Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
AN: I include reference to a detail from the non-canon novel "Blood Enemy"; a certain member of Marcus's family featured there in a role that I felt could be easily adapted to an unseen presence in Rise of the Lycans, but I won't discuss it in depth right now.
The Lone Wolf
From the moment that she had been told that Lucian was alive and interested in pursuing peace, Amelia had been prepared for the idea that she would learn some interesting things about the start of this conflict, but the notion that he had violated his own rules was still a surprise. For all his fanaticism about the superiority of vampires over lycans, Viktor had always been particularly focused on protecting the vampires and keeping their existence secret, so the notion that he had defied his own rules…
She could certainly see how Viktor might have given into temptation, and she wasn't going to deny that she had occasionally been drawn in by the smell herself despite her own reputation for being particularly tolerant of humans. However, there was a difference between giving in to the thirst when in a state of heightened emotion during the heat of battle and deliberately going out hunting for a snack, and that was before she considered the implications of Lucian's attitude in contrast to Viktor's past claims.
"How did you know about that?" She looked firmly at Kraven, deciding to settle the main question in front of her first.
"His role in those deaths?" Kraven shrugged dismissively. "I cleaned up after him and kept his secrets; it was one of my more… unofficial responsibilities."
"It was… only on occasion…" Viktor said, his tone defensive despite his physical weakness.
"Seriously?" Michael Corvin glared at the Elder, the young lycan's already-short temper pushed even further by this weak defence. "I spent months going to all the trouble of locking myself up to make sure I don't hurt anyone when I transform because I couldn't control myself! You're meant to be the leader of the side allegedly protecting innocent people from the monsters, and you think it's all right to just go out and kill people because you… wanted a tasty snack?"
"Resisting nature… is difficult… and I chose… to acknowledge… the food chain…"
"The food chain?" Michael walked up to stand in front of Viktor's throne, fists clenched as he glared at the weakened Elder. "You know, when Selene told me about this whole blood feud, she presented it as the vampires protecting humans from other lycans, and so far you're the only immortal I've met who actually set out to hurt innocents just because you felt like it."
Amelia had to give Michael Corvin due credit; for only having been a lycan for less than a year, he was maintaining good self-control despite the current full moon. The vampires immediately surrounding Viktor and Marcus were ready in case he made a move towards the Elder, but the young man was keeping a respectful distance regardless of his temper.
"I kept… the lycans… contained… for decades…" Viktor began.
"And enslaved us in the process," Lucian cut in. "Do not pretend you ever did anything for any purpose other than your own self-gratification."
"Would this tie in to your declaration that you were punished for saving a vampire?" Amelia looked curiously at Lucian, deciding to get the trial back to the most important matter. "Who and why?"
"Sonja, Viktor's daughter," Lucian said, a wistful edge to his voice for a moment before he turned to address Amelia more directly. "She was being pursued by a wild werewolf outside Viktor's old fortress, and at the time… I was one of the coven's servants. I trust you remember what that meant for lycans before… everything?"
"The silver collar."
"Silver collar?" Michael looked at Amelia curiously, stepping back from Viktor even as he still shot the occasional glare at the withered Elder.
"Lycan servants in the early days of the coven were obliged to wear collars with silver spikes pointing inwards to their necks," the female Elder explained, noting the surprised glances from some of the younger Death Dealers and making a note to look into what other vampires knew of their history later. "The collars were carefully designed so that the wearers would be relatively safe while they remained in their human forms, but should they transform…"
"Quite," Lucian observed as Michael rubbed his neck and winced at the mental image. "I had forged a key for my collar some time ago in my role as blacksmith, but I had promised I would not use it to escape… but I did use it when I witnessed Sonja in danger and the only way to save her was the extra power of the change."
"And once she had been saved you returned to human form to await judgement?"
"Naturally," Lucian nodded at the female Elder.
"And after all that you were going to kill him anyway?" Michael looked over at Viktor incredulously. "What the Hell? Someone saves your daughter's life and you decide to kill him for it?"
"The laws… were in place… for a reason…"
"Which would mean a lot more coming from someone who didn't break the rules just because he wanted something tasty to eat," Michael countered. There was a certain incredulity to the young man's face as he spoke, as though he couldn't believe he was talking back to a vampire Elder like this, but Amelia would simply be impressed at his courage for now. "If you're going to be a hypocrite because of your appetite, at least give other people a break when they do it for the right reasons."
"You think… you have the right…?"
"Michael Corvin is part of the reason that we are having this trial in the first place; regardless of his age, he has the right to ask these questions," Amelia glared over at her fellow Elder before she turned back to Lucian. "So if you took such a risk to save Sonja that night… you were not the one who killed her?"
"…What?" Lucian said, briefly stunned into silence before he turned to look at Viktor with renewed outrage. "You- you told people that I killed Sonja?"
"Uh… you didn't know about that already?" Michael looked uncertainly at Amelia.
"What?" Amelia turned to look at Michael, her tone cool as she stared at him.
"I-I just meant- Selene told me that whole Awakening ritual is about sharing your memories with each other, so I thought that you'd all know the truth about what had happened back then already…" Michael waved a hand as he looked at Amelia in an awkwardly apologetic manner.
"…An understandable assumption," Amelia nodded in acknowledgement at Michael; there was no sense being offended by a man when he had a reasonable theory based on what he knew so far. "But to answer your question, we Elders each retain some of our personal experiences for ourselves with each Awakening. We are expected to keep each of us up-to-date on global events when we share knowledge at each Awakening, but obviously we take it for granted that the other two won't share everything with each of us, such as certain personal details."
"So you assumed that any gaps in… whatever Viktor was sharing with you… was basically just him hiding personal information?"
"Precisely," Amelia gave Michael an approving smile before she directed a firmer glare at Viktor. "So, Viktor, what justification do you have for breaking out rules to satisfy your appetite and upholding them to the point that you provoked a war?"
"I provoked-?"
"If Lucian was willing to remove his collar to save Sonja's life, I strongly doubt that he was the one who killed her," Amelia glared at Viktor. "And if he didn't kill her, someone else must have… and considering Lucian was already established as the leader of the lycan servants, I find it hard to imagine that any of them killed someone Lucian clearly wanted to protect."
Viktor glared at Amelia in defiance, but that glare faltered as the female Elder walked over to stand directly in front of him, the healthy vampire staring grimly down at her withered counterpart. Regardless of Viktor's age and greater experience as a warlord, right now he was obviously in a far more frail condition, whereas Amelia was at the peak of health even if she'd been fasting to prepare for her planned hibernation.
"You cannot think…" Viktor began, staring back at Amelia with a defiant glare.
"You have spent years lying to us about one part of Sonja's death; I have no reason to believe anything you told us about the rest of it," Amelia glared at her fellow Elder. "Admit what happened."
"The covenant… had to be upheld…" Viktor affirmed, in a tone that basically answered the question without explicitly saying it.
"And for that you killed your grandchild," Lucian glared at him in outrage.
"That abomination-" Viktor began.
"Child?" Amelia and Marcus said simultaneously as they looked at Viktor.
"Sonja was pregnant?" Amelia shifted her gaze to Lucian. "And… you were the father?"
"She… theorised that our being born into our current state made it possible," Lucian said with a tentative shrug, even as the pained expression on his face made it clear that this was a difficult topic for him. "She didn't even tell me before everything happened… she had tried to help me escape so that we could go off and live our lives in peace…"
"It was… a betrayal of the covenant," Viktor said, looking at Lucian with renewed indignation as he raised an accusing finger. "You… corrupted my daughter-"
"I did nothing to her that she did not want me to do," Lucian cut Viktor off. "Unlike you, I recognised that Sonja had her own mind and desires; we did nothing but love each other, and the conception was simply a happy accident."
"That… abomination-"
"Was an unborn child," Marcus cut in with an indignant glare, breaking his silence as he looked over at the other withered Elder. "You were human first… purity is not that important… and you would kill your daughter…because of it?"
"Lucian killed your son-!"
"When he had just insulted Sonja and was about to kill me," Lucian interrupted Viktor once again as he looked over at Marcus. "I… regardless of how long it has been, I'm sure you can agree that there is a difference between killing someone in self-defence and chaining a vampire up to be burned to death in the sun."
"What?" Amelia only realised that she wasn't the only one to be outraged at that particular revelation after she spoke. When even Michael Corvin was horrified at what had just been revealed, when he couldn't know the full scale of just how deeply ingrained that particular fear was basically ingrained in the psyche of every vampire, that just reinforced the horror of the idea that Viktor had inflicted this on his own daughter.
"You did that to Sonja?" Amelia glared at Viktor with renewed contempt.
"I repeat… the child… was an abomination…"
"And it was also innocent," Marcus cut in with a contemptuous tone to his voice; evidently his lycan sympathies remained even after so many centuries of war. "The covenant… can cope with… a few variations… but you broke… the most sacred vow… of any parent…"
"And what about… avenging the deaths-?"
"If you would invoke… the name of my son… when you killed your own daughter…"
"Because she betrayed everything-!"
"Are you actually implying that you killed Sonja because she made you go that far?" Every time Amelia thought that her opinion of Viktor couldn't sink any lower, she learnt something new about his situation that made her feel even more outraged at the true past of the man she had once trusted as an ally in war and in peace. "We are each over a thousand years old; we are all capable of taking responsibility for our own actions, rather than passing the blame on to others."
Viktor could only glare back at Amelia, unable to provide a proper response to that denouement from his fellow Elder even as he clearly refused to actually admit that he had ever done anything wrong.
"Very well," Amelia said, after waiting in silence for a response that never came. "I take it that we are all satisfied that Viktor is the true instigator of the blood feud that has driven our people into conflict?"
The sounds of affirmation from the other vampires prompted a satisfied smirk from Amelia as she looked at the stunned expression on Viktor's face.
"No!" the Elder protested, trying to stand up even as he clearly kept his hands on his chair. "I am your ruler-!"
"One of three," Marcus cut in, his own mocking grin even more vivid than Amelia's as his bright white teeth stood out against his grey skin. "You've been a respected leader for the last few centuries, but you haven't been good enough that we're going to overlook this."
"And you betrayed our trust when you chose to kill your daughter in the name of your own ideals and perceptions of purity," Amelia said contemptuously. "Add in how you have violated our rules simply to satisfy your own appetites, and you have proven unworthy of your power and position among the ruling council."
"And was I not right?" Viktor protested, ignoring the growing looks of disgust on the faces of the vampires around him as he tried to stand up while pointing a finger at Lucian. "Look at what he has done…"
"When you killed the woman he loved in what may be the most horrific manner any of our kind can die in and made him watch?" Amelia retorted. "I can imagine many of us being enraged if we had been allowed to know the truth… which is not to say that Lucian will not have to answer some questions now."
"Huh?" Michael glanced over at her.
"While I will concede that Lucian did not provoke the war, the fact remains that he has been the aggressor against the coven for several centuries," Amelia observed as she turned to look at the lycan leader. To his credit, Lucian stood still as he stared back at her, his hands out in a halting gesture that it was easy to determine was directed at the other lycans still attending the trial. "I will assume that any larger campaigns the lycan forces carried out against us over the last few centuries were planned by you?"
"For the most part," Lucian conceded.
"He is responsible for-!" Viktor began.
"Deaths in war are inevitable, but this war was not," Amelia cut Viktor off. "If you are going to continue interrupting me, I will be forced to take more drastic measures to ensure your silence."
Viktor glared back at her in response, but he seemed to get her message, his mouth somehow appearing even thinner as he frowned.
"Now," Amelia continued as she looked back at Lucian, "considering the circumstances of how this particular war began, I am willing to… overlook your role in the general campaign."
"Seconded," Marcus put in with a smile. "Avenging the loss of your lover… especially under such terrible circumstances… justifies many things."
"What about him trying to abduct me?"
Michael seemed as surprised as anyone that he had spoken when the three Elders and Lucian turned to look at him, but to the credit of the young lycan he stayed resolute as he looked between them.
"I mean…" the medical intern looked uncertainly at the Elders for a moment before he nodded in resolution. "Well, I get that it maybe doesn't mean much in the grand scheme, but from what I saw in the lab… it looked like he and his science guys had been taking people for a while before they got to me…"
"You were the last potential descendant we were able to trace to complete our experiments, but… there were others," Lucian said, looking at Michael with a new sense of regret. "And I… will confess that we had abducted quite a few humans before we found you."
"Quite a few?" Michael repeated, looking at Lucian with a new sense of apprehension. "How many are we talking about here?"
"I was… not keeping count," Lucian said, and he at least had the dignity to look slightly ashamed about it. "We attempted to simply acquire blood samples at first, raiding hospitals and blood banks for traces of our targets, but it is difficult to remain discreet when your enemy literally cannot know that you are alive."
"Even when you had that Kraven guy as an inside agent?"
"I am still here, you know," Kraven pointed out as he glared over at Michael before tunring his attention to Amelia. "And for the record, the most I ever did was deflect attention from certain areas on Lucian's request. If lycans were discovered on the surface in sufficient numbers I couldn't exactly tell anyone not to go and investigate those rumours."
"Good to know you had enough self-awareness to know what we wouldn't do on your behalf," Kahn cut in, giving his own glare at Kraven.
"So you abducted those last few humans for your experiments because you weren't sure that you could conduct your research more discreetly without alerting us?" Amelia looked critically at Lucian, even as she took care not to say too much. A hybrid birth was one thing, but the notion that an adult could become a hybrid of vampire and lycan might be too much for certain parties to accept when Amelia was already dealing with a tense situation.
"Desperation makes us all do things we would never have believed ourselves capable of," Lucian replied, his tone solemn with regret as he looked between Michael and Amelia. "I was determined to gain the advantage over Viktor… but I only resorted to those methods when all alternatives had been exhausted…"
"And that is something we will discuss later," Amelia observed, before she turned back to Viktor. "But ultimately, there is a difference between being driven to desperate measures in war and killing your own child because you disapprove of her choice of partners."
"That thing… was an abomination…" Viktor protested, already looking weaker as though his initial anger had worn out his remaining stamina.
"It was a child," Amelia retorted firmly. "You chose what was 'best' for all of us, and in doing so you condemned your own daughter to death and started a chain of events that have led to many innocent deaths because you could not accept lycans as equals."
"What?"
"We were your servants at first, and if you had accorded us more respect I know that I for one would never have turned against you," Lucian pointed out, smirking slightly as he looked at Viktor. "Consider that; every vampire I killed was because you provoked me, not because I was some rabid monster waiting for an excuse."
"Indeed," Amelia said, raising her head to address the whole room as she looked at Viktor. "Viktor of Hungary, for provoking over a millennium of conflict, killing your daughter and heir, and inspiring a feud that has led to the deaths of many innocent vampires, humans, and lycans, you shall be condemned to death."
"Seconded," Marcus put in, a smile on his face that looked particularly twisted given his still-withered skin.
"No!" Viktor protested, trying to rise from his chair once again, only for Amelia to place a hand on his shoulder and force him down.
"You claim deference to the Covenant, and that means upholding the laws even when they go against you," Amelia said, stepping back as Kahn and a few other Death Dealers moved forward to take up position around Viktor. "Your blood supply will be restricted to limit your strength, and you will be left in isolation until the execution can take place within the next week. Communication will be restricted and monitored, and any attempt to break out will be seen as an act of treason against the coven and be met with immediate execution."
"You brought this on yourself," Marcus gave Viktor a cool smirk, the now-former Elder only able to stare around in growing horror at the contemptible expressions on the faces of the surrounding vampires and lycans. Amelia noted that the lycans were more obviously amused at this turn of events while the vampires just seemed angry, but the important thing was that the sentence had been passed. She would need to keep an eye on Viktor for the next few days while the appropriate execution was arranged (and Marcus would merit her own attention just to be sure he didn't try anything himself, but the important thing was that judgement had been delivered to the worst offender.
"As for Lucian," Amelia turned to look at the lycan leader, "while war crimes must be considered, most of your campaigns against us have been relatively direct and you never resorted to attacking the innocent."
"Mainly because every one of you is capable of defending yourselves if pushed," Lucian put in, but there was a slight smile on his face that suggested he understood where Amelia was going with this.
"True," Amelia conceded, before she gave him a firmer stare. "But your actions in experimenting on humans will merit a firmer response."
"If I might-?" Marcus began.
"No," Amelia cut him off; she could anticipate that Marcus would make some appeal for mercy, but this wasn't the venue for it and his track record regarding his brother was too vivid in her memory for her to have faith he'd do a good job. "Regardless of how desperate Lucian might have become because of what Viktor provoked him into doing, deliberately bringing non-combatants into a war is always a crime, even if they are not actively forced to fight."
She would consider the implications of her words and Michael Corvin's situation later; how many lycans had the vampires killed just because they found some young wolves on their first few full moons and didn't take the time to learn more about this particular situation?
"I understand," Lucian nodded, his words breaking off Amelia's grim thoughts before they could go further. "I only ask that my people be spared any such response; many of them had no knowledge of my plans in that regard, and the few who did were sworn to secrecy on my orders."
"The lycan breed as a whole will not suffer for your actions," Amelia nodded at him; obviously going back to the old ways wasn't an option, but if lycans could stop fighting she could trust that they could find their way in peace-time. "As for what will happen to you… that must be determined, but I will assure you that you will not be executed."
"I won't?" Lucian looked at her in surprise, Viktor giving an indignant yell even as he was forced to remain in his seat.
"You have already suffered much because one we thought we could trust delivered such a serious blow against you," Amelia observed, before allowing herself a slight smile. "Besides, given your reputation among your kind, killing you as we attempt to negotiate peace would not be a smart move."
The smile on Lucian's face was a cautious one, as though he wasn't prepared to seriously consider the idea that he might have actually found a way to achieve his goal without his planned hybrid, but Amelia would accept that as enough for the moment. The vampires and lycans were still looking cautiously at each other even as Viktor was taken away yelling in indignant rage, but at least the way everyone had reacted to the revelation of his true role in events affirmed that they all understood there had been only one villain here.
Amelia wasn't going to fool herself into believing that everyone would just accept this particular turn of events and accept Viktor's upcoming execution that easily, but she had faith that justice had been served and most of them were satisfied with it.
AN 2: To those who want to know, the reference to Marcus's son is a reference to Nicolae, a character in the non-canon novel Blood Enemy; Nicolae will be discussed more in future.