Prompt Post #3

[ddk_mod]

THIS POST IS CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS.
HEAD OVER TO PROMPT POST #4.

Keep filling prompts on this post! Make sure to link any new fic on the complete or work in progress fills posts so it doesn't get missed.

Please read the current rules before commenting on this post.



Leave a prompt. Fill a prompt. Everyone wins!
Previous Rounds: Prompt Post #1 | Prompt Post #2

Fills: Completed & WIPs | Mod Post | Discussion | AO3 Collection | Searchable Prompts on Delicious

Rules:

1. YKINMKATO. Play nice.


2. All comments must be anon.


3. Announce your fill on either the Completed Fills Post or the WIP post.
   


4. Warnings are nice, but not necessary.


5. Use the subject line for the main idea of your prompt (pairing, kink, general wants).


6. All types of prompts are welcome.


7. Put [FILL] or something similar in the subject line when posting a fill. Multiple fills are always okay.


8. Don't change the subject line unless you're posting a fill.


9. RPF is allowed. Crossovers, characters from the extended Marvel Universe and comics canon are allowed, but must relate to the 2015 TV show in some way.


10. Drop a comment on the mod post if you have any problems. There's an alternate link for viewing all the prompts on delicious here, if the above link doesn't work for you.

ATTENTION KINKMEMERS: We have some new rules.

• There's now a WIP post in addition to the Fills post. Fills post is now only for completed fills (and one-shots, and minifills). Unfinished fills and updates go on the WIP post. When you finish it, you can put a link to the whole thing in the Fills post.


• Prompts can only be reposted once one round has passed - i.e., prompts from post #2 cannot be reposted until post #4. Please include a link to where it has been previously posted.

Come talk to me on the mod post if you have any questions <3

ATTENTION KINKMEMERS 2: Late heads up for anyone not on the discussion post - we're closing this post and starting the fill fest when it reaches 4000 comments, which, as of writing, is in 17 comments time. Get any prompts you desperately need in soon!

Comments

[FILL] He Who Fights Monsters 7c/? (Re: Matt/Wesley - Good!Wesley, Undercover)

[(Anonymous)]

Wesley’s words make sense to Matt, and he doesn’t know if he’s more angry or relieved for the fact.

Matt hadn’t known what to expect when he had walked through Wesley’s door earlier that evening. Answers, yes, but now that he has them, he doesn’t know what to do with any of it.

Wesley’s heartbeat had been fast, but steady throughout his entire confession. Not a single hint of deception, and Matt finds himself also inclined to believe Wesley’s story.

All Wesley had done is confirm his story. Yet the ideas of SHIELD, of some mystical organization named ‘the Hand’, still feels as though it belongs in another world. In that world, good and evil has distinct lines, and heroes like the Avengers always saved the day. Even if Matt bought into his words, that he really had – had – been someone with good intentions, it doesn’t change the crimes that the man has committed, and continues to commit every day.

“And then SHIELD collapsed?” Matt prompts, hoping to get more out of the man in front of him, needing more reasons to justify this… whatever this is… that is happening between them.

Wesley smiles again, and when he speaks, there’s an undertone of bitterness in his voice.

“Yes, it did. I wiped away any mention of my mission and identity from the public record at first opportunity. And… I’ve been here ever since, with no orders, no extraction plan.”

“Why don’t you leave?” The question had been on Matt’s mind since day one. Wesley’s original answer had played with the idea of incarceration, but both of them know that it is not the only possible outcome. “Send the evidence to the Feds, get a new identity and go to Rio. You have the resources, you have the opportunity.”

Of every one of Wesley’s outlandish claims, this has been one thing Matt had not been able to reconcile. Why would Wesley stay in this position, when he has such a clear way out? The only answers that Matt can come up with are not ones that paint the man in any positive light. They say power corrupts, and Matt imagines even an ex-SHIELD agent would be no exception, no matter what lies they choose to tell themselves.

Wesley doesn’t answer right away, and Matt’s mind supplies him with condemnations, thinks that he’s caught the man out in something he cannot explain or justify.

“I couldn’t leave,” Wesley says softly, and his heartbeat tells Matt he believes it.

“What are you talking about?”

“Where I am right now, I can exert influence,” Wesley says, his voice picking up volume and speed as he continues, “I can control the way Fisk handles his responsibilities, I can implement strategies that minimize collateral damage, impose discipline on the streets to ensure innocent lives are kept out of danger. I can even tip off the police, tip off people like you, if the situation demands it. But if I leave, then there is no accounting for the person will fill my spot. And they are unlikely to have the same standards that I do.”

“What, so you see yourself as some sort of double agent? New York City’s secret guardian? You rob and murder innocent people!”

“I make threats, Murdock, it usually gets Fisk the things he wants.”

“And the times it doesn’t?” Matt answers, furious, incredulous that someone can be so misguided in their beliefs. “Do you send out thugs to murder innocent old ladies and tell yourself that it’s Fisk’s responsibility and not your own?”

“I don’t claim to be a moral man, Mr. Murdock, but I am a practical one. So no, I will not risk disobedience and my own life to save one life when by staying in my position I can continue saving dozens. For every life we have taken, I assure you that I have solved a dozen similar problems with everyone walking away. I do not claim to be guiltless for those deaths, Mr. Murdock, but I am only one man, and my power is not limitless.”

No, Wesley will not get away that easily. “You can give evidence to put Fisk and his cronies in prison, and there wouldn’t be anyone left to-“

“Do you truly, honestly believe that?” Wesley snaps, incredulous.

“I…” Matt falters, surprised by the ferocity of Wesley’s reaction.

“Do you know how many rivals we’re currently keeping at bay? Powerful people who would not hesitate to step in snap up Fisk’s territory and his contracts if we showed weakness? Drugs, trafficking, prostitution, it is the demand, the money that keeps these markets alive, poverty and systemic injustice that forces people onto these paths. Do you honestly think that there won’t be someone else taking Fisk’s place in a heartbeat?”

“It doesn’t mean Fisk should be allowed to continue, what he’s doing is wrong, and I would fight anyone else who tries to take his place.”

“And you would die, Mr. Murdock,” Wesley returns, voice cold, “How many times have you come close to that already? Fighting the Russians, fighting Nobu? The people you are trying to defeat don’t play by your rules of honor and justice. You cannot tell me you don’t understand that.”

“So what then?” Matt yells, “We let him keep hurting innocent people? Let him go on destroying lives with drugs and kidnapping?

For some reason, his reaction makes Wesley’s breathing slow.

“We take him down, but with calculated attacks,“ Wesley says, his words measured, slipping too easily back into a mask control, “Take him down in one dramatic gesture and all that will be left is blood. There are partners, lieutenants, people in his employ who are just as capable as I am and far better positioned to cover their involvement. The police will miss them. You know that. And you know what happens next? These sharks will tear each other apart until someone ruthless enough emerges to take that vacant throne.”

Wesley’s heart is racing within his chest in a staccato beat. There’s something dark in his voice, like grief, like drowning, like the monster in the night.

This is the real Wesley, Matt realizes with sudden clarity. A man so used to walking among vampires he’s chosen to take the darkness into his own heart to survive, so broken and twisted by his own experience that he cannot see any solution to his problems but cold, measured, violence.

In that moment Matthew sees himself, reflected in Wesley’s words of icy intent, of stubborn determination.

‘The lone man,’ Fisk had said, ‘Who thinks he can make a difference.’

‘That’s what makes you dangerous.’

“But if we take out those in the middle first,” Wesley continues, his voice taking a soft, almost sensuous timbre, each word punctuated with confidence, “If we take apart Fisk’s support structure, then there will be no one of any consequence left in the aftermath. Then, we might have a chance at lasting peace.”

And his words make sense, Matt thinks, furious, helpless. He had begun his crusade with little more than frustration, anger and the determination to do the right thing. Yet that line between what is right and wrong is becoming more blurred with each day that passes. Wesley’s words wrap around his consciousness, a snake’s whisper that tells him yes, yes this what he’s been looking for, this is better thing to do, the right choice.

“What about the people who get in the crossfire? Karen Page? Elena Cardenas? The innocent people caught in those explosions? What are their lives worth to you?”

Wesley’s breath stutters, and the silence that follows tells Matt a tale of shame.

“Collateral damage,” Wesley replies, his voice quiet, “You should understand that.”

Matt opens his mouth to retort, but then he grasps Wesley’s meaning.

“The people I’ve hurt are criminals, killers.”

“And you think those criminals and killers don’t deserve a right to a fair hearing, to due process?” Wesley says, in a soft murmur, “That they’re somehow less than human because of the choices they’ve made, the people they’ve hurt? Do you think that the men you’ve thrown from rooftops, put into comas, left crippled for life, don’t have families? Don’t have children? Loved ones they’d die to protect?”

Wesley’s tone is careful, gentle, yet his words are as sharp as knives, and they slide straight through Matt’s defenses, drawing blood. Matt falls silent, reeling from his unveiled accusations.

“You have to forgive me, Mr. Murdock, if I find your stance hypocritical.”