Selene's eyes went cold as she immediately gave chase.
Raphael could feel her presence closing in fast—Selene was way quicker than he'd anticipated. Her slender figure practically blurred into a streak of black lightning cutting through the rain.
"Stop!"
Her voice cracked like a whip behind him, cutting through the howling wind and rain.
Raphael didn't even slow down.
He banked hard into a narrow alley, vaulted a wrought-iron fence, and sprinted into what looked like a city park.
Manicured hedges and towering oaks surrounded him, violently thrashing in the torrential downpour.
The sound of her pursuing footsteps suddenly vanished.
Raphael slid to a halt behind the trunk of a massive oak, holding his breath as he pushed his Force perception to its absolute limit—
Nothing.
He couldn't sense her presence at all.
Just like how the Force had completely failed to penetrate her mind earlier, it was now completely useless for tracking her location.
This was bad.
Raphael slowly peeked around the edge of the tree trunk—
A shadow dropped from the sky, landing squarely in front of him.
Selene stood tall, staring him down. Her ice-blue eyes were completely devoid of emotion.
"Done running?"
Raphael let out a heavy sigh.
Looked like there was no talking his way out of this one.
He straightened up, rolling his shoulders to loosen the tension.
"I really didn't want to fight you."
Selene didn't say a word.
She unholstered her weapon—the custom silver automatic designed to spit lethal, silver-nitrate rounds.
Raphael moved.
Instead of charging her directly, he sidestepped hard. In the same fluid motion, he kicked up a rock the size of a baseball, wrapped it in the Force, and launched it straight at her face like a goddamn cannonball.
Selene whipped her head to the side.
The rock grazed her cheek and slammed into the tree behind her, carving out a massive chunk of bark.
Her expression shifted.
It wasn't fear. It was pure, predatory interest.
"You really aren't human."
She holstered the gun and smoothly drew a tactical combat knife from her thigh rig.
The lethal steel blade caught the faint light of the rainy night.
Raphael took a deep breath.
He channeled everything—Dom Toretto's brutal street-brawling instincts mixed with the relentless, perfectly honed reflexes of the Jedi Temple dojo.
Selene lunged.
Her speed was fucking terrifying. The blade cleaved through the rain, slicing straight toward his throat.
Raphael pivoted inside her guard, dodging the steel, and drove a vicious hook right into her ribs.
Selene snapped the flat of the blade down to block. Fist met steel with a heavy, bone-jarring thud.
Pain flared through Raphael's knuckles—the woman hit like a Mack truck.
But Selene frowned slightly, too.
This guy's sheer physical strength was way beyond anything a normal human should possess.
The two of them tore into each other in the pouring rain.
A violent blur of flashing steel, crushing fists, and exploding water.
Raphael's style was pure, lethal pragmatism—every strike aimed to break, shatter, or kill. Zero wasted movement.
It was the savage, dirty fighting of a street racer fused perfectly with the flawless biomechanics of a Jedi Knight.
Selene's blade work, on the other hand, was an impossibly fast, elegant dance—six hundred years of blood-soaked experience woven into every single lethal stroke.
Three minutes later, they broke apart.
Raphael had a fresh gash across his shoulder. It wasn't deep, but it was bleeding freely.
The cut had sliced right through his soaked shirt, exposing the heavy, corded muscle underneath.
Selene was breathing a little heavier now. Her sleek leather bodysuit was smeared with mud and water, but she didn't have a single scratch on her.
The skill gap was obvious.
Raphael knew he couldn't keep this up much longer.
He needed an exit, fast.
Just as he started calculating an escape route, Selene froze.
Her eyes dropped to his shoulder—specifically, to the hot, crimson blood welling up from the cut.
The blood mixed with the freezing rain, running down his bicep and dripping onto the wet asphalt.
Selene inhaled deeply.
Her pupils dilated.
"Your blood..."
She took a slow step forward.
Raphael backed up, his guard instantly rising. "What are you doing?"
Selene didn't answer. She stared at the bleeding wound, a chaotic mix of emotions flashing through her icy eyes—raw hunger, sharp caution, and a deep, unsettling confusion.
A split second later, she moved.
Before Raphael could even twitch, Selene blurred into his personal space. She leaned in, letting the tip of her wet tongue slowly slide across the bleeding gash on his shoulder.
A shockingly cold, electric sensation shot through his nerves.
Every hair on Raphael's body stood on end.
What the fuck was she doing?
Selene closed her eyes, savoring the taste like a fine vintage.
Suddenly, her entire body seized up.
The moment Raphael's blood hit her tongue, it flooded her veins and violently hijacked her mind—
Images.
Millions of images.
Another blue planet, also called Earth.
Sprawling concrete jungles of glass and steel.
Massive silver screens projecting endless stories.
And one of those stories was entirely about her.
Selene saw herself in her black leather coat, hunting Lycans in the rain.
She saw herself pulling the trigger. She saw herself standing before Viktor, looking up at his ancient, imperious face—
Then the visions shifted violently.
An ancient, rotting castle.
Raging fire.
Agonizing screams.
She saw her father—a face that had been completely erased from her memory for centuries was suddenly razor-sharp in her mind.
He was standing at a heavy oak workbench, holding a freshly forged iron key. One of the keys designed to lock William Corvinus away forever.
"My Lord, the key is finished, exactly as you requested."
In the vision, Viktor took the key and gave a slow nod.
Then, he raised his hand.
"Kill them."
Armored Death Dealers stormed the room.
Flashing steel.
Spraying blood.
Unbearable screaming.
Selene saw her mother butchered on the stone floor. She saw her little sister cowering in the corner, impaled by a heavy broadsword—
She saw herself—a terrified little girl hiding in a wooden closet, watching the slaughter through a crack in the door. Tears were streaming down her face, her tiny hands clamped desperately over her own mouth to keep from screaming.
Viktor walked right up to the closet door.
He stopped.
Selene's heart stopped beating.
But Viktor just stared at the wood for a second before turning away.
"There is a child left alive."
He ordered his men. "Bring her to me. I will mold her myself."
The visions kept flashing, a relentless, blinding strobe.
Lucian.
Sonja.
The Vampire Elder's daughter burning to ash in the merciless sunlight.
Kraven.
Disgusting, calculated betrayal.
A filthy, secret truce.
Amelia's private train being slaughtered.
And then—
She saw Raphael.
Not the soaking wet guy standing in front of her in a torn t-shirt.
Another version of him.
Sitting in front of a glowing monitor, watching the movie Underworld.
Glowing text scrolled across the screen: "Selene is such a badass," "Step on me, Vampire Mommy," "I could jerk off to this woman for the rest of my life."
Selene's mouth twitched involuntarily.
But the download wasn't over.
She saw his past life—just a regular guy living a relentlessly average life on that other version of Earth.
No Vampires. No Lycans. Just endless overtime shifts, shitty takeout, movies, and video games.
Then she saw his current life.
The transmigration. The reality-warping cheat code.
Dropping straight into movie universes.
Ripping up the script.
Stealing superhuman abilities.
Dom Toretto from The Fast and the Furious.
A goddamn Jedi Knight from Star Wars.
And finally—
She saw him.
"I see."
Selene slowly opened her eyes.
Raphael was staring at her, fully braced for an attack.
"You... saw all of it?"
"Every last drop."
Selene's voice was terrifyingly calm. "You're from another reality. You have the power to step into cinematic universes. And in your world, I'm just a character—someone millions of people watch, talk about, and fantasize over."
Raphael stayed dead silent.
Selene stared right through him, her eyes heavy with a dark, complex weight.
"It seems that in both your past life and your current one, you find me deeply 'interesting'."
A dark, mocking amusement bled into her tone. "To quote your exact thoughts: 'I could jerk off to this woman for the rest of my life.'"
Raphael: "..."
For the first time in a very long time, he actually felt a spike of genuine, burning embarrassment.
But Selene didn't give him any time to be embarrassed.
She closed the distance, stepping right into his chest.
"Viktor slaughtered my family."
Her voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "And you knew."
"I knew."
"Kraven is a traitor."
"I knew."
"Amelia is going to be ambushed and murdered."
"I knew."
"Lucian is still alive."
"I knew."
Selene locked eyes with him.
"So tell me—are you going to help me?"
Raphael raised an eyebrow.
"Help you do what?"
"Help me kill them all."
Selene enunciated every single syllable like a death sentence. "Viktor. Marcus. And if he gets in the way, Kraven too."
Raphael looked at her.
Her ice-blue eyes were burning with six hundred years of repressed, suffocating hatred.
"You know exactly how powerful Viktor is. Even completely starved from centuries of sleep, he could tear me apart."
"I know."
"You know Marcus is the first of his kind. A literal god compared to Viktor."
"I know."
"You know that if we pull this off, the entire Vampire coven will hunt us to the ends of the earth."
"I know."
Selene met his gaze without flinching.
"But you also know that you have the Force. You have powers dragged out of other universes. You aren't just some guy."
Raphael let the silence stretch for a few seconds. Then, a slow, predatory grin spread across his face.
"You've got a lot of faith in me, babe."
"I tasted your memories."
Selene's tone was ironclad. "I know exactly what you're capable of."
She paused.
"Besides..."
A wicked, knowing smirk touched the corner of her mouth. "Your deep 'interest' in me goes a little further than just watching me shoot Lycans, doesn't it?"
Raphael: "..."
Choked out by his own browser history again.
Selene didn't press the advantage.
She spun on her heel and started walking back out of the park.
"Keep up."
"Where are we going?"
"The Vampire coven."
She didn't look back. "Viktor and Marcus are dead asleep. We'll never get a better shot than this."
Raphael watched her walk away.
The sleek black leather caught the dim streetlights, the hem of her heavy trench coat sweeping behind her with every lethal, confident stride. She looked exactly like a drawn sword.
He suddenly remembered the comments section from his past life—
"Selene is such a badass."
"She literally owns every room she walks into."
"Step on me, Vampire Mommy."
Raphael shook his head violently, flushing the degenerate thoughts straight down the drain.
He took off after her.
---
The Vampire coven wasn't buried under the city streets; it was a sprawling, heavily fortified mansion out in the suburbs.
Raphael sat shotgun in Selene's sports car, watching the rain-slicked city lights blur past the window.
The torrential storm had finally started to die down.
"How much further?"
"Twenty minutes."
Selene steered with one hand, resting her other arm casually on the window frame.
The dashboard lights painted her profile in harsh, striking shadows—the sharp slope of her nose, her perfectly set jaw, and those glowing blue eyes locked dead ahead.
Raphael finally broke the silence. "You saw my memories, right?"
"Yes."
"Then you know that where I'm from, you aren't real. You're just a fictional character."
Selene didn't blink.
"You know that guys write fanfiction about you. They draw explicit porn of you. They literally stare at posters of your face while they—"
"Enough."
She cut him off, her tone completely level but carrying the weight of a loaded gun.
"I am completely aware."
She kept her eyes on the road. "But I am also real. The woman driving this car right now is me, not some digital projection on a screen."
Raphael stayed quiet.
"Besides..." A devastating smirk touched her lips again. "From what I saw in your head, those internet strangers weren't the only ones heavily 'interested' in me."
"..."
Raphael wisely decided to shut the fuck up.