Part Two
"Matt." The name cracked out of her dry lips as a raspy, barely
audible croak. Elektra opened her eyes, but everything was blurry.
She closed them and then tried it again more slowly. The room was
brought into focus a bit better. It wasn't a hospital room. It wasn't
her room at the hotel and it wasn't Matt's room - although there was a
gothic austere maleness about it that reminded her of Matt's. The
walls were a dark blue with dark wood trim and there was little
decoration. Elektra moved her head and winced. Her neck was stiff and
she felt like she was made of concrete. What happened?
There was a girl standing in front of the window. The light streaming
in created a halo out of her short blond hair. She couldn't be an
angel. She looked vaguely familiar and Elektra was pretty sure that
angels didn't mishandle the sai. "You're gripping it wrong." The
sentence came out stronger and more clearer than her first attempt at
speaking, but was still just a croaky whisper.
The three-pronged weapon clattered to the floor. "You're awake."
Chloe rolled her eyes at the stupidity of her statement. Of course she
was awake, she was talking. "How are you feeling?"
Elektra stared at the sai on the floor, the sun reflected off the blade
and glared into her eyes. It wasn't sunlight that filled her vision
though. She saw the longest, middle tine slick with Matt's blood. She
had sharpened the edges and points of the defensive weapon to create a
deadlier version for her purpose. She had stabbed him. The memories
were a strobe light of images. Her hatred had been so intense that she
hadn't noticed that her opponent had only deflected her blows without
hitting back. The only thing she had wanted was to watch the man
dressed in the red leather devil costume die a horrible death at her
hands. She hadn't known that Daredevil was Matt. She could hear
herself accusing him of killing her father, calling him a liar when he
denied it. She had thrust the point into his shoulder so hard that it
had went right through his body and broke the window behind him. After
he had fallen, she had removed the cowl with the red glass eyes and
devil horns. The Man Without Fear was her lover, Matt Murdock. She had
been wrong. Despite what Elektra had believed previously, her heart
knew that Matt was not her father's assassin. Bullseye's appearance on
the roof proved it.
"You're remembering what happened, aren't you?"
Elektra heard the girl's concerned words from a distance. She was in
a different time, a different place. She felt the quicksilver pain and
pressure of the sai's blade as it pierced her side. The blood that
poured from the wound was a warm shock to her system. There was only
one thing she had wanted to do. Elektra had crawled to Matt, needing
to be with him. Needing him. 'Stay with me.' It was the last thing
he had said to her. The remembered plea brought tears to her eyes.
She had left him again. What had happened to him? He would have gone
after Bullseye and he would have been hurt because of her.
"It's okay." Chloe cautiously reached out and touched Elektra's hand.
She hadn't expected her to cry. Probably because she was Lex's friend
and she couldn't imagine him crying either.
"Who are you?" The girl seemed innocuous enough, but Elektra wasn't
exactly in fighting shape and even this girl could harm her if she
wanted to.
"Chloe. Chloe Sullivan. I'm a fr...I know Lex." Chloe wasn't totally
comfortable calling Lex her friend. They were more acquainted through
circumstances than through any mutual friendly feelings. Not that she
didn't like Lex, she just didn't know him like she knew Clark or Pete.
He didn't make her feel comfortable. She was pretty sure Lex saw her
as a nuisance. "You're in Smallville at Luthor Manor. I can go get
Lex, he's in his study. He had some business with his father to take
care of, otherwise he would have been here. He's barely left your side
the whole time you've been in a coma."
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Three weeks." Chloe stood up to leave. "Are you going to be okay?
Because I could just call him."
"No, go. I'll be fine." Elektra smiled weakly. She needed some
time alone to sort through everything. Lex would know what had
happened to Matt. Her gaze dropped to the sai. She gestured toward
it. "Do you mind?"
Chloe bent and picked up the weapon that had fascinated her earlier.
She didn't know why Elektra would want it, but she handed it to her
anyway. "I'll go get Lex."
"Thank you." Elektra held the sai close to her, resting it on her
chest and relishing the comfortable weight. She was too weak to wield
it, but that was only temporary. It felt good holding it. She gripped
the handle tightly and closed her eyes as Chloe left the room. If
Bullseye had killed Matt, she would find him. This time the sai would
work for her and the blood that tainted it would belong to Bullseye.
*****
It disgusted Angel to watch her with his son. They were out in the
courtyard having a picnic while he lurked in the shadows and watched.
He wasn't going to leave Connor alone with her and she knew it. That's
why she sought out the sun as much as possible, told everyone it was
good for the baby. Angel doubted very much that this 'baby' would
thrive in the light - it was more about darkness.
She had laughed at him that day in his office when he had accused her
of not being Cordelia. They both knew that the others wouldn't believe
him. They would think jealousy had finally drove him over the edge.
He would need proof and she knew he didn't have any. He had to find a
way to trip her up - preferably before whatever it was she was
carrying was born. Connor would hate him even more, any closeness that
they had managed to forge would disappear once Angel revealed that
the woman his son was being manipulated into loving and the child she
carried had to die.
"Angel." Fred approached from behind him. She smiled hesitantly when
he turned. She saw Connor with her outside and pity immediately
overwhelmed her delicate features. Angel hated the pity. If he told
Fred that the woman outside with Connor wasn't Cordelia, she wouldn't
believe him because of the pity. She would pass it off as him
grasping at evil straws to explain why the woman he loved preferred his
son.
"Did you need something, Fred?" he asked when she didn't say anything
more.
Fred shook her head. "We were just researching Cordelia's pregnancy.
Wesley is worried because it's progressing so quickly." Fred shifted
her gaze back to the couple outside. She opened her mouth, but it
took a few moments for her to gather her courage to speak. "Sh...she's
different now."
For the first time in a long time, Angel felt hope. Someone who wasn't
the envious rejectee had noticed that she wasn't Cordelia. Or at
least Fred had noticed that something was wrong with her behavior.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...." Fred glanced down at her feet and hunched her shoulders
forward as if to make a smaller target. "She was cautious about Connor
before he was born and Wesley said she had been pregnant with demon
spawn before...not that any child of Connor's would automatically be
demon spawn, but this isn't progressing like a normal pregnancy so...
well, anyway, Wesley said her previous pregnancy upset her until the
babies started influencing her." Fred looked up at him, her eyes huge
and shining with earnest conviction. "She loves you, Angel, I know
she does. She shouldn't be so happy that she's pregnant." Fred's
hand covered her mouth to stop herself from saying any more.
"It's okay, Fred." Angel sighed and squeezed her shoulder. "I've
thought the same thing. I just...I just wish I knew why she's doing
this to me." He was ashamed of the pathetic hangdog look he gave
Fred to manipulate her feelings - it was an Angelus tactic - but these
were desperate times. If he could lead her to the conclusion that
the woman outside was not Cordelia, then Fred would tell Wesley, Gunn,
and Lorne and her theory would be valid. The others would have to
pursue it.
"I don't know, maybe being a divine being changed her and we don't
even know why she came back." Fred sighed. She felt so sorry for
Angel. It would be great if she could find something to explain why
Cordelia was acting so strangely. Kye-rumption and moira just didn't
disappear. There had to be an explanation. "Maybe something horrible
happened to her."
"You think so?" Angel kept his tone neutral with only a hint of hope.
He should have thought of this before, but he would have to be careful.
If he pushed then Fred would get suspicious. Angel shook his head.
"No. She doesn't love me. I have to accept that and try to move on.
Be happy for them." That statement tasted worse than week old blood.
He gazed mournfully out the window. He hoped he wasn't laying it on
too thick.
"Cordelia loves you. She's just confused because when she came back
she didn't remember any of us. Maybe something went wrong with the
memory spell and that's why she's acting so strangely. Once she's back
to being herself, she'll realize how much she loves you, Angel." Fred
frowned. Angel was her hero, although she didn't worship like she did
when she had first come back from Pylea. She didn't like seeing him
hurt and it was inconceivable to her that it was Cordelia who was doing
this to him. She gasped as the connection Angel had wanted her to
make clicked. "Oh, Angel, what if the person who came back isn't
Cordelia?"
*****
Sometimes Cordelia escaped her prison and was back in her body. The
first time it had happened, she had woken up naked and in bed next to
Connor. She had tried to tell him that something was wrong, but
something else had control. With growing horror, she heard herself
explaining to Connor why they couldn't have sex again. Again! That
implied, along with the fact that they were both naked, that there had
been a time when they did have sex. She had sex with Angel's son. The
cuddly baby boy she had rocked to sleep in her arms. The reality that
only her body and not her mind or soul have been involved did not
decrease the ickiness of it all. The thing that possessed her body
had violated her. It had violated Connor. Worse of all, it had done
something so vile and despicable that she would never be able to love
Angel the way she wanted to. She would break his heart in a way Buffy
had never managed to do and she hated herself and the thing that had
done it. Cordelia had tried to fight, to get her body back, but the
purple fire returned her to her prison. It always did. The other
times had been too fleeting for her to do anything and left her with
the impression that she didn't want her body back.
Nathaniel Elias was right. This was her fault. If she hadn't been so
full of herself, thinking she was so good and worthy of becoming a
divine being, then none of this would have happened. She hadn't
questioned the ascension like she should have because she had wanted it
so badly. It was her chance to prove that she was no longer the vain,
vapid cheerleader she once was, but it turned out that it proved the
opposite. If she could curl her astral self into a ball and cry,
Cordelia would have done it.
"Lovely evening tonight, isn't it, Cordelia?" Nathaniel walked into
the room through the concealed door. This was his hidden sanctuary in
his study with a bookcase as its entrance. Nathaniel liked the
Masterpiece Theatre classiness of it. It was better than doing his
spells in a drafty warehouse. The astral figure in the magical prison
ignored him. "Another cameo appearance in your life? I certainly hope
it wasn't during an intimate moment with the vampire's son."
Cordelia concentrated on her glowing hands. The colors were
beautiful - pastel shades of green, blue, and pink along with gold and
silver laced around her fingers and wrists. She wasn't going to
respond. She had accepted her responsibility for this situation, but
she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of defeating her. She would
find some way to let Angel know that Connor was in danger and that her
body had been hijacked by evil.
"Why don't we check in on the happy family? Do you think Angel will be
as proud a grandfather as he was a father?" Nathaniel used the remote
to turn on the flat screen television hanging on the wall, but left
the satellite receiver off. "Specto meus inimicus."
The blue screen was abruptly replaced by a clear picture of the
Hyperion's courtyard. Cordelia couldn't help it, she looked. She saw
herself and Connor packing up a picnic basket and heading inside. The
poor boy looked at her with so much love it was heartbreaking. They
went inside where the others were busy researching something. "Angel."
His name slipped from Cordelia's lips and she reached out to touch
him. The purple fire caressed her fingertips instead. She would fix
this and protect the people she loved. Nathaniel Elias and his
imposter demon would not win. She would get her body back and then she
would leave Los Angeles. She couldn't work with Angel so closely and
not be with him. Any chance they had of a relationship had been
destroyed.
*****
The man without fear. Elektra's words were printed in black and white
in one of Ben Urich's articles for the Post. It was how he described
the vigilante known as Daredevil. It was how Elektra had described her
father's killer, the one who had left her for dead.
"Lex!" Chloe rushed into his study, breathing heavy from her sprint
across the mansion. "She's awake."
"Call the doctor. Tell him I want him here immediately." Lex gave the
orders as he strode quickly from the room. He raced toward the unused
wing and made it in record time. He hadn't expected her to be up
practicing with the sai, but it was disappointing find her still laying
motionless in her bed with her eyes closed. "Elektra?"
"Lex?" Elektra's eyes opened. Her grip on the sai loosened at the
sight of her old friend. She reached out to him. "Matt. Is Matt
okay?"
Lex took Elektra's hand with a small frown. He wasn't sure why she
was so concerned with Murdock, as far as he knew the lawyer had nothing
to do with what had happened to her. "He's fine, as far as I know.
I'm sure he's upset. I, uh, thought it would be safer if everyone
believed that you died. He was at the memorial service I had in your
honor."
"Matt thinks I'm dead." Elektra felt her heart cramp and it was worse
than the ache she felt in all of her muscles. Matt believed that he
had watched her die. And knowing him, he probably felt responsible.
"What happened...after I died?"
"Well, I was a bit preoccupied at time covering up the fact that you
are alive." Lex sat down in his usual chair. He took the weapon from
her hand and set it on the bedside table. "Later I found out that a
vigilante called Daredevil and a psycho who called himself Bullseye
had a rather violent altercation in a nearby church. Bullseye was
critically injured. That same night Daredevil also exposed Wilson
Fisk as the legendary Kingpin. Fisk has been arrested on numerous
charges, including ordering the hit on your father."
"Mr. Fisk was the Kingpin? No wonder my father wanted to cut all
business ties with him." Elektra had never liked her father's business
associate, but she never would have thought he was the Kingpin. He had
always seemed more brawn than brains and she had assumed that he had
intimidated, not organized, his way to the top. Ever since her
mother's death, Elektra had been aware that her father's business had
its less legitimate side, but to be involved with the Kingpin...Still,
he was her father and he had not deserved to die. "You said Bullseye
was critically injured, did he die?"
"No. He's scheduled to stand trial for your father's murder when he
recovers sufficiently." Lex watched Elektra closely. If he went by
her words before she was injured, then it was Daredevil, not Bullseye,
who had killed Nikolas Natchios. "Several witnesses have come forward
recently."
It wasn't over. Her father's murderers were still alive. Thank God
Matt was too. She didn't know what she would have done if he had died
that night.
"I know it will be awkward, but would you like to call him? You can
blame me." Lex squeezed her hand and smiled.
There was nothing Elektra wanted to do more than call Matt and tell him
that she was alive and that she loved him. She would stay with him
forever. "No, I can't." She couldn't put Matt in the middle of her
plans for revenge again. She had made a promise on her father's grave
that she would deal out justice in the manner of their Greek ancestors.
She couldn't keep hurting Matt. It would be best if Matt went on
believing that she was dead, especially if the only way to kill Fisk
and Bullseye was to take them with her.
"I thought I had lost you, Athena." Lex brought Elektra's hand to his
mouth and kissed it. He wouldn't push her about Murdock yet, even
though he thought she was wrong. She should go to him and live a
wonderful life, but Lex could tell by the rigid set of her jaw that
Elektra wasn't through with her quest for vengeance. Since Bullseye and
the Kingpin were both in the hands of the law that meant that Daredevil
had also played a part in Natchios' murder. She would go after him
once she was fully recovered. The only way he could protect his friend
was to find out who this Daredevil really was and go after him the way
Luthor's did. Ben Urich seemed to know a lot about this Daredevil.
Unfortunately he was a journalist who probably wouldn't take too kindly
to a bribe. Lex would have to use Chloe to get to Urich and find out
what he knew about Daredevil.
*****
"Matt." The name cracked out of her dry lips as a raspy, barely
audible croak. Elektra opened her eyes, but everything was blurry.
She closed them and then tried it again more slowly. The room was
brought into focus a bit better. It wasn't a hospital room. It wasn't
her room at the hotel and it wasn't Matt's room - although there was a
gothic austere maleness about it that reminded her of Matt's. The
walls were a dark blue with dark wood trim and there was little
decoration. Elektra moved her head and winced. Her neck was stiff and
she felt like she was made of concrete. What happened?
There was a girl standing in front of the window. The light streaming
in created a halo out of her short blond hair. She couldn't be an
angel. She looked vaguely familiar and Elektra was pretty sure that
angels didn't mishandle the sai. "You're gripping it wrong." The
sentence came out stronger and more clearer than her first attempt at
speaking, but was still just a croaky whisper.
The three-pronged weapon clattered to the floor. "You're awake."
Chloe rolled her eyes at the stupidity of her statement. Of course she
was awake, she was talking. "How are you feeling?"
Elektra stared at the sai on the floor, the sun reflected off the blade
and glared into her eyes. It wasn't sunlight that filled her vision
though. She saw the longest, middle tine slick with Matt's blood. She
had sharpened the edges and points of the defensive weapon to create a
deadlier version for her purpose. She had stabbed him. The memories
were a strobe light of images. Her hatred had been so intense that she
hadn't noticed that her opponent had only deflected her blows without
hitting back. The only thing she had wanted was to watch the man
dressed in the red leather devil costume die a horrible death at her
hands. She hadn't known that Daredevil was Matt. She could hear
herself accusing him of killing her father, calling him a liar when he
denied it. She had thrust the point into his shoulder so hard that it
had went right through his body and broke the window behind him. After
he had fallen, she had removed the cowl with the red glass eyes and
devil horns. The Man Without Fear was her lover, Matt Murdock. She had
been wrong. Despite what Elektra had believed previously, her heart
knew that Matt was not her father's assassin. Bullseye's appearance on
the roof proved it.
"You're remembering what happened, aren't you?"
Elektra heard the girl's concerned words from a distance. She was in
a different time, a different place. She felt the quicksilver pain and
pressure of the sai's blade as it pierced her side. The blood that
poured from the wound was a warm shock to her system. There was only
one thing she had wanted to do. Elektra had crawled to Matt, needing
to be with him. Needing him. 'Stay with me.' It was the last thing
he had said to her. The remembered plea brought tears to her eyes.
She had left him again. What had happened to him? He would have gone
after Bullseye and he would have been hurt because of her.
"It's okay." Chloe cautiously reached out and touched Elektra's hand.
She hadn't expected her to cry. Probably because she was Lex's friend
and she couldn't imagine him crying either.
"Who are you?" The girl seemed innocuous enough, but Elektra wasn't
exactly in fighting shape and even this girl could harm her if she
wanted to.
"Chloe. Chloe Sullivan. I'm a fr...I know Lex." Chloe wasn't totally
comfortable calling Lex her friend. They were more acquainted through
circumstances than through any mutual friendly feelings. Not that she
didn't like Lex, she just didn't know him like she knew Clark or Pete.
He didn't make her feel comfortable. She was pretty sure Lex saw her
as a nuisance. "You're in Smallville at Luthor Manor. I can go get
Lex, he's in his study. He had some business with his father to take
care of, otherwise he would have been here. He's barely left your side
the whole time you've been in a coma."
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Three weeks." Chloe stood up to leave. "Are you going to be okay?
Because I could just call him."
"No, go. I'll be fine." Elektra smiled weakly. She needed some
time alone to sort through everything. Lex would know what had
happened to Matt. Her gaze dropped to the sai. She gestured toward
it. "Do you mind?"
Chloe bent and picked up the weapon that had fascinated her earlier.
She didn't know why Elektra would want it, but she handed it to her
anyway. "I'll go get Lex."
"Thank you." Elektra held the sai close to her, resting it on her
chest and relishing the comfortable weight. She was too weak to wield
it, but that was only temporary. It felt good holding it. She gripped
the handle tightly and closed her eyes as Chloe left the room. If
Bullseye had killed Matt, she would find him. This time the sai would
work for her and the blood that tainted it would belong to Bullseye.
*****
It disgusted Angel to watch her with his son. They were out in the
courtyard having a picnic while he lurked in the shadows and watched.
He wasn't going to leave Connor alone with her and she knew it. That's
why she sought out the sun as much as possible, told everyone it was
good for the baby. Angel doubted very much that this 'baby' would
thrive in the light - it was more about darkness.
She had laughed at him that day in his office when he had accused her
of not being Cordelia. They both knew that the others wouldn't believe
him. They would think jealousy had finally drove him over the edge.
He would need proof and she knew he didn't have any. He had to find a
way to trip her up - preferably before whatever it was she was
carrying was born. Connor would hate him even more, any closeness that
they had managed to forge would disappear once Angel revealed that
the woman his son was being manipulated into loving and the child she
carried had to die.
"Angel." Fred approached from behind him. She smiled hesitantly when
he turned. She saw Connor with her outside and pity immediately
overwhelmed her delicate features. Angel hated the pity. If he told
Fred that the woman outside with Connor wasn't Cordelia, she wouldn't
believe him because of the pity. She would pass it off as him
grasping at evil straws to explain why the woman he loved preferred his
son.
"Did you need something, Fred?" he asked when she didn't say anything
more.
Fred shook her head. "We were just researching Cordelia's pregnancy.
Wesley is worried because it's progressing so quickly." Fred shifted
her gaze back to the couple outside. She opened her mouth, but it
took a few moments for her to gather her courage to speak. "Sh...she's
different now."
For the first time in a long time, Angel felt hope. Someone who wasn't
the envious rejectee had noticed that she wasn't Cordelia. Or at
least Fred had noticed that something was wrong with her behavior.
"What do you mean?"
"Well...." Fred glanced down at her feet and hunched her shoulders
forward as if to make a smaller target. "She was cautious about Connor
before he was born and Wesley said she had been pregnant with demon
spawn before...not that any child of Connor's would automatically be
demon spawn, but this isn't progressing like a normal pregnancy so...
well, anyway, Wesley said her previous pregnancy upset her until the
babies started influencing her." Fred looked up at him, her eyes huge
and shining with earnest conviction. "She loves you, Angel, I know
she does. She shouldn't be so happy that she's pregnant." Fred's
hand covered her mouth to stop herself from saying any more.
"It's okay, Fred." Angel sighed and squeezed her shoulder. "I've
thought the same thing. I just...I just wish I knew why she's doing
this to me." He was ashamed of the pathetic hangdog look he gave
Fred to manipulate her feelings - it was an Angelus tactic - but these
were desperate times. If he could lead her to the conclusion that
the woman outside was not Cordelia, then Fred would tell Wesley, Gunn,
and Lorne and her theory would be valid. The others would have to
pursue it.
"I don't know, maybe being a divine being changed her and we don't
even know why she came back." Fred sighed. She felt so sorry for
Angel. It would be great if she could find something to explain why
Cordelia was acting so strangely. Kye-rumption and moira just didn't
disappear. There had to be an explanation. "Maybe something horrible
happened to her."
"You think so?" Angel kept his tone neutral with only a hint of hope.
He should have thought of this before, but he would have to be careful.
If he pushed then Fred would get suspicious. Angel shook his head.
"No. She doesn't love me. I have to accept that and try to move on.
Be happy for them." That statement tasted worse than week old blood.
He gazed mournfully out the window. He hoped he wasn't laying it on
too thick.
"Cordelia loves you. She's just confused because when she came back
she didn't remember any of us. Maybe something went wrong with the
memory spell and that's why she's acting so strangely. Once she's back
to being herself, she'll realize how much she loves you, Angel." Fred
frowned. Angel was her hero, although she didn't worship like she did
when she had first come back from Pylea. She didn't like seeing him
hurt and it was inconceivable to her that it was Cordelia who was doing
this to him. She gasped as the connection Angel had wanted her to
make clicked. "Oh, Angel, what if the person who came back isn't
Cordelia?"
*****
Sometimes Cordelia escaped her prison and was back in her body. The
first time it had happened, she had woken up naked and in bed next to
Connor. She had tried to tell him that something was wrong, but
something else had control. With growing horror, she heard herself
explaining to Connor why they couldn't have sex again. Again! That
implied, along with the fact that they were both naked, that there had
been a time when they did have sex. She had sex with Angel's son. The
cuddly baby boy she had rocked to sleep in her arms. The reality that
only her body and not her mind or soul have been involved did not
decrease the ickiness of it all. The thing that possessed her body
had violated her. It had violated Connor. Worse of all, it had done
something so vile and despicable that she would never be able to love
Angel the way she wanted to. She would break his heart in a way Buffy
had never managed to do and she hated herself and the thing that had
done it. Cordelia had tried to fight, to get her body back, but the
purple fire returned her to her prison. It always did. The other
times had been too fleeting for her to do anything and left her with
the impression that she didn't want her body back.
Nathaniel Elias was right. This was her fault. If she hadn't been so
full of herself, thinking she was so good and worthy of becoming a
divine being, then none of this would have happened. She hadn't
questioned the ascension like she should have because she had wanted it
so badly. It was her chance to prove that she was no longer the vain,
vapid cheerleader she once was, but it turned out that it proved the
opposite. If she could curl her astral self into a ball and cry,
Cordelia would have done it.
"Lovely evening tonight, isn't it, Cordelia?" Nathaniel walked into
the room through the concealed door. This was his hidden sanctuary in
his study with a bookcase as its entrance. Nathaniel liked the
Masterpiece Theatre classiness of it. It was better than doing his
spells in a drafty warehouse. The astral figure in the magical prison
ignored him. "Another cameo appearance in your life? I certainly hope
it wasn't during an intimate moment with the vampire's son."
Cordelia concentrated on her glowing hands. The colors were
beautiful - pastel shades of green, blue, and pink along with gold and
silver laced around her fingers and wrists. She wasn't going to
respond. She had accepted her responsibility for this situation, but
she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of defeating her. She would
find some way to let Angel know that Connor was in danger and that her
body had been hijacked by evil.
"Why don't we check in on the happy family? Do you think Angel will be
as proud a grandfather as he was a father?" Nathaniel used the remote
to turn on the flat screen television hanging on the wall, but left
the satellite receiver off. "Specto meus inimicus."
The blue screen was abruptly replaced by a clear picture of the
Hyperion's courtyard. Cordelia couldn't help it, she looked. She saw
herself and Connor packing up a picnic basket and heading inside. The
poor boy looked at her with so much love it was heartbreaking. They
went inside where the others were busy researching something. "Angel."
His name slipped from Cordelia's lips and she reached out to touch
him. The purple fire caressed her fingertips instead. She would fix
this and protect the people she loved. Nathaniel Elias and his
imposter demon would not win. She would get her body back and then she
would leave Los Angeles. She couldn't work with Angel so closely and
not be with him. Any chance they had of a relationship had been
destroyed.
*****
The man without fear. Elektra's words were printed in black and white
in one of Ben Urich's articles for the Post. It was how he described
the vigilante known as Daredevil. It was how Elektra had described her
father's killer, the one who had left her for dead.
"Lex!" Chloe rushed into his study, breathing heavy from her sprint
across the mansion. "She's awake."
"Call the doctor. Tell him I want him here immediately." Lex gave the
orders as he strode quickly from the room. He raced toward the unused
wing and made it in record time. He hadn't expected her to be up
practicing with the sai, but it was disappointing find her still laying
motionless in her bed with her eyes closed. "Elektra?"
"Lex?" Elektra's eyes opened. Her grip on the sai loosened at the
sight of her old friend. She reached out to him. "Matt. Is Matt
okay?"
Lex took Elektra's hand with a small frown. He wasn't sure why she
was so concerned with Murdock, as far as he knew the lawyer had nothing
to do with what had happened to her. "He's fine, as far as I know.
I'm sure he's upset. I, uh, thought it would be safer if everyone
believed that you died. He was at the memorial service I had in your
honor."
"Matt thinks I'm dead." Elektra felt her heart cramp and it was worse
than the ache she felt in all of her muscles. Matt believed that he
had watched her die. And knowing him, he probably felt responsible.
"What happened...after I died?"
"Well, I was a bit preoccupied at time covering up the fact that you
are alive." Lex sat down in his usual chair. He took the weapon from
her hand and set it on the bedside table. "Later I found out that a
vigilante called Daredevil and a psycho who called himself Bullseye
had a rather violent altercation in a nearby church. Bullseye was
critically injured. That same night Daredevil also exposed Wilson
Fisk as the legendary Kingpin. Fisk has been arrested on numerous
charges, including ordering the hit on your father."
"Mr. Fisk was the Kingpin? No wonder my father wanted to cut all
business ties with him." Elektra had never liked her father's business
associate, but she never would have thought he was the Kingpin. He had
always seemed more brawn than brains and she had assumed that he had
intimidated, not organized, his way to the top. Ever since her
mother's death, Elektra had been aware that her father's business had
its less legitimate side, but to be involved with the Kingpin...Still,
he was her father and he had not deserved to die. "You said Bullseye
was critically injured, did he die?"
"No. He's scheduled to stand trial for your father's murder when he
recovers sufficiently." Lex watched Elektra closely. If he went by
her words before she was injured, then it was Daredevil, not Bullseye,
who had killed Nikolas Natchios. "Several witnesses have come forward
recently."
It wasn't over. Her father's murderers were still alive. Thank God
Matt was too. She didn't know what she would have done if he had died
that night.
"I know it will be awkward, but would you like to call him? You can
blame me." Lex squeezed her hand and smiled.
There was nothing Elektra wanted to do more than call Matt and tell him
that she was alive and that she loved him. She would stay with him
forever. "No, I can't." She couldn't put Matt in the middle of her
plans for revenge again. She had made a promise on her father's grave
that she would deal out justice in the manner of their Greek ancestors.
She couldn't keep hurting Matt. It would be best if Matt went on
believing that she was dead, especially if the only way to kill Fisk
and Bullseye was to take them with her.
"I thought I had lost you, Athena." Lex brought Elektra's hand to his
mouth and kissed it. He wouldn't push her about Murdock yet, even
though he thought she was wrong. She should go to him and live a
wonderful life, but Lex could tell by the rigid set of her jaw that
Elektra wasn't through with her quest for vengeance. Since Bullseye and
the Kingpin were both in the hands of the law that meant that Daredevil
had also played a part in Natchios' murder. She would go after him
once she was fully recovered. The only way he could protect his friend
was to find out who this Daredevil really was and go after him the way
Luthor's did. Ben Urich seemed to know a lot about this Daredevil.
Unfortunately he was a journalist who probably wouldn't take too kindly
to a bribe. Lex would have to use Chloe to get to Urich and find out
what he knew about Daredevil.
*****