Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Tony has been up in his lab for hours now. Which isn’t exactly abnormal. Sometimes he’s up there for so long they’d find him asleep on the floor, his tools and random metal trinkets all around him.

But something must be different this time because usually when he’s up there the only person who’s allowed to ‘disturb’ him is Bruce.
But this time FRIDAY, Tony’s AI machine (and probably his closest friend figuring how much he talks to the damn thing) has requested that all of them come up to his lab immediately. (With the exception of Thor who had to run or well, fly, to Asgard for a couple of days)

They thought maybe he needed help or something bad had happened so Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Bruce rushed to the elevator and went to his lab.

But instead of finding some sort of threat, they found Tony’s desk covered in newspapers some dating back to 2014, along with that, Tony was sitting on the floor swiping on one of the four- no five- tablets that were around him, looking at what they thought was old security footage tapes.

“Hey how much do you guys know about this Daredevil guy?” He asks without even looking up from the hologram he was now tapping away on.

They looked at him for a moment, Clint was the one to speak up first, “ya’ mean that vigilante from Hell’s Kitchen?”

“That’s the one, have you ever actually met him?”

“No, but I’ve seen him on the news a couple of times.”

Bruce spoke now, “he took down that Wilson Fisk guy too right?”

“Yeah,” Tony said while simultaneously pushing a newspaper talking about the vigilante and Fisk with his foot the the four Avengers, “twice actually. Both times before we even realized he was a threat. He also took down the Russian mob, and the Yakuza.”

“All without help?” Steve asked, he’s heard of Daredevil, or, The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen as he used to be known as, but he never really took the time to look into it. Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t exactly a safe neighborhood, so what if some guy wanted to help try and fix that?
To be honest, from the little Steve has heard about the guy, he respects what he’s trying to do, he’d be a hypocrite if he said the guy was wrong because ‘being a vigilante is a crime’. Steve Rodgers may be America’s Golden Boy, but he’s broken more laws in the last 5 years than some might have in a life time.

“Well he’s been spotted working with people a few of times, but usually, yeah, he works alone.” Tony answered.

“Is this why you called us up here Tony?” Natasha asked,

“So you guys have all heard of him, but have any of you actually seen him fight?” Tony continues, without answering Natasha,

Nobody answered, it’s true, they’ve all heard of The Man Without Fear, but have only seen photos of him on TV or in the newspaper.

“Let’s change that, FRIDAY?” Tony continues without an answer,

“Right away sir.” A female robotic voice answers as a giant hologram pops up on Tony’s other, less paper covered, desk.

The four were shocked.

Daredevil was like a machine. They watched him take on 5 guys in an alleyway at night, all armed with knives and two with guns. He knocked the first guy out with a single punch that threw him into the corner of a dumpster before blocking an incoming knife aimed for the back of his neck, hitting the second guy in the head with a billy club.
Stepping over the second guy, he blocked a punch, uppercutting the third man in the chin and slamming him into a wall punching him in the stomach a couple of times until the guy started coughing up blood. Without looking behind him, he threw his billy club at the fourth guys hand knocking his gun away before back flipping and knocking the guy to the ground, hitting him in the face a couple of times for good measure.

They thought the fight was over but as Daredevil was looking down at the guy he just knocked out the first man he knocked out, the one who hit the dumpster, got up slowly, he pulled out his gun and quietly pointed it at the back of Daredevils head.
For a split second, Clint thought they were about to witness the end of The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, but then, out of nowhere, Daredevil ducked milliseconds before the gun went off, he rolled to the side and kicked the gun out of the man’s hand before pounding on the guy with what Bruce could only describe as rage.

After all, Bruce has had first hand experience with it, with the hulk.

Tony paused the CCTV footage after Daredevil flipped onto a fire escape and disappeared from camera view.

“I’ve been looking at several other bits of footage just like this, and going over police interviews from guys who took on Daredevil himself, everything I find looks and sounds the same. This guy can do things no normal human could, like, how the hell did he know that gun was pointed at him? The guy was behind him and it was dark in that alley. That’s what I can’t figure out, how the hell is he doing what he’s doing?!” Tony rambled on, clearly he’s been researching this Daredevil guy none stop for the past couple hours.

“He’s definitely has training,” Steve says

“But you can tell he’s using a mix of different fighting styles, some he uses more than others” Clint adds before Natasha finishes with,

“He switches off between using skill and using anger. Sometimes he throws perfect punches and kicks and has impressive form while back flipping or dodging a knife, but other times it looks like he’s in any old street fight,” She thinks for a moment before adding,

“This guy has manage to mix both into his own unique fighting style that no one else knows, therefore no one can prepare for.” She was impressed, to say the least. But also slightly concerned, this guy was skilled, trained and clearly very dangerous. Why is this the first time he’s being looked into??

“That’s what I’m talking about! Pepper brought him up to me a couple days ago and I was bored so I figured I’d look into the guy and holy cow am I glad I did!” Tony said, looking at some of the newspaper articles he had laid out.

“Do you think he’s enhanced or something?” Bruce asks Tony,

“Or something,” he says,

they could tell he wants to say something else but then Steve says, “Maybe he’s an alien, I mean, that would explain the enhancements, and why we can’t find anything on the guy.”

“Speaking of, “ Clint continues, “Do we even know who this guy is?”

“No.” Tony says grumpily. Clearly he’s been unsuccessful in uncovering the man behind the mask.

He pauses for a moment then continues, ”While I’ve been digging I’ve discovered a few theories some of the locals have about him,” he says cautiously, “Some of the people in Hell’s Kitchen think his name is more than just a name.”

“Wait, your not actually suggesting what I think you are-“ Bruce says his brows knitting together,

“You think he’s the Devil??” Steve asks, not fully believing any of this,

“You can’t be serious-“ Natasha says, rolling her eyes,

“Devil or some kind of demon, yeah.”  Tony says, he turns around back to the hologram and adds, “FRIDAY, show them the other thing I found,”

The hologram changed to another CCTV camera, this one on top of a building, Daredevil is fighting some guy, and clearly having a lot more trouble than in the other video. This guy is skilled and trained too, watching them fighting was like watching a fight scene in an action movie sped up, both men were fighting with incredible speed and precision, landing solid hits on each other but neither backing down.

Until one of the guys falls over. He’s on the ground and Daredevil is in front of him, they think he’s won the fight but the the other guy pulls out a gun from an ankle holder that wasn’t visible until now, Daredevil freezes but it’s too late,

“Bang.” The man says.

The gun goes off, and all five of them watch Daredevils head fly back before his body falls off the edge of the building.

“That video is from 2015. This was before the first video I showed you guys of him.”

“Wait- this guy got shot in the head and he’s still alive??” Bruce asks not bothering to hide the shock in his voice.

“Yeah. You should see some of the other hits I’ve seen this guy take. He’s been punched, kicked, stabbed and shot. Several times.” Tony answers.

“Maybe he is the Devil,” Clint, who has been quiet for a couple minutes thinking, up until now whispers, just loud enough for the others to hear.

“You guys can’t really believe that,” Steve says,

“It’s much more likely for him to be enhanced or some sort of alien.” Natasha says.

“Oh come on! In the world we live in? You’ve seen some of what this guy can do! You really think it’s impossible for this guy to be the actual Devil in world where the impossible is proven possible everyday??” Tony exclaims, when neither Steve nor Natasha agrees with him he turns to Bruce, “come on Banner, back me up.”

Bruce hesitates than says, “sorry Tony, but I can’t agree with you on this one.”

For a moment, Tony pauses, “fine. I bet each of you Daredevil is the actual Devil or some kind of demon.”

“You really want to place bets on this?” Natasha asks now slightly amused,

“Yes. Because I’m always right.” Steve rolls his eyes.

Clint laughs then says, “we haven’t even met the guy , I wouldn’t start placing bets just yet.”

“On a more serious note we probably should find this guy, someone like him is a good person to keep an eye on.” Bruce thinks out loud.

“Bruce is right. How ‘bout this, Natasha and Clint can head to Hell’s Kitchen tonight to try and find Daredevil.” Steve turns to the geniuses in the room, ”Bruce and Tony will stay here to try and find more on this guy,” He glances back at Natasha and Clint before adding, “And if you two happen to run into the him, we’ll stay on coms and watch from the cameras in your suit. I’ll be just outside of Hell’s Kitchen as back up if needed and Tony will have his suit ready and on stand by.”

“Good idea cap, we can stalk the guy till he banishes us all into hell.” Tony says sitting back into his seat.

“He’s not the Devil Stark, he’s not going to cast anyone down to hell.” Natasha says rolling her eyes for what must be the fifth time in the last half hour.

Tony smiles, “you wanna bet?”

Chapter Text

Matt knew The Avengers were looking for him. They had been in Hell’s Kitchen for a couple days now, and when Matt got close enough (aka like 2-3 blocks away from where they were, perched on a roof), he could hear them talking about him.

“Do we really half to stay out allll night?” 

“Sorry Barton, Caps orders.”

“Yeah like you can complain in your fancy heated suit. It’s freezing out here! Besides, it’s been 3 days and we haven’t even so much as caught a glimpse of Daredevil, are you sure he’s even out here??”

“He’s out here. Yesterday’s news said he stopped an armed robbery, we were out here looking for him at the time we just missed him. We need to keep a better look out.”

“Ugh. Fine. Well- what are we even going to do when we find the guy??”

“Pray he doesn’t cast us into eternal  damnation.” The man in the metal suit (who Matt assumes in Tony stark) mumbles almost to quiet for Matt to hear.

Huh. So the Avengers are looking for him. Great. Just positively wonderful. (He tries not to think to hard on the ‘cast into eternal damnation’ thing, hoping it’s just Tony Stark making bad jokes.)

Matt tries to avoid the Avengers. He has been for the last couple years. He never really got over how they practically destroyed New York and were still considered heroes. Or how both him and the avengers were crime fighters, but because Matt had a secret identity he was the criminal? He was the dangerous vigilante? Whilst Tony Stark has super suits that can shoot missiles from the shoulder pads and almost everyone loves him, (He’s not jealous, definitely not).

Matt decides to just hope that they give up after a couple of days and leave Hell’s Kitchen. In the mean time, he’ll stay away from them as much as possible. 

 
That’s the plan. Until Frank shows up. 

It’s been a week and the Avengers are still taking turns scoping out Hell’s Kitchen looking for Daredevil. The night has been pretty quiet so far so Matt decides to stay in the office,

(aka the second floor of ‘Nelson’s Meat’ that they converted into a temporary work space for Nelson, Murdock & Page), 

he wanted to finish up reading a report for a case they’ve been working on before going out as the Devil, that is, until he hears a familiar heart beat heading up the stairs in the back entrance of the building. Steady and strong. 
The smell of gunpowder, metal, sweat and dog hair, surrounding the heart beat.

Military boots bend the old wooden stairs inward as Frank walks up the last step and heads for the door to the office.

Without knocking he opens the door and leans on the frame looking at a not-so-shocked Matt Murdock, whose still sitting at his desk with his fingers relaxed on the braille writing. 

“Hey Red.”  He says and Matt can practically hear the smirk on his face. 

“What are you doing hear at this time of night Frank?” He tries to sound serious but his face matches Franks smirk making his tone of voice more Matt Murdock sounding, than Daredevil sounding. 

Franks smile falters slightly before he crosses his arms and inhales sharply, “I need your- help, with something.” 

Matt smile grows, and he suppresses a laugh, “Wow, Frank Castle needs my help? Lemme guess, one to many parking tickets for you to handle?”

Franks smile returns before getting serious, shutting the door and moving into the room till he’s leaning on Foggy’s desk, which is across from Matt’s, he says in a lower tone,

“I need Daredevils help.” 

Matt figured that’s what he originally meant, still, he straightened up and closed the file he was reading so Frank knew he had Matt’s full attention.

 
“And what does The Punisher need Daredevil’s help for?”
He’s slightly suspicious, surely Frank knows that by asking for Matt’s help he’s also agreeing not to kill anybody while they are working together right?

Frank takes a moment before responding, “New drug cartel I’ve been tracking for awhile. It’s a lot bigger than I thought. i found where they make and store the drugs but theirs a lot of guys there, I wont be able to take them down on my own.”

His heart stuttered, Lie, Matt decided to ignore it for now, 

“And if I say yes to helping you, your willingly not going to kill anybody?” Of course, Matt’s already made up his mind, he’s going take down the cartel weather Frank agrees to his terms or not.

Frank sighs, “No. I won’t kill anyone. The police will have enough evidence on them when they find ‘em that they’ll all go away for life.” 

He pauses then says, “They sell to kids. That’s their target age group. Teenagers, barley out of middle school. I just want them off the streets, and if that means I have to wait for them to get shanked in prison for them to die instead of doing it myself, then fine.”

Not gonna lie, this surprises Matt. But clearly this shows how serious this is to Frank. Matt gets up and grabs his jacket, glasses and cane,
“Meet me at my place in 20 minutes, you can tell me more then.” 

Before Frank can respond Matt’s out the door, he goes down an alley about a block away and jumps up the fire escape, heading back to his apartment.

-

By the time Frank gets there Matt is putting on his gloves, his mask sitting on the coffee table. 

Frank walks in and Matt doesn’t know whether or not it’s a good thing that for some reason Frank has a key to his apartment. 

After he shut the door, without ‘looking’ at him Matt says,

“So you wanna tell me why you really need my help?”

Frank paused mid step, “what are yo-“

“You lied. Back at the office, you said you needed my help because there’s to many for you to take down. But your heart beat faltered.” 

Frank stood there for a moment before walking over the the stairs leading to the roof access and leaning against the railing, mumbling something like ‘god damn super hearing-‘ under his breath. 

“Why did you ask for my help Frank? You clearly don’t need it.”

“I wasn’t entirely lying,” Frank says slowly, Matt doesn’t respond, waiting for him to continue, 
“They are selling to kids and I do want them put away…”

“I’m sensing a but” Matt says, turning his head in Franks direction now.

Frank sighs, “I tried to take down one of their smaller warehouses last week.” 

Matt’s chest tightens, But let’s him finish speaking,

 “I was planning on getting info about where their main operation was and then killin’ all of them, but when I tried to kill the first guy, he just wouldn’t go down.” 

Matt’s eyebrows bunch together, “what do you mean?” He asks

“I mean I shot him in the chest like six times, he wasn’t wearing a bullet proof vest, I could see the blood seeping through his shirt, but the guy didn’t seem to even notice, he was a skilled fighter too, reminded me of you actually. Anyway, I had to shoot him in the legs a couple of times for him to finally go down. Knocked him out and went to check him to see if he was wearing some kind of armor under his shirt but when I looked,”

He pauses, as if deciding weather or not it’s a good idea to continue, he seems to have chosen the latter and he finally says,

“The guy had autopsy scars Red.”

It was like the air left Matt’s body.

Autopsy scars. 

Claire mentioned them on some of the members of The Hand.

The Hand-

Midland circle-

Elektra.

No- that’s not possible. She’s dead. The Hand is dead. No. It- it can’t be possible.

Everything around Matt seems to go fuzzy, he thinks he hears Frank calling his name, asking if he’s okay, but it’s distant. There’s only thing that’s clear in his mind,

“This is what living feels like.” 

Before the world on fire burns out.

Chapter Text

Frank wasn’t expecting Matt to suddenly pass out.

“The guy had autopsy scars Red.”

That was all Frank said and it was like a switch went off in Matt’s brain. He immediately went pale, like all of the blood left his body. Frank doesn’t need super hearing to know that Matt’s breathing is now quicker,

“Red you alright?”

…

“Red?”

He fell from his sitting position of the couch to the floor.

“Jesus Red!”

Frank jumped down to him and checked his pulse, his heart rate was speeding up, “R- Matt! Come on man wake up, your alright-“

Matt darted up suddenly, almost slamming into Franks face. Frank fell backwards on the floor and looked at Matt for a moment, letting him slowly catch his breath. Matt sat there for a moment then tilted his head,

“Frank?” He stuttered out.

“Yeah Red it’s me, I’m here.” He slowly sits up and moved closer to Matt.

“You mind telling me what that was?” He tries to hide the concern in his voice but he’s pretty sure Matt could hear it anyway, if not in his voice, than his steadily speeding up heartbeat. 

Matt doesn’t answer. Instead, he tilts his head away from Franks gaze.

“You know something about this don’t you?” Matt cringes and Frank knows he’s right. So he keeps pushing,

“These people are dangerous Red. That guy wasn’t the only one with those scars, all of them had ‘em, and none of them would die no matter what I tried.”

He waits to see Matt’s reaction his face stays neutral, blank, but Frank can see how tense the rest of him is so he continues,

“If you know something about them then you need to tell me. They need to be taken down Red. This is serious.”

Matt looked like he was about to say something but then stopped and shook his head before finally mumbling, “I thought I knew who you were talking about but it’s not possible for it to be them-“

he hesitated, looking like he was lost in a memory, “-it’s not possible for it to be her.”

Frank looks at him, his eyes narrow, “And why can’t it be who you thought it was?”

Matt finally turned his head towards Frank, his blank eyes staring just past his left shoulder, “because she’s dead. They all are.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Matt’s fists clenched tightly at his side, but he didn’t look angry, if anything, he looked scared, “Because I was there when they died.”

-

“Can’t Thor take my place. He just got back from Asgard, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“No Barton. He’s going to be out here with Cap tomorrow.”

“Ughhhhhh. It’s cold. I’m cold. It’s been a week and we haven’t been able to find Daredevil or even see him.”

“And I thought I was the impatient one.” Tony chuckled.

Clint shook his head and rubbed his hands together while looking out at the dark city, it was loud for it being almost two in the morning. Clint’s eyes have always been better than his ears, and if he was going to survive another couple hours up here, it wasn’t going to be with the cold and Tony’s snarky comments. So naturally, he turned off his hearing aid and let the visuals surrounding him, overtake his mind.

It was nice to be honest, the unnatural quiet of the city. Seeing the cold puffs of air coming from his mouth but not hearing his breath, watching two people argue in their apartment across the street but not being able to hear what they’re yelling about despite their windows being open. It helped him focus. He didn’t need to hear anything right now. Right now his job was to look, watch, find.

That is, until Tony throws a small pebble at his shoulder, Clint sighs and turns his hearing aid back on putting up his hand to stop Tony from talking for a second so he can adjust the volume, before finally looking at Tony allowing him to speak,

“Did you seriously turn off your freaking hearing aid?”

-

“Her name was Elektra.” Was the only think that came to Matt’s mind after the awkward silence.

“She- she was the woman I was fighting with, the one who got stabbed remember? You shot some of the ninjas before they killed me next. Back when everyone thought you were dead.”

Frank did remember, he remembered realizing that his freaking lawyer is Daredevil. He also remembers getting to that other building roof top just in time to watch that woman- Elektra, jump in front of Red just as the knife started comin at him. He remembers seeing Red stop trying to protect himself, instead protecting a dead body.

He remembers doing the same for his daughter. And his son, and his wife.

He shot the ninjas coming at him, and when Red kicked the last guy off the roof, he left.

Frank didn’t know Red that well. It wasn’t his place to try and be there to comfort him. Now though, they’ve been working together every now and then for awhile, patching each other up, sharing a beer or two afterward. They both still have plenty of secrets, but Frank trusts Matt, and he cares about him more than he’d ever admit- even to himself.

“I remember,” Frank says. He doesn’t say anymore hoping Red would continue, he does.

“After she died, an organization called The Hand dug up her grave, took her. And they- they brought her back to life. Resurrected her somehow. When they brought her back she didn’t remember anything. She didn’t remember me. They turned her into their weapon. After I realized The Hand was back I started working with others, others with abilities, who wanted to end The Hand too. She came after us, she had a couple of chances to kill me but she didn’t. She remembered me. And I was stupid enough to think I could help her.”

Matt leaned against the couch now, facing the sliding door to his room. He couldn’t face Frank, it didn’t matter that even if he did he wouldn’t actually be able to ‘see’ him. He stayed facing the door when he spoke again,

“Did you hear anything on the news about Midland circle? About a year ago?”

Frank thought for a moment, recalling seeing a piece about Midland circle on the news, then the Bulletin and even hearing people in the streets talking about it.

“Yeah I saw something about it.” He had a feeling he knew where this was going but ignored it, “it blew up or something right?”

Red’s eyes were glistening, the giant commercial board across the street was beaming shades of blue and purple seemingly almost perfectly displaying his inner emotions on his face with bright colors,

“The Hand was operating in Midland circle. They built some sort of base miles under the building. They took one of our friends so we had no choice but to go down there and get him. But one of the girls helping us- Colleen, she had an idea, The Hand did kind of what you saw, they bring people back to life. And when those people die, the just bring them back again. In our minds, these people weren’t alive anymore. So we decided that once we got our friend back we’d blow the place up. Burying all of them under hundreds of feet of dirt.”

“But these guys wouldn’t die at all? No need to be resurrected if they won’t die in general.” Red nodded,

“like I said, ‘kind of’ what you saw.” Frank nodding in understanding, Matt didn’t say anything so he prompted, “So what happened?”

As if on cue, the colors outside go from blues and purples to fiery shades of red and orange he draws a shaky breath before saying quietly, “I thought I could save her. I don’t know why, it never worked before.”

He put his head down, “they set the bomb off, it was a timer so I told them to get out and I’d catch up. I wanted to try and offer her a chance to save herself.”

Frank knew what was happening. 

He remembered that night at the graveyard, Frank had leaned against a gravestone, bleeding out and confessing to Matt- no. Not Matt, he didn’t know who Daredevil was yet, confessing to The Devil, everything. Telling him everything he saw, felt, heard. Told him about how happy he was to see his family again. And then losing them almost just as quickly.

“Meat was spilling out of her Red.”

That was the first time he had seen The Devil cry.

So Frank sat. And he listened to Matt. Just like he had done for him.

Silent tears went down Reds face now, glowing a blood red color as the lights reflected of his face,

“I thought I was getting though to her. I stopped fighting her and let her do whatever she needed. The bomb went off and she stopped. She heard it too. I thought I had her back.” His chuckle was silent and dry, “But when I held her I- I said, ‘you know, we’re gonna die here.’”

Frank watched him swallow before finally saying slowly, “she smiled, and she said ‘No. This is what living feels like.’ I- I had her in my arms as the building was coming down.” For the first time, Matt turns his head to face Frank,

“I know that it can’t be them. They are all dead. And I know this because when she died, I was ready to go with her.”

Frank moved a little closer, leaning against the coffee table, he spoke softly, “You survived though Red. She could have too.”

Matt shook his head. “No. She’s not.”

“Red-“

“They found her body.” Matt interrupted. His voice was cold and emotionless. “They found her a month after I woke up.”

He paused then said quietly, “I check and make sure her bodies still in its casket every week. Last I checked was two days ago. She’s still dead. So it can’t be her.”

Frank knew Red’s been through a lot. Any guy who does what Red does every night has to have. 

And Frank is probably the only person who’d ever truly understand that. So he sits there,

leaning against the coffee table wearing the vest he’s worn when he has killed people, while beside him sits the Devil, wearing the suit he wore before he had the horns. When people only knew him as ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen’. The Devil who is more human than anyone will ever know.

Chapter Text

“So, you believe this warrior to be The Devil?”

Tony sighed, “yeah.”

“But do people of earth not already call him Daredevil?”

“Yes, but like how my superhero name is Ironman even though I’m not actually made of iron, a lot of people think he’s just a man.”

“But you do not?” Thor was still very confused, until now he didn’t know something like ‘The Devil’ was even a thing.

Natasha was smiling in the corner of the room, watching them converse,

“I don’t think he’s just a man no. I think he’s the actual Devil.” Tony said. Clint had tried to explain this to Thor, but he gave up halfway through and told him to ask Tony.

“Well from what you showed me, this Devil-man is a very talented and brave warrior!”

Tony rubbed his face with his hands and breathed out, “Oh my god.“

He turned back to Thor, “Alright look all you need to know is Daredevil is dangerous and I’m 99% sure that he’s either the devil himself or a demon. We are all going to go out tomorrow night to Hell’s Kitchen to look for him, if we all split up and stay on coms we are bound to find him.”

Thor thought for a moment, “And what will we do after we find The Protector of Hell’s Kitchen?”

Before Tony could respond Natasha yelled from her spot now on the couch, “Pray he doesn’t cast us down to Hell!” She said mockingly while laughing, Clint burst into laughter himself but tried to hide it while Bruce chuckled from the kitchen and Steve started grinning.

“Oh my god-“

-

It was cold out. As Matt walked to Nelson’s Meat he could feel his breath crystallize into a cloud in front of him.

After Matt told Frank about midland circle they decided not to go out (well, Frank decided, Matt reluctantly, eventually, agreed), instead Frank told Matt about something he heard the cartel planning. Apparently they were planning on attacking some place they saw as a threat. Unfortunately Frank didn’t get what place because he was spotted by one of the members,

So Frank and Matt knew they were planning attacking tonight, which would be the perfect time to strike, and with Matt’s super senses, they’d hopefully be able to hear the fight and get there in time to stop them before they did any damage. And finally end the drug cartel.

Unfortunately for Matt he had plans to stay late at the firm with Karen and Foggy to help them go over a case. Neither one of them answered when he tried to call them and tell them he couldn’t make it (which was normal figuring both of them were probably lost in pages upon pages of important law work and weren’t looking at their phones). So Matt decided to just swing by really quick with his Devil suit under his civvies, he was trying to be better about not just ditching them with no explanation, he knew ditching them to go fight a bunch of drug dealers with The Punisher wasn’t much better but at least it was a start.

As Matt was nearing Nelson’s Meat he felt like something was off, it was quiet. Which would be completely normal for someone who doesn’t have enhanced senses but for Matt, not so much.

He tightened his grip on his cane and started to speed up his pace, hoping he was just being paranoid.

He wasn’t.

When he was only a couple of yards away from the building he started to hear the sounds on blades being removed from their sheaths, but no heart beats to go with them.

They’re here.

They’re attacking the firm.

They saw Nelson, Murdock and Page as a threat…

Matt made a run for it. Ditching his jacket, tie and cane in an alleyway dumpster and silently thanking himself for wearing his suit under his other clothes, he grabbed his mask from his pocket and pulled it over his eyes.

As he jumped up the fire escape he pulled out his burner phone and called Frank,

“Red? Hey wher-“

“They’re attacking the firm. Karen and Foggy are still inside.”

“I’m on my way.”

Matt hung up just as he scaled the roof and made it to the top of the meat shop and jumped through a window just as the ninjas were climbing up the stairs.

Matt stood there at the end of the hallway, the door to Nelson, Murdock and Page behind him. He could hear Karen and Foggy looking at the door asking each other if they heard anything, both of their heartbeats speeding up.

The ninjas got up the stairs and stopped when they saw The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen blocking their path.

Matt guessed their were five based off of the swords he could hear being pulled out, but there could be more, none of them had heartbeats for him to track.

They started to fight immediately. The first ninja came at Matt swinging his sword at his head, Matt ducked and went to punch the man in the face, the man parried to the side and Matt could hear another man coming up, he swung at him and connected with his chest. The first man came back and swung at him again, the tip of the blade just barley missing his neck, Matt rolled back, kicking the sword upwards so the blade got stuck in the old wooden ceiling. He threw another punch and this time hitting the man in the face, he could hear three of the bodies moving back, and at first Matt thought they were retreating, but then he heard them making their way up to the roof.

They were trying to get in through the windows.

They we’re trying to get to Foggy and Karen.

Matt pushed the second man into the wall and took out his billy club, hitting him hard in the face. Then turning to the first man who was slowly stumbling to the office door and throwing the club and his head. Knocking the man out.

He could hear the ninjas on the roof. Matt grabbed his discarded billy club and jumped out the window he came in just as he heard Foggy, wielding a metal bat and Karen clutching the gun she kept in her purse open the door. He heard Karen gasp at the two unconscious ninjas and Foggy whisper in a low voice that he knew only Matt could hear,

“Matt?? Matt are you okay? What the hell’s going on??”

But he was already on the roof. He couldn’t answer.

Turns out, their were more than three men on the roof. None of them had heartbeats and most of them didn’t have swords, so Matt was relying on the smell of their sweat and the sound of their clothes rubbing together. Which wasn’t working to well for him. Every time he thought someone was in front of him and he’d go to hit them, he’d only be swinging at air. Punches and kicks were coming in from every angle.

Until that familiar heartbeat finally showed up. And that smell of gunpowder that came with it actually made Matt relieved for once.

He heard the ninjas bodies fall one at a time. And then heard them get back up moments later. He could hear Frank land a couple solid punches, but there were to many for him to take on alone. So Matt jumped in and swung at where ever he thought a man was, surprising himself a few times by landing some of the punches and kicks.

Then Matt heard another sound. One he wasn’t expecting. Tiny mechanics whirling around some kind of energy. Surrounding the energy Matt could hear a heartbeat, and smell expensive cologne. Stark . And based on the other five heartbeats following him, he wasn’t alone.

Shit.

Chapter Text

They really thought it would take longer to find Daredevil, so when FRIDAY alerted Tony of a noise complaint and several gun shots heard all of the avengers rushed over.

What they saw surprised them. Daredevil, fighting off at least a dozen of what appeared to be ninjas, but he wasn’t alone. A man with a military haircut and a vest with a skull painted on it was fighting by his side.

“FRIDAY, who’s the guy helping Daredevil?”

He heard the gears turning in his suit and watched the AI zoom in on the man’s face to better ID.

“It appears to be former marine Francis ‘Frank’ Castle, also more commonly known as The Punisher sir.”

“What?! The Punisher’s helping Daredevil? I thought they hated eachother?!” Clint yelled through the coms as he and Natasha made their way up the stairs of the building.

Tony landed on the far side of the roof and for a moment stood there in Aw, Daredevil. The guy(or devil) they’ve been looking for for days now is finally right there.

Not only that but so is the freaking Punisher which Tony’s not even going to try and comprehend right now. Because right now, they needed help.

They were both still fighting but The Punisher was favoring his left side and every now and then he clutched his lower right side just below his vest, blood was on his hand when he moved it. Meanwhile Daredevil was really taking a beating, Tony noticed that all of the ninjas were trying to get past him to the other side of the roof but both Daredevil and The Punisher weren’t letting them.

“What should we do?” Natasha asked through the coms,

“Help now. Ask questions later.” Cap replied.

So, Tony joined into the fight. As skilled as the Ninjas were their swords didn’t stand a chance against his armor. Natasha and Clint were at his side helping fight and Cap and Thor came in moments later.

With the extra help the all of the ninjas were either unconscious or retreating, except one.

When this one tried to escape The Punisher shot him in the back of the leg so he could run off.

Ignoring the avengers entirely, the two walked over to him, The Punishers gun now trained on his head and Daredevils fists at his sides.

“Who are you.” Daredevil growled. Clint shivered, blaming it on the cold air.

The ninjas mask had either fallen off in the fight or discarded some other time, he seemed younger, early twenties maybe?

He smiled broadly at Daredevils question, “You know who we are.” Daredevils fists clenched tighter but he didn’t respond. So the boy continued,

“We are those who survived. We are those who still mourn the lose of our leaders. And we are those who seek revenge for our fallen brothers and sisters.”

The Punishers grip on his gun tightened as he glanced at Daredevil,

“You don’t have heartbeats. And you cannot die, how?” He asked, stepping closer to the ninja. The punisher quietly moved to the side, one hand holding his gun, still pointed at the boy.

“What the hell does he mean ‘they don’t have heartbeats’?! How did he know that?!” Bruce, who has been watching through the cameras in their suits asked through the coms, no one could answer his question though,

Cap took a step closer but none of them said a word, just watching the scene before them play out.

The boy smiled again, a cruel mischievous smile, “You thought you could destroy us that easily? They used to say, ‘cut off a finger, and you can still use your hand’ you managed cut off a whole hand sure, but we still have another.” He paused, wheezing slightly, blood was oozing out of his leg and mouth, “You thought you could hide the substance under the rubble? Once those who survived found each other we dug, and we found what remained of it.”

Daredevil moved closer to him, faster now,

“Red calm down” Natasha heard the punisher say under his breath.

“This isn’t how the substance worked. You could still die, but the substance could bring you back to life.”

The ninja have heartedly shrugged, “That was true once. But our new leader is smarter than The Hand.” Another pause and the boy looked at Daredevil and smirked, “Smarter than her.”

Daredevil was grabbing the ninja by the collar of his shirt almost faster than any of them had time to comprehend, he pulled the boy up so that he was practically off the floor, Daredevil sneered at him.

“Red-“ The Punisher stepped closer to Daredevil but didn’t intervene, the ninja continued, “He mixed modern science with the substance and now we will live forever no matter how much blood you take from us.”

Daredevil pulled the boy in closer so their faces were inches apart, “Who?” What all he growled out, in such a low tone that they almost didn’t hear it.

The boy simply smiled, tilting his head slightly,

“like I’d ever tell you-“ Natasha noticed he had his hand behind his leg, he was holding a small knife,

but before she could react Daredevil had the boy back on the ground with the hand holding the knife twisted painfully behind his back, The punisher walked over and swiftly kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

“How did he know the ninja had a knife?” Bruce asked through the coms.

In fact, no one had time to say anything before The Punisher and Daredevil were running off, jumping from roof to roof away from the avengers. They quickly rushed to catch up with them, after following behind them for about two blocks, they stopped and allowed for the avengers to join them of the roof they were now standing on. The punisher had his gun in his hand but made no effort to aim it, keeping in closely to his side. Neither of them spoke, so Tony was glad to start the conversation,

“Pleasure to finally meet you,” he looked at The Punisher, “,Mr. Castle and, “ he looked at Daredevil, “Mrrrrr.-“

Daredevil ignored the poor attempting at learning his secret identity and instead said, “you have been in looking for me for days now. Why?”

Tony hesitated, ‘He knew?’ He thought, “Well, if you knew we were looking for you why didn’t you come say hi?”

Without missing a beat Daredevil responds, “Not the biggest fan of The Avengers. I was kinda hoping you’d give up eventually.” Franks lip twitched up and he snorted.

Clint looked at Daredevil then at Frank, “I saw in the paper you guys fought each other a lot. Thought you guys hated each other?”

Frank glanced and Daredevil and Daredevil smirked. “Not exactly.”

“We help each other out sometimes.” Daredevil finishes for him.

“Who were those guys?” Cap asked, changing the subject.

Neither one of them said anything.

“We can help you guys take them down.” Natasha said.

Daredevil gave a small dry laugh, “like you helped with Fisk? Or the Yakuza or the Irish? The Russians? The Hand?”

He chuckled and shook his head, “yeah sure.”

Thor took a step forward, “Then let us help now.” He had the same joyful overly happy tone but it was stern and somehow serious at the same time.

Daredevil tilted his head slightly but didn’t respond, instead Frank spoke, “We don’t need your help. Stop tracking us,”

“And get the hell out of my city.” Daredevil finished, his voice made chills run down even Bruce, who was still at the tower only watching and listening, spine. Natasha still didn’t believe this guy was the actual Devil, but she started to understand why some thought he was.

Cap looked down at Franks side, seeing the blood oozing out. He looked back up and saw Frank watching him.

“We have tech back at the tower that can heal you. We can help you,” he turned to Daredevil, “your welcome to come, you can keeping your mask on if you want.”

They paused for a moment and Clint noticed Frank mutter something to quiet for even his fancy hearing aids to pick up, Daredevil tilted his head again, in Franks direction and gave him a short nod before saying, “We’re good thanks.”

Before any of the avengers could protest, Daredevil and The punisher jumped off the roof landing in the fire escape they both somehow already new was there, and disappearing in the darkness of the alleyway below.

Tony acted quickly, he immediately had FRIDAY send one of his almost microscopic drones that was to small to see without a microscope, after them to try and figure out where they were going. He watched on the screen in his suit as the drone whizzed through the alley, following Frank but-

‘Where’s Daredevil?’

A hand coming out of no where hitting the little drone to the ground answered his thought.

Daredevil bent down to the tech now broken on the ground. He smirked at the camera and bent down slightly they same way he might to a criminal laying on the ground after being torn apart by The Devil,

“Not that easy Stark.” He said, his voice wasn’t a growl but somehow it felt more inhuman, it was calm and mischievous and slightly cocky, but it also seemed- cruel, like deep down he was enjoying toying with them much more than he’d ever admit.

With that Daredevil stood up and destroyed the remains of the bot.

Chapter Text

It had been hours but they couldn’t find any trace of Daredevil or Frank Castle anywhere. The Avengers decided to call it a night (or well, morning, figuring the sun was just starting to rise) and head back to the tower to regroup.

But before they did they wanted to go back to the building they had fought the ninjas on, hopefully some of them were still there, unconscious or too injured to leave, but when they got there, they were surprised.

It was as if the fight had never happened. There were no ninjas, no discarded face coverings or weapons, not even a drop of blood.

“Who the hell are these guys?” Steve mumbled as the searched the empty roof.

“Daredevil and Castle knew.” Natasha answered. They looked at her with confused expressions,

“Didn’t you see their body language as they were talking? And didn’t you hear what that ninja said? At least Daredevil has had an encounter with who ever these guys are.” She paused for a moment, “And clearly, it didn’t go well for either of them the last time they saw each other.”

“You don’t have heartbeats. And you cannot die,”

Clint remembered what Daredevil has said.

‘How could he have known they didn’t have heartbeats?’

Clint wasn’t the only one wondering the same thing, they all were. And though they wouldn’t admit it, the possibility of Daredevil being a more literal term started to become more logical by the second.

-

“I’m fine Red, really.”

“You got cut pretty bad Frank. Your not fine, your lucky the sword didn’t hit any major organs.”

Frank stared at him for a moment, “Do I even want to know how you knew that?”

Mat smirked then shook his head before starting the last stitch.

It was dark in his apartment, he knew the lights were off but Frank made no effort when they got in to turn the lights on or ask Matt to turn them on. He could hear how tense Frank was and could practically feel the headache coming from his head. The only light being the billboard that according to Frank was projecting videos of the ocean and advertising recycling was currently playing outside the window, probably only made his oncoming migraine worse.

After Matt finished the last stitch and covered it with a bandage he started putting away the needle and extra bandages. He heard Franks heart rate slowing and knew there was no way he was gonna be able to make it back to his safe house while he was this injured,

“Alright, get into bed.”

Franks heartbeat immediately spiked as he turned his head to Matt.

In his own defense, Matt didn’t mean for it to sound the way it did, so he quickly reprimanded, “No way I’m letting you try to get to your safe house when your this injured, I’ll take the couch. The billboard kinda makes it hard to sleep,” he grins,

“or so I’m told.”

Frank relaxes but only a little and Matt tries to ignore the heat that bloomed on Franks cheeks.

“Well if you insist Red.” Frank said, tiredly but playfully. 

Matt stayed on the couch and listened to Frank pull open the door to his bedroom, Frank turned back around one more time,

“goodnight Red.”  He said before gently pushing the door closed behind him.

Matt’s sheets were clean and pure silk and Frank melted into them immediately. His bed felt like a marshmallow and for a second he thought he was going to sink through right to the floor. He was out cold within minutes of his head hitting the pillow.

And if Frank woke up to the sound of Matt sleeping beside him and decided to blame it on Matt’s heater being broken and both of them snuggling together for body heat? Well, too late to have an identity crisis now, Frank pulled the silk comforter back up over him and Red, falling back asleep with his face in Matt’s hair.

-

“I’m sorry sir. But we were unable to kill the targets.”

“And how could you have possibly failed such a simple task?”

“Daredevil and The Punisher were there sir. They stopped us from even getting to the door-“

“-as I predicted they would. Yet you still failed. Why?”

…

“The- the Avengers showed up sir. We did not anticipate them coming to help.”

….

“Did you manage to kill any of them?”

“I’m sorry but no, we did injure The Punisher and Daredevil quit a lot though sir.”

“Daredevil, you injured him? Is he still alive?”

 
…

“Yes sir,”

“Matthew is still alive.”

Chapter Text

It’s Saturday. And Matt’s not picking up his god damn phone.

Yes. Foggy knows it’s early (well, if you consider nine am early). And yes. Foggy also knows Matt’s not a morning person (he shared a dorm with him for four years of course he knows!)

But Matt usually picks up his phone after a couple rings.

Unless he’s hurt.

Foggy will be the first to admit, he doesn’t like going to Matt’s apartment unless he knows Matt’s okay. He really doesn’t want to think about the day he opens the apartment door to see his best friend, bleeding out. Or more likely dead.

Foggy had been trying to call Matt all night. After him and Karen found a some unconscious ninjas in the hallway outside their makeshift office, Foggy had called and texted and got no response, he went to Matt’s apartment but he wasn’t there, so Foggy went to Karen’s apartment to make sure she was okay before returning home until morning. And now that Matt has still decided not to pick up,the only thing on Foggy’s mind is Matt.

He knew that the anxiety isn’t going to leave him until he makes sure Matt’s at least alive.

So, he calls a taxi to Matt’s apartment, he makes his way up the stairs to his floor, than to the door. Taking a deep breath, he knocks.

“Matt? Buddy you in there? It’s Foggy.”

No response.

“You weren’t answering the phone, Matt? You ok in there??”

There was a loud noise somewhere in Matt’s apartment and Foggy briefly got flashbacks from when he first found Matt in his old cut up black suit, bleeding out on the floor.

The anxiety that was already filtering through his body worsened.

“Matt?!”

Foggy tried the door and when it didn’t open, he grabbed the back up key lodged behind the furnace outside his apartment and started unlocking the door,

“Matt I’m coming in!!”

There was another sound, something falling over and Foggy practically broke the key trying to get the door to open faster.

When the door finally unlocked he pushed it open and rushed into the apartment to find Matt awkwardly standing in front of his closed bedroom door.

He should be used to it by now, seeing Matt covered in bruises and cuts. But he wasn’t, he inhaled sharply and knew that his heart was probably louder than a car horn to Matt right now. It was obvious Matt wasn’t expecting Foggy, he was wearing a loose T-shirt that didn’t cover any of the scars, bruises or cuts on his arms, and his favorite grey sweatpants, if you looked closely at them, you can still see faint blood stains that have clearly been scrubbed out of different places, many times. In other words, Matt looked like shit. And the state of his apartment wasn’t helping, Foggy guessed Matt probably didn’t have much time to clean everything up after the whole FBI-raid thing, there were still papers all over the floor and random object thrown around.

“Morning Foggy.” Matt said, Foggy could tell he was trying to act calm, he could see right through his facade, Matt was obviously flustered and uncomfortable. He was hiding something.

“Are you okay Matt? I thought I heard a noise?” Foggy looked around and saw one of the table chairs knocked over,

“Yeah, I just ran into the chair, I wasn’t expecting you so the knock startled me.”

Foggy looked at him,

What?!?

Sense when did Mr.I-can-hear-heartbeats-and-smell-fear, get startled ??

Matt must have realized the ridiculousness of his statement and opened his mouth to say something when all of a sudden, Foggy heard a small thud followed by a faint “shit.” behind the door to Matt’s room.

Matt’s cheeks went pink as Foggy turned to the door than slowly back to Matt.

“Matt?….”

“Foggy?…” he responded, clearly trying to act innocent and failing miserably.

“Matt…is- is there someone in your room?”

Matt fiddled with the strings on his sweatpants, looking like he was debating in his own mind how to answer. Lucky for him, he didn’t have to answer at all, Foggy heard someone’s footsteps before the bedroom door rolled open to reveal a tired, confused and surprised looking, Frank Castle.

Foggy’s brain did a system reset as he tried to comprehend the sight in from of him.

Frank Castle. In Matt’s apartment. In his bedroom. Most likely in his freaking bed.

Frank. Castle.

The freaking Punisher-

“What in the ever-loving fuck-“ Foggy looked between Matt and Frank. Both of them seemed comfortable standing next to each other, close to each other.

“Foggy, I um- you- you remember Frank-“

Foggy looked at Matt with the most wide eyed are-you-fucking-serious face he could ever possibly make, fully knowing he couldn’t see it. “what?” Was all he managed to say.

Matt’s face was still bright red as he tensed up.

“Nice to see you again Mr. Nelson.” Frank said in a scary casual tone. He walked passed Matt then passed Foggy as he made his way to the hallway and bumping into the couch moving it so it was no longer even with the coffee table while trying to grabbing his bag and shoes, like Matt, he was trying to look calm but Foggy could tell he was trying to get out as soon as possible.

“Thanks for patching me up and uh- letting me stay the night Red.” Frank rushed out, he opened the door and gave an awkward wave before practically running out of the apartment with his shoes still in his hand.

Foggy slowly turned to Matt who was bright red, and biting his lower lip trying not to smile, or laugh, or maybe both. His head cocked to the side,

“Fog, you- you alright? Your heart beat is speeding up really fast.”

“What the fuck Matt-“ was all he managed to say.

——-

“How did he know?” Bruce asked Tony

“I- I don’t know-“ Tony said, he was in disbelief. Those drones were designed to be almost invisible, not even Clint with his amazing sight could pinpoint exactly where the drones were when being used, even if they were only a foot or two away from his face.

Tony and Bruce have been awake for hours, neither of them have slept at all sense their first encounter with Daredevil, the Punisher and the mysterious gang of ninjas. They had been up trying to regroup as much as they could, Thor and Steve came in to see if they had anything.

Of course, Tony and Bruce were still at a loss and hypothesized that Daredevil had some form of enhanced sight, either that or Tony’s idea, that because he’s The Devil, he could magically read minds. (Which was slowly becoming a more and more likely idea)

Steve and Tony talked for a moment, or, more accurately argued about their theories, when out of no where Thor, who had been quiet up to this moment said, “Do we know of who the ninjas were attacking?”

Steve and Tony stopped and looked at him, “they uh- they were fighting Daredevil and The Punisher?” Bruce said.

“But why were they fighting? And why did they choose that rooftop to be their battleground?” Thor responded.

Bruce looked at Tony, “I mean we didn’t see how the fight started-“

Tony groaned in annoyance for his own lack of common sense, “FRIDAY? can you pull up the CCTV footage of the fight last night? The whole thing please.”

“Of course sir.”

A screen popped up in front of them and it showed the building they were fighting on, from this view they could see ninjas climbing up the fire escape of the building, but Daredevil was no where in sight, some of the ninjas went through the back door and looked like they were heading up the stairs. That’s when Daredevil appeared, in his all black, tight clothes he was almost completely invisible until he jumped through the window of the building, for a couple of seconds the only thing any of them could see on the bad quality camera video was a lot of movement, probably fighting, in one of the windows until some of the ninjas started going back out through the way they came, they ran back up to the roof and were racing towards the window that Daredevil had come through,

They were trying to get passed him.

They watched the rest, watched The Punisher show up, and then themselves soon after, briefly admiring the two vigilantes fight, before Tony paused the video feed.

They were quiet for a moment before Steve finally asked, “So they were trying to get to something in the building and Daredevil and Castle showed up and stopped them.”

Bruce nodded then turned back to the screen, “FRIDAY what’s in that building?”

“The buildings first floor is occupied by a family run local business called ‘Nelson’s Meat’ the top floor however has recently become a temporary workspace for a law firm called ‘Nelson, Murdock and Page.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Before it was ‘Nelson, Murdock and Page’ the firm started out as just ‘Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law’ They are famously known for helping take down Wilson Fisk also known as Kingpin, and for representing Frank Castle also known as The Punisher.”

All of them were silent for a moment, “So the firm has helped a lot with things Daredevil related?” Bruce asked

“Yes Dr. Bruce, and according to the security feed, Franklin Nelson and Karen Page were in the building when the ninjas attacked.”

“Are they okay?” Steve asked

“Yes, they arrived home safely and there was no disturbances in either of their building for the remainder of the night.”

“And what about this Murdock fellow? Was he there when the fight began?” Thor asked

“No, it appears Matthew Murdock was not there. In fact, Mr. Murdock has not been seen since yesterday afternoon.”

Tony looked at Steve then at Thor who looked back at him, “FRIDAY?”

“Yes sir?”

“Can you send me Mr. Murdock’s address? I think we need to go check on the counselor and make sure he’s okay.”

Chapter Text

Foggy and Matt stood there for a couple more seconds.

“Matt-“

Matt looked at him with his eyebrows raised, waiting for him to continue,

“Matt please tell me that wasn’t who I think it was.”

He didn’t move for a moment, trying to decide weather or not to brush off what had just happened or tell the truth. How about a bit of both?

“If I did I’d be lying.”

Foggy’s heart skipped a beat, “And you wanna tell me why he was here?”

“Frank and I work together sometimes, on missions and stuff,”

Matt added quickly, “He doesn’t kill anyone while we work together though! Only uses rubber bullets or aims for non lethal shots.”

“Okay first off, that does not make me feel better about any of this at all. Secondly, I meant why did he just come out of your bedroom??”

Matt hesitated, “He got hurt while helping me out last night, I didn’t want him to try and get to his safe house while he was injured, so I let him stay the night.”

“In your bed-“

“I’ve been told the billboard is really bright at night.”

“Both of you. In the same bed.”

“…the couch got uncomfortable?”

And Frank was really warm.

Foggy looked at him for a moment, then walked over to the fridge mumbling, “this is what I get for worrying. God I would have rather you had been bleeding out-“

Matt chuckled and walked over to the kitchen table, not bothering to pick up the chair, Foggy leaned against the bar while eating the left over Thai food he found.

Matt concentrated on Foggy’s heartbeat, the way his wrinkled suit moved as he scraped up the last bits of noodles, then he focused on the smell of his shampoo from this morning, mixed with his signature cologne that he’s worn since collage and a bit of sweat from freaking out earlier. All helping Matt create a mental image of Foggy in his mind.

Matt told Foggy about the ninjas last night. He told him all of it, the truth. He was done lying to his friends. By the time he finished talking Foggy had finished the left overs and had tossed the empty container in the garbage under the sink, he paused for a moment, letting everything Matt had just told him sink in.

“So these people, they are like The Hand?”

“They’re whats left of The Hand.” He thought about what the ninja had told him,

“You know who we are.”

“I think they blame me for midland circle.” For Elektra’s death.

Foggy turned to him, “what?! But that wasn’t just you? They haven’t gone after Luke, or Danny, or Jess? Why do you think they blame you?”

“They are blame  me for killing their leaders-“ he paused, tensing up slightly,

“-For killing Elektra-“

“That wasn’t your fault.” Foggy interrupted. “You gave her a chance. She didn’t take it, that’s on her not you.” He said firmly.

“I know that. But clearly, they don’t believe that, even if they do they don’t care. They went after the firm because Elektra must have told them my identity after she killed Alexandra, they- they’re trying to get revenge.”

Foggy stood there saying nothing and for a second Matt thought for a moment, Foggy had forgotten he was blind and was giving him some look that he was unable to see, before he finally said, “I’m going to stop by Karen’s apartment, let her know what’s going on and make sure she’s on high alert.”

“I’ll come with you-“

“-no. You look like shit. Stay here and rest.”

“It’s only a couple broken ribs Foggy, I’m fine.”

Foggy groaned in annoyance, “ohhh my bad, well if it’s only a couple BROKEN RIBS then yeah you should totally come with!” He said sarcastically.

Matt rolled his eyes and laughed slightly, following Foggy to the front door.

“Text me when you get there a least okay?”

“Will do!” Foggy said as he walked out into the hallway, Matt could almost hear the smile on his face as he walked down the stairs.

Matt smiled in return and shut the door, walking over to the couch, which was still moved over from when Frank ran into it, and slowly (hey broken ribs still hurt) sat down. He tracked Foggy’s movements as he left the building and made his way to Karen’s apartment until he was to far away to hear his heartbeat.

But then he smelt something familiar, Fancy, expensive cologne; too expensive for Hell’s Kitchen, then he heard it too, the buzzing of electricity coursing through a seemingly large man, and a heartbeat, too strong to be coming from any ordinary civilian, all three almost up the stairs leading to his apartment.

He’d been so focused on Foggy, he didn’t even notice them coming until there was nothing he could do.

Grabbing his glasses and a jacket to cover up as much of the bruising and cuts as possible, fully knowing the bruise on his face was still pretty obvious, he slowly walked from his bedroom to the hallway just as the three Avengers knocked on his door.

Here we go again.

Chapter Text

The building was pretty run down, but that was also from a billionaires perspective so…

Either way Tony, Steve and Thor went up to the top floor of the building and to the apartment that FRIDAY said belonged to Matthew Micheal Murdock.

Steve knocked on the door cautiously, after a couple seconds they heard someone shuffling over and the door being unlocked,

“Hello, can I help you?” A tired looking man with auburn hair and circle red glasses covering his face and trying to cover a nasty bruise on his upper cheekbone, stood at the open door.

Thor spoke up first, “Yes, um, hello, we are looking for the man known as Matthew Murdock?”

The man tilted his head to the side and the side of his lip tugged up slightly, “That would be me, may I ask who you are?”

The three of them stood there for a moment, looking at the man,

‘Who are we?? Does this guy live under a rock? ’ Tony thought, ‘I mean I guess I get not recognizing Steve and Thor right away but me?! I’m Tony Stark!! Everyone knows my face.’

None of them answered right, when suddenly Steve quickly said, “I’m Steve Rodgers, This is Thor on my left and Tony Stark at my right.” Tony looked at Steve with a confused expression on his face and Steve leaned over pointing subtly at the glasses the man’s wearing and the white cane right beside the door,

“he’s blind Tony.” He whispered.

Tony cursed himself silently for not realizing sooner and for not doing any sort of background check on the guy.

“Oh! Sorry, I uh- heh- wasn’t expecting any of you, may I um- ask what brings you to my apartment?” Mr. Murdock sounds flustered, but something about the tone of voice almost sounds forced, and despite acting nervous and surprised, his body is entirely relaxed, he almost looks calm, like there is nothing surprising about this situation at all.

“Well I’m sure you are aware that your law firm was attacked last night,” Tony says,

that’s when Murdock tenses up, his grip on the door tightens slightly and he bites his lower lip for a moment before responding quietly, “Yes I am aware, but I wasn’t there when the attack happened.”

“We know, which is why we came to your apartment actually. We have reason to believe the people who attacked your firm are going after you and your associates specifically.” Tony tells him, glancing at the bruise on his cheek again, also noticing how he’s favoring his right side.

“And uh- wh- why do you think that?” Murdock actually does seem a little more nervous, Steve notices him slowly leaning over, blocking more of the entry way.

They paused for a moment then Thor suddenly spoke, “Perhaps this conversation will be better continued in your apartment Mr. Murdock?” He must have noticed how tense he was getting as well.

Murdock tilted his head towards where Thor was standing he hesitated for a moment then finally said, “Sure, and please, call me Matt.” moving to the side to let the three men in.

The first thing they noticed was the mess, chair knocked over, random braille printed papers on the floor, the couch pushed to the side and other random objects thrown around randomly. To anyone not really paying attention, the apartment was actually quite nice, if not just a little messy. But Steve, Tony and Thor were paying attention.

The bruises, the limping, the mess.

Tony is a very upfront and blunt person. So it wasn’t a surprise when he asked Matt, “Did someone break in last night?”

Matt froze up for a moment before quickly responded, “No- no, no one broke in, sorry for the mess, I haven’t had a chance to clean up yet.” He walked over to the kitchen with his hands stretched out in front of him, running his hands over objects as he passed, making sure he was heading in the right direction, he opened the fridge and leaning behind the door and asked,“Would you like anything to drink? Coffee, water?” Matt straightened back up with a bottle in his hand, smiling slightly, “Beer?”

“Yes! I would love a good drink!” Thor said happily almost immediately, Tony shot him a look and Matt laughed quietly while he pulled out another beer bottle.

“Thank you for the offer Matt but we are good, we just wanted to ask you a few questions if that’s okay.”

Matt walked over to the living room where the three of them sat on the couch, he placed one of the beer bottles on the coffee table close to where Thor was sitting, then sat down in one of the chairs across from them and took a sip of his own bottle before saying, “Sure, ask whatever you’d like. But I don’t know much about the attack, you’d be better off asking my associates since they were there.”

‘Have you seen anything odd or noticed anyone suspicious around your apartment or firm lately?’

That is what Tony had been planning on asking.

‘God dammit I should have done a background check on this guy-‘

“Where did you retrieve such a nasty wounds Matthew?” Thor asks, Steve and Tony turn to him and Matt raises his eyebrows under his glasses in surprise,

“Oh I just slipped and fell, I’m alright though, I have a tendency to run into things.” He laughs a little while gesturing to his eyes. Thor smiles and nods in agreement before realizing Matt couldn’t see the nod so he adds, “ah, that makes sense!”

No, it doesn’t. Steve could tell Matt’s lying about something.

‘Maybe he doesn’t want to admit he got attacked?’ Steve thought to himself. He also grew slightly angry,

‘Who the hell attacks a blind guy in his own home?? Who the hell beats up a blind guy in general?!’

Tony clears his throat in an attempt to get back on topic, “As we mentioned before, we think you and your associates are being targeted. We noticed a couple of your cases in the past have had to do with Daredevil.”

Matt’s jaw clenched, he seemed almost upset at the mention of the name.

“Yes, a couple of our cases have had to do with him.” He said flatly, “But we don’t know who he is.”

Steve brow furrowed together, “According to your associate, Karen Page’s articles from the Bulletin, she has met Daredevil a couple of times. And a news report said that Daredevil attacked her and your other associate Franklin Nelson, at the New York Bulletin office?”

Tony glanced at Steve then looked at Matt’s surprise but still tense expression, “In other words, what Steve’s trying to say is, why would Daredevil help Mrs. Page, then attack her and Mr. Nelson, then, save the both of them from ninjas?”

Matt stayed quiet for a moment then said, “according to Foggy and Karen the man that attacked them was a Daredevil impersonator.”

“Yes I’ve heard those rumors.” Tony said,

“Your firm represented Frank Castle. It also helped get Wilson Fisk in prison, twice.”

Matt started to look slightly aggravated, taking another sip from his beer he said, “We did, your point?”

“Frank Castle helped protect your friends and your firm last night. Along with Daredevil. Are you and your firm working with them?” Steve questions,

Matt bite his lip, “Daredevil protects people, my firm has helped him and Mr. Castle many times, they just wanted to keep them safe-“

“-but not you.” Tony interjects,

Matt cocks his head to face where Tony’s sitting, he raises his eyebrows, surprised again,

Tony notes that his fist is clenched tightly, “Excuse me?” He say, his voice is slightly shaky, anger starting to rise in his tone.

“I think you know what I’m referring to, you’ve been injured, recently,”

“Stark-“ Thor says cautiously

“Like I said, I tripped.” The phrase sounded so rehearsed it made all three Avengers’ hearts skip a beat. Matt’s jaw clenched and his voice had grown cold.

“Yes, that would explain the limp sure. And it would definitely also explain the mess, moved or tipped over furniture,” he responded sarcastically,

“Tony.” Steve looks at him hitting on the shoulder likely but he continued,

“I’ve been punched in the face before Mr. Murdock, I know what the bruise a fist leaves looks like.”

Matt stood abruptly, “I think it’s time for you to leave Mr. Stark.” The friendliness in his voice from a couple minutes ago is now gone, replaced with what Tony can imagine as his, ruthless-lawyer-tone, “All of you.”

Thor is the first to join Matt standing, “Of course Matthew, perhaps we could talk more at a later time.” He gestures for the others to stand, Tony and Steve get up as well.

Thor and Steve start to head for the door, “We are so sorry for bothering you Mr. Murdock, thank you for your time.” Steve says, noting the defensive stance the lawyer has taken up.

Matt is still facing Tony, who slowly makes his way to the door where Steve and Thor are waiting. Matt follows his movements all the way there, staying standing by the chairs.

The three Avengers walk out but before they leave Tony says, “We’ll be seeing you, Mr. Murdock.” And glances down to see the man’s already clenched fists tighten.

They leave without another word.

-

They’re about a three blocks away in their private car before Tony finally speaks, “He’s definitely hiding something.”

“Why wouldn’t Daredevil protect him like he did with Mrs. Page and Mr. Nelson?” Thor questions.

“Maybe he didn’t know where he lives?”

“He knew we had been looking for him for days before we even found him anddd somehow knew about the drone I tried to follow him and Castle with, You really think he wouldn’t know?”

“Are you saying Daredevil let Mr. Murdock get attacked?” Steve asked,

“I’m saying, Daredevil knew those ninjas were going after the firm, and protected Page and Nelson, but clearly, not Murdock.”

There was a long pause before Thor finally said, “Those ninjas will go after them again.” It wasn’t a question. The ninja that Daredevil interrogated seemed more than just angry, he was determined. All of them were. They went after Nelson, Murdock and Page for a reason,

and they won’t stop till they complete their mission.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days were awful for Matt. Foggy and Karen thought it was funny, if not a little sweet, but Matt?
Matt hated it.

At least one Avenger has been watching him for the past four days. They think he doesn’t know that he knows they’re there, but he does. And he is really loosing his patients.

“I’ve been trying to loose their trail for the past two days!! I’m tired of them following me around!” Matt ranted to Foggy who was trying to hide is smile and incoming laughter.

“They just want to help Matt, they think your in danger!” Karen said playfully,

Neither one of them was taking this seriously I mean hey, some skilled and powerful superhero’s are watching their reckless blind vigilante friend who has zero self-preservation’s back? Oh yeah, that’s just awful !!!

“I can’t go out as Daredevil because they’re always on the roof, or in the building across from mine!” He sounded like a child complaining, he knew it, but he didn’t care. Matt felt like a child, having a bunch of people ‘babysitting’ him 24/7 as if he needed protection.

“Frank can’t even come near my apartment or the firm without it being suspicious to the Avengers.” He grumbled.

Foggy raised and eyebrow and his lips curved into a smile, “You miss him being around eh?” He asked already knowing the answer.

Matt’s cheeks went bright red (againnn) and Karen eyed them both suspiciously not fully knowing what Foggy meant, but brushed it off and said, “Maybe that’s not a bad thing, if the Avengers are watching you then we’re safe, maybe they can take care of the New Hand.”

“That’s the thing Karen, they’re not watching you guys, they’re watching me . And only me , they think that Daredevil doesn’t like me or something so they are only trailing me, not you guys. Right now, Frank is the only one keeping and eye on you both. He’s also the only one trying to figure out the New Hands next move. He can’t do everything, I need to help. But the Avengers are preventing me from doing anything!”

That got Foggy and Karen to stop for a moment,

“Franks gonna get himself killed if he continues doing this alone. I have to figure out how to loose their tail.”

and he did.

-

“Sir, we have a problem.”

“We’ve been having a lot of problems lately. What is it now?”

“The Avengers sir. They’ve been watching Matthew. We can’t get close enough to him without the Avengers knowing I- …we are skilled fighters sir, but we are not prepared to take on the Avengers along with Daredevil and The Punisher.”

…

“The Avengers are watching Matthew?”

“Yes sir.”

…

“And what about Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Page?”

“We believe The Punisher is the only one keeping an eye on them sir, the Avengers are only watching Matthew.”

A smile crept onto the young man’s face, “Then go after them, maybe after Matthew loses one of them he’ll be more…open, to our deal, when presented with it.”

“Yes sir.”

-

It’s been almost a week. No sign of Daredevil, no sign of Frank Castle and no sign of the ninjas.

Steve, Tony and Thor weren’t joking when they said Murdock looked like he got the crap beaten out of him.

It pissed Natasha and Clint off slightly that someone would do such a thing, and it pissed them off even more that Daredevil did nothing to prevent it.

Murdock had a pretty busy day, everyday. It was impressive really, he’d get up around 7:30 and get to work at around 8:30 but not before stopping at the coffee shop on the corner of the block he lives to get his colleagues Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Page, coffees. He goes to work and stays there pretty much all day, usually skipping lunch unless Nelson brings him something to eat from the meat shop on the floor below. He stays in the office well after 10:30 and doesn’t get home til past 11, except when he either has a meeting with a client or his friends convince him to go out to a little bar called Josie’s with them.

Clint admired how easy he was able to get from work to home, whenever he was with Page or Nelson, he’d grab one of their elbows to lead him, but when it was just him with his cane, he still seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Except tonight.

It was Clint’s turn to watch while Natasha grabbed them both some food from the corner store about a block away from the firm, Murdock was about to leave so she told him she’d meet him on the roof of the building across from Mr. Murdocks.

Clint was trailing him as he walked home at a relatively moderate pace, jumping from one building to the next with silent ease, when out of nowhere, Murdock just, vanished.

Clint let the man get a little ahead and while he was catching up, Murdock turned the corner to his block and when Clint caught up to where he should have been, he wasn’t there.
Clint searched frantically, going to the man’s apartment and looking through the building, checking alleyways and all of the stores leading from where he disappeared to the man’s apartment. But Matt. Wasn’t. There.

By the time Natasha finally joined him Clint was in near panic. He was left in charge of protecting Matt. He was suppose to watch the poor guys back. And he failed.

‘What if those ninjas grabbed him while I wasn’t looking?? Murdock obviously wouldn’t have seen it coming, he wouldn’t have expected it. God dammit Barton.’ He thought angrily to himself while he explained the situation to Natasha.

“We need to call the team. Have them make sure Nelson and Page are okay. And let them know that Murdock might have been taken.”

-

Frank couldn’t stop laughing.

“So- so you just left the poor guy?! Thinking you just vanished into thin air or some shit?!”

“Yeah pretty much.”

Frank started laughing again, “Jesus Red, that’s low” he was breathing heavy now as he sat back down on the rickety couch in his safe house.

When Red showed up to his apartment unexpectedly, Frank thought there might have been trouble. Instead, Red told him how he had to run into a random old lady’s apartment and then out through her window, up a fire escape, then had to quickly jump and hide in a dumpster when Hawkeye almost saw him, and had to run in zig zags through the buildings til he got to Franks safe house.

Red looked a mix of annoyed, relived and winded as Frank laughed at him.

“Well I couldn’t keep letting you have all the fun.” He said with a smirk.

He set down his cane, then his glasses on the old kitchen table and then took off his jacket and started removing his tie,

Frank tried to ignore that fact that his heart skipped a beat, but Red, clearly didn’t. He smirked again and laughed a little.

“Relax Frank, I have my suit on underneath.”

“I am relaxed.” He responded defensively also trying to ignore his cheeks blushing.

Matt turned his head towards him, halfway done with unbuttoning his shirt revealing the black skin tight suit underneath his head tilted to the side slightly and his lips formed a devilish smile, one that made Franks heart flutter, just as Red clearly knew it would.

“Sure you are Frank.”

With that, he removed the shirt and grabbed his mask from his pocket, “you ready to go?”

He inhaled sharply, trying not to stare too long at Reds unfocused dark brown eyes, “as I’ll ever be.”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for one of the Avengers to run into Daredevil and The Punisher, especially since all of them were frantically looking for Murdock (except Thor was keeping an eye on Nelson and Natasha was watching Page).

Bruce found them on a camera first, and told Clint that he was closest.

Like last time, Daredevil and Castle somehow knew he was following them before he even got close despite how quiet he was.

“I thought I told you to stop following us.” Castle said pulling out his gun, but keeping it as his side for more of a warning than a threat.

“I know but that doesn’t matter right now, you need to tell us everything you know about those ninjas.”

They looked at him for a moment before Daredevil responded, “We can handle them ourselves. We don’t need any help, from the Avengers especially.”

“Doesn’t matter. We need to find them. Now.” Tony said as he landed on the roof a couple feet next to Clint, Steve following soon after.

“What do you think we’re doing. We’ve been searching for them all night and you guys flying around isn’t helping.” Frank yelled back.

“They are going to hurt innocent people and as long as you guys are here, distracting us, we won’t be able to stop them.” Daredevil added.

They were quiet for a moment,

“We think they already did.” Steve said cautiously.

Both Daredevil and Castle looked at them confused but didn’t say anything.

“We think they took Matthew Murdock.” Clint said while looking down at his feet.

‘And it’s my fault.’ He thought

Neither of the vigilantes said anything and Tony could swear he saw Daredevil smile for a moment. ‘Seriously, What the hell is wrong with this guy?!’

Steve and Clint must have seen it too because both of them took a step toward, Clint who was about to yell at them when Daredevil suddenly cocked his head to the side, as if listening to something,

“What is it Red?” Frank said, glancing at him before refocusing on the three Avengers.

Daredevil was silent for another moment before saying, “Swords. Fourtee- no- fifteen of them.”

‘What??’

But Castle did seem at all weirded out by what Daredevil had said, “Where?”

Daredevil was quiet for another moment turning his head a little, “warehouse. Four blocks from here.” And both of them are off, leaving The Avengers behind.

Steve immediately ran after them, Clint close behind and Tony in the sky above them, they followed for about a block when Daredevil stopped, waiting for the others to catch up.

“Why are you stopped?! We need to go now! They could have Murdock!” Clint yelled at Daredevil in frustration.

“They are on the lookout. If they see Ironman flying towards them they’ll be expecting us.” Daredevil said ignoring Clint.

“All three of you stay here. This would be better handled by Frank and I alone.”

“We’re not letting you two go in alone. We need to help.” Steve protested,

“You guys can handle Aliens and Robots and all that other shit. Leave this to us.” Frank retorted, “Trying to help is only going to get in the way. None of you understand what this is.”

“Because you won’t let us!!” Tony yelled angrily. “Tell us who they are and we can help stop them.”

Both of them looked at the Avengers for a moment, “No. Stay here.”

And with that, they were off again, leaving Clint, Steve and Tony frustrated and confused.

-

Matt did feel a little bad, for making the Avengers worry about him- well, Matt Murdock, so much. Only a little though. He found it slightly funny too. But that didn’t matter, he had heard the swords, they were going to strike again and the needed to be stopped.

The Avengers had tried to follow but they were loud, and from what Foggy and Karen had told him, in bright suits (with the exception of Clint, if the purple was a darker shade).

These were trained ninjas who worked for The Hand. Matt and Frank were better suited to deal with them without the loud and flashy superheroes.

And now they were there, both of them had successfully made it onto the roof of the warehouse without being detected, They walked over to the roof access door and Matt paused to listen and see if anyone would hear them go down the stairs, “All of them are on the other side of the warehouse.”

“Are you sure? Thought they didn’t have heartbeats?”

“I can hear the swords, and there breath. And all of them have a weird smell, it’s like the rubble they were buried under never really went away, the smell is strongest on the other side of the building.”

Frank nodded, accepting the answer, he pulled out his gun and opened the door, letting Matt take the lead.

They started walking, it was pitch black in most of the hallways so Frank grabbed Matt’s hand as they walked, keeping his other hand on this gun ready to use.

Suddenly, Matt tilted his head then swiftly, turned and shoved Frank into another hallway pushing him against the wall, their faces inches apart and Matt’s hands on Franks chest. Matt’s heart sped up immediately and he decided to blame it on the two ninjas walking by and almost spotting them. Instead he smiled and took a step back once the ninjas turned the corner, taking Franks hand again, “Shall we?” He whispered, the side of his lip still tugged upwards.

Frank smiled in return blushing slightly and started to follow close behind him again.

As they walked Frank started to be able to hear the sound of swords being sharpened, and when they came to a cracked door, Matt turned to Frank a motioned to him that the ninjas were behind it.

They reluctantly let go of each other’s hands and Frank put his finger on the trigger.

They nodded to each other and Matt opened the door.

The ninjas didn’t notice them immediately, not until Frank started shooting them in the legs, they may not be able to die but they could still feel pain (Frank knew from experience, getting shot in the leg sucks).

Two ninjas came up to Matt first, neither of them brought their swords knowing that it’d be harder for Matt to track them. A few more joined the other ninjas with smaller knives that made less noise.

It became very clear that the ninjas had been expecting them. Even if they didn’t hear them come into the building or hear them in the halls, they were ready for them.

‘Something not right.’ Matt thought as he punched one of the ninjas in the throat.

Matt noticed that there was a few times the ninjas had a clear shot of his stomach or chest or even his neck, a few times they could have stabbed him or cut him. But they didn’t.

‘Why aren’t they trying to kill me?!’

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Frank. Matt could hear blood tricking down his chest and getting soaked up by his shirt and vest from a knife wound in his shoulder, he was also limping from another cut to the inside of his leg. Frank was still fighting, but he was out of ammo and the ninjas weren’t stopping.

‘No-‘

Matt’s heart sped up and he started fighting harder. His punches became a little more lethal and he started hitting anyone who got in his way with his billy clubs until they were unconscious.

He was almost to Frank when he heard another sound,

A shield flying through the air hitting against walls and then against the ninjas bodies.

It made him stop for a moment. Hesitate for too long.

One of the ninjas he had already fought grabbed him, he was breathing faster than the other and his jaw was set. He was angry.

“I don’t care that he wants you alive. Your going to die for your arrogance.”

‘Who the hell wants me alive?! And why?’

He didn’t have time to think to much about it before he heard the knife coming towards him. But it didn’t make it far before the sound of an arrow came wizzing by, hitting the blade for the man’s hand. Matt kneed the man in the face, knocking him out. He heard Steve fighting two ninjas and Clint shooting arrows at them.

He focused for a moment, listening for Franks heartbeat, which wasn’t that hard since there were only four heartbeats including his own in the whole building,

Franks was slower than normal, Matt could hear ninjas around him but he wasn’t fighting them. He was out cold.

Matt quickly started running over to him, two other ninjas immediately jumped in front of him, but Matt didn’t have time for this.

‘Franks hurt. I need to get to him. He needs my help.’

He knocked the second ninja out when Steve suddenly shouted, but his words couldn’t be heard because just at that moment a loud bang came, making Matt’s ears ring, then he started to smell something, it was sweet smelling and very strong, his head started to feel dizzy and his legs gave out. The last thing he heard before falling unconscious was the sound of a shield clattering to the ground along with Clint’s bow.

When he woke up, Tony was checking Steve and Clint’s pulse, trying to make sure they were okay. The ninjas were gone.

And so was Frank.

Chapter Text

Tony didn’t want to stay behind but he knew that Daredevil was right. His suit was meant for making an entrance, not for surprising a group of dangerous ninjas.

It was okay though, Tony could kind of see Daredevil and Castle with his suit through their heat signatures.

And by the looks of it, they were losing.

Frank was being attacked by several ninjas at once and they weren’t holding back, He watched one of their swords cut straight into his shoulder.

But Daredevil? He was fighting a lot of ninjas too, but it seemed like none of them were really trying. Daredevil had given them plenty of chances to stab or cut him, or even to end his life. But every time it looked as if they’d just stop themselves.

Tony knew it was a bad idea. Daredevil and Castle wanted them to stay behind.

But when Frank fell to the ground and didn’t get back up, he told Steve and Clint to go in and help while he searched the building to see if they were keeping Murdock somewhere inside.

“Sir, it there appears to be gas coming in from somewhere in the warehouse.” FRIDAY told him whilst he left another empty room in the building.

“Gas? What is it?” His suit had a filtration system and an oxygen tank. He wasn’t worried about himself, he was worried about Steve and Clint.

“The gas appears to be Chloroform.”

Without hesitation Tony blasted through the walls until he reached where the fight had taken place. The ninjas were gone and Clint, Steve and Daredevil were all laying unconscious on the floor.

‘Where the hell is Castle?!’

He decided not to worry about Frank just yet,

“FRIDAY, are they alright?”

“They are all alive sir, they should be waking up momentarily.”

“Are there anymore ninjas in the building?”

“No sir, the warehouse appears to be empty.”

Tony nodded and got out of the suit, “sentry mode” the suit immediately closed again and looked prepared to blast anyone seen as a threat.

Quickly Tony walked over to Steve and shook his shoulder a little, “Steve? You alright? Common ya gotta get-“

In his peripheral vision his saw Daredevil move turning his head to the side before sitting up, groaning slightly.

Tony didn’t move, instead he simply called out, “Daredevil? You okay?”

For a moment, he was silent. Then it looked as if remembrance hit him as he got up, turning and tilting his head, searching for something.

“Frank?” He called out, and when he got no reply and turned to Tony,

“Where the hell is Frank?!” He growled.

He was trying to act scary, or mean. But Tony could hear the slight quiver in his words, he could hear how worried he secretly was.

Suddenly, Clint woke up and slowly walked over to where the rest of them were, mumbling curses of pain under his breath.

Steve started to stir as well,

“You awake yet Cap?”

“Ow.”

Tony chuckled,

“What the hell happened?” Clint asked now that he knew Steve was okay.

“Chloroform.” Tony answered, “They must have knocked all of you out-“ he paused and looked at Daredevil, “-and they must have taken Frank while you were all unconscious.”

Daredevil stood there for a moment, all three of the Avengers stared at him when he suddenly turned and started heading for the stairs leading to a fire escape,

Clint took a step forward, “Where they hell are you going?!”

“They took him. I’m getting him back.” His voice was cold. Emotionless. And it made all three of them pause.

Daredevil was up the stairs too fast for them to argue.

As fast as he could, Tony got back into his suit and flew through a window and onto the roof just as Daredevil jumped off and onto the top of another building, he was moving fast, jumping without hesitation, and he didn’t stop till he got to the end of the block, perched on the tallest building.

Tony landed on the opposite side and watched him for a moment, Daredevil was frozen in place, his head tilted to the side, “What are you doing?” Tony asked,

“Listening for Franks heartbeat, the sound of swords swishing through the air, vehicles moving fast than others, yelling, anything-“ Daredevil swallowed hard before finishing, “Anything that can help me get to Frank before it’s too late.”

‘How the hell can he hear all that??’

Tony took another step forward, “What about Matt? You could try listening for him too, wherever he is, they might be taking Frank there too?”

Daredevil responded without hesitation, “No. Murdock can’t help, wherever Frank is, he’s not with him.”

“Well either way, we need to find them both, can you try listening for Matt too?”

“No-“ Daredevil said, he sounded frustrated, “I don’t have time to worry about Murdock. He can handle himself. I need to focus on Frank.”

Tony looked at Daredevil for a second, his brows knitted together in confusion, “Frank is an ex-marine and mass murderer. Matt’s a blind defense attorney- We need to look for Matt, Frank is the one who can handle himself!”

Daredevil didn’t respond, instead he turned back towards the city, looking out at it as he cocked his head to the side again,

Tony looked at him, shocked,

‘What the fuck is this guys problem?!’

“You know we went to check on him. After the ninjas attacked that firm. I know you know he wasn’t there when they attacked.”

Daredevil said nothing but his hands clenched into fists, Tony continued,

“He looked terrible. Like the crap got beaten out of him,”

”Why weren’t you there for him? You protected Mr. Nelson, and Mrs. Page- what do you have against an innocent blind guy that you let a bunch of ninjas attack him and do nothing to prevent it?!”

Daredevil got up abruptly and stood in front of Tony, they were only about two feet apart and even though he was in his suit, he still felt nervous.

But his anger was stronger. So he stood his ground and didn’t move when Daredevil snarled at him.

“Why do you care, huh Stark? Don’t you have some robots to build?? Or aliens to attack? Or money to waste on another fancy suit or car?? Why do you care what happens in Hell’s Kitchen. You never have before?”

“Because it’s our job to protect people.” Steve, who had finally joined them on the rooftop, with Clint following close behind, answered.

“We may not have always helped the little guys like you, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still try. We want to help. Why won’t you let us?”

Daredevil was breathing heavy his knuckles were turning white, he looked like he was about to speak when he suddenly turned his head, like he heard something.

“Frank-“ he whispered so quietly only Tony, who was still only a couple feet away, could hear.

And with that, Daredevil was off, scaling buildings almost to fast for them to keep up.

Almost.

He stopped after running through about seven blocks, Clint landed close behind him and saw the way his breath hitched and the way his hands trembled slightly.

Clint looked around, there was a couple restaurants and stores and apartments, no place to keep two hostages.

“Do you hear them?” Clint asked quietly,

Daredevil swallowed then nodded, he jumped to another building and they ran for another two blocks before he stopped again, this time when he did, he waited for Tony to land and for Steve and Clint to catch up,

With a shaky hand he pointed at what looked like the remains of building, the rubble was still all over where it had once stood and there was police tap surrounding the whole thing. But Daredevil didn’t point just at the rubble, he pointed under it.

“Franks down there.”

“And what is this exactly?” Steve asked cautiously,

Daredevils mouth twitched and his hands clenched back into fists,

“The remains of Midland Circle.”

-

“Did you get him?”

“We did sir.”

“Is he here?”

“Yes, he’s still unconscious though.”

“Does Matthew know where he is yet?”

“No sir. We took Mr. Castle while everyone was unconscious as well.”

“Good. Wake him up.”

“What would you like us to do with him sir?”

“Nothing,” a sadistic smile crossed the man’s scarred face, “Wait til I get there.”

-

Everything hurt.
His ears were ringing slightly, he could feel warm blood trickling down the wounds on his shoulder and leg. He tried to move but his hands were tied behind his back.

When Frank opened his eyes his saw several ninjas with swords surrounding him, one was walking towards him,

“Oh Good! I was just coming in to wake you up myself.”

Frank looked around, trying to scan the room for any way of escape, but all that surrounded him was rubble, rocks and dirt and debris were everywhere.

‘Underground.’ He thought to himself.

The chair he was tied to was old, he tried to move around again, feeing for any weak points in the wood when another man came in. He was wearing a dark red suit, he had a scar across his face, from his brow to his lower lip, he stood in front of Frank and smiled,

“Hello Mr. Castle.”

Frank looked up at him but his vision was still slightly blurry, “Who the hell are you?” He could taste the blood in his mouth as he spoke.

The man smiled wider and he bent down to be level with Frank,

“I, am the Black Sky. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

Chapter Text

Ever sense he was a kid, he was told he was destined to defeat The Chaste.

His destiny was to run The Hand along side Alexandra.

He trained day and night, did anything and everything asked of him. He was the perfect soldier.

But not somehow, he still wasn’t good enough.

Alexandra left him.

With no explanation. She locked him away, told him that one day, one day his time would come.

But it didn’t.

Instead, he watched from his window as Alexandra trained another, then another, then another. None of them were as good as him and he was convinced that she would soon return to him, tell him there was no one better than him, tell him she was proud of him.

Then, Alexandra used the last of the substance they had on hand, to resurrect Elektra Natchios.

She was unlike anyone he had ever seen.

She was fast, strong, and quick thinking. She was mean, she fought without remorse and killed without hesitation.

She was perfect.

He watched her fight and he wished to be out there with her.

But mostly, he envied her. Not just her skill, but the pride in Alexandra’s eyes as she watched Elektra take on more and more ninjas. And win, every time.

All he wanted to do was make Alexandra proud. And Elektra Natchios accomplished that in a few short weeks.

Still, he remained in his little room, meditating, sleeping, eating, training and waiting.

Waiting for Alexandra to return.

But when the building crumpled to the ground. And pieces of metal cut up his skin, he opened his eyes, trying to see through the blood slowly pouring into them from the gash on his face, a few other survivors who told him what became of his teacher and what became of The Hand, he had only one thing on his mind. One goal. One mission.

Oliver was going to resurrect The Hand.

-

“What the hell is the Black Sky?”

Oliver smiled down at Frank, “The Black Sky is a fighter, better than any other. More dangerous, faster, stronger, and more skilled than anyone else. And their soul purpose is to serve The Hand and its leaders.”

He knelt back down the Franks level, “Something Matthew took away from all of us.”

“Wasn’t just him.”

“Oh I know, I understand,” his voice was soothing and calm, almost sweet,

“But Matthew was down there with us. He was with Elektra. I may not agree on exactly how she became the new leader of The Hand-“ he grimaced slightly, “-But I serve them no matter who’s in charge. And Elektra died because of Matthew.”

Frank pushed agains the chair angrily, “No. He gave her a chance to save herself and she didn’t take it. She died because of her own damn ego-“

the sound of a blade flicked through the air and in an instant, a knife was at Franks throat. He stopped moving, trying to pull his head backwards away from the sharp blade but Oliver just pushed it forward with him.

“Do not disrespect our fallen leaders.” He said coldly his sweet, calm tone, leaving his voice entirely.

But a small smile quickly returned on his face and he lowered the knife, “Forgive me, we are still mourning those we lost. But that will not matter once Matthew comes to try and save you.”

Frank growled, “You stay the hell away from him.”  He gritted his teeth trying to pull the knot tying his hands together loose.

“Unfortunately Mr. Castle, that just won’t do. You see, Matthew is a vital part of our plans.”

“If you kill him there isn’t anywhere in the world I won’t find be able to find you and make you regret it.” Threats similar to this have worked on most criminals, knowing The Punishers reputation, most people didn’t doubt him for a second.

But Oliver simply chuckled, “Kill him?”

He was smiling again and he genuinely seeming happy, which only creeped Frank out more,

“Why would I want to kill such a skilled fighter? No no nooo Mr. Castle!! I don’t want to kill him! Matthew is simply lost and confused. With our help, we can lead him in the right direction.”

Frank looked up at him and for the first time in the whole conversation, he was completely and utterly confused, “What- you want Red to work for you or some shit?”

“With me. Matthew can work by my side. Besides, we have so much in common. He just needs to see that he can accomplish so much more here than he ever could saving meaningless low lives in Hells Kitchen.”

Oliver turned back to Frank at the sound of the man chuckling quietly, he raised his eyebrows, “May I ask what you find so funny?”

Frank looked at the man, he was smiling slightly, showing his blood stained teeth, “If you think you and Red are anything alike you’re insane. Red would never work for a bunch of assholes like you.”

Without thinking, Oliver punched Frank in the face, his head flew to the side and blood shot out of his mouth, he grimaced in pain and coughed up some more blood before slowly turning back to him,

“We are alike. Matthew just needs a little push, now, I thought Elektra dying would do the trick and well, it almost did.”

Oliver pulled out his knife again and two of the ninjas who were surrounding them walked over to either side of Frank and undid the Velcro on his vest, removing it . Once it was off he pressed the tip slowly but forcefully into Franks chest, he winced but said nothing.

“Maybe if you die in his arms as well, he will finally break.”

He pushed a little more and Frank could feel warm blood slowly seeping into his dirty clothes. He clenched his jaw and tried to block out the pain,

“And when he does, we’ll be here to pick up the pieces.”

Chapter Text

Matt knew Tony asked Bruce to tell Thor and Natasha to meet them here, but he wasn’t listening.

He was using every ounce of concentration he had to focus of Franks heartbeat. It was the only thing he could actually make out under the miles of rubble and dirt.

At first when he heard it, he thought for a brief moment that Frank was dying. That he was trapped, that the building somehow rebuilt itself for the soul purpose of burying Frank under its remains.

But Frank wasn’t dying. Not yet at least.

He was injured and bleeding, but he’d survived worse.   

Matt tried to keep track of how his heart rate changed so he could try and figure out what they were doing to him.

It started off slow but steady,

Still unconscious,

Then it got a little quicker but remained a normal pace

He’s awake,

It spiked a few times but still remained a safe speed

But then it sped up out of nowhere and became a little erratic.

No-

“Daredevil? Everything alright?”

He turned to the sound of Natasha’s voice, she had walked over to his spot a little farther away from the others.

He didn’t realized that he was breathing quickly and shaking a little until now.

“I need to get down there.”

“Not alone.”

He tilted his head to her and smirked, “You gonna try and stop me?”

“Not try.” She smiled back but by her serious tone of voice and the way her heart didn’t waver, he knew she was probably right, especially with how distracted he is right now.

“Frank will be okay.” She said turning back to the rubble, but he could feel her eyes still on him,

“Will you be?”

He looked back at her confused so she continued, “I read some of the newspapers Tony found, one from The Bulletin mentioned this place, Midland circle right?” Matt didn’t respond, he just turned his head back to where Franks heartbeat was coming from,

“After the article about the building exploding and randomly crashing down there’s nothing on Daredevil for months. In any papers,” she said, her heartbeat quickened but only for a moment before she added,

“There’s nothing on Matt Murdock either.”

Matt’s heart drops but he try’s not to show it, instead trying to keep up his innocent act, he furrows his brow as much as he can so it could be seen under his mask, tilted his head in the way Foggy said makes him look like a confused puppy, and frowned,

“Don’t try the innocent act with me Murdock, I’m a spy. I know how to read people. And don’t worry about the others, I didn’t figure it out till I was looking over the files we had on the lawyer half of you while watching over Mrs. Page. Nothing on Matt Murdock for months after Midland Circle. No news articles, no new cases taken, not even anything on street cams. He went missing at the same time Daredevil did. And you both came back around the same time.”

Matt sighed in defeat. He figured at least one of the Avengers would figure out that his I-hate-Matthew-Murdock facade was bullshit, “You gonna tell them?”

She glanced behind her watching the four men arguing with each other (and Bruce over the coms) about their best plan of action. “No, not unless one of them tries to risk their life to save the ‘defenseless blind lawyer’ kidnapped by ninjas.”

Matt nods after hearing her heartbeat say she’s telling the truth. “Thank you.”

She moves to sit down next to him, after a moment she says, “I gotta ask-“

“Yes I am really blind, I have super sense and use something similar to echo location to move around and sense objects around me even if they are behind me.”

Natasha pauses for a moment before saying,

“Oh, good to know. I was gonna ask if you were actually Devil but that clears it up I guess.”

She shrugs and Matt turns his head to face her, “Wait- so that thing Tony said about me casting all of you down to hell- he was serious??”

Natasha laughed, “Oh yeah. He firmly believes it too.”

Matt couldn’t help but chuckle at that,

‘Need to remember that for later’ he thought to himself.

After a couple more minutes of silence Natasha speaks again, “So are you gonna tell me who these people are or we just going in blind?” She laughed a little when she realized what she said.

Matt smiles for a moment but it disappears quickly, “They were called The Hand, they’ve been around for centuries and up until a few months ago, their leaders, were immortals. They were all powerful and very dangerous. They had this stuff, the substance,” Natasha nodded remembering the phrase being mentioned, “I’m not sure exactly how it works but, it can bring people back from the dead.”

“And according to that ninja you and Castle caught their new leader somehow altered that substance to make them live permanently.” Natasha finished for him.

“Yeah. They were almost destroyed after Midland circle fell but they’re getting stronger all over again,” he dropped his head a little in guilt, “I should have been more alert. I might have seen it coming.”

“No one would have expected this. Don’t be to hard on yourself.” Natasha responded.
Her voice was stern, something told Matt she’s blamed herself for things that she had no way of preventing too.
It was slightly comforting in a weird way. There aren’t very many people in this world that can say ‘I understand what your going through.’ And actually mean it.

“We’ll get Frank back and we’ll figure out a way to stop them.” Natasha finished.

“I can’t lose him.” Was the only thing Matt could think to say.

Natasha turned to look at him, “If you let us help, you won’t.” Matt faced her, he couldn’t speak, it was like the ability to form words completely left his mind, all he could do was give a weak smile that he knew she’d read as

‘Thank you.’

“Nat! Daredevil! We have an idea, get over here!” Clint yelled, Natasha chuckled and got up, offering Matt a hand, he took it gratefully and she pulled him up with a shocking amount of strength.

They walked over to the others,

“Okay, so this is probably going to end horribly but here’s the plan…” Tony starts.

-

They moved Frank to another, bigger room where the ninja that went over to wake him up when he first got there, who claimed her name was Rose, was waiting with him, with his own gun pointed at his head.

He was still tied to a chair and even if he wasn’t, she was across the room so there was no way for him to get to the gun in time to block it.

It had felt like hours had passed, not that he could tell because the room had no clocks or windows.

To pass the time he focused on his injuries, noting how much blood he had lost and estimating when he should start getting nervous.

The cut on his leg was long but not very deep, probably wouldn’t even need stitches, the stab wound on his shoulder was a small but a deep slit and he could tell that the sword punctured through to his back too.

The one on his chest hurt the most. It wasn’t very deep but the man, Oliver, clearly had some sort of experience with torture. The knife cut straight through his thoracic intercostal nerves and it made his entire chest feel like it was on fire, and it made the blood coming out of the cut feel like lava on his skin.

After even more time passed he started to hear the faint noise of swords clashing and skin hitting skin.

Red.

He felt a moment of relief before he remembered, there were over a dozen ninjas down here, none of them having heartbeats, and a lot of them not carrying any weapons that Red could track.

The fighting got louder and Frank glanced at Rose, she wasn’t looking at him but his gun in her hand was still pointed at his head.

He fidgeted again with the ropes around his wrists but they wouldn’t budge, instead they only got tighter, digging into his skin till his wrists were raw.

Then there was silence.

Both him and Rose stared at the door waiting to see who would walk through.

The door started to open and Frank could hear lots of shuffling behind it.

Then It opened.

Franks heart dropped.

Oliver was the first to walk in, he looked completely unscathed and probably didn’t even bother fighting at all.

Followed quickly behind him were two ninjas, each holding one side of Red.

Dragging him, into the room.

His head was sagging too low for Frank to see his face, the two ninjas on either side of him were holding him up by his upper arms and his legs were dragging behind him.

He was covered in blood.

His blood.

“To be honest, I thought it’d be harder than that.” Oliver sounded slightly disappointed, nodded for the two ninjas to drop him and Red fell to the floor on his stomach like a rag doll, he coughed up some blood and tried to push himself up a little with his shaking arms. His mask was still on but Frank could see blood stains coming through onto the fabric.

Oliver walked over to Red and crouched down, lifting up his head to force him to look up.

Frank shifted in his chair trying to break free, only to get smacked hard in the face by Rose.

Blood was coming out of Reds mouth and his nose looked broken, Frank could see the open gashes across his back and some so long they went all the way to his stomach and chest.

Oliver turned Red’s head side to side before mumbling, “well this is not longer needed,” and ripped his mask off revealing an already forming bruise around his temple and eye.

Oliver turned his head back and forth again and Red gave no resistance which made Franks heart speed up even faster than it already was.

“Disappointing.” Was all Oliver said before he practically threw Red back to the ground, he stood up and after a moment, kicked him in the side of the stomach hard.

Red flew to the side and landed back on his stomach, his eyes closed and most of his face covered by his arms. Franks fists clenched and he gritted his teeth.

“Nothing? Really??” Oliver walked back over to him and kicked him again, this time in the face,

“Get the hell away from him!!” Frank yelled, Rose punched him in the stomach causing him to start coughing up blood again.

Red rolled farther and Frank realized he was moving closer to him.

“Come on Matthew! Get up and fight!” This time Oliver pulled Red up til he was on his knees and punching him in the face,

Red fell backwards to the ground and he rolled onto his stomach, he was only a couple feet away from Frank. Oliver was behind him and Rose was looking at him not Red.

So Frank was the only one who saw the familiar mischievous smile flicker across his face.

‘No fucking way-‘

And just as Oliver grabbed Matt again, the sound of fighting resumed in the other room.

But not just swords could be heard, bullets whizzing through the air, shields banging against walls and bodies, arrows hitting their targets, blasters powering up and firing, loud bangs that could only be coming from a hammer-

The one and only Avengers, have arrived.

Chapter Text

“Okay, so this is probably going to end horribly but here’s the plan…”

Tony wasn’t lying. His plan was very far fetched.

“I’m sorry- what?! ” Matt asked after hearing what he was suppose to do,

“I mean, you should be fine, if I’m right.”

“Should?” Natasha asked skeptically,

“Okay well, I saw how none of the ninjas were trying to kill you at the warehouse, even when they had a couple chances, so hypothetically, yeah. Daredevil should be able to just walk right in and not worry about being stabbed.” Tony rambled while trying to defend himself, yes. He knew this was a terrible idea. But hey, it was really the only one they had.

Matt couldn’t help but feel like this was sort of like revenge for hating well, himself, “Yes because getting punched and kicked is so much better.” Matt grumbled.

“It won’t be long that you have to take on them alone. Just long enough for us to take down anyone else inside and anyone who might try and stop us while we are leaving. Once we do that we’ll be able to join you and then we can find Matt and Frank.” Steve added, he noticed Natasha smile slightly but he brushed it off.

So that was the plan.

Daredevil would go in, alone. Fight off as many ninjas as he could and try to get to Frank and, well, Matt. While that was going on, the Avengers would take out anyone else that could get in the way.

But obviously, things had to go wrong.

Matt knew this was going to suck the moment he got in (or, under) the building. He still couldn’t read any of them but as he got closer he could hear the swords. A lot, of swords.

He considered turning back and having them all go in together. That would be the safest and probably the smartest idea.

But he could hear Franks heartbeat and how quickly he was breathing. And the blood oozing out of him.

He sighed. Took a deep breath, and ran behind the closest ninja (that he could hear), and hit him on the back of the head with his billy club.

Turns out, they didn’t have the element of surprise like they originally thought.

Matt waited for more ninjas to come and attack him once they all saw him but nobody moved, except for one person. He could hear their feet walking slowing over to the newly formed circle of ninjas that had surrounded him.

“Welcome Matthew! We were waiting for you!” The man seemed overly friendly, which made Matt tilt his head to the side in confusion, he raised both of his billy clubs up slightly and said nothing.

“Oh relax Matthew! There really is no need for a fight, I just want to talk!” When Matt didn’t move or respond the man continued, “My name is Oliver!” He puts out his hand, “I’m the Black sky, and new leader of The Hand.”

‘The Black Sky?’

When Matt didn’t shake his hand, Oliver lowered his arm and continued, “I’m going to cut to the chase Matthew. Like I said, I don’t want to fight. You have an amazing talent, I would love for you be by my side, using your skills for a good cause.”

“You think what The Hand does is a good cause?” Matt’s voice was clipped, he was growing more and more angry by the second.

“ Did. ” Oliver corrected, “I won’t lie. What The Hand used to do was…cruel. But that’s not what I want it to be anymore.”

“Seems like the same to me.” He gestured to the ninjas surrounding him.

“We are different.” His calm demeanor was slowly changing into annoyance. “We are going to protect this city in the only way that is truly possible.”

Matt listened to him skeptically, “which is?”

Matt could practically hear the smile that grew on Oliver’s face, “By ruling it of course.”

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for Oliver to realize that Matthew wasn’t going to join him. Willingly anyway.

He didn’t want to hurt Matt. He really didn’t. But if hurting him got him to see (ha!) reason, then so be it.

“I will give you one chance to stop, one chance to join me Matthew.”

Matthew hesitated for a moment, but then, slowly walked towards him. Oliver signaled for the ninjas to let him pass, and Matt stopped about three feet away.

Oliver smiled despite knowing he couldn’t see it, taking a step forward he whispered, “you know, we are very similar, you and I,”

Matthew chuckled dryly, “similar? How’s that?”

He stayed quiet for a moment, before finally responding, “We’ve both been hurt by Elektra.”

Oliver didn’t need super senses to know that Matt’s heart rate sped up.

“She hurt you Matthew. You cannot deny it. She left you with nothing, she tricked you and manipulated you, and instead of accepting that she lost, she wanted you to die by her side.”

Matt still said nothing but Oliver knew he was listening, he could see Matt’s hands shaking and his grip on his billy clubs faltering, “Alexandra abandoned me for her. She left me to rot in a cell, choosing someone who fought against her instead.”

Oliver stepped closer and when Matt didn’t back away he caustically put his hand on his shoulder,

“Like I said, we are similar, if not the same. We can both accomplish what we want if instead of fighting each other we worked together. You don’t need anyone else, The Hand can help you, others are simply distractions.”

That’s when Matt slowly turned his head towards Oliver, “You sound like Stick.”he whispered.

Oliver didn’t move but took a quick glance and saw Matt’s hands tighten on his billy clubs. He sighed, knowing what was about to happen.

“You don’t want to fight us Matthew. We are trying to help you.”

Matt’s jaw clenched and he suddenly stepped back, grabbing Oliver’s hand that was still on his shoulder, pulling him towards him to get him off balance and swinging his billy club at Olivers stomach knocking the wind out of him for a moment.

But before Matt could do anything else the other ninjas were on him, one immediately used his sword and sliced across his back starting from just below his neck to his hip. Matt yelped in pain and quickly turned around to block the next blow, using both of his billy clubs to push the sword away, another two ninjas came at him on either side hitting and cutting him where ever he was exposed, purposefully not cutting to deep as to kill him.

Oliver stepped back and allowed the fight to continue, he admired how Matt continued to fight despite the obvious pain. 

‘But he knows we cannot die, why is still fighting knowing it’s pointless?’ Oliver thought to himself, he glanced back at one of the doors and thought about who was behind it.

‘Frank Castle.’ He realized,

‘He wants Frank back.’

Oliver hadn’t ever experienced love. Not in the way most people had. He loved Alexandra, but not romantically. He thought of her as his mother, because before her, he didn’t have one.

When he first met Elektra, he thought he loved her too, he watched her fight and he was mesmerized by her grace.

But he soon realized he would never get to fight beside her. He realized quickly that he wasn’t getting a partner, he was getting replaced.

His love for Elektra and Alexandra dissolved slowly after that.

Still, he’s seen it before, love.

On missions for The Hand he was often sent to kill someone who had a family, leaving no witnesses was always important.

He would listen to the way they’d plead to let the ones they love live. The way they’d try and fight to protect them even though they knew it was pointless.

No, Oliver hasn’t experienced love. But he’s seen it before, and he’s seeing it again now, with Matthew.

One of the ninjas cut the back of Matt’s leg, causing him to fall to his knee, which gave another ninja the opportunity to roundhouse kick the back of his head. Matt flew to the ground. When he didn’t get back up Oliver looked at him suspiciously.

‘That was quick.’

“Pick him up.” He told two of the ninjas, he waved for them to follow him as he made his way to the door,

he opened it and despite himself, he couldn’t help but smile a little at the horrified look of Franks face.

‘Love,’ he thought, ‘What a weakness.’

-

In his own defense. He wasn’t planning on getting the shit beat out of him.

He knew there was going to be a fight, and he knew it wasn’t going to end well for him.

Tony’s plan was that he’d hold them off for as long as possible. His plan however, didn’t account for him being well, blind.

The ninjas knew he was. They used that to their advantage. Some of them used swords, some used knives, some just used only their fists.

All of the different sounds of metal gliding through the air and clothes rustling together made it difficult to pinpoint exactly where each individual person was. None of them having heartbeats didn’t help.

He realized quickly he was fighting a losing battle and tried to think something Oliver wouldn’t expect,

“…my dads strategy was to let them hit him till they broke their hands…”

He remembered telling Father Lantom about his dad years ago.

‘I just need them to let their guard down, to get to Frank.’

So that’s what he did. He let them punch him, cut him, he purposefully left himself open. Let them think they were winning.

And when he was finally close enough to Frank, and knew only he was looking, he couldn’t help but smile, tasting the blood on his teeth.

Chapter Text

Murdock looked like shit.

The Avengers were winning, the ninjas were skilled, but Caps shield was vibranium, and Tony’s suit was almost impenetrable. That along with Hulk, Thor and Clint. They didn’t stand a chance.

Natasha helped of course. She could have taken on half of them by herself if we’re being honest.

But while fighting she noticed the copious amount of blood on the floor, and saw that it led to another room. So while the others handled the last few ninjas she followed the trail with her gun at the ready, she came in just in time to see Daredevil, no- Matt. He wasn’t wearing his mask, kick a gun out of a surprised looking ninjas hand, and quickly spin back in front of Frank who was still tied to a chair.
Matt tilted his head in her direction and she knew he knew she was there, but the other two ninjas in the room, didn’t.

The other ninja, the one who was only mere seconds ago standing over Matt, let out a sigh, knowing what was about to happen. They both ran forward and started fighting. The other ninja saw them fighting, she quickly turned to look for her discarded gun but Natasha had beat her too it, kicking it away and knocking her out in one swift motion.

She pulled the knife out of her side hostler and started cutting the rope holding Franks hands.

Frank was tense and at first she thought it was because he was injured, but then she saw how angry he also looked, and when she glanced over, almost done cutting the rope, and saw that Matt was losing, she understood why.

Finally the rope came loose and it was like letting an angry bull go on a man dressed in all red.

Matt looked exhausted, the cuts all over his body didn’t look very deep but he was still loosing a lot of blood.

He was missing punched and the other man was clearly not holding back.

By the time Frank got over to the fight, the man was on top of Matt with one hand on his throat and the other clutching a knife.

Natasha quickly pulled out her gun and shot the man in the neck, giving Frank enough time to get over there and pull the knife out of the man’s and stab it into his chest.

He fell back in shock and obvious pain, but didn’t stop. He almost immediately was back up and fighting. He threw a punch at him which Frank easily dodged but also left his other side open for a kick, Natasha wanted to run into the fight but she could see Matt’s eyes fluttering shut and she ran over to him instead, pulled him away to a wall, she checked his pulse and felt that it was rapidly slowing down.

‘Shit-‘

She started looking around quickly for something to stop the bleeding but the room was pretty much empty, she glanced back at the fight and saw that Frank had found the gun that Natasha kicked away from the other ninja, he shot the man until the clip was empty and when he still didn’t go down, resorted to hitting him in the head with the gun.

She looked back at Matt and saw a new train of blood flowing out of his mouth,

“No no no, stay with me Murdock, keep your eyes open okay? You need to stay awake, focus on me.” She said when she saw him slowly drifting to sleep.

She checked his pulse again but nothing changed.

‘He’s dying-‘ she thought to herself,

“Red?”

She turned back around and saw the other ninja on the ground unconscious, and if she didn’t know they couldn’t die, she would have assumed the man was long dead.

She looked up at Frank and frowned, he ran beside her and cupped Matt’s face shoving his shoulder lightly,

“Red- hey hey it’s me, listen you gotta stay awake alright?” Matt gave no response but at the sound of Franks voice he smiled, forcing his eyes open again.

Matt’s breathing starting looking more labored and she could hear him wheezing, trying to stay awake was taking a lot out of him.

Frank realized it too, “Fuck, no no no, come on Red don’t you dare die on me.” He was shaking but Natasha knew it wasn’t from anger. He was scared. No, he was terrified.

She stepped back away from them, “Stark! Get in here now!” She turned around and yelled. Tony rushed into the room quickly, followed by Steve, Thor, Clint and a now calm Bruce.

“We need to get him to the tower.” She said once the had caught up with her.

Bruce quickly rushed to Franks side reassuring the man nervously that he was a doctor before checking Matt’s pulse.

Tony rushed over soon after and almost immediately stopped short,

“wait-“ he said, the metal mask lifting up the reveal his face under the suit, “Is that-“

Steve saw it too but before Tony could say anything he interrupted, “Yes. I think it is, but we don’t have time to think about that right now,”

he walked cautiously over to Frank who looked dangerously cold and on edge at the moment, like anything could set him off on an unstoppable killing spree.

“The Cryo-chamber is his best chance, we need to take him. Now.”

Without hesitation Frank nodding, not glancing away from Matt once, he quickly but surprisingly carefully picked him up bridal style, adjusting his grip so the pained look on Matt’s face washes away slightly, and starts rushing out of the building,

Once they’re out of Midland Circle Thor calmly walked over to Frank who instinctively took a step back, clutching Matt tighter, but Thor remained calm, he put up his hands and said,

“I can get him there faster,”

Frank looks down at Matt, his face, twisted in pain and covered in cuts and already forming bruises, he turned back to Thor who already has his harms outstretched, and reluctantly passed Matt over too him. Once Thor had Matt he turned back to the others,

“Stark, you fly Banner back, the rest of you can drive.” Without waiting for and answer he flew up into the air, out of sight in seconds.

Tony simply shrugged, his mask shot back down, he grabbed Bruce and nodded to the others before flying off.

Everyone else stays quiet for a moment before Steve finally broke the silence, “I can Hotwire a car?” They look at him, slightly shocked that Americas golden boy seriously just offered to steal a car. 

But Steve simply shrugged and continued, “What? You learn a lot when your at war.” And he swiftly walked over to a car with its driver side window open, unlocks it from the inside, sat down and in under five minute has the car started and ready, he pokes his head out of the window, looking at them,

“Well are you comin or what?”

Frank doesn’t wait, quickly getting into the front passenger seat with Natasha and Clint following in the back.

Before Clint even has the door shut they’re off.

While they drove back to the tower Natasha is reminded of the time they had to drive to Wheaten, New Jersey which is also where they met the AI Zola.

Steve was driving and holy crap did this man suck at driving. Missing stop signs and running curbs the whole way, Steve blamed it on them being rushed but Natasha found that hard to believe.

They made it to the tower somehow still in one piece and rushed up to the lab, Frank was the first through the door when the elevator finally dinged open after a very awkward ride up. He barged through the lab angrily,

“Where the hell is he?!”

“Relax,” Clint said pointing over to a separate room, “The Cryo-chamber is in there.”

Frank was the first to walk into the room. Tony and Bruce where both in there, and so was Matt.

“He’s going to be okay, the Cryo-chamber will takes a few hours to heal him fully but when he wakes up he should be fine.” Tony said before Frank could even ask.

Frank let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding at sat down next to  the table Matt was laying on.

“Wait- is that Matt fucking Murdock?!” Clint, who was standing behind him asked. And Frank couldn’t even be mad,

‘he’s going to be okay.’ Was the only thing that was on his mind.

Chapter Text

Wherever he was, it was very bright, he could feel the heat of the lights surrounding him on his skin. For a moment, Matt thought he was dead, but he could hear heartbeats. Tons of them, some farther away then others but there were four that seemed to be in another room, three in the room he was in, and one of those three, he recognized.

“F-Frank?” His throat felt like sandpaper and he was surprised when he realized his head wasn’t pounding.

A rough but strong hand was suddenly holding his and the heartbeat closest to him started beating faster, “Yeah Red it’s me, it’s Frank.”

He smiled for a moment, since his head wasn’t pounding he tried to expand his senses and realized he was in a building he didn’t recognize. He quickly sat up, tilting his head around to try and figure out who the other two heart beats in the room were. they were coming closer to him now, speeding up, he tried to get up but Frank stopped him by softly placing his hands on his shoulder,

“It’s okay Red. Your safe I promise.” He stopped fidgeting and focused on the two heartbeats that now seemed to be frozen where they were standing,

“Stark?” He could recognize that cologne anywhere. He’d never smelt it on anyone other than him,

‘Probably custom made.’ He thought.

The heartbeat he suspected was Tony’s sped up before he answered, “Uh- Yeah, yeah it’s Tony. This is Bruce, Bruce Banner. He’s a doctor, he helped fix you up.”

Matt tilted his head to where he hoped Dr. Banners face was, “Thanks.”

He could sense the other man smile a little, “Happy to help. The Cryo-Chamber did most the work though, it can create tissue like it’s a 3-D printer, took awhile but it helped heal over all of the cuts those ninjas gave you.” He paused shifting his feet a little, “I hope you don’t mind but we did a couple scans on you too, you had a concussion and a couple broken ribs but we got those all healed up too.”

Matt nodded and that’s when he noticed he didn’t have his mask on, Frank must have picked up on his realization and said, “Oliver took it off when he brought you into the room I was in,”

His heart sped up a little and he let go of Matt’s hand, looking down slightly, “I didn’t really know what to do, Curt wouldn’t have made it in time, I had to let them bring you here Red.” It sounded like this had been bothering him for awhile. Frank allowed the Avengers to save him. But in doing so they now also knew he secret identity, and Matt could tell Frank felt bad about it.

But he wasn’t mad. He would have done the same thing if he was in Franks shoes. He carefully extended his hand and cupped Franks cheek, “It’s okay. You did what you thought was the right call.” He smiled as Frank relaxed a little.

“Okay this is sweet and all, and you know, sorry to ruin the moment or whatever but can we please talk about the elephant in the room?” Tony said suddenly.

Frank and Matt turned to look at him, Matt let out a sigh, he knew this would happen eventually if the Avengers kept showing up. He had just hoped it wouldn’t have been so soon. “Why don’t you call everyone else in here.” He said to Tony and Bruce.

Once everyone was in the room Clint was the first to ask, “So your blind right? Your not just faking it, because that would be kind of messed up.”

Judging by the heat rising from Frank, Matt guessed he was more annoyed at the question than him. But still, he had the right to ask, “Yes I am. The accident I was in when I was nine blinded me permanently.”

“There are other ways to see.” Frank added and Matt could feel himself blush a little.

Clint was quiet again, Matt could hear Tony’s heart pick up a little, he wanted to ask something. And Matt was pretty sure he knew what it was,

“Of course, I also almost died in the accident. I only survived because I agreed to sell my soul to the Devil.”

Tony’s heartbeat spiked immediately and Matt couldn’t help but laugh, He guessed Tony’s expression was probably priceless as well because Frank and Natasha joined in soon after.

The rest of the Avengers also quickly picked up on the joke and started laughing too, except Tony of course, who was now glaring at Matt even though he couldn’t see it.

Still laughing a little Steve asked, “So if your not the Devil,” he emphasize the ‘not’ while eyeing Tony with a smirk, “How do all of that stuff? I mean some of the stuff we’ve seen you do should be impossible.”

“Think of it like echo location,” He always had trouble explaining to others how his senses worked but still, he tried, “like a radar sense, or being able to see without the limitation of your head. I’m blind yes, but with my other heightened senses I can kind of create an image in my head of what my surrounding look like.”

The others nodded, processing this new information.

“So that’s how you could tell whenever we were following you?” Tony asked

“I could hear your heartbeats. And Tony, your cologne is very strong. I can smell it from a block away.”

Thor laughed and Tony glared at him but smiled a little.

They talked for a little longer, Matt explained to them the importance of his secret identity while Frank glared at all of them threateningly, they came to an agreement, they wouldn’t tell anyone about Daredevils secret identity and would try to stay out of Hell’s Kitchen. And in return, Matt would help them out every now and then if they needed it, both as Matt Murdock and as Daredevil. 
He still wasn’t fully happy with the idea of the Avengers knowing his identity, but he was secretly a little happy, knowing now that the Avengers were not as bad as he originally thought.

-

It’s been three days sense Frank and Matt left the tower. Foggy had screamed at Matt for at least an hour about how worried he was and that Matt didn’t get Captain Americas autograph for him. Instead of yelling back Matt simply hugged him. Right in the middle of Foggy yelling, it caught the other man off guard at the sudden display of affection. But fell into the hug, embracing the other man back quickly after. T hey knew deep down that they both just needed a hug. Midland Circle brought up painful memories for both of them and Matt was just glad he didn’t have to deal with it alone now. He had Foggy, and Karen.

And he also had Frank.

Of course Matt knew Frank was walking over to him before he even joined him on the top of his apartment rooftop.

Matt had his black suit on but not the mask, it was a quiet night and Matt was simply enjoying the incoming Fall breeze. He could feel the heat of the billboard across the street even from where he was sitting on the roof but tonight he didn’t mind, it made the cold air refreshing instead of frigid.

Frank walked over to him and Matt stood back up, before he could say anything Frank had placed something in his hand, he felt it and when the wind picked up again, and could smell it, rose like but a little sweeter.

“Peony. A cranberry red shade.” Frank supplied, Matt tilted his head and noticed Frank’s heart was racing, and so was his own, “I forgot to thank you for saving me.”

Matt tried to ignore his own racing heart and he took a step closer, “Thank you.” He said with a soft smile.

Another step closer, they were only inches apart and Frank moved his hand up to Matt’s cheek slowly, “Anytime Red.”

Matt tilted his head up and wrapped his arms around Franks shoulder, they kissed, it was slow and sweet and the breeze flew past them making some of the peddles on the peony flower fly away into the night sky. The billboard light up to different shades of baby pink and sunflower yellow and deep scarlet red.

They smiled, not letting go of each other, willing the moment to last longer. They rested their foreheads together and smiled.

They had each other now. And that was enough for the world to feel perfect.