The silence in Edgar's office was heavier than any mountain I had inverted. The air still crackled with the psychic residue of Silas's departure, a scent like ozone and dead stars. Edgar, for the first time since I'd known him, looked… unsettled. He had spent his life playing a game of corporate thrones, and a being from beyond the board had just tipped the table over.
"This changes nothing," he finally said, his voice regaining its steel, but it was a fraction less certain. "Vought's position remains."
"Your position is a sandcastle, and the tide is a galactic empire," I shot back, the fear and urgency making me blunt. "They don't want your stock options, Edgar. They want your DNA. They want his DNA. They will strip this planet to its bones."
"And you believe this… fantastical story?"
"You saw him! You felt it!" I slammed my hand on his desk, the polished wood splintering under the impact. The controlled facade I'd maintained for weeks shattered. "This isn't a corporate takeover! This is an extinction-level event! Your petty little war with me, Homelander's narcissism—it's all a rounding error to them!"
I leaned in, my eyes blazing. "You have a choice. You can try to fight them with your PR teams and your black ops squads, and you will lose. Or you can recognize that the only weapon on this planet that might even give them pause is currently trying to laser me into subatomic particles."
The implication hung between us. We needed Homelander. The very monster we were trying to destroy was now our only conceivable shield.
Edgar's gaze was a calculating machine, processing variables he had never conceived of. The survival of his empire was now intrinsically tied to the survival of the planet, and the planet's best hope was its greatest threat.
"He will never listen to you," Edgar stated.
"He'll listen to you," I countered. "He hates you, but he respects the chain of command. You built it. Tell him a foreign power—a real one—is coming to take his toys. Frame it as a threat to his dominance. His ego won't allow it."
Edgar was silent for a long moment, then gave a single, sharp nod. "Leave. I will handle Homelander. You… prepare. If what you say is true, your 'network' will be the first to burn."
I left his office, my mind reeling. I had just brokered a temporary, desperate truce with the devil to fight a bigger devil. The ghost network, my symbol of hope, was now on the front line of a war it was never designed to fight.