A/N: I saw this prompt and was like "why hasn't anyone written about this in depth before" (burning_nova has on archiveofourown but it only shows Brett's POV, and I want to do everyone). This takes place after the Defenders season 1, and Matt is still presumed dead.

This is the full prompt:

"Daredevil's secret identity/Matt's identity remains secret, but somehow to comes out that Daredevil was a child soldier. How does the public react? Does this change anything? Especially if this comes out at some point during the show's events."

+ Bonus points if this changes Foggy's view of Matt being Daredevil.

+ + Bonus points for reactions from Frank, Karen, Claire, Brett, etc.

+ + + Bonus points for Matt not getting why everyone is so worked up about it.

It came out because of a news broadcast. People were in mourning over the loss of Daredevil, buried alive under Midland Circle, having saved New York City. Others were mourning over the loss of Matt Murdock, missing for a month now, having been kidnapped by Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Charges hadn't been pressed since Luke and Jessica had said that Matt had gone willingly with them, and cameras had shown that Matt had gone willingly, though why he did was in question. Nobody was talking.

A former victim Matt had saved a while back came on TV to talk about Daredevil. Other victims had talked about having been saved by Daredevil, though they couldn't give much information about him. He was a good fighter. He didn't look at me. He could see things before they happened. People were beginning to get an image of Daredevil as a super-powered or otherwise mystical being who could see the future. But then why didn't he see Midland Circle, others were asking. It was a mystery.

The victim was a young boy, still a teenager, of about sixteen. His story was different from everyone else's.

"He saved me from my teacher."

"What? Your teacher was abusing you?" the talk show host had asked in confusion.

The boy nodded. "My martial arts teacher. He was teaching me to be a soldier and wanted me to kill someone." The boy began to shake slightly. "I didn't want to. Teacher began to beat me, saying that I was useless and that he was going to leave me. I almost killed that guy, the mugger Teacher wanted me to kill."

The boy began to take deep breaths and the host began to look concerned. "What…what did Daredevil do?"

"He talked to me," the boy answered slowly. "After he knocked Teacher out, he talked to me about him. He…he said he had been in the same situation I had, when he was younger."

The host began to sense something big, and pushed the boy into continuing. "What did Daredevil mean when he said that he been in the same situation you had?"

The boy looked directly at the host, fear and admiration in his eyes. "He said he had been a child soldier like I had."

"He said he had been a child soldier like I had."

Understandably, the public was shocked with this revelation. Daredevil, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, had been a child soldier. A young boy forced into battle, into murder, used like a weapon. People began to dispute how a young soldier like the boy could have become Daredevil. Would he have been traumatised by his experiences? Was he mutilated by the training and that's why he covered his eyes? Questions like that dominated social media platforms for the next week, at least until people realised that they weren't going to get any answers.

Daredevil was dead. He couldn't answer their questions, no matter how much people wanted him to do so. Investigators began to go through records of known child soldiers, rescued about ten, twenty, maybe even thirty years ago, and cross-referenced them with people who had gone missing in the last month. No one matched the description. They cross-referenced the children with known super-powered people. No matches. Eventually, people had to agree that either Daredevil hadn't been a child solider, and so was just trying to comfort someone who was.

Or Daredevil had been a child soldier, and had never been rescued.

People hoped for the first option, but deep down, many knew it was the second. If there was one thing most of the people Daredevil saved could agree on, it was that he could take out pretty much anyone in seconds. Why would Daredevil try to relate to a young boy about what he had gone through if he could just beat the boy to the ground before he stabbed the mugger? There was no answer. Daredevil had been a child soldier. Daredevil had been a child soldier, and had never been rescued. If that was the case, then was Daredevil still a soldier? Or had he left before he killed someone, before he could turn back?

No one had answers. And the only person who could give them answers, was buried in a hole under a collapsed building.