53 Mission III

"I could go find them and snap their necks one by one. If you would prefer that." He suddenly said. "It would definitely be easier."

Her eyes went wide and she blurted out "NO!"

He let the silence sit for a moment looking at her with his one eye.

"No of course not." He finally said.

He sighed and turned around looking at the clear night sky.

"There's a rot in our society." He started saying slowly. "A cancer that is growing, that is touching every one of us. Supes, politicians, workers, citizens, all of us." He continued.

"It's clouding our vision and killing our minds. Our culture glorifies gangbangers and thugs, our food is making us fat and lazy killing us, our people are homeless and addicted to drugs, our politicians pretend to listen and our corporations pretend to care." He said with more fire and frustration in his voice.

"We live aimlessly, divided with no vision and direction, no dream to unite us all to push us forward to achieve what we could be." He said more wistfully. She found herself captivated by his words.

"All of us pretend to care. We pretend that change happens with us, the individual, that if we do a good deed a day." She felt his tone turned mocking. "We would change the world for the better. But we all know that is a lie."

"Change comes from the top from being forced on people." He said firmly then turned to her. "The local police will now investigate, maybe they will even get the Feds involved all because we forced their hand."

She nodded in agreement.

"If you want to prevent other Inaya's from happening then we have to change how things work, our schools, our police, what we value in our culture. We have to rise to the top and cut the rot from where it starts."

She saw him pause and take a deep breath. She didn't dare take his eyes off him.

He shook his head slightly then looked at her again his features softened.

"Come on. Enough of me ranting. I'll take you back to the tower."

He once more extended his hand to her.

She looked at it for a split second and took it.

As their hands clasped she thought 'Aren't you the most rotten of them all?'

-

[Date: February 2023]

"Congratulations!"

Deep was the first one to break the silence. The rest followed with their own remarks to which she smiled and accepted though Maeve's eyes were on the only team member that mattered.

Homelander.

"Well I have to say that is wonderful news!" he said echoing the others. "My congratulations of course! To you and Elena?" he asked leaving the other implied question silent.

"Yes." She replied. Officially as far as the public was concerned she and Elena were still together. Privately was another matter. "Anonymous donor."

Homelander shrugged his shoulders and gave a big one eyed smile. "Well someone out there is a very lucky man!"

"Have you told Ashley yet?" Starlight asked.

"No not yet."

"Oh she's going to love it! The marketing department is going to have a field day with this. You're going to be come #1 Mommy in the world! Super Mommy to the rescue!" Homelander said excitedly.

The implication was clear there was no way to refuse the spotlight. Vaught wouldn't let her and neither would Homelander.

"How far along are you?" Annie asked with concern though Maeve knew her well enough that Starlight was disappointed she wasn't told first.

"6 months."

"Oh, that's pretty far along. I thought you'd be bigger." Deep replied carelessly and A-train punched him.

"You're a moron." A-Train said shaking his head.

"What? What's wrong with what I said?"

"You're wrong that's what!" A-Train replied.

"Enough you two!" Homelander butted in to stop their bickering.

"Maeve, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are all very happy for you." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what the sex is?" Starlight asked. 'Leave it to the only other woman in the room to ask any of the relevant questions.' She thought.

"Yes, it's a boy. Found out last month."

"And have you been checked out by our doctors?" Homelander asked next.

"No, I went to Elena's family doctor. We did the tests through their clinic."

"Well I insist you get checked out by ours as well. You are a part of The Seven, we take care of our own and its part of your contract." He paused and looked around the room. "Part of all of our contracts. Vaught takes the health of our employees and heroes very seriously."

'Unless Vought is trying to kill them of course then screw their health.' She thought.

"But" Homelander continued "I'm sure everything is alright and it will be a very healthy and 'strong' boy."

"Now enough with the inquisition, let's move on to todays' agenda. We need a new member. We've been down to Six for a while and now more than ever with Maeve's impending Maternity leave. Starlight has a few ideas." He said and nodded at the blond.

"Thanks Homelander. Here's what I was thinking we have a few options…"

As the discussion continued Maeve couldn't shake the feeling that Homelander had put too much emphasis on the word 'strong'.

-

Author Note:

Here we have some more Homie and Starlight moments.

To clear up some confusion I see form some reviewers. The Vaught scientist did not only harvest all the genetic materials (blood, stem cells, eggs other genetic mumbo jumbo) they could from Kimiko and Maeve they also impregnated them with HL's sperm.

It was implied in the story that Phase 1 was harvesting and Phase 2 was impregnation. Phase 2 , the impregnation, happened because as Dr. Schultz implied 'The Stars aligned' and it was the right time to do it and the eggs received the sperm and all that sciency jazz.

Basically a shot in the dark that worked.

Why would Homelander want to impregnate those two? Because the survival rate of fertilized eggs with his sperm were low. Because the survival rate of his children in women normal and super were very low for both mother and child. He knows that from reading the notes on Ryan and all the other women that died trying to carry his kids. He knows all that from being buddy buddy with Schultz and he knows that because he's an SI that saw the show.

So two strong supes like Maeve and Kimiko are very ideal to carry his offspring.

Now neither Kimiko or Maeve know that their kids are actually HL's. They have no reason to suspect it. Kimiko was at Vaught for like a day or something and it's implied in the story by Butcher that her and Frenchie hooked up shortly after she was released.

After all there is nothing like a shared horrifying near death experience that makes you want to bang. She and everyone else thinks it's Frenchie's kid.

While Maeve has no reason to suspect anything since SI Homelander didn't rave to her about how special her eggs and genetics are. As far as she's concerned and as far as everyone else saw was she was injured and unconscious and Vaught took care of her. There's video evidence, no one was restricted access to her everything is on the up and up. So she thinks it's Butcher's kid since they had drunken spiteful sex together like a day before.

Yes everyone will eventually find out those are HL's kids and there will be some conflicts that arise from that. No it won't be obvious right away.

Once again thank you for reading and reviewing. Ya'll have given me some great ideas in the reviews keep them coming.