Disclaimer: I don't own 'Underworld'; you know the drill

Feedback: Always appreciated

AN: Predominately a fight scene in this chapter, but I hope you'll enjoy the result; I wanted to make sure I had it just right…

The Vampire Leader

As Sonja followed her father to the lower levels of the underground headquarters, she almost couldn't believe that the opportunity had finally come for her revenge.

After so many centuries of him persecuting her adopted species for the crimes of her past, forced to hide away as he sought the destruction of the lycans for nothing greater than Lucian falling in love with her, she finally faced her father as the embodiment of everything that he had tried to destroy, and she revelled in that power.

Her father moved with exceptional speed and power, and he'd had centuries of training since they'd last met to pick up new skills- to say nothing of whatever he 'inherited' from Amelia and Marcus when he was Awakened- but Sonja's new hybrid speed proved to be more than a match for Viktor's own talents, to say nothing of the additional tricks she'd picked up herself since the last time they fought. As he lashed out at her with stone-shattering punches, Sonja ducked and weaved out of the path of his fists before retaliating with a powerful kick of her own, leaving her father briefly winded from the impact. Slamming her hands against his ears, she grinned as her father staggered back, drawing her daggers as she prepared to attack him once again-

Her father's outraged roar was suddenly joined by Sonja's agonised scream as one hand was suddenly severed at the wrist. She was only just able to use her remaining dagger to deflect the blow that would have severed her other wrist, but the agony still overwhelmed her, prompting her to fall back into the water as she dropped her remaining dagger, unable to restrain her agonised scream.

"I regret this," Viktor said as he stood over her, the same sickening expression of sympathy on his face that had so enraged Sonja when he first displayed it while announcing Lucian's execution. "But, in the name of purity, it must be done."

As Viktor drew his sword back in preparation for a blow that could take off Sonja's head, Sonja could only stare at her severed hand as it lay before her in shock, unable to process what she'd just lost…

As Viktor brought his blade down towards Sonja's neck, his assault was interrupted when Amelia lunged forward, drawing her own blade to parry his attack. The two Elders exchanged brief snarls over their crossed blades before Viktor made a complex circular motion with his wrist that nearly cost Amelia her weapon. Despite keeping hold of her blade, the brief shift was enough to knock Amelia off-balance, allowing Viktor to go on the offensive. Forced into a defensive stance, Amelia was able to hold her own at first, her speed and slighter frame matching well against Viktor's greater power and build, but eventually a slight moment's loss of balance was enough to allow Viktor to lash out with a kick that struck her in the chest below the ribs.

As Amelia fell beside Sonja, the transformed Raze leapt towards the male Elder before he could follow up his attack on either of his fallen foes. Viktor attempted to turn to strike out at Raze, but with all his focus having been concentrated on Amelia, he was just a fraction too slow, allowing Raze to get past the point of the sword and strike at Viktor with a powerful swipe of his claws. While the two women behind Raze used the distraction to try and crawl to safety, Sonja forcing herself not to look back, Raze pressed his assault, massive claws flying as he ripped away at Viktor's chest, his leather coat soon tattered at the front and his chest so covered in blood that only his Elder-granted endurance kept him on his feet.

Further enraged at the pain in his chest, Viktor finally lashed out with a punch of his own, the incredible blow shattering Raze's nose and sending the powerful lycan flying backwards. As the wolf struck the ground a short distance away from the fallen Elder and the injured hybrid as they fought to make a retreat, Viktor turned his attention back to the two women.

As he drew his sword, he was already committed to his goal; Amelia could potentially still be talked into rejoining his cause, but Sonja's wilful corruption of her own biology had guaranteed her own destruction.

It was a tragedy to lose all that he had left of Ilona all over again, but Viktor had been correct when he assumed that the lycans had consumed his daughter after that dark night; they had just consumed the spirit of the child he had raised rather than the body.

After everything that she had done to herself, she wasn't even a vampire any more; all he was doing by killing her was preserving the memory of what she had been before Lucian corrupted her-

"NO!" a voice yelled.

Spinning around, Viktor was shocked to find Selene standing on the other side of the shallow pool that he was standing in, her weapons drawn and aimed at him, along with the shocking twist of a large lycan crouching beside her, with no sign that she was concerned about the wolf's presence.

"Leave them alone," Selene said coldly, "and deal with me."

"You would stand with that?" Viktor asked, staring at his youngest child incredulously as he indicated the lycan beside her; Sonja was lost to him whatever, but if he could make Selene realise what she had become-

"Michael has never lied to me, and has done his best to help me even when he had no idea what I was," Selene said solemnly, the wolf growling beside her as though in agreement. "As for what he is…"

She actually allowed herself a slightly affectionate smile as she briefly glanced in the lycan's direction. "I've seen worse."

"He is an abomination-!"

"The only monster here is the one that killed my family because he was peckish," Selene said, tightening her grip on her weapons as she turned her attention back to him. "You have driven our species to the brink to satisfy your own views of what we should be…"

"Everything was for the good of the coven-!"

"It was for the good of your vision of the coven," Selene countered. "That's not the same thing."

Viktor snarled in disgust at her defiance, but he quickly changed his tone when she raised the guns and fired, the shots striking the battered Elder in the shoulders before he could dodge. The bullets were only the Death Eaters' standard silver ammunition, with none of the ultraviolet weaponry that Viktor had witnessed in Selene's memories, but that was still enough to be a problem as they fractured his collarbones and other joints.

Before Viktor could reach up to remove the bullets, the lycan that had once been Michael Corvin charged towards him with a loud, feral roar, biting and tearing at the Elder. With his shoulders still in pain from the shots, Viktor initially couldn't raise his arms to defend himself, his agony only increasing as Michael bit down on his left shoulder and pulled. Roaring in outrage, Viktor lashed out with his other arm to strike Michael's side, prompting a nasty crunching sound as his blow shattered ribs and knocked Michael away, but the damage had been done to his arm, his left limb hanging uselessly at his side as he struggled to his feet.

Despite his agony, as the sound of a pistol being fired reached his ears, Viktor instinctively ducked once again, resulting in the bullet that Selene had just aimed at his head passing over him without causing any damage. As he stood back up, Viktor hissed in rage at Selene, smiling in satisfaction as he saw a new wave of Death Dealers hurrying down the stairs from a nearby door to join the battle; they would at least understand what he was doing…

Registering the appearance of the new wave of combatants, Selene and the lycan sprang into action, charging towards the four vampires before any of them could fire. Taken aback at the sight of Selene fighting alongside a lycan, the vampires didn't have time to react before they had been disarmed with a powerful blow of the lycan's arm, Michael smashing their weapons as Selene engaged the unarmed vampires in combat.

Satisfied that his traitorous protégé was occupied for the moment, Viktor turned his attention back to his first foes. As the lycan charged towards him once again, Viktor reached up with his working arm to grab the lycan by the threat, preparing to twist his hand in just the right manner-

His thoughts were suddenly cut short when something hard struck him in the back, leaving him frozen in his original stance as his brain fought to process the sudden agony inflicted on him.

When he glanced downwards and saw a fist sticking out of his chest, covered in blood with what looked like a chunk of his heart on the fingers, he realised that he was in far more trouble than he had expected.

"First rule of combat, father," Sonja's voice said from behind him, confirming that it was her fist currently sticking through his chest. "When you're in battle… never turn your back on an enemy, particularly when you don't know what they can do."

Viktor was just about to respond when his daughter reached up and tore his jaw off before he could even start to speak; a glance down through his pain confirmed that the arm through his chest was her left arm, her severed hand somehow reattached…

Then something grabbed the top of his head, pulled sharply backwards, and all Viktor knew was pain and terror as he watched his body stay standing with the lower part of its head still attached, even as he was sent flying through the air…

Staring at the pitiful remnants of her father's head still sitting on his neck, flexing her aching but healing wrist- hybrid healing might not be instantaneous, but it was exceptional; she'd just held her severed hand to her wrist and it had reattached while her father was distracted- Sonja felt a sickening sense of satisfaction at her victory.

She had promised herself that she wouldn't take any more pleasure from this than was absolutely necessary- for all his talk that it had only been business, Viktor had always taken far too much pleasure in torturing lycans even before he learned of her relationship with Lucian- but it was hard not to feel at least slightly relieved at the sight of her father's corpse.

He'd been so determined that his vision for their future would be the one that would endure, and now he'd lost everything in a matter of moments before he'd really had time to accept that nobody had agreed with his vision in the end.

It didn't bring back her lost love, or the various members of her adopted species who had fallen in the name of her father's rage at the failure of his twisted desire for power, but it was fundamentally satisfying to know that his insane vendetta was over. With Amelia now aware of the truth of the vampire/lycan blood feud, and Selene's tentative new relationship with Michael confirming that things weren't as black-and-white as some people on both sides might have believed, they had a real chance to forge some kind of peace…

Turning around, Sonja sighed in frustration as she saw Amelia and Raze now back on their feet, each glaring at the other as though waiting for their 'adversary' to strike first.

She knew that centuries of habit were hard to break, but they could have at least tried not to assume the worst of the other once the fight was over…

"That's enough," she said, walking forward to glare between the two; she might not be Amelia's elder, but her connection to Viktor should allow her some respect from her unofficial 'aunt', and her history with Raze went without saying. "I understand that this is an unprecedented situation, but we've just dealt with the real cause of this war; don't ruin that by attacking each other because of his propaganda."

For a moment, Raze and Amelia continued to glare at each other, but finally Amelia nodded in acknowledgement and relaxed her stance, followed by Raze doing the same.

"You're right," Amelia said grimly, even as she continued to look apprehensively at Raze. "Whatever happened in the past… we're not at war right now."

"It's not going to be easy," Selene said, walking up to the others as she looked grimly over at Viktor's fallen body, Michael padding up behind her like a lycan bodyguard (She noted some unconscious bodies lying behind Selene, but this wasn't the time to worry about that; if they weren't dead, they'd be fine soon enough, and compassion might help their case). "Whatever else Viktor had done, he was still an Elder…"

"Which is why we need to awaken Marcus and inform him of the realities of the situation facing us," Amelia said resolutely. "After such an unprecedented situation, it is only fitting that Marcus and I should confer on these matters together."

"Are you sure-?" Selene began.

"Believe me," Amelia said, shaking her head slightly as she looked reassuringly at Selene, "while Viktor was always in favour of the vampires, and I have expressed my past loyalty to the humans more than once, you will find that Marcus is… somewhat more sympathetic to lycans than you might imagine."

"Marcus?" Sonja said, looking at Amelia in surprise, Michael and Raze each cocking their heads slightly as they studied the Elder curiously. "Why would he sympathise with the lycans?"

"That is a story I think Marcus should decide to tell you himself," Amelia responded, before she indicated the door leading to the exit. "We should get moving right now anyway; if we get back to the mansion in time, we can ensure that our allies are holding down the fort while we deal with the main issues."