He stands up, staggering a little because his ribs hurt, but she remains intact, as imposing as she always was, as he always remembers, but her face does not display the usual taciturn scowl. Now Maya is practically begging Kazi to leave everything behind and follow a new path by her side.
- If you have the courage to choose. - her signals are precise. She has no doubts about her proposal and for a moment, she feels that Kazi is about to accept the idea. - We can walk together.
Together.
Maya has never wanted to walk beside anyone before. She has always been lonely and usually doesn't make any room for people to approach her, but now it's different because it's not just anyone, it's Kazi. The Kazi who grew up with her, who accompanied her to that high school dance, who translated signs the songs from West Side Story for her, who watched her mourn the death of her father, who supported her in the moments of weakness that only he knew. The Kazi in whom she would trust her own life even if sometimes things were not so good between them.
The worst part is that Kazi, the same Kazi who is now in charge of her, knows all of this and there is still a part inside him that is tempted to run away from it all with her and he imagines himself for a brief moment getting on the back of her motorcycle and gaining freedom with the only person he has learned to care about.
But there is also a voice inside his mind and it is clearly Wilson Fisk reaffirming his order.
Kill it! Finish it! Kill her now or I will kill you both!
- He will never let that happen. - he says, being totally honest. - I can't walk between two worlds.
Then Kazi lunges at her. Clint Barton's arrow cuts through the cold air of the plaza in desperate stabs for a target, but Maya is agile and deflects with an expression of utter disbelief.
His mind is now a mess. The Kingpin and Maya Lopez fight over possession of the confused Kazi's shares.
Run away with me! - He hears her in his thoughts.
Kill her! - Fisk orders.
Let's start over together! - she begs.
You will take her place! - Fisk bargains.
We were together, never apart, remember? - Maya seems like a ghost haunting him.
Do it! - Fisk shouts.
Make up your mind! - Maya and Fisk's voices now say the same thing.
Do I really want to kill her? Do I really want her place so badly? - Kazi ponders.
Suddenly the arrowhead finds its shelter in Maya's abdomen and she lowers her gaze to what pierced her and finds Kazi's hand clutching the other end as she keeps her arms around him as in the hug she tried to give him.
Her expression is one of pure disbelief, but the blood staining her hand as she feels the pain coming at her tells her that what has happened is real.
Kazi on the other hand still doesn't seem to have accounted for what he has just done. Only when Maya collapses in his arms does his mind return from the moment of stupefaction.
He listens to her gasping breath and a tear streams down her face.
He can read her eyes. He has learned to understand what she meant not only with signs, but also with her gaze and in that moment she tells him silently how betrayed, bitter and worse, disappointed she feels.
Kazi still doesn't believe it, but Fisk's voice congratulates him in his mind.
You did it. You killed her.
Maya, in a last moment, lightly touches his face and removes the lock of unruly hair that insists to stay on his forehead. The same lock of hair she had removed that night when their eyes met and they both felt so intensely connected.
She closes her eyes and in the next instant, he collapses to the floor holding the weight of her body and hugs her tightly, asking God that she wake up, but he knows that from the sin of killing her he can never redeem himself.
He feels the stabbing pain break his heart in two and now, regret impales him in the same way as the arrow stuck in her, but there is no turning back. What's done is done and he knows it.
Then Kazi screams gutturally and the echoes of his voice reverberate in the silence of the square.