Brainwash, a mind controlling hero, loves his job. He gets to put away the bad guys, and without anyone getting hurt.

All he has to do is take control of their thoughts and get them to turn themselves in! It is easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Sometimes he even sees a shady character and has them commit a smaller crime than whatever they would have done, so they are already in custody.

His associate, Beacon, calls him teetering on the edge of something bad. She says that controlling minds the way he does is close to playing god. And no one should be able to do that. She’s just jealous. He is a better hero than she could ever be. Under the confinement of limits, she has to wait for the crime to happen.

But Brainwash? He can stop it before it ever occurs.

He can use his abilities so no one in the town ever fights. Never to have a single bad thought.

All it would take is a massive energy source and his own powers. It would drain him, so he needs a boost. Searching for that said source is that as easy as one would think. A potentially infinite amount of energy from one entity can be hard to come by apparently.

That plan will have to wait as he hears over the police radio that Nightfall has struck again. A man is dead with the reoccurring message etched into the floor, ‘dead by Nightfall’.

Rolling his eyes, he goes to where he knows the villain to be.

Letting himself into a normal looking cottage home with the poorly hidden key, her back is to him at the kitchen sink.

“Nightfall? What are you doing?”

Her shoulders tense for a brief moment, but she quickly adjusts her posture before turning around. Those familiar green eyes stare back at him, never to hold the brightness that they used to. “Hello, Brainy. Whatever are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb. We both know you’re not. Why did you kill the man?”

Nothing about her loose posture makes him think that she is surprised by his question. If anything, she was expecting it.

“He killed his wife, Emma Hartman. Abused her for years and she even reported it. Had a restraining order. Even when he violated it on several occasions, no one ever did anything. Not when she was alive.”

Brainwash has tried this before. No matter how he points out how killing is wrong, she still continues doing it.

“I can’t let you keep doing this, Mar,” he finally breathes out.

This gets a visible flinch from her. She abandons the kitchenware and marches right up to him so they are toe to toe. A hard look is on her features as she faces him.

“We don’t call each other by those names anymore. Not after what you did.” There is an accusing lilt to her voice. Brainwash doesn’t blame her for it though.

“I had no choice.”

Nightfall scrowls. Ducking her head for a brief moment, her eyes are shielded from his view. Brainwash has telepathy and mind powers, he’s not an empath, but he doesn’t need to be to know that she is experiencing a wide variety of emotions right now. Probably sadness, distain, and hatred to name a few.

Her head lifts and the steely expression is there. “No, you just took mine.”

“It was for your own good.”

Her eyes become glassy and a bitter smile forms, “It always was.”

He wonders what she means by that but he doesn’t get to ask. Instead, she becomes guarded again and has this determined stare.

“If you really want to stop me, then go ahead and try. I’ll always resist you.”

His hand reaches out to lay on her shoulder, but he refrains. “I don’t want to hurt you, Nightfall.”

Shaking her head, her chestnut strands move with her movement, lifeless. The brown waves used to be full of life. “You already did, Brainwash. You can’t hurt me more than you already have.”

If she wanted to play this game, he could too.

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Brainwash counters, a dark shine in his eyes. It doesn’t deter her. She isn’t one to back down.

“Then you underestimate what you did to me.”

He leaves her house with the knowledge that he cannot talk her out of it. Nightfall will reign down on anyone she deems guilty. Their connection isn’t enough to stop her.

So if they meet on the street, in costume, as hero and villain, he knows what he has to do. Whatever it takes to stop her.

———

(For anyone who watches The Boys, I didn’t want to make Brainwash like Homelander levels of detestable. I wanted him to be unlikeable in a more subtle way than that.)