MATT

Elektra was dead. He felt lost walking down his own familiar street; the street to Nelson and Murdock. Nelson and Murdock was done, and Elektra was gone. He was willing to give up everything - his law practice, his friendships, his civilian life - to be Daredevil, and to be with Elektra.

She'd been attracted to the darkness in him, and he'd been attracted to the light in her. Or had he been? Near the end, he'd become more and more willing to accept her darkness. Happy, even, when she'd killed members of the Hand right in front of him. Happy because it had been her, Elektra, whom he'd loved.

Elektra was his dark side. She knew him and she understood him, all the dark parts of him, and she accepted him in a way that nobody else ever had. Certainly not Foggy, not his best friend.

He wasn't even sure Foggy was his friend anymore. Did he even have friends? He was on his way now to Nelson and Murdock, with a bag in his hand.

He was going to meet Karen.

Karen was the light. He'd loved her, as much as Elektra, but if Elektra was the night then Karen was the day.

He'd put it all on Elektra. He was going to run away into the night. Now that she was gone, he was lost. There was nobody who really knew him, who knew who he was, who accepted him.

He needed Karen. He needed her to see...

Maybe he'd been going wrong. He'd thought in the past week that maybe Castle's way would work, and Castle had told him that once he crossed to that side of the line, there was no going back.

Maybe it didn't work that way. Maybe it was more of a gradual fall, a slow slip-and-slide to Castle's side of the line. To Elektra's side of the line.

At first, he'd let Elektra suffer injury to stop her from killing. He'd stopped Castle from killing with his own hands, even as they fought together, when he'd rescued the man from the Kitchen Irish.

But then, he'd let Elektra kill. He'd been willing to concede to Castle's methods. How long before he fell on the other side of that line himself?

He'd been so sure when Elektra was alive, breathing, fighting, smiling beside him. Now he was lost.

He needed the light. He needed his friends, his grounding the world. As Claire had told him, if he lost all his civilian self he would be too far away from what he wanted to protect.

Karen had agreed to meet him. She was still willing to see him, despite everything, to try and be his friend. She had sided with Daredevil from the start, and he'd been able to tell from her heartbeat that she loved Matt Murdock.

Would she accept him? All parts of him? He was going to find out.