Okay, someone asked where this took place in the Supernatural timeline and the Daredevil timeline - and honestly, I'm not sure. I've fallen pretty far behind in Supernatural. Sometime after season 9, I suppose - but Dean doesn't have the Mark in this fic. I might address that later in the story. I don't even really know what's going on canonically in Supernatural right now. As for Daredevil, some indeterminate time after season 1, but before season 2.

Sorry you had to wait so long for a new chapter! I hope you enjoy!

Chaos. Everywhere.

"This was a stupid idea," Dean hissed, spitting the word stupid like it was a curse.

Azirale was too entranced by the thing they had unleashed to attend to the Winchester. Through a lot of cursing, running, bit-back screams, and hiding with bated breath, they had released the monster-in-a-jar, led it towards the warehouse floor, then let it loose.

According to Sam and Dean, it looked like ink, blood, and mud all mixed together, accentuated with softly glowing embers that shone through the oily cloud of mystery horror. To Az and Matt, it smelled like death, sounded like screams, and emanated danger and pain from its roiling, unformed body. But they didn't need to describe that to the Winchesters, they were pretty sure the brothers were picking up on the "dangerous horror-show monster" bit on their own.

As soon as they had unleashed the thing from the jar, every demon in the warehouse had gone on high alert.

"Damn it! Who left the door open?" shouted one demon downstairs.

"Botis! Nic! Get down here!"

"You let one of the Queen's dogs out!"

The two demons upstairs reluctantly joined the others, got cursed at, and started frantically searching for the missing "dog" - giving Az and the others just enough time to lure the thing downstairs and hide in an abandoned bathroom while the demons started screaming.

"What the hell is that thing, anyway?" Dean hissed again. The two brothers were peering through the cracked bathroom door at the carnage taking place outside. Az was taking it in via Matt's senses, but Matt was pretending to look out the door as well. Keeping up appearances, even at a time like this.

Outside, the "dog" had forced its way into one of demon's vessels and just….destroyed the demon. Eaten it? Devoured it. All Az knew - one moment they could sense the demon inside the human vessel, the next - that thing was moving in, the demon was screaming, the thing was growling and screaming, and then the demon was gone. The thing didn't even take time to get adjusted to its new body. It just started attacking, paying no heed to the damage it was doing to its own vessel. It was an animal. A beast. Tearing into the demons, taking bites from their physical vessel and from the demon's essence - Az didn't even know that was possible.

Matt winced every time a human vessel was injured, and Az felt a twinge of discomfort as well. But mostly they felt fear and awe.

They echoed Dean's sentiment - what the hell was this thing?

"I think it's human," Sam whispered, grim.

"No way that thing is human," Az scoffed.

"I think it used to be human, then," Sam whispered, more vehemently. His heart was steady. Az felt something drop in their gut - no, that was something dropping in Matt's gut. Dread. But Matt was already moving past it, carrying Az along with him.

"No time to talk now. We need to move while they're distracted."

"You want us to go out there with that thing?" Dean hissed.

Matt frowned, "That was the plan."

"Well, if we're going, we need to go now. Like, yesterday," Sam added, fingers drumming against the door frame.

"Follow me," Matt said, and Az tore their attention away from the monster laying waste to the demons on the warehouse floor. If they were all going to get out of here in one piece they needed to focus. Matt understood better how to avoid being seen than Az, who was starting to forget how vision centers worked anyway, but they didn't want to distract Matt with any rambling thoughts.

"Rambling thoughts like the ones you're having right now?"

Az sighed, "You're worse than Fran. If you can't focus just put your dumb wall back up."

"Doesn't exactly work that way- now shut up before you get us killed," Matt shot back, still skulking towards the boxes of guns they had hidden behind earlier.

Sam and Dean skulked along behind them, hearts beating out of control. Matt's, of course, was silent as the grave. To their right, the demons had grabbed the guns laying in various locations around the warehouse and started laying lead into the monster. The sound was like thunder to them, and they winced - but kept going. There were a thousand thoughts floating around in Az's mind, and a thousand more in Matt's but they tried to oblige and shut up and stay focused.

A barrage of stray bullets swept over them, but everyone managed to drop the ground in time to avoid being shredded.

The monster's vessel hadn't fared so well. The human body was more bullet holes than flesh now, but the monster kept going, crawling and growling like something possessed. Which it was. But this was some Exorcist level nastiness, not your usual dignified demon.

"Throw it in! Throw it in!" one of the demons suddenly ran towards the exit, yanking the door open and gesturing wildly into the yawning void that waited on the other side. Matt froze, and behind them Dean muttered a curse only they could hear. They were still crouched behind the boxes of guns, only a few meters from the doorway. If all the demons started coming over here, they would be spotted.

Luckily - for them, that was, not for the rest of the demons - the monster realized crawling wasn't getting it anywhere, and flew out of its vessel - the body immediately dropped to the ground. All the demons - including the one by the door - started screaming again and running around like decapitated chickens as the monster hunted for a new vessel.

"We need to go, now, now, now," Sam was urging, not even bothering keeping his voice down.

The three of them broke away from the boxes and made a mad dash for the door.

"Aren't there just more of them in there?" Dean asked, but no one answered. They just plunged back into the void.

"You can guide us out of here, right?" Matt's voice crept into Az's mind.

"Just go straight - don't get off the path."

The screams and gunshots behind them vanished instantly, replaced with the whistling of cold wind and guttural growls from an impossible depth. Az snapped Matt's hand back and grabbed Dean's hand. The hunter recoiled at first, then let himself be led. They sensed him reaching back and grabbing Sam by the wrist, and then started rushing down the hallway. This time, they didn't hesitate or stumble - just made a bee-line towards the smell of fresh air coming from the end of the corridor.

Just as they reached the door, Az and Matt sensed something rushing towards them - they ducked down, dragging the brothers with them, and used a bit of their supernatural strength to fling them all towards the end of the hall and out the door.

They tumbled haphazardly towards the door, something scraping against them as it tried to get a hold, but they barreled past and burst back onto the dirty alley outside the warehouse.

"Keep moving, keep moving," Matt breathed, hauling Dean behind them as they ran down the alley and back towards the main street, back towards the Impala.

When they made it to the car, Dean seemed to realize Matt was still holding his hand and jerked free, brushing his hand on his leather jacket as if wiping off the embarrassment of holding another grown man's hand. Az rolled Matt's eyes, but they knew the expression would go unappreciated under the Daredevil mask.

"That went well," he huffed, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"We got out, didn't we?" Az snapped back. They could feel Matt trying to calm them down - their own personal Jiminy Cricket.

"Okay, before you start fighting - can we just figure out what the hell that was?" Sam came between Dean and Daredevil, pushing Dean back and brushing his fingertips on Matt's suit, not certain whether he actually wanted to shove the vigilante or not.

"I have a better suggestion - let's get the hell out of here," Dean growled, jerking open the driver's side door of the Impala.

"Wait - we need to talk," Matt stepped a little closer, and Dean's hand flew to his gun. Az and Matt frowned in unison.

"Really? After all that, you're going to shoot me now?"

"How do we know we can trust you? We don't know anything about you!"

"Calm down, Dean! He saved our asses back there!" Sam intervened again.

"Or he almost got us killed," Dean grumbled, but his hand drifted away from the gun.

Sam waited a moment, hands still spread towards the two men, ready to catch them if they started fighting again. When no one made a move, he ran a hand through his hair.

"But Dean's right. Let's get out of here."

"Fine. Get in, Red," Dean slumped into the driver's seat before slamming the door.

Matt stood there awkwardly for a moment, hesitating.

"Get in, you dumbass, before they leave us behind!"

"I thought you hated these guys."

"I hate the thought of what Bouvois' goons will do to us worse."

Sam was waiting impatiently by the passenger side door. Az didn't have time for this. Overriding Matt's resistance, they pulled open the back door and slid into the worn leather seats.

Sam followed, and then Dean tore away from the curb, eager to be far away from the warehouse.

"Okay, so - thoughts? What was all that?" Az prompted.

"I think that...that thing in there, was a corrupted human soul."

Matt's sense of dread crept up in their throat, unsettling something deep inside of Az. That thing in there...it was the furthest thing Azirale had ever seen from human. It was further than demons. Further than monsters they knew were lurking in Purgatory somewhere.

"Think about it," Sam continued, "Those bodies - Daredevil, you said yourself you didn't see any wounds. They could have been poisoned, but those charts we found, and some of those spell books...Dean, we've seen this before. With Abaddon - taking souls, trying to turn them into demons. I mean, she was trying to be Queen of Hell, too. This is the same thing, all over again."

Azirale felt a question coming from Matt - who was Abaddon - but all of Az's memories of the demon suddenly surfaced, flashing quickly through their mind and giving Matt all the information he needed. Knight of Hell. Tried to fight Crowley. Was foiled by the Winchesters. Azirale hadn't ever had any direct contact with her, they stuck mainly to themself.

Matt feigned ignorance, though, when he spoke to the Winchesters, "So this has happened before? How did you stop it back then?"

Sam and Dean were quiet for a moment.

"Well, it was different back then. Abaddon was a powerful demon, and we got another Knight of Hell to help us take her down. But Evangeline isn't a demon. As far as we know, she's just a human," Sam answered finally, albeit a bit uneasily.

"A human witch. A powerful witch," Dean supplemented.

"So she's trying to become Queen of Hell. She's trying to win souls for hell here in Hell's Kitchen by making life miserable - so they'll cut deals? Sell their souls? Or just make life here so bad people just give up hope," Sam said, "Either way, she's trying to do Crowley's job for him. But why would she...corrupt a human soul like that? What's the point?"

"Trying to make a demon?" Dean guessed, and the car fell quiet.

"That kind of makes sense," Sam said softly. "I mean, the way it looked - almost like demon smoke. And it possessed that demon's vessel."

"But it didn't act like a demon," Az said, drawing the Winchesters' attention. It was almost like they had forgotten Daredevil was sitting in their backseat.

"It didn't even talk. It was...a monster."

"You haven't been dealing with demons as long as we have, hombre. Demons are monsters," Dean answered bluntly. Sam tilted his head back towards Matt, but Az couldn't tell if he was scowling or making a sympathetic face, or if he was just looking out the back windshield.

"How did you even find out about demons?" Sam asked.

Matt hesitated for a moment, and Az was about to step in with a lie when he finally spoke up.

"I didn't know what they were at first. I thought they might just be some sort of faction of super-powered criminals, or something. But a few nights ago, a group of men attacked me. There was a demon there - they told me the men were under a spell. And that they were a demon. I didn't believe them at first, but it started making sense when I looked into it."

"Wait - a few nights ago you were attacked by a group of men?"

Matt and Az went still, "Yeah?"

"Foggy said that Matt was attacked by a group of thugs a few nights ago, before he was possessed," Sam said this, speaking mostly to Dean. In the backseat, Matt tensed, and Az wanted to groan. They should have just lied before Matt opened his big fat mouth.

"The blind guy?" Matt asked, sounding honestly surprised, "You think it was the same guys?"

"Most likely. Are you sure you didn't see him anywhere around?"

"No one else was there - except the demon."

"That must have been the demon that possessed Matt. So you ran into them first. What happened?"

"I got away. I could tell something weird was going on. And the demon threw some taunts my way, but I just wanted to get out of there."

"The big bad Devil of Hell's Kitchen tucked tail and ran?"

Az gritted their teeth as Matt spoke, "I know when a fight's headed south."

"But don't you have, like, super strength? X-ray vision? All you men in tights have your thing."

"I'm not Thor or Captain America. I'm just a man trying to keep his city safe."

"Didn't do too good a job of keeping Matt Murdock safe," Dean said.

"I'll find Matt. I'm not letting anyone get hurt." Az almost laughed at the conviction with which Matt uttered these words. Matt Murdock was the last person on Matt's "keep safe from harm" list. Almost laughed, because they suddenly realized some of that conviction came from themself.

"Why don't we head back to his apartment, see if he came back? We can do some research, see if we can use anything from the warehouse to figure out exactly what Bouvois is planning," Sam suggested, trying to break the nearly tangible tension in the car. Dean grunted in affirmation, but Matt shook his head.

"I'm going to patrol, keep an ear out on the streets, see if I can find anything else."

"Is that really the best idea? You can't really fight demons the same way you can humans," Sam said, an actual hint of worry in his voice.

"I've been faring pretty well on my own so far," Matt grinned. They felt the car slow as Dean rolled to a stop at an intersection, stopping for a light, and in the blink of an eye, Daredevil had leapt out of his seat - leaving behind only a slamming door and quickly disappearing shadow. Dean cursed quietly, but Matt didn't stick around to eavesdrop. Az heard the old engine thrumming away into the distance, fading away into the night.

"Way to spill the beans, blabbermouth. Now what are we supposed to do? We can't exactly go home?"

Matt sighed, exhausted, "Don't worry. I know where we can go."

Foggy stumbled into his apartment at 5:00 the next morning, feeling like death warmed over. In a microwave. A crappy microwave, that smelled like burnt popcorn.

The Winchesters had come back to the apartment in the dead of night, after leaving Foggy alone for hours with nothing but Matt's messy flat and a stomach full of anxiety. He couldn't stop beating himself up for letting Matt and Az out of the apartment, but after researching all that creepy stuff about witches and demons and Evangeline Bouvois, and Matt's earnest puppy-dog eyes and noble speech about helping the city, Foggy had caved. And now his best friend was out there in the city somewhere, dead, alone, and possessed by a fucking demon. Foggy was officially the worst best friend ever. Or maybe Matt got that award, for putting Foggy through this.

He was too tired to decide. The Winchesters had set up camp in Matt's apartment and starting talking about Hell and Sacrifices and Souls and Monsters and Foggy hadn't understood a word. Then they told him they hadn't found Matt anywhere. But they had found Daredevil. Who had apparently helped them break into a monster-infested warehouse filled with guns and dead bodies. But Daredevil had declined to come back with them - instead he was going to stay out and look for Matt.

Asshole.

Foggy wasn't even worried that Azirale was controlling Matt and making him act against his will - because this was all very obviously typical Matt activity. Of course Matt would seek out the most suicidal activity a dead person could risk and throw himself into it head first.

Plus, Azirale had seemed more interested in wrapping themself in Matt's silk sheets or opening every can in the kitchen and shoving their nose into the contents, or wearing Battlin' Jack's old gloves and pretending to box Foggy.

At their first meeting, Az had seemed like the epitome of evil. Foggy had been scared shitless.

The second time, Foggy had been scared shitless, and Azirale had still been evil - but maybe not the epitome.

But after being shut up with Matt and Az in 6A for two days, listening to his best friend and the demon argue and research witches and work through a seemingly self-propelled sugar high, Foggy had stopped shitting his pants every time he heard the demon speak.

When he dragged his feet into the apartment at 5:00 am, though, he wasn't happy to hear Azirale's eerily familiar voice greet him.

"Well good morning dear. I thought you'd never come home."

Foggy stared - Matt was sprawled on his sofa, half undressed, the Daredevil gear scattered on the floor along with some towels and first aide supplies. It looked like he had tried to rewrap his chest. Foggy wasn't sure what good wrapping the fatal wound would do. Matt's body was dead. He just hoped Azirale's demon mojo kept the wound from rotting.

"Matt. Why is there still a demon in you."

"Well, for one thing, they're keeping me alive."

"Right. But the Winchesters were supposed to help you figure that out. You were not supposed to help them break into a witches' evil lair!"

"We don't know these guys, Foggy. I needed to know if we could trust them. Plus, we needed more information on Bouvois. She's dangerous."

"You know what else is dangerous? Being possessed. By a demon."

"Az is the least of our worries. Bouvois -"

Foggy scrunched his face up, waving his hands in the air like a lame duck trying to take flight.

"Wait wait wait wait. Az is the least of our worries? What are you talking about? Matt, you're dead! There is a legitimate demon, from hell, inside you. You killed someone! Because of it!"

Matt looked stricken at this last statement.

"Oh no," Az's voice came from Matt's lips, "I guess it was a little early to congratulate yourself on never sending someone to hell."

Claire was tired. She thought she would be used to seeing weird shit by now. Aliens, check. Gods, check. Blind heart-eavesdropping ninjas, check. But this was new. And she didn't like it.

She and the other nurses had been looking after the group of patients that had come in five days ago - a seemingly unrelated group of men that looked to have ganged up on Daredevil and come out on the losing end. All suffering from the same strange illness. Extremely high blood pressure, high levels of adrenaline, extended state of high stress on all the body's muscle and internal organs, disorientation, memory loss, anxiety, bleeding from the eyes, and most notably - explosive, violent anger.

Three had died on the first night. Another died last night. One was still in a coma, and two had woken up. Neither could recall what had happened to them, and could hardly remember their names. They constantly forgot what was happening around them and over and over again fell into bouts of that scary violent anger. It was like they turned into beasts - one had actually bitten a nurse before he was restrained.

Claire had a reputation of being a tough nurse who could put up with anything. So naturally she was put in charge of these patients. She was starting to think she should work on a new reputation.

When someone told her a pair of specialists had come to see the patients, she breathed a prayer of thanks. Finally, she was catching a break. Honestly, she had no idea where to go with these new patients. If these new guys had some experience with mystery wackado disease, she was glad for any help they could give her.

She shed her gloves in the receptacle and headed towards the reception desk - two men she had never seen before were standing talking to one of the nurses. One was tall, with long dark hair and tan skin - the other was shorter, blondish hair and bright green eyes. They were both fairly attractive, and they both towered over her.

But neither of them were doctors.

They had the coats, the nametags, the clipboards - but she spotted them instantly.

What the hell was she getting into now.

Leaning against the desk and crossing her arms, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows at the backs of the two men.

"I'm guessing you're supposed to be my specialists."

They turned and regarded her with surprise before smiling and introducing themselves.

"Doctor Livgren and Doctor Steinhardt. We heard you've been having trouble with some of your patients - we thought we might be able to help."

She didn't think her eyebrows could shoot any higher without fusing with her hairline, but she could almost feel her forehead vanishing as she cocked her eyebrow at the two men.

"Claire Temple," she didn't take their proffered hand, "And I don't really have time for bullshit right now. And I don't think an a capella rendition of Dust in the Wind is really the most appropriate treatment for men in their condition. So, Livgren, Steinhardt - unless you know someone that can really help my patients, please leave."

The two men passed each other a look, stuttering slightly. She nodded.

"That's what I thought," Claire bit out, turning to go back to work.

"Wait! Claire!"

It was the taller one. He was a veritable sasquatch.

"We really can help. Or at least, we think we can."

She narrowed her eyes, staring them in the eyes, "Really?"

The shorter one shrugged, "You can trust us or not. But we know what happened to those men."

She turned back around, "Tell me."

"It might sound a little strange."

She barked out a short laugh.

"Oh trust me, I can handle strange."