A/N: For those of you who are wondering, Caput Mortuum is actually from the Dungeons and Dragons RPG. That said…
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Underworld: Evolution, and the Caput Mortuum. Sorry, but no wise cracks today.
Chapter 6: Caput Mortuum
Selene woke up and frowned when she found that she had missed the sunrise. But then she shrugged if off; there was always tomorrow, and it really wasn't her fault. After all, after six hundred years of sleeping during the day, it took a while to get readjusted to sleeping at night.
She went through her morning routine before going to the small icebox they had installed with the intent of getting some blood. There, she found small note tacked onto the door, held in place by one of the souvenir magnets Michael has gotten when they were in France.
"Going for a walk. Be back soon. –Harry"
She found nothing else on the back, and put it down on the table as she looked out the window. She knew he would keep out of trouble… hopefully.
"He better keep out of trouble, or I'll have his head!" She muttered to herself before yawning and turning back to the icebox.
The giant beast howled, and Harry's blood went cold. How the hell did he not sense that… thing before?! A small part, the part that wasn't trying to figure out how to get out of this situation he had found himself in alive, speculated that whatever the hell was making the wall glow outside the room was probably doing something to his senses.
The beast of a lycan ("Oh look! A funny!" that little part of his mind crowed before the rest of him stomped on it) jumped of its perch and landed on the floor with an earth-shattering boom. Harry tried to walk backwards, but found the altar-like thing in his way.
His way blocked, he instead grinned uneasily up at the giant and asked, "Ummm… any chance we could work this out?" The roar he got in reply was all the answer he needed. "Guess not," He muttered, "Damn it all…"
The giant suddenly charged at him, and it was all he could to leap aside as the altar behind where he used to be practically exploded. He immediately drew his Uzis and fired into the cloud of dust that had came with the explosion, only to see the beast come charging out against the silver bullets as if they weren't even there. All Harry could get out was an astonished "Oh sh-!" before he was backhanded into unyielding stone, his Uzi's clattering away to the wall opposite.
He shook his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears, and barely got out of the way in time to avoid another charging attack from the giant werewolf. Stepping back as far as he could, he started his transformation. By the time the beast had cleared the resulting dust cloud, Harry was fully transformed and waiting for him.
What passed for the next hour or so couldn't be described as anything other then an outright brawl between two titans (well, it was technically titan versus newbie, but one gets the drift). By the time Harry was thrown into yet another wall, bruised and slightly bloodied, the room looked more like the cave outside then the relatively neat temple-like room it had been. He was breathing hard and was extremely tired, but took delight in the fact that his opponent was in no better shape.
"Or not…" Harry thought as he saw the giant werewolf get ready to charge again. He groaned; there was no way he would survive the next charge, and he was too spent to move. Resigned to his fate, he transformed back and let his hands fall to his sides… and felt cold metal. He grinned. His Uzis! Maybe he had a chance after all! He checked his ammo, and found that he only had enough for a short burst. "I'm going to have to time this just right…" He thought to himself.
The giant werewolf suddenly charged again, and it was all Harry could do to stand up and face him, his Uzis trained and ready. He watched as the werewolf got closer… a thirty meters… 15 meters… 3 meters… the werewolf roared in triumph over his next kill.
"Now!" Harry mentally barked as he pulled the trigger. Ten silver bullets smashed into the werewolf's still open mouth. The werewolf's eyes went wide, and it stumbled the last meter before dropping like a bag of stones, less then a meter away from where Harry stood.
When the dust cleared, Harry was stunned to find that it was still alive; the thing just took ten silver bullets down the gullet, for Christ's sake! But, before Harry's eyes, it seemed to be changing now, growing smaller and smaller until the werewolf was replaced with an old man. Harry blinked; did he just almost get his ass handed to him by an old geezer? Sure, he was a rather buff old geezer, but still-!
The old man coughed weakly and grinned. "That was a truly amazing fight, my boy. Not many people would stand up to a charging werewolf like that."
"Wha… how the hell are you STILL ALIVE?!?" Harry exclaimed.
"I am ancient; I have lived through so many battles that I have developed a… immunity of sorts, if you will, to the poisoning effects of silver," the old man gasped out, before going into a coughing fit. He continued when the fit subsided, "My boy, do you see that scythe over there by the corner?" he asked.
Harry looked at the indicated direction, and was stunned to find the scythe from the altar not only still whole, but floating and emitting an even darker aura then before. All Harry could do was nod in his shock.
"Take some of my blood and sprinkle it on the blade." Blinking at the strange request, but too shocked to even begin thinking it though in a reasonably logical manner, Harry scooped up some of the old man's blood (there was plenty of it, since, well… they were just in a fight a minute ago), went over, and did as he was told.
Seeing that the deed was done, the old man breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, child," he said, giving Harry a smile that might as well have been a grimace. "Now take the Caput Mortuum, for it is yours, and be ready for my companion, who I have just contacted. Do not worry, though, for he… will not… harm… you…" he trailed off as he, in a rather anticlimactic way, died.
And without warning, Harry once again entered the dream-like state that had led him into the chamber. He watched himself lean over to pick up the scythe with distant excitement. As soon as his hands grasped the handle, the room faded away…
OoOoOoO
A fountain, more beautiful then any man-made structure. Two beings sat… beings that were more beautiful then beauty, more powerful then power, more majestic then majesty… they spoke, and Harry wondered why he didn't go made with joy at the voice.
"You know, I've been thinking, Azrael," the blond one said.
"Oh? And what is it this time, Lucifer?" the raven-haired one replied.
"We are the most powerful beings ever created by the Almighty, and yet, in a way, these humans that He is planning to create will have more power then us. Does that seem right to you?"
"It is the Lord's will…"
"It is the Lord's will to have his greatest creations be nothing more then slaves?"
"Lucifer! That's blasphemy! And I would hardly think we're slaves."
"Azrael, that's what we are, in essence. We are but the slaves of the Almighty's will!"
"Well, so are the humans, and you don't see them complaining."
"The humans aren't slaves. They have free will, something that the Almighty has seen not fit to give us!"
"He must have a reason, Lucifer. He always does."
"Well, I say he can take that reason and shove it! We're his greatest creation! We deserve better!"
"Right, and what are you going to do about it? Lead a strike?"
"If I do, will you lead it with me?"
"…Don't tell me you're actually considering…?"
"Yes! And you'll lead it with me, won't you, brother?"
"No; nothing good will come of it, and you know it!"
"But… sometimes it takes a wrong to make others see the right."
"…You did NOT just say that…"
"Azrael, trust me."
"Err…"
"Have I ever been wrong before?"
"Well, no… oh, fine! But let it show on the record that this was NOT my idea!"
"It will work, Azrael! Now, this is what we're going to do is get Abaddon and Eris and…" The scene fades.
OoOoOoO
Harry woke up outside the cave entrance, the Caput Mortuum and his Uzis lying nearby. The first think he did was take a look at his watch to see what time. It was 5:30 pm. "SHIT!!" He swore before grabbing his Uzis and his new scythe, slipped the Uzis into their holsters and the Caput Mortuum into the waistband of his pants, and took off at a dead sprint for what he perceived was Michael's presence.
When he arrived, he found Michael sitting outside the RV sipping cooled blood while Selene looked frantic. As soon as they noticed him, Selene rushed over, gave him a rib-creaking bear hug, and checked him over… then promptly smacked him upside the head and screamed about how he worried her sick when he disappeared and didn't come back for almost eleven hours. Michael looked on, curiosity, amusement, and just a touch of worry in his blue eyes.
"Harry," Michael suddenly said, stopping Selene's tirade, "How did you hide your presence from me? I didn't notice your presence until just a few moments ago."
"That would be my fault, I'm afraid. I had built the shrine near a large vein of silver, which masks the presence of a lycan to all but the oldest and strongest of our kind."
They all jumped and turned to the new speaker, and found the ghostly form of a heavily muscled werewolf wearing ancient shoulder and knee armor and armed with steel claws.
"The hell?! You're supposed to be dead! I killed you… kinda." Harry said after a moment of shocked silence.
"True, my boy, true, but I can never truly die since my soul is bonded to the Caput Mortuum." The werewolf said with a deep chuckle.
"What do you want?" Selene asked. By now, she and Michael had both gotten over the shock of what was could very well be the ghost of a werewolf Elder standing before them. Selene's hand rested on her hip, where she hid a small pistol for emergencies.
"Me? Why, I want to train this boy here as my heir to the fighting arts of the Wolf Barons. He might not need it, of course, if he is what I think he is, but to say that I got to train… but that is not my place to tell." The werewolf grinned, showing all of his sharp teeth. "You know, I never did introduce myself," he said in an obvious attempt at changing the topic. The three livings beings at the moment were too shocked to stop him. " I am Zylo of the Dark Moon Clan, last- will I was the last, at any rate- of the Wolf Barons."
"Err… I'm Harry Potter, wizard outcast."
"Selene, formerly of the Death Dealers."
"Michael Corvin, doctor."
The ghost of Zylo chuckled. "A wizard, an assassin, and a werewolf doctor! Looks like my afterlife is going to be a lot more interesting then my actual life was!" And with that, he turned and ghosted through the door of the RV. Selene and Michael watched him go before turning to Harry and giving him simultaneous 'tell-me-everything-or-there-will-be-much-pain' looks. Harry sighed and told them of his little adventure.
OoOoOoO
Meanwhile, in the deepest basement of an old mansion, a tall, menacing figure stalked through the basement halls. He made a sudden turn to the right and came upon a room whose only occupant was a long, floating, linen-wrapped bundle, surrounded by an aura of darkness. He smirked.
"So, Zylo has found him. It seems it is my turn," he muttered, before grabbing the bundle and heading back the way he came.
A/N: And the plot thickens! Well, if one can even consider this a plot, at any rate… Oh, and Zylo is based on the Wolf Warrior from Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. Cool game, I suggest you play it if you're into turn-based RPG's or strategy.
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