it was so incredibly easy to track them down. too easy. actually, rather disappointing in a way. he thought that finding the facility that kept him under control as a child. there was something anticlimactic about the way people who had shaped your entire childhood could still be reduced to names on a file and a few scattered addresses if you knew where to look.
still, curiosity had its way of weaving into his brain and ultimately took over his more patient side.
homelander stood there for a minute longer than was necessary. it was weird how time had not changed this place and although it had been a while, it was as he was there... back then...
you are no longer a child.
the thought cut cleanly through the drift, sharp enough to steady him although the feeling never truly left him
his jaw tightened slightly as he stepped forward again, boots echoing faintly against the structure’s worn interior. the air inside felt stale in a way that wasn’t just physical. like the place itself had been waiting. like it remembered more than it was willing to show.
his gaze shifted slowly, scanning the space with controlled precision now. not the searching of someone uncertain, but the assessment of someone deciding what mattered. behind him lay a mess of bodies and fire, as there seemed to be these days but the ringing in his ears blocked out the screams. as he was passing the further dead bodies, he had seen it. the woman being examined, being treated like dirt by these filthy ungrates. non supes. how dare they touch and prod at their betters like animals.
sometimes it happened just as quick as blinking. impulse. when the smell of burning flesh hit his nose, he knew the scienist in the room was dead and that it was just him and the lab rat.
lab rat. just like he once was.
the thought lingered longer than it should have, settling somewhere beneath the surface where he didn’t like to linger for too long. his gaze finally fixed properly on them. not the scientists. not the room. not the blood still cooling somewhere behind him. them
“you’ve been here a while,” he said at last, voice even. almost conversational again, as though the carnage behind him were nothing more than background noise.
his eyes narrowed just slightly, studying them with that quiet, invasive attention that never quite felt like looking so much as taking inventory.