"Selene…it’s been too long."

Selene froze. In the chilly silence, the voice echoed in her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed. She hadn’t heard that. Her mind was playing tricks. She hadn’t actually heard that voice… it had been so long since she had heard it…

She sensed a presence behind her. Her skin prickled. She looked over her shoulder. At first, she saw nothing, only shadows. Cold walls and floors of black marble…nothing unusual. Just like the rest of the museum she was in. Then was a glint of gold. She squinted. No.

A slender, almost liquid form slipped from the blackness into a pool of ghostly moonlight. Even then, the form seemed to defy the light, remaining, for the most part, black except for slivers of olive skin and copious amounts of gold. Selene felt her blood run cold.

"Babylon!"

Dark, black eyes seemed to pin her to the spot. Then came the voice again, like chilly fingers floating on the still air.

"You’re not honestly surprised, are you, Selene?"

Trailing purple-black silk skirt edged and trimmed with gold, curving up and over her luscious silhouette and cold skin. Poker straight raven hair adorned with gold and silver. Lips so deeply burgundy, they seemed almost black. And eyes of incomprehensible darkness…

"What are you doing here, Babylon?" Selene snapped, lashing around to face her adversary. Despite her internal fire, only the stillness and coldness of the empty museum penetrated her thoughts. It was too quiet.

"I could ask you the same thing, Selene," the dark woman purred, showing just the gleaming white edge of her teeth. "Or should I call you…Mau?"

Selene stood rigid, glaring. "How do you know about that? I never told anyone that name…"

Babylon only smiled, if indeed it could be called a smile. "I know everything about you, Selene. You’re my protégé of sorts. I took what you were…and made you what you are."

Selene’s emerald eyes narrowed to slits. "What are you talking about?"

Babylon cocked her head slightly. "Do you remember? It wasn’t so long ago, Selene. Remember when I said I could give you more? You were a thief—a good thief, but nothing more."

Selene glared but said nothing.

"You do remember…I know you do. I see it in your eyes."

"I only remember not trusting you," Selene snarled.

"You were tantalized by what I offered you," the black-clad woman said quietly. "I saw your potential long before you knew about it."

"I still don’t know what you’re talking about."

Babylon smiled again. "I offered you power, remember? Something bigger than your petty thievery. You are a dominant race, Selene. A higher species. You—we—are more. I offered you a chance to use that."

"You mean your blood contract," Selene said in quiet disgust. "Drop it. I turned you down and left. You know that."

Babylon held up a finger. "I know you turned me down, but you only thought you left."

Selene raised an eyebrow.

"You thought you left, my dear Mau. But you didn’t. I knew your refusal was merely your reluctance to take up that position of power, and I took you through the first step."

"You lost me again," Selene sighed, lip curling. She folded her arms and waited, knowing that Babylon wasn’t finished yet.

"Straighten your fingers."

Selene did so.

"Flex your knuckles."

She did so again, and her claws sliced out of her fingertips.

"My claws. What do you have to do with ‘em?"

"Those," Babylon said, gesturing with an elegant yet bony finger, "are the first step."

Silence. After several painfully long seconds, Selene looked up from her claws and glared at the eerie woman. "You…"

"I gave you your claws, Mau. And your name. You are the cat with the indestructible claws. You are beyond any assassin because of them. But you need me if you’re to go any farther with them…"

"I don’t need you, and I don’t want whatever it is you’re offering!" Selene spat. The vehemence of her words seemed to die in the death-like stillness of the museum’s vaulted ceilings, instead of echoing the way she thought it should have. This seemed to please Babylon for some inexplicable reason, and she strode silently, eerily toward Selene. Selene backed away until her back was against the wall, then flashed out her claws.

"Stay away from me. I don’t want it. I don’t know what it is that you’re doing, but I don’t want it-- stay away from me!"

"You don’t really mean that, Selene…"

Babylon extended a hand toward Selene’s face. Selene’s mind ran like mad. Slash her, kick her, punch her, run! But she could not. Could not move, could not blink…

"I know what you desire…"

A hand like ice touched Selene’s throat. Her mind seemed to snap—the fear that possessed her was irresistible and yet…debilitating. She couldn’t even shiver…she felt only fear… and an urgent need to escape. But she could not escape! Could not even move!

Blackness.

And her body impacted the marble floor.

Babylon smiled.

* * *

She was strangely warm. Almost feverish. Groping for the blanket that weighed on her shoulders, she flung it off her and rolled over. She couldn’t remember ever having been this warm… she tried drifting back to sleep, but her mind would not allow it. She opened her eyes.

She met blackness. Blackness so intense, in fact, that she blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure it was not a dream. She shivered. The air around her was chilly.

"Well, Selene…what did you get yourself into this time?" she whispered to herself. She rubbed her forehead. "What happened anyway? Where am I?"

She closed her eyes and thought about the last thing she could remember. She remembered being in a museum on a job. Looking for an artifact that she needed to retrieve…and hearing a voice. A cold, dark voice.

She smirked at how she was still surrounded by cold and dark. Now what? What did cold and dark mean? Her eyes flashed wide open in the darkness. She remembered the cold hand on her neck…losing consciousness…

She gritted her teeth. Babylon. Selene groped for the edge of the bed she sat on. Finding it, she slipped off and began to explore the room by feel. Three steps away she came to a rough stone wall. She followed it, coming to a door. She tried the handle. Locked. She fumed to herself.

"Great. What now?"

She found her way back to the bed, sat on it, and thought. Time passed—she wasn’t really sure how long, before she broke from her thoughts. Something had tickled her conscious mind. What was it? A smell? A sound? A change in temperature? She stopped and simply sat, listening, smelling, gauging the temperature in the room.

Sure enough. Something was different. And there was a distinct smell…a familiar smell. A human smell. Almost to answer her ponderings, a flame leapt up just feet from Selene’s face. She jumped but did not cry out. She squinted as the tiny point of flame seemed to float away until it alighted somewhere for a moment. Selene watched, mesmerized, as the one light became two, then three. Candles.

Now in the light of a few candles she watched vague human shapes—surprisingly many of them—all around the room. Male shapes. All lighting candles until the room had a dim, eerie glow. Everything could be seen, but only in shape and shadow.

As noiselessly as the shadowy men had appeared, they disappeared, leaving Selene alone again. She shivered, then looked around. There was surprisingly little to the room. A raised bed upon which she sat. No windows. One door that she could see. But the walls were covered with sconces and shelves and ledges and alcoves where now flickering candles nestled. Some of the alcoves had mirrors behind them, reflecting the ghostly images of the dancing fire.

Among all the shifting firelight, silence presided. Selene shook her head. Whatever had just happened had taken less than a minute, and been totally silent. It was weird. Unnatural.

"Unsettling, isn’t it?"

Selene jumped to her feet. She had expected her boot heels to rap sharply on the hard floor and echo in the otherwise empty room. They did not. There was hardly more than a simple ‘tap’. In a way, it did not surprise Selene. The silence she had heard since awakening had been deafening. She didn’t suppose her boots would be enough to break that.

"Come out, Babylon. I know you’re in here." Selene’s nose twitched. "I can smell you."

Babylon came. She slipped from a deep shadow and into the dim light like an inky specter. Silently. The gold that adorned her dress and hair shimmered dully.

"I trust you’re… comfortable…with your accommodations," the dark woman almost purred. "I hope that my servants didn’t frighten you..."

"Me? Afraid of them?" Selene scoffed, scowling. "Like being afraid of the bogeyman."

Babylon smiled. Selene shivered. She didn’t like it when Babylon smiled. It was extremely unnerving.

"Why is it so quiet?" Selene asked finally, hands held up in askance. "You could hear a pin drop in here. It feels like a tomb."

"Does it bother you, Mau?"

Something in Babylon’s voice hinted to Selene that Babylon was not exactly concerned. Still, Selene gritted her teeth and answered.

"Yes. It does. Whenever I’m around you, everything goes dead silent. Cavernous rooms don’t echo. You can hear the silence over anything else. What is it?"

"You’ll understand in time. I prefer total silence…"

Selene sat back down on the bed, propping her chin in her hands. "Where exactly am I, anyway?"

"In my palace," Babylon answered, giving a small, almost mocking bow, "as my treasured guest."

That did it. Selene jumped up again and approached Babylon, ready to draw blood.

"You’re gonna tell me how to get out of here or I’m going to carve up your face."

Babylon remained unmoved. "Really, Mau? But do try."

Selene tried. She flexed her hands, summoning her claws. They did not respond. Confused, she tried again. Still no claws. Watching her hand with half-horrified shock, she tried again and again. No progress. Her claws refused to unsheath.

"What did you do to my claws?" Selene demanded. Babylon smiled again. This time Selene could not suppress the shiver.

"It was a mistake on my part to give you the claws before I had your allegiance," Babylon said quietly. "I had hoped we would become fast allies, but that was not the case. I’ll have to work at binding you to my cause."

She touched Selene’s hand. "Unfortunately it is quite impossible to remove your claws and all the metal structure from your hands. Until I have your cooperation, however, your claws are unavailable to you. They have been locked, so to speak, inside your hands, until we are no longer divided in mind or cause."

Selene, though enraged, could think of not a thing to say. She could only stand glaring, clenching her fists at her sides, and gritting her teeth. Babylon turned back toward the shadows, but paused on the feathered edge.

"Don’t be angry, Mau. What I have planned for you will one day make this all worth it."

With that she disappeared into the shadows, and Selene could almost feel her disagreeable presence leave the room. She was alone again.

Alone, and very very worried

* * *

Her boot heels clacked quietly on the stone flags of the long hallway. She stopped in the middle of the long expanse and looked up. In the dimness of the torchlight, she could not see the ceiling. She was sure it was gloomy and vaulted anyway. Dark, cold, gloomy, and quiet.

More quiet footsteps reached her ears. She turned to see a small procession of men, clad only in gold belts, black, knee-length loincloths and leather sandals. Each was bald and walked slowly, hunched over, in a straight line. Each carried a small candle. None of them paid attention to Selene, who stood watching them.

"What is this place?" Selene said to herself. She had no desire to go any farther down the hallway. She only stood there in the cavernous hallway. Torches lined the bare stone walls on either side. The combined scents of dust, mildew, and smoke reached her sensitive nose. No noises besides the crackling of the torches reached her ears. Strangely unnerved, she started walking again.

"You’ll get used to the palace eventually."

Selene whipped around to the source of the voice. At first, she could not find the figure from which the words had come, but she quickly spied her in the shadows at the top of a staircase.

"Stop doing that or I’ll…" Selene snarled, clenching her fists. She didn’t know what she could threaten Babylon with, but she’d think of something. Babylon only raised her eyebrows slightly and gave a faint smile.

"Calm yourself, Mau."

For some reason, Selene did. Her mind turned instead to the small procession of men she had seen earlier. "Who were they?" she asked, jerking her head toward the darkened doorway she had seen them disappear through.

"My servants."

Selene nodded in pretended understanding. After a moment of motionless silence, Babylon began to descend the stairs. Her glossy black skirt seemed to slither behind her, rippling over the stone steps like liquid.

"Come with me, Mau. I have something to show you."

Selene followed. They made their way silently to a heavy metal door with wrought iron lions heads on it. Babylon pushed gently on the nose of the lion on the left door. The door swung open silently. Beyond lay a courtyard. Babylon glanced at Selene, who was now very curious, and led the way inside.

Polished marble slabs beneath their feet reflected their images. Torches crackled in the corners of the courtyard, and along the walls. Low grass grew along the marble path. Short palm trees and fig trees loomed over the scene. Climbing plants coated the walls. At the far end of the courtyard was an arch in the stone wall. Selene squinted.

"Welcome to my garden," Babylon said quietly. "Or, part of it, anyway. There’s more on the roof."

"Hanging gardens of Babylon," Selene scoffed. She looked overhead. She could see the ceiling of this room, strangely enough. It was a glass canopy, not unlike a greenhouse roof. In fact, it was warmer in here. She couldn’t see anything beyond the glass canopy. She wasn’t sure if it was night, or if the glass was merely black, and thought it better to not ask.

"All this would scare me, if I were anyone else," Selene mused aloud. Babylon’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"But it does, doesn’t it?"

Selene repressed an uneasy shiver. "No. I’m not afraid of anything." Her emerald eyes became mere slits. "Not even you."

Babylon smiled. It was a skeptical smile, Selene thought, but disturbing just the same. The dark woman slinked toward her.

"I’ve heard that many times," she said quietly. "People say that they fear nothing. Especially not me. But…"

She leaned in to whisper in Selene’s ear.

"…it’s always been a lie…"

* * *

Selene almost hated herself for it. She stopped at the corner of the hallway and snarled. Babylon had been right. She was gradually learning the layout of the palace. Around this corner were the doors leading to the dark garden. She had discovered that the palace had three floors. She knew how to get from one floor to the next, and how to locate several rooms in the palace. But…it still puzzled her. Many hallways were dead ends and led nowhere. Some were so dark by the time she reached the end that she could not see her hands in front of her face. And many of the doors in the palace were locked…

She was at present wandering down one dark hallway that she had been down several times. She had picked up a candle from another room and was now determined to find out if this hallway was a dead end like so many others, or if it went somewhere. Total darkness had stopped her before. It would not this time.

She followed the hallway to the end. Sure enough, it was another blank wall. Selene huffed in frustration. Why did the hallway just…end? What was this place, anyway? Some sort of a maze? She turned to leave the hallway for one that might be more promising, but stopped. Something in the texture of the wall to her left caught her eye. She neared it with the candle. She stretched out a hand.

Instead of feeling cold, rough, damp stone, her fingertips brushed against heavy velvet. Her eyes popped wide open. Suddenly curious, she pushed against the velvet, wondering if it there was stone behind it. There was not. As far as she could push it the swath of velvet continued to recede into the wall.

"A curtain!" she whispered. "And there must be a room behind it."

She swallowed. Half-wondering if her exploration was going beyond what Babylon would have permitted, she pushed the curtain aside and slipped into the room behind it.

Inside, dozens of candles glowed and flickered. Their light seemed increased by the mirrors behind them. Selene shook her head. She could not imagine how it was that she had not seen the candles’ glow from the other side of the velvet curtain, but then, she had hardly understood anything since she had awakened in this confusing dungeon.

The quiet candlelight coaxed her deeper into the room. She set her candle down among the others and approached one wall. A few shallow stone shelves jutted out from the walls. Each shelf held half a dozen ceramic flasks, each stopped with a cork. She took one flask down and uncorked it. Cautiously, she smelled the contents and wrinkled her nose.

"Wine."

She swished the wine around in the flask, thinking. She half wondered if it were any good. She looked around. No one would miss just a little bit of it…

She tipped the flask up to her lips and took a small mouthful. Swallowing, she corked the flask and set it back on the shelf, then licked her lips. Marvelous.

Selene sighed happily, almost purred. Fantastic wine. She’d not tasted anything like that in years. What it was doing down here, secreted away in this dreary pit was more than she could imagine. But it was good. It was rich and sweet, strangely satisfying. For the first time since awakening in Babylon’s palace, she began to feel warm. Pleased.

Something in the back of her mind made her shudder. It was probably time to leave this room before someone caught her in here. She picked up her candle and turned to leave. She paused just before pushing through the curtain again. She wanted more wine.

Part of her mind screamed for her to leave it. She could not. Suddenly, it seemed that every filament of her body craved the amazing substance it had been treated to. It wanted more. She wanted more.

A strange sensation of fear and desire began to flutter behind her ribs. She must get out, but she needed more of that wine! She was shaking now, fearing being caught where she was sure she didn’t belong, but she sidled back over to the flask of wine. She uncorked it again, and this time, drank deeply. One gulp. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

She stopped herself when she realized that the flask was nearly half-empty. Panicked, she corked it again, set it on the shelf, snatched up her candle, and darted through the curtain. The rush of moving air created by the curtain extinguished her candle and plunged her into the dark hallway. Her legs shook, her hands quivered, her entire body was drenched with sweat. Strange, unnatural, incomprehensible feelings of euphoria and terror gripped her mind as she staggered down the darkened corridor, collapsing once, twice, and struggling on.

Even in the blackness her vision played tricks on her, conjuring images of fire, mist, points of light, and ethereal beings. Wispy shapes fluttered, intangible, before her eyes. Sounds like none she had ever heard plagued her ears. Growling, moaning, breathing, the stirring of wind somewhere in the twisting catacombs.

"Stop…" she choked, collapsing on the cold floor. She was chilled and burning, frozen and sweating, haunted by specters and chased by otherworldly sounds. "Make it stop!"

Her heart raced in her chest, her head pounded, her vision swam. The euphoria had melted away, leaving her crumpled in her agony and horror. "What have I done? What was that stuff? Oh make it stop! Make it stop!!"

Silence. Selene gasped and went limp, lapsing into unconsciousness, released from the awful whirlwind of sensations. Time seemed to stop until footsteps broke the silence. Eight hands lifted her body from the stone floor, and carried her away.

Selene could smell electricity the way other people smell rain. She took a few steps forward until she was standing between the twin staircases. The smell was strongest there. To her right and left were the staircases. Behind her, the garden and the doors into the bowels of the palace. Before her, a stone wall overgrown with tendrilling vines. As far as she could tell, there was absolutely no reason for there to be any electrical smell in the entire palace. She’d not seen one electrical object since she’d been here, which, she imagined, was some time now. No light bulbs, to heaters, no appliances. Nothing but fire, metal, polished wood, and stone. And plants, of course, in the garden, but plants didn’t make electricity…

Where was that smell coming from? Her brow furrowed in deep thought. This was beginning to bother her. She began to paw through the vines on the wall, wondering if there were some hidden listening device or camera or something. She found only a crack in the rock. She followed the crack. Four inches later, she was certain it was not a normal crack. It was the outline of a door. Her heart quickened.

"If it’s a door," she whispered to herself, casting a glance over her shoulder, "then there has to be something on the other side."

Finally, frustrated, Selene stepped back from the wall and snarled. There had to be a way to open it. She was running out of options, and she was beginning to worry that Babylon might show up behind her, just as noiselessly as always, and catch her snooping.

No, the answer must lie somewhere in the rest of the garden, Selene thought. She paused, looking around with a careful evaluation. She was certain none of the steps on the staircases did anything. She’d stepped on each one before. There was no trigger switch. It was unlikely the torches had anything to do with it. Her eyes stopped at the sundial in the middle of the path.

Selene had never understood why Babylon would put a sundial—an instrument using light to tell the time—in a place where it seemed neither light nor time even existed. It had always seemed ironic, a strange paradox. Now, it seemed to provide an answer. It was just simple enough, just poetically obvious enough to fit Babylon’s mind. Selene nodded.

Quietly, she closed the doors to the garden. She was alone. For how long, she wouldn’t know. She had to work quickly. She hoped her surmise was right. Swallowing, she turned to the sundial. She stared at it for a few seconds before approaching it, placing her hand on the upright blade, and taking a deep breath.

"I hope this works…"

She turned the blade to the left until it would go no further. A low grating noise filled the garden. Selene winced, hoping that Babylon would not hear somehow, and looked up. Her eyes popped open. She stared. The door. It was open.

She looked down at the dial again. The blade was moving back into place, almost like the second hand of a clock. At the same time, the door was slowly closing. Perhaps ten notches stood between the opening of the door, and the closing. Selene wrenched the upright blade all the way to the left again, and the door fully opened. Then, walking at a quick but comfortable pace—as she imagined that Babylon would do—she strode toward the door and slipped inside, perhaps two seconds before it closed. Just enough time.

Satisfied that she had discovered how to open the door, Selene turned to look at the room inside. If she had been stunned by learning how to open the door, what lay behind it nearly blew her mind.

The room…it was light. Intensely, almost harshly so. Florescent lights hung from the ceiling. There was linoleum on the floor. Stainless steel tables lining the walls. A padlocked freezer at one end. Security TV’s on another wall. And all manner of electrical things on the tables… so that was where the smell had been coming from!

She walked slowly past each table, staring at the sheer volume of technologically advanced medical and scientific equipment. The rest of Babylon’s palace was so simple, so…dark ages…Selene had never expected this little island of modern day in it. She kneeled by a file cabinet and began to paw through some of the files inside.

"Forced mutations, genetic engineering…" Selene shook her head in disbelief. "She’s got files detailing different kinds of mutant powers and how the genes are set up to produce them…as if she wanted to duplicate them or something."

Selene shivered. This was so…bizarre. It was so…not Babylon! And yet…somehow, it fit perfectly.

Breathing an overwhelmed sigh, Selene sat back on her heels. "This is just a little more than I wanted to know…" a smile curved over her face. "And I have the distinct feeling that Babylon doesn’t want me to see this…"

She returned to pawing through the files. She had just thought of something that made her insanely curious. Was there anything in here regarding her claws?

She was down to the last drawer, but finally found it under ‘M’, labeled ‘Mau Project’. She pulled it out and fumed to herself.

"That’s what this is all about, then. I’m some weird sort of project. This whole thing about giving me these claws…"

She bit her lip and decided to look through her file. The first few pages were the original concept behind the Mau Project. Selene skipped over them for now. She went through several pages of progress reports—mostly the search for the appropriate ‘recipient’ of the claws, the location of Selene St. Vincent, and the tracking and capture of their new subject.

She shivered as she read about how she had been captured, how the procedure of implanting the claws had been performed, and how she had escaped. She was not surprised to learn that she had not been implanted with the claws here, in Babylon’s palace. She couldn’t figure out how to escape now, while in her right mind. There was no way that she could have escaped in the hyped frenzy of a semi-anesthetized panic run.

The last page of updates interested her. It dealt with her recapture and the locked sheathing of her claws. She squinted and read it again.

The metal structures that held her claws when they were sheathed apparently had a safety catch that had been locked in place, preventing the extension of the claws. This had been done with a device that Selene had never heard of before, and could be reversed easily with the same machine. Selene set the file back in the drawer.

"I’m not going to risk it right now…it’s enough to know for now. I don’t know when Babylon might show up…I’ve got to get out of here."

Fortunately getting out was not as hard as getting in had been. The door had a handle on the inside, and opened easily. Selene slipped outside, leaving the harsh florescent lights of the mystery room behind and greeting the familiar shifting torchlight in the garden. She breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind her, then sat on the steps to think things over.

"I’m some sort of secret project of Babylon’s…built for killing, I’d guess. What other purpose could these daggers have?" Selene brought her knees to her chest and folded her arms around them. "Eventually I have to go back in there…find that device and unlock my claws."

She paused then sighed again. "But not now. Not until I know I have some time."

Standing, she started toward the sundial again. She wanted one more look at it before she left the garden and went to her room. She kneeled beside it and squinted at it for a minute or two before reaching out a hand to touch the upright blade. As her fingers caressed its smooth upward slant, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.

"You spend a lot of time in the garden."

"Maybe you can explain something to me," Selene asked, eyebrow raised. "Why is there a sundial in a dark room?"

Babylon’s expression did not visibly change. Yet—Selene restrained a smile—Bablyon was hesitant to answer. The dark woman did not like the question. After a few very long seconds, Babylon gave her response.

"It is there because I want it to be. That is the law of my palace. Things are how they are because that is how I want them."

The eye contact between the two was brief but intense. Babylon gave what was almost a look of suspicion and warning, and quietly left. Selene stared at her back until Babylon was well out of site. Babylon knew, Selene was sure, or at least suspected. That might even be worse.

Maybe Babylon didn’t know. Maybe…she suspected.