Fic: Faith Wayne (18/?)

"Leave me alone!" the girl squealed as she stumbled down the street, fires crackling and smoke billowing everywhere, as alarms and sirens blared in the air.

"Not likely baby," drawled Levi Anderson as he and three others of the 'West Street Wildmen', stalked down the pretty blonde honky as she stumbled into a refuse-strewn alley, discarded newspapers floating around it. "We are gonna have REAL good time together!"

As they entered the alley, Anderson sensed someone behind them. His heart pounded as he spun around, only to relax at the sight of a smoky-eyed, strangely familiar brunette. "Hey honey," he said, "don't I know you?"

The dark-eyed beauty's full lips parted in a smirk. "Your worst nightmares maybe."

"When I said we could help keep a lid on things, this wasn't what I had in mind," Xander complained as they strode from the alley, these thugs the fifth lot they'd lured into an alley, knocked out, and hog-tied so they'd be out of the way until things settled down.

"What?" Faith queried as she gingerly dabbed at the blood trickling down her boy-friend's face. "You figured we'd be out helpin' little old ladies across the street?"

"No, I figured we'd be helping pull people out of rubble, that sorta thing," Xander replied.

"Yeah, 'cause I grew up with such a love for social workers," Faith shook her head. "Come on stud."

"Aaaaah!"

Faith's head snapped towards a tenement building. "Janice!" Faith snapped. "Stay with Xan, Erin, with me!" Without waiting for Xander to argue, Faith sped across the street, the Irish-American red-head racing behind her.

In seconds Faith was bursting through the building's entrance and into its shadowy environs. Lewd and colourful graffiti adorned the walls and the passageway reeked of sweat, piss, and excrement as Faith entered the stairwell, but Faith barely noticed as she raced up the worn steps and towards the continuing screams, her fellow Slayer a half-step behind.

Faith was still running as she made the third floor landing, her foot splintering the rotten doorway open as she rushed into the tatty apartment so like the one she'd grown up in. Except this one, this one had signs of love and care that her mom had never bothered with.

Faith burst into the apartment's kitchen, heart shrivelling as she noted the young woman 'bout her age, but worn down by life, lying on the kitchen's floor, two sobbing children knelt in the woman's blood. Faith's eyes narrowed as her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of someone rattling on the fire escape outside the kitchen's open window. "Mother-fucker," Faith's snarl was barely recognisable to her ears as the world seemed to turn crimson. "Erin, stay with the kids 'til Xander gets here-."

"You told Xander to sta-."

"You think Xan will listen?" Faith shot her companion a wry grin as she jumped onto the sink beside the window. "You really haven't been payin' attention, have you?"

What little amusement she felt fled as she climbed out of the window and onto the fire escape catwalk to see the knife-wielding blond drop off the fire escape's last rungs and hit the alleyway in a crouch, dirty water splashing as he rushed off.

"Oh no, you fucking don't," Faith muttered as she grabbed a hold of the escape's iron railing and one hand vaulted over the escape's guardrail, "I've fallen way further than this!"

Her mane billowed around her as she plunged down, landing on the ground in a fett-apart, knees-bent crouch just feet behind the knifeman, dirty water splashing underfoot. The bald man who spun to face her was short and wiry with dead eyes staring out of an angular face and a goatee. "Another girl, another bitch to cut up."

Faith chuckled at the man's hiss. "That's supposed to be scary?" Faith threw her head back and laughed, then levelled a cold-eyed glare at the man. "I've been playing in the big leagues for years."

The man hissed again before leaping at her, daggers glinting as the downpour splashed off them, puddles splashing underfoot. Faith laughed again as she slid inside the right dagger slashing at her face then back-handed the other away by punching her rival's left wrist. Then she stepped into the man and drove the top of her head up and into the man's mouth.

Teeth crunched as blood flew from the man's mouth. Tears flew from the man's eyes as his head snapped back, then doubled up when Faith drove her foot up and into the man's crotch.

One knife clattered to the rain-soaked ground while the other still slashed at her. Faith smiled sadistically as she darted in before reaching down to grab the hand of the other arm and twisted against the grain until the bone snapped and the knife fell, Faith's knee to the man's face cutting off his pained scream.

Faith snarled as the man's knees began to buckle under her ferocious attack. "Not yet, you sick fucka!" Faith bellowed as she reached down, grabbed the back of the man's neck and flung him into the wall before spinning side on and shooting a side heel kick into the man's chest, ribs splintering under the impact.

The knifeman slumped against the wall, eyes glassy as she charged in, caught him with an uppercut that broke his jaw, snapped his head back to crack into the concrete, then slid to the ground, easy target to a series of blindingly fast kicks and stamps to the torso.

Batman leapt from roof to roof, heart racing as he glanced around, the raucous orchestra of a city in chaos filling his ears. He had to find her, make sure she was alright.

"Come on ya fucker! Thought you were tough taking a knife to a mom!" His daughter's barely human snarl reached his ears. "Try me, bitcha!"

Batman raced in the direction of the voice, leaping off the edge of one building and onto the roof of a lower one before dropping off it and onto the fire escape half-way up it. Ignoring the impact reverberating through his body, teeth gritted against the pain, Batman raced down the steps to confront his daughter in the narrow alley.

The man Faith was kicking field goals with had two swollen-shut eyes, his nose squashed flat across his face, his jaw hung limply and blood ran from his mouth, crimson staining what teeth remained. All his limbs looked to be either dislocated or broke, or both. Batman bit back a gasp as he just about recognised the mangled mess at Faith's blood-splattered feet. "Zsasz."

Faith didn't turn at his grunt, choosing instead to stamp on the serial killer's left knee, snapping it like a twig. Zsasz's scream turned to a strangled grunt when Faith kicked him in the throat.

Then Faith spun to face him, dark flames flaring in his daughter's eyes. "You know this fucker?"

Batman managed to stand his ground. "Yes, he's Zsasz, a serial killer of primarily young women."

If anything his daughter's eyes burnt even hotter. "You know this and this nut-job is still walkin' around?"

"It's not my duty to punish criminals only to apprehend them," Batman replied. "I've caught him a number of times but he always managed to escape."

"Then why in the hell didn't you make sure he wasn't able to escape?" Faith snapped. "You figure your responsibility ends when you hand 'em over to the pigs?"

"Faith," Batman tried for his most reasonable tone, "you're not saying anything I haven't considered for myself."

"Well consider this," Faith snapped, "how many people has this piece of shit murdered on his escapes? 'Cause every one of their deaths is on your head as well as his!"

"I have a line I won't cross," Batman replied, stung by the accusation. "I won't become them, I won't kill."

There wasn't an accusation in his words, but nevertheless Faith flinched, her face paling as she stumbled backwards. "You bast-."

"Hey!" Batman stumbled as a rock bounced off the back of his head, pain blazing through his head. Spinning around, he saw a trio of Faith's Slayers racing towards him, led by a thin red-head. "This might be your city!" the red-head snarled in an strongly Irish accent. "But that's our leader and you wanna fark off before we rip that cape off and shove it up your farking arse!"

Batman grimaced, stymied by the teens' arrival. He wanted, no make that needed, to continue this conversation with Faith, but couldn't without revealing to the newcomers that he and Faith were more than just passing acquaintances. "Thank you for your assistance," he nodded at Faith, "I'll take Zsasz in to the proper authorities."

Faith didn't reply, just crossed her arms and glared molten at him.

Xander looked at his girl-friend as they entered their room. She hadn't said much, make that anything, since they'd returned home two hours ago, but he could tell Faith was steaming, and from the other girls' chatter he could guess what it was. "Now normally," Xander tried for a light tone but guessed he wasn't entirely successful, "I'd suggest we'd jump into the shower and get all this ash, dust, and," he winced, "blood off us. But I figure you need to talk." Faith grunted and continued pacing back and forth across the bedroom floor. "Faith, what happened with Bat-, with your dad?"

Faith spun to face him. "Ya don't wanna know."

"And yet," Xander smiled, "I'm asking."

"Fine, I went a little nutso when I found that dead mom and her kids," Faith shrugged. "Don't regret it mind, but I really kicked the shit outta the murdering fucker. My dad turned up at the end of his beating, we got into an argument where he accused me more or less as bein' as bad as the bastard!"

"He did what!" Xander's remaining eye hardened to ebony stone. "What did he say exactly?"

"That here was a line he wasn't gonna cross in protecting people and that if he killed he'd be as bad as them," Faith glanced down at her boots, "as bad as me."

"Did he actually say that?" Xander queried, his soft tone concealing his anger.

"Well not the actual last bit," Faith shrugged again. "The girls came in and broke everything up." Faith's teeth flashed, her dimples deepening. "Man, you should have seen them. There's the freakin' Batman, the Dark Knight, but they ain't takin' a back-step! For me!"

Xander smiled at Faith's passion. "They love you."

"I guess." Faith flushed crimson.

"Hey," Xander took Faith into his grasp, leaned down and kissed her forehead, "sometimes the best families are the ones you make yourself. If you want to cut your dad out, that's fine. You've still got all of us."

"Thanks, Xan." Faith's nose wrinkled, a reassuringly familiar twinkle entering her eyes. "Now 'bout that shower?"

"Sir," Alfred rose as his master entered the Batcave, "I've been watching things in Gotham, it seemed hectic."

"It was," the Batman grunted as he leapt out of the Batmobile, a nigh on thunderous scowl etched across his face.

"Sir, if I might enquire to your disquiet?"

"I ran into Faith out there-."

"Good lord," Alfred interrupted, his heart catching, the impish brunette having wormed her way into his heart, "she hadn't been hurt has she?"

"No," Bruce pulled off his mask. "She was the one doing the hurting." Alfred waited for his employer and friend to clarify. "You remember Zsasz?" Alfred nodded, he was a particularly nasty serial killer. "Well he'd escaped in the current chaos and butchered a young mother. Unfortunately for him, Faith had caught him, and was busy dissecting him."

"Dissecting him?" Alfred queried.

"By the time I got there, Zsasz had four broken ribs, two shattered knee-caps, one dislocated shoulder, two broken wrists, a separated retina, several knocked-out teeth, a shattered jaw, a broken nose, and a severe concussion," Batman replied. Alfred winced. He had absolutely no sympathy for the murderous serial killer, but that litany of injuries was shuddering to say the least. "When I tried to remonstrate with her about the excessiveness of her capture, an argument developed." Bruce sighed. "When Faith demanded how many killers I'd stopped, I said it wasn't my place to punish, merely apprehend, I wouldn't lower myself to their levels."

"Sir," Alfred chose his words carefully, "perhaps your remarks were indecorous?"

"I didn't mean to compare Faith to Zsasz, even when she killed, she was a wounded, emotionally damaged child who'd never had any guidance," Bruce replied, his voice weary. "Although in one way, Faith does make my point for me."

"I trust you didn't say that," Alfred wondered aloud.

"I didn't get the chance," Bruce shook his head. "It's actually a compliment to her. I don't feel I have the right to kill, because at any time a human being, might realise the error of their ways and redeem themselves just as she did. That's why I don't kill, not through a lack of will, I don't have the right to decide someone won't\can't change."

"Perhaps that's what you should say to her?" Alfred suggested.

"I will if she'll see me."

Location Unknown

Ra's al Ghul glared impotently at the computer screen before him. Impotency wasn't something he was used to. In all his years as leader of the League of Assassins he'd been feared, known both for his resourcefulness and his ruthlessness. And yet a tiny girl continued to balk him, an obstacle for his plans for Wayne.

And then there was the carnage consuming the world. Normally such devastation engulfing the self-styled governments of the globe would amuse him greatly, but he sensed an unsettlingly malign influence pulling the strings from the shadows. Something about this presence unnerved even him.

Still, a thin smile tugged at his lips, this chaos presented a certain opportunity. If Constantine Drakon could not take Faith Lehane\Wayne on his own, perhaps several non-League affiliated assassins, each hired by a different independent agent, could do the job in an ambush.

"Yes," he leaned forward and began typing at his computer's keyboard, any command he sent going through encrypted lines, layers of passworded security, and several dummy accounts making it nigh impossible for his agents outside of the League Of Assassins to discover who their employer truly was.

And any who tried would disappear permanently.

The JLA Watchtower

Batman strode into the polished floored conference hall to see many of his friends had already arrived. "Sorry for my lateness," he apologised. "Chasing down a few criminals who'd escaped during the riot."

"How is Gotham City?" Martian Manhunter queried.

"More or less under control," Batman replied. "Have you recovered from the attack on you?"

"Yes thank you," Martian Manhunter smiled. "And yourself?"

"Fine thank you," Batman took his seat. "Now to business, has anyone considered the true purpose behind the mass prison attacks and the attacks on us?"

"Couldn't the attacks be just what they seem?" Black Canary queried, her eyes intense. "Just an attempt to seed chaos throughout the world?"

"No," Batman shook his head, "there has to be a darker purpose, there were too many resources expelled for it to be just about chaos. There has to be a greater game."

"What a cheery mind you have," Wonder Woman said with a slight smile.

"I've had decades of living with it," Batman replied. "We need to be looking for robberies that were done under the cover of the mass escapes, perhaps of scientific equipment that put together could make a weapon. Or a prisoner who escaped during the prison escapes that hasn't been captured, but who has an unique talent or ability that would make him valuable to a villain. Or an illegal transaction that we missed in the chaos."

"You're definitely ruling out it being the Joker behind this?" Green Arrow queried. "Just for the kicks?"

"The Joker doesn't have the funds or the resources to pull off this operation," Superman commented. "The list of villains who could do this is pretty short – Ras'al Ghul, Lex Luthor, Vandal Savage, Brainiac, General Immortus, maybe a couple of others."

"If we find the motivation behind this attack, we'll be one step closer to finding whose behind it," Martian Manhunter commented.

"Perhaps it links into all the supernatural problems we've been experiencing."

Batman looked towards Hal Jordan. "That's a possibility," he replied. A possibility he hadn't considered. Clearly his estrangement with his daughter was distracting him even more than he'd feared.

"Here's how we'll progress from this point," Superman said. "First, Batman I want you to contact Oracle and see if she can run up a model of illegal transactions, speciality thefts, and that sort of thing that were done under the cover of the recent chaos. Second, have her see if anything links to the supernatural threats." Superman looked around. "The other super-hero teams need to be alerted to this threat, and we need to investigate the villains with the possible resources to engineer this operation."

Batman spoke the words he'd been considering for hours but dreading to say. "Superman, you need to be ready to travel to the future and bring the Legion back if we need them."

"You think things might get that bad?" Flash gasped.

"I think they might."

"Perhaps you could go anyway," Green Arrow suggested. "And ask them for information about this Heavenly Schism as well as the mass escapes."

"Then you start getting into maintaining the time-line and complexities like that," Martian Manhunter shook his oval head. "They'll probably not give us any information." Martian Manhunter pursed his lips. "However it's worth considering. At the least you can alert them to us possibly calling them on at some time in the future."

Superman nodded. "I'll get on it as soon as we've finished here."

After a few more minutes the meeting was over. Batman rose and strode to the exit. "Batman!" He stopped and glanced over his shoulder as Wonder Woman strode up to him. "Is your daughter alright?"

Bruce's heart caught. He nodded stiffly. "She was fine the night of the riots."

"And since?" Diane's searching gaze bored into his heart.

"We had words, I've not seen her since."

"Bruce-."

"I know," Batman interrupted. "I'm just struggling to decide what to say."

"What you say isn't as important as just being there for her," his friend counselled.