Murdock had no doubt that this inner argument could go on for some time. He used every technique Stick had taught him to refocus on the moment he was in. Foggy didn’t seem to notice that for a time Matt just simply wasn’t there. But then, Foggy seemed to be a bit gone himself.

Murdock could feel that Foggy had drifted over to the window and was facing outward. Each breath Foggy took changed the flow of energy in the room. It didn’t take much for him to realize Foggy was in love, but it was a realization nonetheless. Murdock smiled, hell he almost laughed out loud… After all that happened between him and Liz, he deserves to be happy again. Matt thought. DON’T I DESERVE TO BE HAPPY? ‘Please, if you started listening to me again, you might be happy.’

Internally… Murdock screamed at the dueling voices. He knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere, but more than that he knew they had to shut up or he would go insane. And once again, he wasn’t too far off the mark.

JAPAN

Stick continued writing by candle light, he didn’t need to know that over the course of his blind life he had forgotten how to form the letters he needed. He didn’t need to know that the pages he was writing on contained nothing but gibberish. And he certainly didn’t need to know that his pen was mere moments away from running out of ink.

And his faithful servant Oshu Kin, had no desire to ruin the masters illusions. He had become direction-less as his illness progressed. Writing out his life story seemed to give him a purpose. And Oshu Kin thanked Brother Sky for the suggestion. He could see that Stick was mere moments away from nodding off… Or dying. He thought gravely. What if this is the end of the story, whether written or not? I have no clue where to look for the Murdock.

Stick cleared his throat and set his pen aside, something he had not done since he began writing his story more than three weeks ago.

"Kin, the time for telling has ended. Now it is the time for doing. Take me to the Daredevil."

"Where must I take you great master? I know not where he resides." Kin had told Stick this many times. Sadly, his memory was going faulty too. Once, Stick was the greatest there was… now he was a mere echo of that greatness. If Stone had lived to see Stick failing, he would have openly wept.

"New York, my old friend… you must take me to New York City."

NEW YORK CITY --- NELSON LAW

Murdock was unsure what had happened, one moment prior he had been eating lunch… and now he was in the desert. And now he could see. It’s a dream…dreams and memory, the only places where Matt Murdock was still sighted. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but sand, burning auburn sand and a sea or azure sky. It was extremely beautiful, the most beautiful thing Murdock had seen since his accident. Either in a dream or otherwise.

"Murdock…." Disembodied whispering voices called out to him from the edge of his vision. He could almost feel something watching from within his own shadow. And then something flashed before his eyes.

His old teacher Stick fell to the ground, bleeding from his chest as a giant hulking bat flew into Murdocks field of view. "Let it go." The Bat commanded and was gone. And then it got even stranger… the fallen Stick began to speak in a voice not his own.

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to let you know that police are embroiled in a battle with known killer Bullseye."

Matthew Murdock snapped awake to the jabbing of Foggy’s fingers into his back. "C’mon Matt, wake up." Murdock sloughed off Foggy’s hand and rose to his feet, his eyes already on the television Foggy had already set up in his office. On the screen, Bullseye used a broomstick to kill three police officers in a row.

"I’m on it Foggy." With that his suit was already off, and he was pulling his mask onto his head. Fully dressed as Daredevil he leaped out of the third story window of Nelson Law.

DAILY BUGLE

The live broadcast boomed through the main office of The Daily Bugle. Peter Parker stared at the television, wondering why Bullseye would be so bold. He was so intent upon watching it in fact, that he didn’t see J. Jonah Jameson come out of his office.

"Parker… Parker!" he put his hands on his hips, a half chewn cigar clutched between his teeth. "Last I checked, we’re still a newspaper. I want pictures son. Now move!"

Within five minutes Peter Parker was on his way to the empire state building. Within ten minutes, Spiderman was on scene watching Daredevil prepare to dole out one hell of a pounding.

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

The chase had been long. Bullseye was fast and furious, Daredevil could say that much. But after one hell of a cat and mouse game, he’d caught up.

"BULLSEYE!" he cried out, his billy-club already sailing through the air. Bullseye turned at the right moment and took it square in the jaw. The force of that blow would have knocked a normal man cold, but Bullseye absorbed it and flipped backward, grabbing Daredevils billy-club before it struck the roof.

"Don’t you ever learn, Daredevil? Never give me a weapon."

Murdock didn’t even see it coming. Within a moment his own billy-club struck him square in the chest, throwing him off the roof. If not for a well-placed layer of kevlar, he would be dead. Just like… her. Cursing himself for not sensing it before hand, he reached for his other billy-club so that he could tether himself to something, anything. But what he found was that it wasn’t there. Heightened sound told him it was falling to the ground like a large flat stone, he pitied anyone on the street below at that rate of speed it was a missile. Just as he was beginning to think he’d be joining Karen, he felt something snare him and stop his fall. He knew what it was instantly, after all it wasn’t the first time Spiderman had webbed him.

"I guess that’s one more I owe you Peter." He muttered as he felt the web line snapping taught, holding him in mid-air. Air flowing down from the rooftop was unbroken, so he knew Bullseye hadn’t bothered to watch his descent. If he hadn’t seen Spiderman, Matt knew he had a shot at surprising the hell out of him. Through the tensile netting of the web he could feel Spiderman’s arm in motion, and in a moment he was being flung upward.

He shook off the webbing and landed feet first on the roof, his billy-clubs on the ledge at his feet. He scooped them up quickly, one in each hand and took a ready stance. "Alright, lets try this again." He released the swing line from one of his billy-clubs, turning it into a makeshift mace. He could feel Bullseye’s muscles tensing in the wind, it sent waves of sweat and tension pouring out to him from Bullseye’s direction. It was one hell of a locator. He didn’t even hesitate, holding on tightly to the rope like material he flung his billy-club in an arc that slammed into Bullseye’s head and brought the club hurtling back toward Murdock. He reigned it in, and once both clubs were in his hands he leapt toward Bullseye, his feet ready for a kick that would shake the earth…

Bullseye took it right to his back as he was getting up from the club blow, and fell again. "There are times I feel you don’t play fair Daredevil, maybe we should try another game." Murdock heard a rustling as Bullseye reached into his belt. "Do you play rummy?" This time he both heard and felt the projectile. He raised one club, and easily deflected a flung deck of cards.

"Alright, Bullseye, enough parlor tricks." Murdock tensed and readied himself once more, both clubs ready. "This fight is you and me… and it’s a long time coming." Murdock was seething with each breath; his back rising and falling in a rhythm he hadn’t felt in a long time. Stick had called it the siren song of battle, a certain Canadian mutant called it his life, and Murdock called it payback.

Bullseye was up in a flash, his hand jutting out to grab Murdock’s throat. Of course Murdock felt it coming a mile away, and placing the clubs in an ‘x’ caught Bullseyes hand and dropped him to his knees. The next shot was a head-butt to the crotch, and Murdock wasn’t able to catch that one. His own foot lashed out and struck Bullseye in a like manner. The sharp intake of breath and the barely audible yelp almost brought a smile to the face of the Daredevil.

"It’s called a cup, Bullseye, invest in one."With that he brought his billy-club down onto Bullseye’s head, hoping to knock him unconscious. It really just pissed him off.

Bullseye leapt to his feet and ran headlong into the Daredevil, shifting all his weight into the blow and throwing Murdock over his shoulder. Daredevil landed near the edge of the roof. And before he could rise, Bullseye was right there, oozing anger and frustration.

Daredevil leapt to his feet, and the two began circling each other. It was Murdock who made the first move. It was Murdock who made the last move. One billy club came down knocking wind and blood out of Bullseye, the other careened into his chest throwing him over the ledge. Murdock leaped to try and grab Bullseye, and grabbed his hand. For a moment he thought he had him, then he felt the hand collapse in on itself. He realized a second later that he only had one of Bullseye’s gloves, he realized this when he finally heard the cry of pain and fear that issued forth from Bullseye’s lips as they fell further and further away. He heard another sound too, the sound of Spiderman’s web-shooters firing. He thought that was the greatest sound he’d ever heard, as much as he hated Bullseye, and he did… that wasn’t the kind of justice he deserved.

Then he heard another sound, the sound of webbing slamming into something. Something that wasn’t flesh, Spiderman had missed, and Bullseye was already dead.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE --- LATER THAT NIGHT

Matthew Murdock sat on his usual perch, feeling the nightlife below him. In so many ways, New York had never changed. Now, as it was in his youth, the people below moved through their lives… driving to work, or home to loved ones. No, nothing ever changed… and it certainly never got any easier.

He knew Spiderman was coming, could feel the wind rushing toward him… heard the sound of his feet connecting with the cement surface of the ledge. "Thought you might want to talk." He said, but his body language said ‘don’t do something stupid Murdock.’

"What’s to talk about? Bullseye’s dead."

"Yeah, he’s dead. And how do you feel about that?" Spiderman sat beside him, they almost looked like two buddies sitting on the curb passing a bottle of beer back and forth. But they were more than buddies, in the war against crime, the Kingpin, the general malcontented costumed villains… they were brothers.

"I honestly don’t know Peter. Part of me feels that justice has been served to a killer, to the killer of the woman I loved. But it wasn’t right. He deserved a trial, and a conviction. And I wanted to give him that… to let him know that Matthew Murdock loved the woman he killed. To let him know that what he took from me was more than he could ever understand."

"But you didn’t get the chance, you always wanted to beat him without the mask… and you didn’t get to. Am I right?" You bastard, you know you’re right… you don’t have to make me say it. But he did have to say it, and they both knew it.

"Yes, Peter… you’re right." After that, silence. A long silence that seemed to stretch for hours, neither of them talking, both of them observing the city below in their own way. "What about you Peter, how do you feel about this?"

"I shouldn’t have missed." And with that, came the sound of a web-shot and Spiderman swinging away.

Many hours later, Matt Murdock finally walked back into his apartment. He’d shed the costume, was back in his regular suit/trench coat/blind-man can and glasses façade. He pulled a key from his pocket and placed it into the lock. Even before he did, he knew something wasn’t right. Turning the key quickly, he pushed open the door and burst in… always getting trouble conditions you to accept it.

Inside there was a man sitting in the shadows of a dark apartment, and somewhere else in the apartment Matt could hear the faint sounds of tapping on the bathroom sink. If he could still see, a man lurking in the shadows… would have intimidated him but he knew who it was. No one else smells like that.

"Good to see you again, Matt." Stick said before letting a small chuckle escape in sake of the joke he’d just made. He wasn’t much of a joker, Murdock knew, but every now and again… "We need to talk."

TO BE CONTINUED