Silence descended upon the Nelson and Murdock law office.
The air felt heavy, pressing down on everyone's chests, making even breathing a burden.
Matt Murdock was curled on the floor, his hands tightly clutching his head, his body trembling uncontrollably.
His red suit, a symbol of fearlessness and dread, now looked like a fragile skin, encasing endless pain.
Danny Rand stood frozen, at a loss.
He looked at his friend.
The man who had never flinched in the hail of bullets in Hell's Kitchen now whimpered in the darkness like an abandoned child.
The laptop screen was the only light source in the chaotic room.
Its eerie blue glow illuminated Elektra Natchios's pale, lifeless face.
That photo, that line of text, was like a Dagger plunged into Matt's heart, and then Danny himself twisted the hilt.
A deep sense of regret and self-blame seized Danny.
He had thought he was bringing a weapon of revenge, but he hadn't expected that the first person it would wound was his closest friend.
"Matt..."
Danny's voice was dry and hoarse; he took a step forward, then stopped.
He didn't know what to say; any words of comfort seemed pale and powerless in the face of such reality.
Matt didn't respond.
His sensory World had completely collapsed.
What sounded like dead silence to Danny was, in Matt's mind, an extremely noisy symphony.
Countless fragments of memory, like sharp glass, churned wildly in his mind.
Elektra's figure practicing with a sword in the rain.
Her defiant smile.
Her unique perfume.
Her warm body temperature when she was in his arms.
And her last, ethereal words, "I failed," as she fell before him... All the beauty, all the regrets, all the pain, finally converged on that cold noun on the screen—[black sky].
They turned her into a thing.
A codename.
An asset.
Slowly, Matt slowly loosened his hands from his head.
He pushed himself up from the ground, swaying as he stood.
His movements were slow and stiff; every joint seemed to groan under the strain.
He didn't look at Danny, nor did he look at the unconscious Bullseye on the floor.
His helmet turned towards that small, still glowing screen.
"You... you knew all along, didn't you?"
Matt spoke, his voice raspy like sandpaper rubbing, every word laced with bone-chilling coldness.
Danny froze, "What?"
"William Rodriguez." Matt uttered the name, "When he gave you this, did he tell you then?"
"He didn't! I..."
Danny hastily explained, "I guessed it myself! Matt, I swear, if I had known..."
"Guessed it..."
Matt repeated softly, as if chewing on the two words.
He slowly turned to face Danny.
Even through the mask,
Danny could feel that all the light in those unseen eyes had extinguished, leaving only boundless, heart-stopping darkness.
"So, you came to me with your guess, to confirm it."
Matt's tone was flat, as straight as a line, without any fluctuation.
"You made me see with my own eyes... what she had become."
Danny's heart was fiercely clutched.
This wasn't a question; it was a judgment.
"Matt, I wasn't..."
"You weren't intentional." Matt finished the second half of the sentence for him, "I know."
He paused.
"But you still did it."
Just then, the office door was pushed open from the outside by a hand.
Heavy footsteps approached.
Luke Cage's tall figure appeared in the doorway; he glanced at the mess on the floor, then at the unconscious Bullseye, and finally cast his gaze upon the two confronting men.
"Danny? What did your message mean?"
Luke Cage's brows were tightly furrowed, "What... happened here?"
When Danny saw Luke, it was like a drowning man grasping a piece of driftwood; he quickly and quietly explained what had happened.
From William Rodriguez, to the USB drive, and then that the "black sky" was Elektra.
Luke's expression changed from confusion to shock, finally settling into deep solemnity.
He looked at Matt, his friend who was usually calm and restrained, but who now exuded an aura of destructive power that warned others to stay away.
"Matt." Luke's voice was deep and strong, trying to pull him back from the brink of collapse.
"I'm sorry, brother. But you have to calm down. Kingpin set this trap precisely to see us fall into disarray."
"Calm down?"
Matt let out a short, almost self-mocking laugh.
"My entire World is burning, Luke, how can I calm down?"
He took two steps forward, closing in on Danny.
"Tell me everything you know about that place."
His tone wasn't a request; it was a command.
"Ma-tt, that place is a fortress!"
Danny grew anxious, "We have blueprints, we have weakness analysis! We need to make a plan together, we can't just rush in!"
"I don't need a plan." Matt's voice was chillingly cold, "I only need an address."
"You're going to your death!" Luke also intensified his tone, "You absolutely cannot break in alone!"
"I'm not going to save anyone."
Matt slowly raised his hand and took off his red mask, revealing his handsome but bloodless face, and those empty eyes that saw nothing.
He faced Danny and Luke, his face devoid of any expression.
"I'm going to kill."
These words dropped the temperature of the entire room to freezing.
Danny and Luke were both stunned.
The Daredevil they knew, who adhered to the "no-kill" rule, the Matt Murdock who struggled painfully between law and justice, seemed to have died at this moment.
Standing before them was only a Devil consumed by the flames of revenge.
"I'm going to kill Kingpin."
Matt said, word by word, "And then... I will end her with my own hands."
"You're insane!" Danny cried out.
Matt ignored his shock; he simply held out his hand.
"The address."
Danny looked at him; in those empty eyes, he saw a kind of resolute determination.
A determination that even Hell could not shake.
He knew he couldn't stop him.
Danny Rand painfully closed his eyes and told him the address of the research center, word for word.
The moment he got the answer, Matt Murdock put his mask back on.
He turned, without a trace of hesitation, and walked straight towards the broken window.
"Matt!" Luke Cage lunged forward, trying to grab his shoulder.
"Don't touch me."
Matt didn't look back, only uttered three words.
Luke's hand, capable of crushing steel, stopped abruptly a few centimeters from his suit.
He could feel that the aura emanating from Matt was no longer that of his friend, but of a wounded Beast, about to devour someone.
The next second, the red figure leaped out the window, disappearing into the cold night.
Danny and Luke stood rooted, the only light in the office coming from the face on the screen, glowing eerily in the darkness.
After a long while, Danny found his voice again; he looked at Luke, his mouth full of bitterness.
"We have to go after him."
Luke nodded, his face incredibly serious.
"Not just go after him."
He turned and kicked the unconscious Bullseye on the floor awake.
Bullseye groaned in pain, opening his eyes dazedly.
Luke bent down, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him from the floor.
"Listen, you piece of trash." Luke's voice was filled with suppressed fury, "You'd better pray we find him before he causes irreversible consequences."
"Otherwise, I promise you."
"You'll be the first to know what happens when you piss us off."
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