A/N: Ohhhh dear. It has been a while since I updated, hasn't it? In fact, it's been well over a year and a half since I last updated this, and I'm willing to bet that most of you thought it was just never going to be updated again, didn't you?

I'm not going to lie and tell you I was extremely busy. The honest truth is that I forgot about this story. I had a first draft that I was working on back in senior year (God, the last time I updated this, I was a senior in high school. I'm a sophomore in college now), but I scrapped it due to the fact that I thought it sucked. And then I just sort of forgot about this story until I decided to resurrect it.

The good news is that I will actually finish this story. It may take me until graduation and beyond to do so, especially considering that I started this story nearly four years ago and haven't even written ten chapters. But I will finish it one day.

Anyways, I would like to thank nasiamarie88, chase young's daughter, Cryostylz, keili77, Me12243, GABINCUBUS, and SpeedDemon315 for their reviews. Hope you guys will stick with me despite my hiatuses! It's your support that will see me to the end of this!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Underworld, still too piss-poor to buy the rights.


"My word for dark rhymes with your word for light, and

It's not quite as pretty as the pictures we've painted

But those were just afterthoughts

And all new thieves are after us

I think they're after our heads

Dear Lucid, my time is right to

Dance away while the bullets fly

You know they come so close

I'll bet they put something in the air tonight

Just to light your face

Now bombs light the sky like

Our fireworks just like

The ones that ignited the first time our eyes met

But this time it's over wars

Your payback, your wanting more

Is gonna make this all over for us."

-"Dear Lucid, Our Time is Right Now" by Evans Blue


Chapter Seven: Force These Sorry Eyes to See

Selene eyed the chair that Lucian gestured to warily. After a moment, he sighed.

"The chair will not bite, I promise." He stood up, crossing the room and producing a metal folding chair from the corner. "And neither will I. Please, sit down."

She took a seat in the chair offered to her. Lucian unfolded the collapsible chair, setting it up across from her and taking a seat. The former Death Dealer leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, eyes narrowed at the lycan.

"So let me make sure I understand you," she began. "Viktor has been lying about what really started this war?"

"You're a quick learner, I'll give you that," he replied, the tiniest hint of condescension in his tone. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Think about it this way, Selene: The coven looked to him to lead them against these…foul beasts, I do believe was one of his terms of endearment for my kind. Put yourself in his place, if you will. Would you really tell all those who are looking to you for guidance that not only are you the reason for this war that was likely to exterminate both species, but that you killed your own daughter and single-handedly started this war to boot?"

"I still don't understand it—why would he kill his own daughter? His flesh and blood…surely, a father couldn't be so cruel?"

"I do hate to sully your oh, so noble image of Viktor," the alpha lycan began, although his tone belied his words, "but your beloved mentor was far from the saint you see him as."

"Why? That's all I want to know—why?"

Lucian reclined in his folding chair, though his dark eyes never left Selene. "To fully answer that, it really is for the best if I start at the beginning. You do have some time before Kraven tracks you down, throws you over his shoulder, and drags you back to his lair, do you not?"

"Well, if Erika's plan goes as it's supposed to, he shouldn't be doing any of that. So start talking." Out of habit, her hand gently rested on the Beretta pistol holstered at her hip.

Lucian frowned. "Thinly-veiled threats are not going to make me talk any faster."

Frowning, Selene removed her hand from the comforting grip of her pistol, instead folding it with her other hand in her lap. "Better?"

"Much. Now, I'm not sure how much you know of lycanthropic history and lore," he began. "Probably not much, seeing as Viktor threw Tanis out of the coven and you lost the only good historian you ever had. At any rate, the curse used to be different. A bite from a lycan was a life sentence to a monstrous existence. Back in the days, only death could return a bitten victim to their human state.

"Viktor, as well as Markus and Amelia, loathed these beasts, and feared for the safety of their own kind. So lycans were tracked and imprisoned—or exterminated, depending on whether they tried to eat their Death Dealer captor or not. They even managed to imprison the progenitor of this infectious disease: Markus's own twin brother, William. Yes, Selene, that silly little nursery rhyme that Viktor dismissed as legend is actually quite true," he remarked, seeing the surprised look on her face.

"The times were quite turbulent back then. Turbulent enough that the typical pattern of hibernation for the Elders was disrupted for at least a century, possibly longer, so that all three Elders could work to bring the lycan population under control. At the end of that century, they left Viktor to rule the coven, knowing he could deal with any additional problems with little to no trouble. After all, he had been a ruthless commander in his life, and vampirism did little to change that. It was in that century of Viktor's rule that I was born—and things changed."

"What changed?" Selene asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.

"The lycans changed. And it all started with me."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Despite the fact that my mother—who was born a nameless peasant and died a nameless peasant—had been bitten by a lycan, she whelped a child as pink and fleshy as any human child. That child was me—born of a savage beast, but born as a human, with a human's sense and reasoning.

"I don't know what it was that prevented Viktor from killing me that day. After all, he had already put a crossbow bolt into my mother's skull, why not just do away with me and call it a day? But something stayed his hand. Something made him take me into his arms and return to the castle, to raise me until I could fend for myself amongst the castle." Lucian paused. "To this day, I've never understood why he wanted to raise me himself, instead of just passing me off to another vampire. Maybe it was compassion, or maybe he just wanted to keep a closer eye on me. Whatever the case, he took me to his wife and presented me as an infant who needed a mother's care." He smirked. "At first, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. But after a while, she gave in, and cared me for as a mother would care for her own child, even though I was a lycan and she, a vampire. Thus, until I was old enough to be of use around the castle, I was raised by Viktor and Ilona themselves. I even came to think of Viktor as a father—but I was no son to him. What I was was an oddity of nature to be carefully monitored, and as I got older, something to be exploited for Viktor's own personal gain."

"That's all very fine and well," Selene cut in, tapping her boot impatiently against the stone floor. "But I'm failing to see your point."

"Patience. You told me I had time to start at the beginning, and that's exactly what I'm doing." He shot her the tiniest of smug grins. "May I continue?"

"Fine."

"Excellent." His grin faded, a faint hint of recollection gracing his features. "When I was seven, Lady Ilona gave birth to a child—Viktor's child, a healthy and beautiful little girl. However, she ended up giving her own life to bring that girl into this world. She passed shortly after naming her daughter."

His expression became the tiniest bit wistful. "I think I loved Sonja from the first moment I saw her. It wasn't the kind of love that I would later hold for her though; I was but a boy of eight, and she was a red-faced, screaming infant in her maid Luka's arms, what did we know of love? What it was is that I saw her as a kindred spirit. I knew nothing of my real mother, and knew Lady Ilona to be my mother. She would remember nothing of her real mother, and likely instead look to Luka as a mother. It wasn't the best thing to have in common, but it certainly was something.

"I do recall when that love changed, however, when it became an infatuation. We were older; Sonja had just turned sixteen, had joined the Death Dealers, however much against her father's wishes it was. I had taken over as the castle's blacksmith, and was charged with the task of forging her first real sword. She came to get it herself when I sent word that I was done, and allowed me to place it into her hands myself. She thanked me with all the cool and composure the daughter of an Elder and a future Council member was supposed to have, of course, but I could see it in her eyes: she was thrilled to have this sword. Later, I spotted her practicing alone in the courtyard, and even though I knew it was not my place, I offered to spar with her. We fought, and in the end, she had backed me into a pile of hay, and gave me this beautiful, triumphant grin. Yet, despite her victory, she did not brag or boast. She simply thanked me and left. I knew then that I loved her."

"Did she ever…love you back?" Selene asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. The image that she was trying to keep in her mind, the one that portrayed Lucian as a heartless beast who had started the war that had killed so many of her kind, was slipping slightly, flickering like an old television set.

"She did, but not until she was older. It took nearly two decades for her to confess her feelings to me—though with good reason. Our union was forbidden by the Covenant, as you probably know, so we had to carry on in secret. Amongst the others, both her kind and mine, she treated me with indifference that, more often that not, bordered on utter disrespect." He chuckled softly. "God help me, I rather liked our little charade…well, at least I did at first. I enjoyed it until Viktor started trying to arrange a suitable marriage for Sonja.

"I can't be sure who hated the idea more: Sonja or me. As a lycan and a slave, however, I knew I had no right to say anything, unless I was in the mood for a sound beating. Sonja, on the other hand, was quite vocal about her distaste for her suitors. I think the only one she actually tolerated was Tanis, and that was because she found him amusing. Her continued rejection of her suitors infuriated Viktor to no end, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Eventually, I think he stopped trying."

"So what went wrong?" Selene asked, straightening in her chair slightly.

"Pardon?"

"Things went wrong at some point. Our species were in a six-century long bloodbath until only a month ago. And I've never heard of this Sonja, nor has Viktor mentioned her, so I'm going to take a guess and say she's dead. If that's the case, something had to go wrong."

"What went wrong is that I wanted freedom." He tugged the collar of his shirt aside to reveal several crescent-shaped scars on his neck. "Moon shackles, Viktor called them. He collared us like dogs—and the collars were silver. We couldn't transform without impaling ourselves on the spikes. Even without transforming, we were always getting poked and scratched by those damn spikes, living every day in constant pain and fear that one day, we were going to do something stupid and wind up impaling ourselves through the throat anyways. Viktor, in his arrogance, thought he has us beat."

Lucian stood up, making his way to what appeared to be his desk. Amidst the cans of brass polish, clips of ammunition, and scattered papers there was a small wooden box. The lycan master opened it, scooped something out from inside, and closed the lid. Turning back to the vampiress, he tossed whatever it was to her. She snatched the object out of the air mid-flight, and opened her hand to find that it was a key.

He smirked. "Viktor's biggest blunder: Making a lycan a blacksmith."

"You forged the key yourself." The barest hint of a grin pulled at Selene's lips.

"I told Sonja that I would use this key to gain my freedom. She wanted me to never use it, knowing that if I were caught without my collar, I would pay dearly for it."

"Did you use it?" Selene tossed the key back to Lucian.

He caught it, tucking it into the pocket of his jacket. "Yes. To save Sonja. And pay dearly, I did. I think it was the day Sonja finally saw her father's true colors, and decided she didn't like what she saw, because nothing else could have driven her to do what she did."

"What did she do?"

"She formed a secret resistance," he answered, pride lighting up in his eyes. "While I was rallying the lycans down in the dungeons, she gathered the Death Dealers she trusted most. They planned to undermine Viktor's laws and take him down in favor of enacting Sonja as reigning Elder."

"Can that be done?"

"Of course it can be done. Mortals stage these kinds of coups all the time. The only reason vampires—in particular, the Council, or Markus and Amelia—never tried it was because Viktor had the most power."

"Of course he did. He was the oldest of us, the strongest."

Lucian snorted. "Hardly. It's a lovely explanation, yes, but hardly the truth. No, Viktor's power came solely from his bullying of Markus and Amelia—Markus in particular. That, however, is a story for another time. I have something more important to finish first.

"As I was saying, Sonja raised a rebellion of her own, with only her most trusted Death Dealers. The end goals of the lycans and of the Death Dealers were completely different from each other; the lycans wanted freedom, Sonja's rebellion wanted equality." He sighed. "Her vision never came to pass, however. When I led my brethren to freedom one night, one of her 'loyal' Death Dealers betrayed her and the others to Viktor. He found out the truth—she told me that he bit her, drank her blood, and learned of the truth that way. He imprisoned her, using her as the bait that would bring me back to the castle, and ordered the other conspirators to be arrested, tortured, and executed for treason.

"It only went downhill from there. I returned to rescue Sonja—but we were caught, and overwhelmed by Viktor and his Death Dealers. She took him in single combat, and beat him, too. He didn't realize how strong a warrior she was. But when he was at her mercy, she didn't demand his head or anything like that. No, she pleaded for mercy, for herself, me, and her unborn child."

"Wait." Selene raised a hand, interrupting Lucian. "Her unborn child? As in…a child she conceived with…with you?"

"Ah, you are a fast learner."

"That's impossible," she argued. "A vampire and a lycan…they can't breed together."

"Oh, but they can. Sonja was of an exceptionally pure bloodline, and I…well, I'm not sure certain about the bloodline part, but my mother was a lycan. We're both purebloods. It can happen. In fact, it did happen—and then, Viktor declared it to be an abomination, a betrayal to him and to the coven. Sonja and I were both arrested. She was tried by the Council, found guilty, and sentenced to death."

"He wouldn't. Viktor wouldn't be so heartless."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. His vote could have spared her life, but instead, he took it from her, and from the baby, as well. An innocent child, whose only crime had been existing, had been having two parents that loved each other." Lucian stood suddenly, moving about the room, carefully keeping his back to the vampiress. "I still remember the last thing she said to me. She was scared, I knew she was. I was scared, too, terrified, even. Goodbye, my love. Those were her very last words to me. Even to her last breath, she loved me."

"And what did you do after she was…gone?"

With a sigh, Lucian turned around, facing her and approaching his chair. "There was little I could do. My chains still held me, and my grief overwhelmed me. And so, I laid there. And I waited. And I wanted to die with her.

"Once the sun had gone down, Viktor and his cronies returned. When I saw him, I felt an anger the likes of which I had never felt before consume me. I wanted nothing more than to tear him to pieces, make him feel some small fraction of what I felt. And now, I had the moon on my side." He smirked. "Another blunder, to leave the sun door open after the sun had gone down. He let the full moon find me—and I let it take me.

"I broke loose from my chains, slaughtered the guards he set on me. I would have killed him, too, but escaping was a better option to me. I took the one part of Sonja that was left"—He gently touched the pendant hanging around his neck—"and ran. His Death Dealers thought they could stop me with arrows. All they did was make it worse for them."

"What do you mean?"

"They should have known I would call for help. And they found themselves drowning in lycans. While my brethren kept the Death Dealers occupied, I went after Viktor. We fought, and for a while, he was winning. But then, I gave him a taste of his own medicine. I bound him in chains, and poised myself to strike my blow. Before I did, he informed me that he now regretted not crushing me underneath his heel the day I was born. As I rammed my sword down his throat, all I told him you should have—but you didn't."

"What happened after that?"

"You know the rest, however altered it may be," Lucian remarked. "Viktor, along with the two other Elders and Tanis, fled to Hungary and started anew at Ordoghaz. Several years later, Kraven 'killed' me and became the great conquering hero. The rest, as they say, is history."

"You neglected to mention that your disgusting brethren killed my family, not too long after Kraven killed you."

"Did he really tell you that?" Lucian raised an amused brow. "Why am I not surprised, that he pawned that nasty business off on my race?"

"Are you suggesting that Viktor killed my family?" Selene asked, stunned.

"I'm not suggesting. I'm telling you that he did."

"Why?"

"Unfortunately, that's a question I don't have an answer to. I know, however, of a certain historian who may know…"

"Tanis?" she spat. "I'll walk into sunlight before I ask that traitor anything."

"And to think, I just spent the last hour and a half telling you the same story that Tanis tried to tell over three hundred years ago, yet you still call him a traitor." He shook his head. "It's like you haven't learned anything."

"How do I know that all of this isn't some elaborate story the two of you concocted?"

"Ask Kraven."

"Fuck you."

"Tempting as the offer is, I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Lucian sat down, reclining in his chair, eyeing her with mild amusement. "However, I'm quite serious. Ask Kraven. He witnessed your family's massacre. In fact, from what I've heard, he did more than witness, he helped."

"What of this grand story you've fed me about the death of this Sonja, and the start of the war? I suppose he saw that, too?"

"Don't be stupid. He wasn't turned until after Viktor arrived in Hungary. He was, however, created by Viktor—and received his memories of everything, including what started the war."

"Impossible."

"Oh?"

"I was created by Viktor, too," she replied, feeling a small surge of victory, thinking that she had finally caught Lucian in a lie. "And I certainly didn't receive any memories like that. I got a few, but nothing having to do with that."

"Do you think Viktor made the same mistake twice? No, after Kraven, he learned to be more careful about who saw his memories."

Selene just barely resisted the urge to groan. Of course, he would have an answer for that, too.

The lycan master stared at her as if he expected a response, but she said nothing. She didn't know what to say; his arguments were sound, and she couldn't refute them. Conceding to them, however, felt like a betrayal to her. Throwing away six centuries of a close, trusting relationship with Viktor for the word of a mangy lycan? She simply couldn't do it. So instead of replying, she simply stared down at her jeans, picking at a loose thread.

"You don't trust me, do you, Selene?"

She cut him a cold glare, but it didn't faze him. He simply stood up, straightened his coat, and started for the door. Suspicious, the vampiress stood too.

"Where are you going?"

"To take you to someone you will believe."


A/N: Yes, I did throw a little something extra into Lucian's story. Yes, it does play into this story. If you don't like it, go to the internet and complain about it. Flames will be used to keep the dragons happy. Remember, kiddies, do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

All right, I'll stop babbling like a moron now, and I promise to be more prompt in my updating!