"Why is it," Stick said with a casual grunt as he whacked his elbow into an almost silent throat, "that every time I show up you're getting your ass handed to you?"
"What the hell are you doing here?" Luke sounded more irritated than Matt thought was strictly fair, considering he'd only met Stick once before. Then again, the guy made one hell of an impression.
"I'm here to save the day, asshole. Now why don't you get up off your ass and keep these goons away long enough for me to save the kid, huh?"
After a tense moment, the steadying pressure of Luke's hand vanished. Matt swayed slightly but kept his stance, his hands hovering for balance. Stick must have knelt down opposite him because when he next spoke his voice was far closer than before.
"Listen up, Matty. That thing down there, it can't be let get out, you hear me? What it's done to you it'll do to everyone else, only it won't stop to draw breath."
"It ... breathes?" Everything was spinning and lurching in slow motion. Untethered snippets of indistinct sound wafted over his bleeding ears. Jessica's knuckle cracking as she punched through a Hand man's bow. Danny's gasp of pain as his head snapped back from a blow. Elektra's sai sword slicing through someone's flesh.
"In a manner of speaking, yeah, it breathes. But not for long." Stick's voice was a lifeline. It took all he had to grab it, to make sense of the words. Something was very wrong.
"Now, you listen to me, Matty," Stick went on, speaking as though he was just about to explain another technique they were about to start learning. Slow and calm and with the unhurried confidence of a man without fear – or one whose fear was well trained. "That trick hit you hardest but this ain't the time for tea and a nice snack. You gotta snap out of it. You gotta centre yourself, y'hear me? Tune everything else out until you find some place inside you that's steady. Grab hold of it and use it. Get control, Matty. Get control."
Matt almost wanted to laugh. Steady? Nothing was steady anymore. Elektra was trying to resurrect some ancient thing and kill him and everyone else in New York City! He and the others were fighting on fumes, outnumbered and alone in a fight they could never hope to win. Matt couldn't get up, he couldn't fight, he couldn't see! He was blind. Blind and helpless and bleeding and he was going to fail again, he was going to let Elektra down again, he was going to let his city down again and Karen and Foggy were going to die and he couldn't do anything about it!
"Calm it down, Matty." Stick's voice was sure as a sharpened katana, slicing through the panic and indecipherable world with infallible precision. "Find your centre."
Matt sucked in a deep breath and half-groaned, half-growled as the pain crescendoed and the world spun faster. His centre. His centre.
Foggy. Foggy's warm elbow under his fingers, guiding him through the busy streets so he didn't have to concentrate. Foggy's familiar tenor filling the space between them with companionable ease.
Karen. Her warm scent, sunshine and coconut, washing over him as she pulled back her hair. The tentative smile in her voice, her lips, soft and perfect, against his.
The office of Nelson and Murdock. Coffee and take-out hanging in the air. The wonderful melody of his friends' laughter; Foggy's rumbling chuckle harmonised by Karen's tinkling giggle. The warmth of their steady heartbeats washing over him from across the table. The bliss he hadn't appreciated before it had all broken into irreparable pieces.
Matt took another long, slow breath. Fire flared but it was farther away now, its flames cooler, calmer. The quavering air slowed, vibrations melding into one another, clarifying the impressions that sailed through the room. Another breath. Another flare. The world echoed into focus.
"That's it, kid." Pride rounded the words and, despite himself, Matt smiled. "Now what say we go take care of this mess?"
With a final, bracing breath, Matt took Stick's hand and together they rose to their feet. Matt wrapped his pain around him, deadening its sting with familiarity, forcing it to work for him.
"What do we need to do?"
"What I shoulda done weeks ago. We gotta kill Ellie."
"I know."
"You do? Huh. Well that's one less fight I guess."
"Will killing her ... will it stop whatever's down there?"
"Yep. It's tied to her, can't live if she'd dead."
Matt nodded, letting his senses fan out to take in the scene. "I got one condition." Luke had cleared a wide ring for them, Jessica and Danny keeping the perimeter while he rallied. Elektra was stalking toward Danny, one sai knife replaced with a blood-slicked katana.
"Jesus, Matty! We don't have time for your –"
"I do it, Stick. I kill her."
It wasn't often he shocked Stick into silence. Given the circumstances it wasn't as satisfying as it could've been.
"You are one tough son of a bitch, Matty. You got it." Someone screamed as they fell into the chasm. "But first we gotta get her away from these assholes. Time to start acting like a team."