It had only been a few weeks since Vought's big "Starlight Returns" event, but everything had spiraled faster than anyone expected. After Season 4's bloodbath — Neuman dead, President Singer arrested, Calhoun sworn in as a puppet — Homelander had stepped into the spotlight like a king. Supes were now "deputized" to keep order. Curfews. Raids. The Boys were mostly scattered or captured. Annie's old friends were gone.
And I was standing right beside him every night on the news, smiling in my new costume, waving like the symbol of hope Vought needed.
But inside, I was cracking.
Tonight, everything changed.
We were in the Vought Tower penthouse. Homelander had been pacing for hours, cape swirling behind him. His mood had been getting worse — paranoid, angry, obsessed with control. He kept staring at his reflection, pulling out gray hairs, muttering about how nothing felt right anymore.
I sat on the edge of the bed in my updated suit — the one with the deeper neckline and glowing threads — watching him. My hands trembled slightly in my lap.
"You're different lately," he said suddenly, stopping in front of me. His voice was sharp. "You think I don't notice? The way you look at yourself in the mirror. The way you talk back. The way your light feels… stronger."
I looked up at him. My heart was pounding.
"I'm trying to be what you want," I said softly. It wasn't entirely a lie. Part of me still feared him. Part of me was starting to hate him. And a growing part… wanted more.
He laughed bitterly and grabbed my chin, forcing me to meet his glowing red eyes.
"You're mine, Starlight. Body and soul. Don't forget that."
That was when it happened.
The doors to the penthouse exploded inward.
Butcher stormed in, eyes black with the temp-V virus raging through his veins. He looked half-dead already — skin pale, veins bulging, coughing blood — but there was pure rage in his face. Behind him, a battered Hughie and a desperate Kimiko provided cover.
"You fucking monster," Butcher growled. "This ends tonight."
Homelander smiled at first — that arrogant, god-like smile. "William. How touching. Come to die for your little cause?"
The fight was brutal and fast.
Laser eyes clashed with Butcher's empowered strength. The room shook. Furniture shattered. I ducked behind the couch as blasts of energy lit up the space.
Butcher was losing. The virus was eating him alive. He knew he couldn't win alone.
In a final, desperate move, Butcher lunged forward with a hidden vial — something Vought's own scientists had been working on in secret. A concentrated, unstable version of the supe-virus mixed with something darker. He smashed it against Homelander's chest as they grappled.
Homelander roared in pain. His skin began to blister. His powers flickered wildly.
"You… bastard…" Homelander gasped, eyes wide with shock.
He turned toward me in his final moments — not with anger, but with something almost like panic. Like he realized too late that his perfect toy might outlast him.
"Starlight…" he whispered, reaching out a trembling hand.
I didn't move.
A massive surge of energy exploded from Homelander's body as the virus overwhelmed him. His form convulsed, cracked with red light, and then — in one horrifying burst — his powers tore out of him like a storm.
The raw energy slammed into me.
I screamed as it hit.
It felt like fire and lightning pouring into every cell. Heat vision. Super strength. Invulnerability. Flight. All of it flooded into Annie's body, mixing violently with my existing light powers.
Homelander's eyes dimmed. His body hit the floor with a heavy thud — broken, smoking, finally still.
The god was dead.
I collapsed to my knees, gasping, body glowing with unstable golden-red energy. My veins felt like they were on fire. Every muscle screamed. But underneath the pain, something immense was settling in.
Butcher staggered back, coughing violently. "What the fuck…?"
I looked down at my hands. They crackled with new power — Annie's soft golden light now laced with Homelander's destructive red energy. When I stood up, the floor cracked under my feet from the sheer strength.
I was still me — still the mind that used to be Kevin, still trapped in this beautiful, cursed body.
But now I carried the power of the most dangerous supe who ever lived.
Hughie stared at me in horror. "Annie…? Is that really you?"
I didn't answer right away. Tears slipped down my cheeks — not from sadness for Homelander, but from the overwhelming weight of what had just happened.
"I don't know anymore," I whispered, voice shaking. "But he's gone. And I… I feel everything."
The new Starlight looked at Butcher, at the dead body on the floor, and then at her glowing hands.
The timeline had shifted.
Homelander was dead.
And the light — now darker, stronger, and far more dangerous — belonged to me.