THE DEVIL OF HELL'S KITCHEN

The violet of her hair had always made it a little hard for Elizabeth to blend in, but the Crucible had become a safe place. “As it always is,” Betsy clucked. “But I’m afraid Saturnyne has a few requests to make, and you know how she gets.”

“I’m not going to be able to help you if we can’t be seen together.” Then again, there was a chance she wouldn’t be able to help anyway. Jen was great at law, but the laws of High Avalon specifically were a little out of her expertise. “I’m 6′7″ and green a lot of time. I’m really good at learning how to deal with and respond to unwanted attention.”

“This is why I never leave the Tavern.” Jessica muttered under her breath. “None of this hiding in plain sight nonsense.” 

“For you? Never.” The ( occasional ) tavern wench poured two generous mugs. “No information doesn’t mean anything good for us. I’m not sure where Le Fay is getting her power from, but she’s just getting stronger.”

“And Merlin forbid anyone see us together.” Elektra teased. “You look tired, Matthew. Come and call it a night.”

matt softened a bit at elektra’s observation. he was tired. too much was happening at once and being vigilant all the time, always looking for something out of place, something off - was exhausting.

“I’m a Thor. I draw attention everywhere, unfortunately. It’s part of  the gig.”

“I would not be here if it was not for you and the Defenders. Really, I owe you all.” She sucked in a breath and straightened up in her chair. “What can I help you with?”

“I know I shouldn’t be here,” Wanda pursed her lips. “But I have something urgent to share.”

“You say that every time we meet, yet every time it turns out fine. It will be okay, Matthew.” 

Kate grinned with a shrug. “Perhaps when I was a child.” Back before she had seen how corrupt her world truly was. It was impossible to live in complacency after that. “I’m lucky to have the chance to work with you all. Did Jessica pass along the most recent payment I acquired?” 

The blonde adjusted her hood to cover her face. “I understand completely what my doing here could attract, and I can’t imagine a lot of it would be favorable. I just want to help.”

“Is there a place we can speak privately then? I won’t be able to return to the Darkforce Dimension until the morning.”

Jake did what he did best, which was keep his mouth shut and start the ride as he tugged on the reins for Gunpowder to start moving.

But even he couldn’t deny the tension in the carriage as he softly cleared his throat and glanced over towards Murdock. Pretty soon Jake wasn’t going to be able to ignore Druig’s insistent pressing to journey with the Eternal to Egyptia. That was where his girlfriend or whatever was, and more importantly where Marc, Steven and Layla were as well. 

He enjoyed the simplicity of his life in Higher Avalon, even if it wasn’t real. Jake was his own person for once. He had eight years to build himself a life, and damn good one at that. Only, Battleworld wasn’t as kind to most people. And from what he’d heard of his alters’ time in Egyptia, they were included in that. And he couldn’t shake the lingering feeling that he needed to go help them, even if it meant leaving his new life behind.

After a long few moments of silence, Jake finally spoke. 

“I’m going to be leaving the domain soon. So you guys are going to need to do without me for a couple of weeks.”

being in the position he was in, matt often stuck to the shadows - kept out of the limelight. what he didn’t do often was travel, which meant he rarely spent time with the driver in any sort of setting.

as the carriage took off down the path, matt could tell jake wanted to speak.

the tension in the air was palpable, and he silently willed the man to say what was on his mind. what came next was not entirely what matt had expected, but something he understood was out of his control.

if he could gather more information on what lefay was planning, when to expect something, anything, he could let jake leave with a clean conscience. matt wasn’t quite able to predict where this would lead, but he leaned into it.

It was a lot easier to not concern himself with the politics of Higher Avalon and affairs of the Defenders of the Opal, but Jake secretly enjoyed helping out however he could. He had no interest in screwing up his arrangement with LeFay herself, but it was no question that what the Baroness was doing was wrong. So he also carried no guilt in feeding whatever information he could to Murdock. Not without reminding Matt that he could just as easily withhold said information. “Word is getting around the domains about traitors who are trying to band together to topple the God Emperor himself. LeFay plans on sending Kilgrave around to do some investigating here soon.” 

matt still didn’t trust jake as far as he could spit.

the man clearly had ulterior motives, and while matt understood the need to look out for oneself, this was bigger than them all. however, there were others he could turn to for information. lockey’s just always seemed to be the most...pertinent.

“kilgrave, huh?” he shook his head, letting out a tired laugh, “he’s not above doing lefay’s dirty work?” matt raised an eyebrow, silently probing for more information. if he had a timeline, they could prepare for kilgrave’s arrival, formulate some sort of plan.

“Anything that you should be concerned about? No.” A blatant lie. But Stephen didn’t really have the time to go into the specifics of everything with every person he came across. Eventually it would be everyone’s problem once Doom found out that there were people living in Battleworld that retained their memories.

“This carriage is running fare to Eternity Palace and the surrounding market. Anywhere else and I’m gonna need double the shillings. You don’t like it, find another coachman.” That was the thing, there weren’t any other coachmen in Higher Avalon. None that were worth their salt, anyways. Impatient, Jacob readjusted his grip on the reins as Gunpowder softly snorted, almost in synch with his owner. “You taking the ride or not?”

matt had learned some more disturbing news about the baroness recently, and that, paired with the several unique interactions he’d had with a few others over the past day, had the man on edge. everything seemed to be coming to a head. toward what, though?

he had no idea.

he could sense the animal’s imposing presence as he stepped closer to the carriage, but reached out to stroke the horses’s side for a moment before turning his attention back to the driver. the horse remained startlingly calm as matt stepped away.

he opened his mouth to speak, to maybe even give the man a piece of his mind, but ultimately decided against it, climbing into the carriage without another word.

“I really shouldn’t chat for too long,” Stephen started, the recent revelation of the truth behind God Emperor Doom and Battleworld as a whole still weighing heavily on his chest. “I’m here on official business.”