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

Feedback: Always appreciated.

AN: From this point onwards, we're getting into the events of the original film, so there will be a couple of points I skip because they're basically unchanged from canon, but be assured that won't be for long, as Selene's new history with Michael has a significant impact on her response to Kraven and Lucian's plans…

The Lone Wolf

Before she met Michael, Selene had never really thought about the fact that she didn't spend much time dealing with humans beyond the occasional appointment at Ziodex or questioning possible witnesses when tracking potential lycan sightings. It wasn't that she didn't basically like humans, but she hadn't really bothered to connect with any human for decades at best. Even in her role at Ziodex, most of the humans she associated with at the company only knew her as one of the higher-ranking shareholders, and even then she only spoke with the ones who knew she was a vampire so she had a reason to have only limited contact with them without them asking too many awkward questions.

Frankly, that was another reason Michael intrigued her from the beginning; even with his status as a lycan, he was basically the closest thing she'd had to a human friend for years, as opposed to a human who was basically only associating with her because it was part of his job. The films they'd watched together had given her some interesting new insight into what humans were actually like these days, but it was Michael's fundamental nature that had drawn her in, even if she still wasn't sure how to define their relationship precisely. She had started out with just an idle idea of helping him cope with his condition so that he could become an asset to future campaigns against the lycans, but ever since she'd actually met him…

It seemed such a foolish thing to worry about, but in the last few months, the thing that surprised Selene the most was her growing inability to properly define her relationship with him. She liked to think that she still had a few friends in the Death Dealers such as Kahn, even if Kraven and Soren in particular made it hard to connect with other vampires because she could never be sure if they'd choose Kraven over her at some future point, but Michael…

Michael might have needed her help to work out how to 'control' what he'd become, but he didn't need to let her stay with him all those times she'd joined him for their new film nights or other such activities. Without even trying, he'd opened Selene's eyes to a world she'd long considered unimportant to her core goal and made her realise just some of the things she'd been missing out on over the centuries. She'd even gone to that night out with Michael's hospital colleagues with an idle thought that it might be interesting, but she'd soon found herself basically gravitating towards Michael, any thought of talking to other people even as a social experiment put aside in favour of just spending more time with him.

She could never let herself forget that he was a lycan, but Michael made her feel normal for the first time since she'd lost her family… it didn't seem like a crime to enjoy that acceptance before she shook up his world even further by telling him what she really was.

After all, while Selene didn't like to consider the issue in depth, eventually Michael would gain enough awareness of himself that he'd start to acknowledge that she was something other than human herself. She refused to consider the idea that he'd start attacking her once she told him what she was; the transformed lycan had to be aware on some level that she wasn't human and he had come to accept her in that state, so as long as she didn't come across as threatening she doubted that Michael would do anything to her when he was human.

Still, even if he didn't subconsciously see her as a threat, when most modern fiction tended to make vampires the villains whereas werewolves were often treated as victims of something they couldn't control… was it that wrong of her to want to keep her true nature secret for a while longer?

As a distinctive scent reached her from the street below, Selene shifted her attention back to the matter at hand. For the moment, her priority had to be the current hunt, the first 'official' lycan hunt since she'd found Michael, which she was committed to completing before the full moon. Some of Kahn's contacts had reported sighting Raze himself in Budapest over the last few nights, accompanied by another lycan their intelligence had tentatively identified as 'Trix'; Selene guessed it was intended to reflect how he was tricky to pin down in a confrontation.

In any case, taking down an alpha lycan as old as Raze should help to affirm Selene's commitment to her duty; if she was going to argue leniency for Michael once the war was over, anything she could do to prove her dedication to ending the war would help support her case. When she had been assigned to her current observation point at first, she had been puzzled at how familiar she had found the tower, which was apparently close to what their contacts had identified as Raze's apparent regular route through the city. It really shouldn't have been a big deal, considering that she'd spent enough time in Budapest over the years that every part of the city was familiar to her for some reason or another by now, and the current storm made everything a bit harder to see even with her enhanced night-vision, but something in her mind couldn't get past the idea that she was familiar with this area for a reason

When she finally saw Raze's distinctive form walking out from around a corner, Selene was grateful to have the opportunity to focus on something other than the possible future of her relationship with Michael. After taking a glance around at nearby rooftops to confirm that Rigel had recorded Raze's presence with his camera (damn Kraven's fixation on evidence instead of just trusting their competence), Selene jumped discreetly down to the ground and quickly fell into place with the rest of the crowd around the two lycans.

The rain might be an inconvenience when it came to tracking their opponents at a distance, but so long as she and the others were discreet, the bad weather should make it easier for her and Rigel to follow Raze and Trix, rendezvous with Nathaniel, and determine what the lycans were doing in Budapest in the first place. The obvious assumption was that this had something to do with the coven's presence in the city, but even before she met Michael, Selene recognised that lycans weren't just feral animals. Attacking the vampires on their home ground was a bold plan, but attacking them during an Awakening would be a risky move however she looked at it.

There was nothing to indicate that the lycans had the numbers necessary to overwhelm Ordgahz's defences, and even if a large number of Death Dealers would be in the chamber itself when Amelia awoke Marcus, there would be sufficient other defences to stop the lycans from getting close enough to the Elders' chamber to do any real damage…

Pushing theories about the lycans' intentions to the back of her mind, Selene walked after the two powerful figures, taking care to maintain the appropriate distance. The rain should limit the possibility of either of them detecting her scent, particularly when they weren't looking for her, but she could still keep them in visual range. The lack of an umbrella or rain-protective attire might make her stand out, but her leathers should give the impression to most that she was just coming home from a Goth party of some sort that had started before people knew what the weather was going to be like.

If she recalled the plan correctly, Nathaniel should already be waiting for the lycans at the entrance to the nearest underground station. He would have moved on if they had called in to report that the lycans had taken a different route, but this way he could also confirm if they didn't show up within the estimated time frame. A brief check of her phone confirmed that Nathaniel had seen Raze and Trix enter the station with no sign that they'd seen him in turn, leaving her to head off to the other entrance just in case their targets tried to leave the station from the other end.

Rigel would join her in the station and Nathaniel would be nearby if they needed backup, but she had confidence that she and Rigel could keep two lycans contained; neither side would attract attention with an open attack…

As she descended into the underground station, a more familiar scent reached Selene's nose now that the rain had ceased to be an issue, prompting her to glance up to see an unexpected figure looking at her in turn.

Once she realised that Michael was in the station, she cursed herself for not realising why she'd found that tower familiar earlier; she'd traced that route herself back when she'd been tracking Michael in the belief that he was just another lycan who might lead her to a nest.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Raze's recorded route through Budapest was a close match, at least in part, to the route Michael took from his apartment to this subway station when he needed to get to the hospital more quickly than walking would allow…

It's just a coincidence, she told herself sharply; if Raze knew that there was a lycan active in Budapest already, he would have tried to make contact with Michael directly. This station was just a useful means of getting around Budapest and Raze and his associates had set up a base in this area by chance.

For a moment, Michael looked curiously in her direction, but when Selene shook her head briefly in his direction, he turned to walk into the station, only giving her a last look before he took his seat. Selene would probably have to explain what she had been doing here later, but it wouldn't exactly be a hardship to assure Michael that she'd successfully hunted down another pair of lycans…

She suddenly found her gaze focusing on Raze, who was disturbingly close to Michael's train for Selene's comfort. The large lycan might just be planning to catch the train rather than specifically following Michael, but if he got on board, it wouldn't be difficult for him to identify Michael by scent, and he wouldn't care if Michael didn't want to be part of the war-

When Raze froze in the middle of the station, Selene could already tell that this was going to be bad. When the lycan opened his coat to reveal two large weapons hanging by his side as he yelled out "BLOOOOOOOODS!", any thoughts Selene might have had about the risks of Michael seeing her in action were forgotten in favour of surviving the sudden shoot-out.

With Raze having opened fire in Rigel's direction, Selene took a moment to confirm that Rigel had managed to get to safety and drawn his own weapons before she draw her Berettas, making sure that they were armed and ready as she tried to find a good opportunity to start shooting herself. As far as she could tell from the screaming and other sounds around them, Raze was firing wildly, but so far the humans had managed to get down enough to avoid being caught in any potential crossfire, even if she was prepared to guess that there were a few injuries caused by the broken glass. A part of her mind noted the odd blue glow of the bullets being fired, but decided not to worry about that right now; in any gunfight, the rule was to do your best not to get hit, so as long as she stuck to that rule she should be fine no matter what these bullets could do…

When Trix appeared from around the pillar to fire at her, Selene dived for cover on the other side, only to realise in horror that the bullets had hit Rigel instead. For a moment she was prepared to run to help her friend- so long as she could get the bullets out Rigel could still have a chance to heal the damage- but that idea ended when she realised that Riger was literally burning up from inside himself. As a blue glow emerged from inside his body, Selene could see her comrade becoming burnt from the inside, as though someone had lit a fire inside his body, affirming her worst fears in a matter of moments.

For a moment, her thoughts filled with rage as Selene moved out from around the corner and fired her own guns at Trix, forcing the lycan back. Humans ducked for cover as he hurried for safety while Selene continued to fire at Trix, only to be forced back into retreat when she heard Raze open fire all over again from another angle. For a moment Selene remained in hiding behind the pillar, but sound of a bullet striking flesh and a pained scream drove Selene to glance around her cover to see a young woman lying on the ground, a distinctive wound in her shoulder. Based on Trix's position behind the newsstand kiosk, Selene guessed that the woman had been struck by one of Trix's bullets when he tried to shoot at Selene as she was making for cover and the lycan missed his target.

For a moment Selene was trapped, pinned down by Raze's assault and Trix's own position- he might not be firing now but it wouldn't take long for him to start- but that changed when Nathaniel appeared on the scene and ran to confront Raze, forcing the large lycan to retreat. As Selene turned her full focus back on Trix's position, she was spared from worrying about the injured woman- she prided herself on avoiding collateral damage during her own missions where possible- when she saw Michael crawling out of the subway carriage and heading towards the fallen woman. He couldn't do much in this situation, but when a human was suffering a shoulder-injury from ammunition capable of doing that to Rigel, any medical training was better than none right now.

With Raze inside the carriage and Nathaniel stalking him from outside, Selene kept a careful eye on the area where she had last seen Trix hiding behind the newsstand; her friend could keep Raze contained for the moment, but if Trix got out he could be a problem. When she saw the lycan in question come out from behind the newsstand and move to grab Michael, Selene could have sworn her blood felt cold if she wasn't operating at a lower body temperature already. Whether he was targeting a convenient potential hostage or knew what Michael was, either way she wasn't going to give him a chance to get at her… friend (why was it so hard to define what Michael was to her?). As soon as Trix grabbed Michael's shoulder, Michael had turned away from the girl to hit the lycan in the face, but both men were clearly taken aback when the blow just sent Trix back a couple of paces without any significant harm.

Selene could guess how that had happened easily enough- Trix had expected that Michael wouldn't be able to hit him that hard and Michael hadn't wanted to use his full strength on a human in case he killed whoever he hit- but that single act could put Michael at even greater risk than if he'd done nothing. Whatever Trix had been after that drove him to grab at Michael, if he realised that Michael was another lycan there was no telling how that would affect their plans.

Before Trix could do anything about this turn of events himself, Selene unloaded a quick series of bullets into his chest, forcing the lycan to retreat into the nearest carriage with at least two bullets in his chest. Selene took a moment to confirm that Trix had run in a different direction from Raze, so at least Nathaniel wouldn't be outnumbered for the moment, which gave Selene time to hurry over to check on her friend.

"Selene?" Michael looked anxiously at her even as he tried to pay attention to both his patient and his recent attacker. "What's going-?"

"I'll explain later," Selene said, taking a quick look at the fallen woman- injured, but the bullet hadn't hit anything vital and Michael should be able to do something about the wound right here- before she focused her attention on Michael. "As soon as you can get this woman to the hospital and get out of work, get to your apartment; I'll join you there as soon as I can."

She had briefly thought about sending Michael to the safehouse, but if she was going to tell him the truth about herself, it was more important that he feel in control of the situation to better assure Michael that she meant him no harm.

Right now, as she grabbed Rigel's camera and hurried into the sewers, she just had to deal with Trix; Nathaniel was already hunting Raze, which should be enough to keep the lycan contained until she could rejoin him, and she had to finish this hunt so she could talk with Michael…