~

When Gabriel opened the door and let Sara in he could tell something was wrong straight away.

Sara had driven across town like a bat of hell, but it wasn't the swerving in and out of traffic that had left her shaken. After her 'encounter' with Ian Nottingham she felt as if she was in a dream everything was hazy. On any average day she would never have had feelings for Nottingham and if she did have any certain desires she certainly wouldn't have acted out on them.

She marched into Gabriel's apartment/office and sat down at a chair by his desk. Gabriel was still stood at the entrance with the door open; he gave a grand gesture with his right arm, welcoming in an invisible person.

"Please come in" He said with fake cheerfulness

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not in the mood Gabriel" Sara tried to get comfortable in the chair but felt to awkward she suddenly felt like she had a sign on her saying "I nearly had sex". She jumped from her seat and wandered through the shelves of weird and expensive artifacts that Gabriel brought and sold for a living.

Gabriel sat down in the seat she had risen from and watched her intently; trying to figure out what was up.

"So what can I do for you?"

"What makes you think you can do anything for me?" Sara wasn't sure why she was being so defensive, after all she had come here for his help.

"Because you rarely come here for a social call, although I'm sure you love to visit with my charming self, usually you want information of the.well occult kind"

She couldn't help but smile and relax; he was a good friend to her without having any reason to be. She put down the shrunken head she had been pretending to examine and walked over to him, perching on the edge of his desk.

"I'm sorry; I guess not enough sleep and too much caffeine will do that to yea"

"Let me guess it has something to do with." Gabriel gave a nod in the direction of the Witchblade and Sara self-consciously turned it around her wrist.

"When isn't it" she replied sarcastically "Apparently Irons had a girlfriend years ago who wore the Witchblade and now she's right here in New York looking to get in back. Her name is Clarissa Reed, for some reason she's killing or getting some one to kill for her. I'm not sure if there is some reasoning or great plan behind the killings but I feel like she's using them to leave me messages".

Sara pulled of her leather jacket and put it over the crook of her arm, looking like a misplaced waiter. The Witchblade didn't need to work it's mojo for her see the faces of the two dead victims, she knew if wasn't for her and the blade they wouldn't have died in such a way.

"Give me a minute, I'll to some research. Why don't you use my bed to get some sleep, you look like you could use it"

"Thanks" Sara laughed dryly but all at once she did feel tired, more emotionally then physically. The last couple of hours had been pretty rough, she felt drained.

"I guess your right I could do with a quick rest; can I use your phone to check in with Danny?" Sara stood up already looking for the phone.

"Sure, make yourself at home"

'Permanently' he added in his head and turned around in his eat to face his computer, before she could see him blush slightly.

She used the phone near his bed so she could have some privacy, she wasn't afraid of Gabriel over hearing about the case. It was the idea that she would have to lie to Danny about where she had been and she didn't want an audience for that.

She rang his mobile incase they hadn't gotten back to the Precinct yet.

"Hello"

Just hearing his voice made Sara smile. When you feel unconditional love for someone and you know they'll always be there for you, it has away of making you feel like everything is going to be okay even if your having a really shitty day.

"It's Sara"

"Hey Pez, where are you?"

"Oh I'm following up on a lead, what about you any luck with the families of the victims?"

"They couldn't be more different if they tried, she was a party girl. Into having fun and stopping out late, he was married two kids always home on time. They didn't live or work near each other and they definitely didn't travel in the same social circles"

Sara could here the disappointment in his voice, it was so hard not tell Danny all that she knew but then she would have to tell him how she had learnt it which meant more lies.

"So what about you, what did you turn up"

She could hear the trace of eagerness in his voice, hoping do solve the case and help justice prevail. She thought about what she could possibly say that wouldn't need explaining, something that meant no more lies would have been told. That's when it came to her, an explanation that would satisfy Danny without having to lie and also keeping the Witchblade a secret.

"I had an anonymous phone call from a man who wanted to meet up with me, alone. I met him and we talked"

It was a stretch of the truth, Nottingham had called her and he must have known that if he mentioned a mysterious woman who was after the Witchblade she would be sure to come after him for information. And before things got hot and heavy they had talked, so really she wasn't lying she was just missing certain things out. Yeah right she thought to herself - what ever helps you sleep at night.

"Who is this guy?"

"I don't know, when we met he stayed in the shadows"

"How did he get your number?"

"I don't know" She closed her eyes and felt like a heel. She could here the silence on the other end of the phone while Danny thought it over.

"Okay so some mystery guy gets your number, calls and gives you information all while staying anonymous. And you believed what ever he told you, Pez he could be a nutcase"

"Look the press hasn't had enough time to print anything and this guy knows about certain things he shouldn't" Which was true - in a way.

"Anyway I'm following up what he gave me like any lead"

"Alright Jake and me will be at the Precinct if you need us, call if your informant's info pans out into something"

"Okay I'll see you later" Sara but the phone down just as he finished saying bye. She was sat on the edge of Gabriel's bed; she laid her head down on his pillow and raised her legs on to the bed. She didn't bother getting under the covers she just laid there her body in a fetal position and closed her eyes.

Sleep came soon after. Again she saw out of the eyes of the killer, she could sense that it was a woman - Clarissa Reed. She watched a montage of images flick one after another; the club Dynamites, the desecrated flesh of her two victims, a stain glass window and the wall of bloody writing.

Sara sat up with start and saw someone hovering in front of her, in one fluid motion the bracelet morphed into the gauntlet and she grab out at the persons neck. As her eye's cleared of sleep she looked into Gabriel's stricken face and let go, the gauntlet receding back into its dormant form.

"Gabriel, what were you doing sneaking up on me?" Sara asked helping him sit down on the bed.

He was rubbing his neck with one hand, his whole body shaking. He steadied himself on the bed and hoped his voice wouldn't come out like the rest of him was feeling; as if he had been put in the rinse cycle of a washing machine.

"I wasn't 'sneaking up on you' I was waking you up because I found out some information on Clarissa Reed. You know you nearly took off my head with that thing"

Sara's face soften she had been on the defensive after her vision/dream, now looking at Gabriel she finally realized that she had come inches away from killing him. She put her legs on the ground so she and Gabriel were sat side by side. Sara gently bumped the side of her body against his and then away again, smiling shyly at him.

"I'm sorry, are you alright?" She asked her voice full of sincerity.

Gabriel relaxed and smiled back at her, wondering if someone was to see the two of them now would they be mistaken as lovers sharing a peaceful moment?

"I'm fine, it's still sore but no serious damage was done"

"Good. So what did you find out?"

"Follow me" Gabriel said getting up and heading to the office part of his apartment. Sara followed and at Gabriel's request took a seat at desk as he got a pack of frozen peas out of his freezer for his neck.

"So you know the tale of Medusa."

"What Clarissa Reed is Medusa?" Sara broke in believing it at once but finding it bizarrely funny at the same time.

"No, I was using the tale to illustrate my point"

Sara was leant back in the chair with her hands folded lightly against her stomach; she smiled and raised her eyebrows at Gabriel.

"Please illustrate away" she said with a little laugh.

He moved the frozen peas around his neck which was already badly bruised. He smiled like a kid brother putting up with being teased by an older sister and carried on talking.

"As I was saying Medusa was able to turn anyone who looked upon her face into stone. Clarissa Reed is if you like a modern day Medusa"

"How so"

"I'll get to that, first I'll start from the beginning. In 1963, France Clarissa Reed was born to a multi-millionaire and his wife. Her parents showered her with gifts; she had everything except her eye sight"

"She's blind?"

"Wait, wait all will be revealed"

"Yeah, yeah just get on with Gabriel" Sara said losing her patience.

"Like I said her parents were wealthy, they were also highly connected and traveled in the highest of social circles. In fact her father Fredric Reed was in business with and close friends with one Kenneth Irons. It gets better, a few days after her 17th Birthday Clarissa Reed's can see, and here I think is the reason why"

He produced a piece of paper from off his printer tray and handed over to Sara. It was a photograph of a young teenage girl walking beside a swimming pool, she was smiling directly at the photographer and on her wrist was the Witchblade.

"So Irons did give her the Witchblade and it was able to return her sight" Sara said aloud pondering what could have happen next to make this sweet looking girl a murderer.

"But she didn't have it for long. This next picture was taken at the funeral of her father"

The next photograph was of a more somber girl who looked aged compared to the last 'carefree' photo. There was no sign of the Witchblade.

"Maybe she didn't wear it that day"

"No I checked in every photograph that I could fine that was taken since his death, the Witchblade is absent from all"

"Irons must have taken it back but why?"

"That I can't answer" Gabriel said putting the pack of peas on a shelf next a tribal voodoo doll and examining his now black and blue neck.

"From then on Irons dissolved his business and personal partnerships with the Reed family. Clarissa and her mother were left with the family fortune, Clarissa rarely was seen in public in later years but she did have a reputation"

"What kind of reputation?"

"This is where the whole Medusa story fits in. A few people over the years have surfaced saying that Clarissa Reed has the power to control people, just by looking at them"

"Like a modern day Medusa" Sara finished with an edge to her voice.

"You got it, so Clarissa wants to get the Blade back for what?"

"The power"

"On that note what is it like?" Gabriel asked looking intently at the innocent bracelet on her wrist.

"It's like living in a world were you have no control but at the same time you more powerful in mind body and spirit then anyone could ever imagine"

"Wow"

"Yeah and then they're the days when your either killing or being nearly killed"

Gabriel looked away from Sara and wished he knew the rights words that would lift the burden from her.

"I better get going; I have a murderer to catch. Can I hang on to these?"

She asked waving the photos, Gabriel nodded and she folded them away in her pocket. Sara stood up and placed a hand on Gabriel's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Take care of your neck kid"

"I will don't worry"

Sara let go and walked towards the door and for the second time that day a man called her back.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me, it wasn't your fault" He called; she paused for a second before continuing, she opened the door and turned around to face him.

"That's the thing Gabriel you did get hurt and I was the one to do, I would never intently hurt you but I did anyway"

Sara pulled the door shut behind her and Gabriel slumped into the chair where his friend had just sat. He knew that it wasn't just the Witchblade and all the magical entanglements that it brought with it that made him help and be friends with Sara. It was Sara herself, there was something special about her that was partly the Witchblade's doing but it was also hers. Even if she didn't have the Witchblade and was somehow reborn through out the ages, Sara had something unique about her that he bet she didn't have even in a past life. He just wasn't sure what it was.

Sara jumped on her motorcycle and once again sped through the city streets, this time back to the Precinct. She now knew the name of the killer and what she looked like, but would she be able to find her before the woman killed again or before Clarissa Reed came looking for her?