__________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Previously on Gargoyles

"Kara, Seneca’s mother, my wife. She died before Seneca was born. Technically my daughter was created in a lab." ~ Anton Sevarius

"I hate him, and I hate that thing you are making for him."~ Seneca Sevarius

"You don’t even know Thailog."~Anton Sevarius

"All I know is that you are making that thing for the man that I hate. I want to pull the plug on it!"~Anton Sevarius (Project Seneca)

"Here is the deal. You two sisters move into my place along with Seneca, Felicia and Relena. You do not transform us or anyone else. We will find our market out there on the Internet and you can transform those people."~ Reggie Leahs (Desires)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

There was almost an eerie calm that spread through out the most private and secluded lab room of Genutech. Ninety percent of the company staff did not know of the whereabouts of the underground lab. Half of them did not even know there was a basement. Only the most trusted technicians and toughest members of security had knowledge of the room.

Sevarius paced across the tiles, the hard heels of his loafers made loud clacking sounds against the floor. His beady and tired eyes never left the lone tank near the back. The experiment inside was a successes, an experiment he was most proud of and one that he had started five years prior. The being developing inside was talking much longer than the gargoyle clone David Xanatos had paid him to create. He didn’t care if it was a slower process. He wanted the experiment to take all the time it needs.

There was only one thing that was troubling him. He approached the small phone he had set on the table and dialed the number for security. What happened a few weeks earlier disturbed and frightened him.

"Bruno here," the gruff voice of the leader of Xanatos’s security force was heard on the other end.

"I want security to be increased." His alabaster fingers remained taught over the handled of the phone while he continued to stare at the tank.

"Increased," Bruno almost sounded like he had swallowed something that remained stuck in his throat.

"That is what I requested."

"I already have everyone working longer shifts."

"Increase it by an hour, have them take less days off . In fact I want everyone to be working everyday."

"They are not going to like that."

"Tell them they will all be getting an extra bonus’s in their paychecks, and they will be earning overtime"

"They may like that, but it is hard to convince them."

"Don’t worry. I know you can be quite convincing."

"Do you have any other orders?"

"One specific rule, aside from you and your most trusted members of your team and those who have keys, I do not want anyone near my private lab."

"Not even Xanatos?"

"Not even him," Sevarius was not going to spare any precautions. "Not even my own daughter."

"You got it boss," Burno hung up before Sevarius could dismiss him.

"I’m not taking chances, my dear." the scientist returned to the side of the tank. "Especially after her little temper tantrum." The image was still frozen in Sevarius’s mind. The scream from his daughter while Seneca smacked against the cloning tank that contained Project Thailog. If Seneca found out what was in the tank he had no idea what she may have done. It would be a good thing for her to start boarding school in Switzerland.

The development of the being within the tank had reached a peak level. It was no longer weak and frail as toddler, although it was still far from reaching adult hood. He did not have to wait for it to grow up and could release it from the tank. Perhaps it would be better if he allowed the project to age the proper course of nature.

__________________________________________________________________________

White Plains. New York 2004

Laboratories were a second home to Seneca Sevarius and it wasn’t because she was born in one. She felt more at home seated on a stool while looking through a microscope than sitting in a coffee house or dancing at a rave. She felt she was making more contributions than being idle. She couldn't be anything less than prefect.

Seneca only paused from her work when she sensed she was not alone. When it came to the others, even that annoying Felicia, the would knock and ask or permission. There was only one person who entered without knocking, only one who just appeared out of nowhere. Seneca could sense when her friend was in the room with her.

"Hello Gwenny," she turned around to confirm her suspicions. The child like fae was standing behind her. Her feet were grounded on the floor. There was something wrong. Gwenny usually hovered in that air and the expression on her face was usually a smile not an uncomfortable frown. "What’s wrong?"

"Gara," the Gwenwyna Sidhe closed her large red eyes and stuck out her tongue. "It’s what she and Reggie are doing."

"And what is that?"

"They kissing," Gwenny shuddered again, causing the bat likewings sticking out of the top of her head to shake. "Not just any kissing. Their faces are pressed into each other and they are holding on to each other."

"I really adore your child like innocence," Seneca returned to her table and secreted a gray rubber stopper for the vial in her hand. "It’s that type of kissing. Nice to see they are taking their romance to the next level."

"That isn’t nice," the fae crossed her arms while she rose a couple of feet into the air. "That means they will be making kiss face all the time."

"Reggie does understand something about Public displays of affection." She set the vial down and turned around to face her friend. "Maybe someday they will become parents. Wouldn’t their children be an interesting hybrid?"

"There will be more pretty babies," the familiar smile returned to her round face. "I like babies. I want to play with Relena but Felicia won’t let me."

"Felicia has this protective mama bear thing going with her," there were a few things she wanted to call Felicia, but in the sense of raising the halfing, Seneca could understand her point of view. "Sometimes you have to place yourself in someone else’s shoes and see things from her side. To those who don’t understand special folk like ourselves we seem frightening, and you did use her nails on her."

"I would never hurt Relena."

"You are going to have to try and earn her trust."

"I understand. What are you doing?"

"I am developing some of the toxins from your sisters nails into a serum." Seneca held out the vial in front of her. The bright orange liquid sloshed around.

"Have you made some from my nails?" Gwenny brightened at the sight of the vial.

"I’ll be making that shortly, but I think it will wait until after a game of battleship."

"Battleship and then dollies?" Her eyes even seemed larger.

"Well have the perfect tea party," The image of the two of them, along with the Sidhe’s favorite dolls seated on a small blanket and sipping from the pastel pink tea cups broguth a smile to her face. She was going to get the faerie a set made out of real china for Christmas. "I’ll even heat up some milk and put it into the tea pot. We can pretend the strawberry powder is sugar and the chocolate syrup is cream."

"It be like having cocoa," she paused from clapping her hands when a thought cattle to her. "Do they taste good together?"

"Do they taste good? Have you ever tried a chocolate covered strawberry?"

"Nuh Uh."

"I’m going to tell Reggie to get some of that dipping chocolate and a thing of strawberries when he goes to the store the next time."

"Sounds good," she glanced at the vial again. "When are you going to use it?"

"There in lies a bit of a problem. We don’t know if it will work unless we test on someone first."

"We can get the people who want to be gargoyles," Gwenny hovered over to the computer. "We can type up the Internet add and have Reggie put it out and you can get people to test it on."

"The only problem is what would happen if it didn’t work."

"We could test it on Felicia."

"Yes we could," Seneca chuckled. "But we’ll test the serum mde from your nails on her."

"We could put out an add that lied to the people."

"Uh-Uh," Seneca shook her head. "That was the way my father did things. He used an assistant and hired another man to test out his mutate serum. The other two was a homeless girl he found on the streets and someone his boss hired."

"He tricked those people?"

"Yeah, I’m not sure about his former assistant, but except for the former cop the others did not have many friends or relatives."

Gwenny floated tot he ground. "Do they have friends now?"

"They had formed mini families of their own."

"Nobody really cared about them before?"

"Not many seem to care about individuals and the homeless, except for the mutates. They formed a clan that looked after and protected the homeless."

"They have a special family?"

"Yes, right in the labyrinth in the old subway tunnels."

"In New York?" The corners of her mouth turned up into a mischievous smile.

"Exactly," she raised her eyebrows. "What are you thinking."

"I know how to get volunteers, but right now, lets play." She clapped her hands and the box containing the battleship game appeared in front of her.

________________________________________________________________

The small apartment underground was empty when Annie returned from another day of searching through the tunnels. She had sold her last Hyacinth of the season and was ready for a shower and something to eat. Thanks to donations, David Xanatos and money, a split in the lottery and money inherited from the late Halcyon Renard the labyrinth was available to provide heated water for their residence. The food came from the center. Where her adopted mother was probably picking up the warm meals sealed in plastic dishes.

The shower could wait. She was more interested in trying to complete the project she started. She removed the scarf she used to tie her light brown hair into a ponytail and set it down on the rigid card table and went to the shelf made out of cement bricks and wooden board to pull out rag tied into a bundle and the bottle of half used glue

"Annie?" her mother had not left. The middle aged woman had looked like she had just taken a nap. Her salt and pepper hair was a mess and she was yawning. Her drab gray dress hung off from her frail body. "Did you find anything?"

"I found a little money," the young woman placed the bundle on the table and removed the pale green coin purse from her pocket. The corners of the vinyl appeared frayed. "I also found the coin purse."

"You should keep the purse," her mother held out her hand. "I’ll put the money in the bank. You can use the purse to store the money you make from your flowers."

"Are you sure it might be big enough?" She placed the coin’s in her mother’s rough hand.

"I’m sure it will be enough," the older woman placed the coins into the old Planck milk carton they had used for a coin bank. "I’m going to get our dinner. Do you want to see if I can get any extra biscets?"

"One will be fine for me." She untied the bundle containing the bracelet with the broken letters. The same kind of bracelet that contained the same letter U that hung from a chain around her neck. The only thing she was wearing when her mother found her.

She twisted the bright orange cap on the bottle of glue and removed the other things from her pocket. Small bits of metal that were made of the same material in the bracelet. She glued in the pieces, completing the second E, the T and a strange piece of metal that would not have worked with the any of the other letters except for what she had Mistaken for a C.

"Let’s see what I have gotten. A G, an N, U, T an another E and a C." She read through the lerters again and tried to spell out the word "The second letter looks like an E and the last is an H. GENUTECH? Why would I be wearing a letter from a GenUtech bracelet?". The only thing that they placed arm bands on were their experiments.

She immediately leaped out of her chair and ran to the broken mirror mounted on the wall. A pretty girl around the age of eighteen stared back at her. She had the same smile with a slightly plump lower lip as Annie. The same pair of aqua colored eyes and the same light brown hair. She wore the same faded red shirt and if it was a full length mirror, Annie would have probably seen the girl wearing the same pair of baggy blue jeans with large patches over the knees. She saw nothing that would suggest she was an experiment.

"I’m not a monster. I may just be a clone, or something else." What else could she be? Did she have a parent who worked for Genutech? Maybe they discovered something they shouldn’t have and were silenced. Was sending their daughter to the abandoned Subway tunnels the only way to protect her? How would it have explained her memory loss. There was nothing else she could rarely do, save for showing the band to Talon. He may not have the answers, but it was better than nothing.

________________________________________________________________

"What on Earth? The woman that approached the naked child was thin and appeared to have been in her late thirties. She was dressed in an old skirt that hung just a few inches under her knees, A large shirt covered with tiny holes that could have doubled for a night shirt, and an old dress jacket. "Where are your clothes?"

"I don’t know," the ten year old stared down at her naked form. The only thing she was wearing was a single metal chain around her pale throat with a lump of metal that looked like the letter U hanging form the middle. "I just remember waking up a few minutes ago, and I'm  naked."

"Waking up?" The woman unbuttoned her dress jacket. She did not consider herself to be one to sit out in the sun, but her skin color was just a shade darker than the girls. "How long have you been down here?"

"I don’t know," she held up her arms to allow the woman to slip the jacket over her arms and stood rigid as a statue while she buttoned up the front. The material felt dry and she was certain she would be itchy all over a few minutes later. She was not going to say a word about it since she had no right to complain. "All I know is that I woke up a few minutes ago and have been walking the tunnels since. I felt like I had to keep moving, even though I had no idea where I was going. I don’t really know how long I have been down here I have no way of telling down here."

"I have a small clock in the basket section," the woman pointed to the upper metal basket of the shopping cart that most people would either place their purses or small children. "where did you wake up?"

"Down that tunnel," she pointed down the path before she turned around. The woman had removed a cloth from the cart and tied around the girl’s waist, creating a skirt. "It wasn’t dirty. Whoever put me down her had placed me on newspapers."

"Newspapers?"

"Yes, somebody spread out a few nespapers."

"Who put you here?"

"Another question I cannot answer," she felt like she was disappointing the woman. The first person she had seen in the hallway. The only person she remembered meeting ,ever. Everything else was a blur."Thank you for the cloths ma’am."

"They are not much," the woman smiled. "But they are the best I could do for now. My name is Rhoda."

"My name is," the girl felt tears forming her eyes. She didn’t even know where own name. "I don’t know."

"Oh honey," Rhoda pulled her close to her chest. "You poor thing. Is that why you can’t remember? Does your head hurt?"

"No," she rubbed the back of her hand across her cheeks. "I just don’t know and that makes it hurt. I want to know, but I can’t"

"You feel frustrated," Rhoda wiped the last of the tears from her cheeks and brushed her bangs from her forehead. "I’ll think of a name for you."

"Like what?"

"Well you don’t know who you are or where your parents are. That would make you an orphan in a way, like Annie."

"Do you think my name should be Annie?"

"It would be something to call you, other than pretty little girl." She smiled again when she saw the reddish coloring develop in the girl’s cheeks.

"Annie sounds like a good name."

"Are you hungry? I just exchanged the recyclable for money and bought a few burgers from Mcdonalds."

"I do feel a little hungry."

"Let me give you a ride. She scooped Annie up and placed her in the cart. Pushing her in the cart would be the first thrill she can offer the child.

Rhoda’s home turned out out be an old sheet placed on a rope in the form of a tent. The two of them slept under the shelter of the tent. They had no need for blankets. They ate very little, mostly unopened cans the woman found in dumpsters or very cheap food Rhoda was able to buy from the recylables she was able to find and turn in. Twice a week they would eat at the Salvation Army Shelter where they both received warm showers.

Rhoda wanted to do what would be the best for Annie. In a few week she managed to find a better outfit for the girl. She would use old newspapers and any book that was thrown away to provide lessons on reading and current events. A white rock and the wall were used a chalkboard to teacher her grammar and numbers.

There had been times when Rhoda thought about taking Annie to the police where they would try to find her parents, but there was a large possibility Annie was a true orphan. Rhoda had never seen any thing in the news papers or on the TV screen at the shelter about a missing girl. If she took the child to one of those places it was the highly likely factor that they would stick her in an orphanage.

"Rhoda," Annie skipped down the pathways she had become quite familiar with from the five months she lived with the woman. "I think there is a better place for us."

"There is always a better place for us," Rhoda poured the can of stewed tomatoes into the tiny pot. It would be the only meal she and Annie had all day. "The only concern is we cannot always afford it."

"It’s a place for all of us living underground. We heard about it while we were playing," the wau she refereed to were some of the other underground homeless children she had befriended. "There was this underground laboratory and these four had turned it into a better home."

"And everyone is going to it?"

"They have set up some places to be apartments."

"It would be nice to have a real shelter" she lit up the scraps of paper and held the pot over the flame. "We should take the tent in case there is not enough room for us."

"We are going to go?"

"Right after we finish eating."

The four Annie spoke of had frightened Rhoda and several others who entered the abandoned lab. They looked like the strange monsters with wings that some people had seen while walking down the alleys. They resembled beings that were half men and half beast. They stood on high arched feet and had fangs and claws and bat like wings on their backs. It was the female who explained that they were once human and were tricked into being changed into the mutates. Her sad eyes and sweet voice was enough to convince the rest of them.

After overcoming their fear the humans soon adapted to living in the Labyrinth. There was plumbing and showers that were available to all. Both Rhoda and Annie did not mind the cold water since they could bath all the time. There was a small kitchen with tables were they ate twice and sometimes three times a day, and the food was in larger quantities than they were used too. They still slept under the tent, but being close to more people, especially those they consider friends, provided an extra blanket of security. Annie even received a better education. Five times a week she and the children close to her age would gather in a small group while another adult provided them with their lessons.

The months after they had moved in provided Annie with some excitement. She had stayed away from the mutate named Fang who had a tendency to bully the others. She held onto her adopted mother while Fang and his cronies tried to use their guns to take over the home and fought against the creatures called gargoyles. The gargoyles seemed even more interesting than the mutates and Annie was one of the first humans to approach the gargoyles Talon had called the Clones.

_________________________________________________________________________

The hallways towards the main entrence of the labyrithn dwelling was clear. It was the mots Malibu could hope for as he raced through the tunnels carrying the form of an unconcious woman in his arms. He had hoped there wouldn’t be many people in the main dwelling. he needed to race through the area to reach the medical rooms and did not need a lot of people blocking his path.

"We need a doctor," the lean clone cried out as he nearly ran into Annie. His crimson eyes were wide with worry. Annie could see why, in his aquamarine arms was the frail figure of an unconscious human. "I can’t wake her up."

"Malibu, what happened." Annie had chosen to walk ahead of the beaked gargoyle while she made motions for people to get out of their way with her arms.

"I was doing a solo patrol and I found her." he stared down at the woman he carried. "I asked if she was okay and she didn’t move. I gently nudged her shoulder and she didn’t move. I checked her breathing and heartbeat and they were fine."

"Good job on checking her life stats," Annie caught sight of a few Renard foundation workers and Maggie. "I don’t know if you should have moved her."

"I know," the clone sounded dejected. "I was afraid that if I left her I wouldn’t have been able to find her again."

"You did the right thing."

"Malibu?" the lithe figure of Maggie barely managed to get one word out before the foundation employees shoved her aside to reach the clone.

"Where did you find her?" One of them repeated the question Annie had asked. Both he and the woman were dressed in the white jackets indicating they were part of the medical team.

"In the sewer," Malibu was prepared to hand the girl over to them. "She wasn’t moving and I know I shouldn’t have moved her, but I was afraid I might not remember where she was."

"It‘s going to be okay," the female doctor assured him. "Just follow us into the medical room."

Malibu nodded once before he continued after the two of them, taking extra care to keep the girl in his arms steady.

"Do you have any idea what may have happened to her?" Annie asked the mutate.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Maggie shrugged, causing her rust colored wings to bounce. "She did not look like she had any injuries."

"Do you think she is sick?"

"I don’t know if she might have a disease. She doesn’t look like she has the flu or might be feverish." She reached out to the young girl and held her arm to keep hold her back, not because she was afraid Annie was going to enter one of the small examining rooms, she held her back because she needed someone to talk to when she felt like she didn’t have any idea of what happened to an injured member of her clan.

_________________________________________________________________________

Malibu waited until the medical team had lined the examining table with blankets and placed a few pillows at one end. He slowly lowered her down onto her makeshift bed, cradling her head until it touched the cushions.

"I doubt she has anything broken," the male doctor ran his fingers across her arm. There was nothing out of joint and no sign of swelling. "Her skin is like paper."

"There are no cuts and bruises," the woman added while watching the girl breath. Each breath was slow and steady like the normal breathing patterns of someone who was asleep. There were no sounds of wheezing coming out of her nose and slightly parted mouth. "She’s breathing normally."

"Until we give her a thorough examination we can’t be too sure," he studied her face. Her short mop of oily dark hair was kept out of her face, giving the doctors a clear view of her sallow complexion and dark circles under her eyes. "I wouldn’t be surprised if she simply collapsed from malnutrition and lack of sleep."

They monitored the girl’s vitals for the following half hour until she stirred and opened her eyes. Eyes that almost appeared to have been red in color on the first look until she blinked and they appeared brown.

She parted her mout for a few seconds before she was able to speak"Where am I?" the words fell dryly out of her mouth. Her eyes rolled around, trying to fixate on each person in the room.

"Don’t try to talk too much," the female doctors assured her. "Try to answer our questions as best as you can."

"Thirsty," her mouth was dry that the corners cracked and begun to bleed. "So thirsty."

"We’ll take care of that right now," the other doctor removed a salt tablet from one of the shelves and placed it into the bottom of one of the paper cups before filling it with filtered water. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Gwen."

"Do you feel any pain, Gwen?" He brought the edge of the cup to her mouth while his coworker held her head up.

"Are you feeling sick?" The female asked. "Do you feel hot or cold, congested, sore throat, naseau?"

"No."

"Any aches or pains? Do you have a headache sore muscles?"

"The only pain I have is in my stomach. It feels like it’s eating itself."

From what the two doctors could deduct they had discovered Gwen hadn’t eaten in nearly four days and hadn’t slept in forty hours. After she had slowly drained her cup they refilled it with more water and requested chicken broth to be brought to the room. She kept all fluids down and slept for ten hours straight. After waking she was given a few slices of toast with applesauce spread on top for breakfast and a bowl of chicken and rice soup for lunch. After her third night she was eating more solid foods.

Through her recovery she explained why she sufered from mal nutrition. She was on a nonstop journey to upstate new york where she would answer an add for a job. It was place where she be given experimental vitamins and allergy medication in exchange fora large sum of money. Gwen had explained she felt the trip was worth it.

__________________________________________________________________________

Annie stared at the two Uno cards in her hand. One was a bright yellow and the other was crimson. Both were of not important values and could only be played like the basic card. She was pleased because of two factors. The first was because the current color was yellow and the second reason, because it was her turn.

"Uno," she placed the card down and sat back, ready to bask in the light of her victory.

"This game is practically over," the only other teenager at the table stared at his cards in disgust. His tall and slender body, along with his beady eyes helped him earn his nickname, Weasel. The rest was because of his skills reminded the rest of the Labyrinth dwellers of the weasel’ family. He was able to weasel out of anything and not by words. His slender frame helped him squeeze through tight spaces and crevices, only Annie came close. He could ferret out anything and when trying to get the truth he tended to badger folk. He even bragged he could swim like an otter.

"You are giving up too early," the eldest of the four card players narrowed his eyes. He still had most of his hair, which was completely gray, and kept it combed back. He had bushy silver eyebrows over his pale green eyes and a bushy mustache under his plump nose. The man who had asked to be called Pops was not fat, nor was he thin and no matter what he wore he always had a red and yellow striped scarf on. Sometimes he wore it around his neck and sometimes he wore it as a belt. The children liked it, pointing it out it was the Gryffendor colors from Harry Potter.

"I’m not giving up," Weasel glared at the five cards in his hand. "I just know when something is about to end."

"Still giving up."

"I’m just facing the facts. Annie only has one card left."

"Always believe in the following phrase," the fourth player was one of the two humans that everybody knew. The brunet was close to the gargoyles and the mutates, her mate was the silent tiger mutate, Claw. "Never give up, never surrender. We still don’t know what color that last card is. She might have to draw another one."

"I still say the luck was with her," Weasel played one of his cards, shifting the color form yellow to red.

Pops played his second to last card and called out Uno.

"You are not acting like your usual self," Annie couldn’t keep from smiling. "You usually stick it out to the end even when everything is stacked against you." She played her last card. "But when you are right, then you are right."

"See" Weasel allowed is cards to drop onto the table. "Told you so."

"He’s still himself," Natalie stood up. "He was persistent he was right."

"You are not leaving, are you?" Annie asked.

"I have too," Natalie pointed to the scratched up watch on her wrist. "I have to pick Pamela up from the Foundation school." The school was created by the Halcyon Renard foundation. Construction for the main building had begun in January of that year and plans included for section to be converted into classrooms for the children of the Labyrinth.

"I guess we can just play with the three of us," Weasel suggested.

"We need a fourth player," Pops rose from his chair. "Part of my superstition is to have at least four players to a game."

"We can find someone else to complete the number," Annie suggested as she pushed her chair back."

"Where is everyone?"

"Some people are volunteering for the Step up Program," Weasel was the last to rise from his seat.

"Step Up Program?"

"Its to help us folk down here find decent jobs," the youth slid the deck of cards together and began to shuffle them. "Some of have skills and the program has created a business environment where they can plaice people with those skills in for employment. Others they give them small jobs while educating them on job skills."

"What kind of minor jobs?" Pops had a curious tone to his voice. "Would they be interested in an geezer like myself?"

"They work in the Step Up building’s cafeteria and they continue trying to clean up the city," He stacked the shuffled deck neatly and slipped it back in it’s case. "That’s about half of us. I know another group is showing the new folk around."

"And everyone else is with Gwen," Annie answered in a sharp tone. She knew how she must sound about the weak girl brought in a few weeks earlier, but she didn’t care.

"Whoa, and all of sudden we are bitchy." Weasel stepped back. "What do you have against her?"

"Nothing, except for the fact she won’t stop talking about the job she wants up north." The others may have been entranced by her stories of job where they can live in a large house and be paid great sums of money, but she didn’t buy it. There was something suspicious about the story. "I just have a feeling this place she is raving about is a testing lab."

___________________________________________________________________________

Annie was correct with her suspicion. When the three of them approached the tent set up for Gwen they found the dark-haired, young woman, along with seven others. All of them were crowded around the front of her like school children during story time.

"Hello," Gwen smiled widely when she saw the three of them. Her round eyes seemed to sparkle like polished copper. "How are you today?"

"We are fine," Annie fought to keep herself sounding not only civil, but also friendly. "We should be asking you the same question since you were the one we found passed out."

"I’m feeling quite healthy," she never lost her sugary smile. "In fact I feel strong enough to continue my journey."

"You are still trying to make it to that business opportunity?" Annie was aghast. How could this woman still continue to pursue that foolish dream when she had nearly died in the process. "You still want to walk upstate?"

"Did you come to listen or come to bicker?" The blond sitting closest to where Annie and the others stood turned around to stare at them sharply. Clea had heard Annie voice her displeasure at hearing Gwen talk about her dream job.

"We came to see if anyone wants to play cards," Weasel answered. "We just need to find at least a fourth player."

"We can play cards here, or we can play cards in White Plains," Gwen answered. "Wouldn’t you rather play at a better place?"

"What is wrong with this place?" Pops narrowed his eyes.

"Nothing is wrong except you are all practically living in the sewers."

"Gwen said this place is willing to hire many volunteers," Clea pointed out. "Imagine living on the surface in a real building, with windows."

"It’s not just a building. It’s a mansion," Gwen closed her eyes dreamily. "Three stories with an endless amount of large rooms. We would have access to all the facilities including the tennis court, the game room and the pool and Jacuzzi."

"Swimming pool?" The game of cards slowly faded from Weasel’s interest.

"You will be able to swim like an otter," Gwen laughed, "Just like you have told me."

"The temperature is dropping," Annie informed them.

"The pool is heated."

"That is quite a description for an add," the teenager crossed her arms. "I wasn’t referring to the pool. I was talking about the trip itself."

"We will carry plenty of food, and we will have tents."

"We are almost packed," a wiry young man answered. His brown hair was slick with gel and he had a pencile thin mustache under a small nose ending in large nostrils

"You are all leaving?" Annie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. "Didn’t t you forget how Gwen nearly died while trying to get there."

"You don’t understand how desperate I was, and still am." The smile on her face had made a complete 180 degree turn. The warm sparkle had left her eye wadswas replaced by the moisture of developing tears.

"She never will," Clea snapped. "Some people are content to live in this hellhole for the rest of their lives."

"Hellhole?" The words were a slap in Annie’s face. "For someone in your situation, Clea, you haven no right to act like a highschool prom queen."

"You have no right to be so judgmental on how some of us want better lives. We’ll be living in a mansion and paid a hundred dollars a day."

"Did you forget what the job was for? It’s for labatory test subjects."She knew Gwen had yet to admit it was a lab. She waited for the strange girl to correct her.

"It’s only to try out various vitamins and anti allery medicine," Gwen pointed out.

"You admit it’s a lab," Annie fought hard to keep from smiliing. She watched Gwen’s expression to see how the girl was going to back peddle her way out of the situation.

"I have already admited to a few others it was a lab," she pointed to both Clea and two other Labyrinth dwellers who nodded.

"How do you know it’s not a genetics lab?" Annie felt tears forming in her own eyes. "They could be lying to you and you wouldn’t know the truth until the lock you up. They could alter you," she paused to wipe away a few stray tears from her cheeks. "or just take samples of your DNA...and make...and make..." she never was able to complete her sentence. Her body was shaking too much. Annie sniffed once before she turned around and ran down the way she came.

"Did I say something wrong?" Gwen blinked.

"No you didn’t," Weasel spoke before Clea could have a chance to belittle his friend. "Annie does have a reason to be upset. We don’t know if this place is run by another Sevarius."

"Sevarius?"

"He’s responsible for Talon and the other mutates. They were once human."

"No wonder she’s upset," Gwen clasped her fingers across her mouth. "I understand if no one wants to go with me."

"We are still going," Clea stood up. "There is nothing that is gong to keep me from this place."

"I’m pretty sure we all still want to go," Weasel curled his hands into fists. "It’s not safe a journey for just a few of us to go it alone. As a group we can tough it out together, and we can fight our way out if it is another Sevarius."

"Then we should prepare to leave," Gwen began to loosen the poles holding up her tent. "I’ll admit it was scary traveling lone, but I’m no longer afraid knowing I won’t go it alone."

"We better hurry," Clea stared at the entrance Annie ran down. "Annie is probably snitching about the whole trip idea to Talon."

"Annie isn’t that type," Pops grabbed onto Weasel’s shoulder and pulled him back. "Someone needs to talk to her and help her calm down."

"You are not coming with us?" Weasel asked him.

"I’m probably going to stick with you until you are out of the city, but I’m not going the whole way. Are you certain you want to chance the trip?"

"I’m sure we are going to be fine with just a few tents. We squeeze into them and be able to keep each other warm."

"That’s not my main concern."

"If there is some trouble I'll call here," the corner of his lip curled up into a wry grin. He gave one of his pockets a small pat, causing the jingling sounds of coins banging each other from within. "I’ll look out for the others."

"I know you will," Pops gave him a light tap on his back before turning around to search for where Annie had ran off to.

________________________________________________________________

Annie did not know how long she had been crying. She felt her body rock back and forth while she wrapped her arms around her legs and placed her face against her knees. Her tears had soaked through her pants, creating dark stains and she felt like she could cry more.

What the hell was wrong with them? The thought kept running through her mind as she continued to rock back and forth and sob. Did no one remember how weak and frail Gwen was when Malibu found her in the tunnels. Did they not understand that iw what could happen to them if they continued on her dream path with notenough supplies. Even if they were well packed they still don’t know what the job exactly was. There was another question that was burning in her mind. Where and when did Gwen hear about such a job, and why didn’t anyone else hear of it?

"Annie?" The sweet voice of Pops reached her ears before she could hear the sound of his loafers. He was what she needed. The elderly man was the closet thing to a grandfather to her and she needed the caring voice and hug of a grandparent or her own mother. "Annie, do you want to talk."

"I don’t want what happened to Maggie and the others to happen to them," she hoped the words were clear enough for Pops to understand her. To her own self she sounded like a croaking frog.

"They are going to be fine. Weasel is going with them."

"Weasel?" Annie untangled from the ball she had formed herself into. "Did he fall for her story and the lure of the swimming pool?" She couldn’t believe her closest friend was going to go along with them. She had thought he was too smart for that.

"He’s going to make sure your worst fears don’t come true."

"He always has pocket change," she sniffled. "He could escape and call the foundation or the Step Up Program."

"There, you don’t have to be so upset." He removed his scarf from his neckk and hnded the end towards her.

"I know," she used the cloth to wipe her face dry with her selves, knowing it would do nothing to clear up the bloodshot out of her eyes. "There is just something that I have discovered that increased my fears and doubts."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not right now," she tried to smile. "When I’m ready."

"When you are ready," Pops smiled back. "I promised the others I would journey with them until they left the city."

"I need to wish the others a good journey, give Weasel a hug and apologize to Gwen."

"That’s a girl," he held out a hand for her to take and gently grasped her hand when palm came in contact with his.

_______________________________________________________________________

Weasel felt himself stall a few minutes after they left the area where Gwen had her tent temporarily set up. It was not a battle of the wills that made him do it, it was the simple fact they were about to leave without Pops.

"This will be quite an adventure," Gwen lead the group with an exited skip to her step. None of them had noticed that Weasle had suddenly stopped. "I hope you will entertain us with your singing Clea and maybe Jerome can practice a few of his favorite opera songs." She smiled at both the blond woman and the wiry man with the mustache.

"Yo!," Weasel called at the top of his lungs while waving his hand Everyone spun around and nearly everyone stared at him with confusion. Everyone except for Clea, who was more annoyed than confused."We have to wait."

"Wait for what?" Clea snapped with an irritated clip to her voice. "Wait for that twit to tell everyone where we are going. Did you agree to come so you can stall us?"

"That does not sound good," Gwen’s voice took on a cold tone that sent shivers down Weasle’s back. "We can’t let that happen."

"She isn’t telling anyone," the teenager scowled. "I am getting sick of you badmouthing her."

"I’m getting sick of it also," a young man, over twenty and dressed in gray baggy clothes glared at the blond. "Weasel wants to come because it will offer an adventure and he wants to swim."

"Damn skimpy," Weasel nodded. "I’m just waiting for Pops. He says he wants to journey with us until we leave the city."

"Sound’s reasonable," the young man nodded in agreement along with a few others. "I guess we can wait."

"You guys wait," Weasel began to enter the room they had just left "I’ll go and tell Pops we are about to leave."

"No you won’t," Gwen’s voice had taken another turn. It still froze the air around them but it become smoother and silkier.

"What do you mean?" Weasel turned to her as blinked her eyes, the second the eyelids raised up he noticed the irises had shifted from brown to red. "What’s with your eyes?"

"I just decided to return them to their natraul color," her voice grew highr, changing to a voice more suited to that of a child. "I want to get comfortable before I take everyone to meet my big sis."

"That’s it, this trip is done." The youth grabed the wrist of both Jerome and and a woman to try to turn them round and lead everyone back home.

"I can’t let that happen," her nose wrinkled up in disgust and clasped the palms of her hands together. The sound of heavy metal doors closing shut was heard.

Weasel quickly turned back to the entrance, only to find it was blocked off by a circle of shining steel.. "What the hell are you?"

"You will soon find out," her eyes were overtaken by a bright green light. The green light danced off her hands in forms of slender lightening bolts and filled the room with it’s radiance.

________________________________________________________________

"Where did that come from?" Pops had pointed at the large silver door blocking the other side of the room he had last seen Gwen and the others. He and Annie had returned a minute ago to find the others had left. The gleam of the small amount of light from the single lightbulb shone off the door and caught the eyes of the elderly man.

"I heard we are going to get doors," Annie approached th round slab of metal. "I doubt they would be like this. Renard left us a good chunk of money, but not enough to afford doors of silver."

"Silver?"

"It looks silver," she shrugged

"I am certain it wasn’t here before," Pops frowned. "I don’t know where the others are."

"I knew it," Annie’s gasp was barely audibl when she found the ability to speak a minute later. Her bottom lip shook while her eyes began to refill. "I knew she couldn’t have been trusted."

"Now is not the time to play the blame game," Pops could feel himself shaking, but he did not want the girl to know how afraid he really was. " We don’t even know if it was Gwen, it could have been something else.We need to try to find the others and if we can’t rind them we will inform Talon."

"Please Weasel," Annie stippled her fingers and brought them to her mouth. "Please don’t let me down."

________________________________________________________________

He waited until the brightness dimmed before he opened his eyes and could clearly see how much his surroundings had changed. They were in a smaller and cleaner room. The walls where made of white plaster and the floor was made out of a different kind of pavement, like the type they made driveways out of. There was a table in one corner and two open doors on the ground level. One lead to what appeared to have been a bedroom, (he could see the edge of a fully made bed, and the other to a bathroom (he was certain he saw the glass doors of a shower and a toilet).

"Where are we?" Jerome had voiced the very thoughts that were in Weasel’s head.

"You are in the basement of my home," the voice that had answered them sounded like the childish tone Gwen’s voice had shifted to before she sent out her light. Everyone turned towards the only little girl in the room with them. She did not have much in the way of babyfat. Her dark hair was cut into a fringed bob with bangs that hung over her large red eyes. Her skin was a ghostly shade of white and she had a pair of leather bat shaped wings at the top of her head."It still hasn’t been altered to a prison yet."

"Who," Weasel started to asked and decided to rephrase his question. "What are you."

"My official name is the Gwynhena Sidhe," she hovered a few feet into the air. "You can call me Gwenny, or Gwen as you have been calling me."

"What do you want with us?" Jerome asked.

"My sister needs something from you singers, and my friend needs a few as test subjects."

"Annie was right about you," Weasel balled his ands into fists. "You just wanted to use us as guinea pigs."

"We might not need all of you," Gwen flew out of reach from the teenager. "hen again she might want all of you." Her mischievous grin was still etched into Weasels mind, even after she disappeared into thin air.

________________________________________________________________

Gwen reappeared in Seneca’s lab, hoping that her friend would be there waiting for them. She was in luck. Not only was the young human seated in front of her computer typing away at the keyboard, but her sister was only a few feet from where she had materialized. The Gargoyle Sidhe was standing in front of the single cage Reginald had built in the laboratory.

"I’m home," Gwen new they hadn’t noticed her when she had returned. How could they have when their backs were facing her. "I’m lucky you both were in this Lab. I would have checked the other one if this place was empty."

"Sister!" The younger Sidhe suddenly found her self being shoved face first towards a pair of barely covered breasts. She inhaled the overpowering scent of Chanel number five while she struggled to breath. "Where have you been?"

"Gwen!" Seneca pulled her free from the Gargoyle Sidhe’s over bearing embrace and allowing her to breath freely. "We have been worried when you disappeared and didn’t tell us anything."

"I was in New York City," Gwen lowered herself to the ground. "I created a new human disguise and pretended to collapse in the Labyrinth. There was this girl there and she looked a lot like you, Seneca."

"Because you said it was full of homeless people and you said that no one would really care if they went missing."

"What did you do?" Gara asked. "You didn’t kill anyone? We can’t risk the possibility of one of us being recognized down there."

"I didn’t kill any of them," Gwen grinned. "I didn’t even use any of my nails, and non of them have been scratched. I just teleported a group of them along with myself back home."

"They are here?"

"They are in the basement Reggie had said he was going to change into a prison."

"They are here?" Seneca asked in shock. "They are in our house, right now as we speak."

"They are here and locked in the basement," Gwenny floated toward the door, only stopping to encourage the others to follow her.

She led them into the other laboratory. It was smaller than the other and did not have a cage. It did have a couple of cloning tanks set up on one side of three room and on the other die had two office chairs that were heavily padded and contained wheels. In front of them was a table with several screens and a control panel.

"How many did you bring?" Seneca was the first to seat her in front of the screens and pressed a few buttons. The image of the basement room Gwen had spoke of appeared. Several people were wandering around, trying to find a way out. A couple of them had large and heavy back packs strapped to their backs. Several more knapsacks and duffel bags were on the ground.

"I brought eight, and two of them can sing."

"You brought me some singers?" Gara smiled at her sister. "My sweet little sister is always thinking of me."

"I’m thinking of both you and Seneca. The rest can be test subjects."

"We were having a discussion about where we could find test subjects," Seneca thought back to the day Gwen disappeared without telling anyone. "And she disappeared when I brought up the Labyrinth."

"Did I do good?"

"You did great," the young genius pointed towards the padded lab tables, some were equiped with leather straps to keep hysterical and possibly even violent patients secure. "They have been modified for the singers. I’m going to test out the toxic serum first to try to knock a few out. If it works I will use it again on the fit human I want to transform."

"Once it’s been tested we can use it on those who want to be gargoyles?"

"Those who want to be gargoyles and those who want to be freaks like the mutates," Seneca pulled Gwen close to her for another embrace.

"I hope you tell me how the results went," Gara gave her sister a gentle pat on the head. "I'd love to watch but Reggie and I have another date."

________________________________________________________________

Annie and Pops had nearly spent a few hours searching down the damp yet warm tunnels for their recently vanished friends without any luck. There was no sign nor clue. Annie tried to hold it gather. She tried not to release her emotions as time slowly went buy and they were not any closer to finding the whereabouts of Weasel and the others.

"They didn’t run," the words exploded out of her. "They vanished. That green light it just killed them. We are never going to find them again."

Pops shook his head. "Don’t say that and don’t think it." He grabbed onto her shoulders in the hopes that it might calm her down. "They don’t need to have us panic. We are going to tell Talon."

"Maybe I should have tattled on that woman," she rubbed her eyes on the back of her sleeve.

"What good would that have done? By the time we have found the mutates and returned to where we left them we would have seen that door and there would have been the same light."

Annie refused to even look at him. "She killed them all. Turned them all into nothing."

"You are not making any sense girl. Where would have Gwen found such a weapon. She didn’t have anything on her when Malibu found her. Why would she kill herself? Don’t forget she disappeared along with the others."

"Maybe she was a robot." She knew it was a stupid idea as soon as she suggested it. She needed to find some reason, anything to explain the mysterious disappearance.

"Why would anyone want a group of homeless people murdered?"

"Because nobody really cares about us. They could have just sent a weapon down here to test it out."

"You have been watching way too many cartoons."

They immediately returned home to inform Talon and the other mutates of the news. Annie studied the panther man’s face while Pops relayed the information. The gold eyes were wide with worry when he first heard about how some of his protectorate mysteriously vanished. His brow ridges raised in thought when the elderly man reached the part of the strange door and the glowing light.

"This sounds a bit familiar," the mutate rubbed the bottom of his chin.

"You have seen it before?"

"Some variations. Green light and disappearing as if it was by magic," He turned to Maggie who nodded.

"It was magic?" The idea of the robot did not seem that stupid. She had overhead the mutates speak of magical creatures and spells in the past. Maggie had even thought the strange message written in green slime that appeared a year ago was caused by magic. "Are you trying to say that Gwen was some sort of sorceress?"

"Sorceress, witch or even one of the third race," Talon informed her before turning to the silent tiger mutate and Maggie. "Maggie, I want you and Claw to lead a few search parties to see if we can find any clues. Ask Pops where he and Annie searched. I’m going to make a phonecall.

"Wyvern?" the golden-furred mutate asked.

"I’m calling there first," he turned to Annie. "And once I receive all the information that I need I’m going to call my sister at the precinct."

"Why do you want to call Wyvern?" Annie asked. She could understand why he would want to call his sister. Elisa could uses her skills as a detective and the resources that were more available to her to find out where Weasel and the others have disappeared too. "Is it the gargoyles? Do they know what it is?"

"They have a bit more knowledge of magic." Talon nodded before he dialed

Annie fought hard to keep from fidgeting while Talon called the richest man in the city. She over herd a few details, such as the Derek requesting permission to talk to Puck and a word that was unfamiliar to her. Just what the heck did unseelie even mean? Maybe it had something to do with that horse monster that had chased her a few monhs ago. What was it called, Nuklavee? Part of her wanted to stand by the other phones. Just in case Weasel had escaped from wherever they had vanished too and was able to call them.

"There is a large possibility we are dealing with a dark faerie," Talon hung the phone up and turbaned to Annie. "You have heard about Gwen talk about the business opportunity she wanted to seek out?"

"All the time. She wouldn’t remain silent about it for a second. I guess that was crucial for her plan. To talk about and try to raise interest in the others."

"Any specific detail that you have overheard would beer quite useful."

"All I have heard was that she would have been paid a lot, she was going to live in a mansion and she would be testing out vitamins at a lab."

"Anything else?"

Annie knew what specifics Talon needed to tell his sister. "She said it was new place and it was in Upstate Newark. I think that might help."

"I am certain it will." the panther mutate dialed the number to the twenty-third precinct and specifically asked for Elisa. "I need you to do something for me," Talon’s voice did not take on a pleading tone, but remained in his usual commanding tone. "I need you to find out any information on any possible new companies or labs that have opened up in White Plains, New York." He was silent for a few minutes. "It is not really much of a concern why. It involves my protectorate. Thank you, call me when you found something."

"Why didn’t you tell her why?" Annie asked as soon as he hung up.

"She would tell Matt and Goliath and they would insist on helping." He knew what the follow up question would be. "This does not concern any of them. This involves my protectorate, and I don’t need to have the Wvyern clan help me with every problem that is inflicted upon us."

"They could come with us when we go rescue them."

"We will be enough," Talon crossed his arms. "Where did you deduct the idea of a rescue party, and why do you think you would be coming?"

"That is the most likely reason what will happen when you receive the specific location from Elisa, and I’m coming." She gave the mutate an intense stare that did not have any follow up questions.

Only an hour had passed when Elisa returned the call. Talon had practically pounded on the phone on the first ring.

"I have only one name," Elisa said on the. other end. "It’s a place called Procoen. Its been in town for a year."

"Thats the newest?"

"This is White Plains, not Manhattan."

"I understand," Talon waited until Elisa had given him the address. "Thank you, is. I owe you one."

"You know where they are?" Annie had raced up to the mutate.

"I know where they might be."

"We are going now?"

"No, we are going after sunset. We are going to need some of our clan." He gestured towards the room where the Labyrinth gargoyles slept for the day.

________________________________________________________________

Weasel had checked out every possible inch of the basement. There were no window accesses in the main room or they other smaller rooms. The only place he could possible escape was through the vents. They were not the widest and would not be the most comfortable but he has squeezed through smaller.

He knew enough to not try to slip through immediately. He head read enough books and watched enough movies and TV shows to know they would expect one of them to try to escape. He planned on waiting until that night for two reasons. The first was the darkness of the night could possibly ofer him some adequate cover. The other reason was that it did not seem logical to escape in that weather.

It was a good thing Weasel had decided to wait. They hadn’t been there an hour when the strange creature called Gwen had returned.

"Just need about three of you," Gwen appeared right behind Jerome She poked the end of her sharp nail into his back with a single tap. The young man hadn’t even noticed the fae behind him until he felt the sharp prick and she had pulled her hand back " Both singers and someone else."

"What the hell?" Jerome stepped back from her only to find his legs were slowly becoming heavier. "What did you do?" He trid to move his arms forward.

"Oh nothing," Gwen raised her hand to her mouth to try to supressher giggles. "Just a little scratch."

"You little freak," a youth in his twenties ran straight for the fair child, proving to have been a stupid move on his part. Gwen pointed at him, sending a black nail fly off her finger and struck him in the chest. "The hell?" He stared down at where she had struck.

"Guess we got our volunteer," her wide smile made Weasels’ skin crawl. It did not set him at ease at the fact she was enjoying their capture ands overly confident. Gwen floated out of reach of her latest target and launched another nail at Clea. The dark point struck her ankle as she tried to dodge it. "And that’s about everyone."

"I can’t feel my arms or legs," Jerome toppled over and landed on the floor. The twenty year old Gwen had tagged had also fallen towards the ground.

"This is only a preview of all the fun we are going to have," Gwen clapped her hands and she and those that she had tagged had evaporated in an effect that reminded Weasel of Star Trek episodes.

"What just happened?" Someone asked.

"She had some sort of poison in her nails," another person answered. "She used it to paralyze them and she took them somewhere, just like she took us here."

"She had already selected those who would be experimented on first," Weasel answer solemnly. "We can’t just sit around here wondering what they are doing to them and trying to guess which of us will be next."

"You got a plan, Weasel?"

"I have an idea. Whatever you do right now, don’t turn around or try to crowd around me." Weasel ‘s eyes found the camera above the door leading down into the basement. "We don’t want whoever it is watching the cameras to become suspicious." He knew the second he mentioned the camera the others would turn around to try to find it.

"How long have you known?" the oldest member of their group asked. He was in his late thirties and had been living in the Labyrinth for three years, ever since he was evicted from his apartment. He had lost his job to his bad drinking habit wich also caused his divorce. He had been sober for over two years.

"For about thirty minutes." Weasle answered.

"What do we do?" A woman in her early thirty’s whispered.

"Don’t have to whisper. All I have been able to find is one camera and nothing that could pick up our conversations. I already placed a few of our things in the bedroom. If we go in one at a time after every fifteen minutes they will not get too suspicious.

It was coverage plan that had to unfold before Weasel did manage to try to squeeze through the vents. Weasel was the first one to go into the bedroom. He grabbed one of the bags and pulled out a pair of pants that closely matched the pair he was wearing. He went through the supplies grabbing can foods, socks, underwear and a blanket and used it to stuff the pants. Before he left he removed his shirt and put on a different shirt. He used his jacket to cover the recent change. He was in an out in fifteen minutes.

One by one they entered the room and would either add more to the makeshift dummy that Weasel had started on or would work at trying to unscrew the vent in the bathroom. If the little demons had appeared while on of them at work they would have either told her the person who was missing was either taking a nap or going to the bathroom.

At least both tasks were complete. The dummy was made and slipped under the covers. Weasel even managed to cut off some of his own hair and attached it to the edge of the single baseball cap someone brought along, using the only adhesive he had: chewed up bubble gum.

He approached the others, trying to appear as fatigued as possible. "I guess escape his hopeless," he yawned. He new they couldn’t hear him, but he did not know how well they could lip read. I’m going to the crapper and then take a nap."

"you are not going hog that bed for yourself?" One of the women spoke. Weasel didn’t give them any specific lines. He just told them to try to keep the dialogue real.

"There’s plenty of room in that bed."

"What of that little freak comes by," someone else asked. "Do you want us to wake you?"

"Just tell her I’m sleeping and I don’t want to be disturbed." He turned towards the bathroom.

________________________________________________________________

The deep blue minivan belonged to Xanatos, and was one of the few vehicles that anyone was allowed to borrow without asking. Jam kept a firm grip behind the wheel as she drove towards Upstate. They would have asked for Candy or Natalie to be the one to drive them, but neither of them could handle stick shift. They chose Jam because she was one of the few people that Reginald Leahs wouldn’t recognize. If they came cross one of woman who escaped with him, either Felicia, or Seneca, they wouldn’t know who she was either.

The van was needed to carry everyone back once they had been rescued. Most of the recue party were gliding behind them as fast as their wings could carry them. Talon had selected Claw to join them along with three of the clones. The largest and one of the strongest clones, Hollywood took up the rear as he glided behind the mutates and the female mixed clone, Lucy, and the white hybrid, Samson. They made a one brief for the gargoyles and mutates to land on top of the van to rest their wings.

"How are you holding up?" Jam asked once they neared another stop light. "You seem to be in deep thought."

"I’m just worried," the only other passenger in the vehicle kept her gaze fixed on the window. "I don’t know what is going to happen to the others and that isn’t the only thing. Weasel hadn’t called yet."

"You have great confidence in your friend," Jam tapped her fingers against the top of the steering wheel. "You are certain he would have escaped by now?"

"Most likely," Annie wanted to finish her thought but the ringing of Jam’s cell Phone cut her off.

"Could you answer this for me?" Jam removed her phone from her pocket just as the lights were changing. "I don’t like talking on it while I drive."

Annie pressed the phone against the side of her face. "Hello?"

"Annie," the voice on the other end belonged to Maggie. The lioness mutate sounded like she was struggling to keep from sounding to excited. "I just received the call from Weasel."

"Weasel?" Annie felt like she could jump through the roof t of the vehicle, Seattle or no sealtbelt. "Is he okay,? Is he hurt? Where is he?"

"Calm down, I know how excited you are. He said he’s calling form a payphone outside a Seven Eleven on the Corner of Maple and Cheshire."

"Seven Eleven on the corner of Maple and Cheshire,"Annie relayed the information to Jam. "I’m pretty sure we are going to have to stop and ask for directions."

"That should be the least of our concern," Jam’s eyes sought out for the nearest gas station. "The good news is your friend is safe and he managed to escape from wherever he was being held."

"The hard part is trying to figure out how we are gong to rescue everyone," Annie lowered the phone into her lap and picked up the walk talkie. She was going to explane why they were going have to make an emergency stop, but first she was going to give the mutates and clones the good news.

"Weasel made it through."Jam said as soon as the call had ended. She briefly glanced towards the younger woman as Annie picked up the communicators they used between them and those with wings. "I thought you might be happy."

"I am," the nineteen year old told her bfore she brought her end of the communicator to her mouth. "We got some great news. Weasel escaped!"

"I’m not too surprised," Talons voice came through the other end. The connection was clearenough for Annie to detect the pleased and happy tone of the mutate. "Did he call home?"

"Called from a convenience store. He gave us the location."

"Did he give Maggie the directions?"

"No he didn’t. We are going to have to ask for directions. The good news is that you can give your wings a short rest while we ask.

________________________________________________________________

It had taken them five minutes to recieve directions only taken them fifteen minutes to mind Maple road and a ten minute drive down south till the came to where Cheshire was intersected with it. Jam immediately pulled into a parking lot and watched as Annie race out to throw her arms around her friend.

"You have got to be kidding me," Weasel was still wearing the thin jacket he escaped from the mansion in. The light material and did little to keep the cold out. "You have that little faith in me?"

"I didn’t have little faith in you," Annie lead him towards the van. "I guess I overestimated you. I thought you would have escaped earlier."

"It takes time for a plan of genius to be created," Weasel held up a finger. "Plus, I had to make sure my tracks were covered."

"You can impress us with your genius later," Talon’s voice came through on the communicator. While Jam was receiving directions he, Claw and the three clones that accompanied him had landed on top of the gas station to rest their wings. They rested again for a minute when Annie was embracing Weasel. "Where are the others?"

"They are further up the road," Weasel explained more to Annie than the mutate.

"Hurry up inside," the mutate growled. "We do not have much time to sit around and talk."

"Gotcha," had slouched in his place right behind the passenjer seat.

"Where did you escape from?" Annie quickly returned to the Van and closed the door. She hadn’t even locked the door when Jam drove off.

"I remember turning left on maple before I made it to the crosswalk for the Seven eleven." He waited until he was warm enough to speak. " Make a Right on March. Then after ten houses make a left on Whisper. It will be the first drive way you see on your right, but it’s way down deep. Not many places on that road."

"Okay," Jam turned on her right hand signal as they neared March.

"Now for the reason why it took me a while," Weasel began. "I and the others took turns trying to open the vent while making a mock up of me. We put the dummy in the bed and then I pretended was tired."

"You are too damn cunning for your own good," Annie couldn’t keep from silting at her friends cleverness while she kept her eyes open for Whisper.

________________________________________________________________

The plan did not seem to be flawed too Jam. Other people might stand their ground and refuse to act on it while they rationalized every point as spelt of it, but then again she wasn’t rational. She did feel some minor bit of worry as she approached one of the large ornate double doors. Here role was simple. She was to be the decoy.

"Well here goes nothing," she pressed the doorbell and listened in onto the melodious charm that played out from it.

"May I ask what is your business here?" A woman’s voice came through the speaker that was set right next to the doorbell. "Please use the red button on the side."

"She had to explain," Jam mumbled under her breath. "Like a bright red button next to a black screen was not obvious enough." She pressed the button. "I’m sorry to bother you, but I made a wrong turn and I think I’m lost, not only that but my car just stalled."

"Stalled?"

"I need to call triple A."

"Why can’t you use your cell phone?"

"The batteries had died," Jam hoped she did not sound as pathetic as she felt.

"This is not your lucky evening," the double doors open to reveal a woman close to Jam’s age. She was about the same height, give or take an inch and was once thin and athletic. Her limbs still retained the beauty of her former physique but there was the obvious poaching in the middle of her stomach from someone who had been through childbirth. The most obvious feature of the woman was her lavender hair. The ends were dyed a very noticeable shade of crimson.

"Looks like it’s not," Jam blinked. She couldn’t help but feel envious of the girl. She was beautiful and was more daring than Jam when it came to dying her hair.

"Where are you parked?"

"Not to far away."

"I hate having to leave my daughter alone in this place."

"How old is she?" Jam noticed the way she was looking at her bangs. While she isn’t ready to die her whole hair she did color her bangs till they were a dark purple shade. "I’m a mother myself. I have a four year old."

"And yet you still dye your bangs? I’m impressed that some people have yet to give up on being what I consider cool," she stepped out of her house. "She’s not alone. There are other people in the house to watch over her."

"I understand."

"You don’t need AAA when you have me. I’m pretty good at fixing cars."

"Thank you," Jam was glad she and the others took some time to do a few minor things underrate hood. If this woman was as good as she claimed she would have fixed it in no time. It was now up to Talon and the others.

________________________________________________________________

"Are you sure we all should enter through the same window?" Weasel stared up at the framed window that was closest to the vent he escaped through. The plan belong to talon and while he hated to question the motives of the Labyrinth leader it went against his better judgment. "I think it would be better if we all took different entrances."

"We might attract too much attention," Talon pointed at the farm of the window and released a minor eltrical current. "We go in through one entrance, and we escape through that one entrance."

"I prefer the idea of dividing and conquering."

"We will do that once we get inside," Talon carefully brother through the window. Claw, I want you and Lucy to accompany Annie in one group. Hollywood, I want you to stick with Weasel and help him rescue most of the prisoners in the basement. Samson you are with me."

______________________________________________________________

Seneca stared at the medical chart in her hand. Her mind was a mesh of various thoughts swirling aroudn in her head. Even thought she had made scientific process in developing the serum from the Garoyle Sidhe’s nail and reached the results she wanted she was still thinking of the trivial things, such as the fact she was staring at her clip board instea dof recording everying directly into a tape recorder or typing it up on the computer.

"What more are you going to do to me?" The creature behind the bars spoke with the same voice as the second Labyrinth dweller Gwenny had stabbed with her finger nails. The gargoyle was the same bright orang color as as a carrot. Where he once had hair was replaced by a dome shape of bone surrounded by tiny spikes. Fingers and toes were replaced with sharp talons. Wings had torn through the back of his shirt during his transformation and a tail ending in a spiked ball had ripped through the back of his pants. "You already took away my humanity and turned me into this." He pointed at himself.

"I was expecting the whining," Seneca removed a small tranquilizer gun from her pocket.

"Whining?" the former human’s voice hardened into a growl. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the gun. "What’s in there?"

"Not much." She pulled the trigger. The dart instantly found itself in the shoulder of the gargoyle, even as the caged creatured tried to duck. "Just enough Sodium thiopental,pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride to put you to sleep for good.." Part of her hated having to kill th test subject, but it was a must. Keeping him a live could have risked more problems for later. In the morning his body would solidify into a stone and they could smash his body up into gravel.

________________________________________________________________

They were able to navigate through the underground hallways too well. There wasn’t much in the way of security, no camears and no one standing gaurd. It seemed like it was too easy for the mutates and clones to be able to rescue their protectorate, and that troubled Talon.

"Keep and eye out, Samson." Talon whispered while he pressed the tip of his claw against the keyhole. He felt the electricty cours through his finger and enter the lock. If it was a basic lock he would be able to melt it. If it was electrical he would be able to short it out. "I don’t lile the looks of this set up."

Samson knew a simple nodd would not be enough for a an answer when his leader was not looking at him. The hybrid clone did not want to risk being heard by whoever owned the mansion and insisted on saying as little as possible. He pressed his hand against the panther mutates ina  gentle manner before turning around to watch the halls.

"That should be enough." Talon siad while turning the handle. With a small shove he was able to force the door open.

The room was not that much larger than the dungeon they had set  up in their room. One side was devoted to a wall of several small televisions, each one displaying a black and white image of an empty room. A small control table with several swtiches abuttons was in fornt of it, along with a gray office chair.

The opposite side had three cloning tanks. Each one made of a sleek silver metal and clear glass. Tubes and wires were neatly bundled up and kept secure to the interior tops of the tanks.

Talon did not care for the sceuirty or the cloning equpiment. His eyes were drawn to the medical tables in the middle of the room. Both of them contained slumbering humans who had their arms and legs held fast the corners with leather straps. Talon immediatly reconized their faces as two of his Labyrinth dwellers.

Jerome was the one who tried to sit up on his tble. the leather stras kept him from becoming completly apostate. "Don’t you have enough of our blood?" The human tried to stare at the winged creature through squinting eyes.

"Jereome," Talon hissed the name in a tone of foice he tried to keep as low as possible. "Try not to speak."

"Talon?" Clea raised her head. "Jerome, I think I heard Talon."

"Quiet," Talon hoped he was able to slience them. The mutate raced towards Clea’s side. "We are going to get you out of here."

"Wha about the others?" Jerome whispered as Samson began to tear through his straps. "There is another room. The others are there."

"We know where they are," Samson paused after he freed Jerome’s right rm. The large bandage on his arm had captured his focus. " Hollywood and Weasel are getting them out.

"Weasel made it through?" Clea asked

"He’s never failed us," Talon freed both her arms. "When did you recieve this?" He gingerly touched her arm before moving towards her ankles.

"That was where they took our blood," Clea explained. "They filled IV bags. Like the Red Cross when they take blood from donators."

"Why did they take your blood?" Talon almost wished he had never thought of the question the second he asked it. "Nevermind. Don’t answer it now."

"We’re in trouble," Jerome had sat up as soon as Samson freed his arms. He was the first to notice the three figures who had entered the room. While all three of the gargoyles who had entered were of different heights they all had the same structure of wings and tails.

"Great," Samson had his his claws on Jerome’s last strap. His eyes were able to see better in the darkened room. He was able to see that all three had the same grayish green coloration and the same dead look in their eyes.

_______________________________________________________________

Weasel's group had the easiest task so far. The teenager knew exactly where the other prisoners were behind held. He just had to look at the ceiling and count the vents until he came to the door leading to the basement.

"Do you want me to open it?" The age clone asked.

"I don’t think you have to tear the door off the hinges." Weasel reached for the doorknob. "Not unless we need a key." He felt for the lock and twisted the knob.

"Don’t need a key," Hollywood grinned.

"No we don’t," Weasel pushed the door open. There were only two people standing around in the main part of the basment room. He was not too worried. The others could be sleeping or in the bathroom for all he knew. "Hey guys, did you miss me?"

"Weasel!" one of the women shouted before the two others left the bedroom area.

"Try not to make too much of a sound." He pointed towards Hollywood. "I found some help."

"I thought it we found you," Hollywood blinked his eyes. "You called Maggie. Maggie called Annie. Annie told us."

"Never mind the details," Weasel pointed towards the door. "Come on. Lets get going while the getting is still good."

Not one of the prisoners said anything as they raced towards the door. Most of them turned around to grab their stuff first.

"Must not be loud," the large gargoyle cautioned.

"I agree," Weasel held up his hand. "Keep it down and follow Hollywood. He will take the lead. The rest of you follow him and I’ll follow behind." He waited til the last one had started to walk down the hall way towards the window they all had entered before he followed.

________________________________________________________________________

Despite the fact she was more protected than Weasel, Annie felt frightened. She kept looking over her shoulder as she followed Lucy through the hallway they had chosen. Only staring into the face of Claw.

"I’m not too scared," Annie whispered when Claw’s brow ridges raised in worry over her thrid time of looking back. It was a lie and she knew it. She had hoped neirther Claw nore Lucy had noticed her true emptions. "I’m just a little cautious. We don’t know exactly what we are dealing with.

"Weasle said it was a demon child," the butter yellow clone said as they neard the double doors near the end of the hallway. She had the gargoyle features of Gloria and Marle. Tall spiral shaped horns poked through long dark hair gathered into braids. Her bueterfly shaped wings folded down over her shoulders as she reache out to the door handle. "She was gathering people to perform experiments on."

"I knew that Gwen was trouble," Annie remebered what Weasel had told her about Gwen. She was a creatur of magic who turned her self into a child with bat wings on her haed. "We only know the gist of what we are about to get into. We do not know everything. We only know about the cameras and not how well gaurded this place is."

"It’s better gaurded than you can imagine," the voice came from right behind the mutate. They turned to see a little girl no older than standing over the floor, except she wasn’t exactly standing. She was floating a whole foot above the thinly carpted floor. She was not alone. Standing directly behind her were five greenish gray gargoyles

"Gwen," Annie narrowed her eyes at the fae.

"Hello Annie," The creature looked exactly like younger version of the woman the members of the Labyrinth had taken in. Her lrge round eyes had changed from brown to red. She had traded in her rags for a dress made of frills. lace, and ribbons. "It’s nice to see you again."

"You’re a liar," it was Lucy who spoke, but she echoed Annie’s thoughts. "You just want her to be part of your experiments."

"Not my experiments," Gwen never lost her smile. "It’s my friend who wants to make experiments." She noticed the way the Laybrinth dwellers were staring at her soldiers. "We got a hand ful of these guys and my sister can always make more The rest are in the upper levels protecting the house.."

"You took part of our clan," Lucy hissed, her eyes took on a violet glow.

"You’ll always can get more."

"Get more!" The words exploded from Annie’s mouth. She couldn’t believe how this creature was disregaurdian her firends as if they were just flowers from Annie’s garden. "You selfish little bitch!" Annie reached out to strange Gwen, not even regarding the gaurdsmen.

The following events became a blur to the would be recuers minds. First Annie remembered being within inches of grabbing Gwen’s neck when two the dead eyed body gaurds grabbed her and pulled her away from the fae. Their talons had barelled grabbed onto her arms when both Clw and Lucy rushed to her aid. Both of them had pulled off the guards from her shoulders when two more gaurds pounced on them. That left only one to take on Annie.

The human fought as hard as possible for her against her assailant. The creature may has seemed like a reanimated corpse but it was as strong as any gargoyle. Despite the fact her arms ached from using all her setrenght to try to break out of the Zombie gargoyle’s hold she couldn’t even push it’s arms back an inch. Through out it all she kept her eyes on Gwen. The child like fae remained hovering in the air while staring at her nails.

Both Lucy and Claw were having much better luck than she was. Annie and possibly everone who was in the underground hallways could hear Lucy’s cougar like battle cry the loud thumps of skullys coliding into each other. From Claw, Annie could hear the crackling sizzle of electricty frying one of the zombie like gargoyle ttacking him and the putrid scent of burnt flesh.

"What the hell is going on out here?" The voice belong to woman that none of th e Labyrinth dwellers reconized. She sounded like she had come from the room behind the door. "Gwenny, what happened?"

Annie struggled to see who was talking but the gargoyle who held obstucted her view with it’s wing. Despite all her twisting she could not pull away to see who was speaking. She could see Lucy holding the zombies who had attacked her by thier throats and Claw in mid wrestle mode with another. the fifth was lying on the ground. Sparks of electricty traveled across it’s body.

"We have some invaders," Gwenny reported. She kept staring at annie and the behind the chaos. Apparently she could see the other woman.

"I see," the newcome said. Her voice had calmed down to a simpe irritated tone. "My father’s experiments."

"And a girl," Gweny’s smile had faded from her face. Her eyebrows were raised in a confused expression. "A girl who looks a lot like you. It’s the one I have been telling you about."

"Really," the woman, Seneca, sounded intrigued. Annie did not know whether to be frightened or not. "Let me have a look at my so called doppleganger.

"They look like sisters." Lucy’s eyes had doubled in size at the sight of the comparison. "Not identical twins, but sisters."

"No," Seneca shook her head. She could not believe what she was seeing. "He didn’t. My father didn’t."

"What did he do?" Gwen asked.

"He c-c-cl-clonedddd," she couldn’t forcer the words out of her mouth.

"I’m a clone?" Annie knew she was an experiment and even possibly a clone. She had no idea that, in a way, she was Sevarius’s daughter.

"Not me," Seneca squeezed her eyes shut. "My mother. He cloned my mother."

"She’s your mother?" Gwen sounded confused..

"Not my mother," Seneca’s eyelids flung open. "A clone of my mother. He cloned my mother. My bastard of a father cloned my mother."

"I’m a clone,"Annie’s voice felt trapped in her throat. Even though she had realized the truth was still a slap in the face.

"Go," Senca’s whole body shook. "Get out of here!"

"Not without our friends," Lucy protested.

"He’s dead. The experiment failed." Tears had begun to stream out of the corners of her eyes. "Just leave."

"But Seneca," Gwenny could not beleive what her friend was suggesting.

"Let them go," the younge genius whiped her eyes. "Please Gwenny."

"You heard her," the small fae sighed. "Let them go."

Annie felt numb all over. She did not even feel the grip of her captor relax, nor Claw picking her up and carrying her away from the area.

______________________________________________________________________

The odds may have seemed in Talon’s favor, but the panher mutate knew the two humans were too weak to aid them in the battle against the three gargoyle like creatures who have jsut entered the room. His main concern was to get both Jerome and Clea out of there.

"Can you walk?" Talon whispered as his large hands grabed onto Clea’s last strap. He kept his golden eyes on the gargoyles. Their expressionless faces did little to calm Talon’s nerves.

"We can walk," Clea answered. Despite how she tried to keep her voice down he could still dect fear lingerin in her words. "And run if possible."

"You might have to do that." Talon heard the sound of cloth sliding off a smooth surface and turned to see jrome slowly climb off his table. Samson had already placed himself between theh uman and the stranger gargoyles whoer rushing in to the room.

"Jerome, help her get out." Talon removed the last strap and ran towards one of the other gargoyles. He did not like like the way they smelled. Their scent was different from other gargoyle. It also smelled like the bodies of those who had died in the Labyrinth, not the putrid stench of bodies who have been rotting for a while. It smelled like those who had just recently died.

Samson dove down towards the legs of the first gargoyle who ran toards him. The force of his plunge was wnough to send both of them tumbling to the ground.

Talon snarled as soon as the other two neared him and the humans. He hled his hands out and sent large blast of electricty at one of them and kept up the energy until another had tackled him. The gargoyl he had electructed fell to the ground before he and his sparring partner.

The mutate held on to his assialant and watched as both clea and Jerome were able to run past the doorway. He did not want to waste any more of his electical energy than he has too and wanted to save it in case they run into any more obsticles on the way out.

Talon could hear Samson’s growls as they white hybrid battled with his zombie like gargoyle and the sound fo fists striking against the creature’s body. Talon held back on his own roars and shot his fist forward catching the cargoyle on the chin. He did not like the way his knuckles sank against the sponge like flesh and met with the bone.

"You don’t mind dancing, Talon?" Samson asked as he grabbed the zombie he was gighting fron behind.

"Not much at all,"Talon delivered two more strikes before slamming the gargoyle’s head agaisnt the ground. He stepped behind the monster and grabbed onto his shoulders.

"Shall we?" Samson asked.

"Let’s shall," Talon swung his gargoyle until their skulls came in contact. "Lets see how the others are doing." He released his hold of the zombie and lead Samson through the halls.

___________________________________________________________________________

Jam had know idea how long it was going to take them. She had hoped she was able to make the few minor car troubles seem genuine enough for Felicia. a few tweaks and pulls. Jam did admit to herself that she had no idea on what she had done or how she would have been able to repair it.

"There isn’t too much of prolem," Felicia said as she tightned a few bolts. "You don’t know much about cars, do you?"

"Nope, I don’t." Jam did not pay attention to her. She stared at her watch. She has been with the woman for nearly an hour.

"Don’t sweat it. A lot of people have no clue how to a basic repair on their car." Felicia placed the borrowed tool back into the metal box that was in the back of the van. "All though there is something suspicious about the damage."

"There is?" Jam inched closer to the woman. She may have to fight he if she had fixd the vehicle too soon and found out what the main plan was.

"Yeah it appears as if you have been sabatoged."

"Really," Jam stared towards the house. The longer it took them the more nervous she got. "Who would want to sabatoge me?"

"I’m not sure," Felicia closed the hood. "That’s about it."

"Yeah thanks," Jam smiled when she thought she saw people run towards her. "Great timeing too."

"What do you mean great timing?"

Jam responsed by striking the other wona against the side of her head with her fist. She hoped it was enough to knock her out "Sorry."

"The hell?" Felica only wobbled back from the blow.

"Shit!" Jam struck out again but this time Felicia was prepared and held her arms up to block her.

"Need some help?" Weasel ran straight towards the women and grabbed Felicia from behind.

"That was enough," Jam turned towards the van. The Labyrinth dwellers were climbing into the van. Claw and holly wood were shifting the back seat. "Did we get everyone?"

"Everyone who is alive," Lucy answered while taking Felicia from Weasel’s arms.

"What the hell?" Feclia asked as shewas being eschanged. "This was all a set up?"

"How are you guys going to get back into the air?"

"There are plenty of good climbing trees in the woods," Talon pointed towards the road and the woodlands surrounding it. "We will catch up with you soon."

Jam opened the drivers side door and stepped in. "Sorry, about trying to give you a concusion."

"What the hell was this about. Your with Goliath’s clan," She narrowed her eyes. "Come to attack us now?"

"We just wanted our clan back," Lucy explaiend before she released the woman. The pale yellow gargoyle turned towards the woods and follwed her clan leader to the nearest tree.

Weasel sat in the back of the car with his back against the backrest of the last row of seats. Jerome and Clea were placed on comfortable blankets, looking incredible weak and tired. He wished he could lay down next to them and get some sleep as well.

"As soon as we put some mileage between us and that place we’ll stop somewhere," Jam explained as she turned the key in the ignition. What little repairs Felica performed were enough. "We’ll pick up some protein drinks for our unwilling donors."

"We’ll make it back before sunrise?" Clea asked. "It will be hard trying to find a place for the clones to rest for the day."

"We’ll make it back in time," Jam assured her.

Annie’s body felt like she was ready to lean back and try to get some rest. Her body wanted to sleep but her mind was filled with too much activity. She was a clone after all. Sevarius had cloned her after his wife and in a way she had a niece. Annie closed her eyes, not to fall asleep, but to squeeze back the tears that were developing.

______________________________________________________________________

The soft carpet theat covered the stares leading up to the first floor was able to muffle ever sound of a footstep. Seneca had wished it could have also muffled the sounds of her heart beat and the sound of the same words ecchoing through her mind.

"Seneca?" Gweeny climbed up the stiars at the same time as her friend, or rather she ascended the stairs. She glided up with her feet always a foot and few inches above the ground. "Do you want to talk?"

"Not right now."

"Did you get the results you wanted?"

"I did. Your sister will be able to survive on what little blood we collected for her?

"It’s enough."

"That’s all of my concern." She did not raise her eyes fom the gound.

"It’s about that clone girl. isn’t it?"

"I don’t really want to talk about it, Gwenny." Seneca didn’t even want to look into her firend’s face. "I want to be alone right now."

"I understand," the young sidhe’s voice sounded downjected.. "I’ll see if Relena’s mom needs some help."

"I’ll make it up to you later," Seneca promised even though she had a feeling her friend wasn’t there.

She didn’t notice anyone as she made her wa y through out the rest of the house towards her room. She wouldn’t have spoken to anyone even if she did. Seneca wanted to be alone. She did not know how long, just that she requested solitude and quiet.

Seneca had locked her bedroom door as soon as she entered her room and opened her closet. What se diesired was in the cardbord box on the top shelf. She pulled it down and suffled through books, binders and smaller boxes until she found what she was looking for: a lather photo ablum. Kara Sevarius was written on the top in gold lettering.

"Mama," Seneca breathed the name of the woman she had never met and thumbed through the pages, searching through the photos of her mother until she found one of Kara when she was in her late teens. The image of the young woman was exactly the same as the young Labyrinth dweller she had ran into in the basment halls.

Seneca set the book on the floor when her hands shook to much too hold it. The young genius buried her face in her hands and wept.