School work kept me from posting sooner than I wanted. Anyways, thanks for the reviews and advice. They really help. But please tell me if you want me to reply cause I'm really not used to the system yet. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Azec Sistra

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After an hour of rough riding in a car with an uncomfortably silent partner, her ass completely numb, and constantly on the lookout for anybody tracking them, Lia was glad to pull into the parking lot.

She got out of the car and went to the other side in order to check out the damage that had been done by the Cleaners.

"I guess that's not so bad. Only the right rear view mirror was shattered. What about you?" she asked Jon as he was stepping out of the car.

Her question was quickly answered when he made way for her to see all the bullet shells that he had forced out of his body. The silver nitrate didn't affect Jon, or it shouldn't have at least. Yet, he seemed very tired and something else…something that she understood but had never wanted to understand.

"I'm going in." Jon simply said, turning and heading towards the front door.

"Can you bring the Lycan in while I hide the equipments?" he heard her say.

Jon stared at Lia who did not take her gaze off of him, then at the equipments that obviously couldn't just be left there, and then at the Lycan who wasn't about to miraculously recover and start walking on his own. He was too tired to argue. So he picked up the Lycan, being careful this time not to reopen any of the wounds that hadn't reopened during their rough ride.

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Up four flights of stairs and down a hallway that seemed to never end, Jon reached a green door with the numbers 408 in bright gold on it. He took out a set of keys and unlocked the door.

Jon and Lia lived in a three-bedroom apartment with completely covered windows. It wasn't much, but it was a form of shelter. They couldn't own a house because it would make it much easier to track them.

Jon gently placed the Lycan against a wall and went to grab some towels. He spread them on the couch, laid the Lycan on top of them, and undressed him, knowing that Lia was going to run some tests on him.

He noticed that the Lycan was wearing some kind of bracer on his right arm. Jon took it off and examined it. It was some kind of motion sensitive ejection device, but he couldn't directly tell what it was used for. So he stashed it in his room to study it later.

With that done, Jon went into his room and grabbed a towel and a different outfit. How good it would be to feel the warm water against his skin and to wash away the smell of blood.

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Lia opened the door and heard the sound of running water. She knew that Jon had gone to take a shower.

"Oh God…" she sighed as she looked over to the couch and saw that Jon had set up the couch and undressed the Lycan. At the very least, Jon had the decency to cover the lower extremities of the Lycan with a towel.

Before she could get started with the Lycan, however, she had to check on something. She went into her room, which would have made any computer technician envious. Her room was filled with wires all connected to the dozen flat computer screens attached to the wall.

Lia sat down in her chair and started typing something on the master keyboard. She was checking on the areas where Jon had dropped mini-cameras during their previous missions.

"What the hell happened here…?" she murmured to herself in shock and disbelief.

The Old Coven had been completely burnt down.

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Jon turned off the water and got out of the shower. He dried himself off and put on his clean outfit.

Then he used his hand to wipe clean the blurry mirror and looked at himself. He hated what he saw. He hated who he was and what he was. After all, he had been something of a human once, and now, he lived off the blood of humans.

The centuries of fighting and waiting had hardened him. He had forgotten how to smile, how to laugh, how to cry, how to feel any other emotions other than despair, hate, and anger for that matter. Once in a while, his humanity did surface, but that was extremely rare.

No one understood him. Perhaps the only one that had the potential of understanding him was Lia. He knew that deep down, she felt the same way that he did, but, unlike him, she suppressed her emotions by burying herself in her work.

Much like humans cut themselves to relieve their stress, Jon inflicted himself with physical pain. It kept him from going insane and made him feel…alive.

He lifted his fingers and placed them on the right side of his face. He shut both his eyes and, after a few seconds, sunk his nails as deep into his flesh. He slowly moved his fingers across his face, opening his left eye to see the flesh tear open and the blood slowly ooze from the wounds.

"Ah…argh…"

He looked to his hands and then to his face. The wounds had already healed, leaving nothing but bright pink lines that he knew wouldn't be there the next morning. He silently hoped that Lia wouldn't notice.

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Jon came out of the shower and saw Lia pacing back and forth. That was never good.

"What did you find out about the Lycan?" Jon asked, hoping that whatever she had found out wouldn't endanger them.

"I haven't started the tests on the Lycan yet. We have another problem." Lia said as she stopped in front of him and looked up at him.

"What?" he asked, wondering what else could actually cause her to worry.

"The Old Coven was completely burnt down."

"What? Who? How? Why?"

"Slow down. I don't know any more than you do. I'll look into it tomorrow. For now, let's just take care of that Lycan." Lia said as she headed into her room to grab medical equipments, gloves, scissors, suspension tubes, and needles.

Jon also made himself useful and gathered analytical equipment from his room, a microscope, test tubes, beakers, and silver nitrate.

Before Lia started to do anything, Jon used a sterile needle to draw a tube full of blood from the Lycan. He sat down at the kitchen table and started analyzing the blood samples.

Meanwhile, Lia was connecting a suspension tube that separated into two different tubes at the end to both the Lycan's arms. She was going to "clean" the Lycan's blood. Since silver nitrate was denser than blood, it would sink down one end of the tube while the blood would flow back into the Lycan's body. What she found strange, however, was that the Lycan's body had somehow begun rejecting the silver nitrate on its own. Hard silver she could understand but silver nitrate was a completely different story.

Her train of thought was abruptly interrupted when Jon called to her.

"Lia. I just finished analyzing the blood samples, and I found something really strange."

"What?"

"Well…you know that silver nitrate and UV fluid are absorbed straight into the blood stream, causing an acceleration in programmed cell death of the subject's infected tissue?"

"Yes. Why?"

"These cells aren't entirely affected by the silver nitrate or they're affected at a much slower rate, giving his body enough time to metabolize the silver."

"His body shouldn't even be able to metabolize the silver on its own. Not unless he's a Vampire or a Hybrid."

"I know. What you'll find even more interesting is that these cells are border line Lycan."

"What do you mean?"

"These cells are clearly those of a Lycan, but they also slightly resemble those of a Hybrid."

They found this very strange, but there was a moment of complete silence and understanding between the two. This Lycan was probably the key to helping them end the war between Vampires and Lycans once and for all.

Lia broke off from Jon's gaze and looked at the Lycan. This was the first time she had gotten a clear look at this face. It felt strangely familiar to her. She shook her head and started for her room.

"Clean up and go to sleep. You must be tired." Lia said to Jon.

"You can go to sleep if you want."

"What are you going to do?"

"Someone has to stay up to keep watch on him. I can just sleep tomorrow during the day."

"Thank you." was all Lia could say as she closed the door to her room.

Jon moved all the unused equipment to the kitchen table and then sat next to the couch where the Lycan rested.

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Lia was in a semi-conscious state, tossing and turning in her bed. It was almost as if something was killing her. The flesh on her back felt like it was being torn off, and the skin on her face and arms felt like it was being burnt.

Blurry images…no…memories flashed through her mind. These were memories that she didn't even know she had.

"NOOO!"

"SONJAAAA!"

She opened her eyes, which had turned completely black. She couldn't control herself and began crying.

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Jon opened his eyes.

"Oh shit!" he said as he realized that he had fallen asleep.

He hurriedly looked over at the kitchen clock, which read 6 AM. He checked the suspension tubes attached to the Lycan. The blood that was flowing through was completely red now so he knew that the Lycan was silver nitrate free now.

He detached the end of the tube from which the blood was being drawn and waited for all the blood to flow into the other end before detaching it too.

He brought the tubes over to the kitchen table when his ears picked up a noise. He swung his body around, a .50AE handgun in hand and ready to take down anything that moved.

The Lycan had woken up and was staring at him.

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Lucian felt at peace. His body ached and burned, but he felt at peace.

He had seen himself and Sonja in Michael and Selene. Not wanting for them to end up the way he and his beloved had ended up, he had given them a chance at life. The last thing he could remember was telling Selene to bite Michael and then being shot by his cousin Kraven.

Lucian felt like he no longer had a purpose and that no one understood him and so he wanted to die. He wanted to rejoin his beloved Sonja, the only person who had ever accepted him, loved him, and understood him completely.

He was sure he was dead when all the ache and burning sensation left his body. Instead, he woke up to find himself in an unknown place and completely naked. More shocking was that he saw a young Vampire boy pointing a gun straight at him.

"Who are you?" Lucian managed to say weakly.

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I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone

My shadow's the only one that walks besides me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone

Green Day / Boulevard of Broken Dreams

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter. And to clarify why the song lyrics are there, I think that they do a much better job than any well-thought out words in explaining how Jon, Lia, and Lucian feel down. There's also going to be a couple more chapter featuring song lyrics.

And as always, all your comments and reviews are appreciated.

Thanks and till next chapter!