Archive of Our Own ^beta

Prologue 

This is going to end at some point. That's what Jake's been telling himself.

He shouldn't get used to being the main man, to running missions as Moon Knight in tandem with their Knight so the old bird doesn't find out they're not Marc.

He shouldn't get used to driving his cab around New York after dark, to seeking out the places where people are likely to need an ex- vet all purpose rescue and getaway car with a loose sense of morality.

He shouldn't get used to wearing the suit, trade those ornate bandages for lightweight armor and black panel, curse his enemies out in Ladino, carve the moon into the worst of their faces, vanish into the night in his moon adorned taxi and hooded cape he keeps for the flare.

Jake Lockley is not Moon Knight. The Knight, a barely there sentient suited alter with fighting knowledge and precise movements, is not technically Moon Knight. Steven Grant, who vanished in a cloud of dust two years earlier and left the system unmoored, is not Moon Knight, was not Moon Knight.

Marc Spektor is Moon Knight. He's the one who made a soul deal with the bird god that got them the suit. He's the Fist. He's the vigilante-slash-killer people sometimes call a hero.

But Marc is curled in the back of headspace shaking like he's been since Steven vanished and Jake is here alone.

Well, not exactly alone, he amends.

Steven doesn't - didn't - know about the system. His job is - was - to take front and restore care and normalcy to the body, and to do that he needed to believe them both normal and worthy of care. He couldn't do that and carry the memories the rest of them all had, in some part. The trauma symptoms. The guilt. The others. Marc had sealed him off from the main system for his and their safety. He'd been their one tie to the person Marc wanted to believe they could've been without their childhood.

Jake, who had fronted multiple times to pull Steven out of a panic attack and heard him trying to convince himself he didn't have a reason to feel like this, wasn't so sure. He'd invented his own way of communicating with him, after Marc had started blocking even indirect internal communication, as an online friend who Steven had met in a forum. Maintaining a safe space for Steven kept Marc safe. Jake kept everyone else safe. He still caught himself logging on to message his friend in a different time zone. Steven wasn't ever online.

He wouldn't be. It had been Steven time when the Snap had gone off. They hadn't realized alters could even be Snapped, but Jake had guessed that the existence of the system had prevented the entire body from dying with the rest of the world.

"I let Steven die for us," Marc had vanished into the darkest corners of their vast, moon-cratered headspace. He'd probably assumed he was leaving only Jake alone, if he'd been able to think about it. Jake doubted he had.

He wasn't. Marc knew about the system but probably assumed he was the original, knew that Steven and maybe Jake and occasionally the Knight existed. But there were others in the spaces only Jake could reach, and with Marc and Steven gone they were drifting to front. The teen boy Marc who wanted nothing more than to become a spaceman, the little girl who refused any attempts at a name, the heroic echoes of Captain America’’s commandos from their lonely cartoon-filled childhood, the fragmented memory holders who existed in single world breaking moments - they were here now and they'd needed stability.

Marc's life hadn't been stable and Jake couldn't live Steven’s without breaking down. Being the Moon Knight cabbie of New York gave them some stability. Jake being actually good at his job gave them more.

He wasn't getting used to it though. He was just here for the ride, and it was a damn great ride.

1. Spider-Man 

The new kid was in trouble. No one had seen Spider-Man since the Snap, his corner of New York had apparently held a memorial of some kind, and the spider gods must've decided enough was enough because there'd been a new guy in a spider suit almost immediately after.

It wasn't the same situation as Jake's - the new guy was a different build, obviously younger, had an affinity for black and red that Jake sympathized with - but Jake had kept tabs on him anyway. He knew what it was like to try to fill a different guy's shoes.

The kid was usually fine, from what Jake had seen. He stuck to small-time robberies and muggings, he was never out too late, and he talked to people like he was glad to see them and gladder to be here defending his block.

Jake liked him.

The guy he was taking on tonight wasn't small time. He was a green masked man with a glider and he'd come to recruit or destroy Spider-Man. The kid was holding up okay, but he was clearly not going to win this one.

Jake dived out of the taxi, summoned the suit, and threw himself into the fight.

"Another one," he could hear the green guy's smile. "Perhaps I ought to extend my offer. The Avengers are gone, the world needs heroes, I'm here to shape the ones who are left into something worthwhile."

"Leave the kid out of it, dipshit," Jake throws a crescent blade at the guy's face. It barely nicks the armor. Dammit.

The spider kid struggles to his feet. He's flashing in and out of visibility. Unless this is just a thing the kid does sometimes and Jake is very wrong about Spider-Man's power set, this isn't a good sign.

There's a voice in headspace telling him to check on the kid, but he's pretty sure the best way to make sure the kid is okay is to remove the threat so he can recuperate without the danger of being hurled into a car.

Jake starts throwing punches. The guy hovers tauntingly out of reach, which might work against someone else but while Jake may prefer to stay grounded the suit's still flight capable. The cape unfurls and he takes to the skies. His crescent dart hits a glider engine and it sputters.

The next punch connects. The green guy starts spinning out of control. Jake considers going after him. Marc would go after him and put him in a shallow grave. Jake's got protector shit to do.

He lands a few feet from the kid, who's still flashing in and out of visibility. "You good?"

"Y-yeah. This just happens sometimes," the kid's voice is a little unsteady. "Thanks for the save, Mr..."

"Moon Knight," Jake says, and means it. "I'm Moon Knight."

2. Jessica Jones 

Jake's been doing his reading on the local capes. Technically, the woman who just kicked him through his own cab door isn't a cape, but the technicalities don't matter right now.

He staggers to his feet. He could summon the suit and heal the bruises now but he's not sure that's the play here. He's here to stake out a potential lead on the green guy he and spider kid tangled with a few weeks back, not to pick a fight with Jessica Jones, private eye and occasionally hero.

"Hey! Hey, assuming we're both here for the same guy, let's refrain from breaking the car and making me spend all my tips on a mechanic instead of booze," Jake holds his hands up like he's trying to look non-threatening. It would probably be working better if the space teen wasn't cocon telling him to go for his ray gun, but she doesn't need to know that. "I'm Jake. I'm sorta a do-all rescue ride. Following a lead on a guy who's been causing a lotta people to need rescue lately."

He's had more reports of the green armored guy since his team up with the new Spider-Man. He's trying to police the city with extreme violence and make sure everyone else is either on board or dead. Jake's not above a bit of extreme violence, but he saves that shit for the real villains, not for the guys just trying to make a buck and certainly not for kids like Spidey.

"This place is an Oscorp front.  Whoever hired you, they're not paying enough. That rescuer act won't protect you," Jessica reaches into her pocket, pulls out a flask, and takes a swig. "Go home and tell your employer to fuck off."

Jake thinks about what would happen if he told Khonshu to fuck off. It's a satisfying image - being his own Moon Knight and maybe having time to get the rest of the system sorted - except he's not doing this for Khonshu. This is for the kid. "No employer, doing this for a friend."

To his surprise, Jessica's face shutters. She takes a thoughtful sip from the flash. "I don't do team ups, but I know how this goes. I'm not gonna be able to talk you out of this, am I?"

Jake shakes his head.

"Stay behind me. Your friend's not going to appreciate it if you get hurt and I don't want to clean your blood off my jacket," Jessica closes the flask without another sip.

"You don't gotta worry about that," Jake makes a split second decision. He summons the suit. This isn't a team up between Jessica Jones and a cabbie. This is superhero shit. "I'm Moon Knight."

"I have no fucking idea who that is," Jessica mutters.

"It's a work in progress," Jake says, as someone in headspace mutters 'thought she was a P.I.'

So they're a major work in progress. But he's got this, he's Moon Knight knight now, and if anything else happens on this stakeout at least he knows this woman can throw a mean punch.

Instead they end up with a lot of files about a Project Dark Vengeance and photos of the green suit prototypes. It's efficient work, and Jake finds he likes this side of the business. He used to do it a lot for Marc. Maybe it's time to work it into the moon knighting more since he's doing that now.

When Jessica offers him her card and a burner phone, he takes it. He's not sure what he'll do with it yet, but he's learning that his Moon Knight works better when he's not working solo.

3. Daredevil 

The next time is intentional. The phone rings.

"Jess um. Jess gave me your number. I'm in a dumpster. I need a pickup," says a gruff voice.

"On my way," Jake summons the suit, fires up the cab, and queues up one of Steven's playlists for old time's sake.

The voice on the other end of the phone turns out to be Daredevil. He kinda undersold the situation. He's not just in a dumpster, he's also surrounded by security.

It's a nice break from whatever the green suit guy's building. Well, not much of a break since inspection reveals Oscorp badges, but no green armor in sight and he'd prefer to get them out of here before that changes.

"Let me try," says a voice in headspace. Jake goes for it and suddenly he's fully sharing front with the 19 year old space teen who's firing crescent darts like a ray gun. He cracks a grin. He should've tried this sooner.

They fight their way to the dumpster and the kid fades out of front. Daredevil is slumped over the opening, blood oozing down the suit. It's bad

"Moon Knight?" Daredevil sounds like the blood loss is starting to affect him.

"That's us," Jake says. If the other hero notices the slip, he doesn't say. "Here to rescue you. Jones' orders."

"She's always saying I don't get out enough," Daredevil says. He's struggling to stay conscious. Jake flies him out of the dumpster. "Wants me to meet more people, since that always goes so well."

Jake thinks that's probably irony coming from Jessica Jones but he sets Daredevil in the backseat of his taxi and reaches for the med kit.

"I was...away, and when I came back everyone was gone," Daredevil says. Either he's starting to get delirious or Jessica convinced him Moon Knight could be trusted. probably both. "Fog, Elektra, the Defenders, even Frank. Wasn't sure there was anyone left to protect the city. Had to...try."

Jake knows the feeling. He doesn't bother pointing out that the Punisher definitely isn't dead, he tangled with him in Jersey a few months ago when he was still figuring out how to magic up the cab, and the suit barely healed the scar. He takes the other hero home instead. The devil of hell's kitchen is just a man, and he needs more medical care than Jake's cab can provide.

Daredevil wakes up still masked in Jake's squatted apartment. The Knight is cooking breakfast. Vegan chorizo, like Steven liked, with the hot sauce Jake buys and the eggs the way Marc used to make.

"This isn't how my hookups usually end," the devil leans against the wall by the stove. Jake comes to front to talk. The other vigilante hasn't ripped his stitches yet, which is a relief. "Less stabbing."

Jake snorts. "You're not my type."

He hasn't had a type in awhile. He and Frenchie have been off-on since before Marc met Layla, but neither of those people have been in touch since the Snap. He supposes he's a double widow now but he hasn't thought much about it. Seems there's a lot he needs to sort through.

"I'm not most people's types these days," the devil says. "Thanks for the save."

"It's what I do. Protect travelers of the night, pull dumbasses out of dumpsters," Jake waves the spatula. "Moon Knight."

He never gets tired of saying that.

The devil of hell's kitchen laughs. "Ex-marine. Magic suit. Good reflexes. Death wish. Jess knows how to pick ‘em.”

He doesn't have a snappy response to that. The man's clearly drowning but Jake needs to pull himself out of the water. “Still inadvertently assembling the Defenders and waiting for me to suit up. It's not going to happen the way she wants. Glad she found you.”

Jake hands him a burrito. “Think it was the other way around for both of you.”

The devil actually smiles. So Jake's caretaker role can apply outside the system. He supposes that's good to know.

Interlude

Jake picks up a few fares and heads to the diner by his place. It's run by a woman named Gena. She's nice, always asks after his day and tells him stories about her boys who went missing in the Snap. He listens. He likes her, likes that she says dead and not missing even though everyone knows it's been too long to be anything else.

Jake knows what it means to cling to a hope when it's not coming back. These past few weeks he's let himself slip and start pretending that this could be a longer status quo - Steven's gone, Marc followed him into a dark pit of grief, and he hasn't heard from either of the people who could pull him out in two years. He found Layla's name on a list of the dead, he knew Frenchie well enough to know the man wouldn't be found. That's a lot of grief for the system to sort out. A lot of losses they haven't wanted to accept.

He runs his fingers through his grown out mustache. He thinks maybe when he wasn't looking he started to accept it. He is Moon Knight now, which means maybe The Knight is also Moon Knight. It's time to let the others figure out who they want to be.

He downloads a few space flicks for the teen who calls himself the Commander and orders a weighted stuffie for the girl. He's not sure what to do for the fragments yet but he thinks they'll tell him if he plays it right

It's nice not being a one man rescue. The devil calls him sometimes with locations, he patrols Spidey’s area of town in case the kid needs a save. Jessica sends him orders and he follows them.

They're not the Defenders yet, but they're what the city has left, like he's what his system has left. Maybe that can be something good.

4. Silk

This isn't the Spider-kid he knows. This is a girl in tattered clothes and spider silks clinging to the edge of a building. Jake takes to the skies after her. He can see his backup following but he'll get there first. It's why they called him. He lands close enough to be heard, but not to touch. He doesn't think she'd appreciate that. He recognizes a few things about her kind of fear.

"He said the world was going to end," she says softly. She barely acknowledges him otherwise. "That I was proof something was coming and we had to be ready. I stayed in his bunker for years, and when I left it was too late. Everything was - everyone was - gone."

Something in Jake's heart clenches. Her pain isn't his pain but he recognizes it, and unlike with the devil a few months ago, he's not going to deflect. His own shit is sorted. He drops the cowl. "I get the feeling. Steven, Marc, Layla, Frenchie. They were Team Moon Knight. I was just sorta along for the ride. Then the world ended and they were gone, I didn't know if I could be the Knight. I was just Jake Lockley, and I missed my friends. My family. I still do."

The girl sniffles. "I can't find my brother."

Jake recognizes that feeling. There's a swirl in his chest that feels like getting ready to leave front, except this is something Steven would front to push aside and forget and Steven's not here anymore and forgetting wouldn't help. "My brother's name was Randall. I miss him every day."

The girl sniffles again. "I don't know how to do this alone."

"You don't have to," Jake says, as the Spider-kid lands on a ledge beside them and Daredevil parkours onto the now-crowded building side. Jessica is on the street below and the devil promises his radar senses can pick up on anything she says "better than any com." "Everyone here's lost someone, but we're still fighting. We protect each other. Let us help you."

He holds out his hand. The girl takes it. "Cindy Moon."

The girl in headspace fronts momentarily to make a comment about them both having Moon names. Jake doesn't hold back the smile. "Come on, kid. Let's get somewhere safe."

And if that somewhere is an apartment he actually has papers for - forged ones, but still - with a team of reluctant allies who might be becoming friends, all that means is that Jake's finally making a safe space.

He's still going to find whoever did this to her and carve a few crescents into his head. It's the principle of the thing.

5. Black Widow

There's an Avenger in his apartment. She's dressed in civilian clothes but Jake knows a spy when he sees one and this spy's been plastered on national television a couple thousand times over the past ten years and she's not trying to hide it right now. He has no doubt she could if she wanted - the Black Widow is one of the most dangerous people alive and he guesses the only reason he's seeing her right now is because she wants to be seen.

"Coffee?" He drops his keys by the door under the kid - Luna's - sailor moon poster next to the space cadet jacket the Commander wears around the house and the little knight figurine he got the Knight for inclusion purposes.

Natasha Romanov nods. "You're not an easy man to find, Jake Lockley. Or should I say Steven Grant? Marc Spector? Mr. Knight?"

He shrugs. "Jake's good, Moon Knight's better."

If she's trying to get under his skin, it doesn't work. He likes all of those people, even if he's still mad at Marc and Steven's not around.

"I have to say, after Karachi I didn't expect this warm of a welcome," Natasha says. Jake experiences a brief stab of Marc-what-did-you-do before deciding it doesn't matter. Crossing paths with the Black Widow is definitely something Marc could've done in their mercenary days and wouldn't have filled them in on, nothing to do about it now except wing it and hope she's here for the Moon Knight instead of the mercenary.

"Worlds end, people change," Jake says. He almost adds a quip about a deal with an Egyptian moon god but that wasn't technically him and he figures she'll catch the slip so he avoids it. "Got a taxi, started doing right by the city, joined a team."

"I heard," Natasha says. "Jessica Jones called. She said she was sending us the files on Oscorp and we needed to deal with this before it became an Avengers level threat."

It doesn't surprise him that Jessica's superpower of making people pick up the phone applies to Avengers. It does surprise him that she's here and not with Jess or the devil. 

“Why me?” he asks. 

“The last time I talked to Matt Murdock, we both said things I'm not proud of and I kicked him through a bay window,” the widow shrugs. “He's drowning in his own grief and he won't come out of it for long enough to hear anyone else out. Cindy Moon is a 17 year old runaway who doesn't deserve to get pulled into Norman Osborne's trap, Miles Morales has school tomorrow, Jessica Jones is waiting outside trying to hotwire your car.”

Jake laughs. “Won't work. Moon warding. Many benefits to the whole Egyptian avatar thing.”

He doesn't quite understand her assessment of the devil, but he knows why she's here now. This is a test, he's a wildcard and she's trying to figure out if he can play with a team. He's not ready to turn it around on her yet. She seems like a woman who's worth hearing out. He does feel a need to defend his friend though. “Daredevil's okay when you get through the Catholic guilt and the martyr complex. Not that I don't understand the urge, but why a window?”

Natasha sighs. “It was a lifetime ago, and like I said, neither of us are proud of it. I'm not sure he'd want to see me.”

“Think he'd just be glad you're alive,” Jake finishes the coffee, holds out a cup, which she takes, and sits down with the other. “He doesn't have a lot of people left, and he tends to blame himself for things he couldn't control.”

He realizes as he says it that he's describing Marc, and by the quirk of Natasha's lips he thinks she might've caught it.

“There's a group for that,” she says softly. “The loss. Steve started it after he hung up the shield. I think you should go.”

Jake shrugs. “Therapy isn't really our thing.”

She smiles then. “Think of it less as therapy and more mission preparedness. I do.”

“I'll think about it,” Jake says. He's surprised to find he means it.

“Suit up,” Natasha says. He guesses he passed the interrogation. He's still not sure what the point of it was 

Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones are both waiting by the car in all black when he gets there, along with a short-haired blonde in colorful tactical gear.

“Carol Danvers,” she holds out a hand.

“Jake,” he takes it. “Air Force?”

“Marine?” they shake hands.

“Yes, yes you're both military industrial rejects,” Jessica says. She nudges Jake and says in a fake whisper. “She's hotter than you.”

“Heard that,” Carol says. “Detective hotstuff. I'm a big fan of your work.”

Jessica actually blushes. This is going to be interesting.

The taxi is warded to fit whoever it needs to fit, so Jake's not surprised to find it fits the whole team. Carol takes passenger, Jess sits in her lap and smirks up at her, Matt and Natasha take the back, which is an arrangement he didn't expect.

Jake doesn't pay attention to whatever's going on between Carol and Jess. It's not his business. The argument of sorts between Matt and Natasha might be.

“Next time you fake your death and start over, tell someone, it doesn't have to be me, just tell someone,” Natasha continues.

“You know,” Matt says. “Frank said the same thing last month, even more punching than when you did it.”

“So we can expect the Punisher to meet us at Oscorp,” Natasha finishes.

“You shouldn't. Frank Castle never does the expected,” Matt sounds almost fond. ‘Here's the thing, I did tell someone. I told Elektra, I pulled her out of Midland with me and built us a sanctuary away from all this, and she dissolved into ash in my arms. There's no coming back from that, Tasha.”

Matt glances back over at Natasha, visibly doing a breathing exercise. “I did go to confession. They said all I could do was be better next time, so I'm trying to. I have this team, I'm helping Cindy with her legal status, I'm Daredevil again.”

Natasha quirks her head at him. “That's all anyone could ask you to be.”

There's a lot of history in those words. Matt visibly relaxes. It suddenly occurs to Jake that this is the first he's learned Matt's name. He tunes out the rest of the conversation, suddenly sure it's not meant for him. Natasha Romanov is very good at playing with people's secrets. Marc probably liked her, Jake's not sure he'd go that far but he's glad she's on their side. 

The five of them pull off the Oscorp raid without a hitch, and if the spiderteens show up midway through to web up security and practice their quips, no one is surprised. The Defenders are a team and the spiders are part of the package.

So is the Moon Knight.

+1 Steve Rogers

No one is really surprised when Jake shows up at the support group. Cindy comes with him. Her grief is more bunker than Snap, but there's enough overlap to make it worthwhile. Jake tells himself he's mostly there for the kid - all of the adult defenders are rallying to help her adjust, although Miles is probably the most helpful because he's at least got a baseline for normalcy. He doesn't think anyone believes that though. Natasha was right, he needs to talk to someone who gets it, the heroing is new enough to him that he wants to make sure he's doing it right.

He's a little surprised to find he's alone in front, he'd expected one of the old Captain America howling commandos fragments, pulled to front by the sharing a space with their sourced hero, or possibly the curious Commander, or the Knight poking at sentience. But the system seems to think this is something Jake needs for himself.

Steve Rogers may look like a worn propaganda poster but in person he's a tired old soldier who's fighting for a home he can't find. He welcomes Jake with a clasp on the shoulder and starts the group 

“Now, usually I make a speech about adjusting to a new world or start an accomplishment circle but today, all I'm thinking about is sitting in a house in Wakanda with Buck and Sam, and Sam's showing me another album, and somehow Buck keeps learning all the words first, and I think I'd give just about anything to be sitting with them like that again,” Steve says. “So today's for sharing memories as you feel you can.”

They go around the circle sharing. And then the woman next to him is sharing about her dusted father, and sobbing, and Jake puts his hand on her shoulder and she smiles. She's got a smile nice enough to make him miss his turn, if Cindy hadn't nudged him in time.

“Their names were Steven and Marc,” Jake says. “There aren't words for it, but we were inseparable. And then Steven was gone, and Marc went after him, and it was just me. And I just want to tell them that I'm alright - it took awhile, but I figured it out for us. I keep hoping they'll come back so I can show them we made it. I made us a home, and a life, and they're not here to live it.”

“I think they'd be proud of you, Jake,” says Steve Rogers. “But I think you should try being proud of yourself.”

Steve's words are still ringing in his ears as Jake makes his way over to the refreshments table. The woman with the nice smile meets him there.

“Thank you,” she says. “You helped a lot. I think your…friends? would've appreciated that. I'm Marlene. Marlene Alraune.”

“Jake Lockley,” Jake says. “But you knew that.”

She's pretty. Blonde, with shimmering blue eyes. Jake leaves with her number in his phone. First time he's done this in awhile, but he likes her and he thinks she might like him back. 

Cindy teases him about it the whole way home.

They stop at the diner for pancakes, and Jake texts Marlene, and the rest of the team joins him. Jake is Moon Knight, he's a Defender, and his system is safe. For the first time he can remember, Jake Lockley is happy.

Epilogue

Marc carves his way through the werewolves, his wife and best friend at his back. Steven is cofront offering support and if either of them can feel additional chatter in headspace, it's largely inaudible.

This is the way it always should've been, but it still feels like something is missing. The four of them have been fighting around the world together for months but no place has ever felt like home.

A girl in a black and white spider suit drops out of the sky and webs up the remaining wolves. “Jake?”

And the rest of their life slams into focus.

“Layla,” they say, “do you want to see our home?”