Underworld Fan Fiction ❯ For What It's Worth ❯ One Era ( Chapter 1 )

I do not own Underworld.  For that, I would like to thank Len Wiseman, Kevin Grevioux, Danny McBride and Tommy Finch, gaffer.

This is a response to Anthestria's Open Sketch Night challenge on Bloodfeud.


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"Fear not my child.  Absolution will be yours, the moment you kill the descendant of Corvinus, this ...Michael."

There was no questioning Viktor, at least not out loud.

Who's Michael?

It was a complete non-sequitur.  Amelia was dead.  The council, the foundation of power and order in all the covens, was lying in scraps on the floor of a train car.  One great era of their kind had ended.

Selene was silent, but the look on her face hummed like a earthquake coming.  This was something important and she wasn't happy about it.

The question shifted to the back as his mind ran in more familiar tracks.  Orders.  Preparations.  Ammunition.& nbsp; Transportation.

Other tasks demanded his time.  Even the best trained soldiers needed their officers in place.  After each man was assembled in the hall, he leaned over to Selene and asked, "Who's this chap Viktor wants you to kill?"

Selene kept her eyes on the path in front of her. "No one."

There wasn't time for talking, not like they'd had two nights before when she'd blown a CC of silver suspension into a half-plaster bust.  Still, there was a span of seconds in the armory. "What's all this about absolution?"

Something stirred the haunted look about Selene's eyes as she slid a spare clip of Ag rounds into place. "Nothing."

When the strike teams were ready to leave, he tossed Xavier the keys and turned to Selene again. "Why is this Michael so important?  And where've I heard the name before?"

Selene tightened her seat belt around her waist. "Nowhere."

It wasn't the stillness of her voice as she said it.  The seat belt.  Why the seat belt?  She never wore a damned seat belt.

Kahn's mind cleared. "Not the human that you brought back to the house?" he asked.

There was no answer.

"The one who pulled you out of the river?  The one Erika's been going around saying was a--"

Two eyes as hard as wet agates turned to his.

There were others with them in the van, Viktor himself.  Kahn kept his silence all the way to the city.  The van stopped.  The doors opened.  He put a hand on her shoulder, just barely.

"I can get you a head start," he whispered. "That's all."

She didn't quite turn around.  It was more of a tilting of her head back in his direction.  After their years together, it was all the answer he needed.

Kahn's fingers settled in to grip his weapon.  One great era of his life had ended.  Whatever Selene was going to do, he could only let her go once.

It wasn't much, but it wasn't nothing.



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drf24@columbia .edu