Chapter 1 - Change of Fate
Author's Note
As I recently rewatched my childhood favorite Underworld series, I am really disappointed with how Underworld Awakening and Underworld Blood Wars treated Michael. In the former, he barely made an appearance and stood in firing line like a complete ass. In latter, he was just killed off screen in the most lamest way, death by blood loss when he survived silver nitrate bullets and impaling earlier. Michael was also easily captured by Marius (who was just a generic Lycan at the time) while he single handedly killed William, the STRONGEST werewolf before. The nerf just makes no sense at all. While it was assumed that they did so because Scott Speedman no longer wanted to play the role of Michael, it was still kind of sad.
Therefore, I decide to write a fanfic for Michael, Selene and Eve. It will focus on the couple's relationship, marriage, parenting and Eve's involvement in Vampire-Lycan War. The plot is very loosely influenced by Underworld Awakening and Underworld Blood Wars. Like my usual writing style as a history fanatic, there will be many historical and religious elements. Contemporary 2000s technology and pop culture will play a major role as well. I aim to make the culture, language and geography of the story more realistic. The default in-universe language is Hungarian which means Michael, Selene and Eve always speak Hungarian unless there are further explanations.
This story starts at the beginning of Underworld Awakening.
Hungary
Budapest
5th March, 2004
It had been 4 months since Selene and Michael killed both Marcus and William. However, Michael still found it rather uncomfortable as he just participated in a familicide fest. Marcus technically killed his father Alexander; Selene killed her foster father Viktor and technically blood uncle Marcus; Michael killed his own distant uncle William. By the couple's hand, they just massacred a generation of Corvinus bloodline. While Michael never regarded the death of his distant uncles since they attacked him and Selene first, he still felt sorry for them. A family should be united and stay strong all the time. Maybe in another timeline, they could be a happy family together… at least that was what Michael thought.
Michael was now sitting on a sofa in a small vampire safe house in the less developed area of Budapest. He was now watching a Hungarian national TV documentary about The Purge. Unlike most third generation Americans, Michael was still able to speak Hungarian fluently and could fully enjoy the programme without any subtitles This could be attributed to his now deceased grandparents being hardline Hungarian nationalist. Michael's grandfather was a combat hardened Royal Hungarian Army staff sergeant while his grandmother was an experienced field hospital nurse. After World War 2, Michael's grandparents escaped Kingdom of Hungary due to the fear of upcoming communist annexation. Eventually, they immigrated to USA in 1947. Despite later becoming fully legal US citizens, they still taught their kids Hungarian language and constantly reminded them of their proud Hungarian ancestry. Michael actually learned Hungarian first and English second. Luckily, he could speak both languages fluently with no accent. What Michael found hilarious was his grandparents' extreme anti-Romanian sentiment. They hold insane grudges regarding the cede of Transylvania to Romania due to Treaty of Trianon after World War 1 and they insulted Romanians all the time. Such over the top hatred was so surreal that Michael could never take them seriously.
Sitting beside Michael was Selene. She wore a pitch black pajamas shirt and pants. Selene slightly leaned her head on Michael's wide shoulder as he warped Selene in his muscular right arm. Selene was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. She was just too gorgeous with a goddess-like sexy body. Under her cold expression was a pure heart of gold. Selene was brave, loyal and caring. However, what surprised Michael the most was Selene actually being a 620 years old virgin until he deflowered her passionately back in the cargo of an old garage 4 months ago. Selene was definitely the top one percent combat master but her romantic capability was just pure innocence. While Michael was forever grateful that he had such a wholesome lover, her pureness also led to many frustrating and awkward situations. First of all, Selene never addressed Michael as her "boyfriend" or "lover" but strangely called him as her "mate". Secondly, Selene was always the passive one for affection. While she never resisted Michael's kisses, hugs and always returned them passionately, she was never the one to make the first move apart from that one time she gave her first kiss before chaining Michael to a chair. Thirdly, Selene never showed any verbal affection. She nearly never said "I love you" unless they were having sex. Lastly, Selene was always very quiet during sexual intercourse. Except the hiss of pain when Michael broke her hymen, Selene was near dead silent no matter how hard Michael tried to please her. The couple now had sex thrice a week but Selene was still too embarrassed and shy to make any sound. While it was quite frustrating, Michael could not help but find Selene even more adorable.
The TV set that the safehouse provided was a Samsung TXN2020. It was 18.75 inches high, 23.1 inches wide and 19.5 inches thick. The screen was 20 inches wide and used the input port of RF RCA Composite. Not the best in the market but it certainly got the job done with clear resolution and audio output. Back to the TV programme, the host kept talking about how The Purge was highly efficient in eliminating enemies of mankind. After the death of Alexander Corvinus and the destruction of the Cleaners, no one would cover or clean up the evidence of the Vampire-Lycan War. Humans across the globe soon learned of the existence of Vampires and Lycans. Seeing them as a danger to humanity, governments around the world started a genocidal war against Vampires and Lycans. Michael felt deeply responsible because he and Selene's involvement with Marcus and William destroyed the Cleaners and directly caused The Purge. Different countries had different levels of Purges, some were light but some were heavy. Yet, by far the most extreme one was in Hungary. The Hungarian Defence Forces formed the elite Infected Persons Unit to investigate, identify and eliminate the "Infected" Vampires and Lycans.
The military and governments' mass genocide reminded Michael of a grimdark sci-fi tabletop game called "Warhammer 40k" that he used to play with his friends back in USA. If Michael remembered correctly, he bought a "Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Box Set" back in 1998 which consisted of 10 Black Templars Space Marines, a Landspeeder; 20 Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors, dice, templates, rulebook and reference sheets. These elite Infected Persons Unit was literally the Black Templars as they had endless crusades against xenos… which were now Vampires and Lycans in reality. Since Vampires, Lycans and Hybrid were all "horrific, blood sucking, night creatures", Michael's favorite Warhammer 40k faction was now definitely the Blood Angels for vampires, Space Wolves for Lycans and Night Lords for the night horrors of both races. The Imperium's anthropocentrism was badass on paper but absolutely horrible if you were on the opposite side. The current human supremacist governments around the world were literally the copy and paste of the Imperium. Guess every masterpiece has its cheap copy. Michael now seriously started to consider if he should start a new army as Tau but quickly rejected the idea because Tau SUCKS. Who the hell likes communist weeaboo anyway? Most importantly, Michael needed to focus on his current survival.
As the TV programme showed more uncanny gruesome footage of brutalizing Vampires and Lycans, Michael just felt more and more uneasy. He was afraid. He was scared that those horrific fates would eventually fall on him and his lover. He thus turned his head and talked to Selene with a worried voice, "Dear?"
"Yes?"
"I think we should leave Budapest as soon as possible. It is just way too dangerous now. I am sure the humans will eventually find and eliminate us."
"I know, that's why I am thinking of a plan. A place that we can hide and settle down."
"Any ideas?"
Selene then handed over to Michael a Eastern European atlas and pointed to the locations for him, "2 routes but 3 locations. The first route was to travel by Danube, we can either go to the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia and Montenegro or Southern Dobruja in Bulgaria. For the second route, we can just travel by land with a car to Transylvania in Romania- no, I mean occupied Hungary."
Selene said in a strict face and Michael visibly cringed for his lover's sudden self-correction regarding the sovereignty of Transylvania.
Oh please, not Selene too! I am done with all these nationalistic crap from my grandparents! Leave me alone!
Michael grabbed the atlas and studied the map in great detail. He responded, "Hum.. I see… Balkan countries... Which one do you prefer?"
"Vojvodina because the Government of Serbia and Montenegro is too poor and war exhausted to even participate in the Purge after losing all Yugoslav Wars. We can thus easily hide there. Also, there was a ship available the next night."
"But would it be way safer to travel by day? Humans do not know about us Hybrid or Enhanced Vampire yet. They will never expect us to walk under the sun like nothing happened. We can use their ignorance as an advantage because they will never suspect us as non-humans. We are just as 'normal' as them, you know?"
"Agreed, but how about the place?"
"I actually prefer Transylvania because the country was way larger. With nature barriers like the Carpathian Mountains and Apuseni Mountains, they could greatly help us hide and evade if there were any enemies tracking us. Most importantly, the population density is also way thinner and we will never cause any unwanted attention. Serbia and Montenegro is an excellent choice on paper but a war torn country is politically very unstable. At this rate, I am afraid that even Montenegro and Kosovo will eventually break away. Also, take a look at their GDP in 2003. According to World Bank, Romania had a GDP of 57.81 billion USD but Serbia only had 22.48 billion USD. That is nearly 2.6 times different. Proverty caused gang crimes and the Lycans always use it to conceal their activities extremely well. It will be even more difficult for us to detect their movement. For now, Vojvodina is quite unsafe if we want to stay there for long term."
"Hum… you are probably right…", Selene was instantly in deep thoughts and further studied Eastern European carefully. After 30 minutes of highly concentrated reading, she finally made up her decision, "Alright, we will go to Transylvania then. Preferby the Alba country since we got Apuseni Mountains as a nature defense and we should also have access to an old safe house in an ancient abandoned mine there. There were also sizable Hungarian inhabitants there that we could blend in to get information from."
"Excellent, when do we set off then?"
"Tomorrow morning. Is that ok?"
"More than enough. Now let's pack our stuff."
The couple quickly pack their stuff into 4 large packs. One for weapons and ammunition, one for cash and forged personal documents, one for clothes, and the last one for blood packs and some ancient history books that they took from Andreas Tanis.
All they left on the table now were the clothes and stuff that they would use tomorrow morning. Michael then saw Selene's usual Death Dealer outfit: black leather bodysuit with a corset, a long duster coat, and a pair of under-knee length combat boots. He sighed in disappointment, "Are you sure you want to wear this tomorrow?"
"Problem?", Selene looked perplexed.
"Too eye-catching and strange for any normal human. At best they may think you as some kind of dominatrix."
"What is a 'dominatrix'?", Selene looked even more confused.
"...Nevermind then… Anyway, just choose a better one, ok?"
"My Death Dealer outfit is perfect for my build. I don't see the need for a change.", Selene defended confidently.
"Dear, Death Dealer outfit is perfect if you are walking out at NIGHT. However, you are walking in bright DAYLIGHT tomorrow and everyone will see you. You don't want to be the center of attention, right?"
"Oh… Right… Then what do you suggest?", even after 4 months, Selene was still not used to walk under daylight. After 6 centuries as a pure night creature, Selene subconsciously still avoided sunlight and mostly walked outside at night. Therefore, other than her Death Dealer outfit and sleeping pajamas, Selene never changed her outfit style despite Michael already bought a considerable amount of new clothes for her. Old habits die hard.
Michael then took out a tight black turtle neck sweater, a pair of tight black jeans and long black boots, presented them to his lover delightfully, "See? These highly resemble your usual choice of outfit. All black, tight but flexible and mostly comfortable."
"These… fully matches my aesthetics. How do you know what I like?"
"Because you are my love and I know all your needs, dear."
Selene blushed and slightly turned her head away after hearing the clear affection in his words, "Sorry I never tried the clothes you bought early on. I never expected you to know my taste this well…"
Damn… she was so cute!
"Don't be sorry. This is a basic job for every perfect boyfriend after all."
Selene blushed even harder and mumbled quietly, "Hum… boy… friend…".
Guess there is still a long way to go until she can utter the word "boyfriend".
Michael then looked at the clock, it was already 11:30 pm and he said, "Now, why don't we go to sleep a bit earlier. Tomorrow will be our test for fate."
Selene nodded and quickly laid in bed. She gave a spot but patted the mattress rapidly, silently gesturing to Michael to join her in an impatient manner. Michael giggled at Selene's awkward and clumsy way of showing affections. He then quickly joined her after switching off the light.
At least she was improving. She won't even help me pull up the quilt a month ago.
As they slept in bed, Selene gently hugged Michael's right arm, buried her face into his neck and shoulder area. She slept almost instantly. Michael could smell the sweet scent of shampoo from Selene's hair and the sensation of her silky smooth face cheek fully touching his neck. There was no lust but pure peace and love. Michael warmly smiled at the scene and whispered into her ears, "I love you, Selene. We will go through thick and thin together."
Michae then gently kissed Selene's forehead and quickly fell asleep in her warm embrace.
Little did they know, their simple change of plans completely altered their original fate…
Author's Note
I am neither Hungarian or Romanian, these ultranationalistic jokes are direct tribute to the 2balkan4you, balkan_irl, Living Ironically in Europe, wow_mao and Cursed Balkan Youtube Comments. I hope you guys like these Eastern European and Balkan memes, as well as the old school 3rd edition Warhammer 40k reference.
Also, according to Underworld Wiki - Fandom, it is said that Selene had sexual intercourse with many men long before meeting Michael due to boredom. I think it does not really match Selene's stoic, cold and monastic warrior character. I thus changed this setting to make the story more wholesome. Since the innocence greatly contrasted Selene's combat superiority and stoicism, the conflict would make Selene's character even more stand out. The lack of experience in romance and sex would also make great scene for comedic relief and "spicy" lemons in later chapters.
Anyone feel the nostalgia back when TVs weighed at least 200 pounds and were as thick as a giant turtle shell?