50 Chambers Street, Apt. 11
New York, NY
Wednesday, July 25, 2001
1:11 pm
At the door, Lilianna hesitated with her fist raised to knock. What was she going to say? Hi Mom, I'm the daughter I hope you never have, just didn't seem like a great opening line. But there was no easy way to say any of what she needed to tell Sara. Then there was no time left to plot. Sara opened the door and Lilianna snatched her hand back down.
Sara stared at her oddly for a minute then ushered her inside, "Come in. Angel, isn't it?"
"Um...not really. For legal purposes, that's my name while I'm here, but it's not my real name."
"And your real name would be?"
Lilianna paced in the open area in front of the door for a second.
"We'll get to that later."
Sara frowned and her eyebrows lifted slightly, but she said nothing. Lilianna stopped pacing and took in her surroundings. Most of her mother's stuff was in boxes and there was an open suitcase half-filled with clothing on the couch.
"Going somewhere?"
"You met my partner, Detective McCartey. Jake and I are moving in together. Not that I see how it's any of your business or why I just told you that."
Lilianna frowned. How had this happened? In her timeline, they hadn't officially moved in together until they were married and knew about her. She blanched. Had she been sent back too late? But no, there was no ring on her mother's finger, and she had said nothing about getting married.
"Hey, are you all right? You don't look so hot."
There was genuine concern in her mother's voice and Lilianna had a sudden overwhelming urge to sit down and cry, to be comforted by her mother as she never had been growing up.
She fought it and avoided Sara's gaze, "I'll be okay. I just don't know how to say what needs to be said."
Sara moved the suitcase out of the way and they both sat on the couch. For a minute Lilianna froze up, realizing she had no idea what she was doing. She had never been good at strategy. Then the Witchblade decided to take over for her. Both Witchblades to be accurate. They both grew into gauntlets on their owners' wrists, and Sara started and then stared at the similarities. Then Lilianna's gauntlet clamped down lightly on Sara's, and she knew it was telling her mother what she needed to know through it's parent.
When it was over, Sara looked at Lilianna with tears in her eyes.
"You're our daughter?"
Lilianna nodded and bit back a sob when her mother drew her close for the first hug they had ever shared.
Lilianna pulled back after a minute and asked softly, "So you understand that you can't get pregnant with me? You have to wait a little while to have kids."
Sara's Stone glowed brightly for a moment and she gasped.
One hand dropped to her abdomen and she whispered, "I'm already pregnant. It just happened last night."
Lilianna stood and began pacing. Sara looked thoughtful for a few minutes and then raised her gaze to her full-grown daughter.
"What would happen if we stopped Glory before she ever got the chance to wear the Witchblade?"
Lilianna frowned, "Glory is a god. How can we stop her? We don't even know where she is."
"I don't know, but if we did find her, could we beat her? Both of us? She couldn't get the Witchblade from me until I was dead. And now we each have a Witchblade, and I've fought the devil. Surely together we could destroy a lesser being?"
Lilianna stopped pacing and turned toward her mother, "The problem is, I don't know that she is lesser. She is completely evil, and half the time she's trapped in the body of a mortal man, but she also kills three Slayers and several Immortals over the next several years. In my timeline, she was deemed unstoppable. And I wouldn't know where to begin to look for her."
Sara looked pensive again and Lilianna wandered over to a picture of Jake. Picking the frame up, she was flooded with a sudden vision of her father bound and gagged.
Urgently, hoping she was wrong, she turned to her mother, "Where did Dad go?"
"To California to be with his aunt for a week, she's going in for some kind of surgery."
"Aunt Lilianna?"
"Yeah, that's the one, did we name you after her?"
"Yes, but she's as healthy as an ox. Someone has Dad."
Sara shot up off the couch and took the picture from Lilianna's hand. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
She set the picture back down, "I know where he is. It's one of the warehouses near the docks; it's next to a seafood restaurant that was shut down a year ago. Let's go."
"Wait, I think I know who has him and we're going to need help." She picked up Sara's phone and dialed. He didn't answer, his voice mail picking up after a few rings. "Nottingham, it's me. My father's been taken. I think Marcus has him and I could really use your help. Meet us down by the docks, near an old restaurant, if you get this."
Sara stared at her after she had hung up, "Why would we need his help?"
"Marcus is from my time. He has abilities that make him hard to see at times, but for some reason Nottingham can. We could have a lot of trouble getting Dad back if he doesn't show up."
"I still find it hard to believe that he died trying to save me and Jake."
"He's a good man," Lilianna said softly.
She hoped her mother wouldn't make her choose between them. If it came down to it, she would choose Nottingham in a heartbeat, and it would be a shame not to get to know her mother after everything that had happened.
"I don't think I like the idea of you shacking up with him, even if he is a good guy. He's an assassin, he works for Irons and he's a lot older than you."
Lilianna arched one eyebrow, "No offense Mom, but if I want to "shack up" with him it's my choice. I'm an assassin, too. Irons has already seen us together, and Nottingham made sure that nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him. He would never betray me. And if it ever came down to it, Nottingham would die for me, just as I would for him. As you may be able to tell now, we're not that different, and he's only five years older than me right now..."
Sara decided to drop the subject for the time being, though she was stunned to learn that Nottingham was only twenty-nine, he had always somehow seemed ancient and timeless to her. She didn't like the thought of her daughter and the dark man together, but she could tell that whatever Lilianna felt for the assassin, it was real. She could only hope that Nottingham felt much the same way, and judging by his actions at the club the night before, she thought it was a safe bet. She couldn't be sure that it was a comforting thought, though.
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The warehouse was abandoned, as were those around it, and there didn't appear to be anyone around. When Lilianna undressed in the car, Sara cast a quizzical glance in her direction.
"The Witchblade sometimes shreds the clothes I have on, and I didn't bring a spare set with me."
"Why is your armor so different from mine? I only have armor when it's absolutely necessary, and even then its full, old-fashioned armor."
"I've had my Witchblade actively for eleven years, it's evolved several times during that time. Yours will probably do the same thing, though not exactly into what mine is. Mine isn't the Witchblade, for want of a better word, it's the Witchblade's offspring."
Sara nodded and when Lilianna was in her full armor a second later they both climbed from the car, Sara with the gauntlet on one hand and her gun in the other. For a moment, Sara had a flashback to the night Conchobar died. She shook it off, knowing the love she felt for each man was very different, and hoping that having her daughter here to help her would keep Jake safe. Though even Nottingham's help hadn't been able to save Conchobar from his fate. As they moved into the interior, she saw Jake tied to a chair, a man she had never seen before holding a gun to his head.
Lilianna felt her mother's tension increase when they spotted the vision of Jake, but because of her previous experience training with Marcus, she knew it was just a psychic image.
She whispered, "It's not real."
Her mother looked confused for a moment and then nodded. The two of them walked forward again, only to have the vision vanish. They both stopped as they heard a strange click. Lilianna froze and put a stilling hand on Sara's arm. She had heard that noise before. She pointed to the floor. They had each stepped on some sort of trigger, and Lilianna lifted her gaze to scan the ceiling. A rope suspended Jake thirty feet above the floor, unconscious.
"McCartey, glad you could make it." Marcus stepped into view across the open expanse of the warehouse.
"What do you want, Marcus? Why are you doing this?"
Marcus laughed, a hollow sound, "You said to stay away from your mother, you didn't say anything about dear old Dad. And as for what I want, that's easy ... you."
"Me?"
Lilianna's confusion was clear, but her mother could easily see the lust in Marcus' gaze.
"You were supposed to be given to me. The Centre was very interested in what would happen if a Psychic Imager and a woman with the Witchblade bloodline and Pretender genes were mated. But you just had to refuse to have anything to do with the breeding program and they made me wait. I'm not waiting anymore. If you want Daddy to live, you'll give yourself to me."
Lilianna hesitated, revulsion sweeping through her. She swallowed hard and forced herself not to think of Nottingham.
"How can I do that if I'm standing on the trigger?"
"Give me your word that you'll do it and I'll release your trigger." Marcus saw Sara shift slightly. "But only yours. If Mommy moves, Daddy dies."
"Don't do it," Sara whispered. "There has to be another way."
Lilianna shook her head sadly, "Marcus is more unstable than I thought. Nottingham isn't here. I can't let Dad die."
To Marcus she said, "I promise if you let my parents live, I'll do whatever you want."
He pressed a button on a control box and when she stepped from the switch, nothing happened. She sighed with relief and began walking toward him. She knew he would not keep his promise, and she had no intention of keeping hers. She was stalling, pure and simple. She only hoped that something would happen to make the stall worthwhile.
"Deactivate it," he barked.
It took an immense effort to get the Blade to shrink back to rings, leaving her in panties and a bra; the Blade would rather have killed Marcus than let him near her. When she reached him he slapped neuro-cuffs on her wrists, and she wondered how, in this time, he had gotten his hands on the only thing that could stop the Witchblade from "waking up". He backed her into one of the warehouse's support columns and reached up a hand to touch her face. She flinched and he scowled at her, dropping his hand without touching her.
"Is this better?" he snarled, making himself look like Nottingham. Sara gasped and tears came to Lilianna's eyes. "I saw you leave with him. Who is he?"
When she turned her head away, not answering, he raised a hand toward her again.
"Don't touch her."
The growled words appeared an instant before Nottingham, who dropped from somewhere above them. Marcus, looking like himself again, stared at Nottingham for a moment, holding the control box out as if it would stop the man in black.
"You're Irons' henchman, the one who died before Mac was born. Do you know what Irons will do to you when he learns you've been helping her?"
"Let them go."
Nottingham's voice was ice cold, but his eyes drifted to Lilianna and she felt warmed. Everything would be all right now. He flung two knives toward her and the cuffs were broken. Instantly she was in full armor and running toward her mother. Nottingham kicked the control box from Marcus' hand and across the room. Lilianna slammed one of the knives Nottingham had freed her with through the trigger her mother stood on, using the added strength the Witchblade gave her to pierce the concrete floor beneath it. With the trigger held in place, Sara crossed the room to pick up the control box and began lowering Jake.
Lilianna turned to watch Marcus and Nottingham fight. Marcus should have had the advantage, having gone through the more advanced form of Black Dragon training and being a Psychic Imager. But the two men seemed to be pretty evenly matched. They traded blows and circled, neither one of them having a clear advantage.
Then Marcus described in vulgar terms exactly what he planned on doing to her, and Nottingham growled with rage. An instant later Marcus was lying on the ground, a stunned expression on his face. His shirt and chest were shredded to ribbons, but he was still alive. Nottingham moved forward to punish him further, but Lilianna stepped in front of him, putting a hand on his arm.
He stopped and stared at her for a moment. He must have seen what she intended to do, because he moved away.
Marcus gazed up at her with a relieved but slightly puzzled look, and she shook her head sadly, "Goodbye, Marcus."
Her claymore appeared and she severed his head from his body. Even if he was evil, he had grown up in the Centre, which was at least partially responsible for how he had turned out. No one deserved to suffer as much as the people in the Centre did, so she had chosen to end it quickly. A moment later, his body disappeared in a flash of white light.
Her armor disappearing once again, Lilianna turned to Nottingham, "Do you think that's how they'll take me?"
He grabbed her hard, squeezing her upper arms, "I told you I won't let them."
"Not even you can stop them, Nottingham," she said sadly. "I'm going with my parents for awhile. I've already been conceived, so I need to help find another way to defeat Glory."
He stared down at her and his breathing became uneven. She reached up and gently wiped the blood away from where his lip had been split by one of Marcus' punches. Closing his eyes, he kissed her fingers, a single tear running down his face.
"When will you come back to me?"
"I don't know," she answered softly, but they both knew she didn't plan on doing so at all.
He let go of her and moved away, shrinking into himself. Her heart broke, but she couldn't let things between them progress any further.
For only him to hear, she said, "As much as I wish I could stay with you forever, we both know that it isn't possible. It has to be this way."
She turned away from him to hide her fragile emotions and helped Sara untie Jake, who had been lowered to the ground and was now waking up. He didn't have any visible wounds except for the knot on the back of his head that the serial killer at the club had given him last night, and which Lilianna suspected had been aggravated once more by Marcus. He opened his eyes and stared with confusion at her underwear for a minute before turning his head and spotting Nottingham.
Recognition lit his features right before he said, "I remember you now; you're the one who knocked me out at the Rialto!"
Nottingham hung his head further and murmured just loud enough to be heard by all of them, "Do with me what you will."
Jake yanked Sara's gun away from her and pointed it at the dark man. Lilianna immediately moved to stand in the way; too shocked by her father's willingness to kill the man she loved over something so trivial to say anything.
Sara, on the other hand, did not lose her voice, "Let it go, rookie! If he had let you go in, Gallo would have killed you. While I'm sure there was another way to stop you from going in, it's the only way he knew."
Jake frowned and his jaw tightened, but he turned to Sara and gave her back the gun. Lilianna turned around to check on Nottingham, but he was gone. A hollow formed in the pit of her stomach, and she dejectedly followed her parents out to Jake's car. Taking her clothes out of the front seat so Jake could sit there with Sara, she pulled them back on and got into the back seat of the car.
Having heard what Lilianna had said to Dante when the Witchblades had connected, Sara continued the previous lie that "Angel" was her sister, here on an extended visit. Amazingly enough, Jake didn't ask any questions about her lack of clothing in the warehouse or what "Angel" had been doing with Nottingham or why she hadn't been introduced as Sara's sister at the club.