Owner	Pose
Elektra Natchios	It was the last day of the Tournament before Elektra was able to find Stick. If she had to say, she'd have said he was avoiding her. It didn't matter if that were so or not, only that her talks with Danny Rand and Shredder had left her with questions that burned through her being. Questions that could only be answered by her old mentor: Stick. When she found him, she bid him follow her to her dojo, because not only was this a conversation not for all ears, but she suspected the ugly it could become would be better contained in a private place, not in the general public where every encounter and sparring match became a reason to pause and weigh in on what was going on before moving along. There were enough on the island who would know what a bout between the two could possibly mean, and Elektra wasn't ready to tip her hand yet. Not with the end so near in sight.
Stick	Stick followed as asked, the stoic man not showing much of any sign that he knows what had been revealed to her.   It all was of no matter to him, he'd been spending time in meditation and witnessing the fights. Stick himself was impressed with some, disappointed by many.
Elektra Natchios	For her part, Elektra had been enjoying the Tournament. If things had gone according to her initial plans, she'd have narrowed down several choices for a student by now. However, best laid plans, and all that. Instead, something else had been wrought of this Tournament, and those threads were coming together nicely. Perhaps better than she could have expecte. She leads Stick on to her dojo, and once inside begins the ritual of lighting the candles and braziers, taking a moment at each station to respect the elements before heading to the middle of the floor. "We need words, old man."
Stick	Of course, the lights only help Elektra. Once the two get to the dojo, he leans against his walking stick, part of looking the part he played.   Once Elektra joins Stick in the middle of the floor, he looks to his former protege. "I thought you just wanted to show me this...dojo, and forgot I'm blind."
Elektra Natchios	The candles are only a dimness in the dojo. As observed, they do not help Stick. And she's been trained to fight in states of blindness. They're ambience and ritual as much as lighting. "I know you better than that. You might not be Matthew, but you see well enough, old man. You've already assessed the place if I know you. Unless you're telling me you've ceased to be able to fight since we last shared a student-mentor relationship?" She gives a tight little smile. "When were you going to tell me? You've known all along about who and what I am. When were you going to tell me." Her usual calm has fled for a growing tension within the woman.
Stick	Stick's steel grey hair shimmers slightly in the candlelight. He huffs slightly. "I've always been a fighter, Elektra. My old age has not changed that."   Her calm facade lowered, and she finally found out. What little levity his face showed has left as she confronts him. "I told you many times. You weren't paying attention." Memories, of younger Elektra learning forms from Stick, telling her one day she'd play a pivotal role in the war against the Hand rush through Stick. "You are the key to defeating the Hand. You are Black Sky. How does the inclusion of that last sentence matter to a twelve year old?"
Elektra Natchios	"How?" Elektra bites out the word. "You knew what I was to become. And you did nothing about it. You let me be. You raised me." She fairly quivers, barely able to hold back from advancing on her former mentor. "You made it sound like I would save the world. Not condemn it. You knew how all of this was going to play out. That I'd never be on this side of the roster. That I was always going to be this monster that they created. That I would turn on everyone and everything." Then she laughs bitterly. "Did you know that Danny still thinks there's a way out of this. That somehow he and I wouldn't have had to meet one another and fight to the death? He thinks I'm good, old man. He thinks because Matthew loves me that there must be something of the light within me." Her head shakes. "But you made certain that wasn't true either, didn't you? Ruthless you wanted me. Ammoral. No attachments. How did you think that was going to save anything?" Then, pointedly, and with no small amount of pain in her voice, "Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance. Before any of this could be set in motion?"
Stick	Stick removes his sunglasses, his pale eyes able to look directly at Elektra. "I did. I told you you could save the world, and be the one to defeat the Hand. Their own weapon used against them."   He sighs in frustration, still not seeing what is so hard about it all. "There is no way out of it. The Iron Fist, sworn enemy of the Hand. Until you decided to join up with them and attempt a usurpation, they didn't have their hands on Black Sky. I wanted you to be what needed to be in order for the Hand to be defeated once and for all." He seems unapologetic, but there is a solemnity in his voice.
Elektra Natchios	"Well, you failed," Elektra says bitterly. Quietly. That tension remaining, but there is no longer the sense that she is going to take a running drive at the man. "You should have killed me. Taken me out of the equation and left them waiting for another generation. Now I'm the one who has to do that." She doesn't flinch between the pale of that unfocused, unseeing gaze. "I believed I could end the war by joining them. To be a weapon they couldn't weild. To weild them. And you knew all the while I was destined to fight the Iron Fist. How was I supposed to make decisions on the bits of half truths and near lies you concocted? You let me leave you. You let me fall in love."
Stick	"Because I wanted to take THEM out! Not biding their time for another generation just to start all this shit again. This is our time to strike. Iron Fist be damned." The hostility in his voice is known no hiding it.   "So, you decide to take your own life. That's your fuckin' choice. I offer you the choice to end the Hand, live your life how you see fit after, with your love if that's how you want it."   The old man speaks with truth there, no deceit, no tricks.
Elektra Natchios	"No I decided to take their weapon away after it was too late to make any other choices. You think I can just walk?" She fairly spits the words at the man, for all that they're quietly given. "I'm watched every second. Every move I make is reported on. I slip away for bare moments at a time. And were I to even try what you suggest, do you know what happens? They systematically destroy every thing I might ever have cared about. And if it isn't something I care about, it's something that someone else cares about. We're three people, Stick. Three." She closes her eyes, trying to recenter herself. "We were two until I made Matthew promise to at least listen to you. I'm ending the Hand as best I can. I've set what I can in motion. Now it's your turn to obliterate them. I can't be your weapon anymore. I could have been your Black Sky if you'd ever trusted me enough to give me the whole truth." She, too, speaks nothing but truth. No deceit. No tricks. "You told me only what you wanted me to hear. So that I never understood what it was. You thought that turning me into a machine somehow outweighed the monster that they would make of me. Instead of letting me be a living, breathing human who could make decisions. So that when I made a decision, it nearly destroyed us all."
Stick	Obliterate the Hand. it's what he wanted after all. But it was to be with Elektra at his side. It makes the grizzled warrior apprehensive. "You make the decision then, Elektra. You're so fucking dead set on throwing in the towel, thinking it's your only option. Hell, you even convinced me that this is the way we should do this. I'll play along, use the avenue you've given me because yes, it does open up the Hand to be taken out. And there's no way I'm going to let that opportunity slip through my hands while I'm alive." Not to mention Daredevil's involvement in all this.   Stick places that pair of glasses in his shirt pocket, before he looks to Elektra again. "Take a shot if it makes you feel better."
Elektra Natchios	"Dead set?" Elektra's voice becomes a soft hiss of sound. "I was. And then it became clear that even if I was wrong, I had no other choice anymore. They'll take me before I can leave. Do you think I didn't think of that?" She gives him a long, low stare. "Do you honestly think I haven't walked around this weekend wondering if there weren't another way?" She barks a tired, bitter laugh. "Madame Gao has me on a leash. She's made it clear what will happen if I make any moves that are not proscribed by her. Commit to the Hand, she told me, or.." Elektra gives something of a shrug. "She's already sent goons after Matt and Claire and anyone else I pay attention to. I couldn't even make Matt listen to me until it came to this. Until he knew I was dying. Don't you understand? None of this matters." "You needed a weapon, only you failed to include your weapon in the planning. You treated me like an object, Stick. I never understood what was at stake because you made certain that I never understood what it was to care about anything. And now? Now I'll be a martyr that brings them all together. The Chaste. The Defenders. SHIELD. Various people who wouldn't have otherwise given us the time of day. They will now, though." Elektra sighs, and shakes her head. "The Hand too. They'll form a united front because they'll have no choice. I split them. If you strike fast enough, you have a chance. If not, I can't help you anymore." When he says to strike him, she only sounds tired, "What would that accomplish now? I have hours left."
Stick	"I know you've thought this through. Which is why I'm not trying to dissuade you." A deep breath before he continues. "So, what do you need?" A small spark of the man she once knew comes forward, the proud mentor, the man who once thought he could love her like a father would a daughter.
Elektra Natchios	Here the woman stops and considers, what does she need. "I have sent information to SHIELD. It's enough to cripple current activities of the Hand. And should remove them from easy access to available funds. Don't stand in their way." "There are those out of this who will offer aid. Take it. Don't let Matthew be a fool and turn help down out of some misguided notion of sparing people from death. I didn't go to all this trouble to collect these offers only to have them turned down." She gives a small smile, one that is almost pleased with herself, or would be, if it weren't for the circumstances around how she made this happen. "Some of the sources are not going to be ones you'll be happy with. An old mentor, Dragon, an old enemy, Saki - among a few who will likely step forward. I don't care what our pasts have written. You take the aid and you decimate the Hand. Leave nothing you can burn standing. Worry about what that writes for the Foot another day, because you won't get another chance, old man." Elektra exhales, thinking quickly. "Don't let Matthew mope or try to get himself killed. He does nobody any good if he throws himself at situations he can't win. Slap him with anything you need to to keep him in line, including not wasting my sacrifice." She nods with her chin. "And you, you fight. You fight like I'm there at your side, because this is the only way I can be there. You take the Iron Fist, and the rest of the Defenders and you make it about them, not me. You make them believe this matters. I can't save any of you anymore." She draws herself up into a proud line of body. "Make this mean something. Make it worth what I've done. Use the weapon you forged. It might not be the way you saw it coming, but that's life." "You taught me to never depend on the weapon at hand. You are the weapon you always told me. Always expect that your blade will be broken, or your hands will be tied. Fight with what you have left, not what you thought you had."
Stick	Stick listens to the words his student has for him. "I'll make sure Matt doesn't mope."   The old man simply nods as Elektra mentions others who would assist the cause, and some people who Stick wouldn't normally trust in these cases. It's true, but Stick was more than apprehensive of working with any other faction.
Elektra Natchios	Elektra knows he's apprehensive. She's past caring. Her time is limited, and the choice really is his to take what she has set in motion and use it, or watch as the opportunity of a generation is lost. "Remember me fondly if you can," she says softly. "And thank-you for all you tried to do." She gives one small, respectful bow to the man, head and shoulders bent in a short, curt bow. "I may not be a good person, but it doesn't mean I couldn't do good." And with that, it seems she's said her piece. There's little else she can do now but wait and hope that the pieces fall into place and one after another once she's gone. That she's done enough to win this war that she won't live to see the end of.