Invisible String

Nothing left

a/n... This is a heavy chapter. Jules is going through it emotionally. Tw for strong violence.

Matthew Murdock couldn't bear to say no to Jules. He could feel the tension oozing out of her every pore. She needed him. He knew she was stubborn and would do whatever she planned on doing. With or without him. He thought he should go along so someone is watching her back. He'd rather it be him that anyone else.

So here there where. Padding precariously along the hazardous New York subway tracks. Matt listened out carefully for the sounds of a train approaching. Jules held a flashlight in her right hand to guide her. "J, are we close to the entrance?" Jules feels over the bricks in the wall. "Nearly nearly, I've almost got it..." her fingers catch on one of the rocks and it moves backwards. The wall shudders lightly as the rock face grates, pushing away to reveal a wooden door. "This is one of the confidential entrances to headquarters, we should be safe going in this way." Jules explains.

They step through the doorway and the entrance slides shut behind them. It seems that they were in an armory. Sturdy red and brown brick walls, smooth marble floors and high shelves, smells of iron and leather and a hint of grease just on the surface. Jules recalls it vividly from the times she'd been in here. But she felt her skin crawl, she was uncertain, on edge. The room was empty. Resources all gone. Jules turns to Matt "Hear anything?" he tilts his head to the side in concentration. "No, nothing out of the ordinary."

The pair walk up the armory stairs which lead into the corridors of the headquarters. It was desolate. Training rooms empty. Locker rooms empty. Conference rooms. Empty. It was eerie. Like the place was a shell of what it once was, a ghost building. Jules wondered could she have imagined it? But she hastily swatted the thought away. Jules was living proof that this place had been very much alive.

From the memories, she could picture everything so starkly. Agents running urgently down the hallways responding to a mission alarm. The sisterhood you could feel humming inside your bones. It was everywhere. Every angle you looked at. Intertwined in all they did. More experienced agents helping to train new recruits. Instructing them through intense circuits, but the whole-time shouting words of encouragement. Jules could see herself: pinker cheeks, long hair, and less calloused hands, but still with that fire. She saw the laborious ceremonies whenever a new set of agents where welcomed officially to the team. Forevermore now bonded more than blood, by the burden that was this job. Training endlessly to carry the weight of responsibilities. You had to be strong to survive here, but for good reasons. They needed women who's light wouldn't fizzle out because of a punch to the stomach. Mental or physical. They learnt to withstand.

Play Godspeed by Frank Ocean

Jules pushes the doors open to the large foyer, (where many important meetings were held.) The sight makes Jules fall to her knees and release a guttural scream in despair. Complete carnage sprawled out messily. Heaps of agents. Dead. Strewn across the floor in a violent mural. The smell of all their blood makes Jules nauseous, she covers her mouth in horror. No. no, no, no, no, no, no. No. They were killed in the most inhumane ways possible. Snapped necks, gouged eyes, severed arms and limbs.

A certain person catches Jules eyes. Linette. Lying motionless with a pool of blood surrounding her. Eyes glassy staring upward, a large gaping gash in her neck. With shaking arms, Jules pulls Linette's head into her lap. "Lils... I'm sorry Lils, I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. You don't deserve this. You were the best of us." Jules leans her forehead to hers. "Lils, I swear. I'm gonna get the motherfucker that did this to you guys. I'm gonna find him. And then...I'm gonna kill him. I swear to you." She looks at Linette, tears blurring her vision. Wiping her eyes and smearing blood onto her cheeks in the process. She looks around at the massacre. Incredulous to it all.

Then Jules sees it. Against the far-right wall of the foyer. The leader of women in training. Annie? She protected the organization and her agents with everything she had. She had a family. She was a superhero to Jules. She had a name, Annie. The body of a powerful woman now reduced to this torturous mistreatment. Her neck was broken flopping limply. She was attached to a noose hooked into the wall. Body hanging lifelessly like a ragdoll. She was gone. She was gone. And then to the left of her body, a message. It was scrawled over the wall written thickly in blood. "You do owe me Jules; mistakes don't go unpunished. – J.B"

Jules feels herself breaking. Like she was being strapped to a table and her insides where being ripped apart with a hunter's knife. It was like being strangled with your own intestines. Processing what to do, Matt approaches her and kneels by her in solidarity. They kneel together in silence, honoring the fallen. Until Jules mutters softly..."He's after me Matt, and he won't stop until he has me."