(Logan POV)
Homelander staggers back through the wreckage of the farmhouse, his boots crunching over broken beams and glass. The cold wind slices through the open walls. Maggie and I don't give him room to breathe. We move together, a pack. He's powerful, yes, but we've found the cracks.
I don't give him time to spit a threat. I slam into him, claws tearing another gash across his chest. He shouts, heat vision flaring wide. The beam sears a path through the broken roof, but I'm already moving. Maggie barrels in from the side, fists hammering his ribs, driving him back through the wall.
Outside, snow drifts into the ruined kitchen. We follow him out into the yard. I hear the crackle of MM's rifle in the trees, Frenchie shouting orders in French. Somewhere beyond the barn, Kimiko's scream cuts the night. The whole world is fighting tonight.
Homelander floats backward, eyes burning red. "You can't stop me!"
I wipe blood from my chin. "Then why are you running, John?"
He snarls and lunges again. His fists crash into my side, enough to snap any man's ribs, but they don't snap. I twist, raking my claws up his arm. Sparks flicker as we slam together, locked in a dance of claws, blood, and rage.
Maggie leaps over me, her knee smashing his jaw. He reels. She lands, fists up, breathing hard. "Keep him busy," she pants. "The others need more time."
He glares at her like she's dirt. "Traitor."
"Tell me something I don't know," she spits back, then she's on him again, fists and elbows a blur.
I hear the van's engine in the distance, Butcher, Becca, and the boy are almost clear. Good. I slam my claws into Homelander's shoulder and roar. He screams in my face, tries to lift off, but Maggie yanks him down by his cape and slams him into the mud.
He kicks her off, tries to swing at me, but I duck under his arm, drive my claws in again. Blood splatters across the snow.
Behind me, MM's voice cracks in my earpiece. "Incoming! Vought reinforcements, armored trucks!"
"Buy them time," I growl. Maggie nods. She plants her foot, grabs Homelander's wrist mid-punch, and swings him bodily into the side of the barn. The old wood buckles with a boom. He bursts through it, vanishing inside.
We follow. Inside, the dark smells of old hay and rust. I see his eyes glowing in the shadows. Maggie grins at me. "Ready?"
"Always." I shift my claws in my fists. We charge him together.
He's strong, the strongest I've ever fought, but he's alone. For every punch he lands, Maggie lands three. For every slash I miss, my next hits home. He roars and lashes out with heat vision. Maggie ducks, grabs a beam overhead, tears it down with a grunt, and swings it like a club. It cracks over his shoulder, staggering him.
He floats up through the hole in the barn roof. "Enough!" His voice booms over the wind. "You're nothing…you're all NOTHING!"
I leap, claws catching his calf. He howls, kicks me off mid-air, but Maggie's already above him. She grabs him by the cape again and drags him back down to earth like a falling star.
The impact shakes the barn so hard the old walls split. Snow and broken beams rain down around us. He backhands at her face, she headbutts him, cracking his nose sideways.
He bursts upward again, clearing the barn roof. This time he hovers higher, out of reach, bleeding and furious.
I stand beside Maggie, chest heaving. I see the headlights flickering through the trees the vans are moving. Good. The mission's done.
Homelander wipes blood from his mouth, eyes burning holes through us. "You think you're safe? You think you've won tonight?"
Maggie spits a tooth into the snow. "Run, John."
He hesitates. I see it, a flicker of fear he tries to bury. Then he's gone, rocketing into the storm clouds with a thunderous boom.
I turn to Maggie. "You good?"
She laughs, bitter but alive. "He'll be back."
"So will we." I glance around. "Let's move."
(Butcher POV)
An hour later, we're deep in the Catskills. The fallback cabin is dark, cold, and smells like old whiskey and mothballs. But it's safe. For now.
Becca sits by the fireplace, Ryan tucked under her arm. He hasn't spoken since we grabbed him. He just stares at the flames.
I sip from a battered flask, taste cheap scotch and regret. MM keeps watch by the window. Kimiko cleans Frenchie's wounds by the sink he flinches but says nothing.
Then the door creaks. Logan steps in first, Maggie behind him. Logan shrugs out of his coat, shakes snow off. Not a scratch left on him, the man's a ghost with claws.
"He's gone?" MM asks.
Logan grunts. "For now. He'll lick his wounds."
I flick ashes into the fire. "So we rest. Then we gut Vought."
Grace Mallory appears from the shadows, files under her arm. "Stormfront's resurfaced. They're pushing the Supes-as-soldiers bill again. Vought's cleaned house, but we have a crack."
She spreads photos across the cabin table, Stormfront with politicians, fresh labs churning out Compound V. "They're planning something big."
Annie steps forward, hand on Hughie's arm. "Then we burn it down before they can."
Logan's claws snikt out in the firelight. Maggie leans on the table, bruised but fierce. "We hit them. All of them."
Grace nods. "Careful. Vought will bury us if we slip."
I grin. "Then we don't slip. We hit first. We hit hard."
Logan flicks a half smile at Maggie. "One more round."
She taps the table. "No more running."
Outside, snow falls quiet on the cabin roof. Inside, the war room hums, maps, photos, names. Vought's empire on cheap paper. Ryan sleeps fitful in his mother's lap, unaware that tonight, the world shifted.
And somewhere in the dark sky above, Homelander drifts high and alone, for the first time, unsure.