Point of No Return

Title: Point of No Return

Rating: T – Just some talk and very little action. But be warned, it is quite dark… I just love tortured Faith.

Genre: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Batman Begins crossover. Basically, it's Faith and Henri Ducard. And it's a one-shot.

Summary: Faith receives a visitor in Jail… one that could change her life forever.

Spoilers: Well, anything before the Angel Season 1 episode "Sanctuary" is fair game, but hardly worth mentioning. And there are some minor Batman spoilers.

Timeline: Faith is in prison, so anytime after Buffy Season 4/Angel Season 1. Henri Ducard is obviously still alive, so after a little incident over in Asia. And because these likely storylines are probably way out of temporal sequence, just go with it.

Dedication: It's Christmas time! Based on our normal guild tradition, I got the pick of the 'Buffy/Batman' crossover. I just tried something that was probably a little different than expected. As I have planned to write more than one this year and still have my other fictions to concentrate on, well, this will be a fun one for me. And for some reason, I felt like sharing. Without further ado, this story is dedicated to Jess for the 'what is' and 'what could be'. I hope this gets your bunnies hopping.

x-o-x

Point of No Return

There was someone in the cell with her. Even though she was lost in the realm of Slayer dreams of darkness and death, she could feel their presence. As her mind awakened, she felt her body tighten despite the hold the chains had restraining her to her corner. There was no light in her cell. From the tiny window on top of the cold brick, she saw a few stray strands of moonlight filter into the room, but it was hardly enough to give any light. No, she saw him with her advanced Slayer eyesight. Lifting her head from the corner, she shifted her weight slightly, careful not to make any sound. "Henri," she said softly. "I know you're there."

A figure shifted near the door. Her eyes narrowed as she caught his casual stance. His arms were comfortably folded and his legs were crossed. He seemed perfectly content to wait until daybreak for her to regain consciousness. "I knew without a doubt you had some intelligence in you," he said smoothly as he gazed at the figure lumped in a corner of the small cell. Atop a cot, her hands were chained behind her, restricting her movements to that cold corner. "But this is one place I never expected to find you."

"Yeah, well, life has a way of disrupting things," Faith replied sarcastically, forcing her exhausted body to sit up. "What are you doing here? I thought you were dead."

There was a grave bitterness in his voice that he tried to withhold, but she was keen enough to pick up on. "How strange it must be for you to see the dead come back to life."

Faith winced as she rested her head again. Obviously this man didn't know who he was talking to. "You're preaching to the wrong person," she replied, her voice hard. "And you still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here, in Los Angeles no less?"

"I came to see you," he said pleasantly.

"You're about fifteen years too late for that," Faith replied. Though she felt the rage building, she had to calm it or it would consume her again. Everything she had worked for this past month would be destroyed if she allowed that anger to come forth. "If you want to see me sitting in a cell thinking about what a naughty girl I've been, then you've come to the right place. If you expect pity, well, you can go to hell."

"To be blunt, I'm not the one tethered to a corner of a cold, high-security cell," he replied, his tone hardening. "But this hell that you speak of… we have both endured our demons, Faith."

"What do you know of hell?" she asked coldly, blinking at him in the darkness.

There was a pause before he spoke again. "There are things in my past that would no doubt give you nightmares."

Faith laughed, the hollow sound filling her cell. As the echoing sound died away, she let her head fall backwards again. "Why don't you just try me, Henri? Let's quit the pretense. You know that I'm someone who obviously did something bad enough to be in a cell and convicted of murder. Knowing you, you're about to go on one of your suicidal crusades that makes no sense."

"I know that you are not the loose cannon you may pretend to be," Henri cut in, his tone crisp and business-like now. Faith smothered a yawn as she settled in for the good, long lecture. "You may have done something so horrible to condemn you to this prison cell. But I have come to realize that not everyone deserves such sympathy. Our society fears people like us. They fear what we have it in ourselves to become."

"So this is about fear now," Faith deadpanned, bringing her knees to her chest.

"It was always about fear," Henri replied patiently. "Criminals like you, Faith, indulge on society's understanding. They fear you, so they simply lock you up and throw away the key. They have no idea what being in a cell like this does to one's mind and mentality. They have no idea how to even begin to understand the darkness you have seen. If you believe me an idiot to your newfound powers, girl, you are sadly mistaken."

"How did you know—"

"The point is," Henri replied, his voice now taut as a whip, "there is more to you than a guilty conscience. You have the power to inflict change. You have the power to bring justice upon those who deserve it most of all."

Faith sighed, the huffing sound filling her cell. "I tried that. This is what I got for it. You think redemption is easy, old man? You don't know anything about my powers. You don't know anything at all."

"I do know that you felt yourself above the law," he replied softly. Her eyes narrowed as he continued on, cautiously. "You felt that because you were the only one with the power to do such things, you alone had the power to stop yourself. That power must not be contained. It must be unleashed."

The thought of losing her control again made her blood chill. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said, hating the tremor in her voice.

"I know enough to understand," he replied placidly. "You have been trained for something so great and yet you have no will to see it through."

"You. Know. Nothing," she spat, her voice rising.

"I understand perfectly well. It is you who understands that training is nothing. Your will should be everything. Your will to use that power could change the face of evil. It could change the world!"

"No, you don't!" she shouted, her voice echoing around her. Her own insolence was being thrown back at her. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF POWER? IT WAS GIVEN TO ME BY GOD KNOWS WHO AND IF I DON'T CONTROL IT…" Her voice dropped as she heard the sounds of the other prisoners moaning and thumping the walls in protest to her loud verbal assault. "I killed a man. This power I have… everything that I am… it's dangerous. It's volatile. I can't control it… I hurt people that I cared about, real people! Yes," she said, seeing the blank look on his face, "I am what I say I am. I'm not in here to hide from a society that fears me. That society doesn't have a clue that I exist. No more so than your justice league."

"We have both killed men," Henri began slowly, "but it does not make you a criminal, Faith."

"HE WAS INNOCENT!"

"There is no such thing as innocent in our day," Henri replied sadly. "There is only injustice and the stupidity of those who do nothing about it. There are only a few people who stand against the feared and you, my dear, are one of them. But I'm afraid to say that the numbers of those willing to do anything are falling rapidly. I do what I can to restore the human balance. You do as you will for the demon underworld. We are not that much alike."

"We're not much alike?" Faith asked, her voice rising again. She heard someone pounding on the other side of her head, drilling into her skull like a migraine. "I killed a man by accident! You do it for pleasure. You are what me and mine like to call the bad guy."

He looked revolted at that very connotation. "I do what I must to ensure a civilization survives."

She looked at him, her eyes filled with disbelief. "You cause civil wars and political unrest. What you do is no short of the treason you were convicted of! How the hell you managed to escape death row is beyond me, but someone up there must have really liked you."

"Someone did save me from the darkest corner of my heart," he said softly. "Someone did save from what I could have done. I would not be standing here today speaking with you had I not taken the very first step towards redemption. This is the point of no return, Faith. You cannot hide within these four walls forever. You will give into madness. You will give in to the darkness."

"I am darkness," she whispered. "I am the thing that nightmares fear. I dream of death and I smile upon it." A sudden thought occurred to her and she smiled grimly in the twilight. "I would no more ask a man to take the life of another as you have done."

"As I have done…" His tone cut short as he suddenly realized something. "Of course… of course…"

"He's not stupid," Faith retorted, smirking despite the fact that this man was beginning to disturb her. "Bruce Wayne has almost unlimited resources. All he had to do was look up Henri Ducard and realize that his daughter was still alive. And considering its like father, like daughter… it didn't take him too long."

"That man is a traitor to all that justice serves to protect," Henri growled, completely irked that Bruce Wayne had managed to thwart him again.

"As I said, he's not stupid," she said mockingly. "He knows that I am the one person in this world you are willing to protect and you can't. You can't touch me. You know I could kill you without a second glance. I could feel no remorse. It would not be justice, but it would be just."

"I am willing to give you that chance, Faith. Don't make the same petty mistakes Wayne made. If you do, it will only lead you to a path you cannot follow."

"You're willing to get me out of this place," she chortled as she glanced around the hell she would be spending the next thirty years within. "I have to admit… you're good. I'm tempted."

Henri glanced up from the floor, his eyes suddenly narrowed. "This is not your place, Faith. You were supposed to be better than this. Instead you were given a destiny that no man would want and in your very first year, you murder a man and land yourself in prison indefinitely. You may get a second chance, you may not. Come with me, Faith… come with me and I will show you a path that will prove to you that what I do is indeed justice. What do you have to fear?"

"Me," Faith said simply. "I fear me. I fear what I can do. I fear what I'm capable of. I fear being lost. I fear not being found. I'm scared to death of what I could do and yet…" Her features softened at the thought of being able to escape prison. She could breathe free air again. She knew Henri Ducard had the resources. Someone from his justice league must work at the penitentiary or else he wouldn't be standing in her cell in the dead of night. "I can't."

"You can't?" he asked, his voice rising. "Or you won't?"

"Both," Faith affirmed, turning her hostile gaze at him. Seeing her father again was like feeling something prickle her heart. She had fond memories of swinging off of his shoulders and hearing bedtime stories that would leave her mind warped forever. No wonder she tended to be on the dark side… her father thrived on it. "I can't do what you ask me to do. I have people counting on me… people that won't give up on me. These are good people, Henri. They loved me enough to help me."

"They condemned you for the rest of your life," he said in a voice of unrestrained rage.

"It was the only thing they could do."

"So now you're scared and alone," Henri surmised. "All the more reason to join me and the League of Shadows!"

She let out another peal of laughter. "Now you're sounding desperate."

"I will not leave my only child to rot in hell," he said coldly.

"You don't have a choice."

"But you do," he added, his molten gaze on her determined face. "I tried to show Bruce Wayne the path of one who could have done great things."

"He will do great things," Faith taunted him. "I looked in his eyes and I saw someone who will never give up. I saw someone that will not hesitate to cut you down. And I, for one, hope he will."

Henri's gaze darkened further as he saw her face alight in a fanatical glow. Despite the fact she was being imprisoned for murder, her skin was glowing with the color of renowned youth. "I will not stand hear and listen to my daughter berate me."

"You can't do anything to me," she replied in a voice of mock sadness. "You know I could kill you."

"I am your father," he retorted.

Her face tightened at these hated words. "And I wished you were dead. But I guess neither one of us got what we wished for. You want your daughter to stand by you as you go off on another one of your cock-and-bull joyrides? What justice is there in that?"

"I know the rage that drives you, Faith," he said in a voice of extreme patience. "And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed so you'd be spared your pain."

She glanced up, bitterness flashing in her dark eyes. "You have no idea how long I've wished that. But there is a difference between you and me. You came here tonight looking for something and I was perfectly content to believe you were dead."

"If you truly believed that, Faith, you would be dead. You may have been trained in something, but you don't believe it. You fight because you are appeased by controlling pointed sticks of wood into the living undead. I fight because justice is balance. What I stand for is to balance the world, to ensure that no city will rise above another. Just as I will ensure that no woman will rise above the law when the time comes. It is a path I must follow to redemption," he continued, his voice so quiet that nothing but her Slayer hearing could have heard.

"Mother would be so ashamed of you," she chuckled. He gazed up at her again and in the darkness, their eyes met. "She knew that you would leave her and that the heartbreak would ultimately kill her. You claimed to have loved my mother, but you never did, did you Henri? You claimed to stand at her side, and yet you persisted. After she died, you landed on death row and I was stuck as a warden of Massachusetts. How you got out, I don't know. I had been so hoping that you would have been injected with something and you'd be eight feet under, but I guess I can't have anything." Her voice dropped dangerous. "I guess nothing's changed."

"I will give you this one last chance," Henri implored her. "Do not throw away your life for one bad decision."

"I'm not throwing my life away," she sneered. "I'm biding my time. I'm waiting until I see free air on my terms, not yours. There's no deal here. You may be my father, but you're nothing to me now. Go off to Gotham and get yourself killed. When Bruce Wayne takes you down, I won't be able to see it… but I'll know. I'll know that for once I was right and you were wrong and all of this garbage on paths, justice and redemption will mean nothing to you."

"You are more like your mother than I would have imagined," he said quietly, slowly unfolding his arms.

"Your stupidity broke her heart," Faith replied softly. "Your unwillingness to follow the law killed her. How dare you speak of her?"

"I know things of Robin Lehane that would turn that mindset of yours around completely," he said smugly. "But that time has now passed. I fear that I will not see you again. As soon as we are finished in Gotham, there is another city we will move to. One, perhaps, that is close to your heart."

Thinking of Buffy and what Henri would face if he even set foot in Sunnydale, the slow grin crept across her face. "I dare you to take on Sunnydale."

"Your faith in your friends might be misplaced if you feel that they have helped you by sending you to jail," he said, his tone far from pleasant now.

"No, but I trust them. They take down evil and they will destroy you. You may have nothing left to live for but this stupid justice league, but we have a destiny. As in us, the Slayers two. The League of Shadows may have faced a lot of things in the past… but they have never faced the wrath of a very pissed off Slayer before." She saw the look spreading across his face and it spurned her on. "If you go there, you won't leave alive. But you won't have a problem. The League of Shadows doesn't stand a chance next to what Bruce Wayne has in store for you. He doesn't give up on his city. I don't give up on my friends." They never gave up on me, she silently added.

"And your family?"

"From what I know, you died fifteen years ago when they injected you with something poisonous and dumped your body eight feet under ground," Faith smirked. She paused, allowing the gleeful look on his face to falter slightly. "Don't come back here with your judgments, father. Don't come back here at all. If you do… I promise… I give as good as I get."

"Then you are truly lost," he replied in a voice of tragedy as he turned to leave, his hand on the door. He rapped twice and the door opened to reveal the dense yellow light. Faith squinted in the darkness as Henri's silhouette stood. "You have no will to act. You have no path. You have nothing left."

"I have something left," she smirked as he stopped moving to listen to her. It's called me."

"If you devote yourself to an ideal and they can't stop you, you become something else entirely."

"I'm a Slayer, father. That's just something you'll never understand," she added calmly. "Goodbye, father."

As the door slammed behind him, she felt a cold grin settle on her face. Though he was now gone from her life, hopefully forever, he had given her a lot to think about. Sharing a Hellmouth with Buffy was one thing, but if she ever got out of here, she knew where she would be needed next. From how Bruce Wayne had talked it up, there was something waiting for her in the major port city of Gotham. The way he had talked it up, that city was worse off compared to Sunnydale by means of poverty, injustice and unrest. There was no place for her in Sunnydale, but there was a future for her in a much darker town. Although the thought of another thirty years in this room was maddening, this thought gave her fire, an obsession that saved her from the very madness that her father said would consume her. No… she had a plan now. She had a destiny. She wasn't going to give into fear. Her dear father might not fear anything, but she did. She wasn't afraid of him. She hated him more than she hated anything, even herself.

She just wished she could be there when he got what was coming to him.

x-o-x

The End

If you could be so kind as to leave a little note as to comments or critiques…I would be rather grateful. Thanks :)