Title: Beyond all limits

Summary: Sequel to Skeletons in the closet. With nothing to lose Sydney seeks revenge.

Disclaimer: I don't own alias, I only own the character you don't know.

Timeline: AU after the first one

Rating: R

A/N: This is set after skeletons in the closet, if you haven't read it you'll be lost.

Chapter Four

Sydney waited patiently on the doorstep of the house she had parked outside of. The owner opened the door and found no shock in seeing her on his doorstep after so long.

"They told me you'd be coming." He muttered as he stood aside to let her in. She cautiously went into his house, keeping an eye on his movements as he led her to the living room. "I'm sorry about your fiancé."

"Thank you." She replied as she sat down on a chair and he sat on a couch opposite her.

"Your father told me you had a boyfriend when he came back from finding you. He said you had a good life, that you were safe and happy. He wouldn't tell me where you were."

"I asked him not to." Sydney's reply was blunt and Vaughn looked over to the woman he had once considered his soul mate.

"Do you think I killed him?" He asked, his gaze searching her eyes to try and find some trace of the Sydney he had known.

"You were aware of Danny's 'murder,' you could have easily copied it…"

"That wasn't my question."

He got off the couch and stood before her. "Do. You. Think. I. Killed. Him?" He watched as Sydney's harsh expression softened and she stood and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. She broke down in tears as he returned the embrace lovingly as though it were just yesterday that they had shared a kiss in the ruined office of SD-6.

"No." She finally choked out as they both slumped to the floor still holding one another. "I just need to find out who did. I need justice."

"It's not justice." Vaughn whispered in her ear. "It's vengeance. It's consuming and it's blinding and it will consume your life if you give into it." Sydney pulled away from him and shook her head.

"I have to get Calvin's killer. I need to find them and make them pay for what they did to him and to me. Sometimes Vaughn, we can't play by the usual rules. Sometimes the only way for justice to be found is to go in to darkness, to be consumed by rage and disgust and resentment and let it darken you."

Vaughn's eyes lowered as he recognized why Sydney had said those things.

A long time ago when they had first been working with each other and Sydney had started to lean on him he had given her a speech when her father had not attended a dinner with her. Obviously from her words she had remembered his words exactly.

"…In this job you see darkness... you see the worst in people. The jobs are different and the missions change and the enemies have a thousand names. The one crucial thing the one real responsibility you have is to not let your rage and your resentment and your disgust darken you. When you're at your absolute lowest, your most depressed, just remember that you can always, you know…"

"You've got my number." Vaughn repeated the last of the conversation and tears ran from Sydney's cheeks as she remembered their connection and deep bond.

"Where is Lauren?" She asked, pushing her emotions aside to concentrate on the task at hand. Vaughn shrugged.

"She left when you did. She had nothing. No CIA connections, no Covenant connections, it didn't exist anymore, and no money or influence. That was a long time ago though. Now she and Elliot run an organisation known as 'The Order.' Elliot and Lauren now run the most successful crime syndicate in the world. Lauren founded it on her own, scraped her way back into the big leagues then Elliot defected about six months ago and joined her."

"I need your help." She leaned against his couch and stared intently at him as she spoke. "I don't want to lose myself Vaughn. I don't want to slip back into this world of pain and misery again. I need justice for Calvin, but if I try to get it on my own I'll go too far to be redeemed. I'm not like that, not like them. Please help me." She collapsed into his arms as she wept.

Underneath all of the pain and anguish and death she was the same old Sydney who was not willing to stoop as low as the vermin they had fought on a daily basis.

"If you want justice then get it the way you tried last time, when you thought Sloane had killed Danny. Work with the CIA again, help us bring down The Order and then you can rest again, you can leave and never look back and you'll have justice, not vengeance."

Sydney looked up warily into his warm and loving gaze searching for signs of danger or deceit, but found non and for the first time since Calvin's death she had faith in someone and trusted them enough to allow them to take her into the CIA.

As she sat in the briefing room she watched as people looked through the windows to see the great Sydney Bristow who had fallen from grace. She was no longer the admired and respected CIA agent, who was seen as competent and unbreakable.

She was a broken and distrusting woman who had disobeyed her own rules and morals and had been tainted with a lust for vengeance. She looked up as the door opened and found familiars faces walking in to take their places at the table.

Dixon stood at the far end of the table while Jack and Vaughn sat on either side of Sydney and Weiss and Marshall sat opposite them. Marshall smiled timidly at the exhausted woman who he had not seen in so long that he had forgotten what it was like to see her smile, unfortunately after what Sydney had went through and lost she found no reason to smile and merely nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"It's good to have you back Syd." Dixon smiled and was rewarded with a cold glare from her.

"I'm here to help take down Lauren and Elliot and unless you have a mission which will do that in the next week I'll do it on my own." Dixon nodded and her father spoke.

"Intel shows that Lauren and Elliot are looking for you, they're not going to wait for you to get to them. This means that your personal security…"

"Thanks." Sydney muttered as she stood up to leave. "If they're looking for me I don't need you people."

"Sydney, this is dangerous. Elliot was the best agent the CIA has had in the last fifty years. She was my agent so I should know, she's stronger and greater than she was and Lauren is no longer the weak threat she was. She is highly field trained and fully capable of killing you, considering both woman's past history with you they will be more than willing to kill you."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Sydney's expression grew dark and angry. "I found out everything I could about The Order from a contact before the CIA let me see their documents on it. I know how influential and powerful Lauren an Elliot are, and believe me I know about they're feelings about me. I know that going after them is suicide. I know that there is a slim chance that neither of them killed Calvin, but I don't care. Whether or not they were responsible for Calvin's murder they destroyed my life long ago and now I'm returning the favour. So I'll wait for them to find me and then we'll see just who's better, and anyone who stands in my way will suffer the consequences!" She stormed out unchallenged and Vaughn slunk his head onto the table and sighed.

He'd though that he'd got to Sydney in time, helped her from sinking too low or going too far past the line of justice and vengeance, but he'd been wrong. He'd lost Sydney once again and this time he doubted she could be broke back from the dark and twisted place she had seeped into.