Lilianna was in the mansion exactly twelve minutes after Susanna had left her. She had been cautious crossing the expansive yard, realizing after that Susanna had already cleared the way for her. Through the Witchblade, Lilianna knew the moment she set foot in the mansion that Susanna was already gone. Lilianna allowed the Witchblade to lead her through part of the house to the basement, where an airtight vault-like door stood between her and the lab. There was a retinal scanner next to the door, and after a moment's hesitation she raised her left hand to the device and let it scan the Stone of the Blade. A soft hissing sound announced the opening of the door and she slipped through quickly, allowing it to shut itself behind her.

There were six of the containers that Susanna had called pods in the room. Five of them held clones in various stages of development, and for a second Lilianna's stomach rolled and she thought she might be sick. The first contained an embryo, the second and third young boys, the fourth a teenager, and the last a man nearly as old as Nottingham. A cold sensation crept over her skin and she searched the edges of the machines for a way to turn them off. After a few minutes, she found a hidden compartment with a throw switch inside.

Flipping it, Lilianna waited as the machines' steady hum decreased and then stopped. Watched as the younger versions of her husband sank in the liquid that had sustained them. Forced herself to keep watching when the teenage and adult versions started to thrash violently, trying to find life sustaining oxygen where there was none. It was only a few minutes before everything was silent, but it had seemed hours to Lilianna. The sooner she left the better.

Turning away, she began to search for the kill switch, finding a panel in the wall near the door and opening it. There was a control panel inside with a timer, next to a large red button. She set the timer for ten minutes, hoping it would be enough time to find Elizabeth's body and get out of the mansion. She was sure the destruction would be limited to just this room, but she wanted to be far away when it happened. Who knew what kind of alarms it would set off. She moved her hand over the button, getting ready to run for it. She wanted to put this place far behind her.

"I wouldn't."

Anyone who didn't know him the way she did would easily mistake the voice for Nottingham's, but she could hear the coldness of it. She turned around and stared at him. The clone had only a small triangle of hair under his lip where her husband was fully bearded, but their physical resemblance was none-the-less uncannily identical. His eyes were what really gave him away. They were dead. Not even a hint of the vitality present in Nottingham could be seen in this inferior copy. Because no matter how much Irons' scientist had tweaked his aggression and enhanced his physical and mental abilities, the clone was inferior. It had no emotions, no soul.

She glanced quickly at the pods to make sure the others were indeed dead and realized quickly that this clone must have once occupied the sixth pod, the empty one. The clone followed her gaze and smiled evilly.

"That is where I came from. And do you know why?"

Lilianna's gaze swung immediately back to him.

"It's because of you. You made my predecessor weak. Gave him feelings," the clone practically spat the word. "I will enjoy killing him." Rage filled her and she knew that no matter what it took, he was not leaving this room. His dead eyes rested on the Witchblade gauntlet. "This will certainly be an interesting development to my master."

"You'll never tell him," she told him calmly.

The clone smirked again, "Oh, good. A backbone. This should be fun."

He sprang immediately into action, leaping across the table that separated them to attack her with his suddenly drawn katana. But she was no longer there, executing a side handspring at the same moment that he leapt, ending up behind and to the right of him. He swung immediately toward her, bringing his blade down with a deafening clash against her claymore, raised and ready for him. They circled, and she tested his abilities, not surprised that he was at least as good as she was and didn't tire. But she had the desire to survive on her side, and her love for her husband and parents, and now her need to know her sister.

She grabbed a heavy instrument from her position on the other side of the lab table from him and threw it at his head. He deflected it easily with his katana, hollow laughter filling the room. Then suddenly he grunted, looking down at the Blade embedded in his chest and then up at her as he sank to his knees. She had moved like lightning around the table, an ability she had learned at the Centre that always left her completely exhausted. She pulled the Blade from his body and watched him slump to the floor. She didn't know where she would get the energy now to carry Elizabeth's body out, but without that move, she might never have beaten him.

Stepping over his still form, she punched the red button on the self-destruct mechanism. She left the lab, making sure the door sealed shut behind her. The Witchblade led her with urgency up to Irons' library, but she staggered as she went, tired beyond anything she had ever experienced. She went to a throne-like chair near the large fireplace in the room and pressed a button on the underside of the right arm. A false wall slowly slid open to reveal another room where Elizabeth Bronte's corpse sat posed on a couch. A shiver went through Lilianna at the site of her great-grandmother's dead eyes staring vacantly into space. Entering the specially made room, she yanked down the velvet drapes from over a fake window and gently wrapped them around the body.

Calling on reserves she didn't know she had, Lilianna lifted Elizabeth's posed, frozen body over her shoulder, an awkward, heavy weight, and made her way out of the mansion. The further she went, the slower she became. She was halfway across the lawn to the gate when tears filled her eyes. She wasn't going to make it. She had failed her great-grandmother and Nottingham. She would be found here and Irons would exact a terrible revenge. Suddenly, a dark car pushed through the front gate to the estate and Lilianna watched with detached fascination as it stopped right in front of her.

The passenger window rolled down and a wrinkled, curly-haired man in the driver's seat told her, "Put Elizabeth in the back and get in. Quickly."

Not daring to question whatever twist of fate had sent him at that exact moment, Lilianna did as he said and slumped in the passenger seat. The man drove the car off the property as if the devil himself were on their tail. Lilianna let out a small laugh. It wouldn't surprise her.

"You took on too much too quickly, little one," the man's strangely accented voice berated her.

"I don't have a lot of time to wait around for the right time to do things." She turned her head to study him, "Who are you?"

"Lazar."

The one word filled her mind with visions from the Blade. Visions of this man watching the lives of her mother and her mother's former selves. Stealing her mother as an infant from the crib she shared with her fraternal twin, Emily.

Lilianna took a shuddering breath and looked away.

"Thank you."

Lazar remained silent, and twenty minutes later they were in a cemetery. Together they carried Elizabeth's body, Lazar leading the way to a beautiful oak coffin laying next to an empty grave.

Standing at the head of the grave was a statue of a guardian angel, an inscription on the base that read simply, "1911-1950 Woman, Mother, Hero". It was fitting.

Lilianna wondered for a moment how they were going to force the body into the coffin, then Lazar passed his hand over it, and Elizabeth suddenly lay straight. When Lilianna took the drapes off, Elizabeth's eyes were closed, her arms were crossed over her chest, and an air of peace hung over the body. Together they silently lifted her into the coffin and lowered the coffin into the grave. Within minutes they had filled the plot and Lazar lay fresh flowers at the foot of the angel statue, Lilianna kneeling next to them. Lilianna kissed her fingers and pressed them quickly to Elizabeth's short epitaph.

Standing, she said, "Thank you for doing this."

"I should have done it myself a long time ago." Lilianna did not correct him, knowing this being had his own demons to contend with, and Lazar turned away. "Come. I'll drop you at Nottingham's building, can't have anyone see you like that."

Lilianna suddenly remembered the sweats she had left in the park when Lazar spoke again, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

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"Are you okay?" Nottingham questioned softly as he entered the loft late that afternoon.

Lilianna unfolded herself from the corner of the couch to reach out for him. He immediately took her into his arms and held her close as she maintained a death grip around his neck. Bending slightly, he lifted her into his arms and sat down in her vacated spot with her in his lap.

"The Witchblade showed me most of what happened. Irons is furious, all he knows about so far is the break in and the lab self-destruct. He's firing people left and right, very calmly of course, which is even more disturbing to them."

"Did he ask you if you had any idea who did it?"

There was real fear in her voice and he wished he could protect her from it.

"He asked if there were any clues lying around as to who was responsible for destroying the lab. I honestly answered that there weren't, knowing that the fact that Susanna appeared on surveillance did not mean that she destroyed the clones. The strange thing is, Thor and Odin are missing."

"Who?"

"Irons' Wolfhounds."

"He named Irish Wolfhounds after Norse gods? I didn't see any dogs when I went in. Would Susanna have taken them?"

Nottingham shrugged. "Maybe. She might have played with them when she was a little girl."

Lilianna shifted her torso so that she was pressed chest to chest against him. "You're not mad at me?"

"Of course not," he assured her, kissing her eyes shut. "I understand why you had to do it the way you did. The Witchblade couldn't tell me how you managed to find Susanna so fast though."

Lilianna's eyes flew open. "My god, the Witchblade! How on earth did you hide it from Irons?"

Nottingham shook his head, "I really don't know, I understand how he missed the mark, it was under my sleeve, but the ring was in plain sight for ten minutes until I remembered to put on my gloves. There is no doubt in my mind that he didn't see it. He would have immediately had me killed and taken it."

"Promise me you won't leave the loft without your gloves on from now on." When Nottingham nodded, she relaxed visibly. She almost immediately picked up their previous conversation. "I didn't find Susanna, she found me. I didn't think to ask her how she knew to be there, but she has had her Blade a lot longer than any of us, even me. I'm sure that had something to do with it."

Just then the phone rang shrilly. Lilianna scrambled off his lap, and Nottingham strode quickly to the phone. He picked it up and held it to his ear without saying anything. A split second later, he yanked the receiver a few inches away and even Lilianna, halfway across the loft, could hear Irons. She was shocked. In all the years she had been in his possession, she had never once heard him raise his voice. And now he was screaming.

"...get over here right now! You have to find her!"

There was suddenly dead silence from the phone and Nottingham set it down. Irons had hung up. Nottingham looked at her apologetically.

"It's all right." She paled suddenly. "He...he probably just found out about Elizabeth."

Nottingham nodded thoughtfully. "Don't tell me where she is. If worse comes to worst, I don't want things to just slip back into his possession again. But he may go after Sara soon if he starts aging."

"He won't be able to take her," Lilianna said softly. "She has the added strength of knowing she's going to be a mother on her side now."

Nottingham looked at Lilianna, trying to envision children of theirs. The instant but brief, beautiful image of their family that filled his mind made him catch his breath. He turned to go, afraid to show her what might never be. He turned back for an instant at the loft elevator, "I..."

"Me, too," she answered.