File:Defenders Vol 1 104 001.jpg

Description
The Devil-Slayer has returned to the apartment of Ira "Sunshine" Gross to continue to try and help the burned out hippie kick his drug habit. However he loses his temper with the man when his withdrawal symptoms get the better of him and is about to walk out when Sunshine's pleas for help prompt him to turn back and agree to help him the best he can. Before they leave the squalor Sunshine lives in, a demon knocks at the door hands Devil-Slayer a letter before vanishing into thin air. Opening the letter, Eric finds that it is from a man named Ira Fate who has taken his wife Cory captive and has demanded that he come to face his past or she will die. This causes Eric to think back to his early life: His participation in the Vietnam war, his fanfareless home coming, the break up his marriage, his descent into alcoholism and vigilance and his eventual hiring as a mob assassin. It was during this time that he was ordered to target Ian Fate, then a reporter who was about to publish some damaging news about his employer. Ordered to plant a car bomb, he would follow orders and realize too late that Fate's wife and child were in the car before it exploded, killing them both. With this pressing matter at hand, Devil-Slayer teleports away telling Sunshine that he will be back. While in the Arizona Desert, Daimon Hellstrom has been forced to walk the desert by his father, Satan. After many miles of walking he finally collapses to the ground and is visited by his father. Satan tells him that he must first purge every last bit of humanity from Daimon's soul before he accepts him into Hell, and Daimon suddenly bursts into tears asking his father to stop torturing him and finally accept him. Back at Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Dr. Strange finally meets with the Beast to discuss the important matter to which he had come to see him for. However, before they can get into matters, Dr. Strange is interrupted by Wong who tells them that there is a visitor to see him. Going to see who it is, Dr. Strange finds that it is Sunshine, who has come to tell Dr. Strange that Devil-Slayer is in trouble and hands over Fate's letter before passing out from withdrawal. Deciding to go to Devil-Slayers aid immediately, the Beast offers to tag along suggesting they get the aid of Wonder Man along the way. Devil-Slayer has tracked Fate to an abandoned warehouse where he and a legion of demons have Eric's wife Cory suspended in the air with a number of swords floating above her. Setting his demons to attack Devil-Slayer, Ian explains that he has kidnapped Cory and intends to murder her to get revenge on Eric for slaying his family many years before. As Devil-Slayer fights off the demons it appears that Cory is stabbed with the swords, apparently killing her. However this turns out only to be an illusion to dishearten Devil-Slayer, and Ian reveals that she is captive in another dimension with only a weak mystical barrier to keep her safe from a horde of attacking demons. Fate leaves Eric with the image that his wifes death is eminent before teleporting away. As Devil-Slayer contemplates what to do next he is confronted by Dr. Strange, Beast and Wonder Man who offer to help him. While at the Penthouse of Kyle Richmond, Kyle celebrates the end of his legal troubles with Hellcat, Valkyrie, Gargoyle, Luann, his lawyer and Matt Murdock. Their celebrations are cut short when suddenly agents from the CBI burst in to take Kyle and his Defenders comrades prisoner. When they try to strike back they are gassed into submission and taken prisoner leaving Murdock, Luanne and Kyle's lawyer behind. Back at the warehouse, Dr. Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to learn the dimension where Ian Fate has taken Cory prisoner. Locating it, Devil-Slayer teleports them there and begin fighting off Fate's demon hordes. During the fight, Dr. Strange engages in mystical combat with Fate and easily bests the novice magician in battle. As the fight rages on a demon with a sword attempts to stab Devil-Slayer in the back but Cory gets in the way. Horrified that his wife is dead, Devil-Slayer is even more mortified to see that it was all an illusion and that it wasn't his wife who was killed at all but Sunshine instead. Furious, Payne confronts Ian who reveals that he couldn't bring himself to murder Eric's wife and had switched her with the burned out junkie instead. Furious, Devil-Slayer is about to kill him when he is stopped by Wonder Man, who reminds him that this all happened because Eric had killed Ian's wife and child to begin with. Accepting this, Devil-Slayer teleports away with the body of Sunshine, leaving Strange, Wonder Man and Beast with the near catatonic Fate to ponder the situation.