When Matt wakes up he's in a different building, this time hanging from the ceiling with his hands tied together.
"Surprised that you're still alive?" Wilson Fisk is sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. There are several guards around him. "Me, too. But I'm sure you know how persuasive women can be. I've seen you with yours." He smiles, probably congratulating himself on killing her. The joke's on him, because Matt knows that Elektra's attack had cost him as well. He doesn't have as many people under him as he wishes anymore.
Now Fisk looks at his prisoner like he's expecting a response. If he is waiting for Matt to make small talk, he will need a lot more patience. There is not one part of his body that doesn't hurt, but it's a bit of a relief to wake up in a different position at least. Although hanging like this will get old fast, but it's not like they plan to keep him alive that much longer.
"Well, if you want to get back to me hitting you instead of talking, I have to disappoint you. Vanessa did not appreciate seeing me like that, so I had to promise to wait for the results of the election which will go as planned."
"And what then?"
"I'll kill you, of course. But she does not want to see that."
Of course. And for a second there he thought Vanessa would actually stand up to the man openly. She clearly loved Fisk, enough to jump in front of him and sacrifice herself. But she wasn't as bad as him either. This whole mad plan of torturing some vigilante to get Anand Chopra elected wasn't hers and she did not enjoy watching it happen. He checked her heartbeat the day before. She is also not staying away anymore in an effort to pretend that this isn't real or that she is not a part of it. Too bad that it's too late to accept her offer to help him now. He probably should have. It's just that he didn't trust her, and he feared more bad consequences for his friends if Fisk caught him with Vanessa of all people. And now, it does not look like she'd be able to free him secretly anymore. While Fisk is busy on his phone, Matt realises that he is actually back in Hell's Kitchen. He catches an excerpt from Anand Chopra's last speech and it sure sounds like he'll win the election. A week ago, he would have been glad about that.
That's when Vanessa comes in with a bottle of champagne and two glasses, a wicked smile on her lips.
"Leave us alone with him, we need to celebrate my man's victory over the Devil of Hell's Kitchen."
"You heard the lady." Fisk takes the bottle and fills their glasses. His men leave the room and Vanessa sits down at the table next to him, with her chair turned around, so she can look at Matt.
She holds up her glass facing her husband and says: "To winning an election and defeating the devil. Both of us get what we want."
"To changing the world together." Their glasses clink and Fisk drinks from his, while Vanessa first watches him, then puts the glass to her mouth, but she hesitates to drink Matt notices with sudden interest. His senses are quite weakened in the state he's in right now, but he does think that he is picking up the smell of poison in that champagne. Should he be warning her or does she know? Would he be killing both of them if he doesn't say anything? And really, would anyone blame him anymore when he's about to be executed? But he also is not sure if he can trust his senses, because this can't really be happening, right? It can't be ending like this, with him still tied up and her killing the man she desperately wanted to protect with her own life. He fumbles with the rope around his wrists and after he accepts that it's useless, he decides to just wait and see what happens now. Will that Fakedevil creep take over from Fisk, maybe? Or is this a plot by someone else to take his position? It would make more sense to wait until they got rid of Daredevil, though. But it's not like he is much of a threat right now. At the moment they are both still talking - and it's annoyingly cheesy. Soon they will notice something and one of them will be pulled out of their little victory bubble.
Suddenly Fisk takes her glass and throws it against the wall. "Did you drink anything?!"
Her heartbeat doesn't indicate a big surprise or shock, so she knew. And Fisk doesn't get it yet, but her next words, full of regret and apologies confirm it beyond doubt: "I really loved you."
That's when it's really sinking in. Fisk starts gagging and Matt isn't sure if it's from the ultimate betrayal or the poison. "I also believed you were the answer to the problems in Hell's Kitchen. I believed in YOU." Fisk grabs the knife on the table, but his muscles don't obey him anymore. Vanessa avoids a mad slash in her direction. "YOU made it possible for Anand to win. But it was only after I introduced you, that I realised you are also the problem. And that you will never change. It will never be enough for you. I would never be and you will never leave with me." She starts crying while her husband is fighting against death. "You wanted to be the man who makes Hell's Kitchen better, but you've become the man who destroys it. I can't let you do that, because I loved you."
Matt can feel Fisk breathing his last breath. Should he be happy now? She took the decision he wasn't able to and ended it, just like that. But the others will come in at some point and without Fisk giving them orders, he has no idea, what will happen. So he decides to pull Vanessa out of her apathy.
"What are you going to do?"
"Shut up." She doesn't like being reminded that he's still in the room. "I didn't do this to save you." A lie? Why would she do this for him anyway?
Vanessa pulls her phone out, her eyes must be red from the tears he can smell and she fills Fisk's glass again. For a moment he thinks she'll try to make him drink it, but then she raises the glass to her own lips and Matt starts to protest.
"Really? Now you want to save ME?"
She makes a strangled noise and drinks. "I just killed the love of my life... You see, I wasn't blind." The word makes her snort. "I knew he was rotten and twisted, tried to make him better even. But he had the potential to do good as well and I think you took that away from him forever. Since you turned up and picked a fight with him he was obsessed with you." He recognises the disgusted tone in her voice. Sounds like she's blaming him for the failure of her fucked up marriage. No, that one even he does not feel responsible for. That's on her entirely. Her choice. Then again he understands that you don't really decide who you love. He himself tried to save Elektra even when she was the Black Sky after all and that makes him somehow sympathise with her situation.
She pushes the dial button and holds the phone to her ear.
"Hi Trish! This is Vanessa. I can tell you where your boyfriend is." Matt's not so sure that's who he is to her at the moment. Not after he kissed Elektra and he tried to push Trish away to discourage any ideas she might have had of surrendering. The last part, of course, only happened if she actually was in his head and he didn't hallucinate her voice, and he didn't dream up that incident when his handcuffs opened.
"It's not a trap." Vanessa sounds cheerful and takes a knife walking towards him slowly. There is a mad energy about her that worries him. You can't predict what a person will do when they already chose death, when they don't have to worry about consequences. When they blame you for something that ruined their life and when they hold a knife.
After she tells Trish the address she holds the phone to his ear so he can talk to her. "That woman is crazy. Don't come alone. She just killed Fisk." Vanessa puts the knife to his throat and takes the phone back, annoyed at him.
"He's STILL alive. Third floor, second window from the left." Then she disconnects the call and comments: "This is not how you talk to the woman you love, you know? I'm disappointed, Matthew."
She does something else on her phone. Could she be telling Chopra what she did? Was she working with someone else outside? He feels the knife cut his skin and blood is flowing down, slowly. It's not on purpose, but she also does not care. Her telling Trish that he's still fine could confirm his suspicion that she has another plan for him. So he accuses her bluntly: "You're going to kill me."
"I just saved your life and your stupid secret identity by deleting those videos, you self righteous prick. Can't you be a little grateful?" She drinks some more and throws the glass to the ground in front of him, some tiny shards cutting his feet. The knife is moving over his bare chest, not forceful enough to actually scratch him now.
"I was going to cut the rope, but you had to be an ass." He can smell the alcohol on her breath already and she wants to say something else, but stops herself. Now it's her hand that's stroking him, not the knife which she dropped to the ground.
"What then?" Matt clenches his jaw, trying not to push her buttons as she sobs. He does not understand at all what is going through her head right now and it terrifies him. Not for his life, but for Trish's.
"I think you've suffered enough at his hands." Her heartbeat tells him it's the truth. "And I won't hurt her. Won't set a trap for her." He sighs in relief. Trish almost died because of him once already, watching something like that happen again without being able to do anything about it would kill him. And if they still get together after all this, it will happen again with absolute certainty. That realisation breaks his heart, so he tries not to think about it as long as he doesn't have to.
When Vanessa moves closer, she stops an inch before his face. "Don't you think I deserve a kiss though, for everything I had to sacrifice?" She strokes his hair back like she did the first time she came to see him and he closes his eyes. He's freaking out over her behaviour, but he still feels bad for her despite everything. She decided to save him and kill the man she loved after all. That he can't deny now, especially since he can sense that she is indeed dying.
"The poison...", he whispers, actually pitying her for not being granted her last wish. She chuckles crying desperate tears now and he brushes his lips softly across her cheek. Vanessa looks at him in shock. Then she closes her eyes and her heartbeat slows down. "You're something else, you know that?" She walks back to the table, puts the empty glass down and takes a seat next to Fisk. "I made the right choice after all."
"You're really not going to release me?" In a way he can't bring himself to complain about that to her anymore.
She smiles. "I'll leave that to her. She gets to rescue you." And that's when she starts choking.
Trish takes in the scene when she arrives with Jessica through the window only minutes later. She can't believe he's actually alive and that they got to him in time. They are not entirely out of there yet, but all the tension leaves her for this moment.
"Damn." He looks somehow better than she expected, as if someone cleaned him and took some care of him.
"I know." A humourless laugh escapes him as if he still can't believe what is happening.
Jessica goes up to him and looks at the shards below his bare feet. She carefully holds his body, so he won't fall on the ground, while Trish uses her powers to free him and then she puts him down in a safe distance from the broken glass.
Trish gives him a bag of clothes. "Can you dress fast, or should we be heading out the window already?"
Matt shakes his head. "No one will want to check the room yet, Vanessa made sure of that." He swallows hard.
All three of them look at the corpses on the table and Jessica is the first one to find words. "We need to talk about your uncanny ability to make psychos either want to kill you or protect you." Trish agrees with her assessment while she helps him with his clothes.
He winces. "Guess I have to thank Trish for this one." When he's dressed he grabs a long stick, puts on his mask again and walks towards the door, instead of the window. "There is something I need to do…"
"Really, now? In the state you're in?" Jessica almost laughs.
"Counting on you two to help me out... A lot actually this time."
"We brought the Moranos along as well. I was going to let them take care of Fisk's guys, to be honest." Jessica reluctantly follows.
Matt huffs. "That'll be a bloodbath!"
She just shrugs. "Lenny helped a lot. I promised him Fakedevil."
"No. That guy is mine." And with that he walks out, Jessica and Trish right behind him.
Matt is in a strange zone, barely on his legs, but absolutely determined to carry out his revenge. He walks along the hall to beat up his tormentors and he's still surprisingly efficient at that with adrenaline pumping through his veins. Jessica is ready to step in anytime and she already tries to shield him from most of the attackers, while Trish makes sure the doors behind them stay closed and the ones in front of them only open one at a time.
Despite Jessica's efforts to stay in front of Matt during the fight, she keeps falling back. So when the blind ninja manages to get through to the room with the man who pretended to be him and then tortured him, he's alone and too slow to avoid many punches and kicks. Getting back up again he's even more angry and his stick connects with a skull, before one of Trish's arrows also hits the huge man. Matt immediately takes advantage of his confusion and knocks his legs from under him. He then starts kicking the guy like a mad man and every time he tries to get up again, Matt puts him down in a blind rage.
With the sleeping drug his opponent soon will have no way to defend himself and Trish knows someone has to stop what's going to happen next or he will regret it later. And just when she's thinking that, Jessica finally throws her arms around Matt to pull him back. In the time he struggles against her grip, still kicking at Fakedevil hard, the glass in a door next to them breaks into a million pieces. Lenny emerges from there and shoots the man on the ground, effectively saving the real Daredevil from a sin he was about to commit. While that sudden turn of events seems to pull him out of his murderous zone, Matt barely has time to react when Lenny points the gun at him as well and starts shooting.
Of course he does. Trish really should not be caught off guard, but she is. His target recovers faster and avoids most of the bullets, one of them only scratching his arm, another one almost hitting Jessica, but Trish is able to redirect it. She's surprised to realise that it actually doesn't take a lot of effort. Her reaction just has to be very fast, but by now she's really doing most of it on instinct.
Matt looks really exhausted, but he still can kick the gun out of Lenny's hands who just shrugs and smiles. "Nothing personal, the truce is just over now."
Jessica fumes with anger. "But you don't know who the mole is, idiot!"
"Oh, I tested everyone the last couple of days. We just found him right before you called to give us the new location."
After that Tuck comes up from behind the Morano and also starts shooting as well, taking out Fisk's remaining men easily, but this time Trish is ready and apparently she can use her powers against guns now which is incredibly useful. So when Tuck aims for Matt's head, all the bullets fly to the sides and Lenny looks amazed. The miraculously still unshot man smiles, not even surprised. He didn't move an inch, completely trusting in Trish's power - or the opposite, because those bullets went practically everywhere else and moving would definitely have gotten him hit. He's also barely standing, so maybe he didn't have much of a choice.
Tuck's eyebrows shoot up and as he moves back to reload his gun, which he is not used to doing. That man never misses and Matt indicates going back and using the opportunity to flee. "We gotta go, there are more coming." Trish then takes his arm across her shoulder to help him move again and the three of them hurry back to the fire escape they used to get in.
Jessica goes last, still trying to shield Trish and armourless Matt who looks like he'll pass out any moment now. Just when Tuck starts shooting again, she reaches the room where they kept their hostage and a bullet enters the door frame right after she crossed it.
On the stairs outside Jess grabs Matt to stop them, because they are way too slow like this. "Hey! Here!" Trish stumbles back at her sister's command, understanding her plan and holding onto them when Jessica jumps up. The Moranos are out of the window shortly after that, but they look down first, which gives the woman with super strength more time to jump further away. Tuck aims at her, but blinded by the sun he misses again and the three of them land on the roof safely. From there they have enough time to get away without anyone following them.
They catch a breath a couple of blocks away in a quiet corner and Matt slides down the wall and takes off the sweaty mask. There is madness in his eyes that Jessica has never seen before and then for the first time he really looks blind and helpless. Trish sits down next to him. When she tries to take his hand in hers he shudders and moves out of reach.
A stream of angry tears espaces his eyes as he closes them, mumbling "sorry". Trish then carefully lays her hand on his shoulder and he forces himself to breath in and out slowly.
"Ssssssh… you're free now. They won't hurt you anymore."
"Just… give me a minute, please…"
Jessica knows whatever they saw on those videos was just what they were supposed to see. Maybe they even didn't want to show the worst parts, so people actually kept watching them. She doubts the videos would have been as effective and viral, if it hadn't looked like he can take it. For once Jessica has no snappy comment on her tongue. "Take all the time you need. We're safe here." Even his sigh sounds broken now.
After a minute his hand finally reaches for Trish and he leans against her. She understands immediately and hugs him close, this time without any protest. Observing the scene makes Jessica wonder if he can ever be the same after this. Trish is comforting him as much as she can and he just lets go for a moment and accepts it. They still need to go to Claire soon. He might not drop dead, but his injuries are still serious. He can't just meditate them away.
Jessica looks at them with a sad smile, noticing that Matt is already trying to push it all down again. He moves away slowly and when Trish gently strokes the hair out of his face he becomes rigid for a moment. Her hand snaps back fast as if it burned him. Concern is painted all over her face.
"Told you it is a Murdock sobfest."
Matt looks insulted at that, eyes still quite red, but that's better than him being too broken to move right now. She can tell that her comment already makes him more determined to tough it out. But she needs Murdock being Murdock now, until Claire can check him over properly.
"Don't pout. At least this one has a happy ending. Let's go, see a nurse."
Trish is stroking his back affectionately as he gets up. Then she just steadies him again, with one arm around his waist and one over her shoulder as they start walking. "I'm still mad that you got yourself caught and played the damsel in distress for DAYS, by the way." She smiles, knowing he'll catch the lie.
"Sorry." But his answer is seriously regretful and he lowers his head in shame. Jessica rolls her eyes.
"Well, stop doing this shit then."
"I called you right when they grabbed me. I realised that it was selfish to try and fight alone and I was going to ask for help."
"I believe you." Jessica surely remembers how completely out of it Trish was when she told her about that call on the phone.
Before they finally get going he turns back once more: "Thank you for stopping me before, Jess…" He's talking about the moment when she had to hold him back from killing someone, who was shot seconds later, because she made a deal with a psycho. Jessica just nods and Trish wipes a tear away silently.
All of this wasn't something he could just brush off like his previous near death experiences. His punishments so far had never been about revenge for something someone did to him, but this time he lost control until she stopped him. And Lenny somehow. He also wanted their help while doing it. All of that was so out of character for him, it worried her a lot.