A/N: Finally, we get to see Selene's family and friends reunite once more. However, things are not what they seem. How will their reunion with Michael be, knowing that he had hurt Selene and alienated his family?

Chapter 13: Encased
David's POV

I lay in a hospital bed with my eyes glued to the fluorescent, white lights, wondering where the hell I was. I remember trying to run away from a berserk Michael with a badly wounded Selene in my arms; the next thing I knew was seeing two muscular men clubbing me with the butt of a rifle. So many things were on my mind the moment I woke up; where is Selene and her family? What happened to Mathieu? Who were those immortals that were attacking us? And how did Michael lose control of himself?

My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the door to my cell opening. "David?" I felt an immediate feeling of relief when Selene and Eve popped through the doorway along with a long-haired, bearded man, who I had recognized from the archives as Lucian. I had less to worry about, knowing both of them were still alive.

"You two are alive!" I walked out of bed and gave both of them a hug. "I was very worried about both of you. I didn't think we would still be alive after what happened."

"Unfortunately, it's the calm before the next storm here," Lucian added.

Mathieu's POV

Aurora was having the time of her life, enjoying her duel with me. Though I had wounded her a couple of more times, she was showing no signs of wearing out. I had to admit, I was also enjoying the fight as well. I had never been so excited since some of the more intense missions in SIAF. But the difference was that she enjoyed fighting for the sake of fighting; I was fighting to get some answers, but enjoying the new abilities from being an immortal.

Aurora knocked my dagger away from my hand; now it had become a hand-to-hand brawl. Though Aurora had one arm, she and I were evenly matched in raw abilities. I could not imagine fighting her with both of her limbs at an unrestrained power. I still had a hunch that she was still not even using the full extent of her powers.

"I've gotta admit, you're even stronger than Michael," Aurora complimented. "I've been training with this power for about one-hundred years, and yet, you're on par with me in just an hour. I can't imagine how powerful you will be once you truly master your skills."

I chuckled. "I guess it's a natural talent." I rushed towards her and punched her in the face. Aurora immediately countered by grasping me by the neck and lifting me effortlessly. I felt her tight grip squeezing whatever air was left in my lungs. I grasped her wrist, but I could already feel my strength fading.

"I still haven't even used the full extent of my powers," Aurora grimly told me.

Selene's POV

"I'll have to admit, I've had similar intentions in trying to get my coven to be strong and face the humans," David confessed after hearing what we had to say, "that we could stand up and show our strength towards them. I never thought that this Azazel person could use it to an extreme; killing every single human, even those who show support towards both Lycan and vampire species."

"Believe me, I wish that all three species would stop fighting each other while an undiscovered evil grows in secret," Lucian lamented. "The war that they are fighting has been a lost cause."

"If that's the case, everyone should be uniting to fight this dangerous target," Eve expressed.

"The problem is that all species share great pride in themselves," Lucian argued. "They wish to be divided despite opportunities for a middle ground between all three species. Before the Cleansing, the war between the vampires and Lycans was already a lost cause to begin with. The vampires and Lycans were perfectly fine without the need to feed off humans; but the humans share the collective mentality that everyone in both Immortal species is a threat, regardless if they had posed harm to their species or not before their discovery. If we keep on believing that our original ways of thinking will keep us afloat throughout the changing years, someone will exploit that weakness."

Mathieu's POV

I fell to my knees after a series of attacks from Aurora, who had shown even more power that she had previously withheld. I was bloodied and bruised, only barely standing since I had the ability to heal quickly. If this keeps up, I'll be a fucking vegetable.

"It's no fun if you keep staying on the defensive," Aurora taunted. "Tim is bawling in his grave."

Great, more fucking insults. Except that I did not feel the urge to carry on anymore; I was fatigued while Aurora was merely a powerhouse. She grabbed me by the neck again. "Just stop already," I begged.

Aurora smiled. "I just want you to prepare for what's to come soon."

"Well why don't you just tell me then? You've fucking defeated me already, so there's no point in fighting me, unless you want to fucking kill me."

Aurora, out of nowhere, suddenly kissed me with her bloody lips whilst subtly coughing up blood into my mouth.

She threw me with tremendous strength, sending me flying through a door and into the fucking hallway of the same hospital-like setting I had woken up in. "Oh, and thanks for the cigarettes," she said, closing the door on me.

What the bloody fuck? Aurora was very mysterious in her intentions. The way she dueled me; she acted with intentions to test my new-found immortal powers, but fought as if she wanted to kill me. When I wounded her several times, it seemed like she enjoyed getting hurt in an almost sexual manner, to the point where she was further motivated to fight me.

And that (literally) bloody kiss she gave me. I already felt violated by that alone, but moments after she vomited blood into my throat, I started seeing visions from her perspective. Horrific visions. After experiencing her memories in very photographic detail; the fact that she is Eve from the future, the slaughter of innocent humans, and her brutal defeat at the hands of some fuck named Azazel. No wonder she's turned from an innocent girl into a sadistic woman, who I still could not tell if she was a friend or foe.

And she fucking stole my Marlboros. The withdrawals I was having were not helping.

Selene's POV

We were all reluctant to see Michael again. The nerves around my prosthetic as well as the metal in my left shoulder bone started to jolt, being a constant reminder of what he had done to me.

Of everyone, Eve was the one that was most reluctant to see her father. She stood behind David, hardly looking at the door that Michael was kept in. She was worried if we were going to encounter the more good-natured Michael, or the one that had no control of himself.

I just wished all of this madness was just a fucking dream from the moment Michael lost control to this new looming threat of Azazel. All of us wished it was a dream.

I had a feeling Michael would feel this way too.

"Room 103," Lucian announced Michael's cell number. "He has been restrained and stabilized after the injuries he had endured." Lucian looked down, looking as distraught as we all were. Distraught that his experiment would turn horribly wrong. It almost seemed as if he was regretful for what he had done.

I slowly opened the door to glance at Michael laying with a large coffin-like box trapping his entire body except for part of his shoulders and head. His skin was slightly reddened, apparently from his injuries. Though he was asleep, he looked very discomforted.

Everyone kept their distance as I walked closer. With each step, the more I was reminded of the mistake I made, trying to comfort him in his berserk state. The pain in my arm and shoulder started to hurt the more I inched closer to Michael. Even though he was locked in a full-body restraint, I felt like he could rip himself out and attack me again. I could be on par with him, knowing that I could use the second-stage of the Corvinus strain, but against the one I love? The one that meant a lot to me in the height of this war?

"Michael?" I whispered softly. He slowly opened his blue eyes and moved his head subtly. Not seeing red, that's a good start. Still, I was cautious.

"Selene?" Michael said weakly. "Wh-where am I?"

He seemed very clueless and disoriented; I had a hunch that he did not remember attacking his own family during the skirmish in Rosethorn. "Michael?"

"What happened?" Michael asked. "All I remember is that we were fighting those immortals and then, I woke up here-" His eyes took a glimpse at my mechanical hand. "Jesus Christ! Your hand!"

I was right; he did not remember anything from when he was in his second-stage Hybrid form. He did not remember ripping off my right arm and wounding my shoulder. He did not remember attacking his own family and friends. I did not want to tell him the truth; I felt that he would feel truly guilty for what he had done. In hindsight, I should have brought some gloves with me to cover my prosthetic limb, but I was not certain what kind of reaction he would make if he remembered hurting us or not. I looked at Lucian, Eve, and David for a brief moment; Lucian and David looked stern, and I had a feeling that Michael would have to learn the truth sooner or later. Eve continued to cower.

"We...we were greatly outnumbered and one of them tore off my arm," I hesitantly tried to lie.

"Who did it?" Michael questioned me, acting more agitated and sitting back up again, despite his injuries. "Who harmed you?" Suddenly, he started coughing hard.

Part of me wanted to just tell Michael the truth as he started to get worked up, especially considering the warning signs of anger had previously led to his blind rage before. "Just don't worry. Just as long as I'm here, you need not to worry."

"It's just that I don't want to see you hurt like that," Michael explained.

"You've been through a lot," I told him. "Just calm down. You're in a worse condition that I am right now." I started to tear up, knowing that Michael was back to the person that I loved.

"Selene, y-you look sad."

"I'm just glad that we're all alive after this horrible battle," I said, trying to hold up the uncomfortable feelings of seeing him in his second form. I wanted to think about the Michael I knew more.

Michael observed Lucian from the doorway. "I thought you were dead."

"Remember that I injected your blood into mine," Lucian reminded him. "Then I was injected with Amelia's blood."

"I guess you were too stubborn to lose this war," Michael chuckled.

Michael's POV

The last battle that we fought was an absolute mess from what I remembered before I was knocked out. I was a little appalled to see that Selene had lost her arm in that fight. Still, I could not help but feel like there was something more than what was being told. Lucian, David, and Eve stood near the doorway as if they were planning an intervention for me, keeping their distance from me while Selene had been trying to comfort me as best as she could. Probably more than usual, actually.

As I tried to survey the situation, I started having visions of being strapped to an operating table with multiple medics giving me multiple injections into my blood while two surgeons operated on me. I was apparently awake at the time without any anesthetic to sedate me. I remembered hearing myself scream as the surgeons started cutting me open. In fact, I could almost feel how painful it was. I saw the surgeons implanting mechanical devices into my torso.

The visions cut to when I was laying in my cell, strapped by the same box I was imprisoned in. A woman in red appeared before me. "The pain is difficult, isn't it?" she said to me, crouching down and putting her mechanical arms around the encasement. "Just remember that no matter how many injuries you endure, it will be nothing compared to the emotional turmoil that follows." She closed her eyes and smiled. "I'm pretty sure you'll find out what that means soon... Father."

Selene's POV

"Michael?"

"I... I just saw a vision," Michael explained. "That woman in red... what the fuck really happened to me?"

Lucian walked closer. "A reaction in your blood has caused severe internal damage throughout your body. We've encased you here so that you don't have any physical strain."

"So I guess I'm out for a while," Michael groaned.

Lucian and I both nodded.

"Lucian, you seem to be the one who knows most what is going on," Michael said to him. "Who were those immortals that we fought back at Rosethorn?"

"I'm a member of Aurora's coven, who sought to destroy a single man named Azazel," Lucian explained. "The soldiers you fought were reanimated corpses that Aurora controlled."

"Is that the same woman that appeared in my visions?"

"In fact, she is Eve from the future," I added. "She came back in time to prevent a tragedy from happening."

Michael was surprised. Judging from his confusion, it seemed like he was thinking about how much different Aurora was from Eve as I had thought. I was not sure if Michael had ever seen the more twisted side of her; I doubt that he had gone truly face-to-face with her, especially as he was too injured. "This war is getting more twisted and twisted as it goes on," he commented.

"Tell me something I don't know," I agreed.

"I've got to get going," Lucian told us. "Aurora must have finished her duel with Mathieu by now." He looked at Michael. "I'm expected to meet with her afterwards to report on your condition."

As Lucian left, I moved closer to Michael, putting my arms on his encasement. "Michael, I just want to say that since I've met you, I've felt like I've been liberated. I know a lot of people want us dead, but you were always there in my time of need, as I was with you. The war may have become worse, but I've always held onto hope when I'm with you, even when you were on the brink of death. But there is something that you probably don't want to hear," I warned him as I slowly tugged the collar of my dress, revealing the large scar on my left shoulder. "In addition to losing my arm, I had to get a prosthetic shoulder bone replacement after the battle we fought in Rosethorn."

"Jesus Christ! Who could have done this?" Michael asked me, almost completely missing the point that I was hinting at. When I said, 'the battle we fought in Rosethorn', I was truly referring to how he had become my enemy for that brief moment. "Was it one of Aurora's soldiers? Why would she-?"

"Michael." I needed to get this off my chest so that he would finally know. "It was you that hurt me."