Author's Note: It has been pointed out there are some continuity issues in this story with the events of Underworld: Awakening. While this story follows after all the events of Underworld: Awakening fairly closely, it is still correct to say that this story is an AU of Underworld. Anything that seems to conflict with the events of Underworld: Awakening is due to that.

Epilogue

"Did you find anything?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes!" Selene said, excited. She pressed a few controls and reconfigured the library's holo interface. It projected an image of a DNA strand.

"What is this?" Sheppard asked.

"This is the bit of DNA that makes vampires and lycans immortal in its pure form," Selene said.

"Looks like the ATA gene strand, but heavily modified," Elizabeth commented.

Selene nodded. "It is. From what I've read of Corvinus's notes, he was apparently researching weapons."

"I thought he was biological researcher," Elizabeth said, confused.

"And so he was," Selene agreed. "The Ancients were steadily losing the war against the wraith. While most of their scientists sought technological solutions to defeat the wraith, Corvinus sought to create a biological weapon instead."

Sheppard nodded, understanding. "Immortality."

Selene nodded. "Elizabeth, you saw how the effects of the wraith feeding on me were reversed when I fed on it. Corvinus sought to turn the wraith's most fearsome and terrifying weapon against them. He created two strains of humans, each modified with select bits of wraith DNA and custom-made synthetic DNA that could feed on the numerous wraith in hopes that as our numbers increased theirs would decrease."

"That's almost like using a virus that feeds on viruses to cure a patient," Sheppard said.

"More or less," Selene agreed. "I think the two strains had different purposes. The lycans were intended to be used as shock troops, while my kind was intended to be used as infiltrators and saboteurs. Certainly, you could see how if the wraith tried to cull a world with a significant population of vampires it could make trouble for them. The potential of vampires to wreak havoc on their hive ships after allowing themselves to be captured by darts would be significant."

Selene continued. "There were problems, however. The vampire strain had inherited a weakness from the wraith's ancestor species, the Iratus bug. The Iratus bug finds sunlight uncomfortable. Unfortunately for most of us, it's fatal, present company excluded of course. The werewolf strain had issues with self-control, issues which my people are intimately familiar with. Natural selection eventually corrected the problems with the werewolf strain, and the lycans came to be. And in both cases, the strain was contagious to humans."

Selene sighed. "The records end just before Atlantis was defeated. Of course it doesn't tell us what went wrong in the intervening years, but it's obvious that his experiment got out of control," Selene said. "The result of which has been a shadow war that has been going on for the better part of a millennium, and even now is still going despite what has happened to us."

"Oh," Elizabeth said. "The purge. I'm surprised the governments of Eastern Europe were able to keep that so tightly under wraps. We all bought the line about rebels armed with biological weapons in the West hook, line, and sinker."

"I suppose I should feel offended," Selene said. "But I don't. We were created by someone else to serve as weapons in an unwinnable war. I knew something was up when I fed on the wraith during the battle; the act of feeding on it gave me far more of a boost than feeding on humans ever did. We were created to fight them, but somehow the thought doesn't bother me. It's just what I am, and I'm good at it. That is something I long ago made peace with."

"I guess on some level that's lucky for the two of us," Sheppard said, motioning towards Elizabeth. "We both know some people in the SGC and, given that vampirism and lycanthropy were invented as ways to fight the wraith, we're both pretty sure we will be able to remain in our posts. The brass are going to want to know how well Corvinus's weapons perform, after all. Everything has been classified at the highest levels, so the public won't become aware of the existence of lycans or vampires. I guess the SGC felt like we had enough irons in the fire already to be opening that can of worms."

"And for that, I am grateful," Selene said.

"So, what will you do now?" Elizabeth asked.

"Go back to finding my daughter," Selene said. "What about you two?"

Elizabeth smiled and took Sheppard's hand. "I think the events of the past week have taught us not to take for granted what we have, and enjoy it while we can."

Selene smiled, something she hadn't done in a long time. "You know, the last time something like this happened, it started a war between my kind and the lycans. Maybe this time, it can end the war."

"I'm surprised you're so willing to make peace with the lycans," Sheppard said.

Selene shrugged. "I fear the very survival of all three species, human, lycan, and vampire, may depend upon it."

"You really think so?" Sheppard asked.

"I do. Vampires and lycans can either fight each other into extinction, or we can fight the enemy we were made to destroy. If we don't do the latter, we may all very well be consumed by a tidal wave of wraith before it's over," Selene said.

Sheppard and Elizabeth took turns shaking Selene's hand. "Good luck," Sheppard said.

"To us all," Selene said.