Disclaimer: I do not own anything in Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Father Lantom was playing pool in a bar as Matt approached him, clearly angry. "Did you know, Father?"

Lantom turned around, surprised to see Matt. "Matthew. What are you doing here?"

"Did you know she was my mother?" Matt demanded angrily and Lantom sighed, not even trying to deny it. "Yeah. You knew."

"I couldn't tell you." Lantom attempted to explain. "Even when I wanted to."

"Don't hide behind your collar, Father." Matt said.

"Wait. You're a priest?" The man with whom Lantom was playing, asked.

"Take your money and go." Lantom told the man. The man picked the cash from the pool table and his jacket before leaving the bar as Lantom leaned onto the table. "I'm not hiding, Matthew. I'm right here."

"You… of all people. All those times I looked to you for guidance." Matt said and Lantom avoided looking at his angry face. "You saw me struggle and you chose to hide the one thing that could have changed everything for me. Please, Father, help me understand why you would do that."

"I prayed for Maggie to find it in herself to tell you years ago." Lantom said.

"She couldn't find it in herself to walk nine blocks to visit me as a kid." Matt growled. "Or to comfort me, when my father was murdered and I thought that I… I knew that I was alone in this world."

"You were never alone…"

"Yes, I was!" Matt snapped and Lantom again found himself unable to look at him. "And you let me believe it."

"Yes. Yes, we did." Lantom admitted, ashamed.

"Then why?" Matt asked.

"What did Maggie say?" Lantom inquired.

"I'm asking you." Matt insisted.

"Maggie's a good person, Matthew. Flawed, like us all." Lantom attempted to explain. "And tortured decisions she's made. But she dedicated her life to making amends."

"You still haven't answered the question." Matt said.

"Growing up without your parents, Matthew, you don't grow to see them as people. You need to understand that. To understand her." Lantom said before he started to tell Matt about how his parents met. Maggie had visited a boxing match to see Battlin' Jack Murdock and she had become attracted to him, until they both had eventually fallen in love and conceived Matt. But eventually, Maggie suffered from postpartum depression, believing she had turned away from God as she returned to the church with Lantom to work as a nun, leaving Matt in Jack's care.

"Damn, I don't know what I should've done." Lantom admitted. "I guess that's not really true."

"You know, when I heard Maggie call me her son, my thought… my first thought… was how stupid I'd been. That it had been in front of me for so long." Matt said. "And then I remembered that it had been in front of you for even longer. From… the beginning. We've talked so much about truth, you and I. Of my truth. God's truth. Now it seems like all those conversations were just a goddamned lie." He got up and put his hand on Lantom's shoulder and nearing his ear. "Shame on you." Matt whispered before leaving and Lantom was left alone to contemplate his actions.


New York

Ray entered Hattley's house as Supervisory Special Agent Winn of the Office of Professional Responsibility was inside too as they sat down at the table.

"Sorry about the mess, my contractor promised he would be done months ago." Hattley said as most of her furniture was covered in plastic and started to prepare coffee. "How do you take it?"

"Black is fine, thanks." Winn said as he put down his jacket and sat down.

"None for me." Ray declined.

"Thanks." Winn said as Hattley handed him a mug of coffee and he pulled out and turned on a recorder, while Ray sat down. "Interview with Special Agent Rahul Nadeem and Special Agent in Charge Tammy Hattley, conducted by Supervisory Special Agent Winn, FBI Office of Professional Responsibility."

"OK, Ray, you've got our attention." Hattley said.

"What's this about?" Winn asked.

"There's no good way for me to say this." Ray said, disturbed. "But I believe Wilson Fisk is currently engaged in a criminal conspiracy and has manipulated the bureau into becoming his unwitting accomplice. I also have reason to believe that Fisk has corrupted an agent on his detail."

"Who?" Hattley inquired.

"Dex." Ray replied.

"You're referring to Special Agent Ben Poindexter?" Winn realized.

"Yes, sir." Ray nodded. "And as crazy as it sounds, I think Poindexter may have perpetrated the attack at the Bulletin."

"What the hell are you talking about? Why would you think that?" Winn questioned, wondering if Ray was insane.

"Because while I was pursuing those suspicions yesterday, Dex shot me." Ray showed the wound on his hip as Winn looked shocked.

"Jesus Christ." Winn said.

"Sir, OPR needs to start an internal investigation into Fisk, into Poindexter, into all of it. And for the record, this was on my watch." Ray said. "I personally ran Fisk's detail. SAC Hattley did everything by-the-book and this shouldn't fall on her." He briefly glanced towards Hattley, who was seething and glaring. "I take full responsibility."

"Ray, I'm sorry but I'm placing you on administrative leave, effective immediately." Hattley said.

"I understand." Ray nodded. "And I will cooperate fully." He pulled out his gun and badge, putting them on desk and handing them to Hattley. "So, what do we do next?"

"First, we call you an ambulance." Winn said, when suddenly… BANG! Ray looked shocked as Winn gagged, holding his bleeding throat as Winn turned to Hattley, who was holding Ray's gun before she shot Winn in the head, killing him.

"No!" Ray shouted as he shot up from the desk.

"Ray! Put down the gun! Please!" Hattley exclaimed, sounding frightened before she turned off the recorder as she glared at him. "Damn you, Ray, you bring this into my house? My home?! Sit down." Ray still looked shocked, trying to process what just happened. "Sit." Hattley insisted, aiming the gun at him as Ray slowly complied, wondering what kind of mess did he get himself into before Manning appeared, holding a plastic bag.

"Your prints. Your weapon. Your recording. Do I need to explain to you what this means?" Manning said as Hattley put Ray's gun and the recorder into the bag. "Answer my question. Do you understand your situation now?"

"Ray? You get this?" Hattley demanded as Ray was rooted to the chair, his mind still processing what just happened as he turned to her.

"Yeah, boss. I understand." Ray said, frightened.

"I'm not your boss anymore. Wilson Fisk is." Hattley said.


Fogwell's Gym

"It's a shitty way for you to find out, Matty. About your mother." Jack told him as Matt was looking into his locker.

"Yeah, you should've told me." Matt snapped.

"Maybe I promised her that I wouldn't." Jack pointed out.

"That is no excuse." Matt said.

"Yeah, I know, kid." Jack sighed. "But after I took that bullet, Maggie had years to tell you the truth and she didn't. That wasn't my choice, it was hers."

"You both lied, you both left." Matt said before he started to smash a lock with a stick.

"I never left you!" Jack shot back.

"You didn't go down in that fight like you were supposed to, knowing they'd kill you for it." Matt pointed out.

"I did that for you, so you'd know what your old man is made of." Jack said.

"My old man chose his ego over a lifetime with his son, that's what I know." Matt drawled.

"It wasn't ego, it was living up to a code." Jack protested. "Being a man. It means loving the feel of my fist in someone else's face. It means waiting for them to hit the ground and knowing that I put them there. And, yeah, OK, maybe I put that at the top of my list and maybe it cost me everything, including you. But you do the same thing."

"No. I don't." Matt denied.

"You have a code too. You beat the shit out of people." Jack said as Matt pulled out a rope. "You tell yourself it's OK because you didn't kill anyone. There is something wrong with us, Matty. It's just who we are."

"That's who you were, Dad. I'm not like you." Matt said as he sat down, wrapping the ropes around his hands. "And I don't let everyone else suffer because of some bullshit code. Not anymore. When I get to Fisk, I'm gonna kill him."


Clinton Church

Maggie was outside the church, looking after the orphaned children before Karen approached her, wearing a hoodie.

"Excuse me, Sister Maggie?" Maggie turned to Karen. "I'm sorry to bother you, they told me I could find you here."

"He's gone. I don't know where." Maggie said.

Karen sighed. "It's a matter of life and death. Do you have any idea when he'll be back?"

"He won't be." Maggie told her.

"I… I don't understand. Why not?" Karen asked, confused.

Maggie took a breath before telling Karen. "He learned the truth. That I'm his mother."

Karen gave Maggie a shocked look of disbelief. "Wow. He never talked about… about you."

"I was a danger to Matthew, when I gave him up." Maggie admitted. "Nowadays, they know a great deal about postpartum but… at the time… I was convinced that I was betraying God. I hadn't yet taken my vows but in my heart, I believed I had committed an unforgivable sin. And so, I replaced that sin with another. I abandoned my child."

"Why… why did you tell him now?" Karen wondered, not understanding.

"I didn't, he found out on his own." Maggie explained. "I wanted to tell him. When Jack was alive, I convinced myself the truth would confuse Matthew. After Jack died, I convinced myself it would do more harm than good. Finally, I just realized that I was too much of a coward. The Lord has a way. Sending the Devil of Hell's Kitchen to me now. Showing me what became of my sin. The Lord gave me another chance to make things right. And I failed, yet again. Matthew knows who and what I am now. He won't be back." Karen suddenly felt a lot of sympathy towards Matt and guilt regarding how she had treated him. "I'm sorry. It's unfair of me to burden you."

"I just… I don't… I don't know what to say." Karen said.

"What can you say to someone, who's scarred your friend for life?" Maggie asked rhetorically. "He must be in a lot of pain right now. When you find him, he'll need a friend."

"That's just it, I can't really stick around." Karen said, briefly looking around. "Fisk knows, about Matt. I just wanted to warn him before I run."

"Are you in danger?" Maggie realized.

"Yeah." Karen nodded. "Matt's not the only one that Fisk wants dead."

"Do you have someplace to go?" Maggie inquired.

"No, I was jut gonna get the first bus out of town." Karen said.

"I can help you." Maggie offered and Karen laughed humorlessly.

"Yeah, no, you don't want me anywhere near you right now, trust me." Karen shook her head.

"The church has been helping people hide for two-thousand years. Hide here." Maggie said as Karen was looking around, freaked out by any immediate danger. "Give me a few days to make a few calls and you'll have shelter halfway around the world by the end of the week. Please, let me do something for you. For Matthew."

"Yeah." Karen gave in, nodding.


While Barney was visiting his family, Ray was forced into a unit, which comprised of agents who had been compromised by Fisk as they started to apprehend all criminals and crime lords, who would've compromised Fisk's operations and Ray was disturbed by Dex's increasing brutality.


Fogwell's Gym

Matt was punching a bag before he heard his phone ring and answered the call. "Yeah?"

"Fisk has left the hotel." Ray said.

"How is that possible?" Matt wondered, considering that Fisk was on house arrest.

"I don't think Dex was the only FBI agent he turned." Ray explained. "But he's taking Fisk to meet with other crime bosses. Some kind of sit-down."

"Where?" Matt asked.

"I'm texting you the address. But if you catch Fisk in the act…"

"This is our chance to take him down. Thank you, Nadeem." Matt hung up before his phone "read" the text with the address.

"You're not falling for that, are you?" Jack asked. "That guy, he ain't in your corner. Not anymore."

"That doesn't matter." Matt said.

"It's been a long time since you used Muay Thai ropes, Matty." Jack said.

"That guy in my suit kicked my ass. I can't beat him from a distance." Matt said, cracking the bones in his hands. "I gotta draw him in close and do more damage."

"You're too mad to think straight and it's gonna get you killed. Matty, come on." Jack pleaded as Matt kept on exercising. "Your mother didn't only leave you, she left me too."

"You're looking for sympathy? Because that's not happening." Matt retorted.

"She left us because we're cursed." Jack continued as Matt chuckled. "Because she knew we got the devil inside."

"So, it's my fault?" Matt scoffed.

"Would you be honest with yourself?" Jack asked and Matt sighed before taking deep breaths. "You put on that mask because it lets you feel alright with who you really are. It lets you hurt people and it makes you feel like it's for something important…"

"…something good, maybe even for God." Fisk continued as Matt's blood boiled. "But that ain't truth and we both know it. You and your father are cut from the same cloth. A corrupt boxer, who takes as much satisfaction in inflicting pain as he does money for taking dives." Matt cracked his knuckles, getting angrier by Fisk's taunts. "And his son, who's trying to convince himself he's any better than his criminal father. You were born from nothing. You remain nothing!"

Having enough of it, Matt imagined screaming in rage and beating Fisk into a bloody pulp and snapping his neck before his thoughts returned to the present.


Elsewhere

Fisk and Ray went to a meeting in underground with other crime lords, demanding a share of their protection money. One of the crime lords declined before Dexdevil threw the billy club at his head, cracking the skull and immediately killing the crime lord as his head lifelessly fell to the table. And much to the horror of Ray and other crime lords, from the shadows appeared Maki Matsumoto, Shades Alvarez, Mary Walker and Billy Russo, forcing them to give into Fisk's terms.


In another part, Davos, topless and cuts on his body, was in chains as he seemed dead. One of the ninjas of the Hand approached him, measuring his heartbeat. As he was freeing Davos, suddenly Davos grabbed the ninja and snapped his neck before stealing his knife and cutting his head off.


Harlem

"Luke." Sugar said as he threw towards him an FBI agent. "You gotta hear this."

"What do you want?" Luke asked.


After some threatening, the agent told Luke about Fisk rounding up the criminals as Luke neared him and warned him. "Tell Fisk Harlem never let you in. If you tell him you told me, I'm gonna make you wish Fisk had killed you."

The agent nodded fearfully before leaving.

"What are you gonna do?" Sugar asked.

"Take care of things here for me. I'll be out of Harlem for a while." Luke said and Sugar nodded. "Should've paid more attention to New York, I was an idiot."


Presidential Hotel

Matt snuck into the hotel, approaching a fuse box and turning off the lights in Fisk's suite before sneaking past the agents, who were on patrol. He opened the door into the bedroom before he sensed electrical current under the floor and realizing there was a hidden door behind the shoe rack. Matt opened it and went downstairs, noticing a frightened woman at the monitors.

"Are you gonna kill me?" The woman asked fearfully.

"No." Matt said. "Not you."

"Fisk? And the other woman?" The woman asked as she turned around, wearing Fisk's ankle monitor as Matt nodded. "Oh, thank God." She breathed out in relief.

"When will they be back?"

"Minutes." The woman said as the power turned back on.

"Thank you." Matt said.

"Karen Page located at the Clinton Church. Keep all NYPD units clear of that location until otherwise advised. Copy?" One of the agents on Fisk's monitors said into the radio.

"What does Fisk want with Karen?" Matt wondered.

"He wants to kill her." The woman said, much to Matt's shock.


New York

Danny and Colleen were out on patrol as they noticed someone beating up some lowlife punks in an alley.

"Hey!" Colleen exclaimed as she jumped down from above and then she and Danny looked in shock to see who it was.

"Davos?" Danny asked, seeing how bloodied he was. "My God, what…"

"Danny… you were right. You were right all along." Davos said, slowly passing out from his injuries.


Dexdevil, Maki, Billy, Walker and Shades and ninjas of the Hand and some veterans that Billy had recruited, were outside the church, preparing to kill Karen.


Missouri

Clint Barton was training archery with his daughter Lila before they saw a black SUV approach his homestead and from it went out Barney as Lila and Clint laughed.

"Uncle Barney!" Lila laughed, hugging Barney tightly.

"Hey." Barney smiled, fondling her hair.

"What are you doing here?" Clint smiled hugging his brother. "Is everything OK?"

"No." Barney said. "It's not. I made some calls to the brass. I need your help, Clint. I need you in New York."


I hope you'll enjoy what happens next. Didn't expect Barney to recruit Clint? If you're confused, Barney is a Fed, so I figured he might be able to pull some strings to get Clint out of house arrest to help.

So, what do you guys think?

Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this.