As half the team battles the Sons of the Serpent to free Valkyrie, the others make a shocking discovery of who is actually behind their organization!
Daimon Hellstrom and Luke Cage, with the magical aid of Clea, travel to the place where Dr. Strange and Nighthawk are being held captive. They free them, and run into Yellowjacket. Hellstrom uses his powers to find a tunnel that takes them back to the surface.
In New York City, Valkyrie has been crucified to an upside-down cross, and the Sons of the Serpent, a group motivated by racist desires to purify the country of immigrants, prepare to burn her. They carry Daredevil towards the burning wood pile, but he wakes up and escapes. Jack Norriss, the husband of the woman whose body Valkyrie inhabits, runs from the watching crowd to help her. At that, the crowd is spurred into action, and helps fight the Serpents. (Members of the crowd note that even if they're racist, they're not racist enough to actually burn people at the stake.)
The Hulk, who has been blinded, joins in, and the Serpents are routed. They rescue Valkyrie.
Cage, Nighthawk, Hellstrom, and Yellowjacket come out of the secret tunnel into a unremarkable office--the office of Nighthawk's lawyer, Pennysworth! It turns out that Nighthawk has been unknowingly financially supporting the Serpents!
In an interlude, one Tom Pritchett and his wife Linda are hanging out at home in a trailer park. There is an unexpected knock at the door. When Tom answers it, he sees "an elf--with a gun!" The elf shoots them. This is the first appearance of Melf, the Elf with a Gun, who makes a few more infamously-unexplained appearances.
Nighthawk confronts Pennysworth, who funneled Nighthawk's money into the Sons of the Serpent, and who is surprisingly shown to be African-American. He says he doesn't feel that he should feel any connection to other black Americans simply due to his race, and says he assumed Kyle was fine with it since his money, like that of other wealthy businessmen, funds many unethical things by its very nature.
When Kyle brings Pennysworth back to the Defenders, however, Luke Cage is not very impressed with his arguments, and decks him.
They all travel to the Sons of Serpents' headquarters and defeat them. Then Nighthawk flies off in anger at his complicity.
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