- "And because I understood it, because I walked that edge and knew special things, I could make people fall in love with me."
- – Selena regarding her understanding the edge of sex. [src]
Selena Alice Lauren is a former intelligence officer and the wielder of the Witchblade in 2097, appearing in Tales of the Witchblade.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Selena worked as a federal intelligence agent, which dealt with various murder cases. Years of investigating these murders had an impact on her mental health. She then quit the force, only to be discovered six months later making homemade porn films packed with subliminal messages. Because of this, she was arrested for coercion of men to do illegal acts using narcotic therapy.
While being in prison, she and four other prisoners were chosen as test subjects for a new experimental age retardant called Sustain. Esther Dannen was the first one to be injected with the experimental Sustain dosage. Unfortunately, the dosage was hundreds of times what people would take in the future. Dannen appeared to die under that dosage and the corpse was placed into storage, where it stayed for three years.
Meanwhile, Selena was also subjected to the Sustain, which caused her mental state to decline even more. At some point afterward, Selena gains the Witchblade and escapes to Downtown, where she begins to experiment with it on the denizens living there.
Meeting John Chimu[]
Years later, she found out that detective John Chimu is trying to track her down as she is the only other other law officer to investigate murders besides Kenneth Pezzini, who isn't available at the moment. When Chimu reaches Downtown, she sends of her friend to apprehend him and bring him to her hostel.
After Chimu recovers from his blackout, Selena approaches him. She says she is interested in doing the case if he will guarantee her safe passage and no persecution be given to her while the case is ongoing. Chimu reluctantly agrees and sets his computer to do Selena's request. While doing this, he notices the tentacles returning to the gauntlet on Selena's hand.
Chimu recognizes Selena's gauntlet as the Witchblade. He read about it in one of the things from the police files before the Days of the Accelaration. Selena doesn't answers about the Witchblade, but mentioned they already have to move as her link to her people is now closed. They will now awaken and it may spell trouble to them. The two leave as the people began to wake up asking Selena not to disconnect.
Murder Investigation[]
John brings Selena to the murder scene of Geoffrey Kuhn and his secretary Getz Muller. After inspecting the scene, Selena smokes a cigarette, which displeases Chimu and reveals that this isn't the work of a serial killer. Selena explains that it's a revenge killing as it's too cold, deliberate and specific to be a serial killer's job. She then directs her focus to the secretary's corpse.
The second corpse puzzles Chimu as the victim had sex with the killer. He questions Selena if the killer was the victims girlfriend or close friend. Selena denies this, explaining, that death is the great aphrodisiac. The killer had sex with her victim because of the murder and she then killed him because, he either was a witness or maybe because she felt like a black widow.
Selena then proceeds to seduce Chimu and have sex with him. During the sexual intercourse, Selena connects her Witchblade tendril to his head. Later Chimu questions as to why she connected with him. Selena evades the question, asking him if he didn't like it. Chimu answers that he didn't, but he would like to do it again. Selena tells him, that they might as well as he probably already knows who made the killings. Chimu is confused as he has no idea, who the killer is.
This amuses Selena and she reveals that Kuhn was a member of Sustain team, the people responsible for creating the age retardant. Once Sustain was fully developed, the team chose to drop below the publicity horizon. They names were never revealed, except to intelligence. As Chimu activates his comms, he's informed that there was another killing. The victim is Andrea Tyler an one hundred twenty-three year old geneticist. After hearing this, Selena reveals that she was on the Sustain team, too.
Tracking Down the Killer[]
At the murder scene, Selena explains that taking the victims hands, eyes, tongue, nose and ears are the killer's point. She then reanimates Andrea's corpse with help of the Witchblade, which sickens Chimu. Selena proceeds to ask Andrea, who killed her. Andrea reluctantly answers that it was Esther Dannen, the first test subject of Sustain. Chimu recognizes the name as the volunteer forensic discovery team member, he met earlier. He tells the officers the find her immediately.
Chimu then threatens Selena with his pistol and forces her to tell him the whole story, regarding the Sustain team. Selena reveals that there were five people on the Sustain team, and five human testbeds. Esther Dannen was the first, and the worst. During the early days, the Sustain dosage were hundreds of times what people take today. Dannen appeared to die under that dosage and the corpse was placed in storage, where it stayed for three years. In reality it was a Sustain induced blackout, that lasted three years. During the entire time, her mind was awake, locked in a black prison of complete sensory deprivation.
Selena continues, telling that Dannen, like the other four test subjects, including Selena herself, were psychopaths, taken from prison. At some point, Dannen managed to escape from her prison and sought revenge against the scientists. With a new identity as a police forensic scientist she started to hunt down the scientists, one by one. Selena also adds, that Dannen takes her victims appendages in order to show them what she went through, while being in complete sensory deprivation. As she tells this story, Selena by using the Witchblade, takes Chimu's gun from his hands and destroys it. She then proceeds to kiss him.
Together with Selena, Chimu goes to Dannen's apartment. As they enter the apartment, they confront Dannen. Dannen reveals that she manages to kill another scientist, Rajiv Siva, while they were searching for her. The woman decides to peacefully give herself in for the corrective therapy. Chimu instead shoots her in the head. Knowing that Chimu now faces corrective therapy, Selena offers to join her in Downtown. Understanding that he's now under the influence of Selena and overwhelmed with all the violence he witnessed, Chimu decides to take his own life. Selena then decides to cover up this and replace Chino as the new detective for Manhattan.
Personality[]
Selena is a cold, manipulative person. She knows how to make people fall in love with her and often uses this to manipulate others. Combined with her ruthlessness and intelligence, this makes her a force to be reckoned with. She's also a nymphomaniac, who often partakes in sexual intercourse with various individuals in strange places, like a room with a corpse in it.
Powers & Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Witchblade: Selena is the wielder of the powerful artifact, the Witchblade, which gives her access to various unique powers.
- Tendril Creation: Selena could erect tendrils from the Witchblade. The tendrils could be used to attack and destroy objects or connect to human minds by attaching them to their heads.
- Reanimation: Selena showed a unique ability to reanimate recently deceased individuals. She used this ability in order to bring Andrea Tyler back to life and ask her for the identity of her killer. While reanimating Andrea, multiple tendrils from the Witchblade would go into her corpse. Reanimation only lasted until the tendrils were in Andrea's body. After the tendrils retract back into the Witchblade, Andrea instantly dies again.
- Mind Control: By attaching the Witchblade tendrils to someone's head, Selena could influence their actions to an extent. While in her hostel, after Selena retracts her tendrils from multiple subjects, they begin to beg her to not disconnect with them.
Gallery[]
