Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

The Lone Wolf

Selene hated abandoning the private safehouse like that, but no matter how secure it was there was no way it could stand up to another lycan attack if whoever was behind this decided to try again. If she had been more cautious, she might have taken steps to sort out a private safehouse on her own accord after listening to Kahn explain how he did it all at his end already, but she had been hoping that Michael would only need the one hiding place if they were careful enough.

Looking to the side at the figure pacing alongside her, Selene couldn't restrain an incredulous smile at the image she would have made if anyone from Ordgahz had seen her like this. The idea of her running alongside a lycan with neither party attacking the other… it would have been an impossible image even to her just a few months ago, but by now she found it almost more ridiculous to imagine Michael ever hurting her. She had only seen him in his lycan state on a couple of occasions, and definitely not when he was outside of the containment room, but when she had first seen him confronting that other lycan, she had known that Michael wasn't going to do anything to her no matter how angry he was with his opponent.

When did I become so sure of his self-control?

Even Selene didn't know the answer to that question, but as they approached the nearest empty safehouse she had been able to remember, she knew that it didn't matter. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt as though she could understand those films or TV shows where people just knew things about other people without needing actual evidence to prove their belief. She wasn't going to claim that Michael was outright harmless in his current state, but she was increasingly sure that he would never attack her when he was like this.

As they reached the safehouse, Selene took a moment to assess the building before deciding to go for the rooftop entrance. There was nobody on the street right now, but the rooftop entrance and exit was typically less closely monitored, and there was no point testing Michael's self-control just to make it easier to get around. Decision made, she leapt for the final rooftop, waiting for Michael to land beside her before she turned to look at him.

"We're here," she said, once again partially hoping that Michael would understand her and partially sure that he would. She still wasn't sure if it was her old prejudices that were wrong or if Michael was just an exceptional example of lycans, but the important thing was that he understood her. "Let's get inside and you can… change back?"

Looking at the clothes she still had under her arm, Michael made an approving grunt and then began to shrink as she opened the door. As she led the way into the safehouse, Michael had already lost his snout, and by the time she had reached the 'control room' a quick glance was enough to confirm that Michael had lost the last of his fur, Selene dropping the clothes she was carrying as she kept walking to let Michael preserve his modesty (she didn't particularly bother about seeing her fellow Death Dealers in various states during training or missions, but she appreciated that Michael wasn't like them). While Michael got dressed, Selene logged on to the mansion's networks and confirmed that the current location was not listed as an active mission site; it would retain the usual essentials, but nobody was expecting to use it for anything unless an emergency came up on patrol.

Which doesn't guarantee that there's not going to be one… Selene mused grimly to herself.

"For once I'm glad Kraven doesn't listen to me," she mused out loud.

"Kraven?"

"Technically he's meant to be in charge of our operations, but in practice he just likes to lie around in comfort and ignore the idea that anything might be out of his control," Selene looked back at Michael, smiling when she saw that he was human and fully dressed once more. "Are you all right?"

"A bit… uh…" Michael began, before his voice trailed off and he looked down at himself with a bemused smile, taking in his shirt, which was now hanging open as most of the buttons had been torn off when he changed. "Can't believe I got this off before I got too big for it…"

"Michael."

"…I have no idea how to describe this," he said at last, looking at his hands. "I mean, it was always… it always seemed like the moon would rise and that was it for my mind for the next few hours. I mean, I felt good when it was happening, and I could remember some bits of what I did afterwards, but it was like some kind of… sick drug high I didn't even want…"

"And now?"

"Now… I don't know," Michael replied, looking up at her with a slight trace of anxiety in his manner. "It's like… I was in danger and I knew that I needed the strength… I'd had all this anger and rage building up inside me since Sam died and suddenly there was a reason to use it right now…"

His gaze returned to his hands for a few moments, but then he looked back at Selene as she looked patiently at him. "I don't know if I was actually in control… but maybe it's a… Hulk thing?"

"Hulk thing?"

"Right, vampire… you really didn't read much?" Michael gave her a strained look that made her think of someone trying to make jokes rather than go mad.

"I was… very focused on my work," Selene decided to reply. Even if Michael seemed to have accepted the idea of her as a vampire, she accepted that there was only so much he could take in one night, and talking about her experience hunting lycans would obviously be in bad taste right now. "Hulk?"

"Basically this brilliant scientist gets exposed to radiation and turns into a superhuman monster when he gets into trouble," Michael explained. "I've only flicked through it, but the way a friend of mine explained it, most of the time the scientist doesn't have much control over when he changes into the Hulk, so the only way he can really be a hero is that he transforms in a position where his other side will basically start fighting the bad guy on his own."

"That… might work as an analogy, actually," Selene nodded tentatively, once again surprised at how elaborate fiction had apparently become since her own mortality. "And this 'Hulk'… I take it his transformed state responds well to people the scientist cares for when he's human?"

"Unless they're both really ticked off about something, anyway…" Michael nodded, before he looked at her with new understanding. "You mean… my wolf followed you here?"

"You didn't even seem to want to attack me in that state."

"Wow…" Michael looked at her with a soft smile that Selene wasn't sure how to respond to before he looked down at his hands, raising them in front of his face as though he'd never seen them before. "This is… a lot…"

"Quite," Selene said grimly. "You were fighting another lycan, but he… do you remember anything?"

"The guy at the bottom of the stairs?" Michael checked, pausing in thought when Selene nodded in confirmation. "There was… he tried to bite me at first, and when I threw him off, he started talking about how I'd only heard one side of this war… he acted like the idea of what happened to your family was just some random lycan having a bad day…"

He winced as he shot Selene an apologetic look. "Sorry; that was-"

"Understandable," Selene nodded reassuringly at him, reaching over to give his shoulder a squeeze. "But… thank you for apologising."

If anyone else had brought up her family to make a point, Selene was aware that she would have been angry about it, but she could see that Michael regretted his impulsive words and had only done so because he was affirming his loyalty to her. In a dark way, Selene truly appreciated that show of support, as Michael finally met another lycan face-to-face and chose her over them despite what he'd just learned about her secrets.

"Although on that topic," she said as her gaze shifted to a warning glare, "the next time I tell you to do something, maybe just do it?"

"What's- ah," Michael said, eyes widening in embarrassed understanding as he realised what she meant. "Right… sorry, but I… I mean, everyone was going up and I wasn't sure if… it just made sense to get away at the time…"

Seeing Michael awkwardly apologise for his disobedience at least made Selene feel better about their close call. As Michael had said, he couldn't be held entirely responsible for acting on instinct and trying to get away from the fight when he'd never been in one before, particularly when he didn't truly know what she was capable of when it came to fighting lycans. She briefly cursed that she hadn't taken the time to confirm that the lycan that had attacked Michael was dead, but once she'd forced him back it had been more important to get… her friend… to safety rather than make sure one lycan was dead.

Right now, she had bigger problems than a potential survivor; this was getting beyond the point where she could just keep Michael safe on her own…

When Lucian walked into Singe's lab, he allowed Singe and Raze a moment of satisfaction to see that he'd come back alone just like Raze had. It might have risked his credibility in the eyes of some of his other lieutenants, but Lucian had trusted these two with so much over the years that it was hardly a risk.

"A second escape?" Singe observed. "Impressive. Perhaps Raze wasn't overstating matters?"

"Raze didn't bring back this," Lucian replied, pulling out the small phial of blood he'd 'taken' from Michael during their fight.

Singe's dismissive attitude shifted to eager interest as he carefully took the phial from Lucian, holding it up to his eyes for a moment with a contemplative chuckle before he looked back at Lucian. "If Michael is indeed the Carrier, the vampires could-"

"Relax, old friend," Lucian cut Singe off. "As it turns out… take a look at that sample and you'll see what I mean."

Raze looked curiously at Lucian at that comment, but Singe was clearly too eager to examine the sample to pay much attention to Lucian's odd choice of words. Moving to his laboratory area, Singe transferred the phial's contents to a suitable tube and carefully added the blood to the glass beaker containing the testing solution.

"It's a shame we don't have more…" Singe muttered, half to himself. Lucian simply nodded in acknowledgement of Singe's point; where others might have used that moment as a chance to criticise him, Lucian knew that Singe simply regretted that they couldn't complete the experiment in one go…

As Singe stirred the liquid, the contents soon turned a complex weave of purple and blue that Lucian had never seen before, affirming his theory even before Singe's next words.

"Positive," the lycan scientist said, looking up at Lucian with new awe. "And… he is already one of us?"

"Already?" Raze repeated, looking curiously between the other two. "I thought we needed a pure sample for this plan to work? Isn't that why we never just tried to grab that Corvinus Elder and use his blood for this?"

"Using Marcus Corvinus's blood was never an option as we cannot be sure how the vampire virus already in his system would react with our own," Singe explained as he turned to Raze. "If the vampire strain proved dominant over the Corvinus strain, using Marcus's blood would risk the vampire venom poisoning Lucian before the unique abilities of the Corvinus bloodline could take effect. Using a Corvinus who is already a lycan is… not a perfect solution, but we can adapt more easily than if we were working with samples from a vampire."

"I… see," Raze nodded, before he looked more directly at Lucian. "And how does the Death Dealer fit into this?"

"She appears to be Selene, actually," Lucian clarified.

"Selene?" Raze looked at him in surprise. "Viktor's personal protégé?"

"Believe me, our 'partner' has been very detailed in his description of her; if there was another such Death Dealer active in Budapest at this time, I'm sure we would already be aware of her."

"Why would she be… associating with Michael Corvin if he is already one of us?"

"A… fascinating question, actually," Lucian said with a thoughtful nod at Singe. "I do not pretend to understand how it happened, but when Michael transformed while fighting me… he genuinely calmed down when in Selene's presence."

"In her presence?" Singe repeated. "He didn't attack her?"

"But if we didn't know he was a lycan already, he can't have been infected that long ago…" Raze observed as he looked at Lucian. "How could he have enough control not to attack someone like that? I had the advantage of having you there to help me control that side when it happened, but no lycan would let a newly-turned lycan associate with the likes of Selene if he had a choice…"

"There are questions, to say the least," Lucian nodded in acknowledgement at Raze before he turned back to the blood sample on the table. "But right now, we have to deal with the more urgent matter of the key to our plan being in the custody of a Death Dealer."

He doubted that Selene's association with Michael was publically sanctioned or approved of by the rest of her coven, but he knew from experience that even one vampire could be a threat to any number of lycans if it was the right vampire. If Selene truly had been trained as Sonja's replacement in terms of her skill as a warrior, she would be a fascinating challenge, even without her apparent friendship with Michael to make her more intriguing.

He had answered his question about whether Michael was worth pursuing further, but now the most significant question troubling Lucian was exactly why a vampire would want to protect a lycan in the first place.

Lucian refused to consider the possibility that Selene had 'replaced' Sonja in ways that Viktor hadn't intended; his own bond with Sonja was based on them basically growing up together, but the notion that Selene should turn against her own cause after so long for some young pup…