For a fleeting moment, Elektra was darkly amused that the Hand had indeed gotten with the times. Or, in fairness, that Alexandra at least had transferred most of her records and documentation to electronic form. There were of course many odds and ends that weren't, but it did give Elektra a good basis from which to start.
It was one thing to know that she had been killed, and brought back from the dead - something that still didn't quite seem real, despite the evidence. It was another thing entirely to know that the darkness in the back of her mind, the shadowy quiet voice she'd had ever since she'd woken up was an old entity trying very deliberately to devour her from the inside.
She felt herself growing cold as she read more, and more through the meticulous records of all previous active Black Skies the Hand had produced. The seductive voice whispering for her to let go, to give into her urge to revel in the sprays of lifeblood from dying forms was and is just as much a liar as Stick or Alexandra had been. While it was seducing her to fall into her bloodlust after she awoke, it had been quietly eating memories within her subconscious that had not yet surfaced. A shark within the waters of her mind, extorting her to murder, while devouring what she could not see of herself beneath the waves.
If it had not been for Matthew's efforts, it would have worked, she realized as her hands shook slightly. There was a reason Black Skies were normally chosen as children, after all. Taken far from their homes and familiar faces, and killed in unfamiliar places, only to be turned into weapons. There was apparently an unspoken rule about not deploying a Black Sky in territories from which it had come, due to the danger of them realizing what was happening, and beginning to actively fight it off - as she had.
Her predecessors, it seemed, were nowhere near as lucky as she. The reason so much of the Substance was needed was not only to fully activate a Black Sky candidate from death, but to allow the monster within the substance a proper host, once all of the child's mind and memories had been consumed. Once that point was reached, the entity within would begin pushing and twisting the child's limbs, forcing the child's body to grow at its direction. While a fully-active Black Sky had tremendous resiliency, the constant reshaping of their bodies, in addition to all the injuries normally incurred from fighting at the Hand's behest required far more of the Substance than just the initial activation.
She closed her eyes, and took a deep, shuddering breath. It was terrifying to realize that she had her own mind now only because Stick had saved her when she was young, and again due to Alexandra's desperate acceleration of her own plans.
On the other hand, she thought as she opened her eyes with narrowed eyebrows and determinedly began going through more of the documents, it meant she was in a unique position of deciding what to do with the shattered pieces that once was the Hand, and all its resources.
Multitudes of documents outlined how the Hand had turned many parts of Asia into their own personal bloody playground, ruling through proxies and fear for centuries. Now that the proxies had no more puppet strings attached, they were now greedily and clumsily trying to follow the example of their former masters, turning those same places into isolated geysers of blood.
Since she'd relied on her aggression and bloodlust to carry her through most of her life, it was a very difficult thing to force herself to not do so now. The darkness within her was not dead, only ripped apart and bloodied. She had torn it into pieces within the depths of her mind once she had realized what it was, and extracted from it what she found to be useful, discarding the rest. A fitting end, she'd thought at the time, considering that was exactly what it was trying to do to her.
However, its essence was what allowed her to still move, breathe, and feel. She may have turned the tables on it, using it as a source of power rather than the other way around - but it was not gone, only weakened. Every time she allowed herself the pleasure of hurting someone, causing them agony, or killing them, it tried to take over through her bloodlust. She felt angry and ashamed that she'd only been able to truly see it for the first time when Matt tried to sacrifice himself to save her, deep below the Midland Circle tower.
And so, she searched for answers amongst the many documents. Many books and treatises written by members of the Hand scoffed at the idea of centering the self, or calming the heart - but an obscure note, written by Madame Gao of all people, spoke off-handedly about this focus being the reason the monks of Kun Lun were still dangerous, despite their fighting styles being less refined than those used by the Hand. It was because, quite simply, that their inner calm allowed them to be more aware, and react faster.
In fact, the famed Iron Fist itself was the ultimate example of this philosophy. To even be capable of the technique, one had to know what the feeling of energy flowing through one's body felt like, coursing through one's muscles and bones like a raging river, and that took a great deal of awareness. To use it, one had to know how to focus and compress this energy into a single spot in the body. To master it, one had to know that trying to focus it only in one spot was a mistake - it was meant to flow as it needed to.
She narrowed her eyes at this, since it appeared to be a contradiction. However, another note by Madame Gao casually mentioned how after she'd received the Substance, she'd had to relearn how to focus and use her energy in her hands and feet, since it did not at all flow the same way after her resurrection.
But, Elektra thought with a smirk, it also explained why Gao was still capable of it even now. Moreover, it also gave a clue as to what the monks of Kun Lun meant about allowing the energy to "flow unobstructed."
With a sigh, she set aside those documents in their own folder on her laptop, encrypting them afterwards to be sure. Going now through more of the financial records, she made notes to consolidate some of the properties and holdings of the Hand, now currently unclaimed. It was in the immediate chaos following the Midland Circle tower falling that made it very easy for her to shuffle corporate holdings and ownerships through shell companies, and finally out of their hands entirely and under shell companies she owned herself. It was something very boring that she nonetheless took vindictive pleasure in, such as claiming the land Midland Circle once sat upon, ensuring the massive tower was replaced with a humble coffee shop, and given a name as a properly-raised middle finger to both Chaste and Hand.
Of course, this also gave her direct access to the dragon bones far below the structure. With work, she could extract all the bones, and turn the massive underground chamber into a training studio - but after recent events, she doubted anyone she may invite there would be willing to go. Nonetheless, there were many uses one could put a massive underground chamber to, once it was properly cleaned out.
Sending new directives to her accountant along with additional annotated paperwork, Elektra sat back against the wall of the abandoned loft she was currently squatting in. That done, she closed her eyes for a moment against the afternoon sun, massaging the bridge of her nose with her left hand. She took a deep breath, and forced herself to think this through.
Did she want to personally grind the remains of the Hand into dust, no matter where they may hide? If so, she'd have to constantly fight against the raging tornado within her, trying to eat the heart in the depths that she'd only recently found and begun to nurture. Did she want to focus instead on learning techniques, learning the true limits of her new self? If so, then she would still be a weapon that others would crave attempting to guide at their enemies, for their own ends. Did she want to simply own a coffee shop, and let go of bloodying her fists and blades altogether to focus on her own growth? She supposed that was the wisest choice - but however wise it was, she didn't think she could yet let go of her addiction to her own adrenaline and the thrill of a fight.
Taking a deep breath, she exhaled with a quiet sigh. Death was so easy, and living so much harder.
Then again, she thought of Colleen Wing. She wasn't a Black Sky, in fact, she had been trained by Bakuto to become a mere foot soldier for the Hand. However, what Colleen had done instead was nothing short of impressive, despite the mishaps along the way. Moreover, she'd taken Bakuto's head before the tower fell, runs her own dojo training the folk of the city, and worked with Danny multiple times to help defend New York.
Then, she thought with a smirk, there was Jessica Jones. She had evidently tried to be a hero, more than a year ago, before she met and became the victim of a man that reminded her very much of the bloody entity within her. Jessica had escaped the prison he'd made of her mind, regathered herself, and became a private investigator instead of falling to the dark. Despite her protests of wanting nothing to do with the "cape and tights set," as she put it, Jessica had leapt into action along with Luke Cage, Matthew, and The Iron Skull to defend New York from Alexandra's fear and lust for power.
As much as she wanted to beat Daniel Rand unconscious every time she saw him, Elektra knew that he'd overcome a great deal as well. She suspected that he'd had to deal with an accelerated timetable at some point just as she had with Alexandra, which was the only thing she could think of that would allow him to gain the Iron Fist while still being impulsive and immature in many ways. In those ways, he had not yet grown up, despite his power - but, he was trying and pushing himself to do better.
Luke Cage, on the other hand, was someone she had thought more about in recent hours. She discovered that he had once been involved in underground and bloody fights while imprisoned, and had almost lost himself to despair after his wife was killed. Instead, he had become for the people of Harlem what he might wish for himself - a bulwark against the predations of the darkness within people. On the surface, he appeared to be the simplest - but the more she thought about the details, the more she realized that he had almost as many pitfalls along his pathway as she did, and that his straight, direct path was itself a nuanced poem.
Then... there was Matthew, the only one on this Earth who could twist her up and make herself question herself and the world around her so thoroughly. He was a collection of competing contradictions, unacknowledged memories and feelings channeled into rage, but focused on making his fists bloody to keep the innocents' faces and fists free of blood.
Steepling her hands in front of her face, it was slowly becoming clear that she had examples in the people she knew already for how to proceed. She was not working alone in the dark unless she wished to be.
Nonetheless, she thought as she abruptly got to her feet, questions do still need to be answered. Deciding to dress in a feminine business casual again, if only to get the unwary to underestimate her, she left through the back alley, and began to navigate the streets and cabs of New York. Her destination was a large, older warehouse in the south side of Hell's Kitchen.
A wry look on her face appeared briefly as she realized she'd have to help look after Hell's Kitchen while Matthew was recovering. She knew that he had entrusted Danny to do it, but quite frankly, she didn't trust him to do it properly. So, it appeared that she'd be sleeping less for a while - but, she thought with a small smirk, the old adage that "she could sleep when she was dead" was already a past-tense event. So, it could be worse, she supposed.
Finally, she arrived at the old warehouse, and despite her instincts, simply walked right in. A pair of armed guards stepped into her path. "No walk-ins," the skinnier one stated. "You'll have to leave."
"No, I'm here to see Madame Gao," Elektra said mildly. "And I will. The question is: what happens between now and then?"
The bulkier of the two guards glared at her, but the skinnier one spoke into his headset. "Boss? We have a lady here to see you. A walk-in."
Elektra hid a smile as she heard Madame Gao's voice faintly through the guard's headset. He had the volume turned up enough that she didn't have to strain her ears at all to hear it. "We are busy. Send her away. Forcefully."
Keeping her body language calm, she watched the skinnier guard stiffen slightly, look at the other guard, and nod before looking back at her. Nonetheless, she remained motionless.
The bulkier one reached for her, only to receive a hard palm strike to the solar plexus for his trouble, leaving him a gasping heap on the floor. Continuing the same flowing motion, she clotheslined the other guard, and gave him a palm strike to the chest as well once he hit the floor. Once both were down, she calmly removed the clips from the guns they carried, and walked into the warehouse.
She was prepared for the reality of everyone within the warehouse having their eyes cut out, but seeing the mechanical ways they moved sent a small chill down her spine. They all moved as though they'd had their very beings torn out along with their eyes - and perhaps they had. Nonetheless, she continued moving quickly and quietly through the massive warehouse to the office at the very back. Once she reached the end however, she abandoned pretense and simply kicked the door off its hinges into the room.
The door shattered into a cloud of splinters before it moved even a meter inside, the outstretched fist of the tiny form of Madame Gao seen first before her glaring and unimpressed expression. Nonetheless, Elektra saw Gao's eyebrows lift at the sight, and she smiled in response. "Gao - I do hope you're keeping busy."
To her new senses, Madame Gao appeared to be a raging dragon hiding behind the mask of a mild-looking woman, but nonetheless she smiled in courteous welcome. "I was not expecting a visit from the last Black Sky," she said as she seated herself, both hands resting on the handle of her cane. "To what do I owe this unique honor?"
Walking in with slow, measured strides, Elektra seated herself after dusting off a chair of sawdust and splinters. "I was going through some old documents that Alexandra had," Elektra said mildly, "and I wondered if you might have some insight."
The way Madame Gao's eyes narrowed very slightly without her smile wavering even a millimeter suggested volumes. "She and I may have been old acquaintances, but she and I moved in different ways over the years. Whatever you found of hers is unlikely to be free of her perspective."
"Can anything be truly free of personal bias?" Elektra asked, her head tilted slightly to the side, regarding Gao just as calmly. "While you may have retained the knowledge of Kun Lun, for instance, the manner in which you channel and use that knowledge is necessarily different - wouldn't you agree?"
The smile on Madame Gao's face shrank slightly - but only slightly. "All life is about change and growth, in the end - even lives such as ours."
The smile widened slightly on Elektra's face. "Perhaps, but is the aim to channel one's growth only along familiar avenues, to only find new ways of completing old aims in the present? Or, is it to use the foundational hallmarks of the past as rivals to overcome?"
The smile had vanished completely from Madame Gao's face. "I would say it depends entirely on the bias of the person making the decision, don't you think?" she asked in Mandarin, and not English.
Elektra leaned back in her chair slightly, regarding the older woman unblinkingly for a moment. "Let us speak of bias, then," Elektra replied in Mandarin. "Your holdings are gone, your followers scattered or killed, your objectives all now beyond you. When once you ran most of the world from the shadows, now the shadows have expelled you from their depths. So, will you choose a familiar pathway?" She leaned forward to look Gao more closely in the eyes, and then continued in English. "Or, will you choose a new path?"
"What are you suggesting?" Madame Gao replied, her entire body still - Elektra didn't even see her shoulders rise and fall with each breath.
"You have many options open before you, and most of them will not place you into subservience," Elektra informed her calmly. "You're an intelligent woman; I'm certain you can see at least a few of them already. And if not, I've heard a tale of a coffee shop opening soon where Midland Circle once stood, where matters of importance might be discussed. Perhaps you may see other options there," she said calmly.
Madame Gao leaned back slightly, looking Elektra in the eyes without any other motion, even blinking for a few moments. "Fortune opens many doors - perhaps one of them might lead there. Perhaps other avenues will arrive with players returning to the board - Fisk, for instance. Time will tell for certain," she said at last.
Elektra prevented herself from reacting outwardly, but inwardly she cursed herself for forgetting about Matthew's nemesis. Gao was indeed right, the large man was due for early release soon, and he would need watching. However, there was still the present to deal with. "Indeed, time and opportunity will tell for certain," Elektra smiled after a moment. "May good fortune find you again, Gao," she said before walking out.
As she walked out of the warehouse and back into the light of the late afternoon, she took a single slow, deep breath. Madame Gao was an old and wily dragon, with different motivations and perspectives than most, which made her actions difficult to predict if one didn't know what they were. Elektra herself didn't know all of them, though she suspected that she was one of the few still alive who even had a chance to. Nonetheless, the foundation and precedent had now been laid for future dealings with Gao, and that was a start.
However, as Gao reminded her, Wilson Fisk was going to stomp back onto the scene shortly - and he would need watching while Matthew was recuperating.
Taking the longer ways back to the abandoned loft she currently called home, she unlocked her laptop, and began checking through criminal records to verify Fisk's date of release. Her eyebrows narrowed as she saw that he had been released this very day, and was currently being processed out.
She looked out the window, beheld the sun sinking into the horizon, and narrowed her eyes before reaching for what she now thought of as her real "work" clothes.
Elektra was her own boss now, and it was time to go to work.
Over her bra and black tank-top, she attached her sword harness with the sheath going straight down her spine, and slid her blades into it with a click, one on either side of her spine. Next was the harness for her twin double-edged sai at the small of her back. Sliding the sai into the cross-wise sheaths, their handles appeared just over her buttocks, their comforting weight a reminder. Lastly, she put on a black wrap over the lower half of her face, and a long, black overcoat.
Tying her hair back into a ponytail, she waited until after the sun set and the sky was beginning to truly darken before she left. Leaping soundlessly from the ledge of one of her loft's windows to the roof, it was a simple matter to leap from rooftop to rooftop to reach the private airfield where Fisk would be landing.
She reached it within minutes, moving through the shadows to the top of the control tower, and waited.
The private helicopter was only five minutes late. What attracted her attention first was the crimson-spattered stain on the inside of the helicopter's windshield, becoming clearer as it descended. Movement was seen within the windows before it even landed heavily on the grass, just as a black limousine drove up.
A man with what appeared to be a burn scar in the shape of a target on his forehead emerged first from the helicopter, his hairless scalp dimly reflecting the lights around him. He reached, and threw a corpse wearing a uniform that matched the livery of the helicopter contemptuously onto the grass itself before stepping out.
Following him was a blonde man with a buzzcut, and what appeared to be an American flag tattooed on his right cheek. His eyes moved ceaselessly, looking for threats, and betraying his heightened state of adrenaline as he did. Lastly, a large bald man wearing a white business suit stepped out, and nonchalantly stepped over the corpse of who once was the helicopter pilot.
"Gentlemen, let's adjourn to the boardroom for a proper meeting," Fisk said to the other two men. "We have much to discuss," he said, as he led the way to the limousine, the driver scurrying to open the door for him.
The man with the target scar on his forehead grinned ferally at this, even as he wiped blood from his hands. He and the man with the American flag on his face both got into the limousine, and it drove away just as the helicopter exploded, consuming the corpse nearby with jagged metal and fire.
Elektra consciously began to control her breathing, keeping each breath slow and deep. She could feel her rage and lust for blood igniting like a phosphorus fire within her veins, and she consciously forced it to calm, lest the beast within her strike at her mind while she was distracted. This is a test, she thought to herself even as she raced to follow the limousine from the shadows and rooftops. A test to see if she could ride her own rage without getting caught up in its howling winds.
Predictably, Fisk's limousine took he and his two companions directly to his headquarters. Perched on a roof nearby, she spied an air vent two stories from the ground that would be large enough to fit a person, if they could reach it. Smirking beneath her mask, she checked for cameras or people nearby; once satisfied, she leapt up to the vent cover, yanked it open, and caught the ledge with her other hand before she began to fall. From there, it was but a moment's work to get inside, and close the vent cover behind her.
Using her senses to track where the three men were in the building, she navigated the air vents upward until she reached Fisk's office. Backtracking, she emerged from the large air vent in the bathroom attached to the office, which thankfully had the light off. Walking and moving without a sound, she crept into the office to see Fisk standing behind his desk, his arms and hands wide as he was mid-speech. The two men in attendance were facing him, away from the door, their stances suggesting that they knew their places as lackeys to a larger dog.
"...and destruction in its wake," Fisk said expansively. "Gentlemen, we have a rare opportunity to force order from chaos, to take advantage of the broken empires around us to build our own. We just have to remove a few obstacles from our path, and we will be walking upon paths of gold."
"I'm with you, Fisk," said the bald man with the target scar on his forehead, and Elektra could hear the grin in his voice, despite having his back to her. "I'm pretty good at troubleshooting problems, how about you, Nuke?"
"As long as the money's good, and I get my pills when I need them, I'm good," the other man replied with a shrug.
"Ah, yes - I'd hate for one of my employees to be under-equipped for the job," Fisk said with a toothy grin, as he pulled a silver case from one of his desk drawers. "This is a full week's supply, so you'll have to notify me as you run low, to ensure no interruption of care," he finished with an almost friendly smile.
The man on the left, Nuke, just nodded once to this.
"Good, good," Fisk replied with a smile. "Now, Bullseye, I want you to use a particular set of weapons for your task. I hope you have no objections to a change of weapons, but I want you to both be able to accomplish the tasks I set before you, as well as have them send a specific message," he said, as he handed the bald man, Bullseye, a metal case.
The bald man opened the case, and Elektra's eyes narrowed as she saw that within the case was row upon row of throwing daggers with sword-catching hilts, shaped very much like her own sai. However, she remained still, and kept her heart rate and breathing controlled.
The man giggled to himself, something that made Elektra raise an eyebrow from her position well-hidden in the shadows of the office. "Pretty knives, very pretty knives," he said, giggling again. "What's the message you want me to send with 'em?"
Fisk smiled expansively. "You misunderstand. The mere act that you would kill with those weapons is itself the message."
"Huh," said the bald man, obviously sceptical. "Well, whatever - as long as I keep getting my cash, I'll kill people with playing cards if you want me to."
"That won't be necessary," Fisk said with a smile. "Gentlemen, we are on the precipice of a new age, one that we will help usher in," he said as he turned his back to them, and looked out the window. "We have many great tasks before us, and though our hands may be bloodied, our heads will be unbowed."
Seeing her chance, Elektra darted soundlessly from the shadows, stabbed both men through the backs of their necks, and pressed both of her sai all the way through the center of their throats. She ducked down, keeping her form invisible for now by hiding behind Nuke's larger bulk.
Fisk sensed that he'd been interrupted, turned around, and stopped mid-word as he saw the shining points in the center of their throats. Now that she had his attention, Elektra yanked the sais back out and sheathed them at the small of her back in one smooth motion. Continuing her movement, she drew the blades from her back, sliced outward from her body to behead both of them at once, and stood to her full height.
Their eyes met over the now headless necks of the two former men, and through the spray of blood coming from their necks. She let the moment hang, and then kicked both of the men toward Fisk, forcing him to scramble backward, but his white suit was sprayed liberally with blood nonetheless.
"Good evening, Mr. Fisk," she said in a calm, and almost friendly tone of voice. "Welcome back to New York," she continued as she cleaned her blades on the headless men's pants. Looking up to meet his eyes, she finished speaking. "Know that you are being watched."
Without waiting for an answer, she stepped backwards into the shadows of the office, and darted back toward the bathroom the instant she was out of view. It wasn't a moment too soon, as Fisk threw off his lethargy, and turned on all the lights in his office with a roar of anger. "We have an intruder in the building!" she could hear him shout into his desk phone. "Find her, and consider her extremely hostile!"
Well, that much is true, she thought with a smirk as she navigated through the air vents back out to the side of the building. Before she opened the vent through, she saw two nervous-looking guards walking along the alleyway, guns drawn.
"So, what the hell are we even looking for?" one of the men asked, his gun shaking slightly in his hands.
"I got no idea man, just that some broad snuck in to the boss' office and offed two of his boys," the other guard replied, his gun shaking just as much.
"Man, I don't need this shit," the first man said, his breaths coming short and shallow, betraying his fear. "I just need a quiet night, so I can get home, wake my kids up for school, send them on their way, and go pass out with a beer. I'm two damn weeks from becoming a permanent employee, I really don't need this."
"Yeah, I take care of my sister's kids the same way man," the other guard replied as he looked around the alleyway, though he didn't look up. "I hear you. I'll watch your back, you watch mine, and we'll both go home on time, okay?"
Damn you Matthew for making me want to find my conscience, Elektra thought as she shook her head with a quiet sigh. Carefully opening the vent to not make a sound, she threw a pebble from the vent out into the street, and toward a garbage bin. She smirked as the rock made a dull ringing noise on the metal of the garbage bin, and closed the vent cover just as carefully.
"What the hell was that?" the first man asked, his eyes wide, and now turned toward the mouth of the alleyway. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I heard it," the other guard said, moving slowly toward the garbage bin with his gun aimed at it. "Come on, let's go check it out."
"A-alright, I'm right with you," the first one replied.
She waited until they were out of earshot or view of her, then she opened the vent cover again. Carefully lowering herself out of it while holding onto the lip of the vent with one hand, she just as carefully closed it with the other as she let go, and landed with a somersault to her feet. Climbing the building's drain-pipe rapidly, she ascended to the roof.
Checking to see that she hadn't been spotted, she then raced across the rooftops to eventually reach Hell's Kitchen once again, and soon enough, her loft.
Her training demanded that she check for possible intrusion before she relaxed - and once she was satisfied, she removed the harness on her back with her blades, but kept her sai sheaths where they were. Putting back on the coat, she adjusted the mask she had over her mouth and nose, and once again went to the roof.
With that, she closed her eyes, letting the sounds, smells, and feel of the place whisper to her as she had seen it do with Matt several times. Unfortunately, her senses weren't yet as honed as his, so to her, it still felt like a cacophony. Even so, she thought as she opened her eyes and began to run silently along the rooftops, it was her self-imposed duty to help watch over Hell's Kitchen when he could not.