A/N: Sorry if I've been leaving a lot of things too ambiguous. This arc will focus more on the individual characters, hence why both Chapter 9 and this chapter were entirely focused on Selene and Aurora. Future chapters will try to focus on the others once Selene and Aurora have finished their encounter.

Chapter 10: Revelations
Selene's POV

"Your emotions blind you, Selene," Aurora taunted as she kept blocking my strikes with little effort at all. "This is not like the calm, collected fighting style that I thought you would have."

"Shut up," I told her as I kept attacking her angrily. I knew that I was fairing much worse than I usually did. I usually centered my combat around tactical and practical techniques, preferring to take down an enemy without restraint. But during my duel with Aurora, the way I was fighting was fueled by the anger I was feeling, but at the same time hampered from what had happened with Michael. I was using too much strength in every one of my swings against Aurora and it was slowing me down. Still, I really wanted to how what she had done to the others.

"You'll end up destroying yourself in the end," Aurora said. "Just ask Michael, that is, if he is still alive."

"Always acting cryptic, aren't you? Just tell me if they are alive or not," I demanded, ticked off at her sardonic remarks.

"But it's no fun," Aurora repeated herself in a faux-whiny tone.

"Just shut up!" I repeated in a frustrated tone as I mustered enough strength to knock the dagger out of Aurora's hand. "Die!" I aimed my dagger for her heart only for her to grab my metal wrist with her left hand. I tried to punch her in the face with my other fist, only for her to grab it with her other arm.

"Your attacks are too predictable." Aurora's grip started to crush my prosthetic. I could feel the nerves from my severed stump jolt from the damage to the artificial nerves in my arm as sparks started to fly from the broken wires. "I'd hate to see you end up like me in such a short time. To be torn apart... limb from limb, replacing what's left with machine." I briefly sensed a minor bit of angst in Aurora's tone. Though she was an enemy, I could not help but feel even a bit of sympathy for her injuries. The scar on her left cheek and her prosthetic replacements. What the hell happened to her?

Aurora then proceeded to sever my prosthetic hand. Aurora let go of my living arm, took a second to regain her guard and kicked me hard in the stomach, sending me flying like a soccer ball into a tree. I collapsed on my knees with my hands on the gravel, coughing up blood. That was when I noticed the jet-black metal that surrounded her foot; all of her limbs were mechanical. I looked at what remained of my mechanical arm. That was strange. She could have easily severed both of my arms, rendering me unable to pick up a weapon. Either she's still toying with me or maybe she doesn't want to see me in an even more sorry state as I already was in. Also, if Aurora's arms were mechanical as well, then how was she able to destroy my prosthetic (which is pretty much the same as hers) with little effort at all? With muscles that are mechanical, her strength should be limited. Unless there's an outside force surrounding Aurora's red-eyed state.

Aurora took my dagger from my severed hand. "Sad to see you so damaged already," she mocked. "I guess you'll never get your answers. You're too weak to stand a chance against me. Let alone Azazel."

Azazel... is that her master? I knew that Aurora herself was an extremely talented immortal, but when she spoke of this Azazel, I could not imagine facing him. I thought the visions were of Aurora, but they were of the other person she spoke of.

Aurora then stabbed herself in the chest with my dagger. "What are you doing?" I questioned Aurora's seemingly self-destructive act as I stood back up.

"I'd thought I'd demonstrate the powers you are up against," Aurora replied, pulling the dagger back out from her chest. The blood that covered the blade started to crystallize around the dagger. The stab wound in Aurora's chest started to seep a red aura that started to surround her body. "Stage two of the Corvinus strain." Aurora moved faster than my eyes could see and impaled me in the stomach with her red dagger, keeping me pinned on the tree. "And I have you to thank," she said, closing her eyes and smiling.

"What?"

Aurora laughed. "Have you ever thought of how humans have discovered both of the immortal species? How this war has escalated at such a chaotic state? When your monster of a Hybrid, Michael, got caught into this war, it marked the downfall of both species. The apparent death of Lucian and the death of all three of the vampires Elders, two of which you are responsible for, caused both species to cause chaos across the globe. You and your Hybrid are the reasons this war has become much worse than it would have been. But at least your actions made our coven stronger since we all carry the Corvinus strain." Aurora started twisting the dagger inside me, making the wound even larger. I squirmed as she kept twisting while Aurora seemed to enjoy hurting me with a sadistic look on her face. "How will you be able to pay for what you and Michael have done to the world?"

She had a point, as much as I wanted to deny it. This war had indeed become worse when Michael came into the picture. I would still be loyal to Viktor, oblivious to the fact that he was the one that killed my family. The war would have ended earlier; the Lycans would most likely become extinct and the humans would be living their lives peacefully.

My body was becoming slowly unresponsive and I was starting to lose consciousness. That dagger that Aurora impaled me with; it felt like it was poisoning me. I had the same dying sensation as when Michael was biting into my shoulder. "My dagger contains a venom that infects the bloodstream," Aurora explained. "A venom extracted from my own blood. And it's slowly killing you the more you're exposed to it. I could easily kill you at any moment, but seeing you suffer is more pleasurable." She removed the dagger from my abdomen and grabbed me from the shoulders. "Rather, I'd make death an option for you to beg for." She threw me about one hundred feet from her location into the woods, having me crash into several trees to slow myself down.

I landed in a very shallow river, landing on something round. "Oh my god," I gasped. I was in a mass grave. I've dealt with disposing of Lycan carcasses during my Death Dealer days. But looking at the casual clothing that many of these corpses wore, they seemed to be humans. All of them seemed to have been rotting for quite a while. They were hardly recognizable except for four of them laying in a row, freshly deceased. My heart was filled with lamentation when I recognized them.

"No." I crawled my way on the corpses to get to their bodies. "Please, you can't be dead." I grabbed Eve's neck to feel her pulse. Nothing. "No, no! No!" I started shaking Eve, hoping that she would respond.

Nothing. "Eve..."

I moved onto the others. "David? Mathieu? Michael?" Tears started streaming down my face as my worst fears had become reality. I was unable to accept the fact that everyone that I've cared for were gone.

"You said you wanted answers." Aurora's words suddenly triggered a feeling inside.

"You killed them," I said catatonically, not even bothering to look at her. I had a feeling that she was smiling at me like a psychopath, mocking my emotions.

"That's right," Aurora confirmed bluntly. "Thought it would be right if I let you see the corpses of your family and friends before it's your turn."

I looked at my family and looked at my reflection in the thin river. The venom was very slow, but I could barely see clearly. I guess this is the end of my journey. I never thought that I would go down pathetically.

"But there's still hope for you and your companions." I instantly looked at her as she reached for her cloak pocket and unveiled four vials of blood. "These vials contain the blood life of your friends and family," Aurora explained. "Take them from me and your companions will be brought back to life."

Slowly, my vision started to clear up and any sense of numbness was replaced with anger at the frustrating situation I was in. "Hand them to me now!" I screamed at her, knowing there is a sliver of hope to restore them.

"Oh, Selene," Aurora pitied. "I never thought you would resort to begging to set them free."

"Bring them back," I pleaded. I started to walk towards her, stumbling against the corpses in the mass grave.

"Your only chance of reviving them and you're too weak to take it." Aurora crushed the vials with her mechanical hand without remorse. Just a smile that seemed even more malicious than innocuous.

"No!" I watched as all hope to reunite with my companions was literally shattered. For when the vials were crushed, so was my will.

"You have lost, but what you've got out of this duel is humility," Aurora lectured. "Now you know what the humans feel when they are vulnerable against anarchic vampires and Lycans. How does it feel, knowing that there will always be a stronger being than you are?"

"Shut up," I whispered hoarsely with my teeth clenched. I started to feel a strange power inside me slowly being released. "For what you've done..." From my stomach wound, the same red aura that Aurora had started to surround me.

Aurora's POV

It seemed like I went a little too far when I crushed vials of random human blood, not the blood life of Eve, David, Mathieu, and Michael. Little did Selene know that her family and friends were actually still alive and would be subject to my tests as she was; the bodies in question were simply one of my illusionary techniques.

"You will pay!" Selene screamed, opening her red eyes. She had fully awakened the second stage of the Corvinus strain. Her wound had fully healed and she stood back up with her red irises looking directly at mine. "You will never get away with what you've done! You will pay dearly!"

Selene's POV

I jumped over Aurora and punched her in the stomach, sending her to the opposite end of the river. Aurora held her stomach with her right hand, coughing up blood. I immediately dashed towards her as she tried to get up, kicking her in the stomach once more. Aurora slid to gain distance from me, buying her enough time to stand back up, albeit shaken and hurt from the attacks. I rushed in recklessly once more towards her, trying to lay another punch, but Aurora had regained her guard and started dodging and blocking my punches. Though I had only one arm, my speed and seemingly limitless power had compensated for the loss. I laid one powerful punch towards her right palm, shattering her limb all the way to the elbow. Aurora pulled her dagger from her cloak once more with her remaining hand and tried to stab me again, but I caught her wrist and immediately tore off her hand.

I grabbed her dagger. "Die!" I pinned Aurora to the ground, stabbing her in the chest repeatedly. I did not care if there was any explanation of who this Azazel that she spoke of was or why Michael had acted the way he did; all I wanted to do at that point was kill Aurora. I kept stabbing her until she collapsed from the injuries that I had inflicted on her.

I took a moment to catch my breath. I was so angry, so dead set on killing Aurora that I did not realize how powerful I had become. Roughly the same situation Michael was in when he transformed into his advanced hybrid form.

Aurora lay there in a pool of her own blood, motionless. I touched her neck to check her pulse to make sure that she was truly dead. "Good riddance." But just in case, I brought up my knife with the intention of decapitating her; the most effective way of killing an immortal with the Corvinus strain as I had demonstrated with Marcus.

All of a sudden, I felt something sharp pierce through my chest and lift me off the ground. I observed the object that stabbed me: a blackened wing talon that sprouted from Aurora's back. Aurora swung her wing, sending me flying into another tree.

"You did good." Aurora said as she stood back up as if the wounds I had inflicted were nothing. Taking a closer look, I noticed that her wings were feathery while at the same time retaining the bat-like shape akin to Marcus's wings.

"Why aren't you dead?" I shouted fearfully. Aurora started walked closer to me. I lunged at her with my knife, ready to wound her again before my arm was impaled by her talon, forcing me to drop my knife.

"Never thought I'd be using these again," she said, retracting her wings into her back. "Congratulations. You've now achieved the second stage of the Corvinus strain."

"I only gained this form because you killed them! You killed my family!"

Aurora smirked. "Are they really dead?"

I looked back at the mass grave to see that the bodies of Eve, David, Mathieu, and Michael were missing. "Where are they?" I asked her.

"Your companions are still alive," Aurora said. "This duel was a test to bring out the worst of you and have you rebound stronger than ever with the second stage of the strain."

"Finally you have the courtesy to give me a straight fucking answer," I said. "Now I want to know a couple of other things: Who are you and what are your motives? You wanted me to gain that new power, so what are you trying to gain?"

Aurora grinned. "Well, you've done enough damage to force me to stop my heart," she said. "And I promised I would tell you everything once you have hurt me."

"Just tell me!" I demanded. "Before I'll kill you on the spot. Who are you?"

Aurora seemed surprised at my statement and laughed again. "Would you really kill your own daughter?"

I was flabbergasted by what she had just said. Aurora was my child? "No. That can't be. I only have one daughter!"

"I am that one daughter," Aurora said. "Subject 2."

I was even more shocked at what she had just said. Was I facing some kind of clone or an older counterpart of Eve? The resemblance seemed almost jarring; the kind-hearted, yet troubled Eve would grow into a cold-hearted psychopath that nearly killed her own mother?

"That's right, Mother," Aurora confirmed. "I am Eve, but from a different timeline. You can still call me Aurora, though."

This changed everything. The fact that Aurora had come from a different timeline has started to put pieces in the puzzle. The visions that I saw actually were messages of the future that Aurora had seen. With that reveal, I could not help but feel like Aurora was the victim and not the enemy as I thought she was.