I do not own Underworld or any of the characters.
Chase
John watched the cops examine the body. They were detectives, probably ones that specialized in homicide, or in tracking down criminals. Behind them, blocking the road, were normal cops, about a half dozen or so, nothing major. The body itself, however, had clearly been ripped apart by a Lycan. And a particularly savage one at that. The body's face, throat, and chest were all practically shredded. John's eyes shifted to the crowd watching and he grinned, spotting David.
"Well well, David's here," John smiled.
"Who?" Selene asked.
"One of the vampires in our new Coven," John said. "Selene, do you have any idea which way whatever you were seeing went?"
"No," Selene said. "When I escaped Antigen, one of the scientists ordered the security to let me go. I think I should pay him a visit."
"Good idea," John nodded. "While you're doing that, we'll check in with David."
Selene nodded. "Where should we meet back up?"
"The warehouse," John said. "How about an hour?"
"Okay," Selene nodded.
John nodded as well and Selene left. John and Erika walked down to the crowd, David meeting them at the edge.
"John," David greeted. "Erika."
"David," John nodded. "You watch anything interesting lately?"
"Nah," David said. "Missed the show. How about you? You find your medicine yet?"
"We ran into an old friend and got sidetracked," John said. "We'll find out soon, though."
David nodded and looked back at the body, speaking too quietly for anyone but John and Erika to hear. "There's no doubt that was a lycan. I can smell the thing from here. It's diseased and dirty, but it's still a lycan."
John nodded as well before looking the way Selene had gone, pulling his earbuds out. He could hear something. A snarling and yipping sound from somewhere in the city. David and Erika watched him carefully.
"I-I-I hear th-th-them," John said.
He turned, beginning to run and Erika and David followed. They ran through the city, using back alleys and side streets to avoid the police that were driving around still. After about ten minutes, John heard a voice shouting in fear before the sound of a car being pancaked by a body. They started to head that way only to duck into a back alley as a cop car passed. Then, they continued, finding a small opening in the wall labelled "U-7," which was wide open. They quickly hurried through it and John put his earbuds back in. They soon found themselves in a dirty hallway with large white sheets hanging along the walls in some places, large corrugated steel tubes lying around, pipes running along the ceiling, and water dripping to the floor every few seconds, making it feel like a sewer.
"Lovely place," David said.
"Yeah," John nodded. "Come on. She shouldn't have gone far."
They started along the hallway in silence, David drawing one of his blades as they did. However, after passing through a corrugated steel pipe, a low snarling reached their ears from behind and they spun, seeing a pair of lycans behind them. Raze was right. Their skin looked diseased and their fur was patchy, but they definitely looked to be eating well.
John stepped forward, extending his arm blades as they sprinted forward, snarling hungrily. One leapt at John and he stabbed it, turning and slamming it to the ground. As he ripped his blade upward and out through the Lycan's head, David stepped past him, spinning and splitting the other Lycan open several times across the stomach, chest, and throat before allowing it to crash to the ground. John retracted his blades and they quickly continued along the hallway, soon finding several dozen of the big white boxes with metal frames around them that oil used to come in, all of them empty. John vaulted over one, finding Selene crouched on the other side, aiming at him only to lower the pistol as she saw who it was. Erika and David followed John over and John introduced David and Selene to each other.
"Where to now?" John asked.
"This way," Selene said.
She stood, quickly jogging through the room they were now in, then through a hallway on the other side. After about a minute, she stopped at a small hallway, staring down it. John stepped up beside her and stared at the person they had found. A girl, maybe twelve at most with a white shirt and pants, white shoes, long wavy blonde hair, and who was curled into a ball against the far wall trembling.
"Do you know her?" David asked.
"No," Selene said.
"Holy shit," John breathed, walking forward and kneeling in front of the girl, who shied away from him, eyes wide with fear. "It's alright, I won't hurt you. We're here to help you."
He held out a hand, and the girl stared at it for several seconds before allowing him to help her up and lead her back to the others. John glanced at Selene before leading the girl past her and away from the sound of lycans in the distance. They quickly made their way through the hallways and rooms of wherever they were until they found a door. Once out of it, they climbed a set of stairs to a parking lot with several abandoned cars. John looked around, seeing the parking garage where he and Erika had parked about a block away.
"Hey, I need you to go with this guy, okay?" John said to the girl. "His name's David, and he'll take care of you until we get back."
The girl nodded, stepping away from John, David and Selene both turning to him.
"We'll catch up," John promised. "We just need to grab our bikes."
David nodded and John and Erika turned, sprinting away from them to the parking garage, hopping on their bikes and starting them up. They sped down to the street just in time to see a red van speed around a corner, three lycans behind them. John and Erika shot along the street after the others, slowly catching up to the lycans, who looked back at them and snarled. One roared, turning and leaping at John, who yanked his bike sideways, laying it down and clinging to it with his legs as he extended his blades, splitting the lycan's front open as it passed over him. Then, he retracted the blades and grabbed the handlebars, yanking the bike right side up again and speeding after the others, inspecting the road rash on his left leg as he did. Ahead of him, the two remaining lycans were leaping from car to car, trying to catch the van, only for whichever of the other two was driving to avoid them. After a moment, the van got stuck with a cab in front of it, and a car beside it. A lycan leapt at the van and the van jerked sideways, crashing into the car to its left as the lycan caught the edge of the roof, only to fall off, going under one of the tires of the car it had just jumped off of.
Finally, one of the lycans landed on the roof of the van, heading for the side door. The other, which had survived being run over, was on the side of a box truck, slowly gaining on the van. Erika drew her pistol and shot that lycan several times, knocking it off of the truck but not killing it. John swerved to the side, extending a blade and splitting its head in half as he passed. The lycan on the side opened the side door and began to reach inside, however, just as Erika swerved over so she could shoot it, it flipped inside. John gunned it, shooting forward until he hit the back of a car, launching himself forward to the van and catching it, yanking the door open just as the lycan bit down on the girl's neck and shoulder, the girl screaming instantly. John launching himself inside, smashing his foot into the lycan's neck, forcing it away from her, only for her flesh to turn blue as she lunged, driving her thumbs into its eye sockets and ripping its head in half the long way, hurling it out the back of the van. John stared at her in surprise and a hint of fear. Then, she sat back against the wall, breathing hard as her skin returned to normal. He knelt beside her, checking her wound, instantly noticing that, despite clearly being a hybrid, it wasn't healing.
"She's not healing," John reported. "David, we need to get her to the coven."
"Right," David nodded. "Try and do what you can for her."
John ripped his sleeve off, pressing it firmly to her wound and making her scream, though she thankfully didn't rip his head in half like the lycan. He stayed there, holding the sleeve to her wound to slow the bleeding, the rest of the way out of the city, watching as the life slowly drained out of her, despite his best efforts. Finally, David had Selene stop and they all got out, John quickly carrying her to the entrance of the coven, following David, Erika, and Selene. Once they had made it into the main area of their home, John set the girl down, pulling the blood soaked cloth away from her neck to inspect it, seeing that it still hadn't healed at all. He passed the cloth to Selene, ripping his other sleeve off and pressing it to the wound, the girl, who was barely conscious at this point, barely flinching this time.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Selene asked.
"Check her memories," John said. "Maybe you'll understand who she is then, or maybe you'll get a hint at where Michael is."
Selene nodded, squeezing some of the girl's blood into her mouth, her eyes rolling back into her head as she saw the girl's memories. However, once the images were done, Selene simply looked more confused than before. Suddenly, David's father, Thomas, arrived, berating David in Russian for breaking his rules and risking the safety of the coven.
"You have no reason to fear us," Selene spoke up, also using Russian.
"Do you think I'm foolish enough to take you at your word?" Thomas asked. "No reason to fear a Death Dealer who fell in love with a lycan, who murdered two of our elders, and who at every turn has betrayed her own kind? Or a Death Dealer who betrayed his own kind in order to help the lycans attempt to make a hybrid?"
"How do you know that," John said, pistol in hand already. "No one knew about that besides our group and...Amelia."
He saw the way Thomas stiffened at the mention of the last living elder.
"Where is she?" John asked, holstering the pistol. "Is she still alive?"
"That's none of your concern," Thomas said.
"Thomas, Amelia could help us greatly," John said. "If we make peace with Raze's pack-"
"Enough!" Thomas snapped. "I will hear no more of your treachery. You're lucky you're as good at fighting as you are or I'd have banished you long ago."
"Can we focus on the girl please?" David asked just as Olivia, the coven's resident medical professional, arrived. "She was attacked by a lower lycan. Two hours ago."
Olivia collected some of the girl's blood to examine, humming thoughtfully to herself. "Her cell repair is...active, but weakened. She has no...origin bite marks or scars." She turned the girl's head to one side, then the other. "I've never seen a child like this before. When did you last feed?"
"Feed?" the girl asked.
"Give her blood," Thomas said.
"Here," John said, biting his wrist and holding it out to the girl. "Drink. It'll help."
The girl looked to Selene in confusion and Selene nodded. The girl gripped John's arm, beginning to drink his blood, her hunger taking over almost instantly, her eyes turning black with glowing blue irises. John swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like giving a starving hybrid his arm as a food source might have been a bad idea. However, after several seconds, she released him, lying back and seeming to be dazed. Her neck healed completely within seconds.
"She's healing," Olivia reported. "And quickly."
"Good," David said. "Take her to my room. She needs to rest."
"No," Thomas said. "Look at the eyes."
Olivia leaned in to look at the girl's eyes and John turned to look around, finding Kahn standing beside Erika. Kahn tossed him a blood bag and John caught it, sipping at it. He turned to Thomas, who was glaring at the girl in a mixture of hate and disgust.
"What do you know of her?" Thomas asked.
"I was held captive at a place called Antigen," Selene said. "One of the other prisoners freed me. I believed it was Michael Corvin, the only hybrid that I knew existed at the time-"
"Yes yes, your lycan lover, long dead," Thomas interrupted. "What is this then?"
"None of your concern," Selene said. "As soon as she regains her strength I'll be leaving with her."
She turned, storming away, deeper into the coven, and after a moment, John followed. When he caught up with her, she was crying silently. He realized just how hard it must be to have been asleep for twelve years, to wake up and find that the entire world you knew was gone, along with the love of your life. She saw him enter and turned to leave, only for him to catch her hand.
"Selene, you don't have to hide anything," John said. "Not from me. I'm your friend."
Selene wiped her eyes and turned to him. "What is she?"
"You really haven't figured it out?" John asked.
"I need to be sure," Selene said.
"She's your daughter," John said. "You gave birth to her while you were being held by Antigen, and they raised her apart from you to use her to make a cure for our viruses. At least, that's what they're saying."
"Is that possible?" Selene asked.
"With a true hybrid?" John asked. "Maybe. But something just doesn't feel quite right. It feels like we're missing something. Something big."
Selene nodded in agreement. "David thinks I'll help the vampires regain control of the world, teach them to fight."
"He does," John nodded. "Thomas is afraid of the same thing. He once fought as a Death Dealer, apparently. He probably only hates you because you remind him of himself. No matter what happens, defend your daughter. And give her a name. Be her mother. She needs you as much as you need her."
Selene nodded, remaining silent.
"Damian will want to leave with us," John said. "That choice is up to you. I've been training him, so he's a good fighter. A lot of the members of the coven are good fighters."
Selene nodded and turned to John. "What should we do? I don't recognize this world anymore. But you've lived in it. You were there when it fell and you have been here since before then. Tell me what to do."
"We need to find Amelia and unite the vampire covens that survived," John said. "Then, we need to get in contact with Raze again and have him and Amelia finally make peace between the lycans and vampires. Once we can work together for real, we can work to get back into power in the human world so that it's safe for us to live without hiding again, like we used to."
Selene nodded. "And it all starts with protecting my daughter and finding out what Antigen is up to."
"That's right," John nodded.
The two of them headed to the armory, finding Erika and Kahn stocking up on ammunition. He checked his own ammunition, grabbing the RONII and Glock that he had left behind during the mission, slinging it across his back as he refilled all of his magazines and grabbed a couple more. He also filled an extended magazine with silver nitrate ammunition for each of them, handing them out, keeping one for David as well.
"Are we preparing to fight lycans?" Selene asked.
"We're preparing for anything," John said.
Selene nodded and took her ammunition and guns, leaving the room to find her daughter. As she did, Erika glanced at John, who looked up at her.
"What?" John asked.
"We never completed our mission," Erika said. "We have no way of knowing if the humans have a cure. What if they bring it here?"
"Then we'll have someone turn us later," John said. "Maybe the girl, if we feel like being hybrids. But that won't be a problem anyway, because they can't have a cure without her. They would need her blood in order to make the cure."
"You're sure?" Erika asked.
John walked around the table to her, turning her toward him and cupping her face. "Erika. I will not allow anyone to hurt you. I love you, and for as long as I draw breath, no one will lay a hand on you. I swear it. Even if, by some miracle, the humans manage to cure us, I will kill anyone I have to to protect you. Then, when this is over, we'll find someone to turn us back. Okay?"
Erika nodded, kissing him, and John smiled just as he hear something like metal hitting metal in the distance. He pulled his earbuds out and sniffed, listening. He heard claws, and snarling. He smelled rotting flesh and wet dog.
"L-L-Lycans," he growled, sprinting out of the armory, the others following with their weapons.
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