stormfront immediately got to her feet - but her frustration was amplified by Rowan clinging to her clothes while she attempted to finish the job with Becca. Stumbling back to her intended victim, with a child hanging onto her clothes, she took her hand back to the now recovered Rebecca and used the other to fling a charge of electricity at the limpet by her feet.
Rowan let out horribly distressed noises through her teeth as she lay, suspended, in mid air. Every cell inside her set on fire, buzzing with toxins, limbs and ligaments almost set alight, bones and blood vessels fizzing at flying temperatures.
Butcher used the tree to stand up widened his eyes to get things back into focus. In the middle of the clearing, a child was hung by her own wild hair, violently jittering and wailing, rising above far above the ground. Things suddenly began to play out like a horrific dream where he couldn't quite move properly and was forced to watch it happen as slow as possible to make the torture sting even more. In a way, the image before him almost looked right - a moment of clarity. It was just like she had described that sunny morning. And it was beautiful.
Arms and legs stretched out wide, staring at the sun, Rowan was alone in that moment. Higher than everyone else, inviting the pain to swallow her as she gradually ascended into the sky. It was just her.
Time caught up with him as soon as it had slipped away, Stormfront purged out some volatile slur and sent his kid back into the tree she had leapt from. She slumped forward and head-planted the branch holding her up - though, thankfully, her unconscious body managed to find balance in the tree. But she was still out of reach.
_____________________
"SOMEBODY HELP US!"
She let out a small groan in response to being woken up, furrowed her eyebrows together at the strange sound. She had never heard something like that. Somehow, it reminded her of... Billy? But it was a scream. The confusion of it withdrew a small moan from her lips - yet it came out slightly obscured since her cheek was pressed up to a branch. Wouldn't be the first time she'd woken up in a tree, in all fairness.
Rowan released a long, drawn-out breath as memories of minutes ago washed into her head, floating amongst the trees. Levitating in mid-air like some sort of fallen angel wouldn't exactly make her feel any more human.
Scanning across the ground, her eyes landed on Butcher, crouched over his wife, desperately clutching her. She let out a strange murmur as Becca whispered something to him - shit, she was bleeding. It seemed Rowan had woken up just in time to see tears fall from Butcher's eyes. Never heard him scream... never seen him cry... she wasn't going to be seeing Rebecca Butcher again. By now, she was able to tell with these sorts of things. The Old Man really just lost his wife all over again.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Mom, please..." She followed the sound of whimpers and finally got a good look over Ryan. He didn't seem a day older than the morning she helplessly stared at him in his own garden. He would be the perfect child - blonde hair, blue eyes, innocent to his own powers, able to rule the Earth at the height of his own potential. Well, perfect villain. Just like his Daddy.
Aching all over from the volts that had rushed through her bloodstream, Rowan attempted to climb her way down, but only slipped after a misplacement of her bare foot onto a sharp twig drew another drop of blood. "Woah-" She managed to grab onto another branch to soften the fall for a second before crashing back down to the leaves with another grunt. She recovered soon enough, standing in the clearing between Butcher and Ryan.
"I'm sorry, Mommy!" He wailed, eyes fixed to the skin of his mother, drained of all colourful life.
Butcher raised his head - for a single moment, she found a rush of fear flowing to her knees, turning them numb. Rage distorted his face into something truly terrifying for that single moment as he reached for his crowbar, glaring at the younger with immortal contempt as he pleaded and sobbed. It took her a second to connect the impact to him - she knew what that felt like. She knew how he was feeling? The similarity disgusted her somewhat, but it didn't half grab her guts as much as the tired whistle of the warm air above her did.
Slowly raising her head Rowan felt her lips part, ready to vomit out her heart. The blue in his eyes had darkened since last time, but the colour was still incredibly prominent amongst the red on his face, so dirty the blood almost looked black. He steadily drifted to the ground, as if his mere boots didn't carry the weight of rocks, and peered over the vast remains of Stormfront - charred beyond repair, bleeding out over the forest floor. Her skin had been shrivelled, presumably by Ryan while trying to protect his mother, and her once tight-fitted suit was crumpled and burned around what was left of her figure.
Before she had time to question whatever Stormfront was barely reciting in German, she felt a hefty hand rest on her shoulder. Despite Rowan obviously knowing who it belonged to, she hesitantly looked around regardless, rather confused by the timing. Butcher did not return the eye contact. He likely didn't want to directly face her while a tear was still resting on his cheek. His fingers were almost prodding into her - as if it was more of a restraint than a show of... affection, or whatever it was that they had. He should've known this would only make her wants worse.
"Ryan?" Homelander finally spoke,"Did you do this?"
"I didn't mean to." He replied in a small, innocent voice.
He mumbled into his glove,"Let's go. Come here." He reached his hand out towards the boy. The more he beckoned, the closer Ryan began to edge towards Rowan and Billy, until he was finally so close she could reach him without taking a single step.
Homelander cracked an unnerving smile, beginning to chuckle psychotically - but it was laced with solitary sobs and grinding teeth. Motherfucker was unhinged as Hell. "He's mine." His voice shook helplessly. This man was weak. "What, are you gonna' blow yourself up to save the little shit who fuckin' murdered your wife?" He scoffed.
Butcher stared him down,"I promised."
She watched Homelander shrug and uncontrollably smiled to herself - she wasn't even sure why it was happening, but as she stepped towards the monster she had lived beneath, all the nice memories she had kept hidden to protect inside her almost lifted her up. Butcher's hand tried to stay on her shoulder at first, it trailed down the back of her arm as she approached until her fingers passed the palm of his hand, dragging away the blood of his wife.
Homelander allowed her to get right up in his face to the point he could feel her breath cool the blood on his cheeks. Suddenly, she wasn't quite smiling anymore, nor was it much of a smirk - but there was certainly a sense of satisfaction somewhere on her face. She bit down on her curved bottom lip, flashing her teeth, and roughly tugged at the front of his suit. The texture was rubbery and tactile between her fingers, accompanied by fresh chunks of flesh between her fist and his grotesquely muscular stomach. Rowan let her eyes dance over his face for a moment - she'd never been this close without chaos, she almost wanted to smooth over his forehead forever like a little torture-play-thing.
"To think, all that time, I had a speech for you." She pinched the man's ear to force his eyes on hers,"Like you deserve... like you deserve anything. But, you know what? You're gonna' fucking take it out of my head." From what Butcher could hear of her one-sided conversation, he couldn't quite figure out if she was reciting her speech or something she had made up on the spot. "The thing is... you think you're alone, but..."
"Let me guess," He rolled his eyes, breaking the intense stare-down,"You're gonna' try and rip my eyes out to make it even." His face suddenly lost the exhausted look and he clenched his jaw, the movement prompting a few more drops of blood to travel over his accentuated frown lines. This position clearly had her in the height of danger.
Rowan finally did smirk, pulling down harder on the dark blue material to drag his head even closer. She spoke with sick softness, a lump in her throat returned as she whispered,"I haven't heard an 'I love you' in years. And I'm going to make sure you don't, either. Ain't that baby boy all you have left?" They both glanced to Ryan and Butcher gawping at her with wide eyes and arms hung by their sides. "Now, you took my life from me. So I may as well return the favour. And if you try and stop me, I'll tell everyone why, exactly, he calls you Daddy Dearest, and why, exactly, I'm not a daughter anymore." She lowered her voice even more, leaning up to him so close her nose brushed the top of his ear,"Imma' take away your baby boy."
Rowan pushed him away from her in utter repulsion and backed away to the child with his fascination fixated on her, turned her head, and offered him a truly warm, inviting smile. The way she shaped her own face, itself, almost felt like home. Without a second of hesitation, she held her dirt-dusted hand out toward him. And he took it. Butcher giving her a small nod, the three of them passed Homelander like he was just another fucking tree in the forest, without another word.