recklessthings | 🔎 jessica jones | marvel cinematic universe

[It was front page news. Technology heiress murdered in her penthouse. Except anyone who actually knew Elektra, knew what she was capable of, would recognize the smell of bullshit without even needing to smell it.

Elektra Natchios isn't a victim of a home invasion. Not with no evidence. Not with no body. But Jessica Jones doesn't get a say in those cases, and when she tries to pull any police contact she has, she gets a visit from the Devil of Hell's Kitchen telling her to back off, in no uncertain terms. She kicked him out of her apartment - her way of telling him in no uncertain terms that he could go fuck himself.

She should have thrown him out the window, but she was feeling nice that day.

Months later, she's in a room with Daredevil (Matt, apparently), Luke (awkward), and some asshat named Danny Rand, while an even bigger asshat named Stick tell her that Elektra's alive, been brainwashed by something called "the Hand" and they needed to kill her to save the world.

Fuck that.

Jessica doesn't think she can get Matt on her side. The way he talks about her, she isn't sure if he loved her or if he just was obsessed with her, and she didn't have time for that shit. Danny wasn't invested, and honestly, she didn't really need him. Luke, though, Luke knows her, even if he doesn't like her right now. He knows her history with brainwashing and being controlled. So when she comes to him, asking him for help in a way she knows she has no right to do, he agrees. In a lot of ways, they're still the only ones who understand the world they were forced into.

She knows she owes him for this in more ways than she'll ever be able to pay back.

Between the two of them and their powers, along with some (reluctant, as always) help from Claire Temple, they place an unconscious Elektra into Trish's panic room and wait her out. She doesn't know how this brainwashing worked our how deep it goes, but that doesn't matter.

She's getting her friend back. She doesn't really see there as being any other choice.]

[She isn't at the height of her power yet. Alexandra made certain she understood that as well as who her loyalties were truly to. Neither point bothered her in particular. She doesn't even have a name; only a purpose. That suits her fine since she knows no other life than the one she has now. The second point becomes a bit of a bother when 'not at the height of power' translates to being unable to fend off two nearly invincible people along with the ever resourceful Claire Temple.

It's when she goes down that she realizes that she hates losing.

Elektra wakes up sooner than she should, head throbbing, and feeling frustrated. She cannot serve her master from here nor she fit to right now thanks to the nurse. Her body feels impossibly heavy, but she forces herself to sit up.]

You should have killed me. [Is all she has to say for herself. She'll get free eventually and they'll live to see their city fall anyways. What is the point of this if she's left alive?]

[She stares at the door for a moment, before making her way over to the contact panel and pressing the button. She probably shouldn't engage, but maybe engaging is what she needs to find her humanity again.]

Sorry. I've hit my "kill my friends" quota for life, so you're going to just have to suck it up.

[Elektra doesn't respond until 'my friends' comes up. Her brows knit together in confusion as she tries to make the connection and fails. Once again she thinks back to what Alexandra told her about the vessel. Her stomach twists. (Pity; she feels sorry for Jessica.) Her gaze settles ahead at the wall and tries to ignore whatever is gnawing at her gut.]

Your friend is dead. Only the Black Sky remains. [It comes out automatic and stilted. It couldn't be any more obvious she's repeating what's been told to her with a minor tweak.]

[Yeah, she notices that.

The problem with telling this to Jessica Jones, though, is she's a bit like a bloodhound. It doesn't matter how many times you tell her it can't happen, or that the person she cares about his gone, she's going to keep trying to reach for it. No matter how long it takes.

She handcuffed Malcolm in her bathroom to detox him from Killgrave's influence, she will keep Elektra in her panic room until she fought her way to the surface again.]

I'm pretty sure she's more stubborn than you think. She wouldn't let some pricks with a magic resurrection machine dump her out completely.

[She swallows hard before she takes a step closer to the door.]

She's a survivor. It's what survivors do.

[Her hand falls to her stomach the moment she hears the word survivor. It doesn't mesh with the ugly scars the last owner of this body left her with. Survivors aren't left scarred and battered from her (warped) perspective. They're victorious, standing over the bodies of those who would try to end them.] If that were true, she'd still be here.

[It comes out hollow and resentful. How could she not hate someone who left her such ugliness? Her eyes move from the wall to Jessica as she shares even more borrowed wisdom from a mad woman.] Some things aren't worth keeping.

How do you know she isn't?

[Because victors and survivors aren't one in the same. Survivors have to bear the scars of their wins because they had to claw their way to get there and remind them of where they never want to be again.]

Maybe. But I think that should be for you to decide. Not her.

[That shuts her up because she truly doesn't. She didn't think she could speak until the words came out. The same goes for walking and a million other things left behind by the woman who occupied this body before her.

It makes her defensive as someone as empty as her can be.] You don't know anything about her.

Why don't you tell me, then?

[She crosses her arms in front of her chest and leans in to the door, trying to see what it gets her.]

Tell me what I don't know.

[Elektra thinks it over briefly before offering up an answer that really isn't unlike the ones she gave before. It's more recycled lines Alexandra has fed her carefully over their time together.]

She serves life itself. This city must fall like the others, but that doesn't make her good or bad. It's necessary to conquer death and death must be conquered.

Why does this city have to fall?

[That's something that stuck out to her. She said the city "must" fall.]

[That question gives her pause. The truth is she isn't sure it was ever really explained why in detail. She only got some appeasement when it became clear how the destruction was bothering her.] It simply must. For the sake of life.

[A part of knows that doesn't make any sense, people were dying like she did once, but it's all she has to go on.]

That doesn't really sound like protecting life to me.

[Jessica still is unclear about what exactly was under the building that they were trying to excavate, but she can hazard a guess of what they were looking for.]

In fact, it sounds like it's for the preservation their life, more than all life.

[Elektra frowns. A part of her knows it's true, but Alexandra is literally the only mother she's ever known at this point. She wants to buy into her lies if only because she has nothing else.] You don't understand yet. She'll show you when the time is right.

Looking forward to it.

[That's a whole lot of sarcasm.]

Honestly, I really don't care about her.

[There's a pause as she tries to find her voice and actually show a human emotion, because as dangerous as they can be, she needs to reach Elektra somehow.]

I care about you.

[Elektra's eyes soften because one of the many things still there is that overwhelming desire to be loved. The lies Alexandra have fed her are still strong. She quickly hardens herself.] You already know what became of the one you cared for. I am the Black Sky. You do not care for me.

I don't care if you're the Black Sky or Elektra Natchios.

[Jessica's voice is desperate as she speaks, trying to find something in there to reach forward and pull out of her, to trigger the memories she's desperate to believe is still there.]

They pulled you out of the ground and forced you back into this world, I get that. And I get that I wasn't there to help you, so maybe you don't want my help now. But I owe it to the girl who lay out a four course breakfast spread when she was trying to get me to work for her to try.

I don't believe she's gone. I just think that you don't want to admit she's still there because it hurts too much, and I understand that too.

[She sighed heavily, before pushing back from the door.]

But the girl I knew? She wouldn't let some pompous, rich bitch turn her into her own personal death machine.

[She doesn't know what makes her so anger. (Jessica's right. She wouldn't let herself be turned into a tool for some bitch with delusions of grandeur. A part of her still knows that.)

It builds up in her chest until she tries and fails miserably to get to her feet.] Don't talk to me like that!

Then give me a reason not to.

[She's getting somewhere. She can feel it in her gut - she just has to keep pushing and maybe she'll manage to get through all the brainwashing and help Elektra remember.

Hopefully the memories will be able to do the rest.]

Give me one good reason besides a forced sense of gratitude that you owe that woman anything.

[She can't come up with another reason though she tries quite clearly. The wheels are spinning in her mind much faster than they have since the moment she was reborn. It's funny really. She doesn't think she concentrated this much on regaining language yet here she is worrying over thoughts that clearly betray the Hand.]

Why isn't that enough? [She settles on finally.]

Because if she's using that gratitude to force you to kill people, then she doesn't deserve it. It means she didn't bring you back because she wanted you to come back.

[She takes a breath because she has no idea how to phrase it in a way that would make sense.]

It means she brought you back just so you could kill for her. That's not love.

[Elektra frowns deeply. Deep inside a part of her is screaming the truth. Everything she's done for Alexandra has felt wrong. This is all she knew so how could she not comply? Especially with an ancient woman whispering the right things in her ear to keep her loyal. Elektra's eyes dart wildly as she struggles to express what can't be explained. Jessica is speaking of her like a human. She's not. She can't be or else Jessica is right. People don't deserve what's happened to her. Even she knows that much in this life.]

I am a weapon. Weapons cannot be loved; only wielded by another. But, they can have value and importance. She treats me well considering what I am.

[That justifies everything, doesn't it?]

[And that just breaks her heart. But never let it be known that Jessica Jones has a heart to break. She pauses for a moment before hitting the buttons on the panic room door and opening it. There's the sound of Luke and Danny yelling behind her but she doesn't care, hitting the button to close the door behind her and stepping forward so that she's looking Elektra in the eye.]

You're not just a weapon. You're not some blunt instrument that that bitch gets to wield around.

[She pauses for a moment before holding out a hand to her.]

But you have to choose it. I can't do it for you.

[Elektra stares at her hand. She knows what she should do here. She should use Jessica's arrogance to her advantage. She should pull her in close and snap her miserable neck for reducing her to this. (Or really for confusing her.) The thought makes her visibly flinch and like Elektra of old, she covers up her pain with anger.] I could kill you and them. It'd be easy.

[She won't though. The very thought of it is upsetting her. She can't understand why she's letting this opportunity go to waste.]

Then do it.

[Calling this bluff is a dangerous one and she knows it, but she's going to do it anyway. She knows she's getting somewhere, and she wants to try and push that realization, even if she gets hurt in the process.]

🔎 jessica jones | marvel cinematic universe

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